Vol 6 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Chaineboule’s Harbour——

The High Britania’s ‘Queen’s Navy’, ninth vessel Garnet, a class three Princess Class high speed steam warshi+p

On the Princess Class warshi+p, in place of where the third mast should be, was a smokestack so tall that the sailors didn’t seem to be able to use it to expel smoke

shi+p No 1 only had one smokestack while shi+ps that were built after shi+p No 6 had two Though this would vary depending on the size of the hull, the sails and the position of the gun deck

That being said, they were fundamentally the same

The shi+p was 120 Co (53ine itched on, the sails would be kept Out of the three ht was the tallest

While they could control the nuher than the waterline

Belgaria’s Athena class battleshi+p was tall and looked like a fortress floating on the ocean The shi+p was also beautified andmajestic

Conversely, High Britannia’s Princess Class battleshi+p was rather short, giving it a si hit——

Though when the shi+p was at sea, water could easily enter the third deck which happened to be the gun deck At that point, the gunners had to clear the seawater out with buckets

As the boat was loaded with coal, the waterline was higher than expected

Compared to other countries’ shi+ps, the steah they were not completely flawless

There were h Britannia’s first ti shi+p

Princess Class battleshi+p’s quarterdeck had a low ceiling Five floors below the deck, there was a small door behind the ladder The size fitted children better than adults, though they had to deal with it as the shi+p was constructed this way to add in armour

After opening the door, there was another flight of stairs leading doards After that, the space becae

In thewheel

There was also a steering wheel on top of the quarterdeck with a clear view of the sea Normally, one would direct the shi+p from above with broad vision, especially in times when they required precise movement as to link up with their allies

On the other hand, this steering wheel was used during battle With the quarterdeck above it, they could continue their work even if they were hit by cannonballs

Further in would be the Captain’s room

The door here was large, unlike the door earlier that was small

Inside the room——

There was a girl in sailor uniform who had a sweet smile

“Ara, thank you for your hard work, Captain Molins”

It was a blonde-haired, blue eyes girl She looked around nineteen year old

Her beautiful hair that could reach her waist was tied up behind her nape Her skirt was laced while her top was fastened with a belt As she was not that tall, it looked like she earing a dress, though she was actually wearing pants

She was Lorraine, the captain’s aide

While it h Britannia had female soldiers After all, it was a country that was ruled by a queen, so there were no strong patriarchal thoughts

“Captain Molins, is the conference over?”

“You can understand fro already”

“Really?! Lunch was sent back already…”

“Everyone is consoling MacCunn as dispirited as his son was on shi+p No6”

MacCunn was the captain of shi+p No 1 As he believed that being overprotective would bring a negative effect on his son, he did not put his son on his shi+p Now, it was too late to regret about that

“That, I can only say that he was just unlucky”

“That’s right After receiving such a surprise attack, he probably didn't even have the time to jump into the sea”

“Don’t even have time to eat lunch”

“Are you referring to o on with an empty stomach”

“Do you want to some red tea? There are biscuits too”

“I would prefer jam”

The captain of Garnet, Huey Molins, blinked his eyes and leaned against the chair

The captain’s living quarters was not only a conference room, but also acted as a canteen for non-coies, a tea break, a tea break or a tea break

Citizens of High Britannia loved to drink tea

Lorraine boiled a pot of water

She weighed out some tea leaves and poured them into the pot

The slight fragrance of the tea caused Molins to relax After recovering from the previous tense state, he started to complain

“The adaria Army will attack once more”

“Huhu… … If they dare to co we are not close to that cape, on’t be attacked like today”

“That’s right”

“Here’s your tea, captain”

The red tea that was placed on the table had stea out of it

Molins picked the cup up and placed it near his mouth

The sharp fragrance of the tea dispelled his sleepiness while the sweet taste healed his fatigued body

“Hmmm… The tea brewed by you is delicious as always Now I don’t feel like going back home”

“What are you saying, Madary”

“Ah, e is mentioned I didn’t want to be an adopted son-in-law”

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“Is it really fine to tell me about this?”

“Guess you’re right”

“I heard that your father is an Admiral of the Fleet, correct?”

“I used to be conceited, wanting to be a battleshi+p captain I didn’t want to co shi+ps were more suitable for me… … Then, my as introduced to me at a party and she loves me from her bottom of her heart Well, partly because I’ her, I became the captain of this new battleshi+p via s becaht and sunny future awaited me”

“Are you using past tense?”

“However, wo a child”

“I can’t relate to since I never had a child… …”

“Do you want one?”

“Are you some old man?”

“Don’t I look manly?”

“I prefer gentleman-type”

“Things like being a gentleman, you’ll know it once you’re on the bed”

His stretched his hand and caught Lorraine’s scarf

And pull her red lips towards him

Her blue eyes kept looking at this direction

“It’s still daytime, captain… … What about the conference?”

“Don’t be bothered about it If it’s about the Belgaria Ar earliest And about the conference, the Gorilla’s strategies are the same as those of the textbook”

“As this bothers me very much, so let me confirm The Gorilla refers to the admiral?”

“What, could it be that you like those wild type? You’re not interested on those who are not boorish? If that’s the case, I could satisfy you too”

“That isn’t it… … Gorilla as the admiral’s nickname… … Fufufu…”

Gradually, there was no conversation between them

There was only some wet sound

Soues intertwining between their lips

Slurp… … They separated

Lorraine’s eyes were unfocused and she was blushi+ng

“You’re always like this… … So forceful”

“Forget about that adot about him”

“He’s just behind you though?”

“Are you kidding me?!”

Molins turned his head back in a panic

A hairy hand grabbed Molins’ head

A creaking sound could be heard

It looked as painful as getting cut

The owner of the hand had red hair that looked like rass and on his head was an ad over here Despite wearing the military uniform, one could clearly see his muscles all over his body

He was the adh Britannia’s <queen’s navy=””>—— Vice-admiral Goliath Oxford

Exactly how did this giant pass through the small door?

“Ah—— Ah—— Can you hear me, Captain Molins?”

“Yes! Yes!”

“You suspended the conference earlier due to soent stuff Have you finished your business, Captain Molins?”

“Yes! Yes!”

“Do you want to continue the conference?”

“That’s a yes for sure, admiral! For the sake of ive ht til the end! Did the admiral hear the jokes I made?”

“Gorilla?”

“I’aria Army are still here, ad! So this isn’t the time to be bothered about those jokes! They are just jokes!”

“What evidence do you have that the ene?”

“The wind blows from the sea to the coastal area at daytime This would be the optimal time to attack us when the wind is not in our favour Clearly their target is the supply shi+ps It takes about two to three days for us to unload those supplies So to in the port Once those supply shi+ps sail out, coupled with our fierce attack, it will be hard for the enemy to find out the actual supply route”

“What about counter-measures?”

“Our fleet has four Princess Class battleshi+ps We can station one of them outside the cape to ah the cape, ill let that battleshi+p block the route they use and strike at the a pincer attack While the Empire has lots of battleshi+ps, most of them are fourth class, so they can’t be effectively count as firepower From the battle earlier, we found out that the enemy’s main fleet does not have durable armour It would be easy for us to decimate them once we block off their escape route”

“How are we going to hide our battleshi+p?”

“The Empire’s fleet came from northwest direction It will be fine if we station our shi+p slightly further in the southwest”

“Oh?”

“Ah, the reason why I guessed they came from the northwest is because the wind at the Trouin Sea is blowing at the southwest direction at this ti Normally, any sailboat will choose to attack fro to attack from the southwest in an orthodox manner would not be able to pull off a surprise attack like today”

“So it’s the commander’s personality… …”

“Belgaria fleet commander is vice-admiral Bertram He is someone who prefers to use orthodox methods I believe the commander this time is someone else who came after their defeat at the battle of Trouin”

“Hm, that’s possible How does everyone else feel?”

The ad onto Molins’ head As his head was grabbed with a large a released

Molins rubbed his head while shedding tears

He did not notice that the other captains had already gathered at the mess hall due to the conversation earlier

This bunch of people… How dare they enter other people’s shi+p without asking for per to say it out loud

Lorraine adjusted her scarf and moved further away from the table

She went to brew tea

Seawater is enough for theht so but he still swept away the dust on the table

“Please take a seat Welcome to the Garnet”

“Really, you’re still such a smoothtalker”

The captain of shi+p No 1, MacCunn, was a e man A black cloth was tied at his ar

His eyes were red Even though he just lost his son, he was a man as committed to his work As such, he was dissatisfied with Molins’ frivolous attitude

The captain of shi+p No 5, Ballista, was an energetic youth He was born in a noble faressive strategies, which resulted in hi some achievements

Be it the battle of Trouin from before or today’s battle at Épée Prière Bay, he was the first one in the fleet to attack the enemy

“I don’t need red tea That rey is not bad, I do not like it since it came from Molins”

Do you think I like you?!

While Molins wanted to shout it out, he still tolerated it since the other party was a youth

The Captain of vessel nuht, Olsen, was the only captain as older than the Fleet Adround He even worked as a palace chef before that

The old-style battleshi+p he was on before was deco at the same time, he was recommended by the previous queen, Queen Charlotte, and thus became the captain of a Princess Class battleshi+p

“Our priority is to protect the supplies that are meant to be sent to the frontline… … That is e took up the role of protecting the supply shi+ps and the harbour… … Aren’t we getting our priority backwards if we just think about attacking the eney even if there’s only one shi+p sent out for a them”

The old captain spoke words of caution

Molins lowered his head in resignation

“My apologies! Everyone is right! I failed to consider the big picture”

In actuality, Molins didn’t care about the strategies

He just wanted tothe conference

The gorilla——No, Ad his options

It seemed that a decision was made

“Hmm, while Captain Molins’ idea is unique, we should prioritise our strategy in protecting the supply shi+ps”

I knew this would happen

Is such a passive strategy really fine? Despite what Molins thought, he still smiled and listen silently

The admiral continued:

“However, I still agree with his conjecture that the ene We have to increase our security I’ll leave this responsibility to captain Ballista”

“Aye aye, admiral If you leave it to me, not even a fish will escape from my watch”

“We have to finish unloading by tomorrow and leave the port the day after We have to hurry up if ant to finish this within the scheduled time I’ll leave this to captain Olsen”

“Aye aye, Sir I’ll try ress I’ll just throw those supplies that we couldn’t unload in time into the sea”

“Hm shi+p No1 to shi+p No 9, reo out even during the night”

“Aye aye, Admiral!”

MacCunn saluted

Naturally, Molins also saluted

Lorraine brought the tea over for everyone

“Please have some Syrian Tea”

Oi oi, don’t serve such high quality tea to the in his heart

Admiral Oxford saluted solemnly and spoke

“My apologies, but I have to excuse rave national importance to attend to”

After saying so, he left the officer’s mess just like this

The other captains also returned to their own shi+ps

It was finally peaceful once more

There were five cups of tea on the table

Molins as still in the rooainst the chair once more and picked one of the cup up

“Haa, they sure are busy enough that they do not even have the tiht?”

“Is this really fine? After all, we are in a crucial moment”

“Even though they think that the ene, we still have to be on standby In the end, we don’t even have the time to land”

“Since it’s just til to, just bear with it for now… …”

“Is that so? How about we continue til ht the shi+p anyway?”

“Looks like you have yet to learn your lesson… …”

“Life would be too brief if we have to rein ourselves in all the time like sofully, rather than being bored while drinking tasteless tea?”

“Didn’t the navy’s rules state that while being on standby, we need to be able to carry out the orders of the flagshi+p at any moment?”

“That rule does exist Though I had already prepared everything What conal?”

“Even though you do not intend to wait… … Always… …”

“It’s just that you didn’t notice it, but I have already sent a signal long ago”

He stretched his hand out and leiggled his fingers

Tonight would be busier than the battle that happened this

Regis orking around the clock

In order to avoid the eneis sat on a wooden raft that was even s boat and slowly moved towards cape

Under the guise of darkness and sounds of wave, Regis gave details instructions to the sailors

Making full use of the sailors’ skill, Regis conducted some work on the Poseidon class shi+p that sunk

The sea at night was cold even if it was June right now and there were High Britannia surveillance boats around, so they did not have the ti towards the precise position of a sunken shi+p during night time was not an easy feat

Starting from two spots that were near the cape, the sailors tied a black rope around them and jumped into the sea

The area where the two ropes intercept was likely to be position of the sunken Poseidon class shi+p

The longer the rope, the heavier it becaether to pull it taut

While this was suggested by Regis, it was not a totally new idea This was usually used whena map

“You sure are s that most wouldn’t… “

“… I just happened to read about it before”

Regis as praised for using thishis hands

A really capable strategist would be able to prevent casualties on their side and able to finish off the eneht This kind of is could not do nor could he even iine it

This hy Regis felt like he was not competent and did not deserve their praise

At the very least, I have to fulfill e to sleep while listening to the reports and gave out orders

While this kind of battle ritten in the book, it was not an orthodox strategy Just siis cais could entrust the job with

The worse thing was that Regis couldn’t swim, but that couldn’t be helped

Even if they were near the cape, there were still waves and the vision was not that good

If Regis, who could not sas to go into the sea, they would need to prepare for a drowning accident before preparing for the actual battle

Regis suppressed that idea as the sailors repeatedly told him ‘don’t ever fall into the sea’

The water in the bay was not that deep, which hy the sunken boat was quite near the water surface

What the sailors had to do was not complicated at all as the equipment that was required was placed under the Poseidon class shi+p’s deck beforehand

After opening the specified box in the sea, a rope was tied to the buoys and sent out After exiting the cabin, the buoys slowly floated to the top

Naturally, so the crossfire

After which, the buoy was tied with so the sunken shi+p

The sailors did as they were instructed without understanding as the point of doing so

When Regis and the sailors finished their job and left the cape, the eastern sky had begun to brighten

While withdrawing, they were discovered by High Britannia surveillance boats!

Even though their raft was disguised as a fishi+ng boat…

The surveillance craft ht it wasn’t worth the effort — It probably decided that and returned to its original position The sailors on the raft all sighed in relief and thanked God for watching over them

As the sky brightened, the mountains at the eastern side were dyed in red

The third rendezvous point chosen by Regis was a small island located at the northwest of the Épée Prière Bay shi+ps that sailed from here would move southeast

It was like what Narissa said The ould blow southwest at this time

In accord to the wind, the shi+ps began to ht

Sailing with the wind, the Western Liberation Fleet begantowards the harbour

The vanguard consisted of four Athena class battleshi+ps

However, these shi+ps had unloaded provisions, shuttle crafts, gunpowder and excess ammunitions Even the number of sailors on board was kept to a minimu up to five hundred sailors

To reduce the number of casualties—— That was not the case The y was speed, so they would do anything to increase their speed even if it was just a bit

Furtherht Ouranos class shi+p which were on standby were added into their formation

There should be around twenty battleshi+ps as adh most of these shi+ps werethese shi+ps would result in safety-related probleainst Princess Class battleshi+p, which hy these shi+ps were left out of the formation

The four Athena and eight Ouranos shi+ps werein a double column

The other battleshi+ps were stationed behind theap in between Two Athena, fourteen Selene and twelve Ouranos Class shi+ps

It looked fine for a fleet

However, losing toolots of trouble to the nation’s coastal security

Perhaps another harbour would be occupied or merchant shi+ps would be attacked by pirates In the first place, the eht collapse financially

This was not as easy as defeating the ene the harbour

Protecting the citizens was the army’s duty

The empire had already lost if it had to rely on reserves

Inside the quarterdeck of the Western Liberation Fleet’s new flagshi+p, Brouillard——

While they were still quite a distance away frois returned to the conference room Rather than for a discussion, he came here as he could not handle how rocky the shi+p was

There was a wide table with chairs around it

There was only Altina right beside Regis

She see She was is and the rest to return

Perhaps she is thought Unexpectedly, she did not do so and complimented the sailors who returned instead

While this ht be inappropriate, but I couldn’t but think that Altina is growing

After wiping the tears away, Altina opened her eyes

“H on my face?”

“Ah, there’s nothing… …”

Regis was staring at her unconsciously

It’s likely that I’h, I didn't really want to do it

“Well… you’re quite calm…”

“That’s right After all, what I can do on the sea is limited”

“That’s the same for everyone Everyone has their own task after all”

“Yes, that’s right Looking at thes too”

“Like what?”

“Well… … I began to wonder whether it’s right to keep charging ahead in the battlefield”

Regis widened his eyes

“Are you having a fever…?”

“That’s rude!”

“Ah, that,uards? Why did you suddenly changed your mind?”

“Uh, well… … Thatat the back? During battles, what’s iuards have the role of protecting me, don’t they? If I wasto push ahead too er Eric’s injury was likely my fault… …”

Altina’s bodyguard, Eric, was injured by the ene Altina

Currently, he was recuperating at Fort Volks Though he would definitely participate in this expedition if he was not injured

Even though Altina just celebrated her fifteenth birthday, she suddenly sees seriously

She wanted to be the empress

To achieve her aoal, it was necessary for her to win in the political struggle And to achieve that, her groas indispensable

Being just honest and kind disqualified her as a ruler, she must be able to think for her citizens

If Altina obtain such valuable experiences from this battle because she took part in it, that would be wonderful

Seeing the growth of the young princess, Regis had forgotten about the tension, anxiety and the fatigue he felt

The doorconnecting the deck and the conference roomopened from the outside

It was the adjutant, Spark, who came in and saluted

“Admiral, it’s about time to come up to the deck”