Chapter 56
4:02 a.m. on June 18.
The convoy left the waters near the Belfort Archipelago and changed course for the open sea.
The area around the Belfort Archipelago was a famous fog zone.
In truth, nothing would change just because they sailed out into the fog, but that's how human beings were.
Even in a hopeless situation, just being able to see a little ahead made people feel more at ease.
"Do not enter the fog under any circumstances!"
"Stay as close together as you can without colliding! If you scatter, you die!"
By then, the captains of each ship were desperately gripping their helms, trying to keep track of the fleet's lights in the thickening fog.
The escort fleet was also split into the front and rear, keeping a tight watch on their surroundings.
In other words, the center had been left empty.
For U-18, U-19, and U-20, hidden beneath the sea and waiting for the enemy to retreat outside the fog's range, this was practically a golden opportunity.
Ding-ding-
In the quiet bridge, where the pings of active sonar echoed, the sonar operator's report came in.
"The enemy convoy is speeding up."
"Fire torpedoes one and two! Bearing 2-1-9!"
Pshushush-!
The moment the torpedoes left their tubes, white bubbles bloomed like clouds. Six black warheads sliced through the seawater and rushed toward their target without hesitation.
Thick fog hid the torpedo wakes tearing across the sea. The sailing ships in the center of the convoy were hit first, without noticing a thing.
Kaboom-!
One slave transport had its entire starboard side ripped away. Cold seawater poured into the hull, and the ship slowly began to list.
"It's a monster!"
Before the shout even finished, a second explosion shook the sea.
A merchant ship on the edge of the convoy was swallowed by a pillar of water. Thick timber shattered and shot into the sky, and the soft wooden deck surged upward from within under the torpedo's force.
"Eek, the fleet! Where's the escort fleet!"
The wolves beneath the sea waited until the escort fleet had all moved to the front and rear, then sank their teeth into the convoy's vulnerable flesh with everything they had.
Kwakwakwang-!
Explosions rang out one after another on the right side of the convoy.
In an instant, six ships in the center vanished.
Before long, the escort fleet looked like a fish with a huge chunk bitten out of its side.
The escort fleet's captains and mages were, quite literally, going mad.
If they fell back, the fleet's vanguard blew apart. If they moved forward, the tail was devoured, and if they tried to protect both, the vulnerable flank burst open.
Half out of their minds, they dutifully returned to the center, but there was little the escort fleet could do.
How much longer would they have to hold out before this cursed night ended?
Maybe whatever was down there wasn't some monstrously powerful creature after all.
After all, forcing the enemy's defenses to bunch up in one place and then choosing the weak points to bite off one by one... that was how wolves hunted.
While the captain stood there blankly thinking that, a report came in.
"There are survivors on the water!"
The escort fleet focused on mopping up.
4:27 a.m. on June 18.
In the deep, dark, silent sea, only U-7's operations room was bustling.
"The number of enemy sailing ships sunk so far is about fifteen. The rest of the fleet appears to have changed course toward the east."
"Good. Just as Grand Duke Kyle Leopold predicted."
Even if the eastern convoy's course change looked like a whim, someone who could read people would have been able to predict it to some degree.
In sailors' legends, monsters always appear together with the fog.
Fog that blocked vision was bound to stir up human imagination.
That was why Kyle Leopold, after investigating the Belfort Archipelago's natural conditions, ordered Ethan to split the fleet in two.
First Fleet, to hunt the enemies in the fog.
And Second Fleet, to wipe out in a single blow the enemies trying to flee through the fog.
"It's time to end the hunt."
A wolf hunt ends when the wolves lying in ambush suddenly appear at the enemy's escape route and encircle them.
This battle was no different.
What Ethan, captain of U-7, had to do was make Grand Duke Kyle Leopold's plan a reality.
"All fleets, rendezvous at coordinates 32H 10N 0293 1780."
The submarines moved toward the rendezvous point, their propellers churning.
What they left behind in the water were only bubbles that soon disappeared.
4:30 a.m. on June 18.
June mornings dawn early. By five o'clock, the sky is already brightening blue, and the thick fog settling over the sea also begins to lift.
Knowing that made the sailors anxious.
If only morning would come quickly, and that unidentified monster would retreat quickly too.
Overnight, half the convoy had been wiped out. Reaching the allied nation was no longer the goal. Escaping this stretch of sea, where they didn't know what might be hiding at any moment, came first.
The sailing ships all unfurled their sails at once.
The one small mercy was that with fewer merchant ships left to escort, the escort operation itself became much smoother.
With no attacks for fifteen minutes, people gradually began to relax.
"Yeah, maybe... maybe we've already passed through the waters where that monster was roaming."
Of course, that was a mistake.
Beneath the calm, quiet sea, twenty submarines were gathering.
"From U-7 to all fleets. Focus on the merchant ships. Fire on signal."
As the thick fog slowly thinned,
all twenty submarines opened their torpedo tubes at once.
4:58 a.m. on June 18.
It was the moment the fog was beginning to clear, and the crisp morning sea air filled their lungs.
"Multiple strange wakes detected due north!"
Thanks to the fog having thinned somewhat, the lead ships were able to notice that something was approaching.
But it was already too late to respond.
Even modern ships would have a hard time dodging torpedoes that had closed to within 1 km at full speed.
The captain hurriedly turned the wheel, but he couldn't avoid the collision.
Kwaang-!
Three ships at the very front of the convoy and one third-rate ship of the line were swallowed up by the spray.
"Multiple unidentified wakes spotted from all directions-!"
Almost simultaneously, water columns shot up from every direction.
The immense force of the explosions tore the fog apart, and wooden fragments flew out in all directions.
The shock of the explosions made the sea itself heave. Decks split apart, and the masts swayed as if screaming.
Sailing ships hit by two or more torpedoes were actually the lucky ones. Dying before they even realized they were dead was, in a sense, a blessing.
The real hell unfolded in the center of the fleet.
Explosions erupted one after another in the powder magazines. Sailors with their bodies on fire threw themselves into the sea, and the wounded left aboard the sinking ships stared at the approaching water with despair on their faces.
For the crewmen of the slave-trading ships, who weren't even granted the mercy of a clean death, all that remained was to experience death rushing toward them with their own bodies.
Kwakwakwang-!
Then dozens more explosions erupted once again.
Already battered to its limit, the convoy couldn't withstand the wolves' final strike.
"Report the situation! Any surviving ships, immediately..."
The commanders who came out of the cabin shouting that could only stand there, blankly gaping at the scene before them.
After the shock had passed, what met the eyes of those who came to their senses was nothing but wreckage and floating debris.
The dawn sea was brightening with the wreckage of burning ships.
Counting the number of remaining ships was completely meaningless.
Because aside from the fleet's flagship, there wasn't a single ship left afloat intact.
"Hah..."
Dawn broke far off in the distance. The sun dyed the sea crimson, and the stars that had been sewn across the sky were already gone.
The fog had already long since lifted.
Once they left the thick fog bank near the Belfort Archipelago, the sea stretched out clean and clear.
But what remained at the end was not hope.
"...Unbelievable."
The long night that had seemed as if it would never end was over.
And yet not a single merchant ship had made it through the night.
When the fog cleared, only three battleships remained, including the fleet flagship Sovereign, a second-rate ship of the line.
The losses suffered by the sea monster legion below were just as catastrophic.
Unlike Tusoteuthis, which had endured several torpedo hits thanks to its massive size, most ordinary sea monsters couldn't withstand the torpedoes' overwhelming force.
Looking at the shrunken fleet, Sovereign's captain suddenly thought.
It was like a skeleton with all the flesh stripped away.
7:00 a.m. on June 18.
Having hunted down all the profitable merchant ships, the wolves once again disappeared quietly beneath the water.
"Operation complete. All fleets, assemble at coordinates 32H 10N 0293 1780 and return."
"Are you letting the remaining enemies live?"
"It's the Grand Duke's order to leave enough forces for the Eastern bastards to keep struggling."
The South already had plenty of karmic debt stacked up. It was better to remain as much the 'victim' as possible.
That wouldn't make the imperial nobles look on them any more kindly, but... at least it would definitely change how the world viewed this conflict.
Victim South and aggressor East.
Kyle's judgment was that the Crown Prince wouldn't be able to immediately declare war on the South in a situation like this.
What the Crown Prince feared most was civil war within the empire. And if imperial civil war broke out with the South holding the moral high ground, the blame would rest squarely on the Crown Prince.
Of course, this wouldn't be enough to keep the central forces pinned down forever. In the end, civil war was bound to happen.
But if they could delay that civil war by even a few months, that would be enough.
If both sides had the same amount of preparation time, the South would inevitably be more thoroughly prepared than the Central region.
So they had to plant the idea in the East that, "Even so, if we force a decisive battle, maybe we can make it work?"
That way, the East would launch a preemptive attack.
The reason he'd deliberately ordered them not to touch Tusoteuthis was the same.
To make the enemy misjudge the situation.
"Let's withdraw for now. We've accomplished all our objectives."
Naval supremacy had now completely passed to the South.
All that remained was the East's final desperate struggle.