Chapter 65
The warships returning to the Rosenfeld family's port, the harbor nearest the East, were in a truly wretched state.
Two 4th-rate frigates followed the 3rd-rate ship of the line Defender, which led the way. Their masts were broken, their hulls riddled with holes, and corpses lay scattered across their decks because there had been no time to clear them away.
"We're taking on water again!"
"Haa... I'm coming!"
"Buckets! We're short on buckets!"
The sailors of the 3rd-rate ship of the line Defender had not even had time to dwell on their miserable defeat. Water had rushed in before they could savor its bitterness.
The starboard side of the ship caught in the 20mm machine-gun barrage was riddled with holes the size of an adult's fist.
No matter how much they bailed, the water pouring in showed no sign of stopping. With its sails broken, the slowly sailing ship could make less than half its normal speed.
More than half its crew was gone as well.
It was a tragedy wrought by just three seconds of machine-gun fire.
Without even being able to think about recovering the bodies, the sailors struggled desperately to keep the ship afloat.
They threw overboard every cannon that had become useless, along with all the heavy shells. The bodies were cast into the sea without even a makeshift funeral.
Naturally, the warships that barely managed to enter the Rosenfeld family's naval port were in a wretched state.
"A ghost ship! It's a ghost ship!!!"
At first, the dockworkers mistook them for ghost ships, causing quite a commotion.
The workers nearby were aghast when they saw the warships that had barely made it into port.
The decks were filled with a strange and nauseating stench, a mixture of the sea's characteristic fishy odor and the smell of blood. The wooden planks had been stained red, and not a single spot remained intact.
The sailors were no different.
The sailors who had spent all night rushing about to keep the ship from sinking were in a truly wretched state.
"What on earth, what on earth happened!?"
The captain of the 3rd-rate ship of the line Defender could not answer Count Rosenfeld, who asked the question.
He could only kneel and say,
"We're finished now. It's all over."
***
"What did you say?"
When Edward first heard the news of the defeat, he simply could not believe it.
The Eastern Royal Navy was a storied force with a long tradition, one that had ruled the oceans since before the Empire was even founded.
It possessed a legitimacy, honor, and history utterly incomparable to that wastrel Charles Raymond's Western rabble.
"Are you saying that our forces suffered a crushing defeat without inflicting any damage at all on the Southern Navy?"
He simply could not accept that the end of such a navy had been the same as that of the wastrel Charles Raymond.
He was different. He had accumulated more knowledge and studied harder than that wastrel who knew nothing but fighting. He had to meet a different fate from that wastrel.
The wastrel Charles Raymond and Kyle Leopold, who had been beaten and driven out by that same wastrel, were no different.
They were supposed to exist forever beneath his feet, serving only to make him shine.
"They were supposed to be the rugs that made me shine before Aria."
But... what did you say?
Edward could not believe the report submitted by the captain of the 3rd-rate ship of the line Defender.
"I'm not in the mood for jokes."
"...I'm afraid all I can say is that I'm sorry..."
"Ha, don't lie to me. How could our Royal Navy lose to the hastily assembled Southern Navy, which has only existed for a few years?"
"..."
"Lies."
A sword made of water appeared in Edward's hand. Before anyone could stop him, he sliced the throat of the kneeling captain.
Then he looked around and ordered,
"Go and bring me proper information. If you spout nonsense in front of me one more time... this is what will happen."
But no amount of berating his subordinates could change anything.
What had happened had happened.
"...I am terribly sorry to say this, but..."
"All of our ships..."
"Since then, no other ship has entered the naval port..."
No matter how many times they reconfirmed it, the answer that came back was the same.
"Then are you saying that the enormous fleet... disappeared in a single day?"
And Edward could not come to terms with that fact.
The tremendous mental shock caused Edward to collapse on the spot.
"G-Grand Duke!"
"Call a doctor, a doctor!"
It was the moment the Eastern Grand Duke's residence descended into chaos.
***
Naturally, the people most dumbfounded by the Eastern defeat were those at the Imperial Center.
The reason the Center had left the conflict alone until now was simple. They had believed the Eastern approach to be the most effective response.
"Yes, if they block the route entirely, then even those Southern bastards won't be able to do anything."
No one had expected them to suffer such a devastating defeat.
The East had been a traditional maritime power that had ruled the oceans for a full thousand years, while the South was a challenger that had only just begun building a navy.
The weight of time could never be ignored. On top of that, the East possessed an asymmetric weapon in the form of Tusoteuthis.
"But they lost...?"
One official who received the report asked again in a hollow voice.
Of course, it was not that the Center had been uninterested. The central government had an intelligence agency of its own as well.
Information trickled in from the South now and then, and vague reports about what the South was building had already circulated to some extent.
Iron ships swimming beneath the sea, armed with exploding steel rods that they launched... Was that it?
At first, no one took those claims seriously.
"Ha, the Southern bastards could never make such a thing."
"If all our mages worked on it for days on end and covered it in magic, we might be able to make something similar... But even then, we'd manage only a few vessels. It couldn't become a meaningful military force."
"If the entire ship is made of steel in the first place, how are they supposed to steer it? Even the undersea monster handlers borrow their monsters' eyes to see where they're going."
"I take it as proof that the Southern bastards are cornered. They must fear Tusoteuthis so much that they're willing to go this far with such foolishness."
It was, after all, a story their common sense found difficult to accept.
So they deliberately offered no support to the East.
Political considerations also played a part.
"If the East succeeds in slowly strangling the South, and then takes all the fruits of that victory for itself... won't an even more terrible enemy emerge than the one we face now?"
In any other country, the very premise of one region waging war against another would have been impossible. But this was an empire.
An empire was a union of kingdoms, so every region possessed extensive autonomy. Moreover, the emergence of a Southern Grand Duke had made the Center's response somewhat hesitant.
And that hesitation produced the worst possible result.
"What? The Eastern fleet has been annihilated?"
The annihilation of the Eastern fleet.
The invincible fleet that had seemed incapable of losing had literally been smashed to pieces.
"No, is this information verified?"
"...It is. I even saw the Eastern Grand Duke's despair when he heard the news."
At those words, the Imperial Center went on high alert.
The East was where all the Empire's major ports were concentrated.
The West was blocked off by mountains, and the South was not cooperative with the Empire. The North did have ports, but... they froze over every winter and could not be used properly.
The only ports the Empire could use were the ports of the East.
"We can't let even the Eastern ports fall into Southern hands! If that happens, the Southern bastards will have us by the throat!"
"At last, even the nobles agree with us. It's not too late yet. Let's designate the South an enemy, even now."
The fact that the East had started the fight?
That was not particularly important.
This was no time to quibble over who had the moral high ground.
No matter how mighty an empire was, it would wither and die if its sea routes were cut off. The southern ports that handled the Empire's trade could never be allowed to fall.
On this point, even the nobles who had opposed intervention until now all agreed.
"Let's abandon public opinion and practical considerations for now and support the East."
Of course, the moral high ground had been with the South until now. Looking back, the South had never once started a war.
"Disgustingly calculating bastards. We need to teach them a lesson while we have the chance."
They had tried to avoid a civil war, only to face something even worse. Even that indecisive Crown Prince could no longer sit still.
If he remained passive any longer, he would go down in history forever as an incompetent Crown Prince.
"The conflict between the two regions may develop into a civil war within the Empire. Therefore, our central government will mediate this matter impartially."
"If hostilities resulting from the South's preemptive attacks continue any longer, the Empire will regard them as acts of civil war and intervene with force."
At long last, the Center began to move.
***
The reason the Center had been able to preserve the Empire's form despite granting the regions such extensive autonomy was simple.
The Imperial Center's sheer scale was overwhelmingly greater.
The region beyond the mountains: the West.
The de facto island at the Empire's edge: the South.
The region encircling the Empire's coastline: the East.
None of them occupied particularly large territories.
The land held by the Imperial Center and the North made up roughly 70 percent of the Empire's total territory.
Their populations differed as well.
The West's population was in the low tens of millions. The South's was in the high tens of millions, having only just entered the low twenties.
By contrast, the Imperial Center had a population of about forty million.
Thanks to this difference in scale, the Empire had been able to keep the regions under control and endure until now.
And that Center finally rose to its feet.
"At last, the Center has taken its heavy first step."
Unfortunately, it was far too late.
If they intended to intervene, they should have done so when Sarsen Fortress fell.
Even if they claimed to mediate impartially now, no one would believe them. In the end, they were only going to pile on conditions heavily stacked against the South.
"Even so, if we openly ignore His Highness the Crown Prince's orders, public opinion will be thrown into turmoil."
"It's fine. I have a way to deal with everything."
Of course, I had no intention of sitting idly by and taking it, either.
Throughout history, the great powers of the twentieth century had shown countless ways to provoke their opponents into launching the first attack.