Ch.204The Road to Becarium (1)

November 2, 1201.

Time had passed quickly, but our journey continued at a slow pace.

Since the airship was faster than a horse but slower than an airplane, we were endlessly heading toward Becarium at a speed of 80km per hour.

Looking at speed alone, it might be slower than a warhorse, but the important thing is that horses need rest while airships don’t. Unlike horses that can run for at most 8-12 hours, an airship can operate for 36 hours straight…

Literally a triumph of technology.

“Lord Victor. Your meal is ready.”

“Hmm. Just leave it there.”

As I was sitting in my chair meditating on these thoughts, it was already time for breakfast.

The servant placed a plate with a well-cooked steak, a basket of bread and butter, and small dishes with various side dishes, then left, and I picked up my knife and fork to begin eating.

Of course, with my wife.

“Aah… This is truly comfortable.”

I muttered while elegantly cutting my steak.

The perfectly cooked steak cut without any resistance, and the scenery outside the window drifted by peacefully.

Had I ever experienced such leisure in my life?

Probably not.

Aboard this flying vessel, I felt as though I possessed everything in the world.

Of course, becoming too relaxed isn’t good either, but considering all I’ve accomplished so far, shouldn’t I at least travel in comfort?

“Come to think of it, given the circumstances, it’s been quite a while since I’ve taken on any requests.”

Adventurer’s Guild or whatever—aside from receiving that lump sum of 30,000 gold coins, I haven’t taken any requests in the past month.

Well, it’s not like my adventurer status would be revoked so easily for not taking requests, and above all, I haven’t been idle—I’ve been fulfilling my duties as a knight, which is why I couldn’t pursue the adventurer’s path.

Besides, does adventure only come from taking requests? Flying through the sky like this, heading toward our destination, is also a splendid adventure.

Ding!

With that thought, I rang the bell on the table to summon a servant.

“Lord Victor?”

“I’ve finished my meal. Clear the dishes.”

“Yes, my lord.”

I rose from my chair, watched briefly as the servant cleared the table, then picked up my wife and headed back to bed.

How curious. Despite being able to strengthen my body with aura, one session of intercourse leaves my entire body limp.

No matter how intense positions I prefer, sex shouldn’t be more strenuous than combat with swords and guns.

After supplying protein raw materials to my wife’s internal factory exactly 31 times on the bed, a voice came through the voice tube from the helm.

[Lord Victor. There are light signals coming from the ground.]

“Light signals?”

[Yes. It appears to be a merchant caravan. I can’t tell exactly.]

“Hmm.”

There aren’t many reasons for a merchant caravan to hail a battleship.

No fool would entrust their escort to an airship, and trade between merchants and battleships is hard to imagine given the vast difference in scale.

That means there must be another reason, so I stroked my cleanly shaved chin for a moment before ordering.

“Send out a flyer. We need to know why they’re stopping us.”

[Understood, Lord Victor.]

During the remodeling work, an aviation deck capable of securing 13 small flyers was installed at the bottom of the Sky Warden.

Of these, 12 were for the servants, and the remaining one was a special model for our party to use as a shuttle.

Soon, one of the 13 flyers from the aviation deck below began to descend, and I sat in my chair and started wiping my wife’s sweat-drenched naked body with a towel.

*

Knock knock!

An hour later.

Someone was knocking on the captain’s quarters, and it was my personal adjutant.

“Enter.”

When I granted permission, he opened the door and came in, gave me a slight bow, and began reporting what had happened below.

“They are indeed a merchant caravan. They hailed us because they want to borrow our strength.”

“More details.”

“When we scouted ahead of them, we found massive trees over tens of meters tall fallen in succession, and beneath them was a large bandit group numbering over 1,000 by rough estimate. The caravan’s scouts discovered this and requested our help.”

“I see how it is.”

This is why having your own reconnaissance resources is essential for both merchant caravans and armies.

What a pointless death it would be to march forward cheerfully only to hit an obstacle and be killed by bandits.

“We can handle this with ship artillery alone. Tell the caravan to stay far away so they don’t get caught up in it.”

“Yes, Lord Victor.”

My adjutant saluted and left. Shortly after, the flyer went down and came back up, and soon a loud alarm sounded, signaling the loading of the ship’s guns.

-All artillery crews to positions! Our master desires firepower!-

-Target! 1.3km ahead below. Small-angle bombardment of a 500m radius area! Load the guns!-

Even without specific orders from me, the career recruits who had learned basic knowledge in the military calculated the firing parameters, loaded the guns, and moved the barrels on their own.

203mm. The gun barrels, far exceeding the caliber of typical ground artillery, all pointed forward and fired with a thunderous roar.

BOOOOM!

A total of 60 barrels spewed forth massive seeds of death that moved forward and rose up in mushroom clouds.

“Nuclear shells indeed. Performing reliably.”

Precision strikes might be impossible, but there was no reason not to use nuclear shells when the goal was to annihilate an area.

After all, radiation contamination can be dealt with by taking some medicine and scrubbing with detergent, can’t it?

[Lord Victor. Shall we fire another volley?]

“No. That’s enough. How is the caravan responding?”

[They’re still weathering the aftershock, so you may need to wait a bit longer.]

“Then we’ll wait.”

I replied leisurely while drinking warm milk.

On the ground, they would feel overwhelming power, and from the sky, they could see death slowly settling down.

It was fantastically satisfying to watch the bandits, who had been imagining raiding the caravan and wetting their throats with alcohol, turn to ashes from up here in the sky.

Come to think of it, when was it? There was a time in Parsifal when a nuclear icebreaker broke down near the coast, turning the entire shoreline into a radioactive pond. The city government dealt with it simply by evaporating all the radioactive seawater.

I remember my jaw dropping at the spectacle of seawater heavier than the entire city being erased in an instant as if with an eraser.

Of course, this was a… “messier” solution, but at least the act of erasure was not much different.

Soon after, the mushroom cloud subsided, and light signals began to fly up from the ground.

*

[Light signals confirmed.]

“What do they say?”

[Are you insane?]

“Turn the guns toward them.”

[Understood.]

Soon, all 60 gun barrels pointed toward the caravan.

[We’re receiving another light signal.]

“What are they saying now?”

[They thank us for the help.]

“Hmm. As they should.”

I nodded and ordered the guns to be turned back.

Soon, the 20 triple gun turrets returned to their positions, and the Sky Warden floated gently over the scorched earth.

The power of the sun indeed.

Did it not erase those filthy bandits in an instant?

I heard that in the ancient Earth era, these nuclear weapons were called “weapons of mass destruction” and regulated—what an impious notion.

They enjoy receiving the sun’s light and heat, so why dislike receiving both at once? It’s an extremely human-centric way of thinking.

Moreover, no one gave it to them; they themselves created the sacred object that brings the sun to earth, yet they feared losing their petty power. This is one fragment that explains why the evil god smashed the Earth.

“Ah… death too good for bandits. Isn’t it the highest glory to die tasting a fragment of the sun?”

I muttered, gazing endlessly at the burned land.

This is the power of the sun.

Infinitely merciful, yet infinitely mighty.

Though the sun still shines upon humanity now, humans continue to fight amongst themselves, not knowing when His favor might be withdrawn.

I cannot call them foolish. I too am merely a mortal, too weak to be called an apex predator.

But those who seek to harm the weaker to hide their own weakness do not deserve the grace of the sun.

So I am purifying this world on His behalf.

Using His power.

Praise the sun…!