Ch.231The Road to Harpoon Bay (2)

Since I’ve had more free time, I’ve always been in the middle of breakfast.

Back when I didn’t have time to spare, I would either rush through breakfast or skip it entirely before heading to work, so I had a certain fantasy.

You know, that romance of “enjoying a hearty breakfast prepared by someone else while basking in the morning sunlight.”

“Your meal, sir.”

“Come in.”

And nowadays, I was having my breakfast delivered by my subordinates, and the cooking skills of the mess soldiers who had professional culinary training were (though I apologize to my wife) very satisfying, completely dispelling any lingering drowsiness in the morning.

Today’s meal consisted of toast topped with eggs, cream soup, and bacon-wrapped shrimp.

It would be nice to feed the soldiers the same food, but how could nobles and commoners possibly eat the same meals?

There are reasons why food is divided according to social status.

“Just one more week until we reach Harpoon Bay. I do hope our soldiers won’t indulge too much in pleasure.”

“Will our party members be alright?”

To my wife’s question, I cleaned my mouth with soup and replied:

“They should be fine. They can handle soul power.”

Aura users were resistant to external mental interference because they had achieved perfect unity with their souls.

Most mental interference targets the mind rather than the soul—it’s like how even the best computer and monitor become useless if the cable is cut. That’s the principle being exploited.

But Aura users have achieved perfect unity between their three elements: soul, mind, and body. Think of them as all-in-one computers, or wirelessly connected systems.

No matter what outsiders try to do, as long as it remains in the realm of ‘interference,’ it won’t work. Of course, if it goes beyond interference to exert physical force, that would be a different story.

“Harpoon Bay is the birthplace of the Goddess of Lust. It wouldn’t be strange if something there could interfere with souls beyond the mind.”

“Yes… that’s true.”

But honestly, I’m a bit nervous since we’re dealing with a deity.

Although Harpoon Bay is inhabited by people, I knew that all gods were originally human, so I wasn’t particularly reassured.

The one fortunate thing was that we were married in the name of the sun god, so our souls were intermingled. There’s a reason why married couples are called one body and soul.

If either of us were to become corrupted, the other would instinctively sense it.

“But what if both of us become corrupted?”

“Then it would be corrupted love, wouldn’t it?”

“I suppose so?”

I pushed my empty dishes to the corner of the table and rang the bell to summon a servant to clear them.

Soon, a servant opened the door and approached, stacking the dishes with disciplined movements, but as he was leaving through the door, he stumbled.

[Emergency! Emergency! Enemy attack!]

-All personnel to battle stations! Gun battery commanders report immediately!-

WEEEEEOOOOOOO!!!

But I couldn’t blame him.

When the Sky Warden is being hit by shells, anyone might stumble.

*

“Lord Victor! We’re under attack!”

“How many enemies?”

“Seven ships in total! Our gun batteries are currently returning fire.”

“Hmm.”

I went outside to examine the enemies.

Despite the distance, an Aura user’s enhanced vision combined with detection eyes could easily pierce through ships dozens of kilometers away.

Especially in the sky, where there were no obstacles.

-Identification: None. Estimated total displacement: 20,000 tons.-

As the detection eye’s OS provided its analysis, I calculated our chances of victory.

“Somewhere between 70 and 80 percent. High, but not certain.”

“My lord?”

“I’m estimating our odds. What’s the current situation?”

“They’re surrounding your ship from all directions. Our armor can hold for now, but if they get closer to fire, it could become dangerous.”

“Damn it. The Sky Warden isn’t suited for ship-to-ship combat…”

Even though it was a battleship, its original purpose was as a transport vessel for supplies. With seven ships of about 20,000 tons each… and in a surrounded situation, complete victory couldn’t be guaranteed even with our size advantage.

I felt a great sense of powerlessness at my inability to do anything.

I couldn’t infuse the cannons with Aura, nor could I fly through the sky hurling lightning at the enemies. In the end, I had to trust in the skills of the artillerymen I had trained, which pained me greatly.

Entrusting one’s survival to others is such an unreasonable thing.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The 203mm main guns fired in succession, with half missing and half hitting the enemy battleships.

A 50% hit rate might seem low, but considering we were on a ship being constantly bombarded and rocking, wasn’t this quite a good performance?

CRASH! CRUNCH!

“Damn it! We just repaired that!”

DING DING DING DING!

-Hull breach! Repeat! Hull breach! Hole in section E-31! Repair teams move to location immediately!-

[Enemy ships approaching close range! Close defense systems activating! Prepare for boarding attacks!]

Outside the window, one of the enemy ships could be seen engulfed in flames and plummeting to the ground.

However, there were still many enemies, and we were few.

“Damn it! Why do enemies always follow us whenever we take to the sky?!”

“I don’t know either, sir!”

Is it because of insufficient faith? Damn! How devoutly have I been believing in the sun!

[Enemy transport confirmed! Intercept! Intercept!]

And finally, after losing three ships, the enemies seemed desperate and began a more aggressive boarding attack with their transport vessels.

The anti-aircraft guns began firing, and the vibrations from hundreds of anti-aircraft guns and dozens of ship cannons were slowly but surely pushing the Sky Warden sideways.

Transport ships grazed by the cannons were instantly torn apart and exploded in mid-air, while those hit by anti-aircraft guns became like rags, spilling oil and blood as they fell from the sky.

[Brace for impact!]

*

BOOM!

With the sound effect of my precious money evaporating, another hole was blown in the outer wall.

Wind howled through the gaps, and the enemies who had charged in brandishing chain swords were immediately shredded by machine gun fire.

RATATATATATA!

“ARRRGH!”

“Glory to the Sun! We fight for our lord!”

The valiant cries of my proud soldiers began driving back the enemies, and within exactly 17 minutes and 42 seconds, all boarding enemies were eliminated.

“Surrender! We surrender, so spare us!”

“Drop your weapons and kneel! Hands above your head!”

I’m not sure why they attempted a boarding attack in the first place, but as we detached their transport ship and sealed the holes, the enemies seemed to realize their boarding attack had failed and began to gradually withdraw.

Or perhaps “turn their propellers” would be more accurate?

Anyway… out of 7 ships that attacked us, 3 were—

KABOOM!

“Another one goes down!”

“Woohoo! Kill them all!”

No, after losing four ships, the enemies remarkably achieved a kill count of zero and began to flee in a hurry.

Of course, there were those with serious and minor injuries, but everyone had faithfully worn their armor, so there were no deaths on our side.

In contrast, half of the enemies died as soon as they attempted to board, and the other half died within 17 and a half minutes of setting foot on the ship.

“…Why did they attack in the first place?”

“Damn it! This is fraud! What kind of madman puts an army on a civilian ship?!”

As I was staring in bewilderment at the holes being patched in the ship, one of the captured enemies cried out as if terribly wronged.

“I see. Legally, this is my personal ship, so it appears civilian?”

“But couldn’t they see the cannons mounted on it? They couldn’t have missed those.”

“What lunatic doesn’t put cannons on an airship? If you encounter a sky whale or some flying monster, you’d be dead! All intercontinental airships have at least as much armament as your ship!”

“Ah. So they thought we were a pleasure cruise and got crushed.”

“But damn it, that’s not right! What kind of civilian ship has armor that can’t be penetrated after an hour of bombardment?!”

“That’s the blessing of the Sun.”

After saying that, I crushed the enemy’s head, killing him.

After shaking off the flesh and blood, I muttered while looking at the neatly sealed gaps in the ship:

“When we reach Harpoon Bay, I need to reinforce the ship further. It’s not like I don’t have the money. I should at least upgrade its class so they won’t even think of attacking.”

“A wise decision, sir. Will you maintain the current military scale?”

“That’s something I’ll decide after consulting with the sage.”

“Then I shall inquire no further.”

“Hmm.”

Looking at the enemy airships that had crashed to the ground and were spreading fire, I expressed my ambition to extensively remodel the Sky Warden to prevent it from meeting such a fate.

If you have money, shouldn’t you spend it? This is nothing but a rational expenditure.