Ch.266Raid Preparations Done Right (7)

# Chapter 266: Thorough Raid Preparations (7)

After relocating the Treaty Fleet Command to the Capital Fortress.

While handling my usual duties.

A thought suddenly occurred to me, and I turned on the office screen.

“Oh, as expected.”

The surveillance camera footage from the Orbital Defense Command that Alina and Riel had cleverly connected previously was still operational.

Looking at the imposing fleet on screen, comprised of vessels from all manner of species gathered together, I couldn’t help but let out a small exclamation of admiration.

“Ah, my small and precious ISTO Treaty Fleet has finally come into our embrace.”

And hearing these words of mine, Riel, who happened to be entering with various documents and terminals, responded…

“Minister, did you perhaps forget to take your medication? Or did you take too much?”

Faced with her naturally blunt remark, I shifted my gaze from the screen to Riel and said:

“It’s true that they’re small and precious, Riel.”

“…What?”

“Realistically, those guys’ political power and will within ISTO is very small, and they’re precious to me as I’m trying to raid the Ancient Emperor.”

When I delivered this high-level joke, Riel made a disgusted expression and shook her head.

“Minister, you’re just entering your 40s by Sebelian standards, but you act like you’re 120 years old.”

“…”

Faced with another cowardly factual attack, I was consumed by thoughts of what I could say to curse Riel out.

But no matter how I looked at it, if I openly cursed here, it would only serve as living proof that Riel’s words were correct.

‘If we’re only counting mental age, I’m similar to or below Riel, so that statement isn’t a fact.’

Quietly claiming mental victory to myself, I decided to naturally change the subject.

“By the way, Riel, what did you bring?”

“Oh right, these are the items you requested regarding the Prosnack Fleet.”

At Riel’s words, I almost tilted my head in confusion, but…

[Pause]

[Resume]

“Ah, that’s right.”

After quickly using pause, I searched my memories and was able to respond.

“It was definitely about lending our gate usage rights to the Prosnack Fleet, right?”

“Yes, these are the necessary documents from each planetary system.”

At Riel’s words, I nodded while feeling memories slowly creeping back.

————————————–

What was ultimately needed for the raid against the Ancient Emperor was how quickly surrounding reinforcements could join.

No matter how fast the Prosnack Fleet might be, if they only moved through traditional hyperspace jump routes, when would they ever arrive at the battlefield?

Even worse, there were no warp gates in the western Prosnack region adjacent to us, making the travel time for existing fleets even longer.

Therefore, I planned to allow Prosnack to use our warp gate network for rapid battlefield deployment, citing reasonable justifications, but…

“Let’s lend our gate usage rights to Prosnack.”

“WHAT!!!!”

“Minister Arto! That is absolutely unacceptable!!!”

“How could you! To Prosnack of all people!!!”

“Minister! Why have you turned into a pro-Prosnack faction!”

As always, the resistance psychology of the anti-Prosnack faction was too entrenched to resolve quickly.

Of course, as always…

“Now, those who just spoke, would you prefer charges of attempted coup, bribery, human trafficking for selling non-slaves as slaves, or treason against the state?”

“…”

“If you prefer, I can process all of them at once.”

How could such resistance work against the secret police who held all internal and external state information?

———————————————-

‘Hmm, that’s how it was back then.’

-Thud!

But looking at the documents Riel brought, most of them needed to be filled out… but there wasn’t really a need to be thorough about it.

‘Haha, these bastards.’

Just because I held their weaknesses and let things slide, they dared to be stubborn like this.

Looking carefully, all the underlings in our empire seemed to have resistance psychology ingrained in them.

‘Is this the British Empire and Kingdom of France combined?’

After adding new names to my list of people to purge soon.

I quickly immersed myself in the paperwork.

Of course, Riel also started working beside me.

Not long after, while continuing her work, Riel asked me with a puzzled tone.

“Minister, why didn’t you give gate usage rights to Prosnack before, but now you’re suddenly willing to?”

“Hmm?”

“If you had prepared in advance, there wouldn’t be a need to rush like this.”

At Riel’s words, I naturally put down the paperwork I was doing and began to speak.

“There’s no other reason, honestly speaking, I trust Samiya but not Fern’dus.”

“…So, you were worried about a sudden betrayal from Prosnack?”

At Riel’s words, I nodded lightly in affirmation.

After all, while Samiya and I had mixed bodies, albeit somewhat forcefully.

Fern’dus was different.

He made no attempt to hide his inclination to capture and kill me for taking his daughter’s virginity.

In such a situation, giving warp gate usage rights?

Who knows if Fern’dus might fly here at high speed with a battleship and crash it into the Diplomatic Enforcement Planet.

‘…This is too much of an overreaction.’

Of course, this was meant as a joke.

In reality, it was necessary to neutralize public opinion, including Artraia’s, due to the number of fleets Prosnack could mobilize.

No matter how strong the Annihilation Fleet was, with Levia and Ash on standby.

With an Ether Dragon (Lady Maria) in the capital.

And even with the addition of mercenary fleets and judgment fleets.

From a civilian perspective, the Annihilation Fleet (half, 10,000), Mercenary Fleet (5,000), Judgment Fleet (10,000, but no battleships).

And the Capital Defense Fleet (6,000) against Prosnack’s 60,000 ships—opening the gates to them would only lead to talk of our defeat.

“That’s true, even you were lost before gaining experience, Minister.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Ah, so now that the Treaty Fleet is stationed in the capital, you’re giving gate usage rights to the Prosnack Fleet?”

“That’s exactly it.”

It was just as Riel said.

With our previous forces, public opinion might have been gripped by unnecessary fear, causing trouble for the forces needed to raid the Ancient Emperor.

But if we add the ISTO Treaty Fleet (50,000) to the forces mentioned above?

From the public’s perspective, we would ‘numerically’ overwhelm the Prosnack Fleet, suppressing or eliminating that unnecessary fear.

This would significantly reduce the burden on our government’s capabilities through public opinion control.

It was definitely a good thing.

—————————————————–

After finishing all the paperwork by evening.

“Then I’ll quickly distribute these and come back.”

“Alright.”

After Riel transmitted all documents that could be sent electronically.

And left to distribute the physical documents, I leaned back on the sofa and fell into thought.

‘Now with this, I’ve gathered over 150,000 fleet forces to capture and punish the Ancient Emperor.’

To be precise, scraping together all regular fleets and the capital defense fleet of the Holy Sebeli Empire gives us 30,000.

Mercenary Fleet 5,000.

Papal Judgment Fleet 10,000 (no battleships).

The Annihilation Fleet will be 20,000 when they return after completing survivor search and rescue operations.

ISTO Treaty Fleet stationed at the Capital Fortress 50,000.

And the Prosnack Fleet 60,000.

That’s a formidable number of 175,000.

Moreover, if we include Lady Maria, Artraia, Ash, and Levia?

Considering the game-era information that one Ether Dragon equals about 10,000 ships in power.

At the very least, the forces I can now mobilize to destroy the Ancient Emperor amount to at least 200,000 ships.

Furthermore…

-Ding!

[Quest: Thorough Preparation is the Key to Victory]

[No matter what preparations you make against the Ancient Emperor, they might not be enough.]

[But any preparation, no matter what kind, is better than none.]

[Solve everything step by step and thoroughly to achieve victory in the war against the Ancient Emperor.]

[Objective 1: Fortify major planetary systems in the warp gate network x5] (Completed)

[Objective 2: Recruit at least 2 additional fleets of regular fleet size by Holy Sebeli Empire standards to expand forces] (Total 3 fleets, approximately 15,000 ships)

[Objective 3: Install large-scale mine fields in expected arrival star systems] (Completed)

[Reward: ???]

[All objectives have been completed, so the reward will be granted.]

[The Holy Sebeli Empire has been granted the ‘Bulwark of the Galaxy’ trait (+20% damage against crisis forces).]

‘Oh.’

Like a strawberry on top of a cake, an appropriate reward was given.

‘Ah, now I’m not afraid of the Ancient Emperor’s arrival.’

Looking at the reward written in the quest message, I felt my resolve becoming stronger.