Ch.267Even a stone bridge should be tested before crossing.

# Chapter 267: Test the Waters Before You Cross

When the next day came and yesterday’s excitement had subsided.

‘Wait a minute, this still feels insufficient somehow.’

I began to succumb to that typical player mentality—the obsession with overwhelming the enemy without taking damage. As my excitement wore off, I started feeling like something was missing.

Thinking about it more carefully, it was obvious.

My assumption that “a force equivalent to 20 Ether Dragons plus the Extinction Fleet” could capture and punish the First Emperor…

…was based on the premise that the First Emperor would be “alone.”

I hadn’t accounted for him bringing along mass forces like the Kirsanid Scourge.

‘Is there anywhere else I can squeeze out more troops?’

But the problem was that even if I wanted to, there were no more resources to tap.

Of course, we could introduce suicide bombers to our clone legions like the Eastern Fuxviet Federation did, which might increase our numbers somewhat.

The issue was that the Kirsanid Scourge fleet composition severely countered that kind of mass attack strategy.

‘If I remember correctly, there were these strange symbiotic parasites that spawned dozens or hundreds more from inside each ship-sized monster.’

To deal with those, our carriers would need to be packed full of fighters and still wouldn’t be enough.

Even our battleships would need to deploy carrier-based aircraft, so where would we fit additional bombers?

‘This is truly frustrating.’

The situation was irritating in many ways, so I was gulping down the coffee Riel had brought me since morning, trying to cool my frustration.

“Minister, drinking coffee like that first thing in the morning might give you gastritis.”

“…”

“If you keep this up, I might just serve you colored water instead of coffee in the mornings.”

“I’m just frustrated, that’s all.”

Since my health was indeed important, I decided to heed Riel’s advice and cool down with some water instead.

—————————————–

Once my head had cooled in a different sense, I was able to think of one more place where we might mobilize additional forces.

‘I wonder… could we mobilize the ISTO treaty nations’ fleets?’

If we were a strictly unified nation, we could command that powerful fleet force.

With this thought, I was salivating while looking at the galactic map on my office screen, specifically at the territories marked as ISTO domains and the military power of their member nations.

For good reason—if we combined all their fleets except for capital defense forces, the analysis from the Diplomatic Enforcement and Defense Ministries suggested we could gather at least 70,000-80,000 ships at minimum.

But contrary to what I had said before…

“Minister, after already bringing in the treaty forces with their headquarters, how do you plan to mobilize the member nations’ fleets?”

“That’s the problem.”

As Riel pointed out, while the ISTO treaty forces were one thing, mobilizing the member nations’ fleets was not so simple.

To be frank, I had previously thought that by making peace with the Fuxviet Federation, I could mobilize the ISTO member nations’ fleets.

‘Those who tried to disband the existing treaty fleet wouldn’t lend us their own fleets.’

Contrary to expectations, securing a ceasefire through the peace agreement had only empowered the opposition factions.

Of course, nations dependent on us like Riksi, Nurval, or Uko’Praknar might reluctantly provide their fleets.

But as I mentioned before, Riksi had already been mobilized once.

If we were to request Riksi’s fleet again, the political and material cost would cause significant bleeding—far exceeding any strategic or tactical advantage we might gain.

Moreover, whether dependent or not, it was even more unlikely that any nation would provide fleets that included their own “battleships.”

“Ah, this is giving me a headache.”

[Pause]

[Resume]

Despite racking my brain and even using pause functions intermittently,

The reality of having to consider political aspects made my head feel like it was about to split.

“Minister, if you want to mobilize additional fleets somehow, couldn’t we use our direct vassal states?”

“Direct? Ah…”

Riel’s suggestion was simple.

Nations that were either within our territory or had been vassal states from the beginning.

Sevan, Mis-Fel, or the exiled Kerzin Republic, among others.

She meant all those nations that hadn’t achieved planetary unification.

Plus, they all had fleets that included small numbers of battleships, so Riel probably thought it was a decent idea.

But… it wasn’t that I hadn’t considered this option.

“Riel, among those direct vassals, the Sevan Administrative Region is positioned to be hit first as soon as the invasion begins.”

“Oh.”

“Besides, even if that weren’t the case, how many ships does the Kerzin Republic, our vassal with the largest fleet, have?”

“Umm… they’ve just surpassed 1,000 ships, I think?”

“Better than nothing, but the problem is that it wouldn’t make any difference to the war situation.”

Even combining all those vassal states, they had fewer ships than our mercenary fleet, so it wouldn’t be very meaningful.

“Besides, those gentlemen are contractually obligated to join the war whether they like it or not once we start fighting the Kirsanid Scourge.”

“Oh, right.”

Since they would automatically participate, I didn’t need to worry about it further.

“So that’s why you were eyeing the ISTO member nations?”

“Yes, but no matter how I look at it, I don’t see anywhere else we can squeeze resources from.”

If we could extract even a few of those sweet battleship fleets…

That alone would make me happy.

But there was clearly a limit to what Riel and I could come up with on our own.

“Minister, why don’t we just hold a strategy meeting to exchange ideas about this?”

“Hmm.”

I agreed with Riel’s suggestion and decided to hold a meeting—or rather, an exchange of ideas—on this matter right away.

———————————————

As soon as the meeting began, some decent ideas emerged, but…

“What about hiring additional mercenaries?”

“Even without mercenaries, promising sufficient support to various nations in exchange for borrowing their fleets could be one approach.”

The most promising opinions ultimately came down to “money.”

The suggestion was to solve the problem cleanly with cash.

However…

“Minister, our Holy Sebelli Empire’s capital is already reaching its limits with the existing fleet, the ISTO treaty forces, the Extinction Fleet, and the mercenaries.”

“Hmm.”

This was something we had considered when bringing in the treaty fleet earlier.

Perhaps because too many fleets had gathered relative to our empire’s “economic scale,”

The empire’s economy was under tremendous strain even though the fleet wasn’t moving and just sitting idle.

“That’s correct. The Treasury Department, while understanding the gravity of the situation, is already begging us to reduce the fleet size if possible.”

“If we bring up the idea of buying more fleets with money in parliament, the Treasury Minister might try to kill us, don’t you think?”

It was unfortunate.

But it wasn’t wrong either.

“Besides, honestly speaking, our empire isn’t that wealthy a nation, is it?”

“Even during the Zeltech era, the entire country almost fell into corporate hands.”

As my subordinates at the meeting pointed out,

The Holy Sebelli Empire’s economic scale was quite poor compared to its overall national ranking.

From the beginning, the tactic of throwing money at the problem simply didn’t suit us.

Moreover, the most important issue was…

“Even if we hire those mercenary fleets, most of them would be in the eastern part of the galaxy… could they even reach our empire within half a year?”

[Quest: Kirsanid Scourge]

[After the First Emperor of Sebelli obtained the dimensional fission bomb from the capital of Eternia.]

[While wandering in outer space to both recover from wounds inflicted by Eternia’s Saint and avoid the possibility of having the bomb stolen,]

[He made contact with a group of Kirsanid Scourge that was traveling through the void outside the galaxy.]

[And through a process we cannot understand,]

[He succeeded in making the Scourge move toward this galaxy through some method,]

[And for some unknown reason, he is also returning to this galaxy along with the Hiveship where the Scourge Queen resides.]

[Time remaining until arrival: 179 days]

[Objective: Death of the First Emperor, Capture or Death of the Scourge Queen]

We had barely half a year left.

‘We really need to reach some conclusion now, whether we like it or not.’

If we delayed any further, the Kirsanid Scourge would arrive before our additional forces could even enter “our empire’s territory.”

If that happened, those coming to help might get scared and retreat.

We needed some way to extract those fleets before that happened.

But as they say, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

As the meeting continued, we were able to come up with one brilliant method among ourselves.