Ch.500The world is filled with gloom. (2)

Of course, Marian’s bewilderment about Xenovia Empire invading her “oppa” only went that far.

And the reason for that was…

“This is good, actually?”

“Indeed, this could be considered an unexpected opportunity.”

“Ohohoho.”

Why hadn’t Marian herself and Monster Princess Luca touched the Leviathan Fleet in the first place?

There were limits to what she could protect, and the Monster Princess clearly had various constraints when it came to mobilizing her forces.

Whether they liked it or not, to protect the oppa she loved, they had refrained from directly interfering with the Earth Federation, which, unlike them, could bring its maximum force without restriction.

Of course, Marian would have preferred to station all fleets, including the “Armada,” at oppa’s—that is, Icarus’s—main base.

But since that wasn’t realistically possible, she had opted for the next best solution.

That’s why Marian and her subordinates were reacting as if this was a “fortunate turn of events,” given the reality of the situation.

“If the Leviathan Fleet clashes with Xenovia’s Punishment Fleet, it will weaken Leviathan’s forces.”

“Excellent. Besides, with them there, oppa won’t suffer any major setbacks.”

“Splendid.”

“Contact Princess Luca too. Tell her to hold her position this time and let the Leviathan Fleet handle things on their own.”

“Yes, Empress!”

Unlike themselves, Marian and Princess Luca were using the Leviathan Fleet, which was essentially fixed to Icarus’s territory.

They were literally employing a “divide and conquer” strategy, attempting to wear down the forces of Xenovia and the former Earth Federation without depleting their own forces or Icarus’s.

But a few days later…

“Empress, we have an emergency!”

“What is it?”

“Those Leviathan bastards have finally caused trouble!”

“What, are they supporting the rebels again?”

“No, they’ve disappeared from Commander Icarus’s territory!”

“…What?”

The Leviathan Fleet, using a “reliability test” as an excuse, caused a catastrophe by making Icarus and the other commanders fight the Xenovia Empire’s Punishment Fleet instead.

Fortunately, the battle with the Punishment Fleet ended in just one day, and thanks to the Leviathan Fleet’s return at the end, Icarus narrowly avoided a truly terrible fate.

But…

“The Leviathan Fleet has grown larger than before.”

“It’s almost twice the size now.”

“It seems they’ve absorbed some of the rebels.”

“…”

Using Icarus as bait, they had gathered rebels who were running wild in Humanity’s territory and incorporated them into their own forces.

When she realized their grand plan was to gradually build up forces within Icarus’s territory and eventually turn the entire area into Earth Federation territory:

“Those damn sneaky bastards!!!”

“What should we do?!”

“I’ll take the Armada and some of the fleet. I’ll lead the expedition myself.”

“Yes!”

“Prepare Eclipse for deployment! The Empress will command in person!”

“And place an additional request with the Loki Clan to prioritize depleting the ‘rebels’ over containing ‘Humanity.'”

“Understood!”

Our Mari-mari Marian expressed extreme anger at the Leviathan Fleet’s actions.

Even at the cost of additional human and material resources, she intended to use the Loki Clan to completely annihilate the Leviathan Fleet—or rather, the “rebels” who had risen up according to the strategy of the “Security Council Chairman” behind them—and eliminate their influence entirely.

Furthermore, since the Leviathan Fleet had grown “far stronger” than originally planned…

Our Marian decided to respond by taking “Eclipse,” the flagship of the Pirate Alliance, and a portion of her elite “Armada” fleet, and hurriedly head toward Icarus’s territory.

==========

Princess Luca’s situation was similarly complex and peculiar.

“Why! Why can’t I bring more fleets with me!”

“Princess Luca, that’s unavoidable due to negotiation issues between the factions and contract problems with the commanders.”

“Nnnnnggghhhh!!!”

Unfortunately, unlike Marian who was the leader of her faction, Princess Luca’s position was merely that of a field representative who had been delegated authority by the “Monster Queen.”

“But Oxianor! At this rate, the Earth Federation will bring the Leviathan and its subordinate fleets, and the Pirate Alliance will bring the Eclipse and Armada!”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“But if I only bring my hobby… I mean, my royal guard fleet, it’s far too small!”

“But due to the world’s balance of power, we cannot bring any more of your fleet.”

She couldn’t mobilize the ancient monster “Armageddon” and the “Typhon Horde” led by Armageddon, which would have been equivalent to the other factions’ flagships and elite fleets.

Fortunately, Princess Luca’s mother, the Monster Queen, understood the situation.

Using the excuse of escorting Princess Luca…

“Will this be enough?”

“Just the fact that a single faction’s delegation has grown to this size will send a sufficient message to the Earth Federation and the Pirate Alliance.”

By significantly reinforcing her forces with additional fleets including battleships, separate from her hobby fleet, through this loophole…

She would show the other two factions positioning themselves in Icarus’s territory that Icarus belonged to their faction!

In other words, she would demonstrate that the monsters also cared “veeeeeery very very very much” about Icarus.

And by subtly letting the other two factions know that the Monster Queen and monster forces were backing her…

The “perception of Leviathan” that our Icarus had previously discussed with Princess Luca could be maintained.

==========

Finally, in the case of the Leviathan Fleet, the superstar that drives our fans crazy…

“So what exactly is our objective, Chairman?”

“You know those rebels we encouraged to run wild in Humanity’s territory? We need to take them in.”

“Hmm.”

“And through that, we’ll demonstrate how much force our Federation still has at its disposal.”

As has been pointed out several times, their fundamental goal was to showcase “the Federation’s intact strength” and use that to reorganize the central zone.

They dreamed of reviving the New Earth Federation using Icarus’s territory as a foundation.

That’s why they sent the Leviathan Fleet—essentially the Federation’s only mobile force—away from Icarus’s territory under the pretext of a “test.”

While Icarus’s fleet was busy stopping the Xenovia Empire’s Punishment Fleet, they planned to somehow gather and bring back the rebels, but…

-“…Humanity is fighting better than expected, and the rebels aren’t moving according to plan.”

“Damn it, why, WHY?!”

Unfortunately, from the Earth Federation’s perspective, they were experiencing one setback after another.

Humanity responded much better than expected to the “large-scale rebellion” they had instigated, and the rebels, who had aimed to pick off Humanity’s forces one by one, were instead being picked off themselves.

At this rate, it was obvious the rebels would be suppressed, so they deployed a hidden “Fleet Warp Gate Ship” to gather the rebels in one place.

Their plan to have the Leviathan Fleet pick up these gathered rebels and bring them to the central zone…

-“Those bastards suddenly charged.”

-“What? Why?”

-“Someone inside was saying we need to go on the offensive now to raise the Federation’s morale or something…”

-“Arrrggghh!!”

Unknown to them, the professional troublemakers of the Loki Clan had deployed superhumans inside their ranks to cause chaos.

-“How did they lose over 10,000 superhumans and more than a million ships?”

-“The ships went to Alpha Centauri, the superhumans to the lunar base… but both missions failed.”

The fleets and superhumans they had gathered were largely destroyed or killed, and the surviving forces were all captured or defected to Humanity.

Within the provisional government, there was growing criticism about the complete loss of the rebels, the Federation’s total depletion of resources, and the responsibility for nearly getting themselves killed by the Punishment Fleet after ignoring their duty to help Commander Icarus under the pretext of a “test”…

As a result, the Leviathan Fleet hurriedly returned to drive away the Punishment Fleet.

The position of the Security Council Chairman, who had pushed for all these operations, became extremely precarious.

Up to this point, everything had gone according to Marian and Luca’s (& the Queen’s) plan.

They celebrated behind the scenes, believing that the Leviathan Fleet and the Earth Federation provisional government would no longer act recklessly.

The problem arose during this chaotic period.

Admiral “Lanka,” who led the Leviathan Fleet, suddenly went on a rampage, blaming the Council Chairman for the Federation’s collapse and the rebels’ annihilation.

“We will make Commander Icarus our new leader and create a new Federation in this central zone!”

“…What!”

-“Huh?”

-“Eh?”

The admiral launched a coup, physically separating the head of the Council Chairman, who was already on the verge of being pushed aside due to responsibility issues.

After that, he proclaimed “the establishment of a new Federation with Commander Icarus as its leader.”

Marian and Princess Luca, who hadn’t anticipated the situation developing this far, were shocked.

And our Icarus, who had just finished the 4th anniversary event and was idly playing with Jessica’s rabbit ears upon hearing that Humanity’s rebels had been annihilated, felt utterly dumbfounded.