Mitsuha 236

236. Portrait of Battle 3

“…actual battle training, you say?” (the King)

“Yes” (Mitsuha)

“actual or training, which one is it…” (the King)

The King hold his head with an expression that screams [I don’t understand at all].

“It’s not battle training?” (the King)

“It’s not” (Mitsuha)

“It’s not a training for the actual battle either?”

“It’s not either” (Mitsuha)

“Umumumumu…” (the King)

I am currently at the royal palace of Zegreius Kingdom, my second home country after Japan.

Not in the audience chamber, but in a small room for inner circles, there are the King, Prime Minister, Marquis Aiblinger, and—Sabine-chan’s and Luchen-kun’s oniisan—the crown prince…so far, I get it. It’s understandable.

…But Sabine-chan and her eldest sister—the first princess—are also present… no, why are these two here!!?

Well, rather than a family meeting with [the usual member, plus the X factors], today’s meeting is more like to [lay the groundwork].

Ah, Count Bozes is not present because he is now in the territory. The port town development is taking a lot of his time that he can hardly come to the royal capital anymore…

Well, it can’t be helped.

“The chances of it ending without us having to take a turn is high, but still, I want to make some preparation just in case. …to be more specific, I want the country’s approval and to inform the crew in advance.

If everything goes well, we can get valuable actual combat experience. We can only fire a cannon 5-6 times from the shore for bombardment training in order to save the ammo, after all…” (Mitsuha)

Yeah, we somehow managed to make shells since they’re just a lump of iron, but the same can’t be said for the gunpowder.

We more or less can make gunpowder too. Since I can find out how to make it on Earth, it would be strange if we couldn’t make it even though the whole project is backed up by the country.

However, there are several problems such as the performance’s uniformity, safety, stability and quantity of potassium nitrate supply, and so on…

Actually, I wanted to make the shells to be stuffed with explosives too, but it’s still a long way off when we don’t even have a stable supply of gunpowder.

Explosives, detonation system, and various other issues are still piling up high after all… As I thought, maybe we should use a fuse to time the detonation…

It would be possible to make cannons too if it’s the same type as the one from the ships we captured, but we’ll only use it as a technical reference. What we want to make properly is a breech-loading rifled-gun that uses cylindro-conoidal shells.

Our country is inferior in terms of technology and national power, and only capable of building a small ship. So in order to compete with major powers, we have no choice but to create an overwhelming difference in gun performance.

…there’s a long way to go before we can put that into practice, though.

In other words, the gunpowder that we collected from the captured ships is limited, so once we used up all of them, both the guns and the ships would become useless.

So perhaps they’re wondering if it’s okay to use those precious resources when we’re not even in a crisis.

It’s not wrong to think so, but…

“Currently, we can only deploy the three captured ships, and even if we managed to complete [Eras] ’s reparation and the new ship’s construction, we would only have five. Besides, those ships are outdated compared to the enemy countries’, and on top of that, the new guns are still far from mass production, they’re still in development phase. In such a state, preserving the ammunition won’t make much sense. Far from bombardment training, we haven’t even experienced a trial shooting, after all…” (Mitsuha)

“Uhh…” (the King)

Right, why should we preserve the ammunition when we’re nothing better than an amateur? —as if that would make any difference.

Besides, it’s not like we’re going to use all of them. Just for a few salvos should be enough.

And it’s not necessarily decided that we would get a turn.

I just want to prepare so that I have full authority in advance in case we can’t afford to hold a meeting or get the necessary permissions when such a situation comes.

And the silence continues for a while…

“…I say, why don’t we give it a try?” (Marquis Aiblinger)

“Eh…” (the King)

The King leaked a surprised voice to Marquis Aiblinger’s sudden remark.

“I’m sure those three outdated ships couldn’t even hold a candle to their state-of-the-art ships. And the ammunition we currently have would be drained in a single battle anyway. More than that, the guns on those old ships would be replaced by the new guns we’re trying to develop sooner or later. So there’s little point in saving those ammunitions. If they can be a stepping stone for the future, isn’t it all right to use them? Also, they were originally obtained by Viscount Yamano. If Viscount Yamano, who is most aware of the situation, thinks that it would be reasonable to use them right now, I have no objection to entrusting everything to her.” (Marquis Aiblinger)

Even though he’s in the King’s presence, Marquis Aiblinger is just talking casually.

Apparently, they’ve been good friends since long ago, so aside from formal occasions, they seem to have a quite frank relationship in these kinds of informal meetings.

Well, since he was appointed as the general commander of the Royal Defense Force, it’s evident that the King deeply trusts him, I guess…

“ “ “……” “ “

And finally, my request was accepted, and the other ministers, the military, and the crew of the ships will be given an explanation in advance.

What about the other attendees’ opinion, you ask?

It seems that His Highness, the Crown Prince, was only present to observe and learn—he had no say in it. The real members of the meeting were just me, the King, the Prime Minister, and Marquis Aiblinger. Really, it was just like a small, informal meeting with acquaintances. That’s why Marquis Aiblinger was also speaking to the King in such a manner—just like talking with an old friend.

What about Sabine-chan and the first princess? Hahaha…

No, really, I wonder what were those two doing there…

Of course, I don’t want to involve this country in a battle between the countries of the new continent.

It would be utterly foolish if we let our people get killed in a battle between other countries.

However, I also don’t want the international situation around there to become unstable.

When a powerful powerhouse is born, it will continue to seek power. And after actively suppressing the surrounding countries, they will start to look for something new.

…right, and they will dispatch expeditionary fleets to search for unexplored lands. And after they took the treasures and slaves from those lands, they will continue to exploit them forever.

So, in order to prevent it…

I came to the town of the naval port.

The “Leviathan” which Soldier-kun is assigned in is…

…not here.

Well, it’s a ship, of course, it’ll eventually leave the port.

Especially since it’s a sailboat and more than half of its crew are sailors, of course, daily training would be necessary.

I guess I was lucky that it was always at the port whenever I came.

Oh, by [sailors] I didn’t mean [sailors], but rather the mastmen who are in charge of controlling the ropes to the sails.

…even so, it’s rather empty in here.

I wonder where most of the ships are… tte, they went on a sortie!!

I thought they were still in the political exchange phase, but if the war is already decided, then I guess it’s natural to dispatch the fleets to protect the colonies and routes immediately. Sailing ships move slowly after all.

And the [Leviathan] is a squadron flagship. Although it’s not a flagship of a fleet, there’s no way for a 64-gun state-of-the-art ship to remain behind.

…or rather, all that remains is the kind of miscellaneous and support vessels—also, the ships which were about to be decommissioned and left moored here.

…what do I do now?

I don’t know where the fleets are heading.

I don’t even know the location of the enemy fleets.

I don’t know where the battle will be taking place, nor do I know when the battle will begin.

There’s nothing I can do!!