Book 12: Chapter 9: Banfield Territory Defense (4)
"I'm so sorry."
A wounded soldier comes to me and kneels down and hangs his head.
I let him get treatment, but the scars are still fresh.
The soldier, who holds the rank of colonel, reports to me what has happened.
"We were attacked by a pirate fleet. We tried to fight back, but the enemy was so powerful that we were helpless."
The Banfield family has a number of bases in its territory where they can secretly supply their ships during defensive battles.
The convoy was attacked by a pirate fleet.
The stockpiled supplies had been taken and the defensive fleet had been destroyed.
I stood up and approached the colonel.
"You have been duly trained and your weapons are of average quality. Is that correct?"
"Yes, sir."
The colonel affirmed ruefully.
Depending on how you look at it, we trained them well and gave them the right equipment, but they lost? That's what he was asking me.
I call out to the colonel.
"If that's how you lost, so be it. You get some rest."
"W-What? But..."
"The enemy was stronger. This is a fact. I will send an escort from my fleet. Take the wounded back to the planet and put them under Klaus' command. Well, they will be sent to the hospital anyway."
I don't think Klaus would force a defeated fleet to the front line.
Even if he did, it is obvious that he would send them to the rear.
After they finish talking, the soldiers take out the wounded colonel.
Elysia, who was watching the situation, gives me an anxious look.
"It's tricky. He's a former pirate, so it's easy for him to see through the existence of our secret base."
"They must be easy to spot because of their experience when they were on the run and hiding. It would be troublesome to leave them behind."
To think about what to do now, I project a simplified three-dimensional image of the battlefield in front of me.
As I contemplated what to do in front of the image, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye.
It looked like an animal - something like a dog.
It must have been a mistake.
"Ah--noise?"
My gaze was directed to a place outside of my territory.
It was the route along which the imperial army was supposed to have invaded.
Elysia noticed this and operated a terminal.
"It is the route that the imperial army seems to have invaded. It seems that supplies are being sent from the empire incessantly at the moment. The planet that served as the supply base must be overjoyed with the economic boom that has just come its way."
If it becomes a supply base used by the imperial fleet, it will be subsidized and developed even if they don't want it to be.
The planet was apparently being sent by an imperial delegate, but the dreary planet was now being developed and becoming a city.
"Enemy supply base, huh?"
Hearing my muttering, Elysia shook her head.
"You can't target it. You can't use long-distance warp in the first place. Even if we could reach it by repeatedly using short-distance warp, we would still have a fuel problem."
Even if we could get to the supply base, we would only have enough fuel for a one-way trip.
Escape would be impossible, and if they failed, they would be annihilated.
"Besides, if we try to dispatch a large fleet, we will be noticed."
"How large can you send a fleet without the enemy noticing?"
"Thirty thousand at the most, I'd say."
Thirty thousand is a lot, in my opinion.
"It's a lot."
"It's not a lot for a war of this size."
It is true that there are a total of eight million vessels on both sides of the battlefield.
Thirty thousand may be a small number, but I don't agree with it.
"The fleet I lead also has 30,000 ships."
I mutter, and Elysia rushes to persuade me to stop.
"It would be reckless to hit a supply base on that scale. The Imperial Army is not stupid, and they have their own forces in place."
Even if we could send a fleet the size of several hundred thousand to hit them, we would be outgunned in our own territory.
The dispersion of forces will put our stronghold in jeopardy.
But 30,000 is no problem, right?
"I've made up my mind. Let's hit the supply base first. We'll turn them into rats in the sack."
"Did you hear what I said? If we move a large fleet, they will notice."
"We can do it now. Besides, I only need to move my fleet."
"--what?"
Elysia looked dumbfounded and surprised, but I ignored her and gave the order to a nearby soldier.
"Tell Klaus I'm going away for a while. He'll take care of the rest."
"Yes, sir!"
Cleo, the general-in-chief, could not hide his excitement on the fortress-class bridge.
Rising from his decorated seat, he held out his arms in welcome to the reinforcement commanders projected on the screen.
"Welcome, my friends. Let us welcome your arrival."
"We are very grateful for your kind words. It was worth our while to come."
The faces of the commanders projected in the air were variously those of nobles and commanders of patrol fleets.
Nobles and military men had left their territories and posts to converge on Cleo.
The number of ships was two million.
As a result, Cleo's fleet had swelled to four million ships.
Hampson's fleet, which was now attacking Tia's fleet, was leading three million ships, and he was happy to have a fleet that was larger than that.
"So where is the target, Your Highness the Crown Prince?"
"--My fleet will be at this place I have designated as home base."
One nobleman asked, to which Cleo replied with a frustrated look on his face.
A nobleman, seeing this, narrowed his eyes slightly and advised Cleo.
"What a surprise! The Marquis of Hampson has underestimated the power of His Highness the Crown Prince."
"What?"
The Crown Prince, who is leading an army of four million, is wrong to stay at his home base and do nothing. With a force of this size, it would be possible for him to invade Liam's stronghold.
Cleo knew what the nobleman was trying to say.
(Does this guy want to seduce me to go after Liam's main planet?)
The nobleman who had come all the way to Banfield territory was trying to line his own pockets by looting.
Cleo could see that much, but at the same time, something inside him was speaking to him.
As if - as if intrigued by someone.
"Yes, Cleo! You have me with you now. Besides, with a fleet this size, it will be easy to hit Liam's main planet!"
--The guide standing diagonally behind Cleo was doing his best to persuade Cleo to attack.
No one could see the guide, and even his voice did not reach Cleo.
But the voice of the guide was echoing in Cleo's mind.
(Even without Hampson, I alone can beat Liam. With a fleet this size, I can do it by force.)
Hearing Cleo's voice in his mind, the guide's mouth turned up at the corners and he began to laugh.
"I still think you're the best, Cleo. When you become emperor, I will support you to the best of my ability. The empire will be a very interesting place."
The guide, imagining an empire ruled by Cleo, says what he thinks.
"Cleo--you are a greater petty villain than Liam. You are the real petty villain."
The guide is overjoyed, but a few dozen meters behind him is a small light.
The light, which looks like a dog if one strained one's eyes, seems to be glaring at the guide and growling.
Then the guide turned around.
"Who is that looking there?"
The guide looks at the small light that was staring at him, laughing and emitting a black aura.
The small light quickly disappears, but the guide smiles.
"A spirit? What a diminutive being you are. You have no power over me now, but you will pay for stalking me all this time."
The guide extends his right hand, and the small light that should have fled is caught in the black smoke.
The small light that was drawn to him struggled in the hand that the black smoke had created.
The guide put his face in a pattern and swallowed the light with his mouth wide open.
"Abominable being!"
The little light struggled to swallow the light, its jagged teeth and its mouth, which opened wider than one would expect from its face.
The little light struggled when it saw this, but for some reason its resistance weakened.
"You give up? I'll have some of that!"
The little light was engulfed, chewed and swallowed.
The guide licked his lips clean with his long tongue.
"--a spirit involved with Liam's previous life. Still, it really pisses me off to think that such an animal spirit has been getting the better of me all this time."
He straightens his back and straightens his appearance.
The guide smiled and assured Liam that there was now no one left to help him.
"But now there is no one left to help Liam from behind. Liam, this is where the real hell begins."
The guide smiled broadly, knowing that Liam's luck was over.
Then Cleo, who had been pondering the situation, announced.
"--The main group will now march toward the main planet of the Banfield family. I, myself, will put a stop to Liam!"
Hearing this, the bridge crew and nobles cheered.
The guide, who had been watching them nodding repeatedly with happiness, spilled a drop of tear.
"It's a great decision. You don't need to be afraid of Liam now. Just attack with all your might. That's all you have to do, Cleo--you've won."
Cleo, with the strong blessing of the guide, begins his march toward the main planet of the Banfield family.
The main body of the conquering army moves.
The Banfield family was not the only ones surprised to hear the news.
Most surprised was Hampson, who was assisting Cleo.
"What!?"
He got up from his seat and crowded the knight who had brought the report.
The knight, who had been pressed, reported the details in a hushed tone.
"So, therefore, we have started marching toward the main planet of the Banfield family with the private fleet of the nobles who joined as a volunteer army and the military patrol fleet."
Hearing the knight's report, Hampson pointed out that important information was missing.
"The size of the volunteer army!"
"Ha! Two million. This is a testament to the prestige of His Highness Cleo."
In front of the knight who begins to flatter Cleo without being asked, Hampson turns his face away and thinks about something else.
(Two million!? How could a fleet of that size be assembled? How could a volunteer army of that size possibly have a supply line?)
They call themselves a volunteer army, but they are a mere collection of fleets.
It is a patrol fleet led by the nobility and their associates who have come to the Banfield family's fortune, as well as military outcasts.
Hampson did not expect thieves who wanted to plunder the city to be a force to be reckoned with.
(Was it all united by a hatred of Banfield? But we don't have the supplies to sustain that many.)
The biggest problem was supply.
They had a supply depot on a rear planet where they could scavenge supplies from all over the empire.
Even so, it was not enough to sustain the newly increased fleet of two million.
The unplanned reinforcements made Hampson angry.
(Has the Crown Prince become impatient with his success? Klaus is not so naive as to think that he can win with a fleet of two million ships.)
Hampson shouts at the knight who brought the report.
"Get His Highness the Crown Prince out of here at once! Remove these fools who call themselves a volunteer army from the battlefield!"
"What? But."
But the messenger knight, who was not getting the point, did not respond well to Hampson's order.
So Hampson went out of his way to tell him the problem.
"A gathering of two million ships that can't even resupply themselves is of no use on the battlefield! We'll soon run out of supplies for the main fleet. In Banfield territory, the main fleet, stuck in the middle of nowhere, is nothing but fodder. Have the Crown Prince leave immediately.
"Ha, yes!"
Hampson's explanation finally cooled the knights from their excitement, and they hurried back to the main group.
Seeing this, Hampson wondered about the quality of the knights around Cleo.
At the same time, he was also puzzled.
(How could something that had been going according to our plan until the middle of the day collapse here? Has His Highness Cleo been bewitched by the wrong person?)
He felt that his army was going to be heavily tilted by Cleo's decision, even though he could have crushed them if he had kept on going.
Hampson orders everyone around him.
"We can no longer take our leisure. Our forces will soon defeat the enemy in front of us and join up with the main army."
They hurriedly attacked down the planet Tia was defending and hurried to join up with the main army.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶