Gasi

...I'm jealous. It feels like the other side has been living with no worry at all until now.」

「Admiral Jose, please be a bit more serious.」

「I'm just an elderly that only want to yield the way forward to my juniors and retire in peace you know?」

「There is nobody who want to take admiral's position.」

「No no no, there is no way that's the case, I'm Sanjuan Kingdom's navy minister you know? If it's now the position of military minister will also come with it.」

「Don't talk about the highest position in the military like it's just a freebie from greengrocer.」

What a troublesome person. He really didn't understand about his own worth.

Urraca's talent was abnormal, but in this world there were also people who rated Admiral Jose's ingenuity higher than that.

Especially the surprise attack to Riga Harbor and the Crossing the T tactic. The navy officers of all the countries rated him highly for those.

Urraca's genius couldn't be imitated by anyone, but the strategy that Jose devised could be imitated by everyone.

In that sense, Jose's talent was more precious than Urraca.

There was no way that Sanjuan Kingdom and other countries would accept Jose doing something like leaving the navy just because he retired from being the military minister. Or rather, his achievements until now were too dazzling that no one dared to succeed after him.

It was obvious that the successor would constantly get compared to Jose by his subordinates.

At the very least the adjutant absolutely refused to go through something like that.

Jose was dreaming of retiring and travelling to the southern country without being aware of that at the slightest.

(When this battle is over, I'll ask his highness Franco to be allowed to take a long vacation...)

「Admiral Jose! Please return back to reality!」

.

In a complete contrast from Sanjuan Kingdom that was enveloped in a somewhat heartwarming atmosphere, Answerer Kingdom's first fleet was driven by uneasiness.

「The eighteenth ship is hit! It's losing moving power!」

「The twentieth ship is hit! Its mizzen spanker is broken! It's falling behind!」

「Why are we still not catching up!?」

「The enemies are retreating to the east so...we lost the upwind advantage and can't easily catch up with them.」

「Those shrewd bastards...!」

Leonid gritted his teeth, but this too was caused by his charge that was too hasty.

If there was more distance, he would be able to chase Jose's fleet from more diagonally upwind.

But because he raised his speed too much, his course change to the east was delayed and as the result the first fleet wasn't upwind anymore. It had even fallen slightly to the downwind.

With this he couldn't catch up no matter how much he wanted it to.

Thanks to that his fleet kept getting whittled by the right wing of Sanjuan Kingdom's fleet.

Leonid's stress was going to enter the extreme due to the battlefield that wouldn't move like he wanted it.

「Should we also split our fleet into two?」

「That will be difficult. We'll get showered by the attack from the enemy's right wing while turning around. As expected, it will be better to focus on crushing one wing first rather than increasing our casualties like that.」

「How is it going with the third fleet?」

「It seems the second fleet is also struggling. So the third fleet is heading toward them because it's nearer.」

「That stupid Yuri! His can only talk big!」

Leonid cursed his colleagues while turning a blind eye to his own arbitrary action.

In the first place the cause of this was his arbitrary charge that caused a distance to be opened between his fleet and the third fleet.

Even so he didn't get cold feet even now in his situation. As expected from someone who was in the rank of general.

「It's no use asking for the impossible. Continue chasing after the enemies!」

「Sir!」

As expected, Jose was taken aback by Leonid's decision to keep charging at the left wing of Sanjuan Kingdom fleet without any hesitation.

He completely thought that the first fleet was dropping its speed intentionally to attempt to split the left wing and the right wing.

「We can win even if we keep running like this but...」

「The enemy's third fleet is heading toward Horntbeck Kingdom fleet. If we leave them alone for too long...」

「Well, it might turn bad in that case.」

It looked like Urraca's battle with the raid fleet was going to end soon, but Odysseus's burden would be too big if he had to face two fleets at the same time.

「And so let's turn around to join up with the right wing.」

「Sir!」

When Sanjuan Kingdom fleet's left wing started to turn around, the first fleet quickly livened up because they finally could close the distance.

「Prepare to fire!」

There was just a bit more until they entered the rocket arrow's firing range. As long as they could close the distance, the rocket arrow would be overwhelmingly inferior to cannon in regard to area suppression power.

It couldn't be helped that they were getting eager because they finally would be able to vent their resentment.

However, obviously Jose wasn't such a kindhearted person.

「Right attack ready.」

「Sir!」

「Full speed after the volley, fire!」

「Sir!」

Because the ship's speed dropped from turning around, the ship's shaking settled down and a situation where it was easy to aim was arranged temporarily.

And then when the distance was close like this, being able to hit easily wasn't the advantage of rocket arrow alone. The same also applied to the cannon.

Two ships from the first fleet quickly got damaged and dropped out.

「Don't falter! Hit them back if we got hit!」

「Enemy ships are accelerating!」

「Hold back the leading ship!」

「B-but if we change direction to hinder the left wing fleet's leading ship, the right wing fleet will launch pincer attack to us...」

And yet if they did nothing to hinder the left wing and right wing to link up, the first fleet would be the one in disadvantage after all the damages they accrued.

「I don't mind! In that case we will just take on all of them!」

Human couldn't bear to let go something that they obtained after much effort. Leonid couldn't allow the left wing to get away after he finally caught up to them.

He made his decision with the excuse that he would have to fight the right wing fleet too sooner or later anyway.

Of course the world wouldn't work that conveniently.

「That move will be effective against a weaker opponent, but in this case...」

Jose could predict that Leonid would choose to rely on brute force.

「Fore top sail a back!」

「Sir!」

「Hard starboard!」

「Hard starboard, sir!」

They had no obligation to move just like the enemy wanted them to.

Running away by turning around completely and passing the first fleet was also a choice but, Jose chose to perform a rapid braking before changing course once more.

「They're still continuing with their futile struggle!」

Should he change course once more? Or perhaps he should continue attacking like this?

Leonid hesitated.

The left wing fleet was already within his firing range due to their declining speed from changing direction.

It would be fine if he could hit the enemies from here, but if it missed then the enemies would escape to outside his range once more.

Either option had their own merits and demerits.

The basic of psychological warfare was forcing the opponent to choose from such options.

After hesitating for a few moments, Leonid decided to attack.

However the bombardment from the right wing fleet attacked the first fleet slightly faster.

「Kuh! Fire the rocket arrows!」

「Sir!」

The number of the rocket arrows that were fired simultaneously was around 1000.

However the angle of the firing was bad. The wind that was blowing from the north was hitting the rocket arrows from the side.

Rocket arrow with its slow speed could be easily affected by wind from the start.

And the type of wind that affected the rocket arrow's accuracy the most was side wind.

Leonid was unable to realize that the timing he chose was the worst.

If he was in a composed state, he might not overlooked the wind, but the tense atmosphere of the battlefield was throwing Leonid's focus into disarray.

The first attack of the first fleet damaged two ships of Sanjuan Kingdom fleet. One of them sank.

──But that result couldn't be compared to all the damages that the first fleet had received until now.

「Damn it! How can I of all people blundered like that...」

Leonid finally returned to his senses seeing the rocket arrows got greatly diverted by the wind. But it was already too late at that point.

And then when he realized, the left wing fleet and the right wing fleet began their bombardment with the first fleet's single line formation sandwiched between them.

Because the fleet was using a probability weapon like rocket arrow as their main weapon, it was desirable for the fleet to maneuver as one.

Single line formation was adopted due to such tactical demand.

However when the left wing fleet began to attack the head of the formation while the right wing fleet began to attack the rear of the formation, the first fleet started to become unable to maintain the single line formation.

The distance between the two sides had also been shortened and the bombardment accuracy increased.

「Don't falther! An exchange of blow like this is also exactly what we wanted!」

There was a saying poverty would make a person dull-brained.

The first fleet's tactical objective was approaching the enemy fleet to use their rocket arrows, and that objective had been achieved.

And yet, before they realized it they had been sandwiched from the front and rear, the wind direction was disadvantageous for them, and they had also been damaged considerably.

The current first fleet was similar to an animal that was falling into a trap due to the bait that was dangled in front of their eyes.

「Fire! Keep firing until we run out of rocket arrow!」

「Fifth ship and seventeenth ship are hit!」

「Hit them back! Hit them no matter what! It should be possible if we have taken the wind direction into account too from the start!」

Leonid issued his order.

But rocket arrow wasn't like cannon. It didn't have sighting device and it could simply be fired repeatedly without anything much that could be done to improve the aim. Nobody would be troubled if it was easy to hit the target with this weapon.

The only thing left that Leonid could do was only to pray to god.

If all the rocket arrows could luckily hit the enemies, of the ship Rio that Jose was on board could at least be hit...

「There is no way they will hit. After all luck will only butter up the strong.」

Jose smiled wryly seeing the rocket arrows that were mostly being shot randomly.

Fundamentally luck would never save the weak who was seeking for it. Instead it was the hero who cut open the path of their life even without something like luck who for some reason would be frequently blessed with miraculous luck.

There was no way the goddess of luck would go to butter up Leonid who had been cornered to the verge of defeat at this point.

In the end, the first fleet continued to fight until their very last ship sank. Sanjuan Kingdom fleet was also forced to lose five ships in exchange.

Only in that respect they were worthy to be proud as the most elite force within Answerer Kingdom navy. Jose sent his respect wordlessly to the first fleet that had vanished below the sea.

On the other hand, Yuri's second fleet was putting up a better fight than the first fleet.

Yuri realized that he couldn't match Odysseus in fleet maneuver and he made a bet by splitting his fleet into four and ordered each group to counterattack.

In order to control a wide area like Galeares Sea, it was common for a fleet to be split up when it was at the peace time. That experience was being used for this strategy now.

If a fleet's commander was changed, than the fleet's habit and decision would also completely change.

That difference between each commander was putting Odysseus in a tough spot to react.

「As expected from the person who will come first to mind when talking about Answerer Kingdom navy.」

Odysseus groaned because he didn't expect that Yuri would use such perplexing strategy.

Of course this strategy only made it troublesome for Odysseus, but he still had the advantage. Odysseus carefully keep the distance with his enemies while continuing to whittle down his enemies' number by sniping the fleet whose teamwork had turned shoddy because of the split.

However the enemies were also formidable.

They accepted that they wouldn't be able to get out of this unharmed and they began to charge at Horntbeck Kingdom fleet from four directions to half surround them.

Horntbeck Kingdom fleet that was inferior in number headed west to retreat while concentrating their attack to one of the four sub fleets. They succeeded in almost annihilating that sub fleet.

「I'm amazed they can hit that accurate on a sea this shaky.」

Yuri began to wonder if it was a mistake to choose a stormy weather for this battle.

After all it looked like the weather affected the rocket arrow more than the cannon.

They were barely able to put up a fight, but they were bearing more loss than the enemy.

However there was also a good news.

The third fleet was heading to reinforce them instead of the second fleet.

It seemed that Leonid had dashed off as he pleased and ignored the battle plan, so he got left behind.

With the ten ships of the third fleet at his side, he outnumbered the enemies by quite a lot.

Yuri finally felt relieved.

「...Good grief, today is an unlucky day.」

Odysseus looked up to the sky.

Urraca had gone off to fight with the raid fleet on her own, in addition even the third fleet was coming toward him. He didn't think that his habitual behavior was that bad that he deserved this....

However it was pointless to only lament like this.

If the third fleet joined the battle, the combat strength difference with the second fleet that he had shortened after much effort would open up widely again.

The fact that his fleet hadn't spent as much time training using cannon like Majorca Kingdom and Sanjuan Kingdom was also significant.

Currently Odysseus couldn't hit a target from the cannon's maximum range like Urraca could no matter how hard he tried.

「Well, it's great that the achievement is coming at me on their own instead of me having to chase after them.」

In order to show the presence of Horntbeck Kingdom within the Grand Union, Odysseus had to obtain achievement in this battle no matter what. The third fleet coming after him in addition of the second fleet were something that he was also thankful about.

If he could destroy these two fleets by himself, he would make the biggest contribution in this naval battle.

There would be no need for him to share the achievement with others.

「As expected, I can only allow them to cut my flesh in order to break their bone.」

As expected, trying to win without any loss would be simply asking for too much.

He wanted to preserve his force as much as possible because Horntbeck Kingdom fleet hadn't recovered from the damage in the battle against Urraca and Jose, but there was no other way.

「Tacking!」

「Tacking, sir!」

The wind that was blowing from the north to slightly the west changed to blow to the east right at that timing.

Galeares Sea wasn't just Answerer Kingdom's turf.

Horntbeck Kingdom had also fought against Answerer Kingdom until now for the hegemony of this sea.

The north wind coiling and changing direction to the east and west was a common phenomenon in this sea.

However it was also an unmistakable fact that Odysseus was the fastest one to notice that.

「Well, he got a passing mark I guess.」

Urraca who was observing the battle with a sidelong glance smiled while watching Odysseus with slight admiration.

She almost finished with annihilating the raid fleet, but Urraca didn't have any intention to snatch the achievement from Odysseus at this point. She planned to observe Odysseus's struggle with a warm gaze.

It was unknown whether Odysseus was thinking something like give us a little help here or not.

「Starboard!」

「Starboard, sir!」

「Left attack ready, fire!」

「Sir!」

Horntbeck Kingdom fleet turned around and moved toward the third fleet.

And then they hit the third fleet's nose with all out bombardment.

「Enemy flag ship is hit!」

「ALRIGHTTTTTTTT!」

The commander of the third fleet Admiral Anatoli was just a temporary commander that was dispatched from the main third fleet. He liked to take command from the front and today too his flagship was leading from the forefront to inspire the morale.

The demerit of such move appeared in the worst timing.

The flagship's speed dropped drastically and it immediately dropped out from the frontline.

「Attack back! Don't mind the flagship! Fire!」

「Sir!」

It became a grand exchange of blow, but Horntbeck Kingdom fleet had superior number, and on top of that they had taken the initiative. Half of the third fleet was immediately sunk.

──That wasn't all.

「Prepare the flamethrower!」

「Sir!」

「Fire!」

Odysseus had approached the third fleet until point-blank range in order to avoid the attack from the second fleet. He also did it to carry out this scheme.

Horntbeck Kingdom fleet wasn't just equipped with cannons, but also flamethrowers.

Odysseus used the blazing third fleet as shield and avoided being sandwiched by the second fleet. Then he turned around to finally have a showdown with the second fleet.

「Starboard!」

「Starboard, sir!」

「Right attack ready!」

「Sir!」

The sequence of battle was something splendid that frustrated even Yuri.

He wanted to sandwich the enemies together with the third fleet, but by catching the sudden change of wind, Horntbeck Kingdom fleet circled behind the third fleet and completely prevented the second fleet from trying anything.

Yuri's second fleet could do nothing but watching the third fleet getting annihilated helplessly.

If he tried shooting with rocket arrow, its wide area effect might also hit the third fleet in the worst case.

It was difficult for Yuri to make a decision of shooting his allies.

「We're going all out. Make sure that each ship take down at least one ship!」

「Sir!」

Fortunately the second fleet could advance with the third fleet as their cover. All the ships of Horntbeck Kingdom fleet were within range.

It could be said that the third fleet that accomplished the role as bait so that the second fleet could close the distance.

「I'm sorry, but unfortunately I'm not planning to fight you head on.」

However Horntbeck Kingdom fleet performed tacking while using the third fleet as their shield, and they began bombarding the second fleet from the gaps.

Rocket arrow was something to be scattered in great number, so it could also hit allies incidentally, but cannon wasn't. And on top of that, the third fleet wasn't their ally from the start.

「You coward...!」

Ships that burned like torch. Sailors drifting in the extremely cold sea. Those lucky ones were getting onto boat and waiting for help from their allies.

Could he fire rocket arrows on top of them?

「Fifth ship is hit!」

「Shit-! Port! Circle around!」

「Port, sir!」

Yuri searched for an angle to shoot that wouldn't hit his allies, but Odysseus didn't allow that.

The second fleet lost two more ships while that was going on.

「Damn you...」

Something like this wasn't an upstanding way of fighting war between nations. This was a way of fighting of pirate.

It was natural for Yuri to think like that, but for a fleet of small country like Horntbeck Kingdom, pirate strategy was their specialty instead.

The worth of a small country's navy was in harassing the opponent.

「Don't you think that it's stupid for the weak to face the strong head on?」

Odysseus didn't have the slightest feeling of guilt from taking the third fleet hostage that he could even assert like that.

「The sixth ship is hit! Admiral, if we lose even more ships than this...」

「I know!」

It was painful to admit it, but if the difference of strength kept widening like this, the second fleet would also definitely walk the path of defeat.

Furthermore when he looked around him, the raid fleet was already annihilated, and the first fleet was also going to be defeated.

It was a situation where he had to destroy Horntbeck Kingdom fleet as quickly as possible and thought of how to retreat from here.

「Fire the rocket arrows!」

「Sir!」

Odysseus shrugged seeing the second fleet decided to attack.

「I wished that you will be a bit more docile.」

He wanted to sink several more ships, but he couldn't ask for extravagance here.

「Let's do it for real from here.」

Horntbeck Kingdom fleet had already overturned the difference of number.

「All hands, prepare to extinguish fire!」

「Sir!」

Unlike cannon, rocket arrows almost never damaged the spot below sea gauge.

If the crews could calmly extinguish the fire, the ship's survivability would be increased drastically.

Such battle training was only done by the Grand Union as the only side that had the experience of being attacked by rocket arrow.

「Match the trim!」

「Sir!」

After they smoothly sped up and rushed out from the shadow of the third fleet, Horntbeck Kingdom fleet started their counterattack.

「Third ship, fourth ship are hit! The sixth ship is flooded and fall behind!」

「Don't panic! We will save you guys later so don't die in vain!」

The Grand Union's victory was already almost set in stone.

As long as the damaged ships could stay afloat somehow, help would come for them later.

Such feeling of safety also heightened the morale of Horntbeck Kingdom fleet.

In contrast to that, Answerer Kingdom fleet wouldn't have anyone to save them if their ship sank.

It couldn't be helped at all that the sailors were feeling anxious in their heart because they absolutely didn't want to sink.

「Left attack ready!」

「Sir!」

「Focus the shots at the lead ship and the second ship! Fire!」

「Sir!」

Unlike the third fleet, Yuri wasn't located at the forefront.

However if the lead ship of a single line formation was disabled, the fleet movement would naturally get disarrayed.

In a sense, it was a tactic that should be called as a conventional tactic in fleet battle.

「So he doesn't only has dirty trick...」

Yuri muttered loathingly.

The enemy had also perfected the basic.

「Don't falter! The one that get cold feet first will lose!」

Both fleets passed each other while hitting each other.

Rocket arrow's firepower was superior with its greater quantity, but the effect of the weather was strong, so the firepower of both sides was almost equal.

Yuri's words that the side that got cold feet first would lose really hit the mark.

If two adults that got into blow with each other were equally strong, the strength of heart would be the factor that broke the equilibrium.

First the side that got cold feet would be swallowed and forced into one-sided defense, and then at the end they would run away.

Perhaps the strength of Yuri's heart was first class.

But there was no guarantee that his subordinates were also the same.

「Fire the flamethrower!」

「Is it alright when the enemy is still outside the range?」

「Even if it doesn't hit, what will they think when they saw the flame coming that close to them?」

「I see.」

In the end the firing of flamethrower brought about a severe impact to the second fleet.

「Idiots! Don't mess the formation! It won't reach us!」

Yuri yelled angrily seeing the ships at the front messing the formation because they feared the flame.

The flame of the flamethrower wouldn't vanish even after it touched the seawater.

There was still a distance of dozens of meters until the flame wall that suddenly appeared.

However for them who had witnessed the defeat of their allies, it felt like the flame was just several meters away from reaching them.

They turned the rudder almost instinctually to avoid the flame.

Naturally the rocket arrows that they fired got scattered loosely. The attack power of the rocket arrows got drastically reduced.

It was just a trivial thing, but equilibrium was something that could be broken by such trivial thing.

Yuri was angry because he also knew that.

「The enemy is near! Don't miss your aim!」

It was over with this, Odysseus thought, but he didn't say it out loud.

As a commander, he couldn't possibly say something that would make his subordinates let their guard down in this situation.

「Fire!」

「Sir!」

He couldn't use magic to hit the target 400 meter away like Urraca, but for Horntbeck Kingdom fleet, the distance of 100 meter was a point-blank range.

The gunners knew that Urraca and Jose had won.

Liberated from the fear of defeat, they felt elevated and desired to also win and obtain achievement.

Their moral was high and their heart was composed.

Missing the target from this close range in their current mental state would be harder to do.

The well aimed cannonballs pierced through the second fleet one after another.

「Fire back! Fire fire fire keep firing!」

Unlike cannon, rocket arrow could be fired rapidly.

In an immobile exchange of blow, their side should be superior in the number of blows they could inflict.

However the crews who had witnessed the annihilation of the third fleet from close by couldn't fight calmly when they were faced with defeat like this.

At this point, Yuri realized that he was being defeated by Odysseus due to the numerous impacts on his men's mind from the psychological warfare.

It was then, a cannonball hit the flagship Yuri was in. A thunderous roar and impact ran through the ship.

Yuri fell on his knee for the first time today because of the great shock.

「The flagship is hit on the middle of the port side! Many of other ships are also hit!」

「Tell the unharmed ships to retreat. The flagship will continue fighting like this!」

When he looked, the number of operable ships had been reduced to half.

The number of unharmed ships was only around four or five.

Yuri didn't think that they had to continue fighting until the last ship like this.

There was still the main third fleet at the north. He should preserve his combat force to some degree.

Most of all, it would be unbeneficial for the country if he allowed the sailors that had been raised with much time and effort to die in vain.

Still, surrendering was something that Yuri's aesthetic didn't permit.

「Keep firing rocket arrows until this ship sink. Don't let them chase after the retreating ships no matter what.」

Although Yuri thought in his heart, that if that person was the enemy commander, he surely wouldn't chase the survivors too deeply.

「The enemies are a wounded beast. There is no need for us to get hurt facing a beast that will die by itself if we just leave it alone.」

Odysseus stopped fighting just like Yuri expected. He sent out his salute toward the sinking second fleet.

.

Answerer Kingdom's sea force got almost completely annihilated from the naval battle of Galeares Sea.

The damage to the Grand Union was around 20%. It could be surmised that the battle was completely a one-sided game.

Although Answerer Kingdom navy still had more than thirty ships left, they would never become a threat for the Grand Union anymore.