The Blish Strait, the water separating the Kingdom of Frasia and the Blish Isles. On the Frasian side, there were regular ship routes today as well.
Guillaume, the Duke of Noln, summoned the second and third sons of the Frasian nobility, getting those who had no inheritance or territory to organize an expeditionary force of 10,000 with the support of the kingdom. There are 2,000 troops from Frasia, 4,000 Noln Army troops, Guillaume’s protégés, and 4,000 other troops gathered with territories and titles as incentive, for a total of an army 10,000 strong.
Immediately after crossing over to the Blish Isles, the rapid advance continued, and in no time, most of the territory of Wessek was conquered. However, even if you plundered the area in such a situation, it would not be easy to feed 10,000 soldiers. Therefore, necessary supplies were sent from the kingdom of Frasia, and Guillaume maintained more than 10,000 troops.
They have already collected food and taxes to some extent from the areas they have already taken control of, but such things are insignificant, and they don’t even cover the maintenance costs of the 3,000 local soldiers they recruited to their cause. Support and transportation from the home country were the lifeline for Guillaume. 1
Today is the day when a regular shipment full of relief supplies leaves for the Blish Isles. All of the south side of the region has been occupied, leaving the remaining enemy with no strong navy. In this narrow part of the Blish Strait, there should be no danger now that they have complete control of the sea.
“All right! Loading is complete!”
“The ship is setting sail!”
The dockworkers who were loading the ship disembark, and a short time later the ship leaves the shore. It takes time to load and unload, so the ship is scheduled to return tomorrow, but the distance to the opposite shore is enough to make a round trip in a day if you felt like it.
They see off the ship as usual… and while the workers were taking a rest… a loud roar resounded across the sea, as if thunder had struck. It was odd for the sound of thunder, but it’s not uncommon for thunder to strike the sea. They were surprised by the sound they had never heard before, but Frasia continued with its usual work without any particular concern.
Ramor, who was entrusted with the command of the separated fleet, immediately moved to blockade the Blish Strait. The key is whether you can block it before the enemy moves. Besides, there are things he can do now that their presence hasn’t been detected yet.
“Do not damage the hull as much as possible! Destroy only the upper part!”
Ramor and his allies quickly found their prey and approached the ship, which appeared to be a transport ship for supplies, and instead of aiming at the lower part, they only aimed at the upper part and the people on board and released their attacks.
Don! Don! Don!
And, compared to usual, he shoots the Caan Cannons in a more restrained manner. If you hit it with all your might, it will sink in no time. For Ramor, who plans to seize supplies and ships, it means a failure of the operation.
Surrounded by 10 overwhelmingly fast giant ships, the transport quickly surrendered under a never-before-seen attack. Those on board are not soldiers, either. Although they belonged to the military, it was a transport unit, and it was also a division that carried out naval shipping to the safe backline. It’s not much different than the merchants and merchant ships out there.
There was no way they would be loyal to their country or have the spirit to fight even if it cost their lives, so they surrendered immediately, believing that their survival was the only thing of worth. After tying up the crew, Ramor and the others tow the captured transport ship into hiding. The enemy is still unaware of their presence. Now they can capture the rest easily like this.
For House Caan, who had just arrived on Blish Isles and were not yet ready to build a supply chain, they wanted to steal the supplies that the Kingdom of Frasia had carried so freely. By stealing the enemy’s supplies and securing them, they can obtain considerable benefit, not to say that they are twice as effective as shipping them from home.
This won’t work if the enemy comes with an escort fleet or becomes wary of them. Even if the same tactic can be used, it will be the limit of one or two more times at most. Any more than that and the enemy will be warned. Since no enemy escaped this time, the enemy might think that the ship had sunk for some reason… probably.
Ramor sent off the captured ship, cargo, and crew to Flora, and starts thinking. What will the enemy do next? Read your enemy’s actions, outwit them, and get more results.
Even if Ramor and his crew were originally enemies of Flora’s, they would treat them like this. Normally, they would have had their heads cut off, or at best they would have been enslaved. Despite that, Flora, Ramor’s current Lord, believed in them and entrusted them with such a state-of-the-art ship. As for Ramor himself, he is now the separate fleet commander.
Of course, they didn’t trust each other from the beginning. However… it was the Lord who reached out to Ramor first. In order to live up to that trust, Ramor and the others have worked hard. And harder they worked, the more the Lord recognized their efforts and trusted them. So this time, they will live up to that trust once more.
Initially, it was a story of working together to eliminate the current leaders of the Kingdom of Hollant. But they don’t think about it anymore. For Ramor and the others, it is no longer a matter of what to do with the current leaders of Hollant.
Of course, even now, they still want to save the people of the Kingdom of Hollant, and their desire to protect their homeland hasn’t changed. However, what they want most right now is to fulfill the great wish of their master, Flora Charlotte von Carruthers. They do it to the best of their abilities. That was Ramor’s strongest desire.
To do so, eliminate all enemies. Whether it’s the Kingdom of Hollant or the Kingdom of Frasia, their Lord’s enemies are all their enemies…
There was a slightly disturbing atmosphere on the Frasian side. The transport ship that left port 2 days ago was supposed to return yesterday, but it still has yet to make an appearance. If the distance is long, or if the weather is bad, it is a matter of course that the ship will be delayed.
But the distance is right over there. As long as you don’t have to load and unload your cargo, it’s a distance that you can make many round trips in a day. And the weather can’t be bad. For some reason, the harbor where they are is sunny. There’s no way there’s a big storm on the other side of the strait.
“As expected, the sound at that time was…”
“Lightning that struck it and sank it?”
There was a sound like thunder after the transport had left. If lightning strikes a ship directly, it may sink. It’s strange that no one came back, but the other shore was closer, so they may have escaped to that side than here.
In that case, it is strange that there is not a single contact, but it is not impossible. This is… some people would have thought it was obviously strange if there was no news even after a few more days. But… but now it’s wartime and they can’t afford to delay the transportation of supplies. Especially if the previous transport had an accident.
Without this supply, the expeditionary force would starve. Therefore, the next regular shipping was scheduled to leave without even having time to check what happened to the previous ship. Luckily, there are other ships in the port, so it’s easy to secure a new transport ship.
However… once more, that transport ship suddenly disappeared after a thunderous sound rang out in the sea.
After the transport ships disappeared twice, Frasia finally noticed something unusual. The weather is good and the distance is short. It’s too strange that even if there is an accident, not one of the survivors will return to shore.
Why would this happen in a narrow strait where the enemy no longer has a navy and should have complete control of the sea? It’s creepy, but they can’t leave it alone just because it’s unnerving. The expeditionary force must be in a lot of trouble due to the two failures to transport supplies. Therefore, the Royal Navy of Frasia which was in the vicinity gathered to investigate the Blish Strait.
What was gathered was a large fleet of five state-of-the-art ships of the Royal Navy of Frasia. With this many ships, it would be enough to blockade the Blish Strait.
Moreover, although this state-of-the-art ship is larger than the ships that have come before, its speed is almost unchanged. With a ship this big and with this much speed, the enemy would give up running or fighting and surrender. The appearance of five such ships lined up in the harbor was a heroic scene.
“Alright… we’re all here.”
“To think that we can gather such a fleet with just the ships at such speed… as expected of the Royal Navy of Frasia!”
“Umu! What the fleet this is! The enemy will be such a pitiful sight.”
“Indeed they will be!”
The captains of the assembled ships immediately entered into a war council. The identity of the enemy is unknown. However, in this strait that should have been safe, suddenly two transport ships went missing in a row. It’s strange that not a single survivor or a single piece of information came in after being attacked by an enemy. There is also the possibility that there was something wrong that they didn’t know about or that the ship sank in an accident.
They wish they could find something floating. Or, if there really is an enemy, it would be fine to defeat the enemy with these five state-of-the-art large ships of Frasia.
Immediately after leaving the port, the fleet moves around the narrow strait. However, in this narrow width, you’ll reach the opposite shore in no time. Having arrived at the opposite shore without incident, the fleet expanded its search to the west, towards the wider strait. But they came to regret their rash actions.
“I can’t see anything.”
“Even if the enemy were to attack a transport ship, they would run away if they saw this huge fleet of five giant ships.”
The Blish Strait is narrowest at its eastern end and generally widens as it goes west. Due to the topography of the coastal area, it does not always open gradually like a figure eight, but even so, the eastern end is the narrowest and the western end is the widest. As they headed west through such a strait, they eventually reached a point where they could no longer see the land to the north or south, and was completely surrounded by the sea.
“I can see the shadow of a ship in the west!”
“Ooh! The enemy! Chase them!”
They chase the shadow that appeared in the west. They don’t know if it’s really an enemy, but there are only enemies in a fleet like this. They desperately chase it west, but they can’t catch up. Even though they had traveled a considerable distance, they didn’t seem to get close to their opponents. And at that moment…
“Many ships are approaching from the south!”
“What! The south!?”
“Impossible! The south side is ours, Frasia. Isn’t it a friendly army?”
“Tri-color and an eagle! It’s a flag I’ve never seen before!”
Tension ran through the Frasian fleet at once. They don’t understand why the enemy is approaching from the south. If it was the naval power of the Blish Isles, it would probably approach from the north and flee to the north. If they were enemies, when did they turn south? But now they don’t have time to think about such things.
“Ready to intercept!”
They would appreciate it if the enemy approached them. Besides, it is difficult to escape to the north because the enemy is coming from the south. It’s impossible to get through to the north without breaking through their own fleet. Even if the enemy tries to escape, you can reduce the chances of them escaping by gradually holding them down to the south, towards the mainland.
“The enemy fleet is approaching! Th-They’re going at unbelievable speed! And… it’s huge! There are eight ships that are several times larger than this one!”
“Im-Impossible! What’s with these ridiculous ships!?”
“That huge body is faster than this one!”
A huge hull that far exceeds the common sense of the Frasian Navy. Still, the ship’s speed overwhelmingly surpasses the theirs. Everything is out of the ordinary.
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“How-However… it’s not just about speed! Get ready for fire arrows! Turn them into a bonfire!”
If the enemy approaches, you can rain fire arrows on them. They’re very large targets. It will hit wherever you shoot at. However, the enemy stopped approaching while keeping a certain distance just by sailing together.
“Are-Are they afraid of us?”
It can’t be right. Enemies are bigger, faster, and more numerous. There is no reason to fear the Frasian Navy in this situation.
“What is that?”
When they were looking at the enemy fleet running side by side while keeping their distance for a while, the window on the side of the ship opened and they could see black cylinders. What in the hell are those? It was all too late when I realized it.
Don! Don! Do-do-do-don! Do-do-do-do-do-doo!
By the time they thought they heard a guttural bass rumbling, it was already too late. In no time, the state-of-the-art ships that were pride of the Frasian fleet were now full of holes, and the sinking was as bad as instant.
The enemies’ huge ships gather around the annihilated Frasian fleet in a few minutes. What is going on is a rescue operation… or not. It is a thorough securing of prisoners to prevent information from being brought back. If they leave the Frasian soldiers alone and go home, the information may be brought back to the soldiers who swim back to the mainland.
So the enemy fleet caught everything so as not to let any Frasian soldiers escape. The captured Frasian soldiers are meticulously tied up. After all that one-sided fighting, no one seemed to think of rebelling yet.
The Frasian fleet was splendidly dragged to the wider west side of the strait. Witnesses and survivors will come out if you fight in the narrowest east end. That’s why there were no eyewitnesses, and the survivors were guided to a wide area where they could slowly secure them. The Frasia fleet was destroyed in no time, having failed to notice the enemy.
After this, the Frasian Navy had gathered to try to regain control of the sea, and the transport ships which somehow managed to transport supplies to the expeditionary force were sunk by Ramor’s fleet one after another.
By the time Frasia realized the identity of the enemy, the Frasian Navy no longer had enough ships to fight.