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Book 12: Chapter 13: Banfield Territory Defense (8)
Cozmo, the leader of the pirate fleet, had a bitter look on his face.
It was Hampson who gave the order.
"The supply base has been hit by Banfield. But they're getting greedy and robbing us of our supplies. Hit Liam while you still can."
Cozmo spits at the order.
"I thought it was your policy not to fight Liam?"
Are you abandoning that policy? To such a question, Hampson answers immediately.
"If we don't, we'll run out of supplies first. If His Highness the Crown Prince hadn't brought in all that extra baggage, we would have a little more room."
By extra baggage, he meant the volunteer army.
Without the volunteer army, the conquering army could have fought a little longer.
They didn't have to push too hard to hit Liam.
"The number of ships led by Banfield is less than 30,000. We can beat him with the 60,000 ships you lead and the pirates who have joined up with us."
Cozmo was uneasy about the number.
"Don't make it sound so easy! He is a good fighter who can beat you by a factor of four. He may not be as good as Klaus, but if you're going to fight him, you're going to have to give him a fair fight!"
When asked to send reinforcements from their fleet, Hampson, perhaps expecting this, readily accepts.
" That's fine, but we can only send out 30,000 ships. If we cut back any more, we'll be in more danger."
Hearing the word "danger," Cozmo's eyes narrowed.
"You're being pushed to that point?"
Cozmo knew Tia was good, but he also recognized that compared to Liam and Klaus, she was within the realm of common sense.
But Hampson's reaction was strange.
"They are holding out against our onslaught. The truth is that they're sticking around longer than we expected."
Hampson's raised eyebrows made Cozmo suspicious.
(Do we do it more than we thought we would? I thought as long as I kept an eye on Liam and Klaus, the rest would be within the bounds of common sense.)
After crossing his arms and pondering for a few dozen seconds, Cozmo asked for a force to fight Liam.
"Not enough. We're short. We need 30,000 ships, plus Dustin. He's in your fleet, isn't he?"
Hampson is astonished.
"He ignores my orders, citing his right to independence. There's a saying that if you don't fight someone you can't beat, you're the strongest, but because of that, he's a sword saint. I'm impressed."
Although the words sound like praise, Hampson's attitude reveals his disappointment in Dustin.
Cozmo clicks his tongue.
"Even the last sword saint of the empire can't be counted on."
The fleet led by Hampson was attacking a planet defended by Tia.
The planet, one of the most developed in the Banfield family's territory, would store and manufacture large quantities of supplies for the war effort.
There would be enough reserves to keep a large fleet of three million ships supplied.
Hampson's plan was to drop them as fast as possible and move on to the relief of Tride.
He had intended to destroy each of them individually, but Cleo's arbitrary actions had drastically changed his plans.
"A mobile knight squadron, believed to be the enemy's elite, is inflicting heavy damage on the front lines!"
Hampson immediately issued an order at the operator's report.
"Send Dustin to the front."
Then another report comes in.
"Enemy mobile knight units have begun attacking our retreating allies!"
The war being waged here and there was a back-and-forth battle.
Hampson, who wanted to hit the elite troops, ordered Dustin to intercept them. However, the man himself opened a communication and complained.
"Sub-commander, I have confirmed the situation."
"Then the enemy's elite forces--"
"No, the first thing to do is to rescue the retreating allies. My mobile knight squadron will now go to the rescue of our friends."
Hampson shook his fist against the armrest as Dustin brazenly violated the order.
"Your job is to beat the enemy's elite forces. Let the other knights deal with the small fry!"
However, the Empire had given sword saints the right to be independent.
They were troops who could act on their own judgment when the time came, and they were out of the chain of command.
Using that as a shield, Dustin chose the enemies he could fight.
"I have the right of independence. I'll do what I think is necessary now."
Hampson was indignant when the communication was cut off unilaterally.
"You fake who only insists on the title of Sword Saint!"
Dustin, the leader of dozens of space battleships, is surrounded by his disciples in the hangar.
The Roman swordsmen were given state-of-the-art mobile knights built in the imperial arsenal.
These aircraft were built with technology produced in all the weapons factories and data gathered from all over the empire.
The Banfield family's mass-produced machines are also superior, but in terms of performance alone, Dustin and his team's mobile knights are superior.
Dustin tells his subordinates and disciples.
"Three imperial sword saints have been defeated. --and I am the only one left."
With all the sword saints defeated, he was the only one left.
Dustin was happy to hear this in front of his disciples.
"There is no need to be afraid of the One-Flash, except for Liam. I heard that they recreated One-Flash on a mobile knight, so what's the difference between that and a conventional weapon?"
Liam is the only one they need to fear.
The others, he thought, could be destroyed from a distance with artillery fire.
And on this battlefield, take out as many enemies as possible. Numbers are justice. No matter how many strong men are defeated, the mundanes focus on numbers. Defeat ten ordinary men rather than one strong man.
The disciples taught by Dustin do not dispute these words.
Those who would chant them have already been excommunicated.
Dustin heads for the cockpit of the mobile knight to launch himself.
(I, too, have become a sword saint and have become very pathetic. In the past, I honored myself by honing my skills and fighting with the best. However, it is only the two great sword arts that are valued. The mundanes cannot even comprehend which is better than the other.)
Once, as a swordsman, he had a will.
However, even though Dustin became a sword saint and fought and won against the deputy heads of the two great swordsmanship schools, the people of the empire did not recognize Roman swordsmanship.
Dustin, who believed that Roman swordsmanship was the most powerful, could not allow this to happen.
(Hampson, who used me like a good soldier, is also an enemy. He only praised me when I defeated an elite unit and defeated them. My reputation would be that of a defeated loser who was a sword saint.)
Dustin had his own ideas.
It was not out of line, and if Dustin had followed Hampson's orders, he would have been overworked.
The man Hampson did not value the title of sword saint.
He saw it as a mere pawn.
Dustin, sitting in the cockpit, asks to encounter a One-Flash swordsman - other than Liam - on the battlefield.
(Even though I'm focusing on numbers, I'd like to see a track record of taking down a One-Flash School swordsman. Their heads are worth more than taking down a hundred--or even a thousand--ordinary men.)
A planet with a supply base for the logging army.
I had them set up a formation around it, and I was having a conversation with Thomas over the comms.
I see an old man wiping his sweat with a handkerchief in front of me.
"Liam-sama, we have finished loading the supplies as you ordered."
"Thank you for your hard work. I'll send out an escort, so you get the hell out of the battlefield."
"Is it really OK with you? If the main fleet of the imperial army turns back, we will be fighting against millions of ships. No matter how many ships Liam-sama has, it would be impossible for him to fight against that number, wouldn't it?"
What disrespect you have for me! I wish I could say, but even I, as a matter of course, can't defeat a million enemies with less than 30,000 ships unless the conditions are right.
And I don't think I would even try.
In the first place, anyone who creates such a situation is a fool.
"You can't return, that's why I'm still here."
"What? But..."
I explain to Thomas, who is confused, in a voice that even those around me can hear.
"Cleo's a fool who made a mistake in judgment. He was in a good mood because he has more allies, and it was a mistake to attack my main planet. All he had to do was stick to his original plan."
When we hit the supply base, we captured a large number of Imperial generals and soldiers.
According to the information we got from them, Cleo chose to hit my home planet himself because of the unscheduled arrival of reinforcements.
"I would have turned them away immediately. I wouldn't want to carry any baggage when supplies are limited."
In the face of the overwhelming number of two million ships, Cleo made a mistake in judgment.
"So you think only a few will come to take this place back?"
"If we attack the main planet with all our might, we might have a chance. But do you think Cleo can take down the main planet without Klaus?"
"No."
It was a good decision to leave Klaus, who is the most reliable, on the main planet.
On the other hand, I would have had a certain amount of success with Klaus on the ranger, but I'm better suited for it.
Only I realized something here.
"It was wrong to call Cleo an idiot. He's the best of the best."
"Yes?"
Thomas tilts his head at me as he sees me calling a traitor the best of the best.
"Because he is, isn't he? He's been working for us this whole time. We should be grateful to them."
I don't thank them as purely as I do the guide, but an incompetent enemy is just as good an ally.
While I'm thanking the guide, I'll also thank Cleo for a few seconds.
I check the time and order Thomas to step back immediately.
"It's time to go. Thomas, you get out of here."
"Good luck, Liam-sama."
"Good luck? Wrong. --Let's hope the hunt goes well."
A few days after Thomas left.
Sitting in my seat on the bridge of Argos, I let out a sigh at the enemy who has finally appeared.
"A few days later than I expected. --Is this proof that Tia is doing her best?"
Elysia, who had been listening to my soliloquy, stands next to me and gives me a nervous yet dismayed look.
"The enemy fleet that appeared at short-range warp is a regular army of the empire, with a pirate fleet as its main force. We have confirmed that there are other groups of pirates as well."
"Pirates turned to their old comrades?"
"They're 120,000 strong, sir."
The bridge was becoming hectic with more than four times the number of enemies.
I got up from my seat, stretched out, and looked at the enemy fleet on the monitor.
"I'll give them credit for not running away and coming back to take back their base."
The one I wanted to defeat the most in this battle was the pirate fleet that had ravaged my territory.
I was determined to destroy them with my own hands.
"Now, let's have some fun."
First, let's start with the fleet.