Papaldia Empire, Imperial Oversight Army, Eastern Fleet
Admiral Poquetoire observed the eastern sea. The skies were clear, but the breeze over the ocean was dry and pleasant. Currently, they were about 100 km from the Kingdom of Fenn.
There was something on the horizon.
âSomething that looks like a ship has been spotted! Itâs approaching us!â
â?! Itâs huge⌠and I donât think itâs with FennâŚâ
A small mountain was moving through the water. Was it a ship? He wasnât sure what to think, but it was much larger than anything he had ever seen moving on the ocean.
âAll hands, prepare for battle!â
The huge, castle-like gray ship rapidly closed the distance. It was so fast!
â!!! Could it be⌠even faster than our ships?!â
The unknown ship came close and began sailing parallel to our fleet. It was all alone.
âAdmiral⌠what do we do?â
The 3rd foreign affairs department head Kyeos had ordered them to punish Fenn in front of all the visiting officers and thoroughly intimidate their countries. If there were any interference, get rid of it. He was absolutely certain that the giant gray ship neither belonged to an allied country of Papaldia nor to a private citizen. Considering it as an enemy, it was only a single ship, no matter how big it was, so it couldnât possibly be superior to the 22 ships in a superpowerâs fleet. He also only saw a single, humongous cannon equipped, whereas his fleet consisted mainly of 50-gun ships-of-the-line, with no ships having fewer than 30 guns, and there were even some 80-gun ships.
Failure did not seem possible.
Furthermore, the enemyâs single cannon reminded him of the Fenn navyâs flagship, which had a piece of shared technology from the civilized areas. This was the thing: the superpowers all used cannons with a range of 2 km, while all the other non-superpower countries in the civilized areas only had access to cannons with a range of up to 1 km, and explosive shells werenât available on the market, so both the power and range on Papaldian cannons were superior. If this was a technology share cannon, then it was completely inferior to the originals.
âŚAt least, that should have been the case, but⌠Poquetoire couldnât think of a country that could manufacture a cannon as abnormally large as that one. Regardless, the ship had clearly come from Fenn, so Admiral Poquetoire was determined to enact Papaldiaâs will and attack it. The enemy ship had come within 1.5 km of the fleet, and its main cannon was still pointed straight ahead.
âItâs completely within our range⌠the fools⌠Fire magic cannons!!!â
Smoke consumed the fleet.
The sound of cannons firing echoed over the sea. Still flush with confidence after obliterating Fennâs palace navy as easily as stealing candy from a baby, the 22 ships in the eastern fleet of the superpower Papaldian imperial oversight army threw all their might at the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forceâs guided missile destroyer Myoukou.
âReporting! All shots⌠missed the target.â
The trajectories of the cannon shells were quickly verified, and they confirmed that there were no hits. Since the coordinated broadside missed, there were gigantic splashes of water all over.
âThe enemy ship has retreated outside the range of our magic cannons.â\nFor something so big, its acceleration was monstrous, as evidenced by how fast the enemy ship separated from their fleet. After the first broadside missed, they decided to retreat out of range while the fleet was reloading.
âShit⌠itâs so fast!!! What the hell is that ship?!â Admiral Poquetoire scoffed in wonder.
He could see a number of lights blinking on the deck of the enemy ship; he wondered if they were trying to tell him something. However, they were already in the midst of attacking it. The fleet pursued the ship aggressively⌠but they couldnât catch up.
âWe are unable to approach within firing range of the enemy ship. Our distance is slowly growingâŚâ
Once the enemy was about 3.5 km away, it once again matched its speed and bearing with the fleetâs.
âTch, making fun of us⌠keep monitoring the enemy ship, set course for Fennâs capital, Amanoki!!! Itâs just one ship, they canât stop us!â
They couldnât catch up to it, but it still stuck to them like an obnoxious fly, so he decided to just ignore it. The lights on its deck blinked furiously⌠he ignored those too.
The giant cannon on the giant ship started to move.
âEnemy ship has fired!!!â
The shell hit right in front of the fleet, erupting into a giant pillar of water.
âWhat ridiculous power!!! And they can reach us from all the way out there?!â
The admiral, captains, shipâs officers, and all the crew were stunned at this display. That ship was faster, and it had a longer attack range; at this rate, theyâd simply eat outranged attacks and slowly crumble. However, department head Kyeosâs orders were absolute. To abandon the operation without fighting would hurt the dignity of the empire and be equivalent to rebellion. The entire fleet would be punished if they ran in front of the enemy. Poquetoire wouldnât abandon his duty to his country. He still had 22 ships. The fleet once again set course for the Myoukou.
The enemyâs cannon sounded.
The ship-of-the-line Paos, sailing at the front of the fleet, had part of the base of its primary mast blown away. That mast creaked loudly as it tipped over and toppled the shipâs other masts.
âShip-of-the-line Paos has lost its masts, it can no longer move!!!â
âWhat?! Only the masts were hit from that blast?! A-Are they possiblyâŚ!!!â
Leaving the incapacitated Paos behind, other ships continued to head towards the enemy ship.
That terrifying sound once again swept over the ocean. This time, the ship-of-the-line Galius had its masts destroyed.
âThis⌠this is preposterous!!!â\nCannons were very inaccurate weapons. To counteract that, 100-gun ships-of-the-line were invented. However, the enemy ship was targeting the swaying masts and actually hitting them! And their reloading speed was incredible!
There were waves on the open sea that caused both ally ships and enemy ships to shake. Shooting from an unstable platform all but guaranteed that long distances attacks were fruitless. A single degree of variance would cause enormous deviations in the actual landing points. But this enemy was spitting in the face of such an obvious fact.
The Mahmese lost its masts.
The Kummashroe lost its masts.
The attacks continued, a chain of impossible feats right right before their eyes. The Papaldian oversight army could do nothing but watch. They were hopelessly outmatched, and by only a single enemy ship. They wondered if they might be dreaming. Would they suddenly wake up in their beds? That was how nightmarish this situation was. The enemyâs unparalleled accuracy had already decimated about half of the fleetâs masts, and it continued to keep its distance.
ââŚThey donât want to sink us, do theyâŚâ murmured Admiral Poquetoire, after which he came to a decision. ââŚRetreat! Any seaworthy ships, withdraw while towing a crippled one. This operation has failedâŚ!â
They couldnât abandon their immobilized allies, and it was clear that, if this situation continued, there wouldnât be any ships that could sail by the end. But Admiral Poquetoire had also surmised that the enemyâs objective was not to kill or wound anyone, so he ordered the retreat.
Damn it⌠if only we had a dragon carrierâŚ
If they had air support from wyvern lords, that could have changed the entire situation. Admiral Poquetoire considered such things as they withdrew. His report for this battle⌠even if he submitted it accurately, no one would believe it.
The first naval battle between Japan and Papaldia ended with Japanâs complete victory. Papaldia suffered no injuries or casualties. It was the first naval battle in the entire history of the world that was settled without any deaths.
Kingdom of Fenn, capital city Amanoki
Letâs rewind time a bit.
After witnessing the JMSDFâs and Japan Coast Guardâs casual thrashing of the Papaldian wyvern lord squadron, all the military officers visiting from countries outside the civilized areas were in a state of awe.
âWhat⌠what an amazing magic ship!!!â
âTheyâre so powerful! What happened completely surpassed my expectations!â
âThose peerless wyvern lords were swatted like gnats!!! âŚWhat exactly are those ships?!â
âApparently they belong to an emerging country named JapanâŚâ
âCould it beâŚ? Are they descended from the ancient sorcerous empire?!â
Those officers were watching the sea from the coast. While they were terrified of the gray ships that were powerful beyond imagination, at the same time they also wondered if they could ally themselves with them. Perhaps⌠the country that owned those ships had power that even surpassed the Papaldia Empireâs. Since they attended Fennâs Military Festival, maybe they were on friendly terms with the Kingdom of Fenn. If their own countries became friendly with Fenn, and by extension the country that owned that monstrous flotilla, maybe they could get out from under Papaldiaâs thumb. Freed from having to condemn their own citizens to slavery and gifting their own land away. If onlyâŚ
When the Sword King Shihan rejected Papaldiaâs demand to cede land to them, they were all sure that Fenn would be razed to the ground. However, now that they learned of Fennâs new ally, they could understand why he had done that.
After what would later be known as the Naval Battle of Fenn, Japan would quickly establish diplomatic relations with numerous countries.
\nThe officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had returned as scheduled to meet with the department head only to once again be obstructed by the clerk.
âWhy is that?! We had an appointment!!!â
âA rather complicated situation has recently arisen⌠I am very sorry, but we are currently not meeting with emerging countries outside the civilized areas. Our schedule is not open. Please contact us again in another month, or later.â
Unknown to them, Japan itself had caused this sudden increase in workload, leading to a lack of personnel to meet with them, so the officials once again despondently returned home.
After Fennâs Military Festival, Japan established diplomatic relations one after another with countries outside the civilized areas. Up until now, they had to leave Japan to explore and apply to negotiate for diplomatic ties, but now, after the Naval Battle of Fenn, countries came to them one after another on old-fashioned boats. Although the Japan Coast Guard was now inundated with work, the number of countries that established diplomatic relations with Japan increased to 22, and they had begun trading in earnest.
Papaldia Empire, 3rd foreign affairs department
âWhat did you say?! You arenât sending us any slaves this year?!â the foreign affairs official shouted at the ambassador of the Topa Kingdom (outside the civilized area).
âWe have decided to stop enslaving our citizens to send to you,â the ambassador returned while breaking into a cold sweat.
âHmph! In that case, your country alone will be suspended from the technology share arrangement!!!â
The empire was very slowly sharing its obsolete technology with countries under its care outside the civilized areas. This allowed those countries to slowly increase their national power⌠but since all the other countries in the area also grew at the same rate, this didnât upset the balance in power. If one country was excluded, there would be a difference in the speed of development between countries, which would lead to that country slowly declining in national power instead.
The technology share was only one of the empireâs diplomatic cards. If they wouldnât listen, he would next threaten to stop the export of tools and nails and other essential items until they gave in⌠or, that was how it should have gone.
The Topan ambassador let out a disgusted chuckle. ââTechnology,â is it⌠Even still, we refuse to send any slaves to the empire. Please end our participation in the technology share. Will this be satisfactory? We have⌠already established ties with the Japan.â
It would have been previously unthinkable for Topa to act this way. The ambassador snorted with a smirk, ending the conversation.
Foreign affairs department, dining area
It was now break time, so the officials chatted while they ate.
âLately, the barbarian countries have been rather defiant, havenât they?â
âItâs true, over the past month or so, theyâve undergone a remarkable change in attitude.â
âAah, before, they were always so scared, getting overwhelmed by our requirements. But yesterday, one was all âwe have now allied with Japan,â acting all haughty! Even though theyâre just the stupid Scios Kingdom!â
â!! I just heard something like that from the ambassador of Topa. Topa, of all places, telling us they donât need our technology! Their reason was also that they have ties with that âJapan.â Have you ever heard of âJapan?ââ
The clerk who managed the reception window, Raita, yelled out in surprise. Everyone in the room turned to look at him. After that, he had to prepare a bunch of reports for all the officials.