In fact, this plan had been a collaborative work by Souma and Hakuya. Souma had proposed ideas to Hakuya based on weapons and tactics from his world, while Hakuya had formulated them into a plan that would catch the enemy by surprise. If anyone was nasty, it was both of them.
However, that mattered little to Carla at the moment.
The wyvern knight told her, “If they’ve got an anti-air repeating bolt thrower on board, that battleship is a little castle in its own right. This is dangerous.”
Hearing one of the wyvern knights under her analyze the situation, Carla clicked her tongue. “Damn…! What do we do?”
“Well… It may be like a little castle now, but it is still shaped like a battleship, so I suspect it may still have the same blind spots.”
“Where are a battleship’s blind spots?” Carla asked.
“The area between the water’s surface and the deck. A battleship has no means of attacking enemies lower than its deck. For the Albert, the area from the ground to its deck should be a blind spot for it. In short, if we’re going to attack that ship…”
“…we just have to fly in really low on the approach!” Carla said with glee, pleased to have found a good strategy.
Ordinarily, minimum altitude flight with wyverns was dangerous. It could result in crashing into the ground at any moment. However, they were a seasoned unit from the Air Force.
“You heard that!” Carla called. “All knights, fly at low altitude and approach the Albert. Move quickly to neutralize all weapons, including the main cannon and anti-air repeating bolt throwers!”
“Roger that, but only the weapons? Wouldn’t it be faster to crush the bridge?” one wyvern knight asked, but Carla shook her head silently in response.
“We believe Souma is on that battleship. If Souma is there, Liscia may be close at hand. If we attack the bridge and Liscia gets hurt, that will be unacceptable. Therefore, we just need to neutralize their weapons. Take Souma alive.”
Even as she gave those orders to her subordinates, Carla herself felt differently. Besides, if we kill Souma, I’m sure Liscia would be sad.
Carla had been watching from behind Castor while Souma had delivered his ultimatum. Of course she had seen everything, including Liscia cutting her hair.
Castor might have been moved by Liscia’s determination, but as her friend, and as a woman herself, Carla had been moved even more powerfully. Liscia had been so determined to live at Souma’s side that she had been able to cut off her beautiful hair without hesitation.
The engagement had been forced on her by her parents at first. That was why Carla had been so angry, and she had chosen to stay with her father when he’d opposed the king, saying she was going to save Liscia…However, after being shown that level of determination, she had no choice but to accept it. Liscia already loved Souma from the depths of her heart.
If I were really thinking of Liscia, I should have tried to persuade Father, Carla thought. Then, rather than opposing them, I should have served under them, I’m sure… Well, it’s a little late for regrets now.
How was she supposed to face Liscia now?
Carla shook her head, as if to shake herself free from those feelings, then bowed to the knights following her. “I know I’ll be putting you all through unnecessary trouble, but I’m counting on you.”
When Carla bowed, the men all pounded their chests once. “Leave it to us, My Lady.”
“We swear we’ll capture Souma for you!”
Hearing the men’s reassuring response, Carla nodded and raised her right hand. Then…
“Charge!”
…she lowered her hand, giving the order to charge once more.
All of the wyvern cavalry fell vertically, head first, like puppets with their strings cut. Then, they recovered mere instants before impacting with the ground and flew at minimum altitude, as if crawling along the surface. It was a dangerous flight path, but as a testament to the rigorous training they underwent daily, not one of the knights dropped out while accomplishing this feat.
With Carla at their head, the wyvern cavalry continued flying at minimum altitude, heading straight towards the Albert. As they had anticipated, there was no cannon fire or rain of bolts. Carla visually confirmed the presence of anti-air bolt throwers mounted on the sides of the Albert.
“Found them! All knights, proceed as planned to attack the enemy armaments! We don’t know where Souma is, so don’t hit any section of the ship that you don’t have to!”
“““Yes, ma’am.”””
“Here we go… Fire!”
As Carla gave the order, balls of fire erupted from the wyverns’ mouths. The fireballs impacted the weapons aboard the Albert one after another. The two main batteries at the fore and aft of the Albert exploded, and the bolt throwers burned. The difference in what exploded and what didn’t was decided by whether it was a gunpowder weapon or not.
With all of the weapons destroyed in an instant, the wyvern knight unit climbed upwards away from the Albert, as if riding the rising smoke.
Confident of her victory, Carla had her wyvern fly in a graceful circle. “Good! Now, storm the Albert! Take Souma into custody!”
“Yeahhhhhh!”
But she said nothing in return.
Among the fired up wyvern cavalry, Carla was alone in wearing a dubious expression.
…It’s strange. The Albert has secondary guns, but the only ones to fire on us were the two main batteries and the anti-air repeating bolt throwers. If they’d wanted to put up a curtain of fire, the more guns firing, the better, I would think. Maybe that battleship… doesn’t have the numbers for it?
As Carla was growing suspicious, the wyvern cavalry had already headed for the bridge of the Albert. Despite her doubts, Carla followed after them.
When Carla reached the Albert’s bridge, there wasn’t a person in sight. The bridge was empty.
It made sense that now, at this particular moment, she couldn’t see anyone, but there was no sign of anyone having been here recently at all. As Carla stood there dumbfounded, a wyvern knight ran in to give her his report.
“Reporting in! We are presently searching the inside of the Albert, but we have yet to find a single soldier, let alone Souma!”
“That’s absurd! Then who were we fighting up until now?!” she demanded.
She felt like the wool had been pulled over her eyes somehow. The ship lay vacant. The gunners were nowhere to be found. It was practically one of those ghost ships she had heard of. Did King Souma have some bizarre secret powers at his disposal?
As a cold chill began to creep up the wyvern knights’ backs, a new report came in.
“I have a report! We have recovered parts of what appears to be armor from around the destroyed main batteries and bolt throwers!”
“Armor? Were there dead bodies?”
“About that… inside the gloves we found, there were hands from a mannequin.”
“A mannequin?”
Mannequins had been found instead of gunners.
Then there was the premonition she had felt herself, that maybe the ship lacked numbers. When she considered all of that, Carla came to a conclusion.
“All knights, return to the castle on the double!”
“But we haven’t found Souma yet!”
The wyvern cavalry reacted to the now-frantic Carla with puzzlement.
Carla explained to the wyvern cavalry, her face filled with regret, “No… Souma probably isn’t aboard this ship. I don’t know what magic he used, but he was controlling the mannequins we found to have them attack us. The unmanned Albert was bait, and we fell for it hook, line, and sinker.”