Menvil laughed loudly. As if a certain nerve in his mind had snapped suddenly. He continued to laugh,
“Ahh, I really hope I can see that guy once more! I want to see him and thank him! I don't regret anything! Be it giving up my title as a noble or becoming a psycho killer… I regret nothing! But I'm unable to thank that leader. This is the only thing that pains me! I want to see him, I really want to see him! This scar screams out like that every night!”
Menvil, as if mad, continued that insane laughter for quite some time.
Chapter Six: Sortie
The end of the year, first week of Wynn's moon, Man's day of the week became a day that was imprinted in the history of Halkeginia.
It was the next day of Void, when the two moons that hung in the sky overlapped. During this day, when the Albion continent was at its closest point to Halkeginia, a large fleet of Tristain and Germania ships carrying a united army of 60,000 soldiers sailed off from La Rochelle for the Albion invasion.
Tristain and Germania together had 500 ships. Only sixty of them were battleships while the rest carried soldiers and supplies.
Queen Henrietta and Cardinal Mazarini were in La Rochelle port, standing on top of the World Tree pier, watching the fleet sail off.
All the ships going up into the sky at the same time surely was an amazing sight to behold.
“It's as if they are seeds carried away by the wind,” Cardinal Mazarini said, sharing his thoughts.
“Seeds that will repaint the continent.”
“There’s no seed that can repaint a white country, blue.”
The flag of Tristain’s royal family was a white lily on a blue background.
“It’s possible that we will be defeated,” Mazarini muttered.
“I do not intend to be defeated.”
“General De Poitiers is a great commander who is both bold and careful. He is likely to succeed.” Henrietta knew that calling him a great commander was a bit of a stretch, but there were no other generals with more talent than him. Generals who surpassed him existed only in history books.
“I wonder why we have to fight though?”
Mazarini muttered, in a barely audible voice.
“Why would you ask such a thing?”
“We could have blockaded Albion to make them starve. With careful planning, it could be a very successful idea.”
“We will march.”
Henrietta muttered without changing her expression.
“Don’t say that. Courage is not necessary to settle it once and for all. Well, maybe I'm just getting old.”
Mazarini patted his whitening beard.
“If we were going to lose, would you use the ‘Void’ in this war, Your Majesty?”
It was a highly secret matter to discuss. Only a few people knew that Louise was a Void user. Henrietta, the Cardinal… and a few royal generals.
“I should be burned... with pleasure I would burn as a retribution for my sins.”
Henrietta muttered silently, staring into the emptiness.
“Calm down. Your Majesty won't go there alone. Hopefully my old bones are good enough for that.”
Henrietta entrusted generals with knowledge of the Void only as the trump card.
After hearing about Louise’s Void, at first, General De Poitiers did not even try to believe in it. But it was not impossible either. Because Void was considered a legend, he could not believe in its existence.
However, after being reminded about the military results in Tarbes, with much effort, the general believed in it.
Obtaining the legendary element of Void, redoubled his courage and he promised Henrietta a swift victory.
Henrietta, to ensure the victory in the first battle, gave him permission to control the Void.
Henrietta sighed over her own sinfulness.
This war… against country, people.
It was nothing more than letting one's personal grievance out on them.
The war was only a means to calm down lover's enmity.
How many humans did I send away to death for this?
It even included her childhood and best friend, too.
In such war, there is no victory or defeat, it cannot make one’s crimes disappear, Henrietta thought.
Despite knowing this, I still declare the patriotism for the sailing off troops, I will burn in hell for this.
A trickle of blood ran down the edge of her lips as Henrietta bit them, screaming out,
“Viva Tristain!”
The sounds of the queen’s cheers sounded in the sky.
Officers lined up on the upper deck, saluted Henrietta, who was seeing them off, and shouted following the queen,
“Viva Tristain! Viva Henrietta!”
These shouts, accompanied with a chorus of the rest of 60,000 men that joined in, roared in the sky.
“Viva Tristain! Viva Henrietta!”
The chest-piercing repetitive cheers only intensified Henrietta’s awareness of her crime…
At the same time, in the Academy of Magic…
To use Fire by himself peacefully, Colbert finally reached the “power” at last. The power of heat… That is to say, the power to convert heat into movement somehow.
Though steam based mechanisms made up for it in some measure, it wasn’t enough for Colbert, who wanted to upgrade it into the Zero Fighter’s engine “power”.
Colbert concentrated on the analysis of this “Enjin”.
Though he wanted to assemble something close to it by trial and error… It was impossible to learn how to assemble an internal combustion Enjin of equal accuracy.
First of all, metallurgy technologies were primitive in Halkeginia.
The iron that composed the Enjin could not be manufactured. Even with the square-class spell “Alchemy” it would be difficult to create such advanced manufactured iron. A person’s magic technique mixes with impurities anyway.
Secondly, the processing technology.
To assemble a high quality Enjin, you would need to make a lot of identical parts. Considering the technology of Halkeginia, it was nearly impossible.
In Halkeginia, the concept of an entirely identical thing doesn't exist.
For instance, even among guns, which are mostly made from advanced craft goods, there still aren’t two completely identical ones. Bullets and the form of a gun appear identical, but the details are different. Even parts are not really compatible.
Even if Colbert tried to make the Zero Fighter’s machine gun’s bullets, he knew that it was impossible. Though one can create a brass frame, it would still have too many identical details for Alchemy to deal with. Although it was hard to create brass frames, the production of the liquid “gasoline” was an entirely different matter.
Thus Colbert finished “New Liquid Container” putting the technologies to use.
In front of the laboratory in the Academy of Magic, Colbert, who with much effort finished obtaining all the equipment for the Zero Fighter, with a deep sigh, watched his single-handed work.
During half of a year, though the new weapon was finished, he still wanted to accomplish more wonderful technologies, but his research results were settled there.
Seeing Saito, who showed up in front of the laboratory, Colbert spread his hands.
“Ooh, Saito-kun, are you leaving?”
Saito had just finished preparing for the journey ahead. He carried goggles, which were Siesta's grandfather's keepsake, on his neck. Derflinger was tied on his back and a leather pouch attached to his waist. Various items were placed in there.
“Yes,” Saito nodded.
“Very well. Will you head directly to the ship? Can you land this thing on the ship safely?”
This morning, the fleet had set sail for Albion.