It seemed like with Wind element spells and ropes across the deck, the Zero Fighter would be able to land. Pretty rough, he thought, but there was no other way.
Saito's right hand moved to throw up a hook to the ship. The hook wired up the Zero Fighter with the carrier, where it was fastened to.
Colbert who noticed the hook, was likely to have told to the crew of the Varsenda to stretch out ropes across the deck to help the Zero Fighter land.
They approached the Varsenda.
Then other hooks from the warship followed, fastening wings and tail. The flap was lowered.
Saito carefully approached from the rear, towards the ship.
Meanwhile, Louise didn't bat an eyelash for that sort of spectacle, and thought quietly.
Of course, at that time on the boat.
When she was pushed down by Saito…
How it would have ended, if neither her family, nor servants had spotted them, Louise thought.
“…”
This made her cheeks flush a deep red. She suddenly felt angry at Saito who, rocked in security, was handling the landing, and started to beat him.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“Why did you choose that place?! That place!”
Louise shouted.
“There’s no other place to land!”
And so, they both completely misunderstood each other.
As soon as Saito and Louise landed on the Varsenda and got off the Zero Fighter, they were greeted by the officer, who was accompanied by the guardians.
“Deck Officer, Kuryuuzurei.”
“Where are we heading now?”
Although he was asked, the officer guided them both without answering. Where could he be taking them? In Henrietta’s instructions only the name of the warship that they were to land on was written, nothing else. And the instructions of higher-up were always like this. Telling to one subordinate, they think that they already told all. A noble’s subordinate must lead a long and tough life, Saito thought. Henrietta did not appear to be an exception.
They are so confident, because that’s the way things are.
Through the narrow main-deck’s passage they were lead to a private two-man cabin. Although very small, it was still a private room. Within this cabin, there was an extremely small bed and table. Once Saito and Louise placed their luggage, they were urged by the officer to follow him again.
After going in zigzags through narrow passages of the warship, they finally stopped in front of a certain door.
When the officer knocked, there was an answer from the inside. The officer opened the door and let Saito and Louise in.
They both were greeted by generals sitting in a line. Golden mail-laces shined across their shoulders. They must be important commanders.
Dumbfounded, Louise and Saito took seats offered by the soldiers. Louise sat on the chair, and Saito after her.
The General in the most top seat, opened his mouth.
“Welcome to Albion Invasion Command Headquarters, Miss Void.”
Louise felt nervous. This general with a beard looked around 40 years old…
“Supreme Commander De Poitiers.”
Quickly, the general described his colleagues.
“This is Chief of Staff Wimpffen.”
A small man with a deep wrinkles sitting to the left of the General nodded.
“This is the commander of the Germania army, Marquis Handenburg.”
The General with a handlebar mustache that wore a steel helmet, nodded solemnly to Louise.
Apparently, this dragon mothership was also a general headquarters.
After that, the General introduced Louise to the staff and generals, gathered in the conference room.
“Now then, gentlemen. This is the trump card that our Majesty kept, I introduce you the ‘Void’ user.”
However, no one in the conference room even raised an eyebrow after those words. They just stared suspiciously at Louise and her familiar.
“In the battle of Tarbes, she was the one who gave the blow to Albion’s fleet.”
Only after De Poiters's words did the generals look with an interest at them.
Saito poked Louise.
“What?”
“…is it all right to be exposed like that?”
“If not, it would not be possible to cooperate with the army.”
It may be right, however… although Henrietta ordered Louise to keep silent, she herself revealed it with ease, he thought.
Though Henrietta kept on saying that Louise was important, somehow her actions contradicted that. Thoughts about the queen made Saito sad.
Then he remembered Henrietta’s tremble at that time. Impossible, he thought.
Anyway, he was completely sure about her.
The generals smiled to Louise. Fake smiles.
“You may think it is a hastily chosen headquarters. Sorry no. This ship ensures absolute security. You see, this warship which is specialized in carrying dragon knights is not packed with cannons. It can be troublesome if enemies aim at us.”
“Ha, haah…then why did you make such a warship into general headquarters?”
The whole room burst in laughter as Louise questioned in a very cute, confused voice.
“In normal ships there is no space for such conference rooms. They are stuffed with cannons.”
Indeed. For a flagship that controls a huge army, the ability to process information quickly is more necessary than offensive power.
“Enough with the chat. Let’s continue with the war council,” said a general of Germania. Smiles disappeared from the generals faces.
It was a tough war council.
Making 60,000 soldiers land on Albion was a secondary problem.
The main problem was how to deal with the powerful enemy air fleet. Even though during the battle at Tarbes 10 Albion ships-of-the-line along with the Lexington were destroyed, 40 ships-of-the-line remained. Although Tristain and Germania had 60 ships-of-the-line because it was a united fleet of two countries, executive confusion was to be expected. When you take into account that the Albion fleet was said to be superior to a fleet 1.5 times their strength, the potential difference between them was canceled.
Secondly, the selection of the landing point.
On Albion’s continent there were only two places where the large army of 60,000 soldiers could land all at once.
The capital city Londinium’s southern airbase Rosais, or the northern port - Dartanes.
Because of the port size, Rosais was preferable, however… aiming straight there, their large fleet would be discovered at once and that would give enemy the time to prepare a defense.
“Wasting soldiers in the assault would put the capture of Londinium at risk.”
The Chief of Staff calmly analyzed the forces and informed everyone. It should be kept silent. What kind of assault would that be with enemy resistance.
The allied forces needed a surprise attack.
60,000 soldiers wanted to land in Rosais without facing enemy resistance.
Thus they needed to deceive the large enemy army and draw their attention from the landing point at Rosais.
Simply put, the Tristain and Germania united army of 60,000… required a cunning strategy that would deceive the enemy into thinking that they would land in Dartanes.
That was the second problem.
“Can we hope for Miss Void’s cooperation in either of the two?”
The noble with a staff badge asked while watching Louise.
“Could you blow up the Albion fleet, the way we blew up the Lexington in Tarbes?”
Saito watched Louise. Louise turned around and shook her head.
“It is impossible…I don't have enough willpower stored to cast such strong 'Explosion'. I don’t know how many month’s or years would it take.”