The morning in which the fates of two countries and that of another would be decided.
Malicorne, who had been standing atop the watchtower, took in a long, deep yawn, before hurriedly looking left and right about him. If an officer cadet was to be seen yawning like that by a deck officer, a cruel punishment would surely await… Malicorne’s body did well to remind him in the two days he had been here.
Malicorne was the sentry on duty.
The ringing of the morning bell… it should be 8 o’clock in the morning right now… his shift had finally ended! All that was left to do was to change shifts with the next group of officer cadets, then he could finally return to the cabin for an eight hour sleep, the belltower in the morning was cold as hell... Malicorne could only idle his time by as he waited for the next cadet to climb up the tower. And the person who climbed out of the tower opening was his upperclassman at the Academy of Magic – Styx.
Malicorne remembered how he had said he was going kill Bowood, but at the moment, nothing was more important to him than returning to his warm, cozy room and enjoying a nice warm cup of orchid tea.
Upon seeing each other, they both greeted and smiled to one another.
“Well, it looks like I’m gonna be freezing in this frozen wasteland, fat-boy.”
“But I still envy you, upperclassman, I mean, at least the sun is up and shining.”
“Do you still remember, Malicorne?”
“Remember what?”
“How I said I would take care of that Albion guy someday.”
“Of course I remember that.”
“I think it is best to proceed with it in the heat of battle.”
“I think so too.”
“Who knows how long it’ll be, before the fighting finally starts?”
In order to demonstrate his courage to the younger cadets, it was said that he almost couldn’t wait any longer. Malicorne looked up at the clouds absentmindedly… and drew in a sudden breath.
“What’s wrong, Malicorne?”
“…It doesn’t look like you need to wait any longer.”
“Eh?”
Styx turned and stared at where Malicorne was pointing, his face paling immediately.
“Enemy ship sighted!”
It was five past eight in the morning. The divisional command aboard the Varsenda, on which Saito and the rest were aboard, had just received reports of the enemy ship sightings.
“It was earlier than we had planned,” muttered General De Poitiers softly.
He had originally planned to make contact with the Albion fleet around ten o’clock.
“They're a bunch of impatient bastards,” commented one of the staff officers.
“What about the ‘Void’?”
“The spell had been decided upon last night. The plan will proceed accordingly.”
“What kind of spell is it?” General De Poitiers enquired in a low voice while looking through the battle plans. A staff officer leaned towards the General’s ear, and whispered to him the details of the spell Louise had reported.
“Interesting… It will be a triumph if it succeeds! Courier!”
A courier quickly ran over.
“Order ‘Void’ to deploy. Mission objective: ‘Dartanes,’ full operational freedom. 2nd Dragon Knight Squadron as escort. Repeat again!”
“‘Void’ deploy! Mission objective ‘Dartanes,’ full operational freedom! 2nd Dragon Knight Squadron as escort!”
“Good, now pass it on at once!”
The courier immediately headed towards the upper deck of the carrier where Saito and the rest were.
“With this, we can now head towards Rosais without worry.”
“Indeed.”
De Poitiers then handed down a command to the subordinates responsible for engaging the enemy fleet.
“Transmit to all battleship captains. Once engaged with the enemy, do not let a single ship near the ground army’s transport ships!”
Up in the upper bridge, Saito, in the pilot seat of the Zero Fighter, began running through the starting operations of the plane. Sitting in the rear seat, Louise had her eyes closed, concentrating her will.
Just last night, Louise, having found the spell to use, had reported directly to the high command.
Upon receiving her report, the high command had decided upon a plan of action, and drew up a battle plan accordingly. It was that battle plan which Saito currently held in his hands.
It was on this morning, that the battle plan would commence.
In the meantime, a deck officer, standing on the wings of the Zero Fighter, was trying to instruct Saito, pointing to a hand-drawn goatskin map he held in his hand.
“Didn’t I already tell you? I can’t read the writing of this world!”
“Look here at this map! Dartanes! It’s here! Anyway, all you need to do is just bring Master Void here! Leave everything else to Master Void, she’ll handle it!” The deck officer yelled at the top of his voice.
W-What ‘Master’ Void? Saito couldn’t comprehend. What kind of weird call sign was that? Just hearing it made him uncomfortable.
On that piece of goatskin was drawn a map of the entire continent of Albion. For someone like Saito who had never learned navigation of any sort, he was completely lost as to how he was going to navigate through the landmark-less cloud-filled sky. Compared to when he could use landmarks to find his way towards La Rochelle, this was a completely different story.
“The dragon knights will lead you. Just make sure you don’t lose them!” Remarked the deck officer, upon seeing Saito’s unease.
Okay, okay, I understand… Saito nodded repeatedly.
True, a wind dragon’s speed could even rival that of the Zero Fighter. The experience back when Wardes had chased him was still clear in his mind.
Suddenly -
Boom! Boom! A fierce pounding noise rang out. The noise came from behind.
Saito spun around and looked towards the sky.
At that instant, a squadron of battleships that looked completely different from that of their own appeared from the clouds in the distance, advancing rapidly towards their position.
The armada, numbering roughly sixty combat ships if the Varsenda was included, rapidly changed directions and began rising slowly, preparing to engage with the approaching enemy fleet. Of course, Saito was oblivious to the fact that Malicorne was aboard one of the battleships.
The order arrived at that moment.
“Deploy ‘Void’! Mission objective ‘Dartanes’! Full operational freedom! 2nd Dragon Knight Squadron shall act as escort!”
Deploy now? Isn’t too early? No… is it because of the enemy’s unexpected appearance that they want us to deploy so suddenly?
Saito shot a signal to a nearby magician, to help start up the plane.
However the magician, probably at a loss as to the starting procedures, just remained standing blankly. In order to start the plane, the propeller needed to be spun first…. But it looked like he was completely lost as to how he could get the propeller spinning. If Colbert were here, he would have understood what Saito meant immediately, and gone into action.
“Didn’t I already tell you!? This! You just need to spin this!”
“Huh? This? I don’t get what you are saying. Can you explain more clearly?”
As they were busy fiddling with the propeller, from the midst of the enemy fleet, three ships suddenly appeared, rapidly heading in their direction.
“A fire boat!” Someone had yelled out.
Saito turned and looked. The boats were all blazing with fire. Designed to be sent straight into an enemy fleet, these were pilotless craft packed to the brim with powerful explosives.
Before a response could be made, the ships had already shot their way to the front of the fleet. A ship near the Varsenda exploded.