Ship number 43 of the 'Queen's Fleet' was an intelligence ship that specialized in scouting for enemies.
The nun stationed there, Sister Agatha, exhaled as she stood at the front end of the deck. There were small tables placed on both ends of the ship, and there were ice-made documents on them. The thin ice boards imitated ancient goatskin parchments, and contained all sorts of information, like maps, sea charts, and ship information.
On one of them,
An alarm sounded from the ice document that showed a sea chart of the nearby areas of the Adriatic Sea. Below the indicators of the 'Queen's Fleet' that looked like International Chess pieces, there were many more new chess pieces that were quickly approaching the fleet.
"BISHOP BIAGIO!!"
"I see it. Give me the details."
After the nun shouted, a voice reverberated through the air in response.
"Ships coming in from the south coast of Venezia on the Adriatic Sea, about 30 to 40! Speed…extremely fast! 50 seconds till they reach our fleet!!"
The distance from her to where the ships appeared was about 5km; the speed was about 360km per hour. However, there was a basic difference between land speed and sea speed, because the resistance of air and sea were different.
Basically, this speed was impossible.
Even for a speedboat made by the science side, the maximum was only 90km per hour.
To reach 360km per hour, a lot of horsepower was required. If the force wasn't appropriate, the ship might end up being ripped by the sea. But this 'enemy' had done the impossible.
"Can we sink it?"
"The 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea' has deployed ship numbers 25 to 38; they're at a position where they can hit them with the cannons. Before those ships hit us, if we can switch the positions of the ships, it will prevent the enemy from escaping."
"Hurry up and take action. Their target should be the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea'; we can't let them escape."
"Roger that!!"
Agatha said as she passes the command to all the ships and to aim. Two new documents appeared on the table beside her, indicating the positioning of the 'Queen's Fleet' and the firing trajectory of the cannons.
They were about 4 to 5 km away from the ships.
"THEY'LL REACH OUR FLEET IN 50 SECONDS!! SINK THEM FIRST!!"
As she shouted this, the vibrations shook her eardrums.
The 'Queen's Fleet' fired numerous cannons. Agatha summoned some more ice documents. On the documents, there were quite a few water pillars on the night sea, indicating that ships were being sunk left and right.
But the ship figures didn't stop. The other boats used the sinking boats as a platform to jump over the water and head forward.
(Using the front few ships as a shield…?)
Agatha couldn't help but suspect. Even so, she couldn't tell whether there was any special armor or defensive spell. The enemy ships that were directly sunk didn't look like they intended to dodge. Even if more than 10 ships were sunk, the enemy hadn't done anything to avoid them.
The distance between both of them would be closed up soon.
The distance was a few hundred meters, yet the enemy hadn't fired a single cannon.
(…Wait a second.)
Agatha reexamined the enemy ships on the ice document.
She suddenly froze. The ships indicated didn't have any cannons.
"If so…EVERYONE GET INTO DEFENSE MODE! THE ENEMY'S TARGET IS—"
Just as Agatha gave the order,
The fast approaching ships weren't stopping, the enemy ships pierced through the hulls of the outer ships of the 'Queen's Fleet'. Not only that, the inside of the wooden boats started to glow, and create large explosions. It was like the entire ship was a bomb.
The explosions rang in her ears.
The sea started to shake, and Agatha leaned on the ship's rudder as she shouted,
"THEY'RE FIREBOATS—UNMANNED NAVAL SHIPS THAT SELF-DESTRUCT!!"
Hearing the explosions, Tatemiya silently closed his eyes.
"Fireboats were invented before torpedoes were. At first, they were just movable weapons on the sea. Normally, they're little ships that look just like boats. At first, when the English Navy fought against the invincible Navy, they sent real large ships that were filled with gunpowder to the enemy's territory."
Kamijou said in shock,
"Then, you plan to sneak in when the sea's in a mess? What a crude plan."
"Sister Agatha."
"It hurts…yes…I'm here!"
Hearing one explosion after another, Agatha responded to Biagio's call.
"If the enemy's aim is to prevent the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea' from activating, I guess that the enemy won't just attack from the outside. There must be something — hurry up and search for the enemy."
Agatha eyes stared at the ice documents on the table. Due to the explosions, ripples and faults formed on the sea charts and maps, so it was hard to determine.
(If the fireboats aren't the real targets…they should be in another fleet. However…)
She changed the scale: 5km, 10km, 20km, she checked them all, but she didn't find any ship that matched the requirements. There were three large civilian jets; it shouldn't be one of them.
Agatha intended to increase the scale, only for her hand to stop.
(…What if they're not 'on' the sea?)
The numerous ice boards disappeared. What replaced them were multiple layers of ice documents stacked on each other. The ice block that appeared on the table had the length and width of the documents. What they indicated wasn't the horizontal length and width, but the vertical depth.
In other words, it was meant to search for enemies under the sea.
"I found it! 80m South of the 'Queen's Fleet', 40m deep. One huge object is spotted—it's the ship from earlier!!"
"We've been discovered…"
Tatemiya suddenly looked up.
As if responding to his actions, the Amakusa members operating the ship were giving reports.
"We have confirmed the enemy ships' cannons. Estimated trajectory is -30 degrees. They're obviously aiming into the sea."
"There's some movement on the south side of the enemy's fleet. They seem to be making a formation against sudden attacks!"
In a cannon fight, though it was not easy to get a gauge on the enemy's situation, if they were found out, it was too late. Naval warfare wasn't like air combat, where one could move about easily. It was almost impossible to use speed to dodge or shake away from the enemy's attack.
Thus, the basis of naval warfare was to find a place to attack without being fired back at.
This tabletop combat had already started before the cannons were fired.
It was expected if the enemy didn't have any reaction, but if there was a reaction, it meant failure. This was a mind battle full of silence.
Thus,
"Numerous lasers are locked in on the ship!"
"The coordinates are responding. It's faster than we expected! If this continues…!!"
"This is the worst situation…"
Tatemiya said in a low irritated voice.
"Everyone, brace yourself!! Beware of the enemy's fire! If this ship is hit by it—"
Before he could finish, explosions covered all the noise.
"A confirmed hit on the ship! The enemy's now moving extremely slowly!!"
"Very good."
Hearing Agatha's words, Biagio was somewhat relaxed.
"How can the same trick work the third time? We have prepared some underwater cannons as well."
What he prepared were cannons that when fired, would cause the surrounding seawater to freeze. With this, the ship that was surrounded by the thick layers of ice would be unable to move. As ice had buoyancy, even if they didn't do anything, the ship would float to the surface together with the ice. After that, they just needed to use ordinary cannon fire to actually destroy the enemy.
"There's sixty seconds till the ship completely floats. Let's take care of the remaining fireboats in the meantime—"
"Sister Agatha! We have an emergency!!"
There was a voice other than Agatha's. Another nun's voice.
"The enemy's forces have gone onto ship number 29! From the weapons and the spells used, it's the Amakusa from before!!"
What!? Agatha couldn't help but doubt her ears.
She turned to look at the documents on the table. An unmanned ship had collided with ship number 29…looking closely, the ship wasn't damaged. Normally, if it had self-destructed, there would be a large hole on the ship…
If so…
"They prepared a boat that they didn't intend to blow up, and the main fleet got on that boat, mixed in with the other ship…that underwater ship was actually another decoy…!?"
Kamijou Touma got off the wooden boat onto the ice ship. Following him, Index, Orsola, Lucia, Angelene, Tatemiya and the Amakusa members jumped off of the boat.
"Forget about trying to control all the ships! No matter what, we can't win on numbers! Just beat the core of the enemy!"
"Flagship…where's the 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea'?"
Kamijou looked around. Several hundred meters away, there was a ship that was a lot bigger than the other ships. However, there were more than ten ships at the middle.
"I'll make a bridge from ship to ship! Anyway, you guys just go on ahead—"
Tatemiya's voice overlapped with another.
It was an audio broadcast of a female voice.
"All personnel on number 29, 32 and 34, please retreat! If you can't make it, jump into the water! We'll remake these ships after we sink them!!"
"Damn it."
Tatemiya cursed.
"They intend to blow up the ships again!? HURRY UP!!"
Tatemiya tossed the paper bundles around. The paper bundles immediately expanded, creating wooden arched bridges that were linked to the ice ships.
But before they could get on it, the cannon fire flew all over the place. Before the cannons struck, the impact from the vibrations alone was enough to cause Kamijou to almost tumble onto the floor.
"Ugh!?"
He didn't even have time to open his mouth. The huge ship was being blown apart like flying dirt. The cracking ship walls sunk, creating large water pillars.
The water landed onto the deck.
The large pillar that he couldn't grab hold of with both hands snapped on being hit by the cannon.
"INDEX!"
Index was all curled up as Kamijou grabbed her hand and ran over to the bottom of the fallen pillar. The fallen pillar fell aside, and the broken part just so happened to form a bridge linking to the next ship.
Without thinking, Kamijou jumped forward.
With Tatemiya leading, the Amakusa members got onto the ship they made, and moved onto other ships.
Kamijou grabbed Index's hand and immediately scrambled over to the neighboring ship. Looking back, Orsola, who was holding the Lotus Wand, was moving up this pillar and onto this ship. Being hit by the second wave of cannon fire, the ice ship gradually started to tilt, and the pillar acting as a bridge was dragged into the sea.
"Touma, where're the rest?"
Though most of the Amakusa had used the wooden bridges, one could see a few of them jumping into the sea. Kamijou couldn't help but grit his teeth, but Orsola, who was beside him, said,
"They have spells to create bridges and ladders. Because they know they can win, they would choose to jump into the water."
This suggestion brought him a little hope, and he could only believe in this. Besides, the deck was about 10m above the sea. Even if Kamijou reached his hand out, he couldn't reach it.
"Damn it! Let's go and destroy that 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea'!!"
Again, Kamijou wanted to head to the flagship of the 'Queen's Fleet'.
At this moment, some new footsteps blocked his entry.
Several nuns were standing on the deck as if it was a stage. Like Lucia and Angelene, they had yellow sleeves and skirts to go with their black-based nun's habits. They appeared to be manual workers on this ship, and they seemed to be of Agnese's Forces.
They should know why Kamijou and company were here, but without saying anything, they flashed their weapons, which ranged from swords, axes, staffs, to things that didn't even look like weapons, like Bibles and torches.
There were only nuns here.
The people known as caretakers should be on the ship as well, but he couldn't see them. Maybe they had left the fighting to the labor workers while they hid. But the tactic of blasting the ships together with the enemy wasn't really an effective tactic.
"…You should know what's happening to Agnese, right? DON'T YOU WANT TO HELP US!?"
Kamijou yelled, but one of the nuns shook her head.
"I'm sorry, but we can't have any feelings in our work."
She said, as a representative for everyone.
"Those are definitely not your true thoughts."
Orsola said in a heavy tone,
"Maybe they themselves haven't noticed it, but they were people who recognized Agnese's ability and followed her. Because they believe the leader will definitely overcome these problems, they would do this. They probably wish that someone would stop them."
"…"
Just because they couldn't express it in words, they were calling for help in a different way. Right now, they were in a situation when they had to go against what they were thinking and destroy each other. Thinking about this, Kamijou couldn't help but clench his fist.
As if responding to his actions, several nuns stepped forward.
The distance to the enemy human wall was about 7m.
At this moment,
Something small flew over Kamijou and the nuns' heads.
Looking up, flying 10m in the air was a carriage wheel.
"Sister Luc—!?"
Before the enemy could shout her name.
BAM!! The wheel exploded. The large number of wooden shrapnel avoided Kamijou, Index and Orsola, following a magical trajectory as it attacked downwards. This could be considered a rain of destruction. The nuns tried to use their weapons and spells to defend themselves, but the entire group was shaken up.
After that.
"This way!!"
Looking in the direction where the shout came from, it was Lucia and Angelene, who had come onto this ship from another way. On the edge of the deck behind them, there was a bridge linking to the next ship.
"Number 41, retreat immediately!! If you can't make it, jump into the sea!! This ship will be like the previous ones: we'll remake this ship after we sink it!!"
The surrounding atmosphere was tense. Though Kamijou didn't know the specific number, the enemy should be aiming here.
"HURRY UP!!"
Lucia shouted for Kamijou and company to get past the bridge. At this moment, the nuns went into action.
They were not escaping, but preventing Kamijou's group from escaping.
Whoosh!! Numerous nuns surrounded Kamijou's group like a single organism.
"These …IDIOTS! IF YOU'RE SO DARING, WHY WON'T YOU SAVE SISTER AGNESE!!?"
Lucia raised her hand, and the scattered pieces of wood gathered back into the shape of a wheel. After grabbing the wheel, she rushed at the nuns.
But before a battle could begin, another explosion reverberated.
"AH!?"
Kamijou shouted as his eardrums vibrated violently. With the sound of lightning, the neighboring ships were firing cannons. The cannons likely hit the hull, as the entire deck shook violently.
The second wave of attack was coming over.
This time, it seemed like they intended to directly destroy the deck, as loud cannon explosions rose up with a cracking down.
The cannons were aimed at Kamijou's group, and the black hole looked like a monster glaring over.
At this moment,
"Come out, one of the twelve disciples, tax collector and lowly servant of the eradicating magician!"
The one shouting was Angelene.
The four bags of gold that she had immediately responded to her call.
Red, blue, yellow, green. The four heavy bags with wings smash into the nearby pillar like a metal punch. This was to concentrate the attack at the base of the pillar to smash it. The huge pillar severely tilted.
After that,
The large number of cannons hit the falling pillar. Just like that, the ice blocking the cannons exploded and Kamijou's group was saved by Angelene.
Because of the cannons, the pillar that had become a shield exploded into pieces on falling towards the deck.
The fragments of ice descended. Though they were fragments, each of them were larger than a refrigerator.
"!!"
Lucia raised the large wheel and immediately detonated it. The large amount of pieces of wood hit the ice fragments, but was unable to deflect all the ice pieces.
The ice pieces that hadn't been hit flew towards the Roman Catholic nuns.
Flying towards the group of nuns who were formerly called the Agnese's Forces.
Seeing this situation, Angelene, however, ran towards the group of enemy nuns.
"WAIT…WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?"
Lucia shouted in surprise.
Angelene ignored the surprised nun and gathered the four bags of gold. She then tried to hit the huge ice blocks that were falling.
The cloth of the bags of gold broke and the coins scattered all over the place.
As the bags had smashed the pillar a moment ago, they were at their limits.
"STAY BACK, SISTER ANGELENE!!"
Lucia shouted at Angelene, who had lost her weapon. She looked around, and could see that boy called Kamijou Touma running near Angelene. Maybe he wanted to push her aside.
However,
Angelene wasn't backing away.
Not only did she not back away, she took a step forward. She bit her teeth and leaped toward the nearest nun. The nun, who had been rooted to the spot, flew backwards, landing on the deck.
After confirming the nun's safety, as Angelene prepared to get down,
The ice block that was as large as a refrigerator landed beside her.
It landed forcefully on the deck and shattered into a rain of fragments that were as large as a rocks.
BOOM!!
With the blunt sound, her petite body danced in the air.
"SIS…"
Lucia screamed as if she had just seen an unbelievable thing.
"SISTER ANGELENE!!"
Seeing Lucia frantically ran towards the fallen petite nun, the surrounding nuns seemed to waver in their actions. However, they seemed to suddenly remember their stand, arming themselves again.
At this moment,
"Really, I just had to see this boring thing again."
Tatemiya and the Amakusa members moved from another ship to this ship through a wooden bridge, forming a human wall between Angelene and the nuns.
He pulled out some paper bundles from his pocket and tossed a bundle to Lucia.
"This is an escape submerging ship. Though it isn't the best facility, it beats staying in enemy territory. Don't just use one. Scatter them among the fireboats to confuse the search, the chances of you being hit will decrease a lot!!"
Lucia ran over and put the paper bundle into her sleeve. Though Tatemiya said this, the Agnese's Force's fighting and mental capabilities meant that they weren't going let her use the paper bundles so easily. Even if she created a ship out of panic, the concentrated fire would sink the ship.
But there was no time to care about all these now.
Lucia inclined herself over in front of Angelene. Seeing Lucia grab her hand that had gone limp, Angelene smiled,
"…Sister Lucia…your…hand…is…trembling."
"OF COURSE!!"
"Really…hate…it. I…can't…die…here…"
Angelene pronounced each word as she said,
"…Didn't…I…say…that…we'll…go…back…with…everyone? Sister…Agnese… us…and the…people…fighting…over…there…the true…meaning…of…every…one."
The neighboring cannons made noise as they took aim.
The third wave of attack was prepared.
Even so, Lucia didn't look away from Angelene.
"So…I…definitely…can't die. If…you…can…promise…me…this… I…will…fulfill…it…to…the end. So, I…beg…you. Sister…Lucia. Don't…differen…tiate…what…enemies…and…comrades. Can…you…simply…fight…together…to protect…everyone…?"
Lucia silently gritted her teeth.
The neighboring escort ship fired, the cannon shot aimed at her.
But Lucia's body was not blown to bits.
A right hand blocked this extremely powerful cannon shot.
The seemingly ordinary boy reached his right hand over, as if he wanted to block this ice shot that was shot through magic, before using the strength of his five fingers to crush it.
"HURRY UP AND PROMISE HER, LUCIA!!"
He said,
"IF YOU CAN HELP HER, NO MATTER WHAT KIND OF NONSENSICAL ILLUSION IT IS, I'LL SMASH IT!! SO PROMISE HER! SAY SOMETHING! MAKE HER FEEL PRIVILEGED TO BE HERE! GIVE HER SOMETHING TO BELIEVE THAT IT'S WORTH WORKING SO HARD!!"
"Alright."
Lucia said.
She stared at Angelene's face, and silently said,
"I'll protect everyone. So you…have to fight on."
Hearing her voice, the petite nun revealed a smile.
The ice ship being hit by the cannons shook about violently. With Kamijou's right hand, it was impossible to block all these shots. It was not safe here. In fact, nowhere was safe.
Lucia carried Angelene, who was on the floor, with both hands and stood up. Now she couldn't use her wheel, but she didn't seem to mind. Right now, she had only one thing on her mind, and that was to fight together even with the disadvantages.
In order to chase after Lucia, the nuns again stepped forward.
At this moment, the Amakusa and Kamijou's group formed a wall, blocking them.
They were both staring at the same place.
Past a few ships, the flagship 'Queen of the Adriatic Sea'.