Chapter 3:
Patrol Fleet
THE BODY OF THE MAN who had tried to assassinate Liam and
instead ended up dying in agony was now in the morgue. Having just
arrived, the Guide stared down at his body in disgust.
"Cursing Liam to death wasn't a bad idea, exactly..."
If the cadet had succeeded in his assassination, the Guide would
have been a little disappointed for not having a hand in it, but he still
would have been joyful enough. Unfortunately, the plan had failed. The
ever-alert Kukuri had found out about the man's poisoning plot and
poisoned Zargon first, before he could enact it.
"You do have a connection with Liam, though, so thankfully I'm
able to feed off your suffering anyway."
The Guide placed his hand on the man's face, and the corpse's
twisted expression became much more relaxed and peaceful. Due to his
strong connection with Liam, the Guide had found to his frustration that he
was no longer able to efficiently extract negative emotions from anyone
who lacked a connection to Liam...but he was able to absorb them extra-
efficiently from those who were related to him. Though Liam hadn't
known this man personally, Zargon's strong desire to kill Liam was
enough to allow the Guide to enjoy his residual emotions as if they were a
fine wine.
"How delectable! Because of that potion, he also contains the
negative emotions of an entire destroyed planet. Well, child, you were a
fool, but you have provided a great deal of sustenance for me."
The Guide's mouth stretched into a crescent moon smile as the
strength flowed into him.
"Ah, yes... I've gained back a lot of my power. Now, to prepare
one...no, two or three more moves that will cast Liam into the pit of
despair."
Liam was the first person who had ever caused him to suffer this
much, so the Guide had vowed not to cut any corners in obtaining his
revenge. He had sworn in his heart to treat Liam to every variety of hell
this reality had to offer. Up until now, he'd let down his guard too much,
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and been taken by surprise a few times. He was well aware that his defeats
and the suffering they brought were because he had underestimated Liam.
"I'll gather Liam's enemies carefully...and then, when all my pieces
are in place, I'll set them into motion!"
The Guide vanished from the morgue, loud laughter echoing behind
him.
***
At the Imperial palace, the prime minister fumed as he read the
military academy's report. All his subordinates in the room were on edge
too.
"Remind me what the punishment is for handling starbane without
authorization?" he said to them.
Actually, the prime minister was well aware of the answer to his
own question. The problem was that the offending party had been a
member of the Berkeley Family, so it would be difficult to serve them the
punishment they deserved. Inevitably, there would have to be some sort of
compromise.
"I'd say dissolution of the family, but House Berkeley will no doubt
just sacrifice one of their lesser houses and that will be the end of that."
House Berkeley presented themselves as a coalition of small
baronies, but in reality, they were one big house on the scale of a
dukedom. Since outwardly they were nothing but a bunch of barons, they
could get out of any punishment simply by pinning everything on one
baron and cutting him off like a lizard's tail. Nothing would ever point to
the true head of House Berkeley, Casimilo himself.
How had House Berkeley been able to achieve this advantageous
arrangement? For one thing, they provided a stable supply of elixirs to the
Empire. They'd used elixirs to gain favor with the previous emperor and
had maintained that relationship ever since by offering their aid whenever
it was called for. Because of this, their crimes had been buried several
times in the past. By the time people caught on to their true nature, they'd
become too big to deal with, and this was why they were one of the current
prime minister's greatest headaches now.
If only His Majesty would sever his connection to them.
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At this point, cutting ties with House Berkeley would lead to
significant problems within the Empire, which was an indication of just
how much influence they had.
"The punishment won't even touch Casimilo," he sighed.
"No, sir. And in any case, the Empire still depends on him to
provide elixirs."
"How frustrating."
One of the reasons the prime minister had such high hopes for Liam
was that Liam had the potential to overturn this state of affairs on his own,
without the Empire itself having to seem involved. If the Empire itself
made a move, the problem could easily be solved as well, but it was too
large, and they could only make their move slowly. It was also difficult to
stop the Empire once it started to move, so it was difficult to get it started
in the first place.
"Prime minister," one of his aides spoke up, reporting about another
matter. "Now that our stock of rare metals is replenished, there are those in
the military calling for reinforcements of our lost fleets."
"As always, the military asks the impossible."
The Empire wasn't the only intergalactic nation. Despite the
incredible distances involved, they had commerce and conflict with
neighboring nations. Since the Empire's total territory was so vast, the
Imperial Army's ships had their work cut out for them patrolling its
borders. Additionally, they sometimes even crossed those borders to
invade and steal territory from other nations. Whatever the cause, they
were always at war somewhere. Because of all this, the military basically
ran through its supplies as soon as they were replenished.
Rare metals were frequently required for crucial mechanisms in both
ships and weapons. More common metals might be used as substitutes, but
with a noticeable drop in performance, so the demand was high for the
proper materials. Thus, when the Imperial Army had learned about the
great amount of rare metals Liam had sold the Empire, they clamored to
get what they needed.
The prime minister looked over the reports from recent battles at
various points along their borders. "We're being pushed back in several
places..."
Too many battles were being waged for them all to command his
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attention. The most he could concern himself with, at any given time, was
whether they were winning or losing overall.
One of the aides pointed out a serious issue with the military. "There
are a couple of reasons for their problems, but a big one is that resources
aren't being utilized efficiently. We've increased the number of our patrol
fleets unnecessarily."
There was no denying the importance of the patrol fleets that
defended the Empire's territory, but a number of these had been given over
to spoiled noble brats. Some of these nobles had graduated from the
military academy but didn't want to serve under anyone else, so they had
been appointed commanders of their own patrol fleets. At least military
higher-ups had deliberately given several of these nobles fleets that
consisted of aged equipment, to take the brats down a peg. In any case, as
a result of this indulgence, there were more patrol fleets than were
necessary. Some of them had even defected and become pirates, and the
military was requesting those fleets be dealt with, but a lack of budget,
personnel, and other resources prevented the outlaws from being dealt with
properly.
The prime minister said, "All frustrating problems, and every one of
them requires money. Too much money."
It wasn't as simple as just dissolving the unnecessary fleets. The
equipment and personnel would then have to be reallocated. Ships would
need to be updated, and in these substandard fleets the crews were
inadequately trained. Soldiers who hadn't benefitted from regular training
would have to be completely reeducated before they could be deployed
somewhere else. In theory, the prime minister was capable of tackling this
problem, but in a nation of this size, there were so many other matters that
demanded his attention on a day-to-day basis and kept him busy.
"Well, what should we do about this?" he muttered.
The prime minister had endless issues to solve, as always.
***
I was now in my third year at the military academy. Things had
gotten a little tougher, but I still found myself living a pretty easy life.
Things were definitely less difficult than when I had trained in the Way of
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the Flash, and in fact, my biggest complaint was that I didn't have the time
to properly practice my sword skills. I did what I could to make sure I
didn't get rusty, but it didn't feel like enough. Since most of our time, from
waking to sleeping, was planned out for us, all I could do was train by
myself for a bit in the evening...but even that was difficult.
Currently, I found myself engaged in pointless chatter with my
roommate Wallace as we awaited our assigned sleep time. Normally I did
this just to kill a little time, but tonight I actually found the subject rather
interesting. Wallace was telling me about his half-brother, who was
serving in the military.
"He commands a patrol fleet?"
"That's right. Just like me, he left the palace, but he decided to live
as a soldier. A regular fleet wouldn't accept him though, so he got
assigned to a patrol fleet. Before he knew it, he was made commander of
that fleet, and he's kind of stressed about it."
It seemed strange to me that a regular fleet wouldn't accept a royal,
but then of course there were different ranks of royals, and therefore many
like Wallace who had no hope of succeeding to the throne. Wallace
explained that these royals in need of something to do were often more
trouble than they were worth to take on, so most regular fleets wouldn't do
it. Even if they had no real authority, these misfits were still royalty, so
they couldn't be treated rudely, and if they happened to die in battle their
superior officers would be subjected to harsh investigations. Thus,
regardless of their actual ability, they were typically deemed too much of a
hassle to work with.
Listening to Wallace describe the situation, it didn't sound so
terrible to me being assigned to a patrol detail. Sure, serving in a regular
military fleet could lead to a higher rank, but there were always the
hazards of war to consider. The Algrand Empire's scale was so great that it
might not feel like it, but at this very moment they were waging war out
there somewhere in the universe. When battles occurred, regular fleets
fought them, and death always accompanied battles. Compared with the
duties of regular fleets, things sounded carefree for patrol fleets. Sure,
there was no room for promotion in a patrol feel, but Wallace said you
could pretty much do whatever you wanted with your patrol, especially in
the case of someone like his brother, a royal.
"Doesn't sound like a bad deal to command a patrol fleet," I said,
but Wallace gave me a look.
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"Problem is, some of the fleets are made up of garbage. My brother
Cedric was handed a fleet of thirty ancient ships. He says it's pretty
miserable patrolling out there in empty space."
"That's because they'll be in trouble if he dies, right? He should just
take it easy. If he doesn't have a job to do, he should just enjoy himself."
Wallace shook his head and sighed at my advice. "How are you
supposed to relax in a cramped, uncomfortable ship? He's all stressed
about why he's even out there, not to mention all his soldiers are rotten to
the core."
It seems that patrol fleets were where many soldiers ended up when
they were demoted or had failed elsewhere. In an office environment, I
supposed it would be like a do-nothing position where fairly useless
people could coast until retirement. From what I'd heard, Wallace's
brother had told him that more and more of these pointless patrol fleets
had been created, and the Empire was full of them. It sounded pretty
inefficient to me, but the scale of this intergalactic empire was massive,
and there were far too many other things to worry about to bother
addressing this relatively insignificant issue.
Still, even if you did want to fix it, what could you do with a bunch
of shoddy patrol fleets?
"I guess I'm not one who should be complaining about frivolous
spending, but I'm still not sure I get why so many needless fleets would be
deployed."
Staring up at the ceiling, Wallace continued filling me in on the
situation. "Well, there are a number of reasons for it. There's a lot of
rivalry in the military, right? Sometimes it's about higher-ups wanting to
send potential competition away before they can get a leg up on them. And
when it comes to demoting problem people, the point is to put them
someplace where they'll be really miserable. Then, of course, there are
troublesome nobles that it's best to ship off far away too."
"Nobles?"
"Well, you know how there are a lot of nobles who use their
position to try to do whatever they want, right? In the military, that can
lead to many deaths, so they just send these nobles off to command patrol
fleets. That's why there are more and more of them. Reorganizing the
whole patrol fleet situation would just be a massive project now, so they
just kind of leave things as they are."
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So in the end, Wallace's brother had been relegated to a patrol fleet
because he was considered one of those troublesome nobles.
I asked, "It costs money to maintain these unnecessary fleets,
though, doesn't it?"
"Well, they pretty much just resupply them every so often and
otherwise leave them to themselves. Also, it's not like they don't serve any
purpose whatsoever. They're good for additional visibility, as a deterrent.
It wouldn't be good if pirate bases were established in places where there
wasn't any patrolling."
I saw that various factors were responsible for maintaining this
supremely wasteful state of affairs. I couldn't say I was too fond of
frivolous spending like this. But then again, the more I mulled it over, the
more I started to think that maybe this situation wasn't so bad.
"Interesting," I murmured. "I'm curious now."
"Curious? Well, I'm sure you're gonna end up in the regular service,
so I don't think you'll really find out much more about the patrols."
"I'm not interested in the regular army."
Just like Wallace assumed, I'd already secretly received several
offers from regular army fleets. There were different types of regular fleets
too. You could be stationed on the border or out in the boonies. There were
always the three individual fleets defending the Capital Planet, these being
the elite Imperial Guard. I'd actually received an offer from them as well,
but as I had confessed to Wallace, I wasn't interested.
Why was I receiving different treatment than Cedric? Well, my
financial power, obviously. The regular army wanted connections to
powerful nobles. There was plenty in it for them in terms of donations and
resources supplied by noble families. I mean, they wanted me so bad, they
were sending field officers to me with promises of how well they'd treat
me if I came and joined their fleets.
However, I just didn't like being ordered around. What would be
perfect for me was a patrol fleet I could do whatever I wanted with.
"I've made up my mind, Wallace. I'm gonna get me a patrol fleet!"
Just as I was feeling motivated, Wallace tried to throw cold water on
my enthusiasm. "Are you stupid?"
"Why do you say that?"
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"Weren't you listening to me? My brother complains to me that his
soul is dying at his current post! You'd have to be an idiot to volunteer for
a position like that! Plus, the fleets are all made up of ancient tech. The
living conditions are horrible, and you'd have to spend four years at the
very least in an assignment like that!"
I knew very well that the reason Wallace was getting so
impassioned was because I was his patron, and his assignment would have
to correspond to mine. Meaning, he was against the idea because he would
have to suffer.
Man, I'm looking after this guy 'cause I thought I could make a
royal my lackey, but I just can't shake the feeling that he's nothing more
than dead weight.
"You don't want to do this, Liam!"
"Oh, but I do. I've made up my mind. And..."
Wallace had no sense of vision. If a rich guy like me was assigned
to a patrol fleet, all I had to do was invest in my position to make it a really
great setup.
"I'll get myself a new ship, like my very own luxury liner, so we'll
be able to enjoy our time out there on our pointless job."
"The military would never pay for that!"
"That's why I will."
"Huh?"
"I'll use my own money to buy something real state-of-the-art."
"But...if you're the only one in a ship like that, the rest of your fleet
will resent you. You don't want to deal with that kind of backlash, do
you?"
True, it was certainly a problem if your own troops hated you. You
might end up having people firing at you not just from the front, but from
the back too. It could prove dangerous acting like a two-bit villain who
wanted to be the only one enjoying the good life. That wasn't me—I was a
true evil lord!
"Not a problem. I'll just fill the fleet with them."
"Th-the whole fleet?"
"That's right. No one will complain if the whole fleet is state-of-the-
art luxury liners, right?"
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"I-I mean, probably not. With brand-new ships, though, wouldn't
the whole fleet be in training mode right from the start of your
assignment? How would that work out?"
"That is a problem..."
There was nothing more frightening than using military equipment
you weren't familiar with. If we got dragged into a battle unprepared, we
couldn't just use that unfamiliarity as an excuse for failure. That was why
an adequate training period was necessary anytime new equipment was
procured. For a moment, I thought I'd have to scrap the plan, but then an
idea came to me. If it would be too late to start training after I'd already
begun my assignment, then I could just get everything ready well
beforehand.
"I'll start setting things up now, then. I'm rich, after all. What's to
stop me from doing so?"
"What? You're really going through with this?"
"Of course I am. Tia will be graduating from the academy next year.
I'll make preparing my assignment her first job."
As a truly rich person, I wasn't going to just donate money to get the
assignment I wanted... I was going to create a whole job for myself! I'd
soon start pressuring the military to accept my patrol fleet post while
having my own fleet prepared. What an evil lord-like thing to do! It made
my heart soar that even the military was powerless against the strength of
my money.
"You know," Wallace said, "there have been all kinds of nobles,
Liam, but you might be one of a kind."
"A first in the Empire, eh? I like that. Anyway, I'll go give Tia her
orders."
***
In the communications room, Tia spoke with her former employer,
the prime minister.
"The count truly is unique," the prime minister said. "There have
been nobles who prepared their own fleets and mobile knights before, but
no one has ever said they'd prepare their own assignment."
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On the communicator's screen, the prime minister couldn't hide his
surprise, but there was also amusement in his expression. Gauging his
reaction to be positive, Tia was encouraged to go on with her request.
"Well, his offer isn't a bad one, is it? Will you grant your
permission, Mr. Prime Minister?"
The prime minister on the screen nodded even as he pointed out the
problems with the plan.
"Well, there is the problem of an army fleet being under the count's
total control... But there are the costs of resupplying an excessive number
of patrol fleets—are you sure House Banfield would really cover all those
expenses for the count's fleet?"
"Lord Liam has directed me to prepare a fleet suitable to his
purposes, as well as devise a budget to maintain his patrol in the field.
There would be no problems in that area."
It was true that Liam had ordered her to gather a "suitable" fleet, but
as Tia practically worshiped him, her interpretation of suitable was "on the
level of a regular army fleet or higher." She genuinely felt that anything
less wouldn't be good enough for Liam.
It can't be something Lord Liam would merely be willing to accept.
I really need to surprise him if I'm going to make him see that I'm more
competent than that fossil woman.
Tia was quite enthusiastic about this project, especially because of
her rivalry with Marie. Her budget was plenty big enough, so she planned
to have unnecessary patrol fleets recalled from the field and merge them
into a force on the level of a regular army fleet. That was what she sought
the prime minister's approval for, since she knew the military leadership
likely wouldn't approve of it, even if she explained the financial benefit
the Empire would see from providing those ships to Liam. Hoping to sway
the prime minister and taking advantage of his familiarity with her and the
fact that he was trying to deal with this very issue, Tia had known she had
to speak with him directly.
He said, "I do have some conditions. If the count were to leave the
military, he would have to allow the Empire to take over control of the
fleet. Also, we would need to provide a nominal fleet commander, for the
public eye."
"What do you mean? You don't think Lord Liam's good enough to
command?"
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"He's too young, and so are you. Even if he's officially appointed to
that role, he simply doesn't have the experience to be viewed as a
commander. We wouldn't hear the end of it from the military if we force
his promotion. That's why our commander will be public-facing, but the
count would be the one who was actually in charge of the fleet."
So, Liam would provide the fleet, and even manage it, but all of its
achievements would go to the Empire. Tia wasn't happy with these
conditions, but she accepted them in order to carry out Liam's orders. In
truth, even she knew that what Liam was proposing was absurd and that
she wouldn't be able to negotiate beyond a certain point.
We have a lot of costs to bear for insufficient rewards, but this is
probably the best deal we can get.
"Understood, sir. I shall inform Lord Liam."
"It was a wonderful suggestion. Tell the count he'll be helping solve
two of the Empire's big problems."
The call ended and Tia psyched herself up.
"I need to put together a fleet that's truly worthy of Lord Liam. In
two years, I'll gather up these wasteful patrols, and their personnel will
need retraining. I have to get the new fleet ready too—everything has to be
ready by the time Lord Liam is officially assigned to his post."
Tia was a person who was quick to show her flaws, but her strengths
were still very impressive and the real deal.
"A fleet good enough for Lord Liam...and I'll be there, serving him
at his side!"
Tia pressed her hands to her cheeks, an entranced look on her face.
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***
Meanwhile, House Berkeley was making its own moves.
"Dammit!"
Casimilo's worries were only growing with each new report he
received. None of his strategies had produced fruit during his years-long
economic battle with Liam. The reason was simple: neither side had run
out of money to throw at the other.
"What is he? What is that stupid brat?!"
Casimilo had elixir-producing planetary development devices at his
disposal, and yet Liam still kept up with him financially. He'd even heard
rumors that Liam was throwing money at some kind of military project,
proving that he had plenty of money to throw around even while
continuing this feud with House Berkeley.
"How many elixirs are we supposed to produce to keep from falling
behind?"
The elixirs that were the source of House Berkeley's finances were
produced using the planetary development devices, and so by now they
had destroyed countless planets in order to obtain these potions. House
Berkeley sold the elixirs for vast sums of money, but also provided them to
the Empire in return for political influence. If anyone got in Casimilo's
way, he eliminated them by force. He had built the Berkeley Family into
one of the most powerful houses in the Empire.
Yet here he was now, struggling to remain on equal footing with
Liam.
"How can we not squash a single little kid? Dammit! If we keep
going at it like this, we'll win eventually...but we'll have lost so much in
order to do it!"
His intention had been to completely crush House Banfield
financially, but since Liam was proving a far more tenacious foe than he
had anticipated, he decided to change tactics.
"We're done playing nice. We've gotta smash this kid before he gets
any older."
Liam was still young, and from Casimilo's point of view, full of
potential. He and Casimilo had different lifespans still ahead of them, and
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if Liam was able to gain an adult's experience, Casimilo was sure Liam
would become his worst nightmare. Could he count on his young sons to
keep up with Liam and beat him? Quickly concluding that he couldn't,
Casimilo immediately contacted them.
"What is it, Dad?" asked the first son who appeared on his screen.
"Get in touch with the army. We need to get some specialists
together to formulate a battle plan against Liam. We're going to war."
"War?! You're rushing into things, Dad!"
"Just shut up and do it! Bring me soldiers who can win against
House Banfield. I don't care who they are—if they can beat that brat,
accept anyone. Let them know we'll treat them well."
At some point, Casimilo had started to actually fear Liam, and this
emotion had attracted someone to watch over him. The Guide presently
stood beside the man, nodding in satisfaction.
Having made his way all the way here after hearing about House
Berkeley's feud with Liam, the Guide applauded Casimilo.
"Wonderful. You're right to have judged Liam a threat."
The Guide felt that Casimilo was just his type of villain...and liked
that he had more military power than Liam to boot. In addition to his over
one hundred thousand ships, Casimilo was allied with pirates and other
corrupt nobles. Through these associations, he had hundreds of thousands
of ships at his disposal. Though Liam was expanding his forces, he didn't
even have fifty thousand ships at his disposal. The Guide knew that Liam
was satisfied with his current roster of thirty thousand ships in his fleet. It
was proof that he was getting cocky after all of his victories.
The Guide chuckled sinisterly, imagining Liam's future defeat.
"You keep that guard down, Liam. Oh, you're definitely strong, but
you're not invincible."
Casimilo had great military power and he also had many allies. On
the other hand, Liam had just a slightly above average number of high-
quality ships. He had some allies of his own, but nowhere near as many,
and he couldn't muster them as quickly as Casimilo could. The Guide was
sure that his chance to finally ruin Liam was right before his eyes.
"Casimilo, you can do this. I'll support you with everything I have."
Black smoke emerged from the Guide, reaching out to coil around
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Casimilo's body. As he watched this, the Guide spread his arms wide.
"All sorts of people who are eager to take down Liam will soon
gather to you. The Empire's villains will join forces to destroy Liam, and
you will lead them and make them your power!"
The Guide had worked various manipulations so that Liam's
numerous enemies would be drawn to Casimilo. With all of the boss' new
allies, the gap between his and Liam's military might would just continue
to widen. Up against a sufficient number of enemies, even Liam's high-
quality troops would be overwhelmed. The Guide indulged himself,
imagining Liam's misery when he met his terrible defeat.
"I've got other seeds I've been waiting to sprout too. I don't know if
Yasushi can be nudged to join in, but what about that woman?"
There was a woman who had sworn revenge against Liam—Eulisia
Morisille. She was a former lieutenant of the Third Weapons Factory who
had returned to the military for retraining in the special forces. In her heart,
Eulisia harbored a grudge against Liam.
"I'll make sure she's at Liam's side one day, just as she wants. It'd
be enjoyable to see Liam get backstabbed by her too, after all."
A situation Liam wouldn't be able to escape, no matter how much
he struggled, was slowly brewing. Watching it all come together, the
Guide was absolutely euphoric.
"I feel it. I can feel it! I sense everything closing in on him!"
A great army of foes had begun to gather before Liam.
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