Chapter 45: I see, so there are bombs in the sea!

The commander of the Deken Navy was a former pirate—a seasoned sailor who had weathered countless storms.

After being captured by the military, his navigation skills earned him a recruitment offer.

“Looks like about four warships have set sail from Saripa’s port.”

“Oh? So they had naval combat capabilities after all.”

This commander had a genius-like instinct for reading the sea breeze.

By observing factors like wave speed, direction, temperature, and weather, he could gauge the sea’s temperament.

It was said that his ship could maneuver across the ocean with unmatched fluidity.

“Perfect. We’ll use them as target practice. Sink them.”

“Aye aye, sir!”

For the Saripa invasion, he had been entrusted with command of roughly two hundred warships.

Rather than pinching pennies and sending a half-baked force, Prince Jalpha believed it was safer to overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers to minimize casualties.

And so, what could only be described as an excessive force was deployed.

“They are proper warships, right? Not just fishing boats or merchant vessels?”

“Indeed, they seem to be legitimate warships. A small nation trying to get clever, no doubt.”

The Deken Navy’s cutting-edge fleet consisted of approximately 120 warships.

Roughly 50 troop transport ships carried infantry for land combat.

About 30 cargo ships were loaded with abundant food and weapons.

Together, it was a massive fleet nearing two hundred vessels.

“Oi, what’s that?”

“...I wonder what it is?”

Facing this grand fleet, the Saripa Navy fielded only four newly constructed ships.

Upon hearing the report, the commander snorted.

“The Saripa ships appear to be advancing in a single-file line.”

“Just as I thought, a bunch of amateurs.”

Juugi aligned the four warships in a single column, charting a course across the Deken fleet’s path.

Seeing this Saripa formation, the Deken navy marines burst out laughing.

Later generations would call this a line-ahead formation, but to the soldiers of this era, it was incomprehensible.

After all, this was an age when warships mounted their main cannons on the bow and stern.

“At this rate, they’ll be showing us their soft bellies.”

“Marching straight into death... those Saripa folk sure are brave.”

Juugi’s warships had their cannons mounted on the sides—on the broadsides.

In other words, this was a textbook formation to direct their firepower toward the enemy.

But the Deken forces, oblivious to this fact, couldn’t help but ridicule them.

“We’ll be within engagement range in about an hour.”

“Alright, prepare for battle! Let’s teach these chicks what real naval combat is!”

Slowly, the two fleets closed in on each other.

The Deken Navy pointed their bows forward, while the Saripa ships exposed their sides.

They dismissed this Saripa maneuver as nothing more than amateurish foolishness.

“Alright, prepare the shells. Also get the light assault boats ready—”

It was only a few minutes later that the Deken Navy noticed something was off.

Right after the order to prepare for battle, with combat imminent.

“What the hell!?”

“Impact! We’ve been hit!!”

Even though they were still out of artillery range.

The Saripa ships’ broadsides suddenly erupted with flames, and with a deafening roar, one of the Deken warships was sunk.

“...Huh?”

“Looks like we’ve been... fired upon by something.”

An ultra-long-range bombardment that far exceeded the Deken fleet’s maximum firing range.

At first, the Deken Navy didn’t even consider it could be an attack from Saripa.

“Friendly fire!? A traitor among us!?”

“Identify the ship that fired just now!”

The Deken Navy commander instinctively assumed it was either a case of friendly fire or betrayal.

At that time, the standard maximum range for naval artillery was about 2,000 meters.

But that 2,000 meters was only the extreme range—barely within reach.

Effective range for accurate targeting was around 300 meters at best, in the hands of an expert gunner.

It wasn’t uncommon to fire only when within 100 meters of a target.

“...From the direction of the impact, it appears to have come from the Saripa fleet.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! They’re still out of range!”

“Maybe the Saripa fleet just fired blindly without aiming...”

But at this point, the two fleets were easily more than 3,000 meters apart.

Which meant the Deken Navy was sunk from beyond standard naval artillery range.

Engaging in a firefight under these conditions was downright absurd.

“Why are their cannon shells reaching us from this distance!?”

“They must have gone desperate and stuffed extra gunpowder into their charges. Of course, that’ll wreck their cannons in no time if they keep it up.”

“...What a sneaky little trick.”

Even after realizing the bombardment came from the Saripa fleet, they brushed it off as beginner’s luck.

Surely, it was just a random shot—there was no way they were aiming properly.

The Saripa ships must have fired wildly, and by sheer misfortune, managed to hit the Deken Navy.

“To think we’d get sunk by the likes of Saripa… Prince Jalpha is going to have our heads.”

“Sir, the enemy appears to be preparing for another volley.”

“Let them. Close in… and finish them off for good.”

The Deken commander had already written off Saripa as a desperate foe.

A cornered rat will bite the cat, as the saying goes. The commander scowled in irritation.

“A fluke doesn’t happen twice.”

...Whether or not his muttering had even finished—

A second bombardment erupted from the Saripa fleet.

“…Huh?”

────This time, three Deken warships shuddered violently amidst explosive roars.

“Another hit!”

“Damn it, get the wounded out of there, fast!”

The Deken Navy’s state-of-the-art warships were taking on water, sinking rapidly.

Panicked marines rushed to board escape boats.

“Don’t tell me… they’re actually aiming their shots?”

“Impossible, not at this range!”

“But hitting three out of four shots—this doesn’t make sense!”

Both the commander and his subordinates were in utter confusion.

There was simply no way to perform precision bombardment from such a distance.

“...No, look closely.”

Peering through his spyglass at the Saripa ships, the commander finally spotted something strange.

For one, the cannon blasts had sounded unnervingly overlapping since earlier.

And the Saripa ships had kept their sides constantly facing them.

“Those Saripa warships… aren’t those cannons mounted on the broadsides?”

“What!? How are they not capsizing with that setup!?”

“Wait… there’s way too many gunports on those things!”

The standard design for warships was two main cannons—one at the bow and one at the stern. That was the common sense of this world.

Furthermore, cannonballs were typically inconsistent—depending on the craftsmanship, they could be perfectly round or slightly oval, leading to unstable trajectories.

Which meant, even at ideal range, cannon fire was bound to stray wildly off target…

“Enemy preparing for a third volley, sir!”

“Fire back! Forget about aiming, just shoot!”

“Yes, sir!”

Juugi had outfitted his fleet with something called rifled cannons.

These didn’t use traditional spherical cannonballs, but elongated, bullet-like shells.

What’s more, the cannon barrels were engraved with spiral grooves, causing the shells to spin and fly straight with improved accuracy.

Drawing inspiration from turbine mechanisms, Juugi had realized that spinning, elongated shells would vastly outperform the old designs.

“There’s too many cannons! What are those ships!?”

“I don’t have anything like that in my data!”

Juugi’s ships each carried eight cannons on a single side.

This meant they were unleashing as much firepower as a thirty-two-ship fleet.

“Our shots still can’t reach them!?”

“They’re way too far, sir, no way we can hit anything!”

“…Damn it, what the hell are those new ships?”

It was at this moment the Deken commander finally understood the true threat he was facing.

There was a hopeless gap between their naval artillery capabilities.

"The enemy apparently has good artillery. But if we board them, it won't be a problem! Launch the small boats and dodge the cannon fire as you advance!"

"Understood."

"Board the Saripa ship! Capture it and take it for ourselves!"

The commander, realizing the disadvantage in an artillery battle, attempted to close the distance using small boats.

The Deken Navy was battle-hardened. If they could just get close, there was no way they'd lose.

"Don't be afraid! If you fall into the sea, we'll pull you out!"

"Board them and kill every last one of them!!"

There would be casualties, of course—but with sheer numbers, they could storm the Saripa ship.

Under that judgment, the Deken marines followed orders and charged fearlessly toward the Saripa warship.

"...Huh?"

But just as those brave soldiers advanced—

The hull of the leading small boat suddenly exploded with a deafening boom.

"What just happened!?"

"Hey, there's something in the water!"

Upon closer look, something like the silhouette of a fish was rushing toward them from beneath the waves.

It skimmed just under the surface of the water as it closed in—

"Explosion! Another explosion!"

"Shit, we're capsizing! The shockwave flipped us—damn it all!"

"I get it now—there are bombs in the water!"

The moment it touched the small boat, it burst into a violent spray of seawater.

Juugi had already identified the steam warships' greatest weakness: speed.

Heavy steamships were slower than the swift small boats. If boarded, they’d stand no chance.

So he knew they needed weapons to stop the boats from getting close.

"There are bombs scattered all over the place!"

"We can’t get close like this!"

What Juugi developed was a weapon that was halfway between a torpedo and a naval mine.

Powered by lightning-based magical tools, these underwater bombs moved like torpedoes beneath the sea.

At the very start of the battle, he had scattered them throughout the area.

"Don’t stop—keep moving! They’re locking onto us!"

"We move and we explode, damn it all!"

"My boat sank! Let me on yours, I’m begging you!"

At first, they moved like torpedoes, homing in underwater on enemy ships.

But when their magical energy ran out, they stopped and floated to the surface like drifting naval mines.

They were far more effective at sinking ships than aiming cannon fire at the small boats.

"What... is this?"

The storm of cannon fire from the Saripa ships showed no signs of stopping.

The Deken warships that charged in were systematically sunk by the water mines.

"We’ve lost over thirty ships!"

"We can’t take in any more survivors from the sunken boats!"

"What the hell is going on!?"

The Deken Navy was feared worldwide as one of the most elite.

They excelled in handling sailing ships, maneuvering freely across the seas with masterful control.

With cool precision in positioning, they had sunk one enemy ship after another.

"What kind of battle is this!?"

Those proud Deken elites—

Were now being utterly annihilated, unable to do anything against just four Saripa warships.

"Hey. How many troops did we invade Saripa with?"

"...Roughly a hundred thousand."

Each ship carried an average of five hundred soldiers.

The total Deken naval force reached one hundred thousand.

"And how seasoned are these soldiers?"

"They’ve spent decades on the sea since birth."

Most Deken naval soldiers were former pirates or fishermen.

They were born for naval warfare—trained to a level unmatched anywhere in the world.

"And what about me, the commander leading them?"

"...The undefeated naval genius—Deken’s greatest admiral."

The Deken commander was famed as the world's greatest admiral.

He had fought in over thirty naval battles without ever suffering a single defeat.

"Then why the hell is this happening!?"

The Deken navy had launched an invasion of Saripa with its most elite forces.

And yet—

---

"Our odds aren’t looking great, huh."

It’s said that steam engines completely changed naval tactics.

They allowed people to control ships of a size previously unthinkable.

While inferior to sailing ships in terms of maneuverability, steamships had the advantage in armor, firepower, and range.

And with that range came an overwhelming advantage—the ability to attack from beyond the enemy's reach.

"Juugi-sama, we landed three hits this time."

"Hmm… Still not good enough."

"The waves seem to throw off our aim."

Juugi’s steamships were equipped with eight large naval cannons apiece.

Those cannons were likely generations ahead of anything the Deken military had.

"Sigh… Looks like I’ve still got a long way to go. After talking big to Lady Lululu, this is just embarrassing."

"I’d say you’ve achieved more than enough, Master Juugi."

Even for Juugi, this result fell far below his expectations.

On land, his rifles had an accuracy rate exceeding 50%.

Even accounting for wave interference, he’d thought they’d hit more often.

"Next round, fire!"

"...Two ships hit. The Deken Navy is in a panic."

"Only two, huh..."

Out of thirty-two cannon shots, only two struck home—a hit rate just over 6%.

Juugi, disheartened, couldn't believe how little they were landing—despite facing an untrained enemy.

But that was only because he didn’t know much about naval warfare.

At this range, that hit rate was actually extraordinary for the era.

"No helping it. We’ll just have to make up for it in volume. Keep firing nonstop!"

"Aren’t we going to run out of shells?"

"I’ve asked for mass production on land. They’ll be delivered by small boat soon enough."

Thanks to Juugi’s design, which emphasized proper heat dissipation with seawater cooling, the Saripa cannons could be reloaded and fired again within minutes.

That was why they could continue long-range bombardment every few minutes.

For the Deken side, it was intolerable.

"Can’t you adjust things better and actually hit something?"

"We’re not professional sailors, y’know. You’re expecting too much from a bunch of hired hands."

"Fair point."

Saripa had no standing navy.

The people manning Juugi’s ships were just hired sailors.

Their skill level was barely above amateur.

"Seems the lever on Ship A broke."

"Got it, I’ll go fix it. Did we have an earth mage on Ship A?"

"Nope. We’ll call one over from Ship B."

They didn’t have nearly enough people.

Even counting all the hired sailors and mages across the four ships, they only had about a hundred crew total.

Each ship was running with just twenty-five crew members—a barebones number to keep things moving.

"The Deken Navy’s started to retreat!"

"...That’s a crushing victory for us. As expected of Master Juugi."

"Yeah, but don’t let up. See them off properly—so they never set foot in Saripa again."

And yet—

The battle ended in a total victory for Saripa.

"Yooo-hooo!! Show 'em what Saripa’s made of!!"

"Gyahahaha!! Nothin’ beats winnin’ a war!!"

So then, what decides the outcome of war?

"The Deken guys must be furious. After showing up with all that manpower, now they’re running home with their tails between their legs."

"Numbers mean nothing in war, no matter how many bodies you pile up."

War is about numbers.

If you gather overwhelming force, surely you’re guaranteed to win.

"The Deken Navy’s supposed to be elite, right? How the hell did we beat them this easily?"

"Hmph. Training doesn’t matter either."

War is about the quality of the soldiers.

If your troops are better trained than the enemy’s, surely that secures victory.

"Look, that flagship’s flying a pirate flag. Isn’t that the ship of the Deken hero?"

"The commander’s skill doesn’t matter either."

Or is it about the commander?

If an exceptional, undefeated commander leads the army, can they win without fail?

"No matter how strong you are, you’ll bow your head in front of a gun. What decides the outcome of war... is technology."

That’s what Juugi said, stretching his arms wide—

Only to lean over the side of the ship and vomit into the sea, his face pale from seasickness.