Chapter 230
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 230
Chapter Title: Kangchong No. 3 Takes Flight
Ovin Mavru looked down at the airship fleet and said,
"I thought they'd come incredibly fast... Well, that makes sense."
Generally speaking, the United Kingdom's airships were slower than the Empire's.
Their technological development paths were similar, but crucially, the Empire's advanced airship models carried mages aboard.
However, some of the United Kingdom's airship squadrons were much faster than the Empire's, and certain ones were even quicker than Thunderhoof without a Mazdari rider.
"It's the United Kingdom's 4th Fleet."
The United Kingdom's fleets up to the 3rd were standard naval squadrons, but the 4th was different.
The 4th Fleet was a high-mobility squadron designed to respond to ever-shifting frontlines due to the deployment of Guardians or Apostles.
To grant airships such high mobility required corresponding propulsion, and the 4th Fleet's was unique.
It wasn't enhanced with special technology; instead, they had creatures pulling the airships.
As a result, massive sky eels swimming through the air led every airship in the 4th Fleet.
Madman Tulbo squeezed his eyes shut at the sight of those sky eels.
"Heavens! Aren't those the ones Mazdari-sama said were such a hassle?"
"They're much smaller than those. From what I know, these just swim swiftly through the sky and don't have much else going for them."
"So, are they safe? Can I get a closer look?"
"No way. They'd swallow us whole in one gulp."
The 4th Fleet was generally smaller in scale than standard fleets, but Ovin noticed from the number of airships that it had been reinforced.
"Those big ones are probably transports."
"How many people do you think are aboard?"
"At that size, each could carry around 300 troops if they're small-framed soldiers. Eight of them—that's nearly a full division."
"...Hmm."
"But setting aside the transports, with destroyers and command ships too, even just facing the United Kingdom's air force won't be easy."
Tulbo's face fell.
"What do we do now?"
"The usual, of course?"
Ovin drew his dagger.
Unaware of his fate, Tulbo looked up at Ovin with wide eyes.
"...Huh?"
"Come down to the deck."
"Pardon?"
Ovin released Tulbo, whom he'd been holding onto the rigging.
Tulbo screamed as he plummeted, then bounced onto the airship's gas envelope with a thud.
There were no sentries on that airship, but crew from other ships had already spotted Ovin and Tulbo and were signaling with flags.
Ovin then maneuvered his parachute lines to hug close to the airship's side before cutting them.
-...Ping!
He slid down the rope connecting the gas envelope to the hull, then rolled across the deck in a proper landing.
"...?"
This destroyer had received a signal from the neighboring airship to post a sentry on the gas envelope and had just mustered them.
Ten armed soldiers stood arrayed before Ovin.
"Oh dear."
Someone shouted from the deck.
"Intruder!"
"Enemy!"
"Where'd he come from?"
The air force soldiers aimed rifles at Ovin.
Ovin recalled the fortress raid where he'd first made his name known during the mid-war phase against the United Kingdom.
Drafted as a lowly soldier and trainee, Ovin had been assigned to the front lines.
After several defeats, the Empire's front had widened, and people from the 3rd Continent were being conscripted too.
In a place where hiding in the trenches brought mortar fire and standing up unleashed machine-gun barrages, Ovin had charged with his squad.
Ovin had been lucky.
He'd managed to storm the enemy trench fortress and slip into its passages.
But in another sense, he'd been unlucky too.
When he slid into the enemy trench, not only his fireteam but his entire squad had failed to advance as far as him.
They'd been wiped out during the assault.
'Retreat, and I'd get shot in the back. But could I kill every enemy in the trench?'
The trench likely held a company-sized force, but Ovin had no other choice.
Bracing for melee, Ovin charged the enemies inside the trench.
Ovin wasn't discovered by Imperial forces until the next day.
The shelling on that trench position had stopped, allowing the Imperials to advance with difficulty.
'Even then, I didn't think I had any exceptional talent. I was small like a Leanar, so I could slit throats with my knife before being spotted. I frantically lobbed every grenade I could grab. Before meeting enemies, I'd check if rounds were chambered and if I had spares. Luck was on my side too. The one officer who pointed a pistol at me had a dud round and threw the gun at me instead.'
Of course, all that was talent for surviving trench warfare.
Ovin had single-handedly captured the trench position.
That day, he'd been promoted two ranks and awarded three medals.
Thanks to that reputation, "Melee Master" Ovin was invincible in the tale that made him an Apostle.
"Time to work."
-
"My legs don't reach!"
Tulbo came to his senses and struggled with the rope ladder to descend from the airship's gas envelope.
Both the Empire and United Kingdom used equipment compatible with any race.
But unlike the meticulous Empire, the United Kingdom apparently hadn't considered the short-limbed, diminutive Oguri. In fact, the United Kingdom's races averaged taller builds.
"Making ladder rungs this wide—how are Oguri like me supposed to use it?"
Tulbo grumbled as he clumsily descended the rope ladder.
Gunfire, shouts, and explosions alternated across the deck above.
Screams echoed intermittently.
"Argh! Trench ghost!"
"Do something about that fire fox!"
"Hit the deck!"
Tulbo hastily reached the deck.
By the time he did, it had already gone quiet.
Ovin walked over to Tulbo amid blood, ashes, and corpses littering the deck.
"Oh, you got down faster than I expected."
"Well, you see... the ladder spacing's too wide."
"I get it. United Kingdom gear's all like that."
Ovin said,
"I was just about to head below deck. Dr. Tulbo, gather what you need up here first."
"C-can I skip helping?"
"It's fine."
For some reason, Tulbo felt Ovin's smile said, 'Stay here 'cause you're in the way.'
'Sigh.'
Tulbo thought he didn't measure up as an Apostle.
The Apostles of the Temple of All Gods were all strong without exception.
From the first Apostle called Brain Dragon Emperor Rakrak, to the earth-shaking great mage Mazdari, to the symbol of Imperial assault doctrine, the enemy knight Redin...
They were strong and cool too.
'...But I'm just a lowly Oguri.'
Oguri weren't particularly despised, but even in the equality-preaching Empire, some couldn't hold back laughs at the sight of them.
When alive, Tulbo had asked, and they'd said it was just their funny appearance.
'Born this way—nothing to be done.'
Tulbo said,
"Has Lady Aruna left?"
Ovin replied,
"I doubt it. Even Lady Aruna wouldn't refuse a direct order from Yacheon. She must have her reasons."
"I see..."
Ovin grabbed Tulbo's shoulder and said,
"In my view, the success of this operation hinges on you, Dr. Tulbo."
"Haha, no way."
"I mean it. I've cleared the path to the bridge up ahead, so there should be complex machinery. I'm leaving my all-purpose field kit here too. Just do your usual 'great invention' thing."
"Ah, yes sir."
"Then I'll clear below deck and be back."
Ovin saluted, and Tulbo awkwardly returned it.
Ovin had become an Apostle after Tulbo, but Tulbo had been born first and joined the Temple earlier, so it wasn't odd.
'Ovin's the picture of a soldier.'
As Ovin leaped below deck, explosions and screams resumed.
Tulbo glanced around the deck before waddling into the bridge and rummaging through things.
One perk of becoming an Apostle: tougher body and greater strength.
Tulbo hastily dismantled the bridge's machinery and controls, tossing them onto the deck.
"Machine Dismantler" stemmed from Tulbo's pre-death days smashing countless machines from ancient ruins.
'Hmm... what to make? Gotta drop these airships before they reach Empire soil. So...'
Pondering, Tulbo felt unease and looked up.
Unnoticed, another United Kingdom airship had drawn alongside.
Tulbo stomped in frustration, then quickly gathered machinery to improvise a "sound collector."
An invention Tulbo had just conceived, unseen in the world before.
'This should pick up distant sounds.'
Tulbo aimed the sound collector at the neighboring airship.
"Wiped out! Total wipeout! Nothing but blood and bodies!"
"Where's the trench ghost?"
"No trench ghost on deck! But..."
"But...?"
The next words were a near-scream.
"Argh! That's the mad Oguri!"
"Mad Oguri? ...No way?"
"Yes! 'That Oguri'!"
"Pull away! All ships, prepare broadside cannons...!"
Tulbo peered back at the airship upon hearing that.
"Gasp, it's the command ship!"
The cannon turret directly below the command ship swiveled toward Tulbo.
"Oh no, what now?"
As Tulbo stomped anxiously,
The ascending command ship suddenly climbed higher.
Something was happening at the lead.
"...Huh?"
The sky eel pulling the command ship had startled and shot upward.
Soldiers on the command ship's deck were flung off, plummeting earthward.
Chasing the sky eel upward was a massive firebird.
Phoenix Aruna swiftly pursued, ripping out the sky eel's throat with her beak.
Unable to stay aloft, the sky eel failed to support the command ship's weight, which began a slow descent.
The command ship's cannon fire—aimed at Aruna or Tulbo, unclear—went wide.
Phoenix Aruna caught up to Tulbo's airship and said,
-You stupid Oguri!
"Lady Aruna!"
-What are you doing? Get to work! Why do you think Yacheon sent you?
"S-sorry."
-Hurry up!
Irritated, Aruna prompted Tulbo to fumble into his invention—his "Great Invention."
-
"It was a firebird!"
"Three Apostles?"
The 4th Fleet admiral bared his teeth.
"What about Lady Lightra?"
"No contact yet..."
"Never mind!"
The admiral surveyed the wrecked bridge interior and said,
"Cut the sky eel connection?"
A small explosion sounded from the bow, then a soldier rushed in.
"Sky eel severed!"
The command ship had avoided crashing.
"Relay to all ships! Don't wait for orders—down that ship at all costs!"
"Yes sir!"
The signal officer handling inter-ship communications moved swiftly.
"They're recovering parallel course and altitude."
"Check the deck as soon as altitudes match!"
The command ship's speed had dropped sharply, but telescopes could still spot the Empire's Apostle-ridden airship.
"...Something's there."
The admiral snapped at the observer,
"Don't say 'something'—describe it!"
"...Machinery."
"And?"
"Seems to have legs."
"Legs? What about on top?"
"Triangular... no, conical. A cone shape... rotating... hold on."
The observer hesitated, unsure of what he'd seen.
"What?"
"It's turning the fuselage toward us... feels like..."
Frustrated, the admiral snatched the telescope.
The moment he did, the observer muttered,
"Oh, it's coming."
-
-Boom!
A noise like the deck shattering.
Ovin, having slain the last soldier below decks, looked up.
"Ah, it's starting?"
-
"Phew, all done."
Tulbo climbed aboard his invention contentedly.
The sturdy legs on the deck were this invention's core.
They resembled a rabbit's, but the body atop led straight to the cockpit.
Tulbo clambered up awkwardly and sat in the cockpit.
"...Shall we begin?"
Tulbo considered waiting for Ovin, who loved his inventions, but Aruna's anger scared him more, so he activated it right away.
He could show Ovin after the fight.
Instead of a head, the rabbit machine's front bore a conical drill with spiral grooves.
Tulbo pulled the lever, and the drill whirred ferociously.
In short, Tulbo's skill-born creation was a two-legged robot with a drill head.
Manipulating it, the robot twisted to face the distant command ship.
It crouched its legs, compressing like it might spring any second.
Tulbo donned his goggles.
"Here we go! Kangchong No. 3!"
Tulbo shoved the lever forward.
Kangchong No. 3's legs extended straight, kicking off the deck.
Leaping skyward, Kangchong No. 3's drill surged toward the United Kingdom's command ship.