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Volume 4 Chapter 3 Part 3

Milza roared and jumped towards the captain, launching a series of ferocious attacks at him.

The captain desperately received Milza’s ever-changing blade while occasionally leaping back to avoid it. In addition, he skillfully used the mast and hull to guide Milza to places where it would be difficult for him to wield his sword in his usual manner.

「This is a way of fighting that is truly befitting of someone who is calling himself one of the Lords of Artuk! 」

Apparently, the captain was simply buying time with the way he fought him now.

The ship’s rudder remained fixed and the tailwind was propelling it forward at considerable speed. While it was doing this, the battlefield was getting further and further behind them.

It seems that he intends to sacrifice this ship in order to force Milza out of the battlefield. When Milza threw some casual looks to the sides of the ship, he noticed that the soldiers that the captain send below deck were now throwing large amounts of wood into the sea, which they then proceeded to jump onto themselves. The reason for that became apparent to him not long afterwards.

White smoke started rising from the hold of the ship along with the smell of burning wood. A fire was set to the ship.

「Are you saying that the moment you saw me, you decided to abandon the ship entirely and take me with it? 」

Milza called out to the captain.

「I have seen you practice swordsmanship with the Earl many times. I am sorry to disappoint you, but I am no match for you. If it means that I can take you down with me, then sinking an entire ship to do so seems like an incredibly small price to pay. 」

The captain answered Milza for the first time since Milza entered the ship, which means that he probably thinks that he managed to buy enough time already.

「That was an admirable decision on your part… but I am not going to die in a place like this. 」

When he boarded the ship, he also ordered a speedboat remain near the enemy ship to pick him up when he was done with it. He initially intended to kill the captain and take the ship for himself, but it was a miscalculation on his part the he would simply allow him to do that. That being said, Milza did not expect the captain to decide to set fire to his own ship so easily.

「In respect of your determination, I am going to spare your life. You should go and jump into the sea while you still have the chance. 」

Milza drew his sword and extended his left arm, pointing at the sea.

「This ship, along with my title, was given to me by Lord Villar. To me, it is just as important as my territory. If it is meant to sink here, then I am going to sink along with it! 」

The captain smiles fearlessly.

「I see… 」

Milza nodded and slashed at the captain again. Either he no longer felt the need to stall for time, or perhaps he was running out of energy, but the captain accepted his challenged and prepared himself. Milza attacked his opponent one-sidedly, and he made a single feint attack before piercing his chest with his sword.

「As expected of a warrior like you… 」

Looking down at his chest with the blade embedded firmly in it, the captain could only say that before he lost all his strength.

Milza drew the blade out of him, swept it clean of blood, and sheathes it at his waist. The fire had already spread quite a bit around the ship’s deck, the smoke was getting worse, and he could definitely feel the heat around him rising rapidly. Staying here any longer was most certainly ill-advised, so Milza grabbed his sword, which was still in his scabbard, and he took a deep breath and plunged himself into the sea.
He sank deep and had a hard time rising to the surface, but with repeated movements of his hands and feet acting together, he slowly began to rise and eventually came back to the surface. Fortunately for him, Dartania’s ships were close by.

When he swung his sword, which was a signal, one of the ships will came closer to his location to get him.

「Trying to take your enemies down with them even at the cost of their own lives… Lords of Artuk are even more formidable than I thought. 」

Pulled aboard the ship, Milza spat out those words in displeasure.

「I thought that we were going to catch them off guard with our naval assault, but I never would have expected that we are going to have an insider in our fleet. 」

The captain of the high-speed ship that came to pick up Milza called out to him.

「No, it is not that we had an insider in the fleet. It seems that Vilar sensed that our fleet was about to launch a surprise attack, since Artuk’s soldiers were not at all confused. I should have known that something like that could happen. 」

「As expected of the Earl of Artuk. 」

「Yes. This is exactly why I initially wanted to become his sword instead of Marine Kraische’s. 」

Regrettably for him, however, Villar Constance was not prepared to follow the path of supremacy that would lead to the unification of the continent under his name, and that makes Marine Kraische so different from him, because she was ready and willing to do anything to see that dream of hers realized.

「Anyway, I am going back to the battlefield now. Even though I have no qualms about leaving the command of the naval battle to the admirals, it will not change the fact that the enemy tactics might leave my allies agitated, so I have to do something about it. 」

Milza intended to seize every single main ship of the opposing force that had stood in the way of their advance towards Artuk, but never in his wildest dreams would he have expected that the captains of Artuk’s navy would rather sink and destroy their own ships than allow them to fall into the enemy’s hands.

(So, this is the path that the Lords of Artuk have decided to follow…)

Milza chuckled.

He himself is a Lord, but aside from him there are no other Lords in the Dartanian army. No, that is not right. There are other Lords in the Dartanian army besides him, but none of them have been given any sort of high status just because of the fact that they are Lords. Whether they are a Lord, a Shaman, a Mage or just an ordinary man, Milza was choosing his men not based on their birth, but rather based on their loyalty and achievements on the battlefield. That was Dartania’s way of doing things.

Artuk’s tall sailing ships are fast when facing a tailwind, but they suddenly become very sluggish when facing a headwind. Knowing this, the remaining five large ships left the battlefield without turning back.

It must have been because their captains witnessed the ship being lost so easily. But now that it has been destroyed, the captain that Milza killed at least ensured that in today’s battle, that tall ship would have never returned to the battlefield while being used by Artuk’s enemies.

「The sailors of Dartania are all skilled and seasoned warriors. They will never lose to anyone, whether in the ship-handling skills or in hand-to-hand combat. 」

Milza stood at the prow of the ship and glared at the Earl of Artuk’s castle in the distance. He was sure that Vilar must be watching the battle from somewhere in the castle.

「Just accept your fate and perish. 」

Milza narrowed his eyes slightly and called out to Villar, even though he knew there was no way for him to hear it. In the sea that was sprawling out in front of him, the warships of Dartania and Artuk were still jumbled together and engaged in a fierce battle.

* * *

While watching the battle at the sea unfold from the top of the tower, Laura informed the Admiral’s magician about the changes to the battle situation at any given moment.

Dartania is winning when it comes to the sheer number of ships in their fleet. Moreover, the main ships of the Artuk’s navy had left the battlefield and had not returned to port yet.

Since ancient times, Dartania has carried out dangerous maritime trade mainly in the South Seas, so its sailors are skillful at maneuvering ships. The soldiers on board are also brave and strong, so Artuk’s warships are often outnumbered when they come alongside and engage in slashing.

However, Artuk’s navy was adept at coordinating its fleet above all else.