Enlightened Empire

Chapter 276

After Corco's cold-hearted rejection, Sumaci stared at him for a while longer. Even so, he was determined to stick to his opinion.

“If that's how you see it, then there is nothing I can do, is there?” she said in the end.

Although Sumaci sounded disappointed, Corco couldn't think of anything he could say or do to lift her spirits. At least nothing that wouldn't risk the peace of the southern kingdom. Thus, he remained silent as she stared at him, still in expectation.

“Is that it? You have nothing more to say?” she said after another long pause. This time, she didn't sound disappointed, she sounded hurt.

“What else could I say?” While he himself tried to remain calm, Corco realized that he was more irritated by his own decision than he realized. Still, his choice was made, and he wouldn't change it. Thus, he sat back down on his bed and waited for her to leave. While the girl had always been a romantic, she wasn't one prone to indecision. Thus, she waited only a few seconds more before her eyes dimmed.

“Goodbye,” she said this time, and turned to leave.

When he watched Sumaci's deflated back, Corco felt more powerless than he had in years. Not since the early years of his exile – back before he had gained his knowledge of the modern world – did he feel this weak. His heart and mind hurt to see her leave like this, but even so, he couldn't speak up. No, he couldn't allow himself to do so, for his country and for his people. Thus, he silently watched her open the door of his cabin to leave.

However, before she could, a loud bang startled them, and rocked the ship soon after.

“What's going on?” Sumaci shouted as she kept her balance with one hand on the door frame.

“Did we hit a reef?” Corco asked from the floor. Unlike the girl, he had been sitting down without anything to hold on to and had thus landed on the ground. His nose hurt, but he had no time to bother with tiny issues.

“Let's find out.”

Sumaci's tension had already returned to her body. With renewed energy, the captain stormed out of the room, Corco right behind her. Although he had come aboard in secret, now there was little point to secrecy anymore. Rather than sit in his cabin and hope for the best, he decided to come above deck and see if he could help out anywhere.

Plus, knowing was always better than fear of the unknown. To their luck, they found a source of information before they even reached the deck. Only a few steps out of the cabin, one of Sumaci's crew came running towards her.

“Captain, where have you been!?” the man shouted. Under any other circumstances, his lack of respect or proper conduct would be considered a violation of the ship's laws, but even Corco could tell how tense and flustered the sailor was. Of course, Sumaci wouldn't bother with such details in this crucial moment.

“What's happening atop!?” she asked back instead. Just at that moment, another bang shook the ship. This one was louder, and felt much closer. At last, with the second impact, the king realized where he had heard the sound before. After all, he himself had helped develop some of them, and had thus seen them being test fired more than once.

“That's cannon fire,” Corco determined from behind.

“We are being attacked by an enemy vessel!” Sumaci concluded in a split second.

Despite their earlier disagreement, it seemed like she still trusted her teacher. Rather than listen to any more reports from her sailor, the captain pushed her way through to the outside, with Corco hot on her heels. They had to see their situation for themselves, otherwise it would be impossible to make any decisions. When they finally arrived on deck, the entire crew was already assembled and combat ready.

The ships of the Verdant Isles were much different from those of Saniya. For centuries, the nations around the Verduic Sea had focused on themselves and neglected their power on the water, which made the Verdant Folk masters of the Sea by default.

Without any natural enemies, their ships were built to maximize their hauls during raids. Their hulls were long and of large size. This way, they would be able to catch the merchants at sea with their speed, and store all their goods as well. Their ships were propelled by sails during most times, but they were able to speed up with the use of rudders if necessary.

When Corco and Sumaci reached the main deck, the sailors already sat on their rudders on both sides and worked hard to move the ship through the waves. Before them stood a sailor with a more luxurious uniform, someone Corco recognized as Sumaci's second-in-command.

As soon as the pair of leaders appeared, the rowers saw them and lost their focus for a split-second. While it wasn't enough to belie their training, it was still enough for their overseer to realize their lapse and turn around towards the disturbance.

“Captain!” Unlike the sailor down below, he saluted as soon as he saw Sumaci. “Where have you been!? We couldn't find you!”

“Where is the enemy?” she asked back, rather than bother with irrelevant issues.

“Sternside, around twenty lengths away.” The second pointed beyond the rows of sailors, towards the ship's back. “They appeared from behind one of the bat islands. We don't know what their goals are, but this isn't a route where ships should be sailing.”

“So they were waiting for us?”

“Hard too say, but they have made no attempts at communication since they appeared. They sailed after us in an intercepting course straight away, and they have been gaining on us ever since. We won't be getting away if this keeps going.”

While the two were still talking, Corco was already on his way to the ship's stern. Although the sailors would have been surprised by the southern king's sudden appearance, they didn't have the leisure to show it.

As Corco walked along the ship's railing, he could see their surroundings for the first time since they had left Saniya's harbor. Several island groups were within close proximity, all of them green and beautiful, covered in dense, green jungle that made them almost disappear within the equally green ocean. The only things to stand out within this monochromatic sea were the occasional gray rocks and white sands of the coastlines, as well as the distant brown of the enemy ships. There weren't many enemy vessels, only three of them, but they still looked plenty menacing.

“Those are Bornish ships. What are they doing here?” Although Corco was confused by their sudden appearance, he had no problem recognizing the identity of the enemy fleet.

The shape was similar to Saniya's own galleons, but they were wider in form and their sails had a somewhat different, more traditional setup. More importantly, all three ships flew the flags of the Bornish and Cahlian kingdoms. To further announce their existence and tell Corco that his sudden enemies weren't mere imagination, they showed off the use of their cannons once again.

At first, the king could only see a plume of smoke rise from the closest ship's bough, before the bang of the gunpowder charge reached him a split second later. He had just enough time to duck down before the cannonballs followed.

Two distinct bangs had announced the arrival of the cannon's payloads, so he expected two impacts. In reality, the two impacts were muddled into one. At least one of the cannon balls landed somewhere close, though not on the ship itself. Instead, it created a massive splash as it missed its mark and punched a hole into the water's surface. Harmlessly, the impact sprayed saltwater all over Corco's cowered back.

“We've been hit!” someone shouted from elsewhere. The sailor had been less lucky with the second impact than Corco had been with the first. “Our rudder won't move!” the voice continued.

“Where did these people come from all of a sudden!?” Sumaci shouted as she ran towards the stern. Her talks with her second were finished, so she rushed next to Corco and observed the enemy ships as well.

“They're Medalan galleons?” she asked, possibly even more confused than Corco had been. Though of course she would be, since the shape was similar to the ships she had seen in Saniya's port. Since she hadn't traveled to the eastern coasts much, she wouldn't be familiar with Arcavian ships.

“No, they're not,” Corco corrected her. “They're bornish and cahlian ships.”

“But... how?” she stared back. “Where did they come from!?”

“That's what I wanna know.”

In truth, the appearance of these three galleons in the Verduic Sea seemed impossible. All the arcavian ships were east of Medala, within the Weltalic Sea. To cross over to the Verduic Sea, they would have to pass over the entirety of Yakuallpa. That meant the crews either had to carry their ships across the massive Sallqata Mountain Range, or over the eternal ice in the south of Sachay.

Both were feats that could only happen in storybooks, and feats that could not avoid the eyes of his men. However, there was a third option. They could have made journey across the entire world to come back out here.

“I think maybe they-”

However, before Corco could voice his opinion, another shot was fired from the enemy galleon. This time, he was the unlucky one. Although he ducked down just like before, he could feel the impact tear through the wood right below him.

The shock waves traveled through the ship's planks, into his body, and shook him in his very bones. In agony, the wood below him moaned and groaned, before it gave in to the pressure. Splinters rose all around him as a solid third of the ship's stern simply broke off and took the planks with it.

Before Corco could react, the ground he had stood on sloped downwards. Without any support to grasp on to, the slippery wood turned into a ramp and shot Corco into the green water. All he could do was take a deep breath. He didn't even have time to shout a curse before the waves swallowed him whole.

By the time night broke, Corco and Sumaci had left behind the safety of the outside darkness and instead braved the darkness of the cave. Although they had heard a few sounds from the inside during their wait, they still hadn't known the fate of the bats at that point. When Corco and Sumaci entered the cave after smoking out the insides, they felt like they were drowning in a sea of bats. Getting rid of the animals turned out to be easier than they had thought, though it also was a lot messier.

Fretful, they entered the hole in the ground, armed with two makeshift torches each in their hands. However, the first thing they found when Sumaci threw a torch into the empty void were the countless beasts scattered all over the floor.

Many of the animals had been killed by the carbon monoxide in the air or by the heavy fall from the ceiling, though there were many more that were still alive. Some had only been knocked out and lay there as good as dead, others were flailing around on the floor, incapable of proper flight.

No matter what their previous fate, now the beasts were on the ground and in no condition to fight back, so their final destination was one and the same. As the bad air left the cavern through the unplugged opening, Corco and Sumaci rushed through the darkness and took out all the bats that were still moving before they could recover.

One by one, the animals were clubbed to death by their torches. It was an unholy mess, and a real shame for all animal enthusiasts, but they really didn't have the leisure to worry about either at that moment.

After another hour or so of constant night clubbing – the less fun kind – they had managed to clear the cave of any flying rodents, or at least of all the ones they had found. Some may have still been alive and may yet make trouble for them later, but this – just like so many things – also wasn't a problem they could solve by themselves in the middle of the night.

All they could do after their successful operation was to spread a thick piece of cloth on the bare ground, somewhere with the fewest bat corpses, and to fall asleep. Despite their surroundings, both of them did so within seconds.

Sleeping without assigning any guard duty and without cleaning up the corpses that could attract insects or scavengers during the night wasn't a smart move. However, they had a long day behind them. Ever since their ship had been attacked, they had been swimming, walking, carrying, and fighting without pause. And that was only the physical stress they had endured.

Since they were still unsure of both their future and their present, their nerves had been taut all day as well. They were far from home, with enemies were still hunting for them out at sea and with no reliable way to get home. This, more than anything, had been a drain on their endurance. Thus, they dropped onto a dry piece of cloth atop a bed of bat feces, inside a dark cave, and fell asleep right away.

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