Chapter 63

The surface of the lake was in chaos, as if a toy box had been overturned. The ships, still burning despite the contradiction, were collapsing. The damage to the women drifting on the water varied: water seeping in through breaches, the upper structures shattered. Another ship was torn apart by a brilliant explosion. A ship, its keel blown away, was split in two, groaning like a dying animal as it dragged the crew into the depths of the water.

Amid the floating debris, lifeless bodies lay face down, drifting aimlessly. The grinding sound against the hull was the grim knock of the waterlogged bodies being crushed at the bottom of the ship. The ship did not slow down. The battle only intensified.

This was a fleet battle. It was a grand undertaking where the naval forces and sailors staked their very existence. Donyk, a water mage of the Myard Duchy, was no exception. He wanted to rush to the water battle immediately, but he was bound to the ship until he delivered the cargo in the hold. Shaken with frustration, he was imagining the course of the distant naval battle when—

“Enemy water mage approaching from the starboard bow!”

The ship was not just a mass of wood. It was a mass of people, a single organism, Donyk always thought. When the lookout, the eyes, sounded the alarm of the approaching threat, the sailors reacted as they had been trained and in actual combat. The archers took out their crossbows, which were already loaded, and the sailors passed out spears, which doubled as throwing spears.

Donyk was no exception. He checked the state of his cutlass at his waist and took a spear. The firepower and mobility of the water mage, a specialized unit, were best demonstrated in repelling enemy ship attacks. Therefore, it was a given that the water mage who cleared the way was another water mage. The use of bows and spears on the ship was a last line of defense. Stepping onto the gunwale and leaping onto the water, Donyk shouted,

“Hold it, it’s an ally! An allied water mage!”

“Donyk, are you sure!?”

The hoarse voice of the captain, who was commanding from the stern deck, echoed.

“Yes, it’s definitely an ally. ...Probably a sailor from Zeruit.”

Donyk, though his eyesight was not as good as the lookout, was skilled at identifying water mages. He was not close to all of them, but he had tangled with them in ship-to-ship battles and drills. It would be harder to mistake them.

“Lookout, what’s the situation!?”

Slightly delayed and somewhat embarrassed, the lookout corrected his report.

“My apologies, it’s an ally.”

“Next time, don’t make a mistake.”

In normal times, reprimand and guidance would be unavoidable. But now was a time of crisis. The captain did not pursue the matter and gave the next order.

“Pick him up immediately, we need the battle situation.”

If it were a flagship or a large ship, communication magic devices would be on board, but for a transport convoy consisting of one warship and two merchant ships, it was too much. The recovery of the water mages, who were a projection force, was not just a matter of simple combat power but also crucial for clearing the fog of war. Donyk grabbed the rope ladder attached to the ship's edge and called out.

“Circle around to the starboard side! I’m going to throw the rope ladder!”

There was no sign of the water mage, who could move freely on the water, and he was drifting like a drunk. His outstretched arms cut through the air several times before finally grabbing the rope ladder. He was in no condition to climb by himself.

“Hold on tight. Hey, we’re pulling you up!”

Donyk and his comrades pulled up the rope ladder. The water mage, hoisted up, collapsed on the deck like a fish out of water.

“Lamb, drink it.”

The bottle of rum offered was from the archipelago nations, which circulated through the Flame Emperor Dragon Corridor. This particular item, among others, symbolized the growing ties between the Haiselk Empire and the archipelago nations behind it.

“I was saved. I was about to sink due to a lack of magic power.”

Prioritizing water walking, the magic barrier around his body, except for his legs, had dissolved, and his body was as cold as ice. He looked like a corpse. A sailor, unable to bear the sight, pulled out a repair sail from the hold and draped it over the water mage's shoulders. Despite the white breath and the effort to steady his breathing, he knew it was cruel but asked his comrade in rapid succession.

“Was your flagship Zeruit? Where are the others?”

“They sank, hit by a barrage from the enemy’s magic soldiers.”

“You mean, they were sunk!?”

Donyk’s ship was also a warship, but it was classified as old. In contrast, the Zeruit, built at the end of the prosperous era of the Canoa Kingdom before the war with the Haiselk Empire intensified, was a new ship. It was a warship that mimicked the hull structure of the archipelago nations. The fact that it sank in just a few hours left Donyk shaken.

“What about Zenoot and Gafut?”

The captain, descending from the stern deck, asked with a heavy heart. Both were Zeruit’s sister ships, smaller but with agile maneuverability. Until a few years ago, they were part of the main fleet.

“They sank in a mutual destruction with the enemy’s first-class ship.”

“...What about the flagship Sprix?”

The worst possible scenario flashed through Donyk’s mind. Hesitantly, he asked.

“It’s still standing. It’s still engaged with the enemy fleet. I was left behind in the fleet battle. The land forces are in a dire situation. If we don’t cut off the enemy’s ice road, the Celta Peninsula will fall. That’s the cause of this naval battle.”

“Ice road? Was the outer line of the Zerebes Mountains breached?”

The captain, speaking on behalf of the sailors who had not fully grasped the situation, asked.

“No, it’s different. The enemy created a traffic route with ice behind the Lagga Cape. The navy has been ordered to break the ice road by defeating the Liberitoa Commercial Federation Navy with all its forces.”

Donyk was speechless. While the transport convoy was engaged in water transport, the Celta Peninsula was in a critical situation. But who could have predicted that the outbreak would be a land battle, and more specifically, an ice road built on the lake?

“Understood. Rest now. Once the cargo is unloaded, our fleet will join the battle.”

It would take several hours no matter how quickly they moved. Whether they could reach the decisive battles on land and water in time was uncertain. The noisy sailors fell silent at this moment. Bad thoughts kept swirling in their minds. At that moment, an out-of-place voice echoed on the deck.

“Hey, sorry for eavesdropping, but I heard your conversation.”

The cargo, an anomaly, had crawled onto the deck. They were the Haiselk Empire’s light infantry, ordered to transport from the port through the Flame Emperor Dragon Corridor. Donyk, who thought he had developed immunity to the Haiselk people through his service in the military port city of Anksio and transport duties, was gravely mistaken.

This light infantry squad started brawls just short of killing each other, and they pilfered the ship’s supplies and cargo. A caged monster would be more docile. Compared to these, the Haiselk people he had transported recently were refined and dignified.

“Pressuring us won’t make the ship go any faster.”

The captain, who had seen their true nature during the short journey, took the initiative to warn them. The Haiselk squad leader, the leader and absolute ruler of these pirate-like men, had prevented fatal conflicts and accidents. However, a few missteps could turn them into a disaster. They were like a deadly poison, black as water.

“You old hag, you’re pretty fast. That’s not the point. We can’t afford to dock properly.”

“We can’t dock at the quay. We’ll run aground before we get close to land.”

“That’s not what I mean. It’s simple. There’s a suitable place to destroy the enemy’s communication lines and scatter the cargo.”

There couldn’t be such a convenient place. Donyk was skeptical, but the captain, understanding the Haiselk man’s phrasing, grasped the situation.

“...You mean to ram the ship into the ice road?”

“Are you crazy!? The main fleet couldn’t break through.”

“The ones who blocked the breakthrough are probably still engaging the main fleet.”

“But there are ships left behind. It’s too reckless.”

“Your main fleet challenged the fleet battle in a refined manner. If you think only one way and discard unnecessary things, you can still ram through. The elite Myard Navy, who stopped us in the Four Nations Alliance War, right?”

The captain, seriously considering this mad plan, was about to speak against it when Donyk was grabbed from behind by a Haiselk soldier, as dark-skinned as a sailor.

“Don’t interfere in the conversation between commanders.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“It’s a fact. You don’t want to end up with a broken jaw and only able to drink soup, do you?”

The light-hearted