บท 23: More Of Them!

High Tarxa Nation/Austronesian Empire, Somewhere In The Ocean, On The Borders Of The Storm, Entrance To The Exclusive Economic Zone Of The Austronesian Empire.

First Year Of God, First Day, First Five Days, First Month.

The sky was darkening as the light from the sun gets shrouded by the great storm. Before the light has gone out and only strands of lights were left, the time has been already in the late afternoon. Which means night is almost closing in, and they have only just entered the storm and so it struck the young maiden with incredible fear.

This young maiden is none other than the monarch of the High Tarxa Nation, which was Floria Melian Shelberry. She might not be that recognisable, however, she is still the one and only leader of her nation. She was now in deep thought as she tries to find where the source of mana that gathered earlier came from.

She ruled out the possibility of it being a coincidence. As sometimes during a prolonged period, mana accumulates into the surrounding, because it wasn't being used, which leads to it becoming too abundant. Thus, the result is an enormous explosion that will ensue where it is most concentrated at. To this day, they still haven't figured out why such a thing happens when too much mana is concentrated in one place.

Which means that it could only mean one thing, and that is an assassination attempt towards her. She doesn't know if such a class of magic exists. However, if the magic was just tampered with and was attracted to gather in one place, then that could mean that she would have died by a mere coincidence and it will not poke the wrath of the Elven goddess. A perfect way to ascend the throne.

It only would mean that her brother Acheron had done it. Now that she had lost thousands of sailors and a handful dozens of ships, which means that it is quite probable now that he had returned home, and told lies to the masses. So that would mean even if she was the legitimate ruler of the nation, she would be quickly overthrown, killed and possibly defiled.

Just thinking about the horror of the things she could suffer made her stomach churn. She can't comeback for the meantime, she needs to find allies. However, how could she find allies if the race that she attacked captured her? Simple, she'd make them her allies! After all, she is the legitimate ruler of her home so she still has a considerable amount of power, though she may be, in fact as of now a government in exile in the eyes of other nations. So the battle for legitimacy will ensue soon.

Though there are still a few problems, how could she ask the humans for help, when they speak a language she doesn't know of or in fact have never heard of it's existence? Another problem is the fact that they have treated humans as slaves. Will the humans ever help their adversaries? Wouldn't they just enjoy the suffering of her people? Not to mention the fact that the Elven race also considers those who doesn't have any mana in them as slaves? Even if it's their own kind?

The last strands of light were thinning out, and so the humans dressed in white were moving the Elven people inside the ship. These initially sparked fear on the Elven people, that is also partly because of men appearing with iron sticks in their hands. It resembles a musket, but it was much shorter and more sophisticated. So they figure out that it was a much stronger and possibly more accurate musket than they have.

They also found how large the cannons on the ship were, and that they couldn't see anyone turning it, as if it was turning by itself. It was no wonder how they could decimate their ironclads. They were also curious about how it was being reloaded or how large its cannonballs were.

Upon entering the warship, Melian and the Elven sailors were utterly terrified by what they saw. Everything was made by some kind of metal, there isn't a place where there weren't any metal. Which means that magic will be terribly ineffective here, as all the class of magic were only from nature. One would require a more advanced form of magic just to fight inside of this ship.

It was as if they had made the ship against magicians. Maybe that's why the humans were so lax against them. They have a trump card against magicians.

There are four basic forms of elemental magic that every magician could use: and that is Fire, Water, Air, Earth. While the other forms of magic are in an advanced area where it would require a tedious amount of work and study.

Which means, for the ordinary magician, the entire ship is bad news.

Melian, whilst being on a chair with a wheel, was led along with the other Elven sailors into a room. They found that there were beds inside of it. However, the humans dressed in white firstly placed the injured on the beds, as if they don't have a sense of status and hierarchy.

She was given a bed near a window and was served food and water. She tasted the food and found that it was immensely tasty; she had never tasted such things. What kind of stuff they have put it with? Furthermore, she doesn't recognise any of the ingredients.

She took a glimpse towards her people and saw that they were ravaging the food as if they haven't eaten for days. Well, they wouldn't poison the food if they were willing to go as far as to give accommodations and treatment to them, so she tried to have faith in them.

While eating, she accidentally glanced at the window and saw something which struck fear into her heart and soul.

"I-Is that a ship? No, it is too large for it to be a ship! But if it was a ship, how could they support such a thing? It was too large, and how could they move it? It could span over a hundred meters, no possibly over two hundred meters. Those large tubes on the deck…" Melian silently muttered.

She then realised something.

"N-No, it can't be! A-Are those cannons!? H-How is that even possible?!"

Melian struggled to think as she almost fainted from shock, however a woman dressed in white comforted her, as she was about to cry. The woman doesn't even know why the young maiden was about to cry. When the woman looked at the other Elven people, she saw that they all had the same expression, so she took a glimpse towards where they were looking.

"So that's why they had that kind of expression. It was the battleship Teuku Umar," whispered the woman, to which she brought out her ship in pride.

Melian however heard this, she remembered the word "Battleship," though she doesn't understand what it was.