We were too tired to continue walking. We already walked for 3 or 4 days with only stopping for a night. Even the tireless maids, who are always cheerful and energetic, appear to be tired. We established a somewhat proper camp and prepared to stay for a couple of days.

Meanwhile I decided to reflect on what happened and what I could’ve done to avoid bad things happening.

In the end I reached one conclusion. I don’t control aircraft groups efficiently.

Thus begun my first ever exercises.

I divided my airpower into two groups: defending, with 3 fighter groups; and attacking with the rest of my air power. I tried simulating a scenario of mass attack from the air. It might be applied to ground attacks as well. My goal is to launch the fighters as fast as I can and intercept enemy forces. Considering that my normal reaction time is more than 10 minutes, I should give the attackers 5 minutes before they can bomb me.

The first few tries I failed miserably. I even had an aircraft crash on landing. If I ever want to best my enemies I must make sure that I can launch my air attacks rapidly and defend myself as fast.

With each try I was getting better results.

While normally aircraft carriers have at least vague knowledge how to operate their aircraft, I have none. I never was a carrier in my human life, and I had no practice until now. I either launch my aircraft before the fight, or I have a lot of time to do that.

My cheerleading team of fairies was trying their best to support me, while Elina and Albert were cooking, cleaning and doing everything else.

After my 15^th try I managed to intercept the attackers before they reached me. I decided to try a couple more times to make sure I have better capabilities.

Only after I was satisfied with the results I continued the exercises.

The next scenario is rapid deployment of attack aircraft. While I have only 4 flights of fighters, and so I can launch all of them within 30 seconds if needed, my bombing capabilities include 3 times more planes. And unlike the fighters they need their bombs and torpedoes loaded which takes a lot of time.

I know that it would be nice to be able to launch them fast but also I need to learn how to make coordinated airstrikes.

My second rapid deployment exercise was not as bad as the previous one, I lost only 3 planes and had 1 catapult malfunction. The 4^th catapult is of the worst quality so it was expected.

Soon enough I was capable of swift launching the majority of my craft. With this out of the way I began preparing for coordinated airstrike exercise.

While I was busy training with the bombers, I sent my fighters to search for a suitable target.

Somewhere in the forest I discovered a huge goblin settlement. Those bastards really did annoy me in the forest so it was the time for my revenge.

The settlement has a form vaguely looking like a ship, so my decision was to simulate attacking a warship.

I pre-planned the locations where a warship would have AA guns and where it would have its critical systems.

That would be a nice way to have some fun, train and destroy the green f*s!

I executed 4 airstrikes, some were only flying over the settlement to train low-altitude attacks with torpedo bombers, some were dive bombing the citadel, and now I am preparing for the final touch.

All planes are loaded with bombs and prepared for carpet bombing. I almost can feel what will happen there.

And while the planes prepare, climb and set their course I began artillery exercise. Not that firing a bunch of rifles and two 100mm guns can do something to the remnants of the goblin village.

While the strike was successful I was not satisfied because if there would be any AA guns, my box formation will be annihilated. Also, it is hard to maintain all of them circling above me, guide the planes for landing, and making sure they are not hitting each other while taxiing on the deck. The exercise continues…

The entire exercise took an entire day, also I had a night exercise planned after that. In the end I cancelled it because it was the time to continue moving forward. I used my precious time to scout the area and found myself a suitable spot for my future house. A picturesque cliff with an old castle on it.

A castle under the duke’s flag.