Both Lilith and Xera were shocked to see a ship of this scale afloat. If they were super curious to explore my rigging back then, now I don’t even have an epithet to describe their curiosity. If I did not shout at them for a few times, they would’ve actually tried to squeeze into the gun barrels. Either of them would get stuck almost immediately but at least they satisfied themselves by sticking their legs and arms inside the rifled liners.

The kids were playing with deck machine guns and I even showed them how to use them. The kids played with oerlikons installed everywhere, and how happy they were to hug and swing on the 102 mm gun barrels. I was impressed that the girls were not tired after they were running around ‘till the evening.

“Oh S*, I have a radar contact!” I heard a few beeps before the radar shut down itself.

“What?” They don’t understand but it is not important.

“Inside the ship, now!” I dragged them all the way to the bridge. Of course when they started touching everything in their vicinity I had to smack their hands.

“What happened?” (X)

“Aerial contact, North. Bearing 21, Altitude… s*, range and altitude are unknown…” I used binoculars to locate the object. It happened to be a large pack of winged reptiles.

Alright, flak shells loaded, guns turned. Let the missing begin!

Bang Bang Bang

The girls were surprised to see how the 102 mm fired. I was surprised as well, my range estimations and even accuracy were good, no, excellent! There were dozens of beasts blown out of the sky.

Of course that was not enough but while they are approaching I should be able to fire one more 102 mm salvo and two 76 mm salvos.

Bang Bang Bang

Bang Bang Bang Bang

As the beasts passed the long range defenses they entered the pom-poms’ volleys. At most only a couple of lizards were shot down by the fire and even though I shot down half of them it was not enough to take them all down.

Bom-bom-bom-bom

“Watch out! Wyverns are approaching!” (X)

“Why there is an entire colony of them?!” (L)

Bang Tra-ta-ta Bom-bom

Tra-ta Pu-pu-pu-pu-pum Tra-ta-ta Bang

As the wyverns entered the range of all AA weaponry they started to take an actual damage. It is harder to miss a close target when you have a lot of shrapnel and bullets flying around. If I was to choose a MVP then it would be 12.7 mm machine guns. After the suppression fire at medium range the pom-poms and oerlikons were out of ammo and their reload is soooooo long… If there were no machine guns then my deck would be turned into the wyverns’ playground. The pitiful remnants of the flock tried to escape to a high altitude but were blown by coordinated fire of 76 mm guns.

When I clearly exhausted all AA guns’ ammo I let the remaining wyverns flee. They are not my target here so I just continued steaming to the destination.

“I never expected something so powerful. At first I thought it is some kind of magic but now that I see what ‘you’ look like… You had no issues destroying so many wyverns, could it mean you are powerful enough to disdain the kingdom itself?” (X)

“You can say so. If it will be required to protect those who are close to me then not even the entire world can oppose me.” Well, they can just block my way with enough ships I wouldn’t be able to move.

My radars found a large number of surface objects nearby. When I looked there I saw a lot of ships near a harbor. If the map is correct then it should be the capital’s port.

I changed the speed and hoisted 'Kilo' and 'Zulu' flags then I raised the Union Jack.

A number of ships began sailing around me as I slowly approached the port. Some of them were curious merchants from around the world, some were fishing boats which happened to be nearby, and some were sailing under the kingdom’s flag and had a number of armed sailors at ready.

‘AH-OO-GAH’ ‘AH-OOOO-GAAAH’

I buzzed the ships around me to clear myself the way. Neither of the military vessels dared approaching so with my way cleared I headed to the roadstead. I did not fire any salutes just in case.

When I found a nice spot I dropped the anchors and prepared to disembark.

While Delight was making her grand arrival.

Hiring this fast boat was a good idea. After Lilith returned she turned from an obedient fiancée into a serious concern, especially because of that woman. If I wish to have it done my way then I need to arrive first and present my view to His Majesty. If I am first then he would rather believe me and thus I’ll have some room for maneuver. The boat already enters the port so there is no way those two will mess my plans now…

‘AH-OO-GAH’

I turned around and saw an entire block of buildings sail towards the port. It was a monstrous ship made of metal. The ships that were supposed to escort me were now sailing near the leviathan. The largest warships of the kingdom were dwarfs in comparison with this monstrosity. And most importantly, I have a bad feeling about its arrival.