On my mark, the entire power I accumulated fell upon the castle.

While my aircraft were still on their way to drop the payload, I opened fire with the main guns.

Thanks to the decreased amount of powder I was using, the shots were being fired at high arcs, allowing me to target the inner territory of the castle, even though I was close.

The soldiers were left with no option but to approach the walls where my shells were not landing and the gatehouse, which would block the shells. As the shelling came to an end with no targets to fire at, the defenders started preparing to fight us as we proceed with the attack: the archers were put on the walls together with some melee soldiers, while the majority of the troops were deployed right behind the gatehouse to cut us down should we try to break through the gates.

It was just as I anticipated. Their training did not include the third option. The air.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

The torpedo bombers dropped their payload all the way from the gatehouse to the opposite end of the castle, killing almost all of the infantry below the walls. The next step was the dive bombers' attack on the towers and buildings.

As the castle plunged into chaos, I ordered all of my planes to return for resupply.

After the first wave turned the castle into ruins, the second wave was supposed to finish off the survivors. However, I just had that urge to go and do something myself. The aircraft were sent below the deck, while I proceeded towards the castle.

There was barely anything to do at this point, so I casually walked towards the crumbled remnants of walls. I was already expecting to enter the castle without any resistance when I heard a sound.

‘Ping’

[A small drop is the omen of a coming rain.]

Like that, an arrow was an omen of them shooting at me. A hailstorm of arrows silently fell on me, ricocheting from my armor. After they saw that nothing happened to me, the archers tried firing several fire arrows, with the same result.

I could only imagine their faces when they expected to kill me with their first salvo, only to find out that I am armored enough to ignore their best attempts.

Perhaps they thought that I would no longer be able to fight back since I already stopped firing and approached, and that may be the reason why they were so fearless as to stop hiding behind the battlements. To their greatest regret, they underestimated my fighting abilities. As well as my ammo stowage.

By this time I was indeed low on main gun ammo, though I had a full ammo for the rifles. With not so precise shots I started firing rifles at the walls. I started steadily cleaning up the walls with rifle shots, and took down most of the defenders there, before the remaining ones fled down behind the walls' cover. I was the only one left in the vicinity.

Scaling the walls was the last thing I wanted to do, so I just brute forced my way into the castle by breaking the gates.

When the entrance was breached, the remaining defenders raised a battle cry and ran at me.

Bang Bang Bang

I started discharging rifles at the defenders. Neither the chainmail, nor the occasional plate armor, could stop the rifle rounds. If there were more defenders, they would've stood a chance at getting closer to me and tasting my naginata. But the history does not accept the 'if'.

The few survivors surrendered immediately after witnessing the last show of destruction, and I let them escape the castle.

Soon after the castle was taken, I led the others inside, and we made our camp in the castle, among the moon landscape of craters and shattered stone.

---

The morning we met at the walls. The duke’s forces were surprisingly quick to react.

I was brushing my teeth, when their negotiator walked towards the remnants of the gatehouse.

“Surrender yourselves, you scumbags! You are surrounded!” [Oh my, what a civilized way to start the conversation.]

“Fuji, they have ships… We have no way to escape…” Elina was panicking after she returned from the other side of the castle.

“Indeed, you are well prepared for this. At least that’s what you are thinking.” I decided to keep them busy while I execute my plan.

“You have no way to escape, beast! If you surrender now, His Grace might be merciful enough to sell you into slavery instead of killing!” The negotiator continued offering us the most beneficial terms, without even considering the fact that I took this castle all by myself within a single night.

From what I know, my ammo stowage is being respawned every 24 hours, so I was currently low on ammo. At least for the MVP 100mm guns.

The duke's forces have around 500 men, and their fleet consists of 20 ships. For such a tiny castle that was ridiculous. And after considering my ammo situation, we were clearly in a tricky situation.

But I was not wasting the time for no reason.

I closed my eyes and shouted.

“WHATEVER YOU HAVE, COME AND TEST IF YOU ARE REALLY CAPABLE OF DEFEATING THE PRIDE OF SAKURA EMPIRE!”

‘AH-OO-GAH’

A ship's horn thundered in a distance. My trump card has finally arrived.

“All planes, sortie at once.” The last of japanese carriers, the mighty IJN Fuji showed herself at last. I had to steam at 'Full ahead' to reach this place by the morning.

Some aircraft were sortied beforehand, and as soon as the carrier entered our sight, 4 flights of dive bombers flew over us and dropped their bombs right on top of the enemy formations.

Simultaneously, the pairs of torpedo bombers begun their attack runs and dropped torpedoes. I went with an overkill, both because I was cautious of the entirety of the possible outcomes, and because I simply wanted to let my torpedo bombers do their actual job. The results are not worth mentioning, because no wooden ship can survive two torpedoes hitting it.

After dropping their bombs, the fighters and dive bombers started to circle above the enemy, while occasionally diving to rain down machine gun fire on the infantry.

---

The enemy soon surrendered, and the enemy negotiator was the first one to do that.

In face of his crimes, or rather because he already insulted me, I hanged him.

This time I did not let the enemies run away. I made them all surrender themselves, and even captured the enemy commander. When I was going to interrogate him, Elina approached me. When I turned towards her, I heard a shout from behind.

“Sister? WHY ARE YOU HERE?!” The commander shouted at her.

“Fuji, let him go. This idiot is mine.” (E)

“You are a damned disgrace to our family! You sided with this criminal scum!” The commander shouted on top of his lungs.

“And who said to you that she is a criminal? Father? The one who sends people to their death like it’s none of his concern?!” Elina was getting mad to the point when I myself wouldn't dare standing in the way. Also, I felt butterflies in my stomach when she at least mentioned her supporting me.

The two's talk was becoming more and more intense, and soon I understood that I would have no time to interrogate the commander before Elina strangles him.

“Elina, how many children does the duke have?”

“The duke? We are both standing in front of you. There are no legitimate children aside from us.” (E)

“And you just told that to this mongrel?!” The commander glared at me, but I was so calm that I only spared a glance to him.

“So, if we kill him and the duke, we will have an actual duchess…”

“That is quite a warped logic you have, but I have no objections!” Elina was happy to accept my words.

No need to tell the commander’s fate.

---

After the recent events, I decided that I will continue with doing whatever I want.

[Because we are already enemies of the state, why don’t we just do whatever we please?

I gained myself a nice piece of land, I have my carrier on the roadstead and I have my opportunity to gain political influence. Everything is going way too good for me.]

As I was about to start rampaging to harvest some upgrade points, the king made his move. The next day after the castle was defended by me, another person has arrived to my gatehouse. The courier said only one phrase.

“The king offers you to come to the negotiation with both the kingdom and the dukedom.”