"We have spent the past month demanding an apology and reparations from the South for the sinking of our fourth-rate ship-of-the-line, the Iliad."
"Yet the South has offered not a single word of apology. Instead, they have had the audacity to demand that we pay for repairs to their own vessel, the RMS Stella Marine."
"Therefore, the East Duke's Court, the East Royal Navy, and the Eastern Merchant Guild Confederation hereby declare that a state of war with the South exists, effective the 30th of May, Imperial Year 1026."
"All waters north of the 17th parallel shall be considered a war zone. Any vessel that attempts to evade inspection by our ships may be subject to attack by the Abyssal Monster Corps."
The East—which had ruled the empire's seas for a thousand years—had issued its declaration of war.
A declaration from an eastern navy that fielded sea monsters hundreds of meters long. One might expect it to send the people of the South trembling in fear.
It didn't.
That was thanks to the faith the South's citizens had built up over time—the hard-won understanding that Kayl Leopold never started something like this without being ready.
And the industrialists, for their part, had some idea of what new weapons the South had been preparing.
Last winter. Intelligence Bureau agents had paid visits to the industrialists.
"I'm Ann, from the Intelligence Bureau."
A name so common you could trip over it in the street—that was one of the hallmarks of the Bureau's black operatives. They had abandoned their former lives as renowned Aura users to become the South's shadows, and their real names were classified.
Which was why the industrialists were quite reluctant to accept the files being handed to them.
"What is this?"
"It's classified at the highest level, so I can't tell you exactly what it is. I don't know the contents myself."
"...Good heavens. Lord Kayl has entrusted us with another grave responsibility, hasn't he."
The industrialists had seen this pattern before.
Lord Kayl had previously assigned classified component designs to the South's leading firms—defense contractors, optics companies, steelmakers, precision engineering firms, Magitech Engineering companies, and more—each receiving only their own piece of the puzzle.
At first, they hadn't known what they were building. But they'd followed orders anyway—partly because he told them to, and partly because the pay was generous.
And what had emerged from that process was the Dreadnought.
They knew very well what role the Dreadnought had played in the conflict with the West. So they assumed this new design would be something similar.
"The contents of this top-secret file must not be disclosed to anyone, including family members. Please share it only with the personnel strictly necessary for the component design."
"Understood."
"If this information leaks, and His Grace becomes aware of it, he will be... considerably displeased."
South Duke Kayl Leopold's displeasure.
There wasn't an industrialist alive who didn't know what that meant.
Ever since Kayl had burst onto the scene with the Labor Standards Act, every company in the South had been on his leash.
"We will not breathe a word of it. You have our word, on the reputation of our firm."
"Good. His Grace has said that if we prevail in the conflict with the East, he will see to it that you receive a commensurate share."
The reason the firms accepted the proposal was simple enough.
Designing components for a special class of vessel like this always became the crowning achievement of a company's career.
The firms that had participated in building the Dreadnought had enjoyed an extraordinary boom afterward—and not merely because they'd received more support from Kayl Leopold. The title of "the company that built the most powerful warship in the world" was a portfolio entry that opened doors anywhere.
So the industrialists went home with anticipation in their hearts and opened their blueprints.
"Good heavens..."
Every last one of them let out a gasp.
Because what they had received was a fragment of a weapons system they had never once imagined could exist.
A periscope. A battery-powered oxygen generator. A hull capable of withstanding the pressure of the deep sea. And a Torpedo.
The blueprints were divided into separate pieces, but even a single section made it clear: someone was developing a vessel that could operate underwater.
"So the Intelligence Bureau and the Design Bureau have been hiding something like this all along."
If they were distributing blueprints to outside firms, development was already complete. Kayl Leopold had already been thinking about extending human dominion beneath the waves.
It was technology the firms could never have dreamed of achieving on their own. No matter how much money they poured in, they couldn't keep pace with the world's finest engineers—people who had gathered there because they loved the work.
"...As always, what the Design Bureau and the Intelligence Bureau have been sitting on is truly remarkable."
"They've had a hundred years of accumulated knowledge."
"I suppose so. Well—we'd better give this everything we've got."
The industrialists steeled their resolve and began preparing their production lines.
Over the following year, the number of submarines that rolled out of those lines reached several dozen.
More than ten additional Destroyers had been added as well.
Battleships, however, had not been laid down.
The primary theater of naval warfare was against the Abyssal Monster Corps, and the Dreadnought was the lead ship of a new class—and like all lead ships, she had her share of shortcomings.
The operational experience with capital ships had been thoroughly accumulated through her service.
The empire's surface fleet wasn't strong enough to warrant maintaining three battleships anyway.
And besides... to face foreign powers who had some understanding of our capabilities, we needed to be one step ahead of where they thought we were.
"Further battleship construction will be pushed back a little longer. Until our naval gun technology improves and we can build something larger."
Once the conflict with the East was settled, I intended to start working on something bigger than a 305mm naval gun.
In my previous life, I'd been a genuine warship enthusiast. A 305mm gun simply didn't satisfy me.
Right. Once the conflict with the East was settled.
First things first.
"Lucilla, is our submarine fleet ready?"
"Yes, sir. Over the past six months they've accumulated sufficient operational experience, and I assess that the main force has a thorough enough understanding of Wolfpack tactics."
"Good. Then we can start moving."
I turned to look at Lucilla.
"Convene the assembly. They've issued their declaration of war—we owe them an answer."
This time, there was no need for a grand speech like the last one.
Last time, I'd had a massive event looming—an actual war—and beyond that, I'd needed the pretext of Total War to justify extending working hours.
But we'd already lived through one victory, and the working hours situation had more or less settled into place.
Now it was enough to simply explain why this war was justified.
***
May 31st.
Standing at the podium of the emergency session of the assembly, I cleared my throat once and began.
"Esteemed members of the assembly. I am Kayl Leopold, South Duke. Yesterday, the East Duke's Court, the East Royal Navy, and the Eastern Merchant Guild issued a declaration of war against us. The pretext they chose was the collision between the RMS Stella Marine and the fourth-rate ship-of-the-line Iliad."
Sailing ships that rely on wind are vulnerable in stormy weather. Under imperial military regulations, vessels of the fourth rate and below were not supposed to put to sea on days like that in the first place.
The RMS Stella Marine, on the other hand, was a 30,000-ton passenger liner—one of the most advanced vessels of this era, capable of sailing regardless of weather conditions.
If you asked who was at fault, the answer was the East, one hundred times out of one hundred.
"Yet our passenger liner, the RMS Stella Marine, did everything in its power under those circumstances. Even in the extreme conditions of a violent storm, it launched lifeboats to rescue East's sailors—and the injuries sustained by our own South crew members in that effort were far from minor."
Even in those conditions, our ship had done everything it could.
And they had the nerve to blame us?
Honestly, I couldn't claim entirely clean hands in all of this—but on the specific matter of this collision, I was standing on the right side of the line.
Which was why I could say it with confidence.
"The fundamental cause of this incident lies in the East's control of the seas. The East's arrogant interference with maritime passage is a clear violation of imperial law—an unreasonable and contemptible act targeting our South's businesses."
This was the East's fault.
And I would not stand by and watch the brazen conduct of those who would issue a declaration of war over it.
"Like Count Sarcen before them, the East is attempting to steal the fruits of the South's blood and sweat. If we back down now, they will demand something even larger next time."
I deliberately invoked the past.
By raising the incident with Count Sarcen—who had tried to extort our merchants—I drove home just how unreasonable the East's naval blockade truly was.
The capitalists who had been forced to pay tolls for three years still bristled at the mere mention of Count Sarcen's name.
"The South is no longer weak enough to be forced to bow to such unreasonable pressure."
"We possess the largest fleet in the world, and our military has already completed preparations for a new weapons system capable of countering the East's Abyssal Monster Corps."
I slipped in a subtle reference to the submarine force, easing the quiet anxiety that had been building among the assembly members.
*I can't say what it is, but we have an answer.* Coming from an ordinary person, that would have been dismissed as empty words. But the weight behind my words was different—I was the one who had secretly developed the Dreadnought and blown the Sarcen fortress off the map.
Even the members who had been looking skeptical until that moment nodded as though they understood.
"So if the East wants war, I will gladly give them one. Just as the arrogant Count Sarcen was brought to his knees, just as the incompetent Sharl Reimonds was brought to ruin—I will make them kneel before the South!"
The final shout rang through the hall of the assembly.
The moment the echo faded from the grand chamber, a thunderous wave of applause broke from the assembled members.
6:00 PM, May 31st.
To hunt the East's massive Abyssal Monsters prowling near South's territorial waters, ten submarines departed from a South harbor.
The wolf pack had arrived—to face the monsters of the sea.