“Heh... A battleship Superior Embryo. I could hardly hope for a more interesting opponent.”
On the bridge of his masterpiece, Satomi tried his hardest to suppress his excitement, but it was leaking through regardless.
“This will be quite a productive comparison. Can my New Yamato match a Superior Embryo? And if not, what flaws will be revealed? Regardless, I will have the answer to a question I’ve pondered for a long time...”
Could a weapon built by an Embryo specialized in production win against a Superior?
That might have actually been the main question he wanted to answer with his comparisons.
“Rusalka was no good for this. I already know that their combat style makes straightforward comparisons impossible. But if this one is suitable...”
Whether he won or lost, he could advance his shipbuilding even further. That fact filled him with immense joy.
“Heh heh heh heh. HA HA HA HA HA HA!” His happiness was so great it made him burst out laughing...
“Baldr. Initialize seventh form.”
“Affirmative.”
“Huuuh?”
But the joy vanished the moment Baldr appeared.
✦ ✦ ✦
Asam and the rest of the crew were also watching this through the dock’s monitor.
“And there’s Mr. Starling’s Superior Embryo.” He had been unable to see it clearly in the darkness last night, but its silhouette matched what little he had made out.
Asam already knew this, but its appearance surprised the rest of the crew as they realized that Shu was the one who’d beaten the chimera.
“But it’s...” However, there was something else about Baldr that shocked and perplexed Asam as well as the crew.
He could now see clearly something that he’d failed to notice last night. It was obvious enough that he likely would have seen it if it hadn’t been for the darkness and chaos around him.
Or maybe he had seen it but subconsciously rejected it as too absurd.
Shu had actually revealed this information himself, but it had likewise slipped Asam’s mind.
For these people of the sea, the battleship was just that unbelievable.
This wasn’t about its cannons or the silhouette, but something more fundamental.
“That explains the sounds.” Baldr was under half the size of New Yamato, but it was definitely a battleship.
However, some would be inclined to add that it wasn’t a battleship for the sea.
Baldr’s overall shape was closer to that of a tank than a ship...
...and it was blasting air from the bottom of it to float above the water’s surface, for it was a hovercraft.
Granvaloa had hovercraft technology too. However, it was mostly used on disembarking vessels meant for landings—certainly not to make battleships float above the open water.
Doing so would mean forsaking the silent sailing that protected them from ambushes in deep water, and keeping an entire battleship hovering was a tremendous waste of energy.
For a Granvaloan, looking at Baldr was like seeing a person fly through the sky by just holding a fan in each hand and desperately flapping.
It invoked less disbelief and more confusion.
However, there was someone who felt this in even greater measure.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Huh, it’s actually hoverin’.” The moment Shu deployed Baldr, Riella was flung into its bridge and immediately realized it was a hovercraft based solely on the feeling of the deck below her—though it was more like confirmation of something she’d already suspected.
“I’m pretty sure I told ya that my main ship’s a hovercraft,” Shu said.
“I remember that, but for us Granvaloans, this just doesn’t seem sane. I saw the fight last night, but if I wasn’t aboard it right now, I still probably wouldn’t believe it.”
“You saw it?”
“Maybe it’s my blood, but I got good night vision. I have Legendarian ancestry.”
The first adventure fleet commander from six centuries ago had been an aquatic demi-human, and while the relation was distant, this blood still coursed through Riella’s veins. Like her advanced eyesight, this night vision was a remnant of abilities that had helped her ancestors swim through the sea at night.
While Shu and Riella had this exchange...
“Wha? H-Hover...?” Satomi’s voice coming from New Yamato’s speakers took on a completely different tone, with no hint of the pride it had shown earlier.
It was as though he had seen something he couldn’t believe, or didn’t want to believe.
“Hovering? In the open sea? And what’s with that broadside?! It makes no sense! Is that like some anime space battleship?! It’s not realistic!”
“That’s beary rude. It’s not a space battleship, but a land battleship. Amphibious too.” In response to Satomi dropping his persona, Shu donned his own wacky bear persona he’d put aside. “And if we’re talking about space battleships, it’s your Yamato that’s—”
“SHUT IT!” Satomi bellowed, stopping Shu from saying something dangerous. “And wait, it’s amphibious?! That’s even worse! Keep that nonsensical thing out of the sea!”
“I don’t think I wanna hear that fur-om a guy who made a double-sized Yamato.”
“Fool! Enlarging warships is the very core of the ‘Large Ship, Massive Gun’ doctrine. That’s what we follow here at GFRS... The Granvaloa Fictional Record Society!”
“...Oh yeah, that’s what that stands for.” While the clan was registered as “GFRS,” their homepage revealed that their full official name was “Granvaloa Fictional Record Society,” and the “record” in their name referred specifically to war records.