Chapter 871 — The Courage to Face the Sea

"Right now my only worry is the local family powers... not the great nobles, but the minor nobles who incite civilians to make trouble and directly control the scattered lands around Northport—the 'estate owners' who don't even hold noble titles. They've already shown themselves to be cautious and cunning enough, and they've mostly figured out the Construction Corps' bottom line, which makes it hard for me to move against them directly. And you, as Lord Regent and Warden of the North, obviously can't just suppress them outright either...

"These 'local snakes' may become a long-term problem for Northport, one that's hard to stamp out."

Byron rambled on for a good while. When he finally finished, Victoria broke the silence in a cool voice and unhurried pace: "You needn't worry too much. The Wilde family ruled this land for seven hundred years. We have some experience in dealing with 'scattered problems.'

"And you overestimate the trouble those local families can cause. They are stubborn, yes, but they're also very good at reading the situation. The old noble order in the North has been largely dismantled by me. Those local families may have escaped a great reckoning, but they've watched the order of this land change before their eyes. Their current behavior seems short-sighted and blind because they are merely panicked—they haven't truly grasped the Empire's new rules of the game, and they're still using old experience to avoid 'trouble.' Once they understand the real rules of the game, and discover that Northport's 'new neighbors' are both powerful and impossible to drive away, they'll likely become warm and hospitable at once."

Hearing Victoria's flat-toned words, Byron gave the Ice and Snow Duchess a deep look. A moment later he laughed cheerfully:

"If it's really as you say, then I won't worry."

With that, he withdrew his gaze and looked out at the distant sea once more.

Beneath a clear sky, the sea, lit by brilliant sunlight, rose and fell gently. From this position, the frenzied, capricious storms and the eerie, unpredictable magic tides were still far from the human world. But a jetty already stretched out from the shore—a jetty fixed upon magically hardened ice, like a lance thrust forward by a knight, pointing humanity's resolve and courage toward the sea.

...

A bright electric arc descended from the heavens, sweeping across the surging sea like a licking tongue. The end of the arc split into terrifying, bush-like branches, and amid a deafening roar, the great waves were vaporized by the turbulent energy, filling the space between sky and sea with a pungent stench.

A ship covered entirely in magic-conducting metal, its surface gleaming with countless runes and fitted with a great many magical devices, pitched and forged ahead through the monstrous waves. The surrounding seawater rolled in layer upon layer as if possessed of a will, and together with the arcs of lightning in the sky, wave after wave struck the ship that seemed ready to collapse at any moment—only to be continually repelled and dispersed by magic circles surfacing one after another on the hull and by layer upon layer of magical shields.

The entire ship seemed protected by more than a dozen walls of magical energy, and within that powerful force field, the vessel pressed on, breaking through the waves.

Typhon Empire Ocean Exploration Ship No. 1—the Courage.

Inside this advanced vessel, protected by layer upon layer of magical power, Count Owen Dyson, who had appointed himself captain, stood in the command room with a grave expression. An illusion spell maintained by mages projected the scene outside the ship clearly before the Count's eyes.

"So this is the 'disordered turbulence' of the ocean..." Count Owen Dyson murmured to himself. "Truly an eye-opener..."

Then he composed his expression and looked at the mage beside him. "How is the ship?"

The high-ranking mage responsible for monitoring the entire vessel's status was surrounded by layer upon layer of runes, floating above the magic array at the center of the cabin. He opened his eyes, and within those eyes brimming with arcane radiance was a calmness verging on mechanical blankness: "The first through third shield layers have been breached. Their controllers have temporarily lost the ability to cast. The amplification array needs at least six hours of repairs. The remaining shields are intact. The outermost anti-magic shell has fractured, and there are signs of elemental corrosion in the bilge, which has been emergency-patched with mithril plating—the inner anti-magic shell is still intact, so there should be no problem for now.

"All sails have been furled and isolated from the external gale. The prototype magic-energy engines have all shut down—severe mechanical failure, unable to start. The ship's propulsion is currently maintained by the second sailor echelon's casting."

Count Owen Dyson frowned. "How much longer until we break out of these winds and waves?"

"The boundary of the unstable energy field has been detected—we can reach it in fifteen minutes. The ship can hold out until then."

Count Owen Dyson nodded and said in a low voice, "I only hope we don't run into 'disordered turbulence' again on the return voyage..."

"My lord Count, you shouldn't have undertaken this voyage in person," the first mate standing beside Owen Dyson could not help saying in a low voice. "You are the ruler of Port Mobius, and indeed of the entire ocean exploration project..."

"Call me captain here—I think my talents in navigation are at least enough to earn that title," Owen Dyson interrupted the first mate. "We are only going to explore Tassos Island, the colony closest to the mainland from the Age of Navigation—if I have to hide in a safe harbor even for a voyage this short, then the Empire's ocean exploration project will probably never get on track."

This Typhon noble, with his gray-blue eyes and resolute gaze, spoke in a solemn tone, then shook his head. "But we did indeed underestimate the power of the ocean... What was recorded in those stale old books seven hundred years ago is already jumbled and broken, while the somewhat more recent materials are riddled with errors and omissions. The Dyson family should bear responsibility for this. Our recent generations have been busy maintaining Port Mobius's last commercial lines. We've kept up our observations and records of the ocean, but our investment has been far from enough, so that we lacked truly reliable data—and now we are finally tasting the bitter fruit..."

"A year ago, no one could have predicted that Aldernan would suddenly decide to restart the Mobius Port and the ocean exploration program," the first mate said with a shake of his head. "This isn't your fault, my lord."

Owen Dyson's expression was grave: "If this ship goes down, then it will be."

Just then, the mage in charge of monitoring the ocean conditions suddenly cried out, cutting short the conversation between the captain and the first mate—

"The wind and waves are weakening!"

"We've entered safe waters!"