Netori SSS-Emperor: All Queens Shall Be Mine!-Chapter 73: The Monster Hunt Begins - Part 1

Note: Every once in a while we'll see the battles and preprations through the eyes of the soldiers. This is one such scenario and the same goes for the next Chapter.

The king's orders were out, and the Siren vessels were ready to intercept the monsters the moment they ventured off their islands. Kayla was on board one of the vessels as well, giving each and every soldier a sense of urgency in the matter, even though there wasn't much for them to do other than wait for reptilians to run the enemy's supplies dry.

Weighted by her cold demeanor, everyone made themselves appear busy. Nobody wished to hear an earful as she had a habit of testing cannon rounds on dissidents. But of course, she couldn't do so with the usual rounds, instead, she used a small cannon strapped to every chair on the vessel. Only after every single one of them was thoroughly checked does she give any rest to the dissenters.

"Why do we even have a canon on a chair?" Complained one such soldier of Krakanhoist, his hands tired from shoveling coal into the boiler. Smoke filled the cramped space, and his mouth and that of his companion were masked behind a film of wind magic.

"The general and the late king, both are fucking obssesed with firepower, why else?!" Complained the other man, his body dripping with sweat and his skin slightly charred from the inferno that they were feeding. "If only they paid more attention to the kitchen and heating, we wouldn't have to shovel this shit every two hours!"

"Fucking tell me about it..." Stabbing the shovel in a pile of coal behind them, Ross–the complainant, marked the end of their shift. It had been an hour since they'd been shoveling coal to fuel the damned thing, and finally the flames had reached the desired level. "They say Leviathan feeds itself from the magic around it. Hell, if I don't wish that was the case for a Siren ship."

Planting his shovel as well, Arth wiped the sweat off his temples and turned to his partner. Shaking his head, he scoffed in his face.

"That monster? Nahhhh...I don't want anything from that bastard on our ship, that fucking thing is beyond excessive." Walking towards the end of the room, Arth grabbed a towel and began wiping himself off. Soaked in coal dust, however, the cloth only spread the dark ash across his body. "Tck...Another time, I guess."

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"Give that too me, you pessimistic fuck," snatching the towel off of him, Ross quickly wiped himself off and shoved it back at Arth. "Always fucking complaining, by Madia be thankful we're on the winning side and not on the side of those monsters."

Shoving him away for having thrown the towel at him, Arth glared at the man before grabbing his shirt and quickly putting it on.

"That thing can decimate Aestonia with a single shot of its magic canons, I don't know what kind of fumes the king was inhaling while he designed it, but there comes a point where you gotta ask if it's a good idea of create something that could destroy you if you made a single mistake or lost the damned thing."

"Well, that's why only the best and brightest are supposed to be there. No room for us scrubs, is there?" Grabbing his shirt as well, Ross put it on and opened the door to the next chamber. "Besides, it's still under construction. What the hell are you so afraid of?"

Moving in a small passage lined with heat-insulating metal sheets, Ross led their way outwards. Coming out on the other end, the duo were assaulted with sunlight beaming in through the many windows along the curve of the ship's hull. Covering their eyes, they moved through the pantry with numerous non-combatants opening boxes to get the ingredients for today's meal.

"What's next on the schedule, Arth?" Moving past the boxes and the people, Ross came to yet another set of doors. The coal room was near the tip of the ship's edge, then the storage was slightly larger, and as they reached the middle, it was separated into smaller sections. "Protein or a shower? What do you wanna do?"

"Protein. I snagged some coal and potatoes. We can snack a bit while fishing." Upon hearing his companion's answer, a smile flashed on Ross's lips. Turning back to the front, he grabbed the handle to the middle door and pushed it in.

Revealed in front of them was a pair of stairs with an elevated platform. Hollow in the middle, it was an opening to the salty ocean water. Layered with a film of water magic, the hole provided the workers direct access to water that would later be desalinated. And that wasn't even the end of its boon, for under the shade of the ship, the fish gathered as it was much colder there than the ocean water that was directly under the sun.

"About Leviathan." Locking the door behind them, Arth grabbed the equipment that they needed, along with an iron skillet he'd left behind. "I heard they lost it. Someone stole it from the royal family's shipyard during the chaos of the king selection event."

"And where did you hear that?" An eyebrow raised, Ross sat down in a chair hanging from the ceiling with chains. Securing bait on his fishing rod, he followed Arth with his gaze. "This better not be one of your friends told you kind of story. Those bastards are the reason we're here. Exotic dancers every night on board, my fucking ass."

"No, no, it's not that." Getting into a chair as well, Arth set the skillet beside him and made it float in the air with wind magic. Placing coal inside of it instead of under it, the soldiers breathed a lick of fire to ignite them before dropping a handful of small potatoes in the mix.

Once done, he looked back at Ross.

"So? Where did you hear that?"

"The daughter of the man who helped the king make the ship; apparently, he had a dispute with him. Bastard died not long after, and his daughter has been missing since." Adding bait to his rod as well, Arth dropped the hook into the water. "Poor guy helped with the cannons too, gave his daughter a prototype for what they're calling a dead-eye. But...the kitchen staff, one of the gals who used to be friends with this girl, told me that his daughter could carry that cannon in her pocket–and that the late king wasn't too fond of that."

"Why? Wouldn't it help to have such a weapon in the army, if there even is something like that?"

"True, but the bastard made a poor choice." Glancing down into the water, Arth revealed the last of what he knew. "He wanted to sell it to the regular folks, a weapon for those who can't protect themselves with magic. Leveling the playing field, so as they say, but obviously, the king couldn't have that."

"Cheeky fucker, he expected a rebilion or what?"

"Who knows, but he's dead, the only prototype of that weapon is gone, and the leviathan has been stolen as well–at least that's what I've heard." Sensing a bite, Arth took a deep breath and looked up at Ross for a moment. "Awfully convenient that the only person who could possibly understand how that ship works–the craftsman's daughter–is missing with a weapon the monarchs want. If you ask me–she's the one stirring up the pot."

Looking back down, Arth began pulling on his fishing line. And while he reeled in the fish, Ross couldn't help but wonder how much of what he'd heard was right.

'If that girl really has Leviathan and the king killed her father, Aestonia might be fucked.' He thought, and to a degree he was right, but for now it was all mere conjecture.