Netori SSS-Emperor: All Queens Shall Be Mine!-Chapter 81: Katherine – Daughter Of Hilman Haroney

Hilman Haroney, the genius behind the magic canons. A craftsman of many talents, but for the most part, he loved to experiment with firepower. To see a cannon's strength obliterate a target–there was something about that process that made his heart pound again. But of course, great talent rarely dies of old age.

Captured by Grimgor after calming that he wanted to level the battlefield by offering cannons to the regular people–and that, too, ones that could be held in a single hand; he was swiftly dealt with, leaving only a daughter behind to carry on his legacy. But his daughter, being an aloof airhead, couldn't match his genius–not unless she really tried.

Katherine Hilman Haroney–the daughter of a genius and an astral marksman. Gathering a platoon of down lucked pirates, she managed to swipe Leviathan from the royal docks. Barely she understood how to man the beast, but once her hand was set on its wheel, the monster soared the sea like a charging wagon on water.

And now, at the helm of this scaled blue beast, she looked through her curled fingers into the distance. Using astral–or rather space magic, she shortened the distance between her and the twenty-three warships of the Aestonin nation. They'd been circling her from around the horizon and made sure to remain a safe distance away from each other. Even if she were to shoot one of the magic canons, the others would remain unharmed–leaving her in a vessel that couldn't move since the cannons sucked most of the mana out.

To recharge after the blasts; her father was working on a reserve for the magic so that the ship wouldn't be a sitting duck after shooting the magic cannons. But before he could finish even the blueprints, the king had him killed.

"Regular cannons won't do as much, not to mention their accuracy is whack." Mumbling to herself, Katherine moved her hand away from her eyes. Staring out in the distance still, she wondered whether she should use deadeye. "Ughhh, but it'll only take out one of them and that darned general!"

Having used her hand cannon–the Deadeye on Kayla before, Katherine was apprehensive about using it again. A magic pellet to the heart had shattered Kayla's armor and her ribcage, and yet the cambion shrugged it off like it was nothing. Unbeknownst to her, however, the general had died from the attack, but her oath wouldn't let her leave her mortal shell.

Rising from the dead, she stood up tall and hurled her spear towards Leviathan. Cutting the ocean current into a stream of two, the weapon had barely missed Katherine before flying back to her. Had it not been for the potential loss of life for almost all of her soldiers, the general would've ended the stalemate that very day.

'She's scared to lose people or her ships, at least. I doubt a royal's bootlicker would care much about her soldiers.' Shrugging off the thoughts about the general, Katherine reached down her sides and gripped the leather handle of her hand cannon–the dead eye. Bringing it in front of her head, she aimed its golden barrel towards the enemy ships. Moving her eyes a safe distance away from its revolving chambers, she looked far into the horizon at the enemy soldiers moving around on the deck. 'One shot and one of you bastards would be dead...'

Drawing magic from the surroundings much like the magic cannons, the weapon was capable of striking a single enemy's vital organs. No defense was too strong, and no amount of magic could deflect its pellet, and as long as Katherine had time to gather enough mana to overpower her enemy, the cannon would kill and that too without missing its target.

It's only drawback? The long charging time, and only six shots could be taken in a day. Her father had designed it to be a defense weapon for the masses, thus, he saw no reason for it to fire more than six pellets. However, just like the cannons, he never got the time to work on its dismal firing rate.

"Tck...It's useless." Knowing full well that she'd been stuck in a stalemate being chased around by the enemy vessels, Katherine let down her weapon and glanced at the pirates sitting drunk on the deck. "EY! WHO'S LOOKING AFTER THOSE 'HUNDRED' CANNONS IF YOU'RE HERE!"

Her words, laced with mockery and anger, made the men jump into action. As afraid of her rowdy nature as they were of her weapon, they followed her orders for obvious reasons. Not to mention having stolen Leviathan, they would be dead the moment they stepped foot outside the vessel.

"Why did we even agree to help her?" Hearing one of the men whisper as they passed under her, Katherine too was reminded how she ended up with these idiots.

Since her father had realized that the king was after him, he'd planned to escape the kingdom with the help of these very same pirates. But when his death came prematurely, Katherine decided to take the same crew and swipe the vessel as soon as possible. The men expected rewards beyond their imagination, but until the Aestonian fleets were off their backs, the most they could hope for was staying alive for another day.

"Now, where was I?" Looking around the horizon some more, Katherine remained at the helm as she trusted nobody else to man the vessel. A pack of few were on the ship anyways, and most of them were needed to tend to the lesser floors. "Same ol' ~ Same ol' ~ Nothing out of the ordinary–"

Noticing a fleet of three way down the curvature, much further ahead than the other twenty-three vessels, Katherine let down her hand and peered in that direction without any aid. Staring in the general direction where she'd seen the ships, she tried to race her mind and find out what was happening.

'Those are Sirens–all three of them. What are they doing all the way out there?' She pondered, but then she realized something that would change everything. 'Those islands with monsters...are they moving there? But...why?'

Knowing everything there was to know about the monster islands, thanks to her late father's connections, it didn't take long for Katherine to figure out the only two reasons why the vessels would be headed there. Either they were taking the battle to the enemy or immigrating citizens to populate the place.

Either way, she finally saw a glimmer of hope to escape this stalemate. Smirking to herself, she quickly changed the ship's direction. With a stomp of her feet, she also drew her crewmates out from under her.

This content is taken from fгeewebnovёl.com.

"TIME FOR A DISTRACTION! GET THE CANNONS READY IF YOU WANT US TO ESCAPE THIS DAMNED ENCIRCLEMENT!" And so the pirates did, as there was nothing they wanted more than to get off this accursed vessel.