Enlightened Empire

Chapter 321: Distant Threat

By now, Corco was well-acquainted with the sea route between Saniya and Rasacopa. Although he had traveled back and forth several times over the past few years, the scenery hadn't changed much in between trips. Still, he enjoyed standing above deck more than spending his time in the cabins down below. Maybe he was still traumatized from last time, when Sumaci's ship sank with him still in his cabin and he almost drowned. Or maybe he simply enjoyed the salty breeze on his face.

Either way, the Verdant Isles weren't the worst place to look at more than once. Unlike the open sea, which offered just the same sort of view in every direction, the Isles were far more diverse. In fact, there was not a single point in the entire sea where one couldn't see some kind of island or cliff stretch out from the distant waves.

These islands came in all shapes and sizes as well, some overgrown with dense jungle vegetation, while others were simple rocks in the water or had an almost savanna-like feel to them. Most likely, some complex interplay of tectonic, sedimentary and volcanic activity had formed the islands and created this amazing level of diversity. At the sight of the infinite treasures of nature before him, his inquisitive heart stirred. Purely from the perspective of botany and zoology, this was certainly a place worth studying. Corco was reminded of the stories he had heard of the Galapagos Islands, with an inconceivable density of species, and new discoveries wherever one looked.

Thus excited by his thoughts of adventure, the king stood atop his ship and stared out into the sea again. At the moment, his sight was taken by a small rock formation, with tons of seaweed growing all over it. In fact, the Verdant Sea was incredibly rich in algae of all kinds, which was the reason for its color, and its name. Ever since Corco's court had encouraged more fishing in his territory, the local fishermen had also been incentiviced to farm for seaweed, beyond their normal operations.

Since then, the city's people had started to incorporate kelp into their regular diet, driven by the innovative offerings during Corco's own banquets. Even better, Ronnie's chemistry lab had begun to extract potassium and iodine from the seaweed to create a better, more efficient fertilizer.

While the country was producing enough fertilizer for its own use at the moment, Saniya had long been exporting its fertilizer all over Medala, and even into some of the Verdant Isles. On top of that, the lab was also working on the extraction of specialty food items like agar and monosodium glutamate, though those projects were predictably low on the priority list and thus hadn't yielded any results yet.

While many of those plans were still in their infancy, they still showed the untapped potential the agricultural richness of the Verdant Isles possessed. Now that Sumaci could control at least part of this region, Corco looked forward to making good use of all the resources it had to offer. With the right knowledge, even something as inconspicuous as seaweed could become the pillar of an economy, not to mention the sum-total of the region's biomass.

Just as Corco's mind was racing into his favorite part, endless speculation about his kingdom's future, he was interrupted by a shout from below.

“Message from the bow scout!”

Because they were in a war now, their fleet was traveling in a complex formation this time, with smaller, more mobile ships protecting the main fleet on all sides. They would scout around the area with their superior speed and maneuverability, and would inform the main fleet as soon as they found something unusual on their path. This time, it seemed like the scout straight ahead of them had spotted a problem. Thus, Corco came below the ship's deck to listen in.

By now, their ships no longer had to rely solely on semaphore signals to transmit their messages. It had been several years since they had built their first radio, and since then, they had managed to put together a few more. Despite their high cost and complex production, the radios were too important, so Corco decided to bear the unusual expenses in this case. The best part of their radio was that it ran on batteries, so it would work as well at sea as it did on land, at least during calm weather.

Over the years, they had also done their best to waterproof the machines with wax and resin. Thus, all four scouting ships around them, as well as their flagship in the center of their formation, were equipped with a dedicated radio room.

Most of the space inside was taken up by the large machine, as well as a dedicated communications officer who would send messages and decode the received replies onto a piece of paper. When Corco entered the room, he just saw the officer finish decoding the message in its entirety. When he heard the contents, he was confused, so he decided to forge ahead with the main fleet and catch up with the scout.

This news was too ridiculous, so he had to see the truth for himself before he could make any decision. Their goal was Yua, one of the smaller islands along the route between Saniya and Rasacopa. On the spectrum of island diversity within the Verduic Sea, this one sat firmly in the volcanic rock camp, and fittingly, it was almost entirely barren and flat as a coin. Before they had come anywhere near the island, they could already see everything happening on land all at once.

Thus, as soon as they arrived, they noticed all the activity on the island's southern shore.

“What are they doing?” Atau asked.

Through his telescope, Corco could see at least several dozen people transporting logs of wood along the beach and putting them together in neat piles. On the southern part of the island, they had already starting construction.

“Well, they're building something.” Corco gave the most unhelpful reply possible, before he decided to speculate the worst case. “Looks like a wall, I think.”

“But that's too large, right?”

Although most of the wall hadn't been built yet, the foundations had already been excavated in large parts. As far as Corco could tell from this distance, the building activities spread across the entirety of the island's southern and eastern shores, for a combined length of at least fifteen kilometers. On top of that, the start of the wall looked tall and sturdy. Clearly, this wasn't planned as some minor, temporary fortification. If the workers on land were their enemies, this would spell endless trouble.

“Are they ours?” Corco asked without much hope.

“No dice,” Atau replied. “Our scouts have found their ships anchored on the other side of the island. According to their flags and the make of their ships, they're from the other Colored Islands. They're trying to cut us off from Rasacopa.”

Although he didn't like it, Corco had to agree with his cousin's grim assessment. This island was halfway between Rasacopa and Saniya, and their route led straight past it. If a sudden enemy fortress popped up here, their supply lines would be in trouble right away.

“And there's no way around this place?” he asked.

“If they cover the entire coastline like this, we'll enter cannon range somewhere on our way past them.” Atau denied. “The currents here are bad too, and this is the slowest part of our route. Gives them plenty of time to bomb us. We can take a different route and go around, but that's looking bad too. I haven't looked at all the maps in detail, but most likely, we'd either have to sail right past the main islands of the other Colored Kings, or we're doubling our travel time. In the first case, our enemies would have an easy time dealing with us. In the second, we'd have a huge strategic disadvantage. Neither of them is a good idea.”

“So that means more war.” As he understood that they had to take the island before their enemies could build an entire castle on it, Corco lowered the telescope and sighed. No matter how much he looked, the picture wouldn't get any better anyways.

“Seems like it,” Atau said. “This time, it looks like it'll be us attacking a fortification for once.”

So far, Saniya's armies had avoided attacks on fortified areas, since Corco was keenly aware how costly such attacks often were. He didn't want to risk the lives of his people, but it looked like this time he had little choice. His optimistic mood from before long gone, Corco stared at the evening sun in the distance.

In front of Sumaci, various stacks of paper were laid out in a pattern that only she understood, almost swallowing her entire table. After several weeks of work, her private quarters had begun to look a lot like Corco's study back in Saniya, always overflowing with work in progress. However, she didn't have any eyes for her duties at the moment.

All the papers on the table only pointed out her problems, but none of them offered any solutions. With a blank look, she stared out the window, into the evening sun sinking behind the horizon. Who knew that governance could be so difficult? When Corco did it, it always looked so simple, and he would always find a strange solution to even the most difficult problems. Maybe, she thought, clearing her mind of clutter would bring her inspiration. Yet despite her wishes, the sun would not give her any answers either. So she continued to stare, in search of solutions.

“Lady, I have returned.”

The sudden voice woke Sumaci up. In a fluster, she sat up straight and stared ahead. Only now did she notice that her maid Llamka had come in and stood in front of her desk.

“Why didn't you knock?” Sumaci asked in a annoyed tone, but the maid replaced her usual stern face with a troubled smile.

“I did, lady. You ordered me to enter, so I did.”

Since she was in her dream state before, Sumaci didn't remember any of it, but she didn't deny that she may have mumbled a standard reply out of reflex.

“How long have you been standing there?” she asked.

“Not long,” the maid replied. Though Sumaci guessed that quite some time may have elapsed, Llamka showed no signs of impatience. Since the maid was too polite to admit anything, Sumaci let the matter go and instead focused on the important matters.

“What about the warriors? What do they think about my offer?”

“As ordered, I have gone to all captains of the island, in order to gain support for our plans to restructure the military. However, most of them are still very reluctant to accept your offer. We may be able to win over a few of the lesser captains on the fringes of the fleet. The ones without power and influence may hope to make career by aligning with you early, but the stronger captains will not play along. Not even when I increased the offered benefits.”

“They're trying to hold us hostage,” Sumaci surmised in an annoyed tone. “They want to show me their strength, so I have to negotiate with them on an even level... and then they'll force me to take back the reforms so they can keep their status as the leaders of their own little armies. Don't these idiots understand how bad our position is? According to General Paec's reports, our enemies are well-organized and aggressive. Once all warriors on the island are dead, who do these great captains intend to rule?”

“Yet they know all that and still insist on their own benefits.” Llamka added. “At this point, there is little we can do about it, is there?”

“You say that, but I don't feel it's all that hopeless,” Sumaci tried to sound cheerful. “Our plan was to reform the army more along the lines of Saniya's system, without the powerful role that the individual captains had before, instead adding a unified chain of command that ends with the ruler of Rasacopa at the very top. That way, we're more efficient, and can better integrate with Corco's troops. But for that, we can't indulge those narcissists who want to see themselves as independent forces inside the kingdom, with heir own small armies and personal ships. If they don't want to compromise and accept a reduction in direct power in return for other benefits, I may as well not use them at all.”

Sumaci looked at Llamka and asked a question that seemed disconnected to her previous speech.

“How is the mood among the commoners in the city?”

As usual, the maid showed little emotion at the sudden change in direction. She simply ordered her thoughts for a second before she replied.

“Their views are still very mixed. We have done our best to spread some positive rumors to muddy the waters, but there are still too many who want to see us fail, and they are spreading their own stories. Some commoners oppose a female leader at the head of the island and prefer the captains who have more experience in combat. Some are glad that at last, some sort of order has been restored... But most of them are just worried and scared. The presence of foreign soldiers in the streets does not help much. We have made an effort to let the soldiers go out and buy from the locals while in civilian clothing. The money spent has helped somewhat, and Pukia has done a good job getting many commoners on her side. But there is still a very long way to go if we want to control the hearts of the people.”

“Looks like we will have to push up some plans.” Sumaci started to search around in her pile of papers. “I wanted to wait until Corco is back with his shipment so we can make proper preparations together. He's good at organizing parties. But now it looks like we should get ready early.”

After a frustrating and fruitless search, Sumaci looked up to the stoic maid.

“Help me find my plans for the coronation so we can start preparations.”

“Queen Sumaci, do you plan to finally take the throne?”

At last, there was joy on the maid's face.

“It's time we gave the people of Rasacopa something to cheer about. They are due some good news, and we will need their help very soon.”