Chapter 370: For the Legendary Warship!

As intelligence spread like wildfire, Charlot Mecklenburg learned the reason behind Duchess Mesu’s betrayal.

—It was all for the legendary warship!
The Byron vampires had played a dirty hand.

They promised Duchess Mesu a legendary warship.

Not the Bismarck of Byron!

It was the Fontainebleau, the personal vessel of Emperor Julius Axel of the Fars Empire!

The process of Duchess Mesu's treason was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. It had been brewing for a long time.

The imperial military was divided into the Royal Knights, private noble knight orders, and local forces. In the Old Continent, it was universally accepted that nobles could maintain private armies. The Northern Fleet had always been a private fleet. While it followed the commands of the Fars royal family and fought for the empire, it neither belonged to the crown nor the state—it was solely under the Mesu family.

At its peak, the Mesu family's Northern Fleet rivaled half of the Imperial Navy.

However, after a failed exploration of the Furious Sea, the Northern Fleet had been in decline, shrinking to one-sixth the size of the Imperial Navy.

During two major naval battles, the Mesu family suffered catastrophic losses. Three magical alchemical warships were sunk by the Byron vampires, leaving their power weaker than that of the Imperial Navy’s rising star, Menielman Soumet.

If the war continued, the fall of the Mesu family seemed inevitable.

The Byron vampires used two magical alchemical warships as bargaining chips to gain a direct audience with Duchess Mesu. Additionally, they lent six saint-ranked Blood Thralls to assist the duchess in a coordinated attack. Together, they seized the Fontainebleau from the empire’s largest port, Arcadia Port.

With the Fontainebleau in her hands, Duchess Mesu immediately declared her allegiance to Byron. She brought her territories, her fleet, and her entire family into Byron’s fold, announcing that the Duchy of Mesu was now loyal to Byron.

From that moment, the Duchy of Mesu became part of Byron's territory.

With the two alchemical warships gifted by Byron and the stolen Fontainebleau, the Northern Fleet’s power might not have returned to its peak in size, but its combat strength now far surpassed its glory days. The Mesu family had fully regained its vitality.

Byron, however, did not genuinely need the Mesu family to join their side, nor did they trust defectors to participate in the war. Simply ensuring that the Northern Fleet stayed out of the conflict was a significant victory for Byron. Furthermore, with the theft of the Fontainebleau, the only legendary warship of the Fars Empire, Duchess Mesu had no way back and no chance to return to the empire.

Well, not the only legendary warship.

Sophia Gallanord still commanded the Queen Bee.

However, the Queen Bee was nominally under Princess May’s authority and was not officially part of the Fars fleet.

By sacrificing two magical alchemical warships to sway the Northern Fleet and the Mesu family, Byron ensured that Fars no longer had any legendary warships.

This was an achievement more brilliant than a decisive naval battle.

More than ten officials involved in the defection of Duchess Mesu were promoted to top ten ranks in their departments, securing monumental success in their careers.

Charlot gleaned one undeniable truth from the war reports:

This was the best choice for the Mesu family.

To fight for Fars to the bitter end would mean the total annihilation of the Mesu family...

Or they could align with Byron and see their family return to its former glory.

Since ancient times, politics has been thus: the loyal sacrifice themselves, the patriotic fight to the death, while the cunning reap the rewards. Those who toast in celebration over the blood of fallen warriors are often the most despicable.

Charlot could only sigh.

He had no further opinion, nor did he wish to say more.

The most immediate consequence of Duchess Mesu's betrayal was Menielman Soumet’s meteoric rise. He was promoted three times, gaining eight new administrative positions. From a thirteenth-ranked colonel, he ascended to a tenth-ranked rear admiral with a staggering thirty administrative roles—a degree of power so exaggerated it could make readers of a fictional account dismiss it as implausible filler.

Similarly, Sophia Gallanord experienced a dramatic ascent, advancing several ranks. Though she had yet to graduate from the Rose of Strasbourg University, she had already achieved the twenty-fourth rank of first lieutenant, becoming a member of the unreachable class.

Menielman now commanded seven magical alchemical warships, hundreds of vessels, and two stable overseas naval bases, making him the most powerful figure in the Fars Navy. His influence was unrivaled.

As for the charming Miss Sophia Gallanord, although she only had one ancient magical warship, it was a legendary one. With her father, Count Gallanord, providing full support, she had built a formidable fleet, positioning herself as the second most powerful figure in the Fars Navy.

Many naval officers, upon hearing of Duchess Mesu’s defection, began secretly approaching Count Gallanord, hoping to join the East Wind Fleet. It wasn’t that Menielman lacked allure, but the Imperial Rose Fleet had grown so powerful that joining it offered no significant advantages. Aligning with Sophia Gallanord, however, was seen as aiding a rising force in dire need—an opportunity to truly make a difference.

After Duchess Mesu's betrayal, Count Gallanord finally extended his influence deep into the navy, taking control of all military ports of the Fars Empire and a portion of its naval forces.

From his position in the Red Dragon Strait, Charlot observed the shifting tides of the Fars Navy, sensing a peculiar unease...

After Duchess Mesu's defection, the Fars Empire's offensives on land and sea had noticeably slowed. The empire’s war potential was nearing its limits, and it was on the verge of faltering.

By contrast, Byron’s forces were surging. In the Giant Whale Sea, they clashed fiercely with the joint Fars and Ingrima navies in several battles, with victories and losses on both sides. Although Byron had not yet broken the blockade to reclaim maritime dominance, their strength had vastly improved since the aftermath of the second great naval battle, when they had been forced to huddle in their ports.

However, Byron's severe losses in the previous naval battles, combined with the sacrifice of two alchemical warships, left their navy incapable of launching a full-scale counterattack. These recent skirmishes were small in scale compared to the earlier naval conflicts.

Just as Charlot thought that being in the southernmost region of the Fars Empire would keep him temporarily away from the war, an old acquaintance arrived for a visit.

It was none other than High Priest Auguslatin, a man with whom Charlot shared a deep bond over their shared love of écus.

Charlot was surprised by the visit. Why had the High Priest sought him out?

The two were close enough for Charlot to warmly welcome him, even gifting him several strong beastmen from the elephant, bear, and orangutan clans. Since his transmigration, Charlot’s moral compass had dwindled, and he no longer resisted the peculiar preferences of his old friend.

Yet the High Priest awkwardly declined Charlot’s “kindness.”

With an expression of righteous determination, Auguslatin declared that he had come for serious business.

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