---

After successfully completing the commissioning ceremony,

Ed immediately gathered the crew to prepare for training.

This was necessary because operating a Dreadnought Ship capable of accommodating over 700 crew members required mastering the procedures and operation techniques.

“Then, I will begin the deployment according to the allocated teams.”

However, the time for practical training was limited to just 5 days.

It was an incredibly tight schedule to handle a newly constructed battleship.

Therefore, Ed had thoroughly educated them on the ship’s mechanical operating principles and structure, and those in charge at the mid-management level (Dwarfs, club members, engineering corps officials) were in a state of complete preparedness.

“Everyone to their positions!”

““To your positions!””

With a core team of 70 mid-level managers who had a high understanding of the ship, he organized work crews of 10 each into groups, and they had already conducted thorough image training while the battleship was being constructed.

The workers, who had learned their duties through holograms and training materials, began to move according to the manual.

“Report!”

Having entered the control room of the battleship, Ed started the training with a time constraint.

It was a drill to check for abnormalities in each department before departing.

“Boiler room, no issues!”

“Engine room, no issues!”

“Communication room, no issues!”

“Armory, no issues!”

“Guns 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, no issues!”

Thus, the department heads of each section inspected the essential items and equipment in their departments and reported back.

Ed skimmed through the reports as the captain, confirmed that there were no problems, and issued the order to set sail.

“Activate boilers 1 and 2!”

As soon as Ed’s command was given, the heads of each department returned to their respective positions and began sending necessary orders down.

First, they needed to activate the boiler room for the ship to operate.

After all, they had to turn on the steam turbine, which served as the engine.

-Whoosh!

The large furnace was ignited.

As the combustion spell inscribed on the furnace was activated, flames consumed the fuel.

-Flash! Flash!

The workers shoveled coal into the furnace to increase the firepower.

Thanks to the wearable robot’s arm parts and knee support devices, they could very easily transport the coal.

Even with just a handful of workers, the boiler room was operational.

-Hissss!

Once the boiler room was fully operational, water began to boil, generating steam.

The high-pressure steam flowed through the pipes and reached the nozzles of the steam turbine, the ship’s engine, where it began to expand, converting thermal energy into kinetic energy.

-Clank! Clank! Whoosh!

The converted kinetic energy collided with the rotors of the steam turbine, starting the conversion into mechanical energy.

The fixed blades of the turbine increased the fluid’s pressure instead of its speed, and the fast-moving fluid pushed the rotors rapidly, causing the turbine shaft to start turning.

-Hum… hum… hum… hum… hum… hum… hum hum hum hum—

The rotating blades of the propeller began to churn the water behind.

As the propeller spun faster, the ship’s speed increased.

-Swoosh…

Thus, the Dreadnought Ship moved at its maximum speed.

David, the first-class temporary officer on the ship’s bridge, received orders from Captain Ed at the armored bridge to steer the battleship.

Each bridge was equipped with a magical transmission lens, making receiving and transmitting the captain’s commands easy.

“I will commence firing drills. An enemy ship has been observed 11 nautical miles to the north-northwest, at a heading of 120 degrees from our fleet’s position, currently traveling south-southwest at 6 knots. Engage and sink the enemy ship.”

As the battleship grew more accustomed to maneuvers, Ed moved directly to initiate firing exercises.

He ordered them to simulate sinking an imaginary enemy ship.

“Reduce the speed of the battleship!”

Upon Ed’s command, David began issuing the orders on the navigation bridge.

He calculated the enemy ship’s trajectory and speed using calculation equipment and directed their course to the shortest possible distance.

Through this process, David had mastered navigation skills and could now take on the role of captain.

Of course, he had to sacrifice countless small hairs along the way.

“Adjust to south-southwest 65 degrees, at 9 knots.”

However, David didn’t care about such trivial hair matters.

He was successfully serving as an officer aboard this magnificent battleship.

Today was indeed the most glorious day of his 19 years of life.

Just like the gleaming top of his head.

‘Doing well.’

Meanwhile, Ed watched David with a satisfied face.

It wasn’t easy for him, as a person from another world, to learn navigation, but he was doing so well in his role.

‘You’ve worked hard. I bet you had no concept of modern navigation.’

In this world, celestial navigation was still prevalent.

Thus, the concepts of navigation Ed was teaching were bound to be unfamiliar.

Estimating the position mathematically using latitude and longitude, that was the method.

Of course, Clendor, with its developed navigation system, was capable of more precise measurements using tools like astrolabes and compasses, but their techniques were still far behind those utilizing modern precise mechanical equipment.

“Fire!”

As the battleship maneuvered and the enemy ship entered the range of the turrets, David issued the firing order.

Within the nearby artillery control room, the crew began preparing for firing as they received David’s command.

They operated various mechanical devices to load shells into the cannons.

However, since they were firing from a distance, they couldn’t just shoot carelessly.

They had to consider many variables, such as wind, waves, air density, gyroscopic motion, and the enemy ship’s speed.

Thus, to hit the target, an understanding of ballistics was essential, and this was a dwarf’s specialty.

Weapons using gunpowder and ammunition were the dwarfs’ forte in this world.

But the challenge was that they were at sea.

While dwarfs were confident in land shooting, here they had to aim at moving targets from a moving ship.

Calculations for target acquisition were necessary.

-Beep… Beep…

The rangefinder attached to the turret started its calculations.

The rangefinder is an optical device that calculates distances using lenses, determining target distance and bearing angles.

-Beep… Beep-beep…

This information was input into the “Ballistics and Tracking Calculator.”

Simultaneously, the ship’s orientation was calculated by the “Gyro,” and the “Pitot measurement equipment” was used to measure the ship’s speed, feeding information into the “Ballistics and Tracking Calculator.”

-Beep-beep-beep!

Finally, stabilization devices transmitted their lateral and longitudinal levels to the ballistics and tracking calculator in the drafting room, where calculations were performed automatically to yield the firing parameters.

“Wheeeeee!”

But this calculation task was managed by Eve.

She could perform far more accurate calculations than the still incomplete computer.

As Eve collected the information and displayed the firing parameters on the screen, the artillery control room checked the parameters and relayed the information to each turret.

The turret commanders adjusted their position and firepower according to the instructed values, and when the firing command was given, they pressed the buttons to fire.

-KABOOOM!

An extraordinary noise like thunder echoed.

The shells of the battleship hit precisely at the imaginary location set by Ed.

“Not bad.”

Thus, Ed gave a passing mark.

As they had repetitively trained through holograms countless times, their subordinates executed the drills flawlessly in practical settings.

Now all that remained was to continue repeating and mastering the skills.

***

The long-awaited joint training day.

Ian, Bianca, and Luke were checking their battleships.

Since it was a rare opportunity to restore Clendor’s pride, they had to show an overwhelming gap.

“I will deploy maneuver tactics!”

Thus, Bianca, the flagship, started to check the maneuver tactics.

She was testing the evasion maneuver, which was both the best defense and the best attack.

-Whoosh…

The evasion maneuver they executed was simple.

They instantly activated the spell circuits, released the anchor, and then used wind spells to gain speed.

With multiple elite sorcerers using wind spells in unison, Clendor’s flagship could achieve remarkable acceleration.

Nevertheless, their maximum speed limitation was 11 knots.

“Not bad.”

Bianca was quite pleased.

It was unimaginable for the massive ‘Clendor-class’ battleship, armed with 126 cannons, to move swiftly with sudden acceleration.

Surely, the approaching Empire crew would be astonished by this evasion maneuver.

‘No, they must already be shocked.’

However, thinking about it, the princess and the Great Mage were watching their training.

They might be regretting accepting this joint training by now.

‘Hehe. But this is just the beginning.’

However, the evasion maneuver was just one of the many tactics they had.

Bianca imagined the expressions of the princess and the Great Mage, who were observing as she displayed various tactics one after another after the evasion maneuver.

Just picturing their shocked faces made her lips twitch involuntarily.

“Activate the shield!”

Next, Bianca decided to showcase their defensive power.

She would show them how to withstand enhanced shells shot at their battleship using various spells.

-KABOOM!

Thus, the reinforced shells, embedded with enhancement spells, were fired at a tremendous speed towards the flagship.

-Whoosh!

However, at that moment, 21 sorcerers who had long maintained the protection spells gathered their strength to begin casting the shield.

Simultaneously, the shield spells installed on the ship activated, enveloping the flagship with layers of shields.

-KABOOM!

As a result, only 9 layers of the 22-layer shield were destroyed.

The Empire’s maximum firepower was only capable of breaching 9 layers.

‘They must be in despair.’

Just moments ago, shells were fired at her battleship.

In reality, those had been fired by the Empire’s first-class battleship.

In other words, those shots had been enhanced to the extreme with their utmost firepower.

Yet the resulting impact was merely this.

Not only did they fail to harm the ship, but they couldn’t even penetrate the shields.

The ship’s deck was also saturated with mana, boasting tremendous durability.

“Fire!”

Now, the final task was to demonstrate the attack power of the Clendor flagship.

To do this, Bianca commanded that all the cannons fire simultaneously, which the trained gunners executed flawlessly.

From the cannons enhanced by all sorts of spells, shells were launched with a tremendous roar.

-Swoosh!

With a terrifying slicing noise, the shells were fired.

At the same time, the shape-modifying spell altered the shells slightly.

The tips transformed into sharp points capable of piercing the enemy’s shields and deck.

‘This is Clendor’s technological prowess.’

And it was a groundbreaking invention.

Typically, it’s difficult for rapidly moving objects to undergo shape changes.

Yet Clendor achieved this remarkable feat, allowing them to deliver even greater firepower.

‘But that’s not all.’

However, this was not the end.

Clendor’s shells were made with more advanced technology than those of other nations.

They were specifically crafted to easily breach enemy defenses.

-Crack!

The reason was that the head of the shell contained a special spell and mana meant to dismantle the enemy’s mana shield.

With the dispel spell on the head, it could easily weaken the enemy’s defense without much effort.

-KABOOM!!

As a result, a tremendous amount of damage was done.

They were capable of totally breaching the 9-layer mana shield and demolishing the hull.

This was Clendor’s technological power.

“Well, that’s just the usual,”

Bianca easily wrapped up the training.

Maneuverability, defense, attack.

All those aspects were overwhelming the Empire.

As Ian, her older brother, had said, to crush the Empire, they needed to showcase the strength of their fleet.

This ‘Clendor-class’ battleship, the pride and symbol of Clendor.

“Dock at the harbor.”

With that, Bianca directed the flagship to the dock with a buoyed heart.

As they did, highly trained ‘Mana Sorcerers’ began to perform ‘Mana Breath’.

They inhaled the mana from the surrounding air to infuse it into the central mana stone of the Clendor battleship.

-Whoosh…

As the mana that erupted from the central control mana stone flowed into hundreds of nodes, they began to move automatically.

When docking nearby, this was how they used ‘Mana Sorcerers’ to bring the battleship into port.

‘The Empire is still far behind.’

Thus, Clendor possessed human resources capable of utilizing special abilities.

Sea hunters who hunted sea monsters,

Wind sorcerers who could summon winds wherever and whenever,

Mana sorcerers who could absorb large quantities of ambient mana to supply to the central mana stone.

All those elite personnel combined create the gap between the Empire and Clendor.

They bestow the very prestige appropriate for the sea’s emperor.

“That was impressive. Truly astounding.”

As the battleship with a displacement of 5,100 tons docked, the princess enthusiastically applauded and began praising the battleship’s grandeur.

Bianca, meanwhile, feigned humility while her expression contradicted her words.

It was as if she was sneering inwardly.

Indeed, the soulless reaction of the princess appeared as if she was entirely unwilling to acknowledge Clendor’s battleship.

“By the way, when will the Imperial battleship of the Great Orserk Empire arrive?”

At that moment, Bianca slyly inquired about the battleship’s whereabouts.

In response, the princess replied that it would arrive in due time, and Bianca imagined the scene of the imperial battleship docking beside her own.

The size difference alone was unimaginable.

‘No matter how the Empire tries, they can’t compare to us.’

The Clendor battleship was specially constructed to earn the unique name of ‘Clendor-class’.

With specs of 5,100 tons displacement, 66m in length, 16.5m in width, and a draft of 8m.

It was an enormous vessel.

‘In comparison, the Empire’s…’

Just a typical first-class battleship.

Especially one that was technologically lagging behind.

According to her brother, they were constructing a new battleship with the help of the dwarfs, but it was evident it would fall short of Clendor’s standards.

The dwarfs are experts in firearms, not ships.

Thus, while thinking about her impending victory, she awaited the enemy’s battleship.

-Kugugugugugugugug…

A loud sound echoed from somewhere.

A dark silhouette approached at an incredible speed, cutting through the waves.

“…?”

Bianca turned her head toward the sound to see its source.

It was still too far away to gauge what kind of battleship it could be.

“…”

However, she instinctively knew.

Something extraordinary was approaching.

Her heart raced, her breathing quickened, and her mind felt foggy.

“…What is that?”

Other crew members were feeling the same way.

The confidence they once had began to give way to blank stares at the dark shape.

As the dark silhouette gradually revealed itself, their mouths began to open slowly.

-BUUUUU!

A magnificent and resonant horn echoed.

The embodiment of an era gone by, the creator of the battleship-gunboat style, the world’s battleship: the Dreadnought.

“…This, this is…”

With a displacement of 21,060 tons.

Length of 161m.

Beam of 25m.

Draft of 8m.

All specs far exceeding Clendor’s battleship, commanded by Ed.

-Kugugugugugug…

That colossal battleship docked beside the Clendor flagship.

Soon, emerging with a look of astonishment, Bianca’s eyes locked onto a man.

The creator and owner of that battleship.

The captain holding absolute command over the vessel.

It was Edgar Fix.

With a smile, Ed approached Bianca and said,

“Nice to meet you. I am Edgar Fix, captain of the Dreadnought Ship. Shall we start the training right away?”

 

---