World Development System 154 84. The quiet port of Laguna city.

***
Erin was currently proudly going back with 2 ships from his raid at the south on Duke Rose's Merchant fleet which was escorted by his navy. He was quite satisfied with his tactics of non-stop engagement in waves that eventually squeezed Rose's men psychologically and their attack at the right time when they were resting.
One of the subordinates asked Erin, his commander, "This Time we will have one of the biggest victories in our belt Lord Erin. Right?"
"Yes, but I think Master would be getting a bigger victory. This time we lost a lot of men in this raid if not for the pirates bearing the most of the brunt we would have lost more than the already 10 ships and 1000 men. It was a good result. Anyway, prepare for heading back to Laguna city."
The subordinated hesitated a bit and asked, "Lord, why don't we rest at port nearby and then go towards Laguna city? Men are quite exhausted with the battle this time around. We will be keeping a tight watch on the ships while we will first transport those ballistae onto our main ships before going to the pubs."
Erin thought a bit and agreed, "Hmm... Okay, after such a battle they deserve some rest at least. We will stop at Bilge port first and then head to Laguna. That count and Half-elf must be grieving for offending us big time."
"Thanks, commander. I will immediately inform our men."
***
John saw the report from Blake and Eric as he tried to understand the current battle that took place, "hmm, it seems we need to let the war machine go in full battle mode."
John murmured, "I guess I need to buy those cannons just to be one the safe side. Anyway, after the first battle, we will be spreading our wings in terms of the development of the city.
John looked at Blake and ordered, "Blake you can raid any ships from Fjord's domain. It would be better if you can get their ships so it would reduce our costs of time and production. The battle report is good. We had a minimum amount of casualties but it can still be reduced. I will be coming to their funeral personally tomorrow morning. They will be given the highest honor of the state."

John looked at Taylor and asked, "Taylor, What is the status of the Clock tower?"
Taylor reported as he familiar with most of the big projects in the town, "Milord, it has just recently completed and Tornwall has gone into full production mode for the guns and other projects. He is busy preparing for Tim departure while at the same time he is currently expanding the number of factories. Meanwhile, because of your policies, there has been an increase in businesses by common men which is improving the daily lives of all the people. While Count Casey is one of the men who is secretly trying to get a relationship with us. This time he also rejected Duke Norman to let him use his land for invasion quite bluntly."
Taylor stopped and continued, "There is one unsettling report though."
John furrowed his brows and asked: "What is it?

Taylor, "It is about Master Melanie and Miss Eva. Currently, one of his cousins named Dwight is here and is trying to woo them out of our domain. From my information, He is currently trying to get the formula for all the new types of medicines which we have created recently to counter the Radiant Church's influence. The royal family also is quite enthusiastic about those medicines as it is reducing a lot of influence of the Radiant Church. So most likely he was sent by the Royal Family."
John smiled as he heard about it, "Hmm... The poor soul doesn't know that only I know about real formulas of those medicines and Master Melanie has the formula only in her head. Currently, all the medicines are created by going through various processes that they can't imagine to replicate. No need to worry about that fool. I just wonder, how would Fjord react after this loss. Report about this battle in the next paper. Take Eric's interview as well if you need it. The boy named Ealdron made quite an inspiring piece last time around. Let him continue the work this time around. I heard he is quite famous among the populace these days. The whole domain must know about our feat of thrashing Duke Fjord in the eastern seas. And yes spread this information in other domains as well."
Taylor nodded and wrote it down in a memo.
***
At the port of Laguna City, there was turmoil after the people saw the rugged ships of Admiral Shannon.
One of the men at port spoke after watching the ships rugged arrival, "Didn't they leave just this morning? How come there are one 9 ships coming back this time around with such a condition? Weren't there 50+ ships which left this morning?"
One of the women screamed after failing to spot on of the ships, "How come I don't see the ship of my husband? What happened to that ship?"
Everyone present at the port understood what was going on after watching the low mood of all the sailors and knights in Shannon's fleet.
The women started crying hoarsely after watching the result as she understood what happened.
The whole port of Laguna city was quiet after watching the arrival of the Fleet.
Shannon ordered his men and left for the palace immediately without saying anything to the crowd. The crowd was quickly controlled by Fjord's personal knight army. The port was quickly shut off for common men so they can't see the ships.
One of the men gossiped after looking at the fiasco, "It seems, finally the war has started."
Another man nodded and agreed, "Just by looking at the state of the ships. I can guess there was a gruesome battle in the seas. Just this first battle was this gruesome, I am sure a bigger battle will soon follow."
An Old man sighed and spoke, "Yes, from my experience, usually the wars started with small skirmishes which would become bigger and then such sort of battles would ensue."
Lily was among the women who were waiting for their loved ones. As soon as she spotted Juan, she was quite happy and full of tears after watching the state of the fleet. Lily was a tall woman with a height of almost equal to Juan with 5 feet 10 inches, she had green hair and was wearing glasses. Currently, she was wearing a white dress with a coat.
Juan broke the ice as soon as he met Lily, "Lily, I will be leaving the navy."
Lily was quite surprised after watching Juan's reaction for the first time because she was quite aware of Juan personality.
Lily asked in a surprised tone, "Why the sudden change? I thought you would be angry after such a loss and I would have to convince so that you leave the navy."
Juan had a determined look when he looked at Lily and spoke, "I guess I grew up after watching this battle. Didn't you say, you wanted to travel and look for literature around the world? We will be leaving first thing after getting back or else we won't be getting a chance to leave. We will be having a funeral for this old man and then leave."
Lily saw the old man, "Who is this old man?"
Juan thought and gave his answer, "Someone who taught me what was war and saved my life."
His mate from the ship joined Juan, "Hey, are you forgetting me? I too am coming with you."
Lily nodded and followed Juan, she thought, "I guess this battle was quite a good experience for him. He has matured quite a lot."
***
Inside Fjord's court, there was a ruckus going on between all the ministers after such a big loss, One of the ministers asked, "How did we lose so many ships in a raid where we were ones who ambushed them? I think we need a thorough investigation of this loss."
Another minister barged, "A war is going on, what do you mean investigation? Don't you believe the report given by Admiral Shannon? We were completely outclassed because of those Ballistas. That pirate Blake's arrival at the end just meant the final nail in the coffin of the operation."
Fjord was quite angry after hearing about the loss, he almost had a heart attack hearing about the loss without any results. "How will you explain this loss, Admiral Shannon?"

Shannon calmly answered, "Their weapons were on a completely different level coupled by the fact that Darius disrupted our line of orders by giving his own orders and defying my orders. This was coupled by the fact that this time weapons had an increased range and firepower compared to what was shown before. Apart from these things, I will be taking full responsibility for the failure in this mission."
The minister thought after looking at Grim and Shannon, 'Quite an astute man, he knows whom to blame and whom not to blame.'
Darius eyed Shannon with a cunning smile and answered Duke about the accusations of Shannon, "Lord, I only intended to save the lives of our men after looking at the firepower and range of those ballistas, this was a battle where we would have only lost without any chance to fight back. I also anticipated that this was a trap laid out by Count John and that pirate, after watching the firepower of the Ballistae which only proved to be right after Blake showed up at the end with his men later when we were close to capturing one of the ships. Because of Admiral Shannon's stubbornness and ego, we lost 5000+ men instead of only losing a mere 500-700 after the first assault. We should had reduced our losses at the start after the first assault."
Fjord couldn't reject Darius's explanation which seemed quite convincing, He thought, 'I can't anger both of these men at such a critical junction of war. God, why did I agree with Grim to send Darius in this mission? I can't be angry, I need to calm down and solve this problem.'
Jonas came near Fjord and advised him, "Lord, Shannon's disciple too has been dispatched to raid Rose's ships this time around. I think you should wait if you are going to give any punishment to Admiral Shannon. Currently, we are at war So I would advise not to take any actions against Shannon, I don't think you would want any mutiny right now or it will only help Duke Rose and that upstart, while the Royal family is eyeing the blueprints of our ships like hungry wolves."
Fjord sighed and gave his orders, "Darius you will go back to the land knights and while Shannon will handle the Navy with supervision from one of my men, he won't be interfering with his decisions. While Both of you won't interfere with each other."
Shannon furrowed his brows a bit but didn't object after hearing the orders. While Darius and Grim were quite happy as they didn't get implicated because of the earlier fiasco.
Fjord continued with his rant, "Fuck it, This time was quite a humiliation to us in the whole kingdom. We had never lost a war at the seas and today we are watching such a result while losing 5000 of our men. We need those weapons at all costs or else our casualties will only rise. Do we really need to raid that eastern port? And why does it have to be that Pirate Blake of all the people? Does anyone have any solutions?"

Everyone kept quiet when it came to those ballistas,
Jonas gave a suggestion after watching everyone remaining quiet, "Speaking of Admiral Blake, I think we can make a protest against that count in the royal court since he has hired a pirate wanted by the royal family. With this, we can at least make sure that he won't be getting any political protection from the royal family."

Fjord nodded, "Okay, we will go with your plan. Meanwhile, increase the patrols and tell the shipyard to increase the production of ships. This time I will consider selling our ships to those pirates. And also increase the recruitment of our navy. And also try to make those ballistas, haven't you been given the sketches of those ballistas from all the angles to our craftsmen?"

Jonas: "They are already at work. However, it is quite hard to make a prototype without any blueprints or one physical ballista."

Chapter end