第１６４０堀：海の防衛は難しい (Part2)
"Well, I suppose you're right. It was just a sea monster slipping in from the open ocean where there are no walls or boundaries. Perhaps I should be praising them for catching up within three hundred meters."
"Indeed."
Vilia, too, seemed to suggest that rather than a failure on our part, Shera and her team had performed admirably. I shared that sentiment. After all, even with detection skills, there’s no telling when or where something might emerge. Even as military personnel, they can't simply hunt monsters indiscriminately; if they venture too far beyond our territorial waters, our own coastal defenses would be left vulnerable. It’s a truly impossible situation.
"That being the case, it simply means we need to bolster our military and expand our territorial waters simultaneously."
"True. That would be the ideal solution. Though, the question remains: where are we going to pull the funding and the training resources from?"
It’s easy to say, but hard to execute.
"Manpower is out of the question, so we’ll need to expand our monster units. Which means..."
"We have no choice but to rely on Aslin. Aside from her, there’s no one who can properly train and command summoned monsters."
Increasing the monster units isn't as simple as it sounds. Just because you summon them doesn't mean they’re ready for duty. Shera and her team are effective precisely because they underwent rigorous military training; if you were to deploy amateur monsters, they might obey orders, but they wouldn't know how to function as a cohesive military unit. They’d likely all swarm a single intruder at once, or fall easily for the simplest of feints. That is the kind of instruction they require.
"Alright, I’ll ask Aslin to handle the expansion, and we’ll proceed with extending the territorial waters."
"Excuse me? Were you listening? We’re already having trouble as it is. Expanding it any further..."
"Calm down. I’m not saying we have to eliminate everything that appears within the detection range of the new territory."
"What do you mean by that?"
"It’s simple. We only need to eliminate those that cross a certain line. For instance, our dungeon-based land reclamation is done in one-kilometer increments. Our current territorial waters, including the port town, span five hundred meters. That makes a total of fifteen hundred meters. If we decide that the five hundred-meter line requires immediate interception, why not add another five hundred meters as a buffer and focus on exterminating anything that crosses the one-kilometer mark?"
I see. So, he’s proposing an interception line separate from the total detection range.
"That doesn't sound bad. But even so, that only secures the resort and the fishing port. It doesn't solve the issue of fishing itself, does it?"
At the end of the day, even if we secure a place for recreation, it doesn't mean we can conduct fishing operations. The areas suitable for fishing are further out than five hundred meters. Even if we could do it closer in, the area is too narrow to meet the demand.
"I have a proposal for that, too. I’m thinking of placing fences along the lines where fishing is viable."
"Fences?"
"Fences? You mean like the partitions used in houses?"
"Exactly the kind of fence Vilia is thinking of. Though, it’s closer to a cage, really. We’ll install fences in the territorial waters with gaps wide enough for fish and seafood to pass through, but too narrow for large monsters. What do you think?"
"If we do that, we could keep the large monsters out while still allowing for fishing. Though, how do you intend to make such a fence... ah, I suppose that’s where the dungeon comes in."
"Precisely."
I understood Yuki’s objective. In that case, it certainly wasn't impossible.
"We won't know until we actually try it, but that leaves the small monsters to be dealt with manually, right?"
"That’s how it will be for the smaller ones. Can you handle them?"
"If they’re small, they won't have much power, so that shouldn't be a problem. But we won't be able to catch large fish. Is that acceptable?"
"We can leave that to the adventurers outside the fence."
"I see. So you’re leaving that part to them."
"The more opportunities for profit, the better. I’d be grateful if they just transitioned into fishermen."
"I doubt skilled adventurers would want to become fishermen... but I understand your strategy, Yuki. We’ll calculate which lines would be most effective for defense and get back to you. Could you explain this to Aslin?"
"Understood."
And so, we would be discussing with Yuki where to place these monster-prevention fences to ensure optimal defense. If we place them too close, we’ll have no way to stop anything that breaks through, so perhaps a two-kilometer line, including the surrounding perimeter, would be best? Building a wall in the ocean is an understatement for the amount of work involved. But these people can do it. It’s a matter of utilizing the tools at our disposal.