119 Expedition Arc 4 War Council

"Can't tell you, w."

Kyle grins.

"More fun that way."

He makes a playful face. What the hell, is he even real?

But damn. I didn’t think I’d end up in a situation where I had to call the Emperor by name.

Aisama, my support AI, won’t spill anything about the Emperor either—locked down tight.

Can’t let the Emperor know I don’t know their name.

Ah… maybe the beastfolk know it normally. But I’m too embarrassed to ask them.

Spouse. Spouse would… probably laugh.

"Anyway, you’ll figure it out eventually."

Kyle pats my shoulder, watching me mutter to myself.

Yeah, if you'd just tell me, it’d be over with.

"Right, we should head to the war council soon. Clothes are fine like this."

"What kind of things do they talk about in a war council?"

"Battlefield briefings, status reports, routes for advancing, future predictions... and assigning command roles, I'd guess."

"I don't think I'll be getting involved in this."

"Actually, His Imperial Majesty went to the trouble of summoning us. So you'd better prepare to be asked for your opinion."

I made a sour face, and Kyle just laughed, slapping my back hard.

We’d only just met, and yet he was already acting like we’d known each other for years. After so long being the odd one out, it actually kind of made me happy.

"Commencing military council!"

A military officer in a uniform that leaned more toward medieval knightly garb than anything modern announced the start of the meeting.

The operations room held a large wall-mounted screen and several floating holographic displays hovering in midair.

Facing the wall screen, tiered seats arched like a parliamentary chamber, arranged in a stepped formation.

At the very back center sat the Emperor, followed by the generals of the regular army in the row ahead. To the left and right of the generals’ seats were us princes.

The seats in front were divided by affiliation, with higher-ranking individuals seated lower down.

In front of us princes sat the nobles who had arrived with their armies, their ranks displayed like banners.

These seats also descended in order of noble rank, though they seemed to cluster by faction.

A virtual screen floated directly in front of my seat, projecting various documents and data.

I’d been summoned to the war council along with the first through third princes. The second and third princes were seated across from us.

The first prince was on the Emperor’s side, right next to me. The fourth prince hadn’t been called.

And the fifth and seventh princes had formally withdrawn from the court visit, citing that they wouldn’t arrive by the appointed date—standard procedure, of course.

The enemy’s assault hit the Eighth District—directly under the Emperor’s personal jurisdiction.

It’s a week’s journey from the Imperial Capital via the hub Dimensional Jump Gate, currently locked down to prevent the enemy from using it.

Though there are signs they’re trying to interfere with the system and seize control.

They number around five hundred thousand, and we believe at least ten capital-class vessels are involved.

“The Eighth District, or did they cross the galactic arm without using the Dimensional Jump Gate?”

“Likely they used repeated short-range dimensional jumps—warping in stages.”

“The Eighth District contains eight star systems. They have names, but for operational convenience, we refer to them as Eight-A through Eight-H.

The hub Dimensional Jump Gate is located in Eight-A. The enemy is currently invading from Eight-H.”

The operations officer manipulates the wall screen and the virtual screen directly in front of us, displaying the enemy's invasion route.

The enemy appears to have secured the Eight-H system and is now moving via short-range dimensional jump—warp—to the adjacent Eight-G system.

"We propose deploying our imperial regular fleet's main force—1 million vessels—at the Eight-G system to confront the enemy head-on."

The operations officer, standing before the wall screen, suggests a strategy so obvious it's almost laughable.

Classic. Standard. Overwhelming force, brute force—nothing fancy, nothing surprising. Just the textbook approach.

"Akira, what do you think?"

Here it comes. Just as Kyle predicted, the Emperor is asking me for my opinion.

What now? Eh, it's not like they'll actually take it, so I might as well say what I'm thinking.

"Facing the enemy head-on at Eight-G—their invasion route—is certainly the conventional choice."

But the enemy’s trying to interfere with the Dimensional Jump Gate system.

If they seize control of the Dimensional Jump Gate system, the main battlefield’ll probably shift to the 8A and 8B star systems.

Their big goal’s gotta be an invasion of the imperial core. I think they’re targeting the Hub Dimensional Jump Gate.

Dispersing our forces is a dumb move—but I reckon we should be putting more weight on 8A and 8B than defending 8C through 8F.

Yeah. I’m honestly surprised I managed to spit that out so casually.

Probably the Emperor just wants a different angle or wants to test my capabilities anyway. So this’ll do.

“Huh. 8A was always planned as a reserve staging area, but why 8B?”

“If the Hub Dimensional Jump Gate’s locked down, they can’t get into 8A.”

Then the enemy will likely make a short-range dimensional jump—warp—from the physically nearby 8B system into 8A.

Preventing their entry into 8B beforehand would be the smarter move, I think."

"You can't track what's happening in 8G, then?"

The emperor nodded in agreement with my assessment, then turned to the operations officer for confirmation.

"Confirmed: all capital ships have completed short-range dimensional jumps. But we don’t know if all 500,000 vessels are now stored aboard the capital ships.

Still, sabotage efforts against the Dimensional Jump Gate system are ongoing."

"Hmm. Then I’ll entrust the defense of 8B to Kyle and Akira."

Oh. Dragged Kyle into it. Might’ve done him a disservice if he wanted to fight.

Then again, being told to hold the line alone wouldn’t have been so bad for me….

"Our entire army advances into the 8A system. Through the Hub Dimensional Jump Gate, we deploy one million regular troops into the 8G system to meet the enemy.

We position a reserve force of 100,000 in the 8A system. The 8B system is defended by Kyle and Akira’s two-man force. The 8C through 8F systems each hold one thousand defenders.

The Hub Dimensional Jump Gate remains locked after each fleet’s jump, until further orders. Do not allow the enemy to advance toward the Imperial Capital. That is all."

The Emperor issues the battle order. Hmm. He doesn’t trust my opinion—but he still took it into account.

We follow the directive and head to the battlefield.

"This feels like drawing the short straw, doesn’t it?"

Kyle’s words—did they mean we’re being shut out of the main front at 8G? Or was it a warning about the peril of defending 8B with only twenty thousand? I couldn’t tell.

And me? I’m on my Personal Ship, operating alone. Probably not expected to do much at all.

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