The Future of Warfare

Chapter-5B: ...And thus, War looms over the Horizon

-Stardew Bay Harbour, Milikathian Kingdom-

This was the nature of the coastal capital city of the Milikathian Kingdom, the Stardew Bay Harbor. People here and there sell fish and other seafood both within and out of the Kingdom, and other wares for both local populace and the nomadic tribes occasionally entering the Kingdom to stock up some much needed supplies before heading out once again into the Wild. Fishing boats sail in and out of the bay as they come in to deliver a variety of seafood products to sell and go back to catch more of them, while at the same time, brigantines, frigates, corvettes, and War galleons all sailed around the harbor to defend the capital city against any possible threats coming from the sea. 

While everyone was busy going about with their daily lives, one member living in the city was busy with an entirely different business.

King Solomon the Second, father of the Twin Royalties, Prince Solomon the Third and Princess Amelia the Second, was in his throne room, doing one work which universally everyone would want to avoid but couldn't in the end. 

Paperwork. 

Frustrating and daunting, but still essential. That's the nature of paperwork when it involves an Empire, a Kingdom, or a nation, be it a minor one or a major one.

As he work through paperwork, Solomon II was looking at the proposals that his people had come up for the benefits of the Milikathian Kingdom, ranging from newer merchant ship designs to deal with Pirates, to proposals of making Golems with literal steel to help defend the Kingdom from both Bandits and other outlaws from plundering the Kingdom, to even suggestions of reforming the tax system. 

Solomon II sighed. His kingdom was literally the smallest of the Fourth Civilization Zone, which in turn, considered as the weakest, military wise. As such, they adopted a military doctrine of heavy defense rather than offense. 

A kingdom of little resources to work with, and on land that had poor fertility to grow crops, they mostly had to rely on Crystal Trade of the Continent where they used their earnings to buy much needed resources and food products to keep up with their local economy, which relied heavily on fisheries, logging, and gold mining, in exchange for other commodities to keep his people happy, or at least be satisfied, to keep on going along their daily lives. 

He then remembered that the twins, Solomon and Amelia, were heading down south via sea to visit a Milikathian Mining Outpost to check on the progress. For nearly five days since they had left, he could not contact them at all, fearing that the worst might have happened to them. He quietly prayed to the Goddess of Protection that nothing bad happened to them. 

As if she had given him an answer, a knock on his door could be heard.

"Come in."

His retainer, no older than thirty, came in. "Your Majesty. I… There's something approaching Stardew Bay." He reported. 

This made Solomon II quickly look up to him, as if he had heard something bad. "Is it the Leviathan, or the Bilissians?" For all he knew, it's either the Leviathan of the Dark Depths or the taunting Bilissian Imperium when something unknown was approaching the Stardew Bay. 

"I don't think it's either of them." the retainer answered, confusing Solomon II.

"Then, what is approaching Stardew Bay then?" he asked. 

The retainer tried to find words to describe what he saw, only to reply; "It's… better to see them yourselves, Your Highness. It's difficult to describe what I have seen. And even if I could, you might not believe me at all." 

Getting the gist of what he meant, as well as becoming curious about what he had seen that made him speechless, the king stood up and followed the retainer to a balcony facing towards the harbor.