Intis Republic, Trier, White Maple Palace.
The telegram stamped TOP SECRET lay crumpled on the oval mahogany table.
Emperor Roselle's successors, the current cabinet leaders, sat around it.
"So this is Loen's new kind of warship..."
The defense minister tugged at his tight collar and looked around the table.
"It's just an iron-hulled ship without sails. Even if it runs on an internal combustion engine, how fast can it go?
"Out at sea, wouldn't it just be a target?"
A goateed member of Parliament sneered.
"Idiot."
The president slammed his Solid Gold Fountain Pen onto the table.
Ink splashed across the member's face. He didn't dare wipe it off.
The president rose and walked to the enormous nautical chart on the wall, jabbing a finger against the coastline.
"You think that thing is just a ship? It's a damn airbase that can move across the sea at thirty knots!"
He spun around and planted both hands on the edge of the table.
"It doesn't need an island for supplies or an airfield on land.
"That means it can stop anywhere off our coastline.
"Then planes carrying high-explosive bombs can reach Trier in half an hour! They drop their bombs and leave. How do you defend against that?"
The goateed member's hand froze halfway to his ink-stained face.
They couldn't.
The coastline was too long.
Not unless they planted demigods above Sequence 4 on every beach like fence posts.
But demigods weren't cabbages. Who had enough to use as patrol dogs?
And if they sent their demigods to guard the beaches, who would protect the capital?
Besides, even if they had demigods, so did the enemy.
All the enemy's high-level Beyonders had to do was tie theirs down, and those planes could bomb their cities into ruins.
"And what about those