A few days later, at the Plaza of Marine Headquarters, which was still under repair.
A downpour had lasted all night, forcing work on the Plaza to stop. Stone slabs and cement lay under makeshift covers. Rainwater dripped from their edges and splashed into puddles.
Fortunately, the sky was clear today. The puddles should dry before long, and repairs could resume.
In a relatively clean corner of the Plaza, Loa and Momonga stood side by side with the sun at their backs. Their broad Coats of Justice cast a wide shadow over the soldiers before them.
"Reporting!"
Momonga's aide ran up with a stack of documents, then snapped to attention and saluted.
"Vice Admiral Momonga! Vice Admiral Loa! Everyone is assembled! Fifty-nine expected, fifty-nine present! Awaiting orders!"
"Fifty-nine. So they really only assigned four warships?" Momonga took the documents and muttered as he read.
Their mission was to wipe out the remnants of the Athos Family. Given the family's former status as Dragon People, many soldiers would still have reservations about attacking them. Sengoku had therefore sent only a small contingent of elite troops, rather than the large force he usually assigned.
But far more soldiers felt nothing but hatred and disgust toward the Dragon People. A chance to eliminate them openly was rare, so plenty had volunteered when the elite troops were recruited.
Momonga had expected at least seven hundred men to join the mission. Instead, there were only fifty-nine. Two Headquarters Vice Admirals were going together. Shouldn't each have a few hundred soldiers under his command?
And they had only fifty-nine in total!
His own warship carried its full complement of one hundred. Another two hundred would sail aboard the other two muscular warships, while the remaining fifty-nine belonged to the Armstrong—no, the Wavebreaker Warship.
"With so few