Katharine

"No, no, wait! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!" the captain hurriedly said, then began to confess.

The flagship of this operation was the Eye of Insight, the "Onlooker Ship No. 3" they hadn't pursued. Katharine Osha, the overall commander of the operation to surround and capture them at sea, was aboard.

"Let's go after it now," Su Ming said hurriedly. "There's still time!"

If they could destroy the flagship and cripple the enemy's command center, they could greatly weaken the enemy's ability to deploy and execute its battlefield plans, throwing them into chaos.

The girl visibly hesitated, then sighed and waved a hand.

"No. Katharine and I are pretty evenly matched, and there's no way she doesn't have help with her," Zijin said glumly. "We're the ones who should be staying out of her way."

Su Ming didn't understand. The other side had just avoided a fight outright, even sacrificing this reconnaissance ship for nothing. If their forces included someone who could go toe-to-toe with the scholar, then with the support of their rune array mages, why would they have done that?

"She was my classmate when I was at the Temple of Light. She's the high priest of the Temple Inquisition." Zijin let out a long sigh and brushed the hair away from her temple, revealing a faint scar. "She hit me with a candlestick and left this. Then she cast a healing spell on me-I had to force myself to endure it as if nothing had happened. I was furious!" She looked thoroughly indignant.

Su Ming felt that Zijin had already used up her entire daily quota of expressions. It seemed this Katharine had to be her one true love.

"But why would Katharine stay obediently in the rear? Knowing her, she should be on the Jade Sea and Tang Valley at the front," Zijin said in puzzlement, raising the wooden stick in her hand to hit the captain on the head again.

"She's pregnant!" The captain was quick to read the situation. "Judging by her figure, she's at least eight months along."

"Pregnant?" Zijin was surprised. "Her daughter's already eighteen, and now she's having a second child?"

That explained why she had avoided a fight, though, and the scholar suddenly thought that pursuing her might not be out of the question.

"No, forget it." She gave up in the end. "I have enough enemies already. If we go after her now, we'll be hunted down by the strongest country on this continent."

Su Ming desperately wanted to pretend he hadn't heard that. He felt he must have gotten something wrong since transmigrating: each enemy he became involved with was more terrifying than the last.

He was an unfortunate soul who had transmigrated by accident, an ordinary corporate drone by profession. He wasn't here to challenge the world. Wouldn't it be better to quietly study the portal, then go home and drink soda and play games again?

Su Ming had never missed world peace so much.

"Who's her husband?" he asked.

"She doesn't have one. That mistress isn't married," Zijin replied. She knocked the captain on the head a few more times, then found she couldn't get anything else of value out of him.

Su Ming was puzzled. Although clergy were free to marry and have children as they wished, she had given birth out of wedlock, was having a second child, and had knowingly become a mistress. As a member of the church's leadership, didn't she need to worry about her reputation?

"It's only because of the identity of this child's nominal father that no one dares say anything." Zijin saw that the zombies on deck had finished the initial dismantling of the hull and were carrying it into the boiler room in batches for fuel. "That should about do it. Su Ming, what do we do next?" she asked, summoning skeleton servants and pointing at the captain. "Drag him away and lock him up for now."

"Wait, aren't you going to let me go?" the captain asked in alarm.

"Once we've gotten away, we'll let you go," Su Ming replied.

"But there's an aircraft carrier formation from the Temple of Light up ahead!" the captain shouted. "The Songstress warships' rune cannons will blast us to dust!"

"Then you'd better pray we get away safely." Zijin gave him another whack.

Su Ming returned to the operations room and updated the sand table with the data gathered during that time. The Jade Sea and Tang Valley had appeared within radar range, 125 kilometers away, south of east.

Ahead of the Jade Sea and Tang Valley, two Songstress Class ships were still positioned ten kilometers forward in an inverted triangle formation. The Squirrel Battle Group on the other side had not appeared within the mast radar's range; it was probably still to the northeast.

But the ship didn't have only X-band radar.

The Zhiyuan first sailed north until the sailors were out of sight, then hoisted its sails and released the sounding balloon.

The wide-area S-band scan was completed, and a radar image covering a radius of 260 kilometers appeared on the display. The equipment even lagged a little.

The scan detected more than a hundred ships in all. Su Ming and Zijin identified and marked them one by one.

"Is this Katharine hard to deal with?" Su Ming asked as he worked.

"She's the Temple of Light's best commander of this generation," the scholar replied. "I suggest you don't match wits with her when it comes to strategy."

"...I don't have the ability anyway."

Most of the targets detected were fishing boats, merchant ships, or possibly logistics vessels supplying the combat fleets.

But they also found a fourth combat fleet: a formation of five destroyers of roughly 800 tons each, 200 kilometers north of the Zhiyuan.

Su Ming designated it the Gomoku Battle Group.

They also found the Squirrel Battle Group. It was indeed to the northeast, 140 kilometers away, working with the Aircraft Carrier Battle Group to encircle the Zhiyuan's position.

With that, counting the six Mabe Class destroyers, they were surrounded by five fleets.

"What a grand scene."

"Oh, there's something I should warn you about," Zijin suddenly said. "We can't follow the coast. If we get too close, we might be ambushed by a dragon."

"A dragon, not a wyvern?" Su Ming thought he had misheard.

"No, a dragon."

Great. Su Ming realized that the enemy lineup had assembled a full set of SSRs.

"That's fine. We were planning to break out toward the open sea anyway," Su Ming said.

He measured the distances between the fleets, especially the Squirrel Battle Group and the Aircraft Carrier Battle Group blocking their way ahead. The two fleets were actually 90 kilometers apart.

He quickly ran the calculations. They really could break through a gap that wide, and their chances were good!

Then don't blame me for slipping through your lines! Su Ming thought.

He drew a route on the sand table. "Zijin, we'll head northeast first and get out of the reconnaissance ship's detection range. Then we'll turn east and pass between the Squirrel Battle Group and the Aircraft Carrier Battle Group!"

Zijin mentally calculated the speed required. "Just how fast can you go?" she asked, baffled. "Once we turn east, we'll be sailing at 45 degrees into the wind!"

Even with the Zhiyuan's steam power, the thrust from its sails was crucial, and its speed would drop sailing into the wind. The speed they needed to break through had to be higher than the 20 knots they had reached before.

"You'll see for yourself soon enough." Su Ming kept her in suspense. "But can Archbishop Stanton help us this time?" he suddenly asked.

"You solved that puzzle quickly," Zijin said approvingly. "He's the best expert in the Flight Spell, so he's sure to take part in the naval battle. I can even guess-"

She pointed at the Squirrel Battle Group. "Stanton will most likely be assigned here to make up for the cruiser formation's weakness."

"In other words, he can't provide us with information or go easy on us this time?" Su Ming asked.