Volume 2 Chapter 11: Pirate Hunter Liam

Avid had a shield mounted on each of its shoulders.

It was a large aircraft among mobile knights, the kind of machine that put a large burden on it's pilot.

In addition to that, it was a very difficult-to-handle aircraft that had the appropriate power to match it's large size which didn't allow the automatic pilot assist functions to be installed.

It was bigger than the average knight, stronger than the average knight, and painted as black as space itself.

When such an Avid approached one of the Peetak house's cruisers, it started bombarding the ship with the bazooka held in it's left hand.

Even though the cruiser's anti-aircraft lasers hit Avid– all of them were blocked by an energy shield wrapped around it.

The cruiser burst into flames from the bazooka's rockets.

Looking for his next prey, Liam started chasing the Peetak house's mobile knights that were fleeing the scene.

"You're too slow!"

All of the knights the Peetak house employed were second-hand goods and were outdated.

The performance difference was just too big, forcing them to be destroyed the moment that they were caught by Avid.

"The feeling of an overwhelming power difference is amazing!"

Following behind the laughing Liam was a battalion of knights.

They were supposed to be Liam's escort, but they couldn't even catch up to him.

The Banfield house's mobile knights were the mass produced models used in the imperial army.

More specifically, they were of a brand new model made for an elite force.

If they wanted to gain an advantage through numbers, the enemy pirates and the Peetak house would need a combined force between forty to fifty thousand ships.

However, even if that would give them a chance, whether or not they'd actually win was another matter.

When Liam arrived at the Peetak house's flagship, multiple magic circles manifested around avid.

Missile pods started materialising out of them.

Hundreds of missiles were then discharged and exploded on the Peetak house's flagship.

Watching over the situation, Tia, who was riding a white aircraft-

"To be able to manipulate such a complex aircraft as if it were part of his own body– it's beautiful. I need to make sure I don't lose to him."

While she was taking in his image, an enemy unit had approached her.

In response, she slammed down on the pedal to accelerate her aircraft to it's top speed– destroying the approaching enemy as she passed it by.

Enemies were destroyed one after another from the aircraft Tia refused to slow down.

"More... MORE!!!"

Tia's eyes were bloodshot.

"The hell that I tasted is nothing compared to this!"

The fleeing Peetak soldiers were begging for mercy.

But Tia didn't feel any sympathy for them, despite hearing their voices.

For Tia, the moment that they decided to work with pirates, they were nothing but enemies to be eliminated.

Wherever Tia's aircraft passed, only the scattered debris of her enemies remained.

There was no one among the pirates nor the Peetak house who could stop the princess knight of a lost country.

◇ ◇ ◇

While the Peetak house's fleet and the pirates were being slaughtered.

Katerina, who was to accompany Peter on the trip back to his territory, couldn't hide her confusion.

All the ships that came to pick them up were outdated.

That in itself was fine.

There weren't any problems in using old-fashioned products as long as they were treated carefully.

However, the battleship 'Peter III' that Peter himself boarded was completely obsolete.

It was a battleship model from hundreds of years ago, and while it's outside was remodeled to be flashy the contents on the inside were terrible.

In addition to that, Peter's personal quarters were wasteful.

"What do you think? My ship truly is the best."

When Peter started talking, Katerina was troubled,

"I-it's quite... umm... vintage."

Although the impression she had wasn't very favourable, Peter didn't seem to care.

"It's amazing, right? This one is my favourite. It's quite the outstanding model back home."

Katerina started feeling dizzy as she heard that.

The imperial army– second-hand battleships bought from the models they didn't use anymore would be better than this.

Not to mention how Peter's quarters were uselessly large, taking up space on the ship that could be used for more important things.

Peter didn't seem to understand that with these modifications, the ship's already dismal performance would only be further reduced.

"Oh, I-I actually prefer smaller ships. Have you ever considered buying a cruiser?"

Rather than riding something this big and useless, it'd be better to just buy a new ship of a smaller size class.

She seriously was starting to contemplate if she should call her father and ask him to lend one of his ships instead.

"I don't like cruisers. To be honest, I'd prefer a super-class battleship, but the Empire won't sell them to me."

"...you haven't been recognised by the capital?"

This revelation surprised Katerina, as it was different from everything she was told before,

"I've requested it of them before but they refused me."

Super-class flagships, and the even larger fortress-class battleships, could only be sold to nobles the Empire recognised.

They were a symbol of how much trust the Empire placed on the noble house.

For a family on the level of a count house to not have that recognition– there clearly had to be something wrong with them.

(This is different from what I was told! I thought there'd be no problems with marrying into this house!)

After listening to Peter's story, waves of uneasiness seemed to wash over Katerina.

Peter continued to blather on, completely ignorant of the state she was in,

"I've grown so much over the past three years. I'm practically twice as big as I used to be-"

But Katerina was seriously contemplating her future, ignoring Peter's rambles.

(First, I need to contact father and confirm the cancelation of this engagement.)

Wasn't this a very bad situation?

Katerina's anxiety only seemed to grow bigger and bigger.

◇ ◇ ◇

As I rode around in Avid, the enemy's formation collapsed and they started to flee.

They were foolish trash who claimed to be part of the Peetak house.

To even use the name of a famous noble house, only fools would believe their bluff and withdraw.

"Because there is no Peetak house here."

They were a house I avoided because they specialised in righteousness, seriousness, and personal justice.

Without a doubt, they were a noble house that put an emphasis on internal affairs and virtuous ideals.

For the private army of such a house to have such an unskilled fleet full of outdated equipment was absurd.

–it was impossible.

They made a mistake in which name to choose.

These guys were no doubt evil pirates who impersonated nobles.

"But I am more evil than you."

In essence the nobles of this universe were the same as pirates.

Unlike them though, even if we were a little bit more well-behaved, nobles were individuals who had absolute control over their own territory.

In other words– as a villain, I was stronger than them.

"Now, it's about time I find the enemy flagship."

I've been searching for their flagship for a while now, but I couldn't find it.

All of their ships look the same.

While I searched for the enemy, I left the remaining enemy forces to my allies.

Of all of them, Tia was the best.

The number of enemies she's killed won't stop rising.

"Oh, she's actually pretty good. I didn't expect this windfall."

Before I knew it, all the nearby enemies were gone.

When I moved on to the next area in search of new foes– I found a pirate ship that was a little bigger than the rest.

◇ ◇ ◇

The bridge in Var had received a call from the pirates.

"I'm begging you! We surrender, please have mercy on us! We're victims here too! It was Viscount Razel who told us to do this!"

To their plea, the commander-in-chief responded,

"Now, isn't that an interesting story."

He was making conversation while drinking a cup of coffee.

While he did this, the allied forces continued to attack the pirates.

Unlike the calm commander-in-chief, the leader of the pirate fleet seemed to be having a breakdown.

"To accept our surrender, what do you want?! Do you want us to swear our loyalty to you?! We even have a large amount of control over the underworld you can use! If you want monetary compensation, we'll pay you anything!"

The commander-in-chief smiled at the pirate leader who was selling his services.

The pirate leader smiled back.

"Sleep talk is something you save for after you go to sleep. All you pirates are the same. The moment you know you'll lose, you immediately turn to sell-outs."

"W-what?"

"Tell me, do you know what we do with such pirates?"

"Don't you want to know more about Viscount Razel's intentions?! You need us alive to tell you why he attacked you!"

"–not necessary. There's no need to negotiate with pirates."

As the pirate leader started to scream something, the image displayed on the monitor was suddenly filled with static before completely shutting off.

One of the operators gave a report,

"Avid has destroyed the enemy flagship. Lord Liam also left a message saying 'I'm coming back now, I'm feeling tired.'"

The commander-in-chief exhaled,

"Give him the OK to retire. I actually wanted to talk to them a bit more, but if Lord Liam defeated them early because he was growing tired, I guess it couldn't be helped."

He wanted to hear what else the pirate leader still had to say.

The operator gave another report,

"The enemy is withdrawing."

The commander-in-chief ordered,

"Chase them down."

The moment Liam made his judgement on the matter, this was the only natural result.

The commander-in-chief looked at Kurt, who slumped into his chair as if all the tension in his body was suddenly cut.

"Lord Kurt, please allow me to apologise for involving you in our battle with pirates."

Kurt shook his head,

"No, I learned a lot from this. Though even just being an observer was tiring."

"I'm glad to hear that. Somebody, bring Lord Kurt a drink."

◇ ◇ ◇

When I finally returned, all the soldiers were lined up to greet me.

I felt really good.

As I got off of Avid, they started to applaud me.

"You were wonderful, Lord Liam."

"Yeah."

I raised my hands and answered them.

They really are doing their best to suck up to me.

All this praise was being made despite the fact that this was all because I was piloting the amazingly strong weapon known as 'Avid'.

I felt powerful.

Even though it was only natural for us to win, it feels nice to be complimented like this.

A soldier came up and gave me a report,

"After the remaining skirmishes finish, we'll leave three thousand vessals here, and we'll head over to Baron Exner's territory with the rest."

"Scrap all the debris and take the rest back to the territory. Did we find any treasure?"

The soldier shook his head,

"We haven't found any treasure suitable for you, Lord Liam. However, the enemy has a bounty, so we can collect a reward from the Empire."

The amount listed for the bounty was huge.

This was going to be very helpful for rebuilding my house's finances.

"This time was a failure. Let's hope the one's in Kurt's territory have more."

It was only natural for me to be praised this much– this as well, was all because I was the one in power here.

If I was just another pilot, there's no way I'd get this much applause.

In that case, I'd also have to work harder.

To be able to rampage whenever I like, and come straight back once I feel tired– it truly is the best to be the one in power.

◇ ◇ ◇

Tia was looking at the kill scores.

Although there was a wide gap between herself and third place, she was nowhere close to Liam, who had the top spot.

She was surprised.

"Not even skilled veterans could pilot such an aircraft."

From a general point of view, Avid was a very difficult aircraft to control.

Of course, it was difficult to maneuver, but there's no doubt that ordinary pilots would be thrown around by it's high specs without being able to use it properly.

The soldiers were talking as they did maintenance on Avid.

"To be able to control a machine like this... was Lord Liam born into the wrong calling?"

"If he was born into a knight's house, he'd definitely become the top ace of the Empire."

"The joints are at their limits. We might have to send it back to the manufacturer."

Far from being swung around by it, Tia was growing more and more excited by the fact that Liam had the ability to bring out Avid's performance to its limits.

◇ ◇ ◇

A large transport ship owned by the Henfrey Chamber of Commerce had arrived at the post-combat space.

The Banfield house had called them to help replenish their supplies.

A gravity generator was placed down to collect the debris.

The attracted debris swirled around it, while a work pod flew threw the rubble to collect whatever could be deemed to still be useful.

From Liam's territory, they were debris collectors.

Thomas, who owned the large transport ship and the supplies, was invited over to a battleship.

He braced himself for negotiations, but the topic of the discussion was the pirates.

"–so it's been confirmed that they were connected to the viscount's house?"

A serious-looking soldier approached the topic while checking over the list Thomas provided.

"Well, it's actually a famous story among the merchants. In fact, many of the movements they've made have been deemed as suspicious by a variety of people."

But the serious soldier didn't seem that interested in that information.

Even more so than that,

"I'm going to report in now, but before that, I'd like to know if the Henfrey company has plans to continue doing business with the Razel house."

Even though they were near a viscount's territory, a large fleet of pirates had attacked them.

And although they reported it, there were no signs of them sending any help.

The military department didn't have a high opinion of their house's purveyor keeping a connection to such a viscount.

"With this incident I've decided to distance myself from them. Everything they've done until now has just been too rude."

Their treatment of Liam was way too harsh.

The soldier seemed to agree.

He was tapping the table with a pen.

"We feel the same way, but Lord Liam doesn't want to protest them."

"Lord Liam doesn't?"

Any complaints they have should be fully justified, so Thomas couldn't understand what Liam was thinking.

The soldier also seemed troubled,

"He doesn't seem interested in doing so. In actuality, it looks like he'd rather focus on building a strong relationship with Baron Exner's house."

"He sure did choose a surprising house to support."

In terms of territory, he wasn't that good of a partner to choose.

For such a house, Thomas couldn't understand the thought process of Liam, who dispatched an army to defeat the pirates plaguing their territory.

However, the soldier in front of him looked a little happy.

"No, even I think it wasn't a good choice in terms of territory, but Baron Exner is considered a hero within the army. The individual himself is a lossless partner, who has a large amount of influence within the military."

The soldier in front of Thomas was probably another of the baron's fans.

He seemed to speak a little lighter when it came to the baron.

Thomas pondered this,