"Don't come looking for me unless something unexpected happens. Let me be alone for a while."
After the Lightning rejoined the Rose Fleet's fleet, Lucat said this to Leto, and then he went back to his cabin alone.
Leto watched Lucate leave with concern. He had been present during his meeting with Clemento, and Clemento's behavior had made him uneasy.
That kind of madness shouldn't be seen in a commander-in-chief who bears such important responsibilities.
Although the Huns always clamored for the Yan people to pay for their blood debts, and Federich often acted extremely irritably, they were clearly much inferior to Clemento today.
Clemento's mind was completely consumed by hatred; he seemed to have lost all reason.
Leto remembered Lucat's warning before he set sail: that whoever loses their mind first in a war is likely to be the loser.
It was for this reason that Leto knew that even with the fleets of three countries and an unparalleled number of warships, being among them still gave him a strong sense of crisis.
This stemmed partly from internal disunity and partly from the commander-in-chief, Clemento, who was blinded by revenge.
On the other hand, the fate of the Federation fleet, which had been upgraded from "missing" to "possibly annihilated," already revealed the strength of the enemy.
From the last confrontation, we learned that the Yan Kingdom possesses more than a thousand sailing warships and an immeasurable number of cannons. Now, the Yan Kingdom's military equipment may have been upgraded, so their threat level has undoubtedly risen to the highest level.
Perhaps their number of warships cannot compare with the Allied forces, but when they have more powerful shells, their only advantage does not seem so obvious.
Hoping that the Federation fleet would inflict casualties on the Yan Kingdom now seems to be nothing more than an unrealistic fantasy, since no trace of Yan Kingdom warships has been found among the many shipwrecks salvaged.
Therefore, it would be unwise to engage the enemy directly before they have revealed their combat strength. Marshal Lucate probably thought so too, since he showed great resistance from the beginning.
But how could Clemento disobey after issuing that binding order?
Leto suddenly felt a sense of bewilderment as he thought about this.
He looked out at the sea in the night, the boundless darkness enveloping everything, the waves crashing against the ship, making unsettling noises.
Dark clouds still hung in the sky, the moon was always half-hidden, and the fleet continued to sail, the arrival of night only slowing them down a little.
The massive fleet lit countless ship lights, yet the entire sea area remained dimly lit.
Just then, a sailor shouted, "The wind is picking up! Should we furl one sail?" With that, the sailor ran towards the ship's cabin.
Leto suddenly took off his hat and murmured:
"The wind is picking up."
He leaned against the railing, looking out at the sea, his mind wandering aimlessly. He didn't know how much time had passed when the soldiers informed him that Lucat was summoning officers from the fleet to the ship for a meeting.
Leto was somewhat puzzled, but he knew that the marshal must have something important to discuss, so he immediately headed toward the cabin.
——
There were no oil lamps lit in the pitch-black marshal's cabin, nor were there any windows, so not a single ray of light could penetrate.
In the darkness, Lucat sat on the cramped single bed, his shoulders slumped, his head hanging low as he looked at the deck.
Then he ripped off his hat and tossed it onto the bed.
Then, he rubbed his hair, making it messy, and then rubbed his face vigorously until it turned bright red.
"Pat-pat-pat".
Footsteps came from outside the cabin door, but Lucat seemed not to hear them, still looking down at the deck.
"Marshal?" Leto called softly from outside.
Lucate did not respond. Leto, who was standing at the door, knew that Lucate was in a bad mood, so he remained silent and stood quietly at the door.
After some time, officers from the other ships arrived one after another, a total of five, and they came down the stairs.
"Leto?" An officer walking ahead looked at Leto, who was standing at the cabin door, with a puzzled expression.
Leto shook his head and said in a low voice, "Please wait a moment, everyone."
The officers exchanged glances, said nothing more, and instead took off their hats and stood in the aisle to wait.
After some time, and still no sign of the cabin door opening, one of the officers couldn't help but whisper in Leto's ear, "Has something happened?"
Leto nodded silently.
The others then turned to look at him. After considering it for a moment, Leto whispered to them everything that had happened after he went to the Sassanid fleet.
After he finished speaking, everyone remained silent and then looked at the tightly closed hatch.
The long wait had made Leto somewhat uneasy, so he prepared to knock on the door and ask.
Just then, a "creak" sounded.
Lucat slowly opened the hatch.
As the hatch opened, the dim yellow light from the corridor slowly filled the dark cabin and illuminated his face.
"Marshal," everyone said in unison, looking at Lucat's serious expression.
"Gentlemen, can you trust me completely?" Lucate asked with a stern face.
Leto was puzzled by Lucat's question, but as his second-in-command, he replied without hesitation:
"Of course, you are our marshal."
“That’s for sure!” the others echoed.
Seeing how quickly they answered, Lucate continued, "So what I'm about to do has a very high chance of making us sinners. Can you accept that?"
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