The flagship of the Hegemony's army.

The massive, six-thousand-meter-class battleship looked just like a mobile fortress.

Aboard the ship of Aluna, the soon-to-be Hegemon, cheers erupted as they detected the Banfield family's movements.

On the bridge, Aluna stood up from the supreme commander's seat, her body trembling.

There was no fear in her.

Her cheeks were faintly flushed, and she gazed at the approaching Banfield fleet with the look of a maiden in love.

"I thought the Imperial Army had no warrior's spirit, but it seems the Banfield family is different. Excellent. You're the best, Liam!"

To fight Liam, she had dispersed her allies to form an encirclement.

But rather than being frustrated that it had been unnecessary, Aluna and her forces were ecstatic.

The soldiers and knights on the bridge raised their voices.

"As expected of the Empire's hero!"
"Such manliness is wasted on the Empire."
"This is a true hero!"

The fierce warriors of the Hegemony were stirred.

Aluna extended both hands toward the enemy fleet displayed on the monitor—and then clenched them into fists.

"Come—I will crush you."

However, right before Aluna and her forces—an unsettling movement was seen within the Banfield fleet.

Annoyed, one of Aluna's eyebrows twitched.

"—What is this?"

The reason for her low, irritated voice was that a portion of the Banfield fleet was beginning to defect.

If it were a strategy, Aluna would have accepted it, but the enemy fleet's movements clearly looked like desertion.

Just when she thought she could fight a unified Banfield force, she felt as if cold water had been thrown on her.

"To think they can't even keep their army together. Is this all Liam and Klaus amount to?"

In Aluna's mind, her evaluation of Liam dropped slightly.

◇

Meanwhile, Marie was stunned on the bridge of her ship.

"They fled—you say?"

Marie's reorganized fleet had tens of thousands of vessels added to its command.

For a moment, she couldn't comprehend the sight of a portion of them defecting.

But Marie was a first-rate commander.

As soon as she realized deserters were coming from her own fleet, she issued an order to the ships under her command.

"Shoot down all deserting vessels!"

The deserting ships were immediately attacked by their own side and destroyed one by one.

However, the number of ships attacking their former allies was small.

Only the ten thousand ships she had led into this battle and the purely Banfield family fleets carried out the order.

Her adjutant, with a bitter expression, quickly re-evaluated the fleets under her command.

All of them were fleets formed from armies absorbed from other houses.

And then, the number of fleeing vessels began to increase.

"Scum."

Marie understood everything from her adjutant's words, but she could no longer change the tide.

Thirty percent of the fleet under her command was deserting.

Looking at her other allies, twenty percent of Tia's fleet had also deserted.

The only fleets barely holding together were likely Liam's and Klaus's.

Their fleets were composed of elites or purely Banfield family forces.

That was why they had few deserting ships.

However, it didn't change the fact that deserters had come from her own fleet.

The blood drained from Marie's face.

Until now, the Banfield army had been strong and achieved results because its discipline was maintained.

Due to the negative effects of rapid expansion, that discipline was beginning to crumble.

Given time, Liam could have built a formidable army, but this time, there was far too little of it.

"—Kill them."

"What?"

The adjutant couldn't catch Marie's strained voice and asked her to repeat it.

Marie grabbed the adjutant by the collar.

"Kill them all. If we allow any more desertions, we'll lose before we even fight."

Before they could even fight the Hegemony, the Banfield fleet was on the verge of defeat.

Just as the adjutant was about to issue the order, a communication came in from Liam.

"Marie, leave the deserters be."

Liam, on the other end of the communication, was calm and showed no signs of panic.

He was sitting in his chair, acting as if nothing was wrong.

"B-but, at this rate, our army will collapse before we even fight!"

"So what? Focus on the fleet in front of you. All you need to do is follow my orders."

The communication was cut, and Marie clenched her fists.

"—It's an order from Lord Liam. Cease the attack on the deserting ships."

◇

The great Banfield fleet of five hundred thousand.

Of them, one hundred thousand allied ships had begun to desert.

On the bridge of the flagship, the Argos, Eulisia broke into a cold sweat as she watched the scene unfold.

(The difference in strength with the enemy is only widening.)

If it were just an opponent with superior numbers, the Banfield fleet would likely break through.

However, their opponent was the Hegemony.

A fleet of six hundred thousand, highly trained and equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry.

Eulisia couldn't imagine a future where they could win, but the bridge of the Argos was calm.

It was tense, but they hadn't given up on the fight yet.

(What is with these people?)

She couldn't believe they could remain so calm in a situation where the outcome seemed already decided.

Liam was watching his army's situation on the monitor while yawning.

Eulisia approached one of the staff officers on the bridge and spoke to him.

Around them, commanders and staff officers were busily conferring, but this particular officer's role was to stand by Liam's side.

"Excuse me."

"What is it, Rear Admiral?"

Eulisia asked the Colonel, one of the staff officers, about the situation on the bridge.

"The bridge is awfully calm, isn't it? Do you have some kind of trump card?"

"A trump card? Lord Liam might have prepared one, but I am not aware of it."

"Then how can you be so calm!"

The Colonel, chided in a low voice by Eulisia, turned his gaze toward Liam.

"You must not be aware, Rear Admiral. We have been watching Lord Liam since his first campaign."

The Colonel seemed to be recalling the time of Liam's first battle.

"Lord Liam has always fought against colossal enemies."

"B-but, this is the first time you've been in such a disadvantageous situation, isn't it?"

"Not at all—in his first campaign, Lord Liam fought and won against an enemy more than five times our size."

Eulisia realized that Liam had the absolute trust of his military.

However, she couldn't be optimistic.

"But the ships deserting from our side are endless, aren't they?"

"It is a deplorable situation. Thanks to that, the senior officers are in a great panic."

This was why the commanders and staff officers assigned to the flagship were so busy.

Eulisia glared at the Colonel.

"At this rate, we might lose before we even fight."

"—Do you think so?"

The Colonel's gaze fell upon the bustling staff officers.

When Eulisia also looked over, she saw one of the staff officers talking with a fleet commander.

However, the content of their conversation was not what Eulisia had imagined.

"Are you saying no ships have deserted from your fleet?"

"You're persistent! Don't lump us in with those other ingrates."

"Ingrates?"

"Our homeworlds were saved by Lord Liam. If we were to become ingrates and flee now, we'd be no different from traitors back home."

"—If no ships have deserted, then that's fine. Your fleet will fight under the command of Lady Christiana's Third Army."

When the communication ended, a conversation with another commander began.

Many vessels had deserted, but there were still allies who remained.

Eulisia couldn't hide her surprise, her eyes wide.

(You've got to be kidding. In a situation like this, as the number of deserters increases, everyone should be scrambling to escape first.)

The Banfield fleet, despite producing many deserters, was barely managing to maintain its formation.

The Colonel muttered to the stunned Eulisia.

"Lord Liam remains as popular as ever with his subjects. He has high support even from the people of the planets he has newly acquired."

◇

Meanwhile.

Tia was witnessing an unbelievable sight.

"—The fleet held together?"

She had expected the number of deserters to keep increasing, leading to their defeat before they even clashed with the Hegemony's army.

However, although their numbers had dwindled to four hundred thousand, the Banfield fleet remained.

Nearly twenty percent had deserted, but they were still in a condition to fight.

On the bridge, Tia felt a laugh bubbling up.

"Should I say, 'As expected of Lord Liam'?"

For a time, Tia had been prepared to defy orders just to ensure Liam's escape.

But that was no longer necessary.

Her adjutant asked Tia for instructions.

"Lady Tia, the fleet formation is ready."

"—Focus on what's in front of you. We're about to clash with the Hegemony's army."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Tia glanced at the cluster of deserting ships displayed on a part of the monitor.

(If they survive, I'd love to kill them with my own hands—but that seems unlikely.)

◇

The vessels that had deserted from the Banfield fleet gathered to form a makeshift fleet.

Commanding them was a man who had once served as a commander for another house.

From the bridge of his battleship, he watched the Banfield fleet charge the Hegemony's main force.

"What a bunch of idiots. You think they can win by charging in like that?"

His adjutant asked the commander worriedly.

"Can we escape like this? We're surrounded by the Hegemony's fleet."

"We just need to target a small fleet and punch through. That Liam brat is a real charge-happy idiot, going straight for the head of the supreme commander. If you're going to attack, you should aim for the enemy's weak spot."

"Right! As expected, Commander, you're so reliable. A world of difference from Liam."

The smooth-talking adjutant flattered the commander to get on his good side.

They had not a shred of loyalty toward Liam.

Being absorbed from the armies of other houses was one reason, but they also hadn't received the re-education they were supposed to undergo.

They were soldiers who had only learned how to slack off in other houses, constantly thinking about how to deceive nobles and take it easy.

The responsibility didn't lie with them alone.

It was also the result of the nobles treating them poorly.

It was the result of learning from long years of experience that pledging loyalty was meaningless.

The commander spoke about their future prospects.

"Fortunately, our equipment is state-of-the-art. With a force of this size, there's no doubt we'll succeed as pirates. From now on, we'll threaten the nobles and live in luxury."

The man, who once had aspirations, had become completely rotten after being exploited by nobles for many years.

The adjutant reported.

"Commander, we've spotted a fleet of ten thousand ships. If we defeat them and break through, we can breach this encirclement."

"The Hegemony guys are idiots, too. They've spread their encirclement too thin. A force of this size, we can tear through them easily."

As the deserter fleet charged toward the ten-thousand-ship Hegemony force—the situation changed completely.

The moment they closed to combat range with the ten-thousand-ship fleet—Hegemony vessels appeared via short-range warp on both flanks of the fleet.

Their numbers were in the tens of thousands.

"Wh-!?"

The Hegemony commander opened a communication channel to the astonished commander.

"You utter fools! You cowards who have sullied Her Highness Aluna's battle, I will annihilate you right here!"

The Hegemony forces, gathering one after another, were for some reason furious with the deserter fleet.

The small fleet was a decoy.

It was a strategy where, if attacked, allies would immediately rush in from the surroundings to encircle the enemy.

The reason Liam hadn't targeted the small fleet was because he understood it was a trap.

The commander had failed to see through it.

The commander, realizing his defeat, immediately offered to surrender.

"Wait! We surrender!"

In response, the enemy commander gave him a cold stare.

"—You will all become space dust right here."

And so, the deserter fleet was destroyed by the Hegemony's army.