Enlightened Empire

"Since we're on a roll already, maybe we should keep up the good news," Corco said, and turned towards the figure who lazily leaned against the wall in the corner, the only one in the room who didn't look tense or excited and stood far away from everyone else.

"What's the newest development in our conflict on the Verdant Isles? Admiral Atau, How close are we to victory?" Corco asked with great expectations, though his cousin's response robbed the room of the previously gleeful mood.

For a few seconds, Atau just looked around the crowd and yawned, as if he had only just woken up, before he pushed off the wall and lazily walked up to Corco's desk. His cousin's sluggish attitude already told Corco that the news about the Verduic War wouldn't be nearly as good as he had hoped.

"Honestly, I don't quite understand why I was called back here, just to give a report," Atau finally complained, rather than answer the question.

"Just to give a report, that's why," Corco repeated with a patient smile, which ran counter to his inner feelings. "To make an accurate judgment on the state of the war, I need an expert opinion from someone with a good overview of what's happening. And it best be the opinion of someone I can trust. You're really the only one who fits the bill on both counts, so here you are."

Also, Maci asked, the king added in his head. After almost two full years of fighting with no result, his wife was predictably concerned with the war which still plagued her people. Thus, ever since the end of their vacation, Corco had made it a priority to end the war in the Verduic Sea as quickly as possible. Part of that effort was to recall Atau, to adjust their strategy, and to signal the rest of the government that he meant business.

Up until now, their strategy had been to grind down their enemies. Since they didn't have the same solid material and personnel support as the troops of Saniya, those Colored Kings would eventually lose on their own, which would reduce their losses.

The effectiveness of this approach had only been reconfirmed after the costly siege of Antila. They didn't want to waste any more good men if they didn't have to force a quick decision, so they had taken their time with the war in the west.

Now however, Corco understood that the longer the war lasted, the more the ordinary Verdant Folk would suffer, even if they could somewhat reduce their loss of soldiers. After his marriage, the people of the Verdant Isles had become his people as well. Yet in his head, he had still made a subconscious distinction between them and those of the Medala Empire, and valued his troops over the safety and prosperity of the Isles at large. This was a mistake he intended to rectify. So, since Sumaci wasn't here for the meeting as she was feeling unwell, he would have to correct their course in the war himself.

Thus, in order to emphasize the importance of the war, he had recalled Atau from his front line duties for this year's review. However, his cousin's casual attitude only made the war seem even less important. Worse, the admiral looked annoyed as he scratched his head, before he gave the worst possible answer.

"If you want to hear my expert opinion on the war: It's all a mess," he finally said, much to Corco's annoyance. Yet before the king could ask for more details — and maybe a better attitude — the prime minister chimed in first.

"Could we possibly get any more details than that, Admiral Atau? Please?" Fadelio prodded in a mean voice, one dripping in sarcasm. The admiral responded to his life-long nemesis with a dirty look, before he turned back to the king to reply. Although his tone still sounded annoyed, at least he didn't seem so bored any more. He even managed to stand up straight as he spoke.

"Just like we planned, last year we focused on landing operations on the Colored Islands, the homes of the Colored Kings," he explained. "Since we had an army advantage and their cities were poorly fortified, we quickly took over their capitals. Many of them don't even have proper walls, you know? They just trusted their weak navies too much. But that's where our good luck ended. Before we took the cities, the kings — and most of their entourage — escaped, either into the jungle or on their ships. Since then, we haven't found any proper trace of those kings. So all we could do was go slow and clear out random islands one by one, hoping we'll come across them in the process. Every once in a while, we actually find where one of them is holding out, deep in the jungle, or in some cove somewhere on the edge of the common trade lines. But as as soon as those pirates start losing ground on the island, they just take their ships and sail away again, and then we're back to the start. All the while, the ones we aren't hunting keep raiding our islands and harassing our trade lines. It's an endless task."

"I thought you had a naval advantage," Fadelio complained again, before Corco could ask a more reasonable question. "The kingdom wasted the taxes of the people to build you the largest navy in the Verduic Sea, yet you have failed to handle a few defeated pirates?"

Atau stared back at Fadelio, his pride attacked, and his competitive spirit ignited.

"It's not that simple, you genius. Let me enlighten you, since you seem to be a bit slow today. We're not an army, we're a navy. A defeated enemy can't really run away on land. They quickly lose their organization once they try to retreat without preparation. Even if they manage to organize a proper retreat, there's obstacles everywhere on land, like mountains and rivers. All of those block their escape. And feeding a large army while on the run is a challenge all on its own. So once an enemy is broken on land, they're just done. All you have to do is chase them a bit and they fall apart. On the high seas, things aren't so easy. The only obstacle on water is land, and there's not that much of it.. For the slow ones in the room, that means they can run in almost any direction, which is made worse by the complex terrain of the Verdant Isles. For rations, they can just feed their people with stuff they've saved up in their holds, and stock up through fishing, or occasional raids on undefended villages. A fleeing enemy navy only needs to organize a few ships as well, instead of the thousands of individuals an army would have to keep under control. So even if we beat them in a fight, they can just use their knowledge of the local waters and their weatherly ships to flee. So long as they won't fight us straight up, wiping them out will be almost impossible in the short-term."

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Now that the issue was laid out in front of him like this, Corco realized that he had given his cousin a tricky problem without thinking about it too much. All this time, he had thought the only reason for their slow progress on the Verdant Isles had been their desire to minimize losses. Yet with their current approach, maybe they really weren't able to end this war quickly, even if they wanted to. Just as Corco wanted ask more questions to confirm his thoughts — and possibly provide more support for Atau in the war — Fadelio once more chimed in out of turn.

"It appears you are eager to make excuses for your failures," the prime minister said, and added a sneer to his face for good measure. Finally, Atau's very limited patience was exhausted as well.

"If you think you can do my job better, servant boy, then you do it," the admiral shouted. "These days, you just sit in your office and push papers around. Didn't even join the battles in the south last year. Maybe you forgot what a real war is after all these years. How about I give you a good beating to spur your memory, huh?"

"You-"

"Enough!" Corco slammed his fist on his desk before his two close friends could really start a fistfight in his office. All at once, a deathly silence fell over the room, as the king's privy council stared either at their leader or their respective feet in discomfort. Even the always careless Atau looked apologetic. However, he hadn't been the problem, not this time. Instead, the king turned towards the one who had been stepping out of line for a while now.

"Prime Minister Fadelio, stop speaking out of turn," a stern Corco said. "Your comments aren't helping anyone. If you have a problem with my admiral, then you can hand in a formal complaint about him later."

Fadelio looked around the room with a wide stare, as if he had only now realized what he had done. All around him, the officials of the kingdom were averting their eyes, to avoid any involvement in this mess. Only Atau stared back with a crooked grin of satisfaction. Finally, the prime minister took a step back and bowed deeply towards Atau.

"My apologies. I forgot my manners," he said, before he turned to Corco and added: "It will not happen again."

With deep concern hidden behind a stoic expression, Corco looked at his friend's bowed head. Usually, Fadelio was the calmest and most rational among their group. Even in his fights with Atau, he was rarely the instigator, and almost always remained level-headed throughout. Something must have happened to his friend during his absence, otherwise he would never have reacted like this. Maybe all the extra work had truly been too much. Maybe, his attendant also needed a vacation. Yet once again, this wasn't the right occasion to investigate the personal problems of his people, even if they were accumulating at an alarming rate today.

Thus, Corco could only make another mental note and continue the meeting. Once the obvious issues of the kingdom had been resolved, Corco was determined to fix those deeply hidden problems, before they could fester into deadly wounds.

For the moment however, the king first had to suppress the sigh which developed together with his growing concerns. He turned towards his cousin Atau, to begin asking the questions he had been eager to ask before the untimely interruption.

"Atau, how quickly can you get this war done?"

In response to the question, Atau just stared at him in discomfort for a while. Maybe he himself felt incompetent at his failed campaign.

"I have no idea," he finally admitted with a tired sigh. "At the moment, we're really just going around in circles. The Verdant Isles just have too many islands, and they're far too complex. We might have support from the captains of the Green Island, but our progress has still been slow. I mean, even they only know about a fraction of the islands, mostly those around the Green Island. But those Colored Kings like to hide in the places our people know least about. So far, we have tried mapping out the islands to reduce our disadvantage, but it's only shown me even more how many damn islands there are. That's a work we won't finish in a generation. We've already found dozens of groups of deadly underwater reefs, and the rapids, especially around the Red Island, are-"

"Don't explain stuff I won't understand," Corco interrupted. He didn't have the nerve to watch his cousin vent about the technical details of his mission for an hour. Ultimately, he wasn't looking for explanations for the failure. He only wanted to know a single thing. "Just give me an estimate. How long will it take?"

"That's... hard to say."

Again, Atau was dancing around the problem. Just when Corco wanted to force an answer, another voice spoke out of turn, this time to mediate.

"King Corcopaca, is it really necessary to hunt this rabble to the ends of the earth?" Makipura — Corco's new Minister of Agriculture — asked. "After all, almost the entirety of the Verdant Isles' food is produced on the Colored Islands. So long as those islands are under control, the kingdom can take full advantage of the new territories. Even more, those rootless pirates will not be able to stand up to our power forever, not without a stable food supply. Eventually, they will simply disappear."

"I agree. Almost all the verdant industry is placed on the Colored Islands, too," Asiro — the Minister of Industry — added, though it only earned him a dirty look from Makipura. So far, his noble ministers had strictly stayed away from the commoners in Corco's council. It was yet another problem he added to his imaginary 'to-be-resolved' pile. Since it was on the pile now, rather than address the issue immediately, he explained his concerns instead, at least those beyond his desire to see his wife happy.

"Sure, maybe we can exploit the islands with the level of control we have right now. But I don't want to exploit them, I want to rule them. First off, so long as the pirates are still around, our trade lines to the west will never be secure. Those trade lines are the most important thing for us, far more important than the local industry or agriculture. Without those trade lines, we can't transport important foreign goods like rubber or camels to our country anymore. Even our niter shipments from the Bat Islands have suffered attacks since the start of the war. Though all of that are only minor issues compared to our main problem." Corco paused dramatically for a moment. "The endless war makes communication between the Verdant Folk and Medalans more and more difficult. Unifying the two groups into one, united nation is a crucial part of our development strategy. Again, we're not there for conquest. I'm already the legitimate king of those lands. All we want to do is liberate our people there, and to make sure they accept their own role in our dual kingdom while we're at it. I need to know when we'll have those safe trade routes available to work on those goals. Because if the time frame is too long, we'll have to adjust our long-term strategy again."

Finally, Corco turned towards Atau, to repeat his question once more.

"So? How long?"

Again, Atau hesitated before he replied, but this time, there was no one left to help him out. Thus, he had to sigh again and admit the truth.

"Years? Decades maybe."

"What!?"

Finally, Corco lost his composure. This was a much larger problem than the mighty King of the South had anticipated.