Chapter 105: There’s Nothing We Can Do?

"They were transported back to the Royal Hero Academy as per your orders, Lady Viona. They should be at the training grounds with the rest of the summoned class."

"Bring them here," Viona commanded, pointing toward the golden doors. "Right now. Do not wait for carriage travel. Use the royal spatial scrolls. Bring them to this chamber immediately."

Belis blinked in surprise. "The heroes? But Your Divinity... you previously declared that foreign wars were the sole duty of the imperial military. You ordered them to focus entirely on their dungeon training."

"Do not repeat my own words back to me, Belis!" Viona snapped, her eyes flaring with golden sparks. "The situation has changed! My knights are blind, and my generals are fools! Those two mortals know the nature of the iron beasts that John Smith commands! If they know how those machines operate, they will tell me how to destroy them!"

"At once, Your Divinity!" Belis bowed deeply, scrambling to his feet. He turned toward the royal heralds. "Activate the palace teleportation circle! Summon Hero Ayanokoji and Hero Miyuki to the throne room at once!"

***

Less than five minutes later, the blue runes of the teleportation circle set into the marble floor of the grand entrance flared with bright light.

When the light faded, Ayanokoji and Miyuki stood inside the circle.

Miyuki was wearing her standard academy training uniform—a white tunic with leather armor plates over her chest and shoulders. Her short staff was slung across her back. She looked startled and uneasy, her hands clutching the hem of her tunic as she looked around the grand room. She had been in the middle of a healing spell drill when the royal mages dragged them into the circle.

Beside her, Ayanokoji looked completely unchanged. His hands were tucked casually into the pockets of his dark academy trousers. His brown eyes swept across the shattered porcelain, the crushed berries on the red carpet, and the bleeding Lord Justin leaning against the pillar.

In less than two seconds, Ayanokoji deduced the entire situation.

A total military failure, Ayanokoji thought to himself, his expression completely blank. They attempted a countermeasure, and John crushed it instantly.

"Step forward," Belis urged them, his voice hurried and nervous. "Her Divinity requires your counsel."

Ayanokoji and Miyuki walked down the long carpet, stopping at the base of the marble steps. Miyuki bowed her head politely, while Ayanokoji gave a slight, formal nod.

Goddess Viona looked down at them from her velvet throne.

Her regal beauty was strained. Her golden hair was slightly disheveled, and dark circles of stress were faintly visible beneath her starry eyes. She tried to maintain her haughty, divine posture, but her fingers were tapping rapidly against the marble armrest.

"Hero Ayanokoji. Hero Miyuki," Viona began, forcing her voice to sound calm and dignified, though a sharp edge of irritation lingered beneath every word. "I have summoned you back to the palace on an urgent matter regarding the western heretics."

Miyuki glanced at the shattered plates on the floor, then back up at the goddess. "Lady Viona... did something happen at Port Solis?"

Viona’s jaw tightened. She looked like she had just swallowed something bitter.

"A minor setback," Viona lied smoothly, waving her hand dismissively. "Our grand fleet encountered strange water-curses beneath the harbor, and an aerial patrol met an unfamiliar flying golem outside the barrier. The local commanders are... confused by these tactics. Since you two hail from the same mundane realm as the traitor John Smith, I have decided to grant you the privilege of explaining his weapons to me."

Ayanokoji almost felt like laughing, though his face remained like stone.

A minor setback, he thought. If it were a minor setback, the Prime Minister wouldn’t be sweating through his robes, and the garrison commander wouldn’t be coughing up blood against a pillar.

"What specifically do you wish to know, Lady Viona?" Ayanokoji asked in a plain, level voice.

Viona leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

"The flying beast," Viona demanded. "A single gray iron machine dropped from the clouds. It had no wings that moved. It flew faster than sound, spat fire that tracked wyverns through the air, and tore twenty-nine imperial dragon knights apart in moments. How does it fly without magic? How does it move faster than living creatures? And more importantly... how do my knights shoot it down?!"

Miyuki took a sharp breath, her eyes widening in horror. "Twenty-nine wyverns... killed by one plane?"

"Answer me!" Viona commanded, glaring at Ayanokoji.

"From your description, that was a modern stealth fighter jet," Ayanokoji answered calmly. "Most likely an F-35 or an F/A-18 deployed from their aircraft carrier."

"A jet?" Viona frowned. "What is a jet?!"

"It is an aircraft that uses internal combustion engines to push massive amounts of air out of its rear exhaust, creating forward thrust," Ayanokoji explained simply. "It does not need magic or flapping wings. It relies on the laws of aerodynamics. The wings are fixed and curved to generate lift as it moves forward at high speeds."

Belis stepped closer, his face full of disbelief. "It flew faster than thunder! How can a machine of solid iron stay in the sky without mana?!"

"Because iron is shaped by physics, not mana," Ayanokoji said. "As for the fire that tracked your wyverns, those were heat-seeking and radar-guided air-to-air missiles. They do not rely on a mage’s concentration. The missile’s nose cone contains infrared sensors that lock onto the extreme body heat of a living dragon. Once fired, the missile’s fins steer it automatically toward the heat source at four times the speed of sound. A wyvern cannot outrun it. A rider cannot dodge it."

Viona gripped the armrests of her throne. "Then how do we defeat it?! Can our paladins use anti-air ballistas? Can our mages erect localized wind barriers to push it into the sea?!"

Ayanokoji looked directly into the goddess’s eyes.

"To be frank, Lady Viona, neither Miyuki nor I are military engineers or fighter pilots. Back in Japan, we were ordinary high school students. Modern warfare was something we only saw on television news, internet documentaries, and Hollywood movies."

Viona’s expression darkened. "Movies? What are movies?!"

"Moving pictures that tell stories," Miyuki explained quickly, waving her hands nervously. "Fictional entertainment! We don’t know the exact blueprints or technical mechanics of American weapons! We only know what they generally do because we saw them on screens!"

"Even so," Ayanokoji continued smoothly, cutting off Miyuki before she panicked, "basic military theory from our world is common knowledge. And based on that knowledge, I can answer your question: your ballistas and wind barriers are completely useless."

Viona stood up, her voice rising. "Useless?! We have five-hundred-pound enchanted siege ballistas that can pierce castle gates!"

"A ballista requires a human gunner to aim with his eyes," Ayanokoji said flatly. "A fighter jet travels at over six hundred miles per hour. By the time your lookouts see a dot in the sky, hear the engine roar, and shout an order to aim, the jet has already crossed two miles of airspace and released its ordnance. You cannot hit a target that moves faster than human reaction time."

"What about magic?!" Viona pressed desperately. "A grand fireball! A lightning strike from a high-tier weather sorcerer!"

"Lightning spells require an incantation and a visible target within a few hundred yards," Ayanokoji replied. "Modern aircraft engage from twenty miles away, hidden entirely inside the clouds. If your mages cannot see the target, they have nothing to aim their magic circles at. In our world’s military terms, this is called Beyond Visual Range combat. You are trying to fight a ghost that can kill you before you even know it is in the sky."

The throne room fell into complete, dead silence.

The priests looked at each other in utter despair. Lord Justin slumped further against the pillar, his head hanging low.

Belis wiped cold sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his robe. "And... and the harbor, Hero Ayanokoji? What of the underwater strikes? Why are our galleons breaking in two beneath the Aegis?"

"Those are acoustic homing torpedoes," Ayanokoji answered without missing a beat. "As I told you earlier, modern militaries attack vulnerabilities. Your holy barrier protects the air and seals against the stone walls, but it does not penetrate the seabed trench because water must flow into the port. The Americans realized this immediately. They are dropping torpedoes outside the breakwater, allowing them to swim beneath the barrier, navigate into the harbor using sonar, and detonate beneath your wooden ships."

"Can we cast a holy barrier beneath the water?!" Viona demanded, looking at her Prime Minister.

Belis flinched. "Your Divinity... to anchor a divine barrier through deep, churning saltwater requires immense mana crystals and consecrated anchor stones laid across the seabed. It would take our high temple architects at least six months of continuous construction to seal the underwater trench!"

"Six months?!" Viona choked, her face turning crimson with rage. "In six months, the entire imperial fleet will be ashes at the bottom of the bay!"

She dropped back onto her velvet throne, breathing heavily. Her regal composure was completely gone.

For the first time since she summoned forty souls to this world, Goddess Viona felt trapped.

She had an army of thousands of brave knights, but they couldn’t see the enemy. She had five hundred wooden galleons, but they couldn’t leave their docks without sinking. She had a divine barrier that protected her from the sky, but it was slowly turning Port Solis into a burning cage.

"Is there no countermeasure?" Viona whispered, her voice cracking with suppressed humiliation. "Are you telling me that a goddess with an entire empire at her command has no way to fight these... these machines?!"

Ayanokoji paused for a moment. He tilted his head slightly as he contemplated.

"There is no conventional countermeasure for a medieval army against a modern military, Lady Viona," Ayanokoji said plainly. "If you try to fight them in the air or on the sea, you will lose every single engagement. They possess total air supremacy and total naval dominance. Every ship you send out will sink. Every wyvern you launch will die."

Viona glared at him, her eyes filled with desperate anger. "Then what do you propose, mortal?! Am I supposed to surrender to an E-rank trash?!"

"No," Ayanokoji replied smoothly. "If you cannot win on the water or in the sky, you must change the battlefield entirely."

Viona blinked. "Change the battlefield?"

"Yes," Ayanokoji said. "Modern military machines require massive amounts of logistical support. Aircraft need jet fuel, paved runways, and spare parts. Warships need deep water and clear supply lines. If John Smith wants to force your unconditional surrender, he cannot do it solely from the ocean. Eventually, he must land ground troops on this continent to march on this capital."

Ayanokoji took a step forward, looking directly at the goddess.

"The sea and the sky belong to the United States. You must abandon the idea of an overseas invasion. Pull your forces back from the coast. Disperse your soldiers inland, into the mountains, dense forests, and fortified subterranean cities where their aircraft cannot easily target them. Force them into close-quarters ground combat on your home terrain. That is the only type of warfare where magic, numbers, and physical strength have any chance of closing the gap."

Miyuki turned her head, looking at Ayanokoji with wide, startled eyes. She knew what he was describing. He was describing asymmetrical guerilla warfare—the kind of protracted, bloody meat grinder that modern armies hated most.

Viona sat silently on her throne for nearly a minute.

Her divine pride fought violently against the idea of retreating from the coast. To abandon Port Solis and pull back into the mountains felt like admitting defeat. It felt cowardly.

Yet, looking at the broken, soot-covered Justin and hearing Ayanokoji’s cold, logical breakdown, a harsh truth settled into her mind.

If she kept fighting on the water, the empire wouldn’t have an army left to defend the capital.

Viona slowly leaned back into her white velvet cushions. Her hands clenched into tight, trembling fists.

"Pull back from the coast..." Viona whispered through gritted teeth, the words tasting like poison in her mouth. "A goddess... retreating before an anomaly..."

She looked up, her golden eyes burning with deep, vengeful hatred.

"Belis!" she commanded.

"Y-Yes, Lady Viona!"

"Send word to Port Solis. Cancel the fleet’s departure. Evacuate all non-essential personnel and military supplies from the docks to the interior fortresses. Order the mountain legions to fortify our cities."

She turned her gaze back to Ayanokoji and Miyuki.

"And you two, forget the training dungeon, along with the other heroes, you are going to be in this fight."