Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

"...Remember this day of disgrace! Vineta was deliberately attacked by the Tanilia Federation. Until a week ago, the governing committee was still in talks with the Federation to maintain peace in the inland sea.

But history will testify that the Tanilia Federation had long premeditated and carefully planned this attack. They deceived Vineta with their hypocritical statements and posturing of maintaining peace.

Our fleet suffered heavy losses, our naval ports were burned to ashes, and many brave Venetians lost their lives.

The fact is self-evident: the enemy has launched an attack against us. As an official of the Venetian Republic, I have ordered the army and navy to take all necessary measures.

The sea remembers forever, and Vineta will always remember Tanilia's undeclared war. Under the watch of the gods, I swear: no matter how long it takes, no matter how much blood is shed, even if the entire inland sea is dyed red, we will uphold our justice!

Believe in our military! Believe in our people! May the gods bless Vineta, and we shall prevail!

I demand that the Citizens' Representative Assembly of Vineta declare: from the moment the Tanilia Federation launched their despicable sneak attack on Haidong Port, the esteemed Venetian Republic and the Tanilia Federation are officially in a state of war."

In the center of the parliamentary hall, this spirited old man fiercely slammed his hand on the podium, sweeping his gaze around, and declared indisputably, "The Tanilia Federation, must be destroyed!"

The spacious parliamentary hall was filled with citizen representatives from all over Vineta, who had rushed to Sea Blue City. A special acoustics design meant that the official's words could be clearly heard by everyone in the room.

With every statement made by the official, the citizen representatives would shout back in response.

When the official finished his last sentence, the impassioned citizen representatives all stood up, waving their fists, and let out a roar like a tsunami: "Destroy the Federation! Destroy the Federation..."

On the observation deck of the second floor, Antonio put his tricorn hat back on and turned to Winters, "Let's go, Winters. There's nothing more to see."

Those without the status of citizen representative or lawmaker were not permitted to attend meetings on the first floor of the hall. Thus, the hall's designer had specifically included the second-floor observation deck for the general citizens to listen in.

"You're not going to watch the voting process?" Winters got momentarily distracted by the atmosphere of unanimous animosity among the hundreds of lawmakers: "We don't even know what proposal the official wants to pass."

The other people on the observation deck made way for the two officers, and one of them clapped Winters on the shoulder, saying to him, "Take out those damned pirates from the Federation!"

Winters responded with a polite smile and followed Antonio off the observation deck.

Once outside, Antonio spoke to Winters, "We don't need to know the official's proposal; knowing the official's attitude is enough."

Winters nodded in agreement.

"Governor Debela is quite skillful." Antonio suddenly said with some emotion: "Actually, there are some lawmakers in the parliament who do not agree with linking Drake's attack to the Tanilia Federation, but Debela directly convened the entire Citizens' Representative Assembly. With the current atmosphere in the hall, I believe even the highest war budget would easily be approved with three shouts."

"How could Drake, a mere pirate captain, possibly organize such a sneak attack? The Federation must be supporting him from behind," Winters said, perplexed: "But I can't figure out why the Federation would dare to provoke us? Clearly, we were going to attack them, yet they struck first. Do the Tanilians think by destroying the Venetian Navy, we would be unable to retaliate against them?"

Antonio raised an eyebrow and instructed, "Don't consider the Federation as a whole, just as you shouldn't see Vineta as a monolith. There's no need to consider the thoughts of the Tanilians; all hopes for a peaceful resolution have been shattered, leaving only the path of war. And our duty is to win this war for Vineta... Are you getting used to working under Kongtai'er?"

"Colonel Kongtai'er, he... I feel like he's taking too much care of me. The colonel put all of us cadet officers into his prime cohort, we hardly have anything to do," said Winters, a tad embarrassed.

Colonel Kongtai'er was in charge of commanding the primus pilus [Cohort Prima] of the Third Legion, which normally maintained at half strength but was quickly brought to full strength with reservists after the Haidong Port attack and was now intensely training at West Camp. However, Winters, currently training with the standing forces, found himself not very busy.

"Speak less, do more, observe more," Antonio reached out to straighten Winters' military cap and patted his back, "Some will curry favor with you, others will despise you, but none of that really matters. Just do your job."

Winters silently nodded his head.

He understood: to deny the help that came from his family would be hypocritical; if he and Benwei were to switch places, Benwei might not do better than him, but he definitely couldn't manage what Benwei did, working on the docks to support his family at a young age, nor could he do what Bard did — and it was precisely for this reason that he respected both Benwei and Bard.

But he still wanted to avoid any allegations of nepotism, so Winters had actually wanted to join Colonel Field in the reserve legions, but Antonio had managed to get him sent to "Da Vineta." Although few knew about the relationship between Warrant Officer Montaigne and the legion commander, it still made Winters somewhat uncomfortable.