Chapter 500

Episode 500. The world is full of gloom. (2)

Of course, Marian’s bewilderment about the Xenobia Empire invading her “oppa” only went so far.

But the reason was…

“Not bad, huh?”

“Indeed, this is an unexpected opportunity.”

“Ohohoho.”

From the start, the reason Marian and the Monster Princess Luka didn’t touch the Leviathan Fleet was obvious.

There were limits to what she could protect, and the Monster Princess also had clear limitations in mobilizing her full strength.

Whether she liked it or not, to protect her beloved oppa, she had to refrain from direct confrontation, even if the Earth Federation brought their full force, unlike her.

Of course, Marian would have loved to deploy all fleets, including the “Armada,” to Icarus’s base.

But since that wasn’t realistically possible, she had to settle for the next best option.

That’s why Marian and her subordinates reacted with “Well done,” given the circumstances.

“If the Leviathan Fleet clashes with Xenobia’s Punishment Fleet, the Leviathan’s strength will weaken.”

“Perfect. Besides, with them around, oppa won’t get completely screwed.”

“Brilliant.”

“Contact Princess Luka and tell her to let the Leviathan Fleet handle it this time. Let’s stay in our lanes.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Unlike Marian and Princess Luka, the Leviathan Fleet was stuck in Icarus’s territory.

They planned to use the Leviathan Fleet to exhaust Xenobia and the former Earth Federation’s forces without depleting their own or Icarus’s strength.

But a few days later…

“Your Majesty, we have a problem.”

“What is it?”

“The Leviathan bastards messed up!”

“Did they support the rebels again?”

“No, they disappeared from Commander Icarus’s territory!”

“…What?”

The Leviathan Fleet, under the guise of a “reliability test,” ended up pitting Icarus and other commanders against Xenobia’s Punishment Fleet.

The battle with the Punishment Fleet ended in a day, but the Leviathan Fleet’s return nearly led to a disastrous future for Icarus.

They narrowly avoided it, but…

“The Leviathan Fleet has grown in size.”

“Almost double.”

“It seems they absorbed some of the rebels.”

“…”

Using Icarus as bait, they gathered the “rebels” rampaging in Humanity’s territory and turned them into their own forces.

They then stacked them up within Icarus’s territory, planning to eventually turn the entire area into Earth Federation territory.

“Those damn snakes!!!”

“What should we do?”

“Take the Armada and some fleets. I’ll lead the charge myself.”

“Yes!”

“Prepare the Eclipse for launch! Her Majesty will personally command!”

“And request additional support from the Loki Clan. Prioritize depleting the ‘rebels’ over Humanity’s containment.”

“Understood!”

Our dear Marian was furious at the Leviathan Fleet’s actions.

She was willing to expend additional human and material resources to annihilate the rebels, manipulated by the “Security Council Chairman” behind the Leviathan Fleet, and completely eliminate their influence.

Moreover, since the Leviathan Fleet had become “unexpectedly stronger” than planned.

Marian decided to counter by taking the “Eclipse,” the flagship of the Pirate Alliance, and part of the elite “Armada” to Icarus’s territory in a hurry.

==========

Meanwhile, Princess Luka was in a similarly complicated and bizarre situation.

“Why can’t I bring more fleets?!”

“Princess Luka, due to negotiations between factions and contracts with commanders, it’s unavoidable.”

“Grrrrrr!!!”

Unfortunately, unlike Marian, who was the leader of a faction, Princess Luka was merely a frontline representative delegated power by the “Queen of Monsters.”

“But Oxianor! If this continues, the Earth Federation will take the Leviathan and its fleet, and the Pirate Alliance will take the Eclipse and the Armada!”

“Well, yes.”

“But if I only bring my hobby… I mean, my guard fleet, it’ll be way too small!”

“However, due to global constraints, we can’t mobilize more of your fleet, Princess Luka.”

She couldn’t mobilize the ancient monster “Armageddon” and its “Typhon Horde” to counter other factions’ flagships and elite fleets.

Fortunately, the Queen of Monsters, Princess Luka’s mother, understood the situation.

Using Princess Luka’s escort as an excuse…

“Is this enough?”

“Just the fact that a single faction’s dispatch force has grown this much should serve as a sufficient message to those from the Earth Federation or the Pirate Alliance.”

By slyly augmenting additional fleets, including battleships, separate from the hobby fleet.

To the remaining two factions that will occupy Icarus’s territory, Icarus belongs to our faction!

In other words, it showed that our monsters also care ‘very, very, very, very, very much’ about Icarus.

And by subtly letting the other two factions know that the Queen of Monsters and the Monster Force are behind us.

It seems that the ‘perception of Leviathan’ that our Icarus had previously discussed with Princess Luka has been maintained.

==========

And finally, regarding the superstar Leviathan Fleet that drives our fans and haters crazy…

“So, what exactly is our goal, Chairman?”

“There are those rebels we incited to run rampant in Humanity’s territory, right? We need to take them over and bring them back.”

“Hmm.”

“And through that, we can also showcase how much strength our Federation still has.”

As has been pointed out multiple times, the fundamental goal is ‘the intact strength of the Federation’ and the reorganization of the Central Zone based on that.

Dreaming of the revival of the New Earth Federation, using Icarus’s territory as a foundation.

That’s why, under the pretext of a ‘test,’ we sent out the Leviathan Fleet, the Federation’s only mobile force, into Icarus’s territory.

While Icarus’s fleet blocks the Xenobia Empire’s Punishment Fleet, we planned to somehow gather and bring back the rebels, but…

-“…Humanity is fighting better than expected, and the rebels aren’t moving as planned.”

“Dammit, why, why?!”

Unfortunately, from the Earth Federation’s perspective, it was just one unfair situation after another.

Humanity responded better than expected to the ‘large-scale rebellion’ we incited, and the rebels, who were supposed to be individually crushed, ended up being the ones getting crushed.

If this continues, the rebels will be easily suppressed, so we deployed the hidden ‘Fleet Warp Gate Ship’ to gather the rebels in one place.

The plan was for the Leviathan Fleet to pick up the gathered rebels and bring them to the Central Zone, but…

-“Those bastards suddenly charged.”

-“What? Why?”

-“They said now is the time to go on the offensive to boost the Federation’s morale or something…”

-“Gaaah!!”

The parties involved didn’t know, but the Loki Clan’s professional troublemakers used superhumans they had planted inside to stir up chaos.

-“Wait, where did they send over 10,000 superhumans and over a million ships?”

-“The fleet to Alpha Centauri, the superhumans to the lunar base… but both failed.”

As a result, the gathered fleet and superhumans were largely destroyed or killed, and the surviving forces were either captured or defected to Humanity.

Inside the Temporary Government, the complete annihilation of the rebels and the total loss of the Federation’s remaining strength.

Ignoring the need to help Commander Icarus and using the ‘test’ as an excuse to charge in, they almost got themselves killed by the Punishment Fleet, and now responsibility is being questioned…

As a result, the Leviathan Fleet hurriedly returned to drive off the Punishment Fleet.

The position of the Security Council Chairman, who pushed for this entire operation, is now in a very precarious state.

And since everything up to this point went according to Marian and Luka’s (& the Queen’s) plan.

They celebrated behind the scenes, thinking the Leviathan Fleet and the Earth Federation Temporary Government wouldn’t dare act recklessly anymore.

The problem is, right in the midst of this chaos.

The admiral leading the Leviathan Fleet, ‘Ranka,’ blamed the Security Council Chairman for the Federation’s collapse and the rebels’ annihilation, then suddenly declared.

“We will make Commander Icarus our new leader and establish a new Federation in this Central Zone!”

-“…What?!”

-“Huh?”

-“What the…”

Already on the verge of being pushed aside due to the responsibility issue, the Security Council Chairman was physically removed in a coup.

And then, they proclaimed the ‘establishment of a new Federation with Commander Icarus as the leader.’

Not even Marian and Princess Luka, who didn’t expect things to go this far.

After finishing the 4th-anniversary event and hearing the news of Humanity’s rebels being annihilated, Jessica’s bunny ears twitched, and our Icarus was left utterly speechless.