Chapter 174: Storm on the Border: The Clash of Kingdoms

After securing Starte, Dika left three thousand imperial warships behind to guard the mouth of the interstellar current.

Then, leading his main forces, he set out for the next key stronghold, aiming to crush it.

At the same time, two imperial frontier nodes connected to Starte by interstellar currents were able to free up four thousand Seawolf-class warships and six thousand imperial warships.

According to the initial strategy, they drove straight into the current.

A little over a month later, these ten thousand warships would descend upon Starte and mount a deep strike against the Blue-Eye Tribe.

This same approach would soon play out at each of the empire’s remaining four frontier nodes.

If all went according to plan.

The empire would annihilate fifteen thousand of the Blue-Eye Tribe’s elite warships at the border, then nearly fifty thousand more…

Splitting into four prongs, the empire would launch a full-scale offensive against the Blue-Eye Tribe.

The final goal: to utterly wipe out this civilization within ten years and seize all of their territory…

Bringing every bit of it under imperial rule.

——

At the same time the empire took Starte…

Tuoba, acting on behalf of Xitoris Kingdom and its rightful king, filed an official complaint with the Wasteland Alliance.

He demanded that the Totran Kingdom explain and apologize for their invasion of Okka.

He also requested compensation for the damage done to Xitoris Kingdom.

That included losses in both personnel and military equipment.

Tuoba set the compensation price at two stars along the Totran border.

Obviously, the Totran Kingdom refused, claiming their fleet only entered Okka at the invitation of King Sadik of Xitoris.

Instead, as soon as they set foot in Okka, Tuoba attacked them—resulting in Totran’s loss of two entire legions.

So as far as Totran was concerned, Tuoba should be the one apologizing and paying up.

They even argued that Tuoba ought to cede Okka to them as promised by the previous king, Sadik.

In the end, both sides fiercely insisted on their own version—whether Sadik had actually promised to hand over Okka to the Totran Kingdom remained the sticking point.

Naturally, there was no written agreement—just a vague oral promise.

But Tuoba had a bold move up his sleeve.

He brought Sadik in as a witness to prove it was all Totran nonsense and no such promise had ever been made.

You had to admit—at that moment, Sadik played along quite convincingly.

After all, his own life and the lives of his royal kin were now tightly held by Tuoba.

He’d lost his power, but at least he was still living in comfort with plenty to eat and drink.

At first, Sadik was anything but resigned to his fate, but…

Over time, he simply let go.

Living the easy life without worries for food and clothing didn’t seem so terrible.

Honestly, it wasn’t the worst outcome.

Still, even with Sadik’s testimony, Totran Kingdom refused to accept it.

They even mocked Tuoba, saying, “Who would believe a prisoner would tell the truth?”

In truth, the other representatives agreed.

After all, everyone knew what went down in Xitoris—there’d been a rebellion on the border, then the rebels toppled the royal army and claimed victory.

Sadik? Naturally, he ended up as the enemy’s captive.

Given that, a prisoner whose life depended on Tuoba would never dare tell the truth.

In the end, Tuoba made his stance clear.

Since the arbitration council couldn’t help, Xitoris Kingdom would solve things on its own.

At the same time, Tuoba formally declared war on Totran Kingdom in front of all the other civilizations.

Clearly, the earlier standoff was just for show.

Tuoba’s main goal in seeking arbitration was to lay a moral foundation for the coming invasion.

It’s not that morality itself mattered so much.

The real key was that, with that moral cover, any other civilizations wanting to help Totran could only offer limited and secret support.

As long as no large-scale military aid appeared, Tuoba wasn’t fazed in the slightest.

Another wave of Seawolf-class ships was due to arrive the following month anyway.

Even accounting for earlier losses, his Seawolf-class numbers in Okka now topped ten thousand.

Add in the Royal Guard, which also fielded more than ten thousand,

And, well, what reason was there to hold back?

Totran Kingdom had lost two whole legions before and still hadn’t managed to recover.

——

Tuoba’s declaration of war shocked every civilization in the Alliance.

Still, nobody really believed he’d actually attack—instead, most figured Tuoba was just blowing off steam.

After all, everyone understood the state of Xitoris Kingdom. Not a total ruin, maybe, but surely their losses were even heavier than Totran’s.

All four main legions had been completely wiped out.

How were they supposed to go up against Totran Kingdom now?

Totran still had three fully intact legions and several minor fleets.

No one took Tuoba’s words seriously.

Even Totran Kingdom themselves weren’t worried.

But more than three months later…

Seawolf-class ships started emerging from the current, and to Tuoba’s surprise, even though Totran had a legion stationed there—over four thousand warships—

They didn’t bother to defend at all!

Every ship was docked at the spaceport, most of the crew vacationing planet-side.

It wasn’t until over three hundred Seawolf-class warships arrived and set up a basic defensive perimeter as a beachhead that Totran finally scrambled together enough people to get a third—just over a thousand—of their ships out of the spaceport.

When they finally reached the mouth of the current,

The Seawolf-class ships Tuoba had already fielded matched Totran’s deployed warships ship for ship.

After that, there was no suspense.

It turned into a one-sided massacre.

Three days later.

It was back to the Alliance’s arbitration council.

Only this time, the positions of Totran Kingdom and Xitoris Kingdom had reversed.

Totran’s representative immediately denounced Xitoris Kingdom for launching a surprise attack on the border and destroying 4,800 of their warships.

They demanded Xitoris immediately withdraw from Totran territory, apologize, and pay compensation.

That left the entire council stunned.

Wait—Xitoris Kingdom really went through with it?

And Totran had 4,800 ships there. How’d Xitoris manage to break through?

Sitting not far from the Totran representative,

The Xitoris envoy crossed his legs, imitating human casualness, and flashed a look of utter disdain.

“Apologize? Compensate?”

“Let’s see if I bother even acknowledging you…”