The Water Magician

The two were introduced to the princess's party on the deck, along with the crew of the Vashteque, the Azure Orb Pavilion's guard squad, and the marine troops stationed in Manyamia.

Onboard the Vashteque were Captain Dao and forty crew members, a hundred from the princess's party, a hundred marines from the Manyamia stationed navy, thirty from the Azure Orb Pavilion's guard squad, and Ryo and Abel.

Including the crew, nearly three hundred people were aboard.

"It's understandable that it's this large," Ryo said while looking out at the port from the upper deck, and Abel nodded in agreement.

It wasn't just people; the hold had a considerable amount of cargo packed inside.

If the hold were empty, the ship would face significant stability issues.

"Still, wind attribute magic is convenient," Ryo remarked.

"What's with the sudden statement?" Abel replied, curious.

In Western history on Earth, ancient Greek and Roman merchant ships were essentially sailing ships, while military vessels were propelled by oars or a combination of sails and oars.

In the case of military ships, the ramming tactics involved using a pointed ram located below the waterline at the front of the ship to pierce the enemy vessel and sink it or board the enemy ship to subdue it… that was the structure of naval battles.

Until the Battle of Lepanto in the 16th century, which occurred between the Ottoman Empire and Spain and various Italian city-states, galleys were prominent in naval warfare… but the nature of naval warfare was beginning to change significantly.

This change was brought about by the emergence of cannons.

In simple terms, with the advent of cannons and guns, it became unnecessary to ram one's own ship into the enemy ship.

Prior to that, whether using ramming tactics or boarding, nothing could begin without ships colliding, but with cannons mounted on ships, the possibility arose to sink enemy vessels from a distance.

Additionally, with firearms, targeting enemy commanders or captains became possible.

Attacking with bows and arrows was completely different.

However, due to the considerable rocking of the ship, some researchers noted that targeting was often difficult…

With these changes in weaponry and tactics, galleys and galleasses began to decline.

The reason the aforementioned Battle of Lepanto is said to be the last significant battle where galleys played a significant role is likely because of this.

That was the case on Earth, but in this "Fai," it seems that ships and naval battles have followed a completely different historical path.

Firstly, there are no galleys at all.

At least, Ryo is unaware of them.

Of course, there might have been galleys used in the past that Ryo doesn’t know about, but they are nowhere to be seen now.

Only sailing ships.

Moreover, these sailing ships can move in any direction at a consistent speed thanks to wind attribute magic.

The wind pushes the ship, allowing it to travel in the desired direction.

Normally, when sailing upwind, it is quite difficult.

Sailing directly into a headwind is impossible for a sailing ship.

Yet, magic resolves many of the problems faced by these sailing ships.

Long live magic!

The method of fighting itself is similar to the era before the emergence of cannons on Earth.

Colliding ships.

Either sinking them by creating holes or boarding to subdue them.

This means that the most important ship must be placed in the center.

After all the cargo had been loaded, and everyone boarded, the Vashteque set sail.

Waving goodbye to the people seeing them off from the port.

Beside them were two ships from the naval transport fleet stationed in Manyamia, which also set sail at the same time.

The other eighteen ships were already floating offshore.

The Vashteque nestled at the center of this transport fleet.

Twenty ships began to sail with the Vashteque at the center.

"This is quite a sight," Ryo remarked.

"We're completely surrounded," Abel added, slightly excited. Perhaps his majesty the king gets energized when he sees the navy.

Ryo looked very happy as well. The first duke seemed to be enjoying it too.