Chapter 390 - Imminent Attack

A few moments later just before Katya was about to fall asleep, a knock was heard on her door.

"Hmmm?"

"Miss Katya, are you up?"

Hearing the familiar voice, Katya's eyes snapped wide open and she darted straight for the door but before she got there, she took a look at herself in the mirror and straightened her hair and attire before opening the door.

"W-what is it, Quinn?"

Quinn was standing there at the doorway with a tray in his hands. He gave the girl a look before saying, "Here, I made this for you. Next time, don't stay out so late. I don't need anyone to come and wait for me."

"Eh? O-okay..."

Quinn took the tray and walked into the room. He looked around before heading straight to the nightstand beside Katya's large bed. He placed the tray there before heading back out.

"U-Uhm, thank you!" Katya quickly said.

Quinn glanced at her and nodded before walking out and closing the door behind him.

"Hnnnnhhh... he's so hard to please..." Katya mumbled before going to the nightstand and looking at the array of warm dishes that Quinn had given her.

She took a sip of the soup and was a little surprised, "Hmm... it's warm...and good..."

******

The night passed and soon dawn finally broke on the next day. Quinn had been organizing some of the information he got from yesterday throughout the night and had only gotten a few hours of sleep.

He looked at the time and saw that it was just in the wee hours of the morning so he decided to get some more rest. He only woke up when a knock was heard on his door.

"Quinn? Are you still asleep?"

The butler got up from his bed and rubbed his eyes. He quickly put on his glasses and walked over to the door and opened it since he knew that it was Katya who was calling out to him.

"What is it? I'm sorry, I overslept..."

"W-wah?! Ah, uhm... p-p-p-p-please put on some clothes first?! I-I-I'll be waiting for you downstairs!" Katya exclaimed after she got a good look at Quinn's n.a.k.e.d body. It was a feast for her eyes but she grew too embarrassed to keep on staring. She turned her head away and after saying her piece, Katya hastily dashed away. Quinn's muscular and attractive body was a bit too deadly for her.

The butler in question only looked on in daze at Katya's retreating figure, wondering why she ran away like that. Quinn looked down and noticed that he wasn't wearing a shirt. He returned inside and calmly began getting himself ready. After he had finished, Quinn walked down to the Goldenia family's living room where he sensed that Katya was waiting for him.

On the way, he couldn't help but sense that the eyes of all of the maids he passed by were looking at him strangely. When he glanced at them, they would all turn their heads away with a blush.

He frowned but didn't pay it any mind and continued towards the living room. When Katya saw him enter, she immediately stood up and greeted him.

"G-Good Morning...did you sleep well?"

Quinn nodded and said, "I'm sorry for my tardiness... I overslept. Here, I compiled all of the information that I acquired from the Faustus Archduchy's forward base of operations."

"..."

Katya eyed the butler peculiarly. He hadn't eaten or done anything yet and the first thing that came out of his mouth was business. She really couldn't understand the thought process of this stiff person.

She sighed and just took the thick report that was handed to her. She discretely eyed her family's maids and they quickly got the meaning of what she was trying to convey with her eyes. They all smiled at her and a few went towards the kitchen to ask the chefs to fix something up for Quinn.

While Katya was taking a look at the report, Quinn was on the side constantly giving her some input to his thoughts on the information she was reading. She also debated with him on their next plan of action when Quinn informed her that the Fleet Admiral and the Army Marshal had arrived on the island.

"In the next 2 weeks, the Faustus Archduchy could attack us at any minute... many of our soldiers aren't ready..."

"We should begin enlisting some of the citizens and craftsmen to begin building walls and defenses all over the port and have some of our forces disperse into the surrounding area and keep watch over the bay. I'm not sure if they'll attack us head-on, but we should still keep contingencies just in case they decide to land elsewhere," Quinn said.

"It's not likely. Everywhere else other than our part of the bay is pretty dangerous to disembark from due to the reefs and unfavorable landscape. If the Fleet Admiral is smart, she'll certainly try and attack us head-on since she knows that her forces are better than ours in both quality and quantity..."

Katya massaged her brows after she said this. She needed to report this to all of her allies and subordinates to see if they had any input on the matter. She had already scheduled a meeting with everyone later this afternoon but with the information she got, things were already looking bleak for them.

The Faustus Archduchy had dispatched over 150,000 men to invade their land and they had numerous battlesh.i.p.s and gunboats with crude cannons installed on them. They didn't have much of a navy so fighting it out on the waters would be suicide.

Plus, their defenses on land were not looking so good as well. They didn't have anything that could strike the enemy sh.i.p.s from long range like their cannons. All they had were ballistae and trebuchets. The ballistae could only cover a few hundred meters away from their port while the trebuchets were awfully bad with their aim. The enemy sh.i.p.s could just attack them from afar, destroy their coastal defenses before disembarking their soldiers.

This is exactly why Augustus wanted the Silvaria Kingdom's help. He needed their advanced weaponry to defend against the Faustus Archduchy's army. Katya groaned when she thought about what Cecil said to her the last time they met.

"Take care of our own problems... Nngh, we can't ask for support or help from them..."

"..."

Quinn remained silent and indifferent. This wasn't his problem. He already did all he could to help by providing them with information on the enemy and directly infiltrating the enemy's base to find out about their plans.

Before Katya could continue agonizing over their bleak situation, a shout interrupted her chain of thoughts.

"S-Sister! C-come out, there's something you need to see!" Emilie, Katya sister burst into the room and exclaimed in obvious excitement.

"What is it, Em? Honestly, I don't want to be bothered right now! My head's aching from all this bad news..."

"If it's aching then this should be the pain-reliever! Quickly come out and see! This'll definitely help us in defending our land!"

Seeing her sister's excitement, Katya grew curious and walked out of the house. Emilie led her to their city's gates and just outside, Katya saw an amazing sight unfold before her.

"Let it down there! We'll be assembling this here before dragging them into the city! Hurry! We're on a tight schedule! We still have to deliver the rest of the cargo over to the NWR!"

"Parts 1-3, bring it over here! Where's team B? Shouldn't they be assembling the—oh, they're already finished?"

"Over here! Hurry and inform the city's representative and have their soldiers move the assembled ones already!"

Katya looked around and saw the many people busy at work in front of her city's gates.

"W-what's all this?"

"A present," Quinn said from beside her.

"Huh?"

"It's from your father. He was able to negotiate a few things with my family's patriarch and they came to an agreement. Master Kaiser was willing to sell a few of our Storm Howlers to your Goldenia family."

One of the workers who was shouting orders and assembling the cannons quickly noticed Quinn and Katya and hastily walked over to them.

"Ah, Mr. Quinn, our president said that we would find you here. Please sign here and here," The man said while handing Quinn a form. He turned to look at Katya and asked, "And is this Miss Katya?"

"Yes, that's me," Katya replied.

The worker nodded and presented her a form, "Please sign this."

Katya quickly took the paper from the man and signed it. She turned to look around and saw at least 20 cannons being assembled right in front of her city's walls. 2 of them were already finished and were just sitting there in front of the gates.

"Alright, since we've got your signatures, you can now take the already assembled cannons into the city."

"Yes, but how do we operate them? No one in my city knows how to work these things," Katya asked.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am. We're just the delivery team. Once we've assembled the cannons, we'll be taking our leave. We still have another place to head to after this."

"Uh..."

"Don't worry Miss Katya, Master Kaiser has already sent some men over to teach your people how to operate these cannons," Quinn quipped up from the side.

"O-okay...that's good to hear..."

"We should have your men come and take these into the city. Start by placing them in strategic places around the bay. These Storm Howlers have an effective distance of 15-20 kilometers. I'm sure we can defend the entirety of the bay using these cannons even if they're just fixed in place at the city."

"...Quinn, why didn't you tell me about this earlier? I was agonizing over how we were going to defend the bay all morning!"

"...You never asked..."

"..."

Katya released a tired sigh before ordering her subordinates to quickly wheel in the already finished cannons. Soon, all 20 cannons were finished assembling and were moved into the city.

Katya immediately gathered up her collaborators for a meeting. After the meeting, they were able to form an effective defensive formation around the bay using the cannons. They immediately had their soldiers move the cannons into their fixed positions around the bay and not long after, a few people from Silvaria arrived at the city.

Katya and a few of her people came out to greet them. They were the instructors that were sent from Silvaria Kingdom to educate their people on how to operate the Storm Howlers. Katya immediately selected some of her best men to form 20 squadrons with 5 people in each squad to man the weapons.

The instructors immediately began teaching these people how to fire and operate the cannons. Throughout the day, multiple cannon fire was heard coming from all 20 cannons stationed around the bay. The city became pretty lively as all of the citizens came out to witness the glorious sight of the cannons firing out into the bay.

The citizens cheered and began celebrating. Today turned into a mini-festival for everyone in the city. They were now all hopeful about their future after they received this huge boon.

Since only mana was needed to fire the cannons, they didn't need to worry about ammunition and all. They could keep firing all day if they had to. Of course, they didn't want to ruin the cannons by recklessly firing them. Also, the cannons had the option of firing pure Mana Missiles or custom-made projectiles that were shot out of the cannon by mana.

The Silvaria Kingdom had provided of few of these projectiles for them, but they were limited in amount. Katya and her people decided that they would use these projectiles only when they were pushed into a dire situation.

Katya had already shared the information about the Faustus Archduchy's imminent attack on their land to all of her subordinates and allies, and soon, everyone became busy. They didn't despair at the news but were instead determined to keep their lands safe from the clutches of the Faustus Archduchy.

With the new weaponry that they were able to acquire, they had some confidence in being able to defend their lands. They also received news that the UF and NWR would be sending some of their troops to help in the defense in the following week so they were more reassured now.

The important families in the Goldenia Territory who had no trust in the Goldenia Family had a change of heart and started to become more cooperative with Katya. If they won the war, they knew that the power structure of the Goldenia Territory would be rebalanced.

They didn't want to lose their standings and wanted to gain more influence so participating in the defense was a must.

Seeing as things were going so well, Katya felt a weight lift from her shoulders. Throughout the entire time, Quinn was always next to her, quietly observing the proceedings with indifference.