Cent. Calendar 10/05/1639, Jin-Hark, Kingdom of Louria, 19:30
"Great King..."
Patagene kneeled on one knee as he offered his respect to his superior. Following him were Chief Royal Mage Yamirei and Lord Maus. Their superior, King Hark Louria XXXIV, sat gracefully on the throne five steps up from the floor where his three subjects kneeled. His handsome face and stern expression commanded authority, reinforced by his unwavering posture and only betrayed by his bathrobes-a sign that he had recently come out of the royal baths. Giving only a mere "Hmmm" in response, he waited impatiently for his subjects to get to the point. Patagene stood up, followed by the other two, before coughing and continuing to speak.
"Just before noon, we met with a delegation from the country of Japan..."
The name invoked no special reaction from Hark, who continued to stare blankly at them.
"We have ascertained their motives and so turned them back. They themselves have said that they are unwilling to back off from their relationship with Qua-Toyne."
Closing his eyes, probably out of regret for the country that decided to side with the undesirables.
"Regrettable. As much as we are on the lookout for allies, I don't think we need to lament on the fact that we gained a new enemy."
Hearing Hark's nonchalant words on the matter, Patagene started sweating profusely.
"But Great King! They may be a country we have never heard of before, but all information we have on them suggests that their ships are at least on par with Parpaldia's! Did you not see their ship at the harbor?"
In reality, Hark did see their ship from the harbor. While he spent his late morning in the bath, he caught a glimpse of the clean, grey ship stopped just outside of Jin-Hark's harbor. The ship stood out with its sleek, uninterrupted grey hull, presumably made of iron or even better materials. The design philosophy baffled him, as the singular mast in the middle of the ship would have hardly brought enough power to get the ship moving, leading him to assume that the ship, just like Parpaldia's more advanced models, didn't travel by sail. The single cannon mounted on the ship's front reminded him of the gun turrets in the ships of Mu's possession, which Parpaldia itself was still struggling to develop. All in all, the ship's design and manufacture screamed 'advanced', leading him to assume that the new country, Japan, may have been in possession of equally advanced technologies elsewhere. Eager to know more, Hark broke his posture, leaning in and joining his hands as he asked Patagene.
"Do we know more about them?"
"Unfortunately, no."
Patagene looked down, hoping to avoid Hark's probing stare. Backing him up, Yamirei spoke up.
"What has been clear to us from our spies in Qua-Toyne is that their military presence there is limited, if not non-existent. While ships of what seemed to be of merchant and construction nature have been spotted to be continuously stopping by their ports, we have only spotted 1 or 2 military vessels in the span of 3 weeks."
Contemplating Yamirei's statement, Hark stared off into the distance. While Japan's military assistance to Qua-Toyne may be limited as of the moment, if they are indeed on the level of at least Parpaldia, they can likely mobilize quickly, negating their months-old advantage of advanced preparation.
"Move the timetable up. We need Qua-Toyne's major cities to fall before the month ends."
Now sweating waterfalls at the unreasonable deadline given to them, Patagene knew that this was as unreasonable as it gets. Their mobilization against Qua-Toyne, despite years in the making, has been received poorly by their local lords. Hark, rallying all of them under his banner of unity, could only do so much as the strength of his armies and the speed at which he can levy them still depends highly on the cooperation of the lords. Given his already severe unpopularity, if they force them to mobilize faster, it could boil over to a point where the lords would cease to cooperate altogether. However, Hark also had a point. If they suddenly backed off the conquest, they would appear weak to their lords and cause them to lose support from the more radical, xenophobic lords in their domain. Moreover, support coming from Parpaldia meant that they needed to show results and secure additional payment avenues to pay their loans. The sudden appearance of a strong country on the side of their enemies complicated everything. Still, Patagene wanted to protest to at least get the king to make a more reasonable deadline.
"Great King, with all due respect, I believe that that is impossible! The lords are already tense and uncooperative with our current timetable! At best, we could only hope to secure Gim and maybe Myhark before the month ends!"
Feeling the rock and another hard place pressing down on him, Hark stood up, startling the three other men in the room.
"We cannot afford to dawdle any longer! Our foe is backed by a country that appears to be on the level of the Parpaldians and are likely as ruthless! Rodenius must be decisively under our thumb before the month ends!"
"But Great King...!"
"I will not entertain any more protests, Patagene. Dismissed!"
Dejected and pressed to the point of anxiety, Patagene and the others simply bowed in silence before turning to leave the throne room. Now left to his own devices, Hark immediately broke down, clutching his head in agony and despair. All this time, he had been holding in his own worries and anxieties, especially after failing to rid his head of the memory of seeing the flag that the Japanese ship flew.
"The bright red sun... The emissaries of old...! Why?! WHY?! WHY DID THOSE GODDAMN ELVES SUMMON THEM AGAIN?!"
Remembering the tales of how the elves appealed to their god to summon the Sun God's emissaries to wipe out the Demon Lord menace, he shivered in fear at the accounts of explosions and massive, floating fortresses that breathed out flames.
"No... No... Not today! We will... crush them..."
Cent. Calendar 11/05/1639, Prime Minister's residence, Tokyo, Japan, 10:00
Informed that the diplomatic contact with Louria ended in failure and that the recon flight sent to the border had come back, Prime Minister Takamori Hideaki called for a cabinet meeting. The meeting this time, involving the Japan Self Defense Force's Chief of Staff, Joint Staff, Koji Yuuichi. After listening to the audio recording of the meeting between Japan's diplomats and the Lourian higher-ups, they concluded that the Lourians have the motive and intention to invade Qua-Toyne, putting merit to Llanfair's words back in the Diet. The ministers sighed, seeing the hope for the crisis getting diplomatically solved getting dimmer and dimmer.
"Let's see the results of the recon flight."
As ordered by Takamori, the projector in the meeting room projected onto a white screen the pictures of the border taken by the JASDF recon flight. The pictures all depicted multiple camps with Lourian banners, soldiers, horses, and even a small airfield dedicated to their wyverns. As the slides changed, the expressions on the ministers grew darker and darker as the reality that the Lourians aren't willing to back down began to sink in. Having already resigned on how they'll soon have to deal with the problem, Takamori sighed before checking with Koji.
"This level of preparation... Is it safe to say that they have been planning this for a while?"
"Yes. According to the Qua-Toynians themselves, this camp right across Gim has been here for at least a month and continues to expand. The Lourians have not made it a secret that they intend to attack them."
Takamori paused to ascertain the reactions in the room. Some ministers wiped the sweat that had formed on their brows, anxious that the Lourians are about to threaten their trade with Qua-Toyne, which has started to make their lives easier. Some sighed, knowing that a diplomatic solution was no longer feasible as the Lourians themselves were uncooperative. Some were eager to bring the fight to the Lourians, either for satiating their strong vs. weak complex or to simply secure Japan's continued survival. He himself wanted a military response. Preparing himself for the inevitable in facing the Diet, he took a deep breath before exhaling it out and looking back towards Koji.
"Admiral, I believe it is about time to draft up plans for military deployment in Qua-Toyne."
Koji nodded in resolute yet sorrowful affirmation. Knowing that Japan could not afford a large-scale, protracted war with their current economic crisis, Takamori added more to his commands.
"Admiral, I believe that you are also aware of Japan's current situation. While we can't divert more resources to this expenditure, I believe we still have to spend some resources on this deployment to ensure that we won't have any large-scale deployments in the future. Find a way to keep our expenses at a minimum and, if possible, end this threat with as little time and resources spent, as much as possible!"
Getting the affirmation from his Chief of Staff, Joint Staff, Takamori turned to everyone.
"Louria has forced our hand, but it is still up to us to determine whether the days up ahead will lead to further trying times or a brighter future!"
Seeing resolute nods from his cabinet, Takamori almost shed a tear at the lack of hesitation among them, a silver lining in an otherwise bleak situation. However, his cabinet is not what he needed to convince to get the Japan Self Defense Force to deploy. Dismissing everyone, he went on to prepare himself to convince the hardest-headed people that he knew: the National Diet.
Cent. Calendar 13/05/1639, National Diet Building, Tokyo, Japan, 13:00
Appearing in a session to address the Diet regarding the crisis with Louria, Takamori was to give out an impassioned speech to rouse sentiments of urgency and emergency among the otherwise languid, ineffective, and hostile Diet members. Before he did, the Diet was discussing the recording of the diplomatic meeting between Japanese diplomats and Lourian authorities. After listening to the recording, they proceeded to either side with Kuribayashi, the diplomat in the recording, or lambast him for his lack of delicacy in handling the situation. Some considered the recording as conclusive evidence of the Lourian determination to escalate the crisis. Some found the recording difficult to believe, citing that the voices in the recording may not have even come from the Lourians. Others called into question the legality of the recording as it was done without considering the consent of the Lourians. Tired of the hopeless, fruitless back and forth, Takamori began his speech.
"This diplomatic crisis with Louria has found us at an unfortunate time where Japan is still struggling to get back on its feet after the transfer phenomenon, which we are still trying to understand. Already they have turned away our diplomats at their doorstep who were only hoping to find a way to settle tensions peacefully."
Mentioning the recording in his speech, he noticed how some of the Diet members visibly opposed him. While it was still within the realm of respect, they were obviously coming from those who are not a fan of Takamori's supposed 'fear-mongering' tactics and 'pro-militarist' stance. Ignoring them, Takamori continued.
"Their stubbornness in continuing to deny cooperation with Qua-Toyne and us has naturally surfaced suspicion and wariness among the Qua-Toynians. It is to that end that, with Qua-Toyne's approval, the Japan Air Self Defense Force has flown recon flights over their border to settle doubts and to hopefully dispel anxieties."
At this point, some of the opposition party members in the Diet began making bewildered faces. Why was the JASDF deployed over Qua-Toyne without informing them? The Self Defense Force acted without the Diet's approval. While the Prime Minister is indeed the commander in chief, their actions were not necessarily welcomed by the Diet as a whole. Takamori could argue that the recon flight was not a deployment and therefore did not need the approval of the Diet to materialize, but increasing his already high notoriety with the Diet would not help him in getting their approval for the deployments that they need to secure Japan's survival in Asherah. Ignoring them for now, he began to show images of the recon flight over the Louria - Qua-Toyne border, showing a clear mobilization effort on the Lourian side and indicating their intentions of an invasion.
"What you see here are the pictures taken by the JASDF of the Lourian side of the border. Already we see more than 9,000 Lourian troops, 20 wyverns, flying lizards capable of unleashing napalm-like fireballs, amassed in these camps, and the numbers are still increasing as seen in the caravans that are traveling towards these camps."
Pausing to look at the reactions quickly, Takamori found moderate to high levels of success in shutting up the majority. Most of those who had been vocal against the recording were now reduced to simply looking in shock at the pictures or looking down on their shoes in defeat. Intending to drive home the discussion, Takamori shifted the topic.
"These people are hell bent on their conquest of what they call 'undesirables' that plague this new world, Asherah. If this was anywhere else, we could dismiss it with a denunciation of their government. However..."
Pausing to cough, Takamori took a quick glance at the Diet. At this point, everyone was now looking at him, likely already anticipating with varying conviction of what his next words are.
"Their actions are endangering the very existence of our newfound trade partner, the Principality of Qua-Toyne, which is primarily made up of non-humans-the people the Lourians consider undesirable. If war breaks out, it is not far-fetched to conclude that all important trade with Qua-Toyne will be halted and reset every step we've taken to make sure Japan doesn't starve."
Bringing up Japan's survival and its current progress in recovering from the food crisis, Takamori appealed to the stomachs of the Diet members, who have also been subject to the harsh rationing that has taken effect since Japan transferred. As the food trade with Qua-Toyne went on, the rationing and conscription of labor towards food production have loosened. However, Louria's aggression and hostility against Qua-Toyne and now Japan have put the food trade teetering over the cliff, threatening to cut Japan's newly established lifeline. Riding on the fears of the Diet members of returning to harsher rationing, Takamori continued.
"These Lourians, who have already considered us their enemies, won't be so cooperative in trading with us once they fulfill their conquest of Qua-Toyne. If we stand by and watch as Lourian soldiers pillage the Qua-Toynian countryside, we will be allowing 120 million Japanese people to suffer malnutrition and starvation."
In spite of putting in a loaded statement, no one opposed Takamori. Despite its inherent fallacies, it still made sense and, most of all, it appealed to their growling stomachs. The food trade with Qua-Toyne has once more allowed them to enjoy having full meals 3 times a day. Despite the success of the sea monster fishing industry, which has resulted in a boom of seafood in Japan, a lot of people got tired of eating seafood 24/7. The prospect of them losing their food, a resource they've taken for granted before the transfer, made them fear the Lourian crisis even more.
"The continued sovereign independence and survival of Qua-Toyne is instrumental, if not paramount, to the survival and economic recovery of Japan. In order to stop the Lourians from making drastic moves, we must spend at least the bare minimum in diverting resources to defend Qua-Toyne and to deploy the Self Defense Forces! If all it takes to stop Japan from plummeting into the abyss is the deployment of our Self Defense Forces, then we must do it!"
Vocal opposition once more returned, warning and condemning Takamori of his hastiness in making conclusions that warranted a deployment of the Self Defense Force. However, the opposition was audibly drowned by applause coming from the rest of the Diet, which, motivated by their near-empty stomachs, wanted none of the food coming into Japan from Qua-Toyne to be halted. Some even stood up and cheered, advocating for the quick resolution of the crisis with a show of force. In the end, Takamori stood in front of a cheering Diet, having accomplished what he needed to do.
Later on, the National Diet of Japan near-unanimously agreed to the deployment of the Japan Self Defense Force to the Principality of Qua-Toyne, ushering in Japan's first overseas deployment of its armed forces hardly only a month into being transferred to Asherah.
Cent. Calendar 16/05/1639, Llanfair's villa, Myhark, Principality of Qua-Toyne, 10:00
"...and so, the National Diet of Japan has approved the deployment of the Japan Self Defense Force to the Principality of Qua-Toyne."
Diplomat Kuribayashi read out an official notice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs transliterated from Asheran common to Japanese to members of the Qua-Toynian High Council, including Princess Llanfair herself. Despite Kuribayashi's wonky pronunciation and intonation, supported by his limited knowledge of Asheran common, the council members were all more than ecstatic to hear the news of Japan coming to their aid. Llanfair, despite being happy herself, was still all too skeptical about the notice.
That infighting mess of apes managed to actually make a decision?
Her impression of Japan's democratic system was tainted by the cold reception she received from the Diet members when she and her other council members went to Japan on a state visit. Adding insult to injury, the Diet members even openly brawled amongst themselves in front of them, souring her taste of Japan's so-called 'proggressive' system of government. Returning to her senses, she calmed down her fellow council members before addressing Kuribayashi.
"This is splendid news, Sir Kuribayashi. As commander in chief, I will order my soldiers to cooperate with yours, and your forces are given access to maneuver freely within Qua-Toyne's borders."
Still struggling to understand Asheran common, Kuribayashi could only pick up certain words before resorting to help from his Fennese counterpart. Finally understanding the statement as a whole, Kuribayashi turned back to Llanfair.
"Excellent. I will tell the government of your reply."
Trying his best to get the words in Asheran common right, Kuribayashi paused to think of the words and syntax before continuing.
"Also. We have an additional request."
Largely tired from trying to read out Asheran common, he gave the paper instead to Llanfair, which contained a request from the Japanese government translated to Asheran common by their Fennese counterparts. Reading the paper, Llanfair wasn't surprised at the request and turned back to Kuribayashi.
"You're asking us to loan you some land near Myhark for use as an airfield?"
Understanding what an airfield is since Qua-Toyne itself had its own dedicated sites for wyvern take off and retrieval, Llanfair used their own word for the airfield. Kuribayashi, however, still unfamiliar with the more complex words, turned to his Fennese counterpart for the translation. Finally understanding it, Kuribayashi spent some time forming the reply before speaking.
"Yes. It is needed for our aircraft."
"I will allow it... on one condition of course."
Understanding the condition part, Kuribayashi replied.
"What condition?"
Llanfair grinned, twisting her wrist in a twirl before stopping with her index finger extended towards Kuribayashi.
"The condition is that you have to be made Ambassador to the Principality."
Even after hearing the translation, Kuribayashi found it difficult to understand the condition itself, let alone its undertones. Taking it at face value, Kuribayashi replied.
"I will forward your request to the government."
Cent. Calendar 19/05/1639, Myhark, Principality of Qua-Toyne, 09:30
It was 9:30 in the morning. The shops and markets in Myhark have already kicked into gear as the first hours of the morning rush are in full swing. Poma, the servant, working for Lars's inn and undercover spy for the Louria Kingdom, went on with his duties. He was serving tired merchants coming in from far away with their drink and Pynn bread, delicious, highly nutritious bread made from the wheat grown exclusively in Qua-Toyne's extensive farmlands. Lars's inn was located on the first floor of a building facing the docks, which featured a lot of burly beastmen loading and unloading wares. Today, however, they noticed something strange.
"Thank the elven goddess, the Qua-Toynian farmers, and cooks for Pynn bread! I always look forward to this leg of the journey towards Sios from Philades!"
"You never get tired of it, right? Somehow, it's so good on its own. Sadly, they lose their taste once we bring them out of Qua-Toyne. I wonder why..."
Two dwarves coming from the Kingdom of Riem up north offered their thanks to the gods for the delicious food.
"Say, the last time I was here was two weeks ago, and back then, there's always this huge grey ship lingering out of the harbor."
"Indeed. Although the ship today seemed strangely smaller and different. It really makes you wonder what they're doing here."
Hearing the conversation about the ship outside the Myhark harbor, Poma immediately began listening and taking down mental notes.
"Though I must say, the small fast boats that the big grey ships have been regurgitating have been replaced by bigger boats with small fans, similar to the mechanical fans being sold from Mu. They all seem to be heading to an unwalled section to the west of the city for some reason."
Noticing the differences in the Japanese movements, Poma sprung into action. He immediately ran back to his boss, Lars, and asked.
"Boss! I'm going to run an errand. Do we have anything that we are lacking?"
"Nothing in particular... Oh! Get me some of those apples being sold in the western market! Philadean apples have something to them, don't they?"
Getting the affirmative from his boss to leave, Poma set out towards the western parts of the city.
Sometime later
Having bought a bunch of Philadean apples from the western market in Myhark, Poma ran through the city's western gate, exiting the walls. There, along the cliffs beyond the coastal road overlooking a beach, he saw a growing crowd of people clumped together against the simple wooden fence separating them and the 10-meter drop. Before Poma could even push through the crowd of people, he could hear some strange sounds, louder than the foreground noise of people chattering amongst themselves. Finally emerging out of the crowd on the other side, what greeted him on the beach baffled him more than it shocked him. The bigger boats mentioned by the dwarves in the inn were present and they indeed did have two windmill-looking spinning blades attached to their back, kicking up water and air as they maneuvered themselves onto the beach, which failed to stop their advance as they continued to travel on the dry, coarse coastline. As their black underbellies deflated, the entire boat lowered itself onto the sand before a ramp-like structure dropped itself onto the ground, revealing alien-looking carriages inside the boat. Guided by multiple people wearing similar-looking, green, mottled uniforms, the mysterious carriages roared to life, autonomously following the hand instructions of the uniformed men and stepping onto the beach. Before the eeriness of the entire situation could enter Poma, he noticed common patches of white and red on the shoulders of all the people on the beach, snapping him back to his senses.
"The flag of the Japanese...! These are probably... Japanese soldiers! I have to inform them back home!"
He muttered to himself before darting back to the direction of Lars's inn.
On this day, 1 month after the appearance of Japan in Asherah, the 2nd Logistic Support Regiment and the 2nd Engineer Battalion of the Japan Ground Self Defense Force's 2nd Division landed on the shores west of Myhark in Qua-Toyne to begin the construction of the airfield and a temporary pier, marking the beginning of Japan's first overseas deployment in Asherah.