Chapter 143

Aaron's capital Leyin City, the western gold capital of the alliance, the steel capital, the Natural Alliance's unequalled first magical metropolis.

Lion Fortress, the family castle of the Dan Ge royal family, originally built 700 years ago.

After multiple renovations and expansions, it now covers over 200,000 mu, making it a city within the city of the capital.

It is also the political, economic, magical, and even military center of Aaron.

At this moment, the master of Lion Fortress, the present Lion King Dan Ge the Twenty-ninth, is lazily seated on the golden throne in the Hero Hall, receiving the envoys' audience.

These envoys come from all over the White Continent.

There are kingdoms and duchies from within the Natural Alliance, also from the Radiant Empire and its neighboring allies, and even from the far western Holy Elf Empire's grand capital.

The Holy Elf Empire is extremely far, over eight thousand kilometers from Aaron at least, and the land is further obstructed by deserts, high mountains, and swamps.

Moreover, the Radiant Empire blocks the way, obstructing both land and sea routes, which makes Dan Ge, who is eager to open new trade markets, very displeased.

Of course, these are strategic matters that cannot be resolved overnight.

Listening to the respectful and humble remarks of the envoys below, Dan Ge felt bored, for he had long grown tired of these flattering words.

After finally enduring this boring spell, Dan Ge stretched his waist and lazily sighed, 'Another dull, boring day.'

He rose, left the magnificent Hero Hall, turned, and walked toward the training ground behind the hall.

As the Lion King, he certainly knows the extraordinary uses of magic, but personally he loves battle aura martial techniques.

In the cultivation of battle aura, he has also achieved much: not only are his martial skills superb, but his battle aura intensity has reached Four-ring Peak, making his body very strong.

Arriving at the training ground, he picked up a long spear forged with krypton gold and focused on wielding it.

Just as he became absorbed in his practice, an elderly voice suddenly came from not far away:

"Your Majesty, I think you spend too much time on personal martial training."

Dan Ge said nothing and did not stop practicing; he sweated profusely.

"Battle aura is merely a kind of magical energy; if Your Majesty needs it, I can maintain your battle aura at Five-ring Peak for you."

Dan Ge grew somewhat annoyed, thrust the spear forward, and pointed its tip at the old man beside the training ground.

"Sang Qie Si Te, why do you always like to bother me at times like this? Do you really think I won't run my spear into your incessantly chattering mouth?"

The king, with deep gold wavy hair and pure azure eyes, wore a look of annoyance.

The old man pointed at by the spear looked about fifty or so, short and slight of build, with a bald head of white hair, yet he possessed a pair of extremely sharp ice-blue eyes.

He is one of the guardians of the Aaron royal family, a Five-ring Peak mage, the 'Eye of the Storm' Sang Qie Si Te.

He ignored the king's spear in his hand and softly said, 'Your Majesty, the storm at sea tells me that something very important will happen today.'

"So I came to remind you."

Dan Ge's anger subsided largely; he took off his sweat-soaked clothes, received a dry cashmere cloth from the attendant, and carefully wiped the sweat from his body.

As he moved, his bulging muscles all over grew increasingly lustrous.

He wiped thoroughly, and only after confirming he was dry did he put on fresh dry clothes, saying, 'What big thing could it be? Or is another island baron popping up to vie for my women?'

Speaking of which, this matter did indeed make him very angry, but the Dawn Duke later gave him huge compensation, and since he was busy reinforcing the Giant Fortress with troops at the time and did not want too many unexpected troubles, he temporarily endured it.

But this matter ultimately must be resolved; he just needs to free up his hands.

Sang Qie Si Te shrugged: 'Your Majesty, generally speaking, it takes at least a year for the Dawn Princess to bear a child. Only half a year has passed, so you still have a chance.'

Dan Ge snorted: 'I have no interest in widows.'

"But this widow's dowry is Weilan, isn't it?"

"Well, that is truly a tempting dowry, but let's not mention that willful little girl for now. The gardener next door has recently been acting suspiciously, seemingly preparing some plan unfavorable to us."

"Perhaps the sage should calculate this matter."

Sang Qie Si Te nodded: 'I will~ Important news has arrived; old me also wants to hear it, Your Majesty won't mind my being in the way, will you?'

"If you love to listen, then listen."

Dan Ge sat on the long bench in the training ground, waiting for the messenger to arrive.

Not long after, the messenger arrived.

It was actually the spirit-communication mage specially responsible for contacting Weilan.

Dan Ge felt his eyelid twitch slightly: 'Weilan has been rather busy lately.'

When the messenger approached, the sage Sang Qie Si Te waved his arm and immediately conjured a Five-ring Storm Seal, enclosing the three of them inside.

"Now, speak."

The messenger immediately said, 'Your Majesty, Weilan has recently had several major incidents.'

"Tell them one by one."

The messenger immediately said, 'In the past two and a half months, the Baron of White Sturgeon Island sold a large quantity of pearl ornaments to all of Weilan, earning at least five million ogre gold coins.'

Dan Ge had vaguely heard of the pearl ornament matter, but at the time he didn't think much of it, for he was very busy, yet he never imagined the situation would become this big.

"Is Leid dead? Robbed of such a huge sum by a petty baron?"

After saying that, anger rose in his heart.

Because the message mentioned that baron again, and that baron made him very displeased.

The messenger continued, 'After the Dawn Duke noticed, he immediately mustered the Storm First Fleet to sail north, preparing to retrieve the gold.'

"That makes sense, then what happened?"

"The Storm First Fleet encountered the White Sturgeon Baron's Black Stone cannon ship, suffering near-total annihilation; of nearly 7,000 warriors, reportedly fewer than 1,500 remain."

"What?"

Dan Ge, who had been sitting in his chair listening, suddenly stood up: 'Black Stone cannon ship? What is this thing, that it's so formidable?'

"The report says it is a new-style warship driven by burning Black Stone, and equipped with a device called a 'cannon.' Indeed, this cannon is very similar to the Blazing Thunder arcane device under research."

Upon hearing this, Dan Ge couldn't help but exchange a glance with Sang Qie Si Te beside him, and saw surprise also in the sage's eyes.

"How could a petty baron come up with all these new things?!"

The messenger mage then said the third matter. "After defeating the storm fleet, the Northern Marquis of Weilan immediately issued a joint statement, demanding the convening of the all-island lord conference to re-elect the duke!"

Without waiting for the king to ask, the messenger mage spoke the most important piece of news.

"And the Northern Marquis's confidence comes from the fact that the Baron of White Sturgeon Island has developed a deep-sea route to Levinde; it is said that reaching Levinde takes only a short 10 days!"

Dange clenched his fists, a surge of anger burning fiercely in his chest, almost about to burst out of his throat.

"Good~~ good~~~ This little baron is indeed formidable!"

"Without a word, he's actually caused all this trouble, not to mention stealing my women, and now he's even trying to snatch Weilan from me!"

Dange's teeth ground together with a grating sound, as if he wanted to seize the Baron of White Sturgeon Island, who was thousands of miles away, and devour his flesh and blood raw.

After a while, he barely suppressed his anger and asked, "Anything else?"

The messenger mage shook his head: "That's all for now."

"Very good!"

Dange waved at the messenger mage: "Keep investigating Weilan's situation; report any news to me immediately!"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The messenger mage withdrew, and Dange turned his head to look at Sang Qiesi Te.

"Sage, the baron must die!"

Sang Qiesi Te's face showed a hint of doubt: "The blessing of Sage Levin must not be taken lightly."

Dange flew into a rage: "Then we'll fully capture the sage, and also seize the baron and the Dawn Princess alive, testing them one after another—we'll surely find a way to break it!"

"That is indeed a method. But Your Majesty, what do you plan to do? Order the Lion's Fifth Fleet northward?"

The Lion's Fifth Fleet is specifically meant to intimidate Weilan; it has ten 2,500-ton Lion Heart giant ships, ten 1,500-ton Lion Heart ships, and various other large and small warships, totaling forty vessels.

Moreover, half of them have already been equipped with Flame Thunder arcane devices.

"Is that not possible?"

"Our fleet consists of sailing warships, while the Black Stone warships are not yet mature and are no match for the new warships."

"We could certainly win by numbers, but we would suffer heavy losses, and our opponents are many and strong, far more than just a little baron."

That remark calmed Dange considerably, yet he also felt strange: "Where exactly did this little baron's Black Stone warship come from?"

"Since he has opened the deep-sea route to Levinde, it is very likely that it belongs to Levinde."

"A tiny island like Xiao Hai Dao could not possibly produce such a novelty, for the other side lacks both resources and manpower."

"That is common sense."

"Therefore, it can only be external aid; among the Natural Alliance, only the three great kingdoms have the capability to do this."

"Now that the new route has been opened, naturally it is Levinde's aid."

"The sage's conjecture was like a bucket of ice water poured over his head, making Dange even calmer."

"In other words, Levinde has already mastered mature Black Stone warships, and even—no, not given, but likely stationed a secret garrison at White Sturgeon Island for the baron!"

"The new route takes only ten days; using the new warships, the time will be even shorter. In other words, the time for Levinde's warships to reach northern Weilan could even be faster than ours!"

Hiss~~~

Dange drew a sharp breath: "So the baron is merely a tool, and our true opponent is Levinde's little king?"

Sage Sang Qiesi Te nodded slowly: "This should be the most likely scenario."

Dange once again slowly sat back in his chair: "I underestimated this little king; he is far more troublesome than I imagined."

The more he thought, the more he felt the situation was thorny.

"The biggest reason is that Aaron's technology on warships lags far behind, and the seriousness of this matter far outweighs a reckless, impetuous little baron."

After a long silence, he spoke softly: "We have fallen behind, but I will not allow Weilan to become Levinde's backyard. At the very least, southern Weilan must belong to Aaron!"

Since the north is guarded by Levinde's Black Stone warships and Thunder arcane devices, he naturally cannot let the Lion Fleet sacrifice itself pointlessly before producing comparable Black Stone warships.

But southern Weilan is only a few hundred kilometers from Aaron, and their Lion Fleet still holds a huge advantage.

He paused, then said: "Since we cannot contend at sea for now, we will adopt a defensive stance at sea. We will fight Levinde on land."

He wants to reinforce troops, reinforce Dawn City, reinforce the Super Southern Prefecture, to support Duke Dawn in the civil war! Aaron's Black Stone warships also need to be heavily funded for research, striving to build usable Black Stone warships in the shortest possible time.

Even if the technology is not mature, we must rush to build them; having something is better than nothing.

For a moment, strategies of great power contention surged through Dange's mind, and without realizing it, he cast aside the lord of the tiny northern island.

But just then, another messenger mage came over to report the news.

Dange's brow twitched again: "What's happening now?"

The messenger mage immediately told him the answer: "Your Majesty, Mira Fortress has sent an important battle report, discovering clear evidence of the Kao Red Moon Fourth Knight Regiment's large-scale mobilization, suggesting a westward advance; please send reinforcements."

Dange's brows knotted tightly, and anger surged violently in his heart, nearly exploding.

But after only a moment, the anger was suppressed: "Damn those rose gardeners! Damn the Kao queen!"

Aaron and Kao have been age-old enemies for a thousand years; whenever one side has trouble, the other will surely kick them when they're down.

It is obvious that Kao has come to stir up trouble for him.

Can we ignore it?

Of course not!

Mira Fortress is extremely important; if the Red Moon Knight Regiment breaks through, Aaron will lose a vast fertile plain, and even the capital's safety will be threatened.

One side is overseas interests, the other is domestic threat.

After a difficult weighing, Dange let out a long sigh: "It seems we cannot reinforce Weilan."

Sage Sang Qiesi Te certainly knew the situation was difficult, and he softly suggested: "Then let's just send more weapons."

Dange nodded helplessly: "For now, that's all we can do."

(End of chapter)