Pirate Kingship

Byron left after digging a hole so big that he could bury himself up to his neck.

But the Kalmar Union still had to continue to drink the bitter wine brewed by their own people.

The storm had long since stopped.

Under the blood-red sunset, the pungent smell of gunpowder had not completely dissipated in the port of Bergen, the Earldom of Hordaland, which was the closest to the Faroe Islands and separated by only a fjord.

Three or four huge, ugly sea monsters whose original species were almost indistinguishable lay dead on the beach, and their colorful and strange blood flowed into the sea in streams.

A group of soldiers wearing leather clothes and holding pliers were carefully cleaning up, digging a large hole on the beach and piling up the scattered limbs and arms together again.

"Be careful not to get the blood of these ugly monsters on you. Have a [craftsman] light them with whale oil and burn their bodies to ashes.

After they are completely burned, find a [navigator] to summon the tide to wash them all back into the sea.

Also, convey my order: Bergen Port is closed to fishing for ten days.

Tell those people who make a living by fishing that if they don't want to die, if they catch any strange fish, they should immediately throw them back into the sea, and don't eat raw fish for the sake of freshness.

In the future, this sea in front of us that has coexisted peacefully for thousands of years may not be peaceful anymore."

The young earl, who had just inherited the title a few years ago, was ignoring the cold wind in the early spring of the north, and personally commanded the soldiers to deal with the aftermath with his bare chest.

According to the tradition of the Bay people, the strong upper body is covered with tattoos of various ferocious animals.

No wonder the [Queen of Eternal Night], [Bear Man] and some of the nobles are all firm believers of Orthodoxy. In addition to admiring the strong, they also have a more secret cultural conversion.

The ancestors of the nobles on the Evernight Peninsula were all barbarians and pirates. If it weren't for the cultural requirements of many professions, they probably wouldn't even be able to write their own names.

It doesn't even need to act to pull these people out to play pirates. They are all pickled pirates in their bones.

Like the natives of the southern continent, they still retain the most primitive barbarism of their ancestors.

The young earl led his men to patrol the battlefield, turned his head and looked at the Faroe Islands across the fjord, with a trace of hatred in his eyes:

"Ulysses, it's a good thing you are dead.

Otherwise, if you dare to use us as a shield, you, an outsider who grew up in the Holy Silver Empire, must know how powerful we old bay people are."

The beast tide is a natural disaster, but the beast tide that only attacks specific targets is undoubtedly a man-made disaster.

Under the command of the [Bear Man], the sea monsters controlled by [Frigga's Dressing Box] each rushed to the territory of a political enemy.

These political enemies are either secret supporters of Protestantism, or nationalists who believe that the Bay People are supreme and do not accept the rule of the church, or worshippers of the [King of the Wild Hunt].

At the very least, they are the co-leaders of the Five Nations, who publicly declare that only the descendants of [Blue Dragon King] Reinhard can be king!

No matter which type of people these are, they are obstacles to the bear people's smooth ascension to the throne, and they are naturally thorns in his flesh and eyes.

In Ulysses's mind.

The beast tide is essentially a natural disaster, and with the protection of the [Queen of Eternal Night] afterwards, no one can openly accuse him of "accidentally" letting the beast tide in.

As for the means in secret, although these traditional "Bay People Zhenglongtou Banner" masters say fiercely, they are not afraid of anyone compared to the means of conspiracy.

Otherwise, the eyes of the young earl would not be filled with hatred, but murderous intent.

Fortunately, after the sea monsters dispersed their attacks, their single force was not too strong, and the Earl of Hordaland immediately reminded the coastal ports after the attack.

After paying a certain price, the private armies of the lords and the coastal defense forces of each port successfully killed the sea monsters that landed.

However, the upper echelons of the three countries of the Kalmar Alliance felt the horror of this beast tide for the first time.

The most critical thing is not the direct destructive power, but the "coelenteritis" that is hard to describe.

After infection, not only will they be aggressive towards other humans and land creatures, but the coelenterates that degenerate into them will have a mouth but no anus.

In other words, there is only one mouth left, and the residue will be poured out after digestion.

Even though a few adventurers have seen all kinds of weirdness and have adapted to the appearance of coelenterates, this special physiological structure is still difficult for them to accept.

In their eyes, it is a hundred times more terrible than last year's coral disease.

"Mr. Earl, the infected soldiers have been captured as much as possible according to your order. What should we do next?"

Several [Crow Doctors] and [Pharmacists] from the hospital sequence hurriedly ran to report the situation to Earl Hordalan.

"Do you have any way to save people?"

Hearing the Earl's question, they all looked embarrassed, looked at each other, and then explained with a wry smile:

"Because medical skills involve the human body, the hospital sequence has been suppressed by the church for thousands of years.

Headache and fever are treated with bloodletting, common diseases are life-or-death, and there are no difficult and complicated diseases.

If someone can resist the 'coelenteropathy' and finally recover, we can try to use bloodletting therapy and [blood healing potion] to prepare an antidote.

But now there is obviously no such lucky person. Even if there is, even if his blood is drained, there will not be enough antidote.

There are two feasible methods now.

The first is to ask for help from the church, summon at least a bishop of the middle sequence to preside over the mass ceremony, and try to use holy light to purify the abnormalities in the contaminated person.

The disadvantage is that it may cause great losses to the clergy, and Her Majesty the Queen has to come forward.

But last year, the church mobilized a large number of temple-sequence extraordinary people from our country to accompany the army, and the will and ability of the remaining clergy cannot be guaranteed.

Second."

Although they didn't say it, everyone understood it tacitly.

Help - black magic!

In a place like the Kalmar Union, black magic is even more politically incorrect than in the Holy Silver Empire, the core diocese of the church, to the point where it is sinful to even think about it, let alone say it outright.

The young earl waved to them vigorously:

"Believing that the church is reliable is better than believing that I am the savior."

As a lord, he knows very well what the power-hungry clergy of the Orthodox Church are.

They look compassionate when they seize land, collect tithes, sell indulgences, bless little boys, and spend hundreds of years and countless manpower and material resources building a cathedral, but they have another look when they are needed. .

Many people have been dissatisfied with the church for a long time. The church is not only harming the Protestant aristocrats of the Holy Silver Empire, they are harming everyone equally.

Without this broad popular base, Protestantism would have no ground for growth.

Seeing the doubtful faces of the doctors, he finally said calmly:

"Leave it to me, I'll figure it out."

When they turned to leave, several doctors clearly saw that their master, who was covered in various tattoos, had a tattoo on the middle of his back, among a group of beasts.

He holds a spear and a scimitar in his hands, and is full of banditry. There are two ravens on his shoulders, and there is a halo of a saint behind his head.

Mixing elements of Bay people’s traditional beliefs and the Creator, it has a chaotic beauty.

Moreover, his face is a bit too abstract, and the style of painting is exactly the same as that of other beasts on his body. I don’t know if the [Beast Tamer] gave him tattoos, but they are all in a rough Fauvist style.

But the two lines of runes on the side point out the identity of this humanoid tattoo.

On the left is "King of the Wild Hunt", on the right is "Father of Medicine", and in the middle is "Keep me safe". Of course, there is nothing wrong if it is translated as "Safety in and out".

The earl’s tattoo on his back turned out to be an artistically processed version of Byron, and it was also “Byron with his eyes open”!

Anyone who knows anything will sweat for him.

Obviously, this political opponent targeted by [Bear Man] is an extreme admirer of [King of the Wild Hunt] among the younger generation.

The reason why I admire Byron seems to be for no other reason.

Just look at the other beasts on his body and you will know that it is obvious that the [King of the Wild Hunt] is much stronger and more ruthless than those beasts!

I just don't know whether Byron will give him "divine favor" or "divine punishment" after seeing him with his own eyes, how he has ruined his own image.

On the other side of the Faroe Islands, support troops arrived belatedly.

The main force is the follow-up fleet that had not had time to assemble before. The privateer fleet and pirate fleet of the traditional church nobles are still behind.

creak creak

They had to stop the ship far away and step on the snow to the frozen port where corpses and stranded warships were everywhere.

The fleet has received the news in advance that the Crown Prince [Bear Man]'s life gem is broken, and now it is just to search for the opponent's body and survivors, and to restore the entire battlefield.

There are seven Hetings Strait fleets that they regard as their opponents, and there are four main fleets. On average, each main fleet has about ten battleships of level three or above.

They are usually stationed in different ports to defend different sea areas. When fighting a civil war in the country, they can be fully assembled. After the war, they must be put back immediately.

The situation is similar in the Kalmar Union.

But because this is a Three Kingdoms Alliance, each with its own administrative system, there are more mountains within the army, and the nobles of the three kingdoms each have their own interests.

A considerable part of the direct troops firmly controlled by the royal family had already been taken away by [Queen of Evernight] to join the war in the Holy Silver Empire.

[Bear Man] made a battle plan immediately after receiving the order from the church.

Then convince the neutrals to continue to mobilize the direct fleet, change internal defenses, and then rush on the road at a speed of two knots. This process will take time.

It takes less than a week to fully calculate the time before and after.

The direct force that has gathered in the Faroe Islands is slightly stronger than a Hetings main fleet. There are about a dozen battleships, dozens of cruisers, and a total of about 6,000 troops.

The two battles between [Eternal Night Queen] and [Bear Man] have almost wiped out the wealth of the Kalmar Alliance.

Their initial plan was not to start another national war with the Kingdom of Hetings in a battleship duel.

They believed that the Channel Fleet had suffered heavy losses after a civil war, and there was a much larger colony than the Kalmar Union to garrison, so the fleet would be dispersed sooner or later.

The brilliant breakup fleet is going to the Bantaan Islands, the ghost fleet is going back to the Rift Trench of the Southern Continent, and the pirate fleet is going back to the pirate city Black Sail Port.

As long as he gathers his troops, and when the time comes, he can use the [dressing box] that hides a broken demigod kingdom to load up a large fleet, and directly attack the royal capital of Jin, which is garrisoned by at most one main fleet. Stone.

Implement decapitation tactics and come to a center to bloom.

As long as the king [King of the Wild Hunt] St. Byron, who killed all the legal heirs, can be killed, there will be no more legal heirs in the entire Kingdom of Hattings.

But now because of a sudden "natural disaster", everything is over.

All their lofty ideals and the king's hegemony were burned to the ground.

A translucent golden projection stood silently on the top of the dilapidated bastion like a stone sculpture, giving a panoramic view of the entire tragic battlefield.

Although he experienced a tragic defeat that annihilated his entire army, his waist was still straight, as if nothing could bend it.

"Your Majesty, the preliminary investigation results are out."

A general arrived in a hurry and delivered a battlefield investigation report to the [Queen of Evernight].

When Margaret I received the news that the Faroe Islands and the mainland of the Alliance were encountering a tide of beasts and that her crown prince's life gem was shattered, she was still fighting bloody battles for the church and could not respond immediately.

By the time she finished the war, as a firefighter, she once again helped the church and the weak Habsburg dynasty win victory. By the time she used the legal network to re-project her back to her home military port, the situation was already over, and she could only silently watch and supervise the reinforcements to clean up the battlefield.

At this moment, with a livid face, he watched word by word what the [sheriff] pieced together using [scene reenactment] and various clues.

The specific time and scale of the beast tide coming, as well as the response of the garrison, are of course also indispensable to the [Bear Man]'s bad behavior of leading the beast tide to the mainland in order to protect themselves.

But these are not the point.

Several hundred ordinary small sea monsters with combat power equivalent to fifth- and sixth-level cruisers or large armed merchant ships, a dozen large-scale sea monsters equivalent to third- and fourth-level battleships, plus a giant one equivalent to first- and second-level battleships Species [Ancient Basilosaurus].

After the naval port was attacked, even if Ulysses managed to capture half of them, the rest would be enough to cause heavy losses to the direct fleet of comparable strength.

Moreover, after the tragic victory, many of the defenders had been infected by "coelenterosis" and became secondary polluters, turning their heads to attack and kill their comrades.

After they were dealt with, in the end, apart from the hundreds of frost giant guards, there were only a few hundred extraordinary officers and ordinary soldiers left, adding up to more than a thousand at most.

The loss exceeded two-thirds, which is not a tragedy.

Moreover, after the organization was disorganized, commanders at all levels were lost, and without a core, the mass gathering effect was better than nothing.

But what happened next seemed to be interfered by the existence of a higher level, and nothing could be seen clearly.

Combined with the fact that there were corpses of frozen soldiers everywhere, as well as the frost giant guards who were finally bitten to death by sea monsters, it can be inferred that something must have happened in the end.

There was no sign of invasion by human enemies, but it seemed that a high-ranking family member from the deep sea made a sneak attack on the [Bear Man], which eventually affected the remaining survivors, leaving not a single person alive.

To be more precise, not even a soul was left behind.

They all disappeared with [Bear Man] Ulysses.

This situation is somewhat similar to the [Abaddon Secret Cult] that appeared in the Hattings Throne War before, but it is difficult to lock the target.

[Queen of Evernight] put down the document in her hand and looked in the direction of the mainland.

The crown prince she chose has died a hundred times, but there will still be a storm waiting for her to face in the country in the next period of time.

“Order, issue the highest level gag order now.

Crown Prince Ulysses, the Ursine, fought to the last moment to protect the people of the Alliance when facing the beast tide. He was an undoubted hero.

In the name of the royal family, the church was invited to hold a memorial ceremony for him.

The sea monsters that attacked major ports were caused by accidents, not his fault. No one should make any arbitrary claims. "

The general beside him nodded.

This is the tone the Queen set for this incident, to prevent others from finding excuses to attack their church sect in the future.

The truth of the matter is not important, only the "truth" that the superior wants is important.

Then he reported to Margaret I:

"Your Majesty, the lords have reported that they want you to order the church to hold a mass ceremony to try to purify the soldiers of the 'coelenterosis'. You see."

[Queen of Evernight] was silent.

In fact, she had already asked the saint, but the answer she received was not unexpected.

Just another bunch of "zero negative reviews" redemption coupons.

Please converts like them understand the difficulties of the church. There are wars everywhere now, and there is really no way to allocate elite manpower to hold ceremonies.

Let the Kalmar Alliance and the church overcome the difficulties together, and when they defeat the Protestants and successfully obtain the position of "captain", they will be given several good positions in the Kingdom of Heaven, and they will even be made angels.

If Byron were here, it would be a "I, the First Emperor, make money" routine.

But for superstitious people, they firmly believe it.

Even if you are wronged, you cannot wrong the church. You can only suffer the soldiers.

As for turning to black magic?

Even his own grandson had to deal with tuberculosis, let alone a group of soldiers?

In the end, the queen could only say pitifully:

"Convey my edict to all the coastal lords and destroy all those infected with 'coelenterosis' along with the sea monsters."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The general obeyed the order and was about to leave, but was stopped by the queen again.

"Let the lords not panic and prepare for an attack. As long as the war in the empire is slightly stable, I will ask the saint to return to the kingdom to take charge of the overall situation."

As long as the rulers of the countries in the Old Continent are not blind, they know very well that as the "Snail Annihilation" gets closer and closer, the external situation will only get worse and worse.

The first wave of beasts only attacked the Faroe Islands and the territories of a group of dissidents, but by the time of the second wave of beasts, it was no longer possible to attack specific targets.

All coastal countries need to strengthen their armaments at this time and prepare for repeated attacks.

Obviously, even though the Queen of Eternal Night has encountered the bad news of the death of the crown prince and the heavy losses of her direct line, she still wants to compromise.

She wants to please the church, but she doesn't want her homeland to suffer.

A typical want-it-all.

But she didn't realize that the identities of hunter and prey are not absolute.

When her power is vacant in some places, naturally someone else will help her fill the gap.

Especially when the interests of the opposition nobles are repeatedly damaged, the process of power transfer will be faster than usual.

Compared with Byron's "Holy Spirit" and "Winged Angel", power is more like a false practice.

If the subjects all think that the royal power is supreme, the king is really the king in his own domain.

If the subjects no longer support the royal power, the crown is just a piece of jewelry.

The source of power is not the divine right of the king, but the one with the strongest soldiers and horses is king!

Even if you are a monarch, you have to make more friends and kill fewer enemies, especially to firmly consolidate your base.

[The Queen of Eternal Night] is not ignorant of this principle, but she really doesn't have much time.

You must be radical!

After everything was arranged, she removed the projection and returned to the front-line tent.

"Alas!"

She sighed deeply and pinched her eyebrows tiredly.

After leaving the homeland, she dared to show a trace of weakness and sadness on her face.

A male bishop in a black robe beside her comforted her solemnly:

"Your Majesty, the Creator is omnipotent. He will see your piety and give you the glory of the Lord.

All the warriors who died for the church will go to heaven to enjoy happiness. You should be happy for them."

In the dark millennium, there was almost no such thing as a school. All knowledge inheritance was the responsibility of the church, and many officials who assisted the monarch were clergy.

Bishop Gilderoy Lockhart, who was beside Margaret I, was the liaison officer and royal priest assigned by the church.

Hearing his words, the queen's eyes gradually regained her fighting spirit and nodded:

"Yes, for the future of the people of the Bay, a little sacrifice is worth it.

The soldiers can sacrifice, my grandson Eric can sacrifice, my granddaughter Violet can sacrifice, and even I can sacrifice!

When the final disaster comes, the nobles and the people will definitely understand my choice."

He stood up and nodded four times on his chest, saluted the priest beside him, strode out of the tent and began to organize the army, preparing for the next battle with the Protestant princes.

Bishop Gilderoy Lockhart did not follow, but sat back at his desk, took out a book and copied it with a pious face.

The cover is the "Gospel of Creation" which does not involve supernatural powers, but the content is a taboo book "Gospel of Heaven"!

Only the high-ranking officials above the saint level knew that the Creator was constantly breaking apart. At least a cardinal could vaguely sense the problem.

They all kept the secret strictly, otherwise people's hearts would break along with the Creator, and this team, which was already full of various thoughts, would be even more difficult to lead.

A large number of middle and lower-level clergy in both sects did not know the truth.

After the Orthodox Church spread the "Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven", this thing immediately became like a "Pandora's Box", which could never be closed after it was opened.

The devout clergy wanted to get closer to the Creator through this book of scriptures full of the Creator's knowledge.

The clergy who were not so devout wanted to gain power or even immortality through this taboo book.

This Bishop Gilderoy Lockhart had both. He wanted to get closer to the Creator and gain power. He secretly found a copy of the version and studied it secretly a month or two ago.

There are many clergy like him.

The bishop's eyes flashed with holy light:

"I have read the whole article three times and copied it once.

I have gradually sensed that an angel's eyes have fallen on me.

I have a hunch that I should soon be favored by Him.

I hope that the Creator will bless me and let me gain something tonight.

I really want to make progress!"

At the same time, Byron had already returned to Ganquan Palace.

After a sumptuous dinner, he immediately placed his spoils in front of his two sisters like offering treasures.

Especially the [Frigga's Dressing Box], which can be used by both sisters.

This legendary queen of gods is greedy for money, and the name "Frigga" is the origin of Friday.

It is exactly the same as the vest "Ms. Friday" used by Catherine in the financial street, and the compatibility is very high.

And the Golden Mist Palace Fensaril is composed of sea water, clouds, gold and silver treasures, which is also consistent with the essence of Violet, the [War Witch] and the future [Whale Oil Mechanic].

Violet is also the direct descendant of the Queen of God, so it is easier for her to master this treasure.

Because of the "acquaintance", using it can save a lot of money.

The most important thing is

"No matter who digests this dressing box, they can differentiate into twelve incarnations of divinity.

I want twelve sisters or twelve little witches. I am a little excited just thinking about it. I really want them to be promoted to the fifth level as soon as possible."

However, before deciding who the box belongs to.

Byron suddenly had an idea, and heard a prayer that tried to suppress excitement:

"Ah! Praise the angel of ten thousand wings!"