Mystery: The Stars Returner

In the vast sea, a ship set out from the Southern Continent, carrying a lot of rare treasures from the Southern Continent, preparing to go to the Kingdom of Loen to avoid the war that had not stopped yet.

The sun is shining brightly in the sky, but the temperature is much milder than in the past. Even if you stand on the deck and expose yourself to the sun, it is not as hot as before.

Outside the captain's cabin, there is an old man who has been sailing on the sea for more than 40 years, Old Thorne. He is an old antique in this industry and knows all the changes in the sea and the sky.

You can smell signs of an approaching storm from an unusual cloud or a slight sea breeze.

Learning to observe the stars in the sky is a required course, and he is also very good at it.

Recently, he has been feeling that this year's sun is not as hot as in previous years. Although this change is very slight, he has still observed some abnormal phenomena.

Something will happen to the sun?

Such an idea was simply ridiculous. No one would believe what he said. He knew this, so he never talked about it with others. He just spent more time observing the sun in the sky every day.

"Old Thorne, we are almost at Puning Port. Thanks to your guidance along the way, we can avoid all kinds of storms and huge waves so easily."

The captain brought a full oak cup of dark beer. This kind of wine has a strong bitter taste, and today's young people don't like it. But old guys like him like this kind of bitter wine best, which is more flavorful. .

Old Thorne took the wine and took a big sip. The slightly dark wine flowed down his beard, and his collar suddenly got wet.

After a comfortable burp, Old Thorne said: "Captain Rolle is too polite. This is what I eat. Naturally, I have to try my best to avoid possible dangers on the ship."

After saying that, he smiled and said: "I am also on this ship. I can't joke with the God of Death with my own life."

Captain Roll smiled and chatted with him for a few words, and was about to leave. Before leaving, Old Thorne grabbed the corner of his clothes and lowered his voice: "Don't blame me for talking too much. The natural factors on the sea are easy to overcome, but they are dangerous. It is often caused by man-made disasters. I always have an ominous premonition about this boat trip, so you should make more preparations."

Captain Roll patted Old Thorne on the shoulder and said that he would pay attention to these problems and let him stay on the ship with peace of mind.

When the lighthouse of Puning Port was already in sight, Old Thorne put aside most of his worries. In the absence of pirates, the safety index of the coastal ports in South Wales was still very high.

Just when the crew on the ship relaxed their vigilance, the sailors on the watchtower discovered strange ships approaching from three directions in the distance.

"It's a pirate!"

"The pirates are coming!"

The sailor quickly sounded the alarm, and everyone on the ship became more vigilant. Under the captain's orderly arrangements, they began to stick to their combat positions.

It is very close to Puning Port. Once a battle breaks out, the port defenders will come to support them. They just need to survive this period of time.

The captain and the crew on the ship all thought so. Only Old Thorne looked worried. He had been sailing at sea for so many years and was used to South Wales' weakness towards pirates over the years.

The defenders of Puning Port may refuse to send naval support on the grounds of ensuring port security, even if the pirates have wreaked havoc on their doorstep.

Good premonitions are often just daydreams, but ominous premonitions often come true.

Under the eager gaze of all the crew, Puning Port only sounded the alarm to prevent pirates from taking the opportunity to attack the port, but did not send even one warship for support.

Old Thorne and others were beaten alive by six or seven pirate ships.

Seeing that he could no longer count on the defenders of Puning Port, the captain could only grit his teeth and issue an order to move forward at the highest speed. Even if he collided with the ship, he must rush out of a safe road!

The ships, with full power and sailing at full speed, rushed forward with an imminent momentum. The pirates who had originally surrounded them were thrown into disarray, revealing a safe passage.

The captain immediately commanded the crew to seize this opportunity and escape from the encirclement.

They were very lucky and successfully escaped from the pirate encirclement. However, during the forced invasion, the entire ship was almost sunk by the pirates' artillery fire, and fire broke out everywhere.

Even though they had broken out of the pirate siege and were very close to the port, the defenders of Puning Port still had no intention of deterring the pirates.

They would rather put the warship in the harbor to enjoy the wind than take it out for a spin.

Old Thorne, who was used to seeing the incompetence of the South Wales port defenders, just sighed, and then sat and watched the young crew members and passengers greet the Puning Port defenders, the Grand Duke of South Wales and all the stupid people in extremely vulgar language. Nobles who are afraid of death.

Fortunately, the small pirate group with only six or seven ships did not dare to directly conflict with the Puning Port defenders and left angrily.

The burning ship finally docked, but instead of a cordial greeting, it received a heartless tax bill for calling into the port.

Facing those crew members and passengers who dared to insult, the Puning Port defenders acted particularly bravely at this moment.

If you don't cooperate, you'll be beaten. If you don't cooperate again, you'll be locked up. If you dare to cause trouble, you'll be shot on the spot.

No matter how angry the captain was, he could only pay a large fee.

With the huge tax bill and the cost of repairing the ship, even though a large amount of ticket money has been collected for this trip, part of the money still needs to be paid.

Old Thorne could hear the captain's constant curses from a distance, and he no longer looked as cheerful as when he served him a drink just now.

In addition to the captain and crew, he also heard several passengers who were obviously nobles of the Loen Kingdom. They were filled with indignation and said that they would report to the king when they returned to Backlund, loudly rebuking the uselessness of the South Wales Navy.

After listening for a while, Old Thorne went to Captain Rolle to mutter a few words. Soon Captain Rolle put away the anger on his face and went to talk to the passengers. In both words, he accused the Southwell County Commissioner. From the Grand Duke to the incompetence of an ordinary naval officer.

In a three-story hotel room in Puning Port, Hasta was watching everything that happened through the window.

The incompetence of South Wales's navy and its fear of pirates really opened his eyes.

He found out clearly that there were more than 20 small warships, eight medium-sized warships, and one heavy warship in Puning Port.

The overall naval combat power is much higher than the seven pirate ships just now.

Except for one barely considered medium-sized ship, those pirate ships were all small ships and could not be compared with well-equipped warships.

Even if only two medium-sized warships were launched, it would be enough to scare the pirates.

But the result was shocking, which made Hastur deeply worried about the coastal defense issues of the Loen Kingdom.

With such fighting power and ethos, once the war in the southern continent spreads, the entire coastal defense line will collapse in one blow.

After all, a navy that even pirates are afraid of cannot compare with the regular army of the Southern Continent.

Sharon, who was standing at the window on the other side, looked over. She knew that half of Hastur's purpose of visiting South Wales was to consolidate South Wales's coastal defense line.

"It's really disappointing, even I can't stand it anymore," Hasta said with a smile.

Sharon calmly uttered one word, "It's difficult."

"The civil strife in the southern continent will not end for a while. If you want to attack South Wales, you will need to prepare for at least half a year. There is still a lot of time." Hastur is still very optimistic about the future.

"You can take advantage of the situation."

"Miss Sharon, how do you know what I'm thinking?"

Hastur looked at Sharon in surprise. He was indeed planning to use the hands of the Loen nobles who had returned from the Southern Continent to complain to the king and put pressure on the Grand Duke of Southwell, forcing him to delegate power to him.

Sharon glanced at Hastur lightly, "Do I look stupid?"

Hastur quickly explained that he had no such intention, and Azshara, who was lying on the window sill, meowed twice at the right time to Sharon.

It means that her master just looks down on her intelligence.

With a slight coldness in Sharon's eyes, she glanced at Hastur, and then began to knead Azshara who was inciting the trouble.

Not long after he became an instigator, he had already learned how to control fire.

……

"Dear sister, your worrying second brother has returned safely from the southern continent and set foot in the kingdom's territory at four o'clock in the afternoon on March 3th."

"This should have been a happy thing, but when we were approaching Puning Port, we encountered an incident. The heroic navy of our kingdom was actually afraid of the little pirates and allowed them to rob merchant ships outside the port. I feel sorry for the kingdom. We are deeply concerned about the coastal defense issues."

"Didn't Count Hall, who is always wise, see this clearly? He was also blinded by the falsehood that he boasted?"

"If one day the war from the south spreads, this will become their most powerful stepping stone to attack the kingdom."

"Perhaps I can stay here, wait for the war to come, and fight for the title of earl on the battlefield."

"Well, I really don't want to go back to Backlund and see Hibbert's proud smiling face. He will definitely take the opportunity to ridicule me for leaving the Southern Continent and nail me to the pillar of shame for this matter."

"But the wanderer who has returned from afar really misses his family, especially his lovely and kind sister. He hasn't heard her call him second brother for a long time."

Late at night, under the dim light of the hotel room, Alfred Hall, wearing a black coat, was writing hard.

After writing a full piece of letter paper, Alfred Hall carefully checked it several times to confirm that there were no problems, and then asked someone to send the letter back to Backlund first.

He planned to stay in South Wales for a few days to explore the situation here and see if it was suitable for him to stay here and make contributions.

At the same time, he also wanted to test Earl Hall's tone to see if he wanted him to return to Backlund more, or if he would arrange other ways out for him.