Braving the cold wind, the warships cut through the waves and sailed forward.
Todd sat on the right-hand side of the ship, glanced at Karin standing at the bow, her face flushed with excitement and shouting, and sighed.
Huggins, panting heavily as he rowed, asked him, "How long are we going to stay on the island?"
The monk took out a notebook from his robes, looked at the pencil marks on it, and said while thinking, "According to the confession of the 'Grey Skull' prisoners, considering the intervals between stays, plus the factor of the spring countercurrent, we may have to stay on Waiheke Island for two days before we can set off to return to the mainland."
Huggins nodded to indicate that he understood.
Karin turned her head in surprise: "Go to Waiheke Island?! Shouldn't we be going to the Northern Islands?"
Todd closed his notebook, glanced at the girl, and said, "Did I say I was going north?" Then he added, "Don't blame me for not warning you. Before you boarded the ship, I said this trip would be very boring."
Karin's smile vanished instantly.
An hour later, the warship docked at the shallows of Waiheke Island.
Huggins directed the men to pull the boat ashore, then lifted the tarpaulin from the cabin and began inspecting the glass in the crates.
Todd sat on a large rock in the shallows, opened his map, and began to observe the small island, only four kilometers from the western coast. From above, the island was oval-shaped, no more than four hundred acres in size. The shoreline consisted of sand dunes formed by alluvial deposits, while the inland areas were covered by dense forests. In the very center of the island was a spring, whose waters flowed to form a small, ever-flowing river, hence the island's name, Rapids Island.
Closing the map, Todd focused his attention on the helpers beside Huggins. There were nine men in total, whom the man referred to as "reliable acquaintances." Whether rowing, controlling the sails, or carrying cargo, these men moved with practiced skill and perfect coordination, remaining silent and hardworking without complaint.
Just as the monks were still speculating about the identities of these people, Karin came to his side, took his hand, and led him deeper into the island.
"Hey, hey! Karin, where are you taking me?!"
Ignoring Todd's protests, the girl dragged him into the woods away from the shallows and said angrily, "Let's make a trade!"
The latter was completely bewildered: "Exchange?"
Karin pointed her finger at Todd's forehead: "I want you to tell me your so-called crazy plan! Hudgens always plays games with me, Edgar knows nothing and keeps talking nonsense, and you never want to tell me anything!"
The girl paused, bit her lip, and continued, "In exchange, I'll tell you a secret about me."
Todd frowned: "About your secret?"
"That's right, a secret I've never told anyone before!"
Could it be...?
Todd's heart suddenly raced.
He took a deep breath and waited for his emotions to calm down. After thinking it over carefully, he realized that it wouldn't hurt to tell Karin the whole plan now. So he cleared his throat and began to explain slowly.
Initially, the plan was designed to achieve three objectives.
First, establish a base belonging to the alien race in Muxi Harbor to completely get rid of the situation of being dependent on others.
Second, try every means to extricate yourself from the vortex of the struggle between the church faction and the ascetic faction, and do your best to ensure that relations with both factions do not deteriorate into hostility.
Third, if possible, try to get rid of Father Paul, that eyesore, or remove him from power.
Although the Church agreed to hand over the port of Muxi to Todd, this was on the premise of helping him seize the monastery, which undoubtedly conflicted with the second point. Moreover, once the Church achieved its goal, it was likely to abandon him. If he chose to stay out of it and passively deal with the struggle between the two factions, he would definitely have the consecrated book and the port management rights taken back by the Church in the end.
Therefore, it is undoubtedly extremely difficult to formulate a comprehensive plan that simultaneously achieves all three objectives. However, these three objectives are interdependent, and failure to achieve any one of them could lead to unpredictable consequences.
Fortunately, Todd eventually came up with a whimsical solution.
The first step is to use the glass processing technology from the previous life to create art-grade glass products that are unattainable in this era, and then forge these glass products into works of art from the Talo Empire period.
The second step is to understand the pirates' southward migration and study the power dynamics of the northern islands.
The third step is to maintain good relations with the church so that they can borrow troops from the church when suppressing pirates in the future.
The fourth step was to have Huggins spread false information among the villages and towns that the northern islands contained a treasure called Taro.
The fifth step was to cooperate with the church's army to eliminate pirates, ensure the safety of the waterway, and capture warships.
The sixth step involves Todd spreading false information that he is heading north, while in reality he uses a pirate warship to load glass and hide on Waiheke Island, the closest island to the mainland.
The seventh step, after waiting for some time, is for Todd to return in triumph, his warship laden with Terro treasures, pretending to have discovered the treasure of the northern islands. Through various means, including creating a spectacle, he will divert the Church's attention from the occupation of the monastery to the glass structure.
Currently, the plan has only progressed to the seventh step, and the three objectives have been achieved by about half.
It's worth mentioning that during the extermination of the pirates, the entire plan almost failed completely due to a miscalculation of the fighting strength of the "Grey Skull" tribe. Fortunately, Alfonso de Cavo turned the tide and subdued the berserker Saru.
Upon hearing this, Karin raised her own question.
"Why can't we just use glassmaking technology as a bargaining chip to get the church's help instead of going through all this trouble under the guise of 'Tello's Treasure'?"
Todd explained it using a hypothetical approach.
If I were to give my glassmaking skills to the church, the best-case scenario would be receiving a reward, while the worst-case scenario would be that the church, in order to prevent the glassmaking craft from spreading, would ruthlessly kill me, someone who has no value whatsoever.
If he were to offer treasures to the church in the name of the Taro Treasure, the church, lacking any naval power and knowing nothing about the northern islands, would have to rely on him to help build the Muxi Harbor in order to acquire more glassware.
Hearing this, Karin finally had a clear understanding of Todd's plan, but she also had a vague feeling that the plan was not as simple as it seemed, and that there were some deeper things that the other party had not told her.
Todd rubbed his hands together, looked at the girl and blinked, his face full of anticipation: "So, what's your secret?"
Karin frowned and pondered for a while, then picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it into the distance. The next second, she appeared where the stone had landed.
“My special ability is attachment. I can attach my body to any object I touch and move a short distance with it.” After saying this, Karin noticed Todd’s dejected expression and disappointed eyes, and quickly continued, “My ability is very useful!”
Todd waved his hand and walked heavily toward the beach.
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