Twelve o'clock late at night.

The capital of Aaron, the Lion Castle in Rhine City.

After receiving the latest news, Dange became very anxious. He tossed and turned in bed, but couldn't fall asleep.

He simply didn't sleep and went to find the eye of the storm, Sanchester, overnight.

He could only look for this sage because he was the only guardian sage he could fully trust.

I handed him the latest intelligence: "The situation is not good."

The short, gray-haired sage took the secret report, put on his reading glasses, and read it carefully.

As he watched, he sighed softly: "Your Majesty, I'm sorry that I can't give you any advice."

Danger was stunned: "Why? Can't the sage do a storm divination for me?"

Sanchester smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, Duke Weilan is a miracle wizard at the peak of the seventh ring. In the old days, this was the god in the sky."

"Do you expect a mortal sage like me on earth to divine the thoughts of the gods in heaven?"

As soon as these words came out, the tall and strong lion king suddenly felt a strong sense of powerlessness.

Yes, how can mortals guess what God is thinking?

But he was the lion king after all, and he soon regained his courage.

"So what?"

"He himself said that there are no gods in the world. Even the Seven Rings are just mortals."

"The latest domestic research on magic has also shown that even a god would fall if hit by a cannon!"

Sanchester nodded in agreement: "Yes, Qihuan is indeed a mortal, but he is a mortal with high achievements in magic."

"So, my divination is still useless."

"Based on the current situation, what do you think I should do?"

Sanchester raised his slightly cloudy eyes and looked at Danger meaningfully: "Your Majesty, you actually know everything in your heart."

“You know what the right path is and what the wrong path is.”

“The problem is that the right path is full of thorns, while the wrong path is like a smooth slide. It feels refreshing to slide down, but before you know it, you will reach the abyss.”

"Perhaps you should make the news of the alliance between Weilan and the Empire public at the cabinet meeting. This should convince more nobles to support your idea."

Danger smiled bitterly: "It is true that we can get more support, but I am afraid it will not be enough to turn the situation around."

In recent years, Aaron's national strength has increased, and everyone in the country, from the nobles to the common people, has become accustomed to being strong.

Now that so much money has been lost, and Aaron’s Lion Fleet has to swallow the bitter fruit instead of fighting, won’t it become a joke?

Sanchester naturally understood the domestic situation and sighed: "Your Majesty, then try your best to win."

Danger clenched his fists and asked, "Is there no other way out?"

He was afraid that he would win the north but lose the south.

To his surprise, Sanchester nodded: "There is a dangerous way, maybe it will work."

"You say."

Sanchester didn't say it directly. He first activated a storm barrier and then spoke.

"Your Majesty can take advantage of the battle in Weilan to weaken the power of the nobles in the country, and then use the defeat as a crime to liquidate them, so as to completely take control of the kingdom."

Dange was shocked when he heard this and his eyes widened.

“It’s a dangerous road indeed!”

It directly pushed the fate of the kingdom and his personal destiny to the brink of collapse.

If the operation is slightly improper, both parties will fall off the cliff and be smashed to pieces.

But if he succeeded, Danger would clench his fists even tighter.

If successful, he would have complete control over Aaron and could start doing many things that he wanted to do but couldn't do before.

Do it or not?

Dange hesitated: "Sage, you really gave me a difficult problem."

Sanchester smiled lightly, but his eyes remained solemn.

"A great kingdom needs a great king."

"Although mortals often mention the word 'great', how many mortals really know the weight of 'great'?"

Danger pondered.

Gradually, he whispered: "This matter is difficult to accomplish by myself, I need the cooperation of Duke Weilan"

Sanchester grinned: "He will definitely not help you, Your Majesty. He would like Aaron to be in a mess."

Danger shook his head: "No, he may not refuse to help, as long as I show enough sincerity."

"The biggest enemy of the Natural Alliance is the Glorious Empire. If Aaron collapses, the entire alliance will suffer."

"With Duke Weilan's vision, he can definitely see this clearly."

After thinking it over, Sanchester nodded: "Indeed, but he will definitely cut off a large piece of Aaron's flesh."

Danger laughed and said, "He can cut as much as he wants. With Weilan's size and the barrier of the strait, no matter how much he cuts, he can't really hurt Aaron."

"As long as I truly take control of Aaron, I will be able to quickly repair the past trauma and let Aaron regain his glory. When that time comes... hehe!"

A deep light flashed in the lion king's eyes.

Sanchester nodded again: "Your Majesty is right. I, Aaron, will be able to stand up again soon."

"This is a very important matter. I need to think about it carefully, and I also need the cooperation of the sage."

Sanchester nodded without hesitation: "Since Your Majesty is willing to embark on the path of true greatness, I will naturally always walk with Your Majesty."

This made Danger feel much more at ease.

He was only a four-ring warrior and had no in-depth knowledge of magic. He was able to become king because of his personal abilities, but his real foundation was his sacred bloodline.

Now that the sacred bloodline is not so sacred, he can only rely on his own personal abilities.

As for what the final result would be, he didn't know.

It was like groping in the dark, not knowing what was waiting for him ahead.

But the Lion King, who can still accomplish many great things despite the heavy constraints of family glory, is indeed not an ordinary person.

Compared with other kings, his ability to act is much stronger.

Ten days later.

Dawn City.

Rosen is making final in-person decisions on candidate department heads in each county.

According to the discussion results of the first Vilan Citizens' Assembly, in order to restore Vilan's production and living order as soon as possible, the first principal officials of each county city and large town with the potential to grow into a city will be directly appointed by the Duke.

After the appointment, they were directly airlifted to various counties and took up posts in foreign places.

As Duke, Rosen was certainly not a random appointment.

He first selects a large number of talents with basic abilities and clean backgrounds, and then conducts face-to-face interviews. After passing the interview, they will receive emergency training before being offered positions.

It is not an official position, but an acting position.

Only if you do a good job can you be promoted to a regular employee. If you don’t do a good job, you will be replaced.

The fifteen counties in the south plus some towns in the north add up to more than 40 towns, with an average of about 30 principal officials in each town, and the number of candidates is directly doubled.

Interviewing them one by one is indeed a lot of work.

Rosen would be fed up with the job, but fortunately, this kind of mechanical and repetitive work is basically done by Lai Fu, and he just does the final review.

In addition, his main body was not idle either.

He stayed in the naval port almost every day, together with a group of engineering mages from the White Sturgeon Island, busy with the transformation of the existing ten Black Stone warships.

There are two goals.

One is to increase the caliber of the cannon to counter the Aaron battleship.

The second is to install the new ship-borne magical instruments as soon as possible and form combat effectiveness.

Just when Rosen was busy and confused, he received a message from the Island Security Bureau, which was originally responsible for Weilan’s domestic intelligence and is now independent.

"It is also specifically stated that this is top secret. I hope you will pay utmost attention to it and it is best not to let any third party know the content of the secret conversation."

The person who brought the message was the director of the Security Bureau, a man named Turinin, a rare half-blood forest elf wizard, currently at the peak of intermediate magic power, and his mother was from the Ego tribe.

He used to be Stonard's right-hand man, and because of his outstanding abilities, he approached Rosen.

Rosen was a little puzzled and asked in a secret communication: "Besides this, are there any other clues?"

Turinin was confused: "There are no clues. It is very secretive. We contacted the Foreign Intelligence Service, but we didn't find any relevant clues."

"It's like this guy just appeared out of nowhere, and we don't even know if he has any magical powers."

That's where things get interesting.

Rosen had a very strange premonition and immediately said, "Take him into Dawn Castle secretly. Don't let more people see him. Take him directly to the underground secret room through the secret passage."

"yes."

About half an hour later, the person arrived.

Rosen's real body immediately went to the underground secret room.

This secret room is specially used for secret matters, so not only is it deep underground, but it also has many magical runes set up to prevent detection.

No matter whether they are useful or useless runes, or various treasures with shielding effects, all the materials that can be piled up should be used.

The confidentiality effect is also very good.

At least Rosen is not capable of investigating the situation in the secret room.

When I entered the secret room, I saw a skinny old man.

Even though he was three or four meters away, Rosen could only vaguely sense a trace of magical power emanating from it, and he could no longer feel it when the distance was a little further.

This is the sensitivity of his tenth-ring mage. If it were a mage below the sixth ring, he probably wouldn't be able to sense anything unusual even if he got close to him.

And this trace of magical power told Rosen that the person in front of him was a sage.

Combining Aaron's sage information, Rosen knew that this guy was the Eye of the Storm Sanchester, the loyal dog of His Majesty King Danger.

Rosen sat down opposite him, signaled everyone to leave the secret room, and then performed an improved version of the 7-ring Breathless Crystal Wall Technique.

When the light blue water film completely covered the interior of the secret room, he asked, "Isn't it surprising that the sage secretly crossed the strait to see me?"

Sanchester took a strange amulet from around his neck.

Rosen knew at a glance that this was a low-level version of the 'Boiling Moonfire Amulet', which could probably block the 7th-ring mana information.

In other words, after Father Shenwei obtained the powerful magic weapon from the Moon Goddess Dora, he also spent a lot of time and effort studying it.

"I come here in compliance with His Majesty's will, and you should know that His Majesty has no intention of going to war with you."

Rosen vaguely guessed this and raised his eyebrows: "Your Majesty doesn't want to, but what is he going to do? Sell out his own country?"

"To be precise, it is betraying the nobles in the country."

Sanchester put on the amulet again and said, "Your Majesty is very envious of what the Duke has done in the Southern County, and he also very much hopes that Aaron can get rid of the control of those greedy noble lords."

Rosen understood it all, and after careful consideration, he felt that Danger was walking on a very dangerous path.

He smiled faintly and said, "Your Majesty, aren't you afraid of being hung on the street lamp by the nobles in your country?"

Aaron's history spans more than 1,200 years, but not all kings had a good end. The kingdom experienced turmoil during this period, resulting in three kings dying on street lamps.

"There is this risk, but as the king of Aaron, I certainly cannot watch short-sighted and greedy nobles ignore the interests of the kingdom for their own benefit."

Sanchester showed a hint of pride on his face: "This is the responsibility of a great king, and it is also the reason why I firmly follow Danger."

Rosen was worried: "This is too dangerous. If I accidentally let it slip away, the Giant Fortress might fall."

"So your majesty needs the Duke's cooperation to keep the situation under control. And as a reward. After the defeat, your majesty will give Weilan a very generous compensation on the pretext of redeeming the prisoners of war."

Rosen grinned: "Sanchester, no matter how you control the situation, there will always be a group of brave soldiers who will be sacrificed inexplicably."

Perhaps, this is the cold-bloodedness of a true superior. He feels very pressured when doing such things, and he will never be as calm as the other party.

Sanchester sighed: "This is indeed regrettable, but some sacrifices are necessary. Because these brave warriors are all minions of the Aaron nobles!"

That's not wrong.

After careful consideration, Rosen decided to cooperate with Danger.

"In a naval battle, I will try to reduce the loss of ordinary soldiers and only kill noble officers."

Sanchester was slightly startled: "My Lord Duke, even now, are you still kind-hearted?"

Based on the other party's act of killing 36 noble families, he always thought that the other party had completely forgotten the word mercy.

Rosen smiled faintly and didn't explain much: "There is no need to pay attention to insignificant details. Let's talk about the specific details of the cooperation, sage."

In this case, the two of them discussed it in detail.

We talked for more than an hour, and in the end, all the agreements were verbal and nothing was put down on paper.

I’m afraid even the Creator doesn’t know how much of it can actually be realized.

Of course, it is definitely better than nothing.

Because this means that the naval battle in the Gilded Strait will most likely be just a local war.

It will not get out of control and turn into a full-scale war, thus allowing the Glorious Empire to gain an advantage.

Rosen finally asked: "Your Majesty should have a way to defend against the secret invasion of the Three Sages, right?"

Sanchester showed a hint of uncertainty on his face: "Of course there is, but the sage's methods are unpredictable, and new era magic keeps appearing. I'm afraid."

Rosen handed over the complete version of the Boiling Moonfire Amulet given by Mother Nature.

"I just happened to get a powerful amulet. I'll take it back to your majesty for self-defense."

He had already understood the principles of the amulet and could make it himself, so he could now fulfill his promise to Mother Nature.

As soon as Sanchester saw the amulet, he could vaguely tell that it was an extremely high-level magical weapon, or even a divine weapon.

I was stunned: "Duke, if something happens to His Majesty, it seems to be more beneficial to you, right?"

Rosen explained: "Like Aaron, I also feel the tremendous pressure from the Glorious Empire. So if His Majesty gets into trouble and Aaron is in chaos, it won't do me any good at all."

Aaron is Weilan's big meat shield. The meat shield is a little emotional. Just give him a slap to wake him up, but don't beat him to death.

After saying this, he stood up and left: "Sage, I will have my people take you back in a small boat overnight, so that you won't be noticed if you stay away for too long."

"Thank you very much, Duke."

It was already late at night outside. Sanchester was escorted all the way to Storm Bay, boarded a Fishman Killer speedboat, and sped across the Gilded Strait at lightning speed.

On the way, Sanchester felt the strong wind blowing on his face, looked at the waves splashing around the boat, and was shocked by the speed of the boat. At the same time, he subconsciously recalled the secret conversation he had with the Duke.

As he was thinking, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind.

"The Duke is not merciful, but ambitious, an ambition greater than that of His Majesty Danger."

"He wants to unify the Natural Alliance!"

When this thought came to his mind, Sanchester was startled and felt his heart pounding, but he couldn't help thinking about it.

"Can he do it?"

After some analysis, a preliminary conclusion was drawn.

"The three kingdoms of the Natural Alliance all want to do this, but the one who can really accomplish it is probably this Duke Weilan."

"Once this is accomplished, the Natural Alliance will be able to confront the Glorious Empire head-on, instead of being suppressed everywhere like it is now."

In this situation, all the knowledgeable people in the Natural Alliance feel very suffocated.

After reaching this conclusion, some changes suddenly occurred in Sanchester's mind, which he was unwilling to admit but were real.

This change frightened him a little: "Don't think about it anymore. Don't betray His Majesty's trust, Sanchester!"

But he thought about it for a while: "What does your majesty have? A fourth-ring warrior. The Duke is a seventh-ring peak miracle wizard. Don't even think about it! "

Sanchester raised his hand and slapped himself hard, causing the wizard driving the speedboat nearby to look at him in confusion.

"Bug~ There's a bug on my face, hehe."

The sage laughed dryly.

(End of this chapter)