From Sororumi to the royal capital of Lothar, the average airship flies for a total of three days. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info if you have to stop at several small airports along the way, it will take a little longer.

Generally speaking, airships maintained and operated by goblins are mostly cargo-oriented, with a small number of passenger cabins for passengers to rest. In addition to the powers of the Temple and the Empire, some large chambers of commerce or wealthy nobles will also customize their private airships to the goblins, which can be designed and modified according to different needs.

It is said that in the Gesok Empire, some aristocratic airships were even moored in the airport all year round, and in addition to the high maintenance costs, they had to pay a large berthing fee to the airport every year, just to show off their status.

The Duchy of Lothar does not have a strong floating fleet, although there are several luxury airships used for diplomatic missions, but it is still too extravagant to transport His Royal Highness Strayer, who has not yet been crowned, back home, and under the initiative of the regent over the years, the nobles of Lothar are basically thrifty and spend more money on infrastructure.

This is also the reason why Strayer, Maureen and Osmond took a goblin airship.

Of course, as a basic common sense, you must bring your own food on the goblin airship.

In front of the goblins' food, the kind of thick pot soup with all kinds of strange ingredients, even the bread that is hard as a stone is delicious, on the one hand, it is much cheaper, and on the other hand, no normal human wants to fish out a half-raw fat green worm in the soup, and then when he asks the goblin cook, he is told by the goblin that it is one of the deliberately added ingredients, and by the way, he will eat one in front of you quite enjoyably.

After all, as the proverb goes, the food of some races is a nightmare for others, so don't panic when you see strange food on the table!

In order not to panic, the three teenagers never went to the dining room, and when it was time to eat, they formed a triangle on the deck, and did not pay attention to any aristocratic etiquette, sharing the food they prepared together.

Of course, except for Xiao Hei, the tastes of the three are almost the same.

The only surprise was probably the jerky in Maureen's parcel - Morin had not had time to eat the jerky sent by Madame Callander due to his injury, and Lady Sinise of the Tree of Life was so strict with her patients' accommodations that jerky would never be included in the alternative menu, even if it was delicious.

The delicious jerky was divided in the afternoon of the next day, when the trip was halfway through.

The airship had left the Emerald Plains where the City of Falls was located, crossed a patch of canine mountains and entered the warmer and wetter southern plains, an area that was shrouded in dark clouds and heavy rain throughout early June, and although the airship flew most of the time above the rain clouds, overlooking the vast sea of clouds to the horizon, it was still particularly thrilling when it occasionally traveled through thunderstorms.

Whenever it sails into the clouds, a bubble-like shield activates around the entire airship, which looks weak and can be broken at the touch of a button, but it is blocked by the dazzling electric light and the pouring rain, and every time a thunderbolt is heard outside, the passengers on the deck can't help but exclaim, which sounds as if it is echoing from afar.

"Attention passengers!" a pointy-eared female goblin stepped out of the cockpit and shouted on deck with an amplification magic machine that resembled a musical instrument, her voice sharpened and pierced after passing through the megaphone, like a human screaming hysterically: "Attention!"

"According to the latest letter, the captain has decided to change the route, we will make a detour to the west of Lothar and enter the royal capital, the sailing time will be extended by one day, and it is expected to arrive at the royal capital of Lothar in the evening of the day after tomorrow!

The news caused quite a stir among the passengers.

Goblin airships rarely change their itinerary at short notice, unless there are very special circumstances and everyone is speculating about what happened.

Could it be that there is extreme weather such as a large storm ahead?

According to common sense, there is almost no particularly extreme weather in the territory illuminated by the fire of order, unless there is a possibility of a large hurricane or thunderstorm under the influence of the magic tide or the chaos tide, and once that happens, it is necessary to immediately seek the help of several great mages or above, if left unchecked, it will bring serious disaster to an entire area, and is also regarded by many as a bad omen.

The three of Morin came to the outside of the airship's cockpit.

"Knock knock!" said Morin, knocking on the door, "Is the captain here?"

"Go away! this place is not open to tourists!" came a gruff roar from inside.

"Knock knock!"

"We want to know why we took a detour, may I ask what's going on ahead?" Strayer asked.

"It has nothing to do with you!" a rough roar: "If you bother me, I'll throw you off the side of the ship!"

Strayer's face froze, obviously he didn't expect the other party to dare to say such a thing.

Osmond and Maureen were also stunned.

"Ahem," Merlin cleared his throat, and this time he didn't knock on the door again, but said softly, "We're willing to pay five gold coins in exchange for your news, Captain." ”

Maybe it was because the boy's voice was too small that the other party didn't hear it, and this time there was no rough roar from the cockpit.

"Or ......" Morin lowered his voice a little more and whispered, "...... Ten gold coins?"

"-Deal!" squeaked, and the door opened.

Strayer and Osmond both looked happy, only the teenager frowned and reflected: the starting price is a bit high, and the one-time addition is a bit much, otherwise it may be able to spend less......

The goblin captain looked to be quite young, with a shaggy gray beard and a very formal captain's attire.

After Morin counted ten gold coins and handed them to the goblin captain, he let the three teenagers into the cockpit with a smile, and never said anything about not being open to visitors.

(When she left the academy, she counted her funds and reluctantly returned her money bag and some of the gold coins to Morin, but agreed that she would still take care of the gold coins and expenses of the two after the school started.) ）

Although he had seen the illustrations in the mechanical books, this was the first time that Morin had actually entered the cockpit of an airship, and he was dizzy by all kinds of sophisticated magic machines and various flashing indicator crystals.

Even on the metal round platform in the center of the cockpit, there is a magical image of the airship, on which not only can you see the wings and wings of the airship trembling and the rotating tail rotor, but also many moving or stationary green highlights, which seem to indicate the real-time position of the crew.

"You're from Lothar?" asked the goblin captain, who had already sat back on the console, piloting the airship.

The boy noticed that the console had a rudder-like mechanism, large and small levers, and flashing indicator crystals. In front of the console are several transparent crystal windows, which allow the pilot to easily see the view in front of the airship.

"Yes, I heard that there was a detour because of the extreme weather conditions ahead?" Strayer asked.

"No, it's not. The captain shook his head.

"Why is that ......?" the teenagers asked.

"The state of affairs within the Duchy of Lothar hasn't been good for the past few months—"

"But that's just a rumor!" Strayer retorted.

"Oh, believe me, there is no race in the whole of Toddle that is more well-informed than the goblins!" said the goblin captain leisurely: "The rhetoric of diplomacy can lie, the covenant can be torn up, the news spread by the nobles can be a lie, and even the oath can be broken, but there is one thing that does not lie." ”

"Gold doesn't lie!" the captain seemed satisfied with the statement, and flicked his hard nails on the gold coin, letting out a pleasant hum: "The price of common materials and necessities, the price fluctuations of alchemical raw materials and mechanical devices, the exchange ratio of gold coins to magic crystal cards, these will never lie. Of course, you have to be extremely proficient in these things, and you can't be blinded by the petty tricks of the chambers of commerce that try to manipulate the market. ”

The three teenagers continued to listen to the goblin captain's reasoning.

"The news inside the goblins, judging from the market in Lothar, although some people try their best to cover it up, and the methods are very clever, but considering the flow of goods, the output of raw materials, the changes in population, and even last year's harvest, it can still be seen that there is an abnormality in the entire digital system" The goblin captain said proudly: "And in our internal records for thousands of years, whenever there is an abnormality in the digital system of a region, it must be brewing something." ”

"What's brewing?" Strayer's face was gloomy.

"Maybe it's a new decree, maybe it's a new army, maybe it's opening up a new territory of order, maybe it's a ...... war," the captain sighed, "but considering the rumors over the years, maybe the latter is more likely." ”

The faces of several people were not very good-looking.

Morin also remembered that not long ago in Daddy Pike's letter, he also mentioned that the situation in Lothar was not very stable, so he should be more careful when he came back, and asked: "But why take a detour, is there any difference between going to the west of the king of Lothar?"

Osmond glanced at Strayer and said to Merlin, "Earl Greenmot in the north, the patriarch of the Grey Mountain family, has been complaining about His Majesty the Lord Regent all these years. ”

"Ahh

Although Daddy Pike rarely told him about the aristocratic situation in Lothar before, it can be known from the description in the book that the Count of Grey Mountain is one of the most powerful nobles in Lothar, and the inheritance of the Grey Mountain family is not long, it only gradually began to flourish hundreds of years ago, but it soon became a powerful nobleman, and now the Earl of Grey Mountain is even more echoed in the north of Lothar.

If there is a rift between him and His Majesty the Regent, it may be a serious situation.

"But why today? Why did you suddenly change your itinerary and take a detour to the West?" Strayer asked in a deep voice, "How many years has the attitude of the Earl of Grey Mountain wavered, this is a well-known thing, why did you change course today, did the Earl of Grey Mountain announce that he was going to leave Lothar?"

The goblin captain shook his head: "The latest letter has arrived, His Majesty the regent of Lothar wants to verify the inheritance code again, and summon the patriarchs of all the noble factions of the principality to the royal capital to observe and witness, including the Earl of Gray Mountain. ”

Boom - Strayer misses over the mechanical instrument next to him.

……

If the relationship between the Regent and the Earl of Grey Mountain was as tense as Osmond had suggested, it would be likely that he would have defied the edict and refused to come to the capital of Lothar, but that would have left the Regent with the authority to sanction him in the name of justice. And more likely, if the Earl of Grey Mountain really has a different intention, he is likely to be the first to attack under the pressure of this edict.

So the goblin captain chose to go around.

If you rashly enter the airspace of the Gray Mountain Territory, if the situation really deteriorates, it is likely to be affected.

Morin only felt that these few messages had sketched a deep vortex, seemingly calm but pulling and devouring everything, even more elusive than the spell model of the flash spell. As Papa Pike said, everything that touches people's hearts is not simple.

The boy looked at Strayer worriedly.

He looked very gloomy at this time, and there seemed to be a hint of confusion in his eyes.

After compensating the goblin captain for the broken instrument, the goblin captain, who noticed that Strayer was in a different state, let them out of the cockpit. Although the compensation made him very satisfied, he didn't want any more accidents in his baby cockpit, and he also saw that the three little guys were all professionals, and it would be a big problem if some magic got out of control.

So the three teenagers were driven to the top deck.

It was dusk, and the airship was sailing above the sea of orange clouds, slowly moving towards the sinking sunset.

"Verify the Codex of Heritage......" Strayer muttered, looking a little lost.

Osmond didn't quite understand the word, and his small dark eyes cast a questioning look at Merin.

"To verify the legitimacy of the succession to the throne is to verify the legitimacy of the succession to the throne through a kind of prophetic magic item, which can be verified by the royal families of various countries. This ceremony is usually held only when a new king ascends the throne or under some special circumstances. Maureen explained.

"What's wrong with that......" the boy asked cautiously.

It is said that as early as 12 years ago, in the six months after the royal capital was attacked by flames and blue wolves, although there was evidence that the eldest son of Wang had survived the nightmare, his whereabouts were unknown, and after countless efforts and several searches, he finally followed the clues to find Strayer, who was adopted by a farmer outside the royal capital. It was verified by the king at the time, the younger brother of the first king, and confirmed that it was royal blood.

At that time, the king retired as regent, and Strayer was called His Royal Highness, waiting to be crowned king when he reached the age of ten.

At that time, the ceremony of passing on the code was already held.

"The regent wants to hold this ceremony again, he must just want to take the opportunity to order the Earl of Grey Mountain to go to the royal capital and force him to make a statement, right?" Merlin guessed.

If it was a year ago when he first met Strayer, the boy would not dare to comment on state affairs in front of him like this, but after being a classmate for a year, especially in the past six months, he felt that he had become familiar with a lot of relationships, and Morin boldly said his thoughts.

"Perhaps......" Strayer shook his head meaninglessly.

He leaned to the side of the boat and stared at the sunset at the end of his vision, not knowing what he was thinking.

But after a moment, he suddenly frowned, pointed to the setting sun, and said, "What's that?"

Osmond and Maureen squinted.

The boy saw that directly in front of the airship, in the distant sunset, a small round black dot faintly appeared, which was getting bigger and bigger as the airship approached.

"That's ...... A dark cloud?" said Osmond hesitantly.

But how could there be such a lone dark cloud above the vast sea of clouds, and how could the edge be so regular and round?

Suddenly, a shrill alarm sounded on the airship.