Unlike the four seas, the climate of the great sea route has always been elusive.

One moment the sun is shining, the next second there may be lightning and thunder.

Thunderstorms, blizzards, hail, fog...... In just a few days of sailing, Vito and his party took this merchant ship, which experienced almost all the extreme weather.

Fortunately, there were no pirates or large ocean storms along the way, so in the end, the merchant ship was considered to be in danger, and it took less than a week to reach the sea where Earl Island is located.

The sky was filled with goose feathers and snow, rime and cold snaps.

"Ah...... Ahh ”

Heiko, who had just stepped out of the cabin, was blown by the cold wind blowing in his face, and he couldn't help but shiver.

He rubbed his nose, which was red from the cold, and looked at the icy island in the distance, which was almost completely covered in snow, and his face turned a little pale.

"Earl Island is a typical winter island, the temperature remains below freezing all year round, and it snows for at least 200 days out of 365 days a year."

Vito's gentle voice came from behind him, "It seems that Mr. Colonel didn't do his homework before he came here, but you are fat, three hundred pounds, why worry about having nothing to keep out the cold?" It should be our thin-bodied subordinates who should be afraid of this climate. ”

"Yes...... I haven't learned about it. ”

Heike's old face flushed, he had been fighting in the civilian position of the ministry over the years, and his physique had indeed declined a lot, and when he was a half-old teenager, he had never been as afraid of the cold as he is now.

Their voices were extremely low, and the tall and thin leader who walked in front couldn't hear this humble conversation at all.

After leading everyone to the port and out of the dock, the team leader named Sweet enthusiastically began to introduce the situation of his hometown to this group of foreign "naval officers".

In fact, before coming here, Vito had already checked a lot of information about Earle Island in advance, but it was not as detailed and transparent as the locals knew, so he still listened quite seriously at this time.

However, Heiko was a little impatient from the ice and snow, shivering all the way, just thinking about getting to the warm base as soon as possible.

In Sweet's narrative.

Earl Island is not only a distinctive winter island, but it is also remotely located at the southeastern end of the Great Shipping Route, close to the windless zone, not on any of the routes to the New World, and the nearest islands around it are thousands of kilometers apart, which can be described as an isolated island in a blizzard.

The impact of such a geographical location is naturally the coexistence of advantages and disadvantages.

The location outside the shipping route makes it rare for pirates with high bounties to attack on the island, and the people do not have to worry too much about the threat of invasion of their lives and property, and the social order can be relatively stable for a long time.

But at the same time, the too closed environment also makes the island's industry single, the long trade routes, the return cycle is too long and unstable, the ordinary cross-island merchants are almost non-existent, and only the group at the top of the pyramid is qualified to bear this profit and loss.

Over time, wealth has gradually gathered in the hands of a very small number of people, the gap between the rich and the poor on the island has become wider and wider, and the channels of circulation between the upper and lower classes of society have been completely cut off, and the extreme degree is enough to rank among the best even if you look at the world.

Of course.

A lot of this information was summarized by Vito from the information he had and Sweet's words.

After all, the latter is just a small team leader, although the introduction is full of interest, but when it comes to this topic, he does not dare to talk too deeply, and more of the narrative content is still focused on his hometown.

Three hundred and fifty thousand.

This is the approximate population of the island given by Sweet, and in the absence of official statistical surveys, it is not easy to be accurate to 10,000, but in Sweet's description, these 350,000 people, more than 80 percent, are concentrated in the center of the island.

The rest of the population lives scattered in a few small villages and towns by the sea, mainly from fishing, but they are not self-sufficient, and they need to go to the city every once in a while to buy their daily needs.

The 78th branch is located in the eastern block of Earl City.

It is a core neighborhood that only the wealthy are eligible to settle into, just one street away from the slum-filled western neighborhoods, but the quality of life of the residents on both sides is like two worlds.

The food waste that the former empties in the early morning can become a delicacy that the latter uses to sustain the day after drifting down the sewer to the west.

Vito listened to this, silent, and quietly thinking about the next problems that he might encounter after settling into Earl City.

Heiko, who was walking in front, had a bright eye, and he was more and more yearning for the branch base he was about to go to, after all, it was located in a wealthy neighborhood, and no matter how much the situation of the base was said, it should not be much worse.

Warm fireplaces, spacious floor-to-ceiling windows, and tasteful décor......

Almost instantly, Heiko made up his favorite office environment, and his dream was so close that he didn't want to delay for a quarter of an hour, both physically and psychologically, and it became more and more unbearable to bear the feeling of walking in the ice and snow.

Fortunately, he really didn't have to endure it any longer.

After all, it was the incoming supreme commander of the Navy, and it was impossible for the Hansen family to let Sweet take Hayko to Earl City, more than ten kilometers away, on two legs.

Not long after leaving the docks, he saw three carriages parked in front of the road, and Sweet turned around and humbly invited everyone to get on, apparently the Hansen family had been waiting here for a long time.

However, no one was in a hurry to get on the carriage for a while, and at this moment, whether it was Heiko, Vito and others, they all subconsciously stopped their pace and focused their eyes on this carriage.

There was nothing special about the carriages themselves, but they were not pulled by horses, but by a number of strange creatures that looked like lions, but with snow-white and crystalline fluff and larger bodies.

They hung their heads slightly, their manes around their necks obscuring half of their faces, and their bodies were shiny and shiny, as if they were well fed, but their turquoise eyes were dull and inactive.

"This is a snow lion that we only have on Earle Island, and the adult body is more than four meters long, and it has a lot of strength, so it is no problem to pull people."

Sweet touched the head of one of the snow lions, and explained happily, "Don't look at them fiercely, but they can be docile and very intimidated, the temperature on the island is low and there is a lot of snow, ordinary horses are not easy to walk, and there are more than 300,000 people in the city, and they all have to rely on these little lions who can walk like flying in the snow." ”

"Really?"

Heike suddenly had a feeling of insight, and his curiosity was aroused, and he stretched out his fat right hand, and also wanted to learn Sweet's movements and touch the snow lion's head.

Roar!

But when it was still dozens of centimeters away, the snow lion, which hung its head slightly, suddenly raised its head, let out a low roar from its mouth, and cast a fierce gaze at Heike.