In the early morning, Gawain received an urgent call from the Winter, and half an hour later, a second piece of more detailed information was delivered to him.

The rising morning sun shone on Elven Stronghold 112, the town that stood in the valley woke up little by little in the warm spring breeze, the sunlight shining through the crystal window on one side of the room, casting a vivid light mark on the exquisite elven-style tapestry, Gawain sat at his desk, the information transcribed by Amber was placed in his hand, and the letters looked particularly clear and sharp in the sunlight.

Amber stood beside him, the half-elf's expression was unusually serious: "...... Further investigation revealed that the Typhonians had built outposts on at least fourteen islands or large reefs, and that black flags could be seen flying almost anywhere the wind and waves could withstand the waves—one of the outposts farthest from land had even reached the edge of the hazard zone of disorderly turbulence. All of the outposts were small, the largest was a wooden house, the smallest was even a tent, and it was obvious that they had been repaired in a short period of time - given the presence of the engineering mage, those things might have even popped up in a day or two - after all, the Winter had not scouted the islands. ”

Gawain's fingers unconsciously tapped lightly on the table next to him, and he said in a very flat and natural tone: "No matter how small the scale is, it is a proof of 'actual control', there are people on it, there are flags, and more importantly, those islands are indeed in the sea area of Typhon, we can't say that they are ownerless islands - after all, there is no international certification standard for how to divide those islands far from the land, after all, humans have been away from the sea for too many years." ”

"Maybe we can try to ...... those outposts"

Gawain shook his head: "Any action we take now is to lay the foundation for the international order we have built ourselves - even deeper, some of the Typhonians are probably waiting for us to do something out of bounds, after all, not all Typhonians are happy to see the formation of an alliance, let alone all Typhonians want to see Cecil continue to gain more and more prestige, and now they are no longer capable of facing us head-on, waiting for us to make mistakes has become their last hope." ”

Amber couldn't help but mutter, "How did those Typhonites do this under the nose of the Winter...... And it's such a big scale......"

"The Winter's is just a ship, and it's an experimental ocean-going warship, from the ship to the crew to the supporting training is still in the verification stage, and they have to face an extremely wide sea area - the ocean is so wide that you can't imagine," Gawain shook his head, "Byron can't use a ship to block the territorial waters of the Typhonians, he is only a symbol and symbol there, but the reaction of the Typhonians ...... It's not slow, indeed. ”

In the end, there was even a hint of a smile on his face, and this reaction naturally fell into Amber's eyes, and Miss Half-Elf looked at Gawain's expression with some surprise, and couldn't help but ask: "Looks like ...... You seem to have expected this to happen a long time ago? ”

"I did expect them to hold back on the islands, but I didn't expect them to build those outposts...... Their response was a little more than expected, but the whole thing went pretty well," Gawain said slowly, pointing his finger to the note that had copied the information, watching the latter turn into a wisp of green smoke in the sunlight, "It's almost time, let's go, let's talk to Rosetta again." ”

Amber blinked, she could finally be sure that this was indeed what Gawain had envisioned - but she still couldn't understand why Gawain cared so much about Winterwolf and the coastline, and why Gawain was so emotional...... Pleasant. She even had the illusion that Gawain actually had a smile in his eyes, and that smile was almost some kind of ...... Gratified.

But before she could ask, Gawain had already strode out of the room, and his voice came from the direction of the door: "Why don't you keep up?" Being late is not a good habit. ”

……

In the reception room on the second floor of the Emerald Long Hall, Gawain and Amber were once again in front of Rosetta Augustus, and when they entered the room, Matilda was standing by the floor-to-ceiling window not far away, seemingly looking out of the window.

From this window, the most visible view was the desolate and barren valley outside the town and the vast wilderness at the end of the valley, the land in the direction of the Gondor wasteland was uninhabited, and only the wild vegetation, which looked somewhat strange under the light pollution, covered the black-brown ground, and now the sun was rising from the east, and the slanting light swept all the way across the valley, into the town, and finally on the wilderness outside the window—in the light, The lush vegetation that was supposed to symbolize demonic pollution turned out to be a little vibrant.

"The sun is very good today, and the elven astrologer said that this sunny weather will last for at least a week, which seems to be a good sign," Rosetta said casually, as he stood up to greet him, "It was already dusk when I came here yesterday, so I didn't even get a good view of the scenery - the wasteland monitoring point at night was too eerie, and I didn't expect it to look different in the early morning." ”

Gao Wen smiled slightly and sat down very casually: "When we met yesterday, night was still covering the whole town, but today the sun is shining in the room at this time - I still prefer the daytime in comparison, it makes people feel happy." ”

Matilda was turning to walk through the window, and she seemed slightly stunned at the hearing of Gawain's words, but quickly returned to her normal senses. She came to Rosetta Augustus's side, and as she sat down, she pointed to a plate of red fruits on the coffee table: "This is from the elves this morning, and they say this is a gift you brought from Cecil especially for this meeting?" ”

Gawain glanced at the small red fruit on the plate, smiled and nodded: "That's right, this is what I brought here, and it will be served to the delegates during the meeting, considering that the Typhonians have a habit of eating fruit in the morning, I asked them to send one here this morning - how is it, do you still like the taste?" ”

"Very well, I've never seen anything like this anywhere else," Matilda said, "what's its name?" ”

"Thorin Fruit, Thorin Tree's Fruit - you should have heard of this tree."

Matilda didn't seem to react for a while, but Rosetta Augustus next to him couldn't help but show a somewhat strange expression on his face, and then he coughed dryly twice, seemingly deliberately interrupting the current greetings, and took the initiative to divert the topic: "How did you rest last night?" ”

"Very good," Gawain nodded, and said casually, "and we received information from the Winterstorm early in the morning. ”

The room seemed a little quiet for a moment, Rosetta seemed a little surprised that Gawain's attitude would be so flat, his gaze couldn't help but stay on Gawain for a few seconds, and then said in a deep voice: "The Winter's is indeed a very advanced ship. ”

"I'm a little curious," Gawain leaned forward slightly, his expression serious, "how long did it take you to build those outposts?" When did you start building them? ”

Rosetta was silent for a moment, then said calmly: "After noticing the patrol route of the Winter, we realized its role - then we spent more than half a month observing its patrol patterns and reconnaissance distances, determining its approximate crew size, and finally completing the construction of all the outposts in a gap of twelve hours. ”

"Twelve hours?" Amber on the side couldn't hide her surprise, "How did you do that?" "90 look

"Twenty-six thousand engineering mages, saturated construction," Rosetta said slowly, "the vast majority of them are responsible for relying on the relay of manpower to freeze the ice passage on the surface or seabed, and the rest are responsible for delivering supplies to the island and completing the construction, and taking up their posts before the blind spot of the Winter disappears - maybe we don't have as advanced warships and construction machinery as you, but the sea conditions near those islands ...... We've been working on it for a long time. ”

Gawain stared at Rosetta until a dozen seconds later, when he retracted his body and whispered, "Admirable." ”

"I think this is an indication of our attitude, and of the question of 'substantial control,'" Rosetta began, meeting Gawain's gaze calmly, the gloomy aura on his face completely gone, and there was only sincerity in those sunken eyes, "I have no intention of stirring up confrontation and controversy between Typhon and Cecil, as you wrote to me in that book - we must enter a new era, whether for the sake of peace for the present or for the future of future generations, the world needs to prosper and develop. In the past, there have been some misunderstandings and frictions between the two countries, but we have finally come to this point, haven't we? ”

"That's right, we should look forward," Gawain said with a solemn expression, "but I also need to give an explanation to the people, and even more so to the soldiers on the front." I can get out of Winterwolf, I can get the Winter back, I can work with you for peace and a return to diplomatic normalcy, but that doesn't mean everything is wiped out. ”

“…… Except for the land of Typhon and the islands, everything else can be discussed. Rosetta was silent for a moment and said solemnly.

Gawain pondered, his fingers tapped lightly on the armrest of the sofa beside him, and after a long time, he slowly said, "Okay, I can take a step back - I can stop paying attention to those islands, but I must keep the harbor of the Evoking Fjord, and ...... As you should know, I've been working on the relaunch of the former Circumcontinental route. ”

“…… Yes, and Typhon is working on that as well," Rosetta nodded, "We're trying to restore contact with the south of the continent from the sea, just as you did in the north." ”

"That's right, the Northern Ring Continent Route and the Southern Ring Continent Route - this will bring about the economic development of all the countries along the route to a certain extent, and can also promote the exchange process of the entire continent, but this is far from enough," Gawain said as he shook his head, "The route is divided into north and south, then it is far from being called the 'Ring Continent Route', and with the solidification of the separation of the economic zones, this can only gradually lead to the entire continent becoming a clear north and south exchange circle, considering what we are about to establish." Alliance', can you imagine that in an alliance whose goal is unity and common development, it should be divided into 'Southern Union' and 'Northern Union'? ”

"Do you want to open up the north-south continental route?" Rosetta looked into Gawain's eyes, and then he looked thoughtful, and nodded lightly after some consideration, "Actually, I expected it too...... You will do so, you are committed to changing the trajectory of the world, and you will not tolerate the continued isolation of this continent. Anything that unites the mortal nations is certainly in your plan. ”

He paused, then said, "This matter...... I agree in principle, but we have to negotiate the specifics slowly, just as you have to give an account to your people - and I have to consider the interests of the Typhonians. ”

Rosetta was cautious, and it was clear that his decision was not an easy one—frankly, he would have rejected Gawain if it had been so long, and the reason was obvious: Typhon was not ready to dock by sea with the Northern Ring Route.

Typhon's ocean ships were early and slow, and the initial direction of development focused too much on rebuilding the colonies, which led to the shelving of plans for a long time for his maritime trade routes, in which the Cecils were clearly ahead of the curve; On the other hand, Typhon was in a frontal battle in the just-concluded War against the Gods, and its national power loss was obviously greater, and under the premise of prioritizing the restoration of order and the resumption of production, Typhon's royal family simply did not have the spare strength to build a usable ocean-going merchant ship in a short period of time, but Cecil's national strength was limited, and they were now able to take out the powerful Winter, which meant that they would soon be able to pull out more warships and an entire trading fleet.

Maybe they've got their trading fleet ready.

On this basis, once the sea route to the northern ring of the continent was opened, Cecil's maritime trade power was allowed to participate directly in commercial activities in the southern part of the continent......

For Typhon's unflapping maritime trade, this was a catastrophe, if not a catastrophe.

Rosetta is not afraid of strong opponents, he believes in the resilience and forward spirit of Typhon under his leadership, even in the most difficult circumstances, the Typhonians can drill a way out, but in the future, he must carefully consider how much it will cost to drill this way of life.

Once a blockade is in place, it will not be easy to break free from it.

But Rosetta was well aware that he had little choice, he could keep his land territory and islands at sea, but as long as a ship like the Winter remained overwhelming in front of Typhon's own ships, he would not be able to stop Cecil's fleet from heading to the southern seas - in fact they could even make a detour directly from the western part of the continent, albeit at a higher cost.

Gawain chose to talk to him about it here, which was already out of morality and decency.

"I know what you're thinking," Gawain said with great sincerity and seriousness as he looked at Rosetta's face, "You may think that this will become a unilateral monopoly and blockade, you think that nominally the route around the continent is maintained by Typhon and Cecil, but in fact the entire continent's access to the sea will be controlled by Cecil's fleet, and the entire route around the continent will be controlled by me, and I will not give anyone room to live - if you think so, then you have misunderstood me."

"From the beginning to the end, I never thought of ruling the world, let alone embezzling the interests of any country, in fact, except for those who openly oppose me, every partner who does business with Cecil has in the end reaped great benefits and long-term development, and my goal is to make all my allies strong, not to maintain my so-called dominance by squeezing them.

"So back to the Circumcontinental Route - I will not sacrifice Typhon's interests to ensure Cecil's dominance on this route, whether it is current or future, all trade activities will be carried out on fair terms, and there will be no unilateral blockades, oppressions, or even crackdowns, which can even be written in our Covenant Memorandum."

Rosetta carefully considered every word Gawain said, his gaze barely moving.

Covenant...... The covenant written in front of the gods can still be tampered with and betrayed, not to mention the current verbal promise - in the end, everything will still speak with strength, and the status of the weakened country will inevitably fall, and the strong country will always occupy more of the right to speak, he knows this very well in his heart.

"I believe in your promise, and in the faithfulness of our covenant on both sides," Rosetta said solemnly, exhaling softly, "and together we will recreate the glory of the Circumcontinental Route – and let it move the world further." ”

Gawain smiled, "Of course. ”

The last line of defense in Typhon's settlement area was finally open to him.