The time was in the morning and the weather was sunny in Nisque.

It's another good day for tourists.

However, in the garrison headquarters on the headland on the north side of the estuary of the "Leiden River", the atmosphere was somewhat solemn.

Compared to the banker's extravagance, this is a measly pitiful conference room.

The rough polished rough stone walls and floors, even the ceilings are low to ensure the strength of the fortress, and there are a few narrow windows on the walls that allow only adults to peek out.

Even during the day, it had to be illuminated with the help of gas lamps.

A long patchwork table covered in green flannel and two rows of heavy wooden chairs on each side make up the entire room, in the same shabby style as Rear Admiral Coverdale's office.

Oh, at least the wall decorations are slightly better today than in his office.

On the uneven walls, there is a flag of the Kingdom of Taylor, a naval flag, and a "Tulip Cross Flag" of the alliance specially hung due to the complexity of the participants.

Over here.

Military councils that included officers of their own garrisons, representatives of reinforcements from the six countries, and the Knights of the Church had been going on for a long time.

"Report to Your Excellency, Commander, as of this morning.

None of the six fixed maritime observation points from Niske to the far sea border have been found to be abnormal.

In addition, our two battleships and twelve cruisers were divided into four groups and carried out an all-course cruise in a six-day cycle, and the situation was the same.

The news of the 'Leyden Valley' and Huggins' next attack had apparently spread far and wide, and most of those who should have known already knew about it.

Even we have recorded more than ten days in a row, and we have not seen a single pirate ship at sea. ”

In the garrison headquarters, one of the colonel's adjutants, who was in charge of dealing with threats from the sea, finished his report, saluted, and sat down again.

"Hmm!"

Sitting at the conference table, the commander of the garrison, Major General Coverdale, who was not angry and arrogant with a command knife in his hand, nodded slightly, and then looked at the other officer sitting next to him, his light blue eyes were under deep pressure.

"Colonel Wilde, your Combined Mobile Unit has been stationed in several major cities for some time, and I wonder what you have gained during this time.

In particular, the intelligence agencies have identified Huggins' elite subordinates who are active in the cities along the route, how many of these rats have you unearthed?"

When the officer named Wilde heard this, he immediately stood up, and after saluting the commander:

"Report to Your Excellency!

We have drawn in the officers of the Kingdom garrison and Alliance reinforcements to form a mobile force of 28 transcendents and 120 apprentices.

They were divided into three groups, one stationed in the capital city of Brandenburg, one stationed in the Golden Lion, the city of wealth, and the last group maneuvered along the 'Leiden Valley'.

During this time, there were many new faces in various cities, which is enough to prove that the eyes of many forces are focused here.

We didn't bother to report and identify ourselves, and a few days ago, in cooperation with the city guards in various cities, we captured a total of 23 pirates who showed their traces.

After interrogation, it was confirmed that the five men captured in the small cities of Como and Macerata were direct subordinates of the Pirate King. ”

The colonel paused, and a look of shame appeared on his face:

"But no matter how hard they tortured, we couldn't get out of them where the others were hiding, including what they were here for.

It can be judged that all of the Pirate King's subordinates use passive one-line contact, at least subjectively they do not understand the purpose of their trip.

Moreover, the military's advisory group used all available means such as hypnosis, divination, and channeling, and failed to get any more information from them. ”

Major General Coverdale frowned, clearly dissatisfied with their work.

As the highest-ranking military commander in the "Leiden Valley" region, after such a long time, he did not even know where the enemy's target location was, and he was really sorry for the trust of His Majesty.

Forget about the maritime patrol force that was not the focus, the garrison officers and elite transcendent troops on land who had high hopes for themselves could not even grasp the only clue of "pirate kings and pirates".

However, the general knew that it was useless to lose his temper, and patiently continued to ask: "What about the Golden Lion and Brandenburg?"

As the two largest and most important cities in their jurisdiction, these two places must not be missed.

Even though the "Golden Lion City" has a third-order bishop and a grand knight of the Dutch bank all year round. The consul of "Brandenburg", Count Mars, was himself a veteran knight of many battles, and was one of the guardians of the White Swan Crown of the Royal House of Taylor.

They are strong and far stronger than reinforcements.

Cautiously looking at the general's face, Colonel Wilde stubbornly said:

"Lord Mars allowed us to enter the city and station, and also sent his own guards to cooperate with our inventory, but there was no harvest for the time being.

In addition, the people of the Dutch Bank said that they were able to protect their own property and that of their customers, and that we would not allow us to disturb the peace of the city and its citizens.

And Bishop Jasper of the Dome of the Golden Dome Cathedral also helped them, and although we were stationed there, it was difficult for them to carry out the investigation because of their lack of cooperation. ”

Bang –

Hearing the feedback from the "Golden Lion City", Major General Coverdale was instantly angry enough and slammed the command knife in his hand.

Even if they know that the Golden Lion City, an alternative "country within a country", is not easy to deal with, but they are still playing this game at this juncture where they may be attacked by the Pirate King! Aren't they afraid of death?

However, those big bankers would not even give the king face, let alone take themselves as the commander of the garrison.

Secretly annoyed for a long time, the major general is also worth kicking his eyes and spitting out two words in his mouth:

"Incompetent!"

I just don't know who the word general is talking about...

At this time, a very small voice was heard in the conference room, but most of the people present had a transcendent rank above the official knight, and they still listened to that sentence softly.

"How can you blame us for not catching the big fish? I wonder if there are ghosts covering these rats?"

The officers present easily spotted the source of the sound and looked over, including Captain Aven, who was sitting in the corner of the conference room with only his ears.

A young officer with short ice-blue hair sitting in the position of the Joint Tactical Unit, holding a long sword with a black hilt and black scabbard. Under the gaze of everyone, he was holding his neck, as if he didn't care that his words would be heard by others.

The major general, who was already unhappy, raised his eyes and saw this thorn, and his face was even longer.

"Mr. Thomas Gregory, do you suspect that there is Huggins' guilt in the cities along our route?"

As the second place of the "Navy Nova", he was originally arranged to enter the sea cruise team with Evan Gallott in the first place and Bertreum Solomon in the third place.

It seems to be important, but there is not much risk, don't you see that even pirates are missing at sea now?

However, perhaps thinking that his "Snow Lake" was only a fifth-class cruiser and did not want to be a head shorter in front of the other two "naval novas", this Captain Thomas directly abandoned the ship and went ashore to join the mobile force.

It's good now.

The mobile unit to which he belonged did not perform well, and he dared to find reasons to shirk responsibility again.

From the moment he directly disobeyed his own arrangement when he first came to report, Major General Coverdale had already "preconceived" to define his sex, flamboyant, impetuous, proud... Dislike!

Hearing the general's questioning, Thomas insisted on his point of view without showing weakness:

"It's not just skepticism, but I think it's hard to explain the current situation with common sense. Without a sufficient amount of internal response, it is impossible for a large number of elite pirates to hide so hidden. ”

The general did not laugh angrily, and asked again:

"Huh, common sense?

Do you know how much energy it takes to hide the hundreds of pirates scattered in the cities along the route? Do you know what happens when colluding with pirates in the entire Tulip Alliance is considered to be the same crime as pirates?

What kind of great power in the 'Leiden Valley' would take such a risk to abandon everything that Tulip has and follow a great pirate who can only drift on the seas all the way to the dark?"

Seeing that Thomas was not convinced and was about to argue again, the general raised his hand to stop the words that had already come to his lips:

"Well, the situation you mentioned is not entirely impossible.

I'll assign you an independent intelligence team, and how about you go and find out who is behind the scenes?

Even the personnel of the intelligence department in the garrison can be selected at will, our time is urgent, and you will have half a month at most, if you can't find it, you can obediently go back to your 'Snow Lake' and go to sea to carry out the cruise mission!"

Whoop -

Thomas pushed his chair away and stood up suddenly, and the general's words hit him right.

Feeling that he could not display his talents, he immediately agreed loudly:

"No problem, Your Excellency, I am familiar enough with the Leiden Valley these days that I can simply give me an assistant, and my crew will be my team. ”

As he spoke, he pretended to glance at the officers in the room, and finally fixed on a person he had been paying close attention to since he entered the room.

"Hey, hey, hey, what did I say, I was targeted by a troublesome guy, and the time to come has finally come. ”

When Evan heard the gloating laughter of Bertelem Solomon, who was sitting beside him.

Looking up just to meet Thomas's gaze, and naturally seeing the smugness in his eyes, I heard Thomas say lightly:

"Your Excellency, Commander, why don't you let Mr. Evan Garjot be my deputy! ”