Prologue: The Sea of Whispers

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Baron Berners stood at the bow of the ship with a telescope in his hand – looking out into the vast western sea. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

His short black curly hair is very neatly trimmed, his black beard is thick and stiff, and his black eyes are elegant, and his elegant movements make it clear at a glance that he is from an aristocratic background.

The salty sea breeze crackled his blue-black cloak, revealing his shiny chain mail, and the knight's sword, which was slung from his belt around his waist, swayed gently in the wind, striking the railing from time to time, making a clattering sound.

Their ships have been sailing for three months from the port of Chanda towards the Sea of Secret Whispers in the West.

Two months earlier, they had never seen a fishing boat, a merchant ship, or even a pirate ship.

In the words of Captain Whitebeard Dandar, they have sailed to the end of the world, where they can see nothing but the intense sun, the boundless waters, and unpredictable storms.

"I think Count Arassis should be reassured," said Dandal, who came to Berners's side and touched the white beard on his chest. "I've never sailed so far and so long to the west, and I'm willing to bet no one in the entire continent of Calradia has ever reached such a distant sea. ”

"But I'm still a little uneasy, a little ...... Bad feelings. Baron Berners lowered his binoculars and turned to Dandal. "Remember the atolls and islands we encountered? ”

"That's right, Lord Baron," Dandal nodded in agreement. "That's where people lived, the ashes that remained, the boots that were scattered, the broken hilts of swords, the dung of horses, yes. But if we don't return immediately, we'll die here, and our stock of fresh water and food will last for up to two months, which won't be enough for us to continue exploring the cause of things. ”

"Maybe it's just a ship that has gone off course," he guessed. "The merchant ships that sheltered from the storms we've encountered, you know, Lord Baron, there is no way for the ships to choose their normal course in that situation. ”

Berners took out the rusty, broken sword from his pocket on the deck, the hilt was longer, twice as long as the hilt of the knight's two-handed broadsword, and the remaining small section of the blade had a sharp edge on only one side, and the blade was slightly curved back.

"This sword is not Nordite, nor is it Virgian, and is different from their style and craftsmanship. He stressed.

"Maybe it's a new style of sabre from the Kujits?" Dandar guessed.

"The Kugit did not have sea vessels. Berners shook his head. "Neither did the Rhodoks and Swadiaks, who had only small boats in the rivers and could not sail in the sea for a month or two. ”

"That doesn't mean anything," Dandal said. "Merchants used to sell what was abundant in one place to places where they didn't, and the Kugit and Rhodok people didn't have sea vessels, but the merchants did, and the captains of the ports did. ”

Berners flipped his binoculars, put it in his skin, hesitated for a moment, and said, "I hope you are right, we can go to the Chanda Chamber of Commerce to find out the origin of this weapon." Let's go back. ”

Dandar smiled, turned to the ship's sailors and shouted, "Hey, guys!"

The sailors stopped what they were doing and looked at Dandal on the ship's floor.

"Do you miss Chanda's sweet ale?"

"Yay!" the sailors said in unison.

"Oh, that means you're still a man! miss the girls upstairs in Gesang?"

"Yes!" the sailors laughed.

"Very well, that means your little one is still working! What the are you doing there? Don't be like a woman! Raise the sails! Turn the bow of the ship! Sail 75 degrees east-north, and sail home!"

The sailors erupted in cheers, and quickly took their positions, shouting trumpets, shaking their oars, and pulling the sails to adjust their course.

"I've heard that every successful captain is an orator on the par of a politician, and I've always been skeptical of that," Berners said with a smile as Dandal looked at him. "But I believe it now. ”

Dandar laughed. "Lord Baron, they are all wrong, the captain is not a politician, nor is he merely an orator, the captain is the general of their ship, not only to lead his sailors through the waves and against the storm, but also to control the hearts of the army in the most difficult moments, and to give them hope of victory. ”

"Yes, that's a great description, General. Berners nodded approvingly, and he could see the pride in Dandal's eyes.

"Captain, look! There is a ship in the east! is approaching us!" cried out to the watchman on the mainmast.

Berners and Dandal took out their binoculars and looked at it, and a ship with black sails appeared on the sea, no, not one, three, no! five! Oh no! That's a fleet of at least a hundred ships!

All of them were black sails, like dark clouds on the eve of a storm emerging from the bottom of the sea.

Closer he saw that their flag was not black, but dark red, with two blood-red bat-wings on top and a blood-red cross below, something he had never seen before.

"This can't be!" Berners grew more and more surprised as more and more warships appeared. "As far as I know, no country has such a huge fleet! The Kingdom of Virgia only has seventy or eighty warships, and even the largest Nord fleet is only a hundred warships, how could they send all the warships to such a distant sea? No! This flag is not the flag of any Calradia nation or family!"

Dandar was a little nervous. "What should we do, Lord Baron, their flag is not that of any group of pirates I've ever seen, their ships are fast, but ours are a little faster, maybe we should avoid them!"

Berners wiped the short black beard on his chin vigorously. "Wait, adjust our ship to the most suitable angle for speed, and be ready to evacuate at any time. The fleets of all nations know the banner of Chanda, and if they have no ill will, I would like to know their intentions. ”

Berners looked up at the red and white horse flags waving in the wind on the mainmast.

Dandal shouted a command after checking the direction of the wind and the current, and instructed the crew to make adjustments.

As the Blacksail fleet approached three hundred yards, the Blacksail warship suddenly began to turn.

In Baron Berners's shot, the ships are turned to reveal a canvas-obscured deck, on which are two trebuchets, one of which has a long arm turning, and a blazing flame is projected from the black sail warship!

"Oh! no! no! get out of here!" Berners yelled!

With a loud thud of shattering and popping, the cannonball smashed the port side parapet and fell into the sea, stirring up the water even higher than the mainmast, and the falling sea water swept the sailors on the deck to the ground, and even Berners on the ship's floor was thrown on the deck.

"The oarsman continues to row hard!First mate! Keep course! Frank! Take two men to secure the ropes in the cabin for me! Let the men on the lower decks throw all the useless things into the sea!

"yes! Throw away all the damn kegs! Damn it! The wind has changed a little, tighten the ropes for me!"

"Hey, man, bring the longbow to the deck and get ready for battle!" Dandal gave the order as if he didn't need to think at all, and one command after another poured out of his mouth like the water on the deck.

Berners climbed up a little dazed as he leaned on the railing, until another flaming shell broke the rear mast and smashed through the deck, sending sawdust flying everywhere, burning the deck and the wounded screaming helplessly.

Berners struggled to run into the captain's room, picked up the pigeon cage next to the table, grabbed a quill pen and wrote the news of the attack on a slip of paper, stuffed the note into the leather cylinder on the pigeon's paws, rushed to the door and raised his hand to send the carrier pigeon into the blue sky.

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▲Sea of Secret Words▲: The boundless sea in the west of the continent of Calradia, the end is unknown.