In the dockyard project of Dunkirk, the act of employing wizards can be said to be a temptation for Louis to test the inner world and the power of the surface world related to the inner world, before that, even if there were kings who coveted the power of wizards, they valued their role in conspiracy and war, like the big families of the inner world, it was almost impossible to regard wizards as artisans or farmers- Unlike Louis, who was always a little jealous of what he didn't know, he became almost a wizard, and with the help of vampire artifacts, he even learned how to cast magic, and it can only be said that after the last curtain was lifted, the body displayed to the king was not as beautiful as he had imagined.

And because it was the first time, the Mancini family was also very cautious, and there were only about fifty wizards- They were just very ordinary wizards, they did not have the privilege of serving the king or the ministers, and they did not have the qualifications to enter and leave the world at will, and they also had the pride of being wizards, and they would never easily stoop to serve mortals, for most of them, it was the first time they had left that small island, and these young people in robes, crowded down from the ship, while looking up at the black city walls, while slightly uneasy to stroke the spellcasting materials and herbs hidden in their sleeves.

These men, according to the king's orders, came late at night, and they were led by Madame Miledi, the Duke's lady of Cologna, and at the sight of the face that became more and more beautiful in the light of the torches, the face of the Count of d'Artagnan suddenly hung down, and Miledi only giggled at this, of course, who else but she could control and appease these young wizards?

Uh, maybe their King Majesty is an exception.

"What are you going to do with these people?" asked Madame Milady.

"A group of scholars who came here from Italy on a pilgrimage. "The Count d'Artagnan said that both of them were the king's secret agents, and they should not give up such things as their identity, reason, or purpose, which were false, and d'Artagnan also returned to his old self after a moment of annoyance, after all, he could not let his personal emotions ruin the work entrusted by the king, "Where did the holy miracle come from in Dunkirk?" asked Milady in a low voice.

"Why can't there be," replied the Count of d'Artagnan in a small voice, "the name of Dunkirk originally meant a church on the dunes." ”

Miledi smiled when she heard this, and the Count of d'Artagnan politely stretched out her arm when she saw this, and she stepped forward to hold it, and the two of them walked into the city side by side, in the middle of the night, the city of this era was usually dead silent, and today was no exception, the light of the torches could only illuminate the part above the shoulder, and the damp ground echoed with the tapping of soft-soled shoes, the group of wizards were very tired, just because they had arrived in a new place, and before the excitement had passed, they could barely support it, but fortunately, the mansion that d'Artagnan had prepared for this group of wizards was not far from the city walls, it was a mansion with more than a dozen roomsEven in the dark of night, you can see that it has been decorated as best you can, but you can still see the roughness and smell of the new—it's hard to describe, but all new buildings have that smell.

When the wizards were led back to their rooms, they didn't notice that their rooms were on the top three floors and two floors below...... Servants, in fact, were d'Artagnan's spies, and they needed to make sure that the wizards wouldn't easily come into contact with outsiders, and that the soldiers and civilians of Dunkirk wouldn't notice anything unusual about them.

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Hood's wound from the crow's pecking was healed, but it was still a little itchy, especially before falling asleep and waking up, and the first thing he smelled before he woke up from this slight itch was a strong aroma of coffee.

In 1661, coffee was still a precious drink called black gold, it was produced in Africa, it was not easy to come to England, Italy or France, and the production was small, in the Middle World, there were also coffee trees planted in large families, after all, the magic of wizards can solve many problems encountered in planting, but this dark brown drink is still not suitable for every wizard, Hood only tasted a small sip at a grand banquet.

When he hurriedly put on his robe and ran down the stairs, he saw a large pot hanging from the blazing fire in the chalk-painted kitchen, and the boiling steam mixed with a heavy aroma, indicating that the pot was boiling coffee, and a maid tried to lift it from the fire with great difficulty, but she clearly overestimated her strength, and the copper kettle shook dangerously, and the hot liquid spilled from the lid and spout and splashed on the maid's hand, she screamed, and instinctively let go, seeing that the pot of precious coffee was about to feed the kitchen floor, Hood hurriedly threw out a feather and recited a mantra, so a transparent hand immediately held the copper kettle steadily.

With another scream, Hood remembered that the servants were mortal, and while he was distressed as he recalled how the spell to erase his memory was pronounced, and tried to comfort the terrified little maid, at this moment another manservant walked in, in the mansion, the male servant was always higher than the maid, and the maids should not even be in front of the guests, and he also saw the copper kettle hanging in the air, but he behaved much better than the little maid, and he saluted Hood, telling him that breakfast would be served soon, and promising that no one would disturb the honored guests again- This means, of course, the little maid.

By the way, Hood thought ashamedly, that the nobles did indeed have breakfast in their rooms. He glanced at the copper kettle with some embarrassment and longing: "I think I can probably ask for a cup of coffee?"

"Of course, sir, a cup of coffee. The manservant said.

When Hood had left, and indeed returned to his room, the little maid lowered her hand covering her face: "I don't quite understand why we did this. ”

"Wizards are very vigilant," said the manservant, "or rather, they are more willing to see mortals tremble at them, and make a fuss and shout at the slightest triviality...... Otherwise, how can they highlight their special and noble. It was a bit harsh at this, and the valet, remembering that they were still the king's "guests" after all, shut his mouth and said no more.

This request was made by Miledi, who knew men as well as wizards, and a good show was more conducive to them manipulating these young men, and then these wizards did show as much as possible the demeanor of a nobleman, that is, ...... They were very generous, as if they had to work in the middle of the night, and they agreed, not because the king wanted to torture them, but because the wizards wanted to cast magic, and only rely on the darkness to block the eyes of civilians and spies from other countries.

It was also a last resort to involve the wizards, after all, in addition to building a dock with a length that could accommodate thirty warships, he also wanted to build two dry docks, the so-called ship repair docks, so that they didn't have to work hard to tow the ships ashore for repairs, but such a dry dock was connected to the landing on three sides, and one side was connected to the fairway, and between it and the fairway, a water retaining dock must also be set up- A simple dock only needs to stretch the land into the sea, while a dry dock needs to temporarily block the sea from the dock and keep the sea water out of the dock - this, of course, can be done by mortals alone, the problem is that both the cost of the project and the construction time will be increased indefinitely.

The king hired these sorcerers to see if they could reach places that mortals could not.

The wizards began to work after a few days of rest, and while the inhabitants were asleep, they took their coffee in a cute little silver kettle, and slowly came to the site of the dock, which was not far from the place where the battle of the dunes took place, the longest dock was outside, and the dry dock was inside, and when viewed from above, it looked like a capital E with an upside-down opening, and the U-shaped base of the dry dock was ready, and the sea water shimmered in the moonlight, and the silver light shimmered, and the view was undoubtedly beautiful, but unfortunately, neither the wizard nor Mr. Vaubane, who was in charge of the defense and construction of the dockyard here, was indifferent to it。

The wizards first looked at the work they had to do, and they didn't know whether to put up invisible barriers to the sea outside and in the dock to drive the water out until the dock door arrived, or to drive the water out and then put up a barrier to keep the mortals going about their work. And after discussing with the person in charge here, Mr. Vauban, he decided to let the wizards try it first, magic can split the sea water to move heavy objects, but this is also the first time for wizards, sure enough, after a few failures, they still decided to drive the sea water out first, and then set up a barrier, the first one requires too long to cooperate with mortals, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not find any clues, and the latter ...... "I can try to get some more sackcloth," said Vauban "that...... The magic barrier is invisible, but it still has a body, right?"

"Indeed," said Miledi, "how can it hold back the sea without its true form?" "This spell was originally created to keep arrows or fire at bay, but is now used more to keep out mist, insects, and foul smells, all of whom have served the feasts of the great family, so they are all skillful in using this spell.

Poor Sébastien Vauban, a pure young man, who had never met wizards and was still afraid of them, was still standing here tenaciously working with a group of wizards, or more directly, supervising their work.

Some of these wizards don't even have their own staffs, after all, staffs are also very expensive, from raw materials to production costs, fortunately, these can be credited to the king, so in the moonlight, Vauban, what he saw was a group of wizards in black robes and holding long staffs, as people said in bedtime stories, walked to the sides of the dry dock and threw marble and metal blocks into the seawater, these are the medium for casting spells, Vaubant could not understand it, but after the medium was put in and the wizards began to chant the incantation, the sea began to tumble as if it was boiling, and he could see it, at first the sea water just appeared strange, and it took a while, only to find that the walls of the dock suddenly rose a little, no, not the walls were rising, but the sea was lowering, and as these wizards said, the sea was being expelled.

This is almost impossible for mortals, and it is not simple for wizards, the pressure of the sea water is well known, under thousands of feet of sea water, even steel will bend due to the heavy water pressure, the water surface here is only more than a hundred feet from the bottom of the sea, but it also makes the wizards' faces pale miserably, and the preparatory wizards on the side immediately stepped forward to share the pressure when they saw it, so as not to let them waste their efforts- The sea water only lowered by a small part, and then even rose a little, and no one knew how and when the gap was created, and Vauban only saw a sudden color darker than the sea under his feet, and then he realized that it was a sand that could not emit light, like magic, oh no, it was magic that drove the sea back, from an inch, to a cubit, to a rod— After revealing about fifty feet of sand, the wizards finally understood, and they were so tired that they could not even speak, or even lift their hands or feet, but it was Milady who had the servants take them back.

Vauban descended boldly into the sand, and as soon as he landed, he sank directly into knee-deep sand, struggling, and there were fish, shrimp, and shells in the gravel that had not had time to escape, but Vauban did not pay any attention to them, his eyes sparkled like a child, and the bright whale oil lamp illuminated the scene before his eyes, as if behind a wide transparent glass, the sea in the night, not the sea, but the bottom of the sea, and the fish attracted by the light followed Vauban closely, and Vauban walked up and down in front of the barrier, and even reached out to touch it, and it felt like glass, he said in his heart, but only dared to touch it gently。

But this was already the most audacious act, and the other officers who were allowed to know were in awe, and did not even dare to look directly at the strange spectacle created by magic, and after they had pulled Vaubant up, they asked him how he was going to explain it to the people tomorrow, and there was no need to explain it, Vauban had already prepared it, hundreds of bags of sand were piled up in front of a transparent barrier, and the soft sand, soaked in water, pressed against each other, leaving no gaps, and though it was wet, it was enough for people to work— Just tell people that this barrier is blocking the sea and that they should not touch it.

As he had predicted, the people looked strange and incredulous, but considering that they were working inside, they did not dare to destroy or move the sandbags.