Towards noon, the Randall family's attendants finally packed up the treasure in the hall, and Alina, who had relaxed herself, realized that she had not arranged today's lunch.

Everyone who sorts the treasure is so excited that they don't feel it even if they don't eat or sleep all day. But the lord's personal maid should not lose ground in the face of treasure, which will show that the Randall family has a shallow background...... Although this is indeed the case.

Alina has received strict etiquette training in the Rose Manor, and is fully capable of supporting the dignity of a small family, but after all, she is a young and beautiful woman, and the first time she has seen so many shiny treasures, she still happily forgets the time, just like the country lord's wife who has never seen the world.

Oops, what a shame and such a faux pas...... Why didn't anyone remind me? Especially the stupid big one, who is usually a little hungry and has a stomach that screams like thunder, but today there is no movement at all, and I am so angry...... Alina was ashamed and annoyed, glared at Caligula fiercely, stomped her feet and said, "Caligula, you don't have to eat lunch today!"

Caligula blinked, looked at the back of Lady Alina, touched the back of her head, and asked Klaus with an innocent face, "Why did Madame say that I don't have to eat lunch?"

"Probably...... Maybe...... Oh, I don't know. Klaus spread his hands and proposed, "Why don't you let Brandon ask Madame?"

", why don't you ask?" Brandon glared at Klaus.

The two then began their daily bickering, with the others happily watching the excitement, and only Caligula alone grieving.

He was indeed wronged, since he practiced the Gripen combat skills to the third realm, not to mention the sound of the intestines on an empty stomach, he didn't even have the problem of sleeping and snoring. According to Turnans's theory of martial arts, Caligula has been able to initially control the internal submersible, and is only one step away from simulating the talent of rage and bloodthirstiness. He can now maintain his energetic body without eating for ten days and half a month.

However, eating is his only hobby!

Although the time was short, fortunately, the chefs at Randall's house were skilled, skillful in knife work, and the ingredients were well prepared. They got Alina's menu and quickly created a table of simple but delicate dishes.

Of course, the squire could only gather around the table in the back hall, munching on dry bread and cursing stupid big guys. When Caligula helped bring the cauldron up, there was not a drop of wheat porridge left.

Victor didn't pay attention to the squire's hiccup, he was accompanying Catherine and Ariel to lunch today.

The Queen Mother's demeanor was natural and elegant, and her dining etiquette was impeccable, but Victor clearly felt the turmoil in her heart.

Catherine had long been fascinated by the wisdom and insight of her sweetheart. Catherine believed most of his judgment about the Bore's plot against the port of Lake Fez, and was worried about it.

In fact, Victor's analysis has no conclusive factual basis, and is purely far-fetched speculation, which is not accurate at all. He is bullying the Queen Mother for not having a fighting spirit, and his personal emotions are particularly easy to be mobilized.

Rex used the water conservancy project to readjust the industrial structure of the Neville Kingdom. Victor also has his own layout, but the object of his planning is not a certain kingdom, but uses the golden group as a tool to integrate resources for the entire human kingdom.

Victor's original intention in forming the Golden Regiment was to realize the Randall family's strategy of going north and east.

Randall's territory is located on the southwestern frontier of the human kingdom, bordered by the Lizard Swamp to the east, the Jinshui River to the south, the southern territory of Gambis to the west, and the Duke of York to the north. Don't look at Victor's current call for wind and rain in the Kingdom of Gambis, in fact, the remote geographical location determines that the Randall family's population and material transportation are controlled by external forces. The Kingdom of Gambis can block the borders of Randall's territory at any time, leaving the Randall family's raw sugar, grain and other materials rotten in the warehouse, thus forcing Victor to hand over most of the benefits.

The situation has developed to such a point that Victor has only two choices, either war or admit defeat.

War is always the last option for the lord, winning or losing is a lose-lose situation, and the bystanders are cheapened for nothing. Victor was not willing to start a war lightly, nor was he willing to surrender. Under the circumstances, he had the idea of forming a smuggling merchant group, and finally clarified the strategic concept of the golden group going north and east.

The northward strategy included opening trade routes to the kingdoms of Dodor, Neville, Wharton Prairie, and the Sassan Empire, which was now carried out by Sophia.

The Golden Order's eastward expansion strategy can no longer be handed over to Sophia, and Victor must hold the trade routes from west to east in his hands to balance Sophia's influence on the Golden Order. Otherwise, Randall's logistics will be at the mercy of the Marquess of Wimbledon.

The Jinshui River flows from west to east, passing through the Gambis, the Rand Empire, the El Cult, the Seuss Kingdom, the Eastern Alliance, and the United Kingdom of Borui, a total of six major powers. Victor's development of Jinshui River shipping will immediately break the marginalization of Randall's territory. The Randalls' large merchant ships, laden with cargo, sailed down the river to the ports of the United Kingdom of Borui, and waited until the windy season to sail against the tide to deliver supplies and return to Randall's territory.

No force could clamp down on the Randalls' shipping trade, as no one could compete with the Thorsilver warships on the water. However, the monsoon period that supported the fleet to sail against the current was only four months, and Victor's merchant ships were not enough to return to Randall's territory from the distant Band of Bore.

The Jinshui River shipping will inevitably adopt the mode of transshipment layer by layer, and the construction of ports for ships to dock has become a key link in the eastward strategy of the Golden Group.

Victor's first transshipment port was on the northern shore of Lake Fez, the largest lake known to man.

The conditions of Lake Fes are so good in all respects. The Randall family's fleet departed from Port Rose and drifted down the river for more than ten days to enter the open, gently flowing waters of Lake Fez. The fleet can cast nets to catch fish when it is at anchor, and sail south to the tributaries of the southern continent. The fleet docked at the port on the North Shore, and the cargo of the Centaur Hills radiated from the port to the El Cult, the Rand Empire, and even directly into the Neville Kingdom through Lady Dolly's territory. The fleet continued eastward, passing through the Sousse Kingdom and the Eastern Alliance, and arrived at the mouth of the Jinshui River, where the United Kingdom of Borui was located.

The location of Lake Fes was so important that Victor urgently needed to control a transshipment port on the northern shore of the lake.

Victor listed the construction of a port on the north bank of Lake Fez as a key plan of the Golden Group's eastward expansion strategy. As the so-called self-treatment of others, he was afraid that other forces were also fighting the idea of Lake Fez. Therefore, Lady Dolly talks about the border between the county of Dekaiser and the territory of the Rand Empire, and Satya reveals that Seuss is married to the kingdom of Borui, and the two things may not really be related. But the first thing that came to Victor's mind was the issue of the port on Lake Fez.

In fact, for thousands of years, the lords of the kingdoms were keen to open up their lands, and they did not clearly recognize the great advantages of the shipping trade. For example, the East and West Nore rivers in Gambis were navigable hydrologically, but the pontoon, cableway and stone arch bridges built by the lords cut off the Blinore channel. Even the Borui Kingdom, which occupies the seven major islands, is limited to short-distance transshipment of goods between islands and between islands and coastal ports.

At present, the Golden River Voyage Trade only exists in Victor's mind, and neither the knight lord nor the clergy have a related concept.

However, past experience has taught Victor that the Knight Lord has a strong ability to learn and a keen sense of judgment. What Victor does, as long as it is beneficial to the family, they immediately follow suit and improve it, without delay, and what is not good for the family, they choose to stretch their necks to watch the excitement.

Take papermaking as an example, the Randall family's technology for making straw paper is relatively mature, but the manufacturing cost of writing paper remains high. Victor hoped that the other lords would also invest manpower and material resources to promote the improvement of the papermaking process, but no one responded. Now, with Victor betting on mutual aid vouchers, the other lords have finally started building their own paper workshops.

The lords are so cunning, so it's no wonder that Victor is always suspicious. He believed that as long as he showed the slightest hint, the major forces would immediately jump out and compete with him for the dominance of the Jinshui River shipping, and the port on the north shore of the Fes Lake would bear the brunt.

In the final analysis, this is all the result of differences in family heritage. The millennium family has a complete handicraft base, an independent scientific research system, a mature network of contacts, intricate in-laws, and well-trained spies. Viscount Randall's ruling measures and inventions can be imitated, papermaking, shipbuilding, and port building.

The Randall family has only one in-law in the Yorks, and although Victor has created a mercury spy, he is really blind to high society. He had no way to verify the inside information told to him by others, and he relied on his own blind guesses, which was particularly easy to be misled and used.

Whether Lady Dolly has an interest in Neovester or not, Victor can't confirm. Whether the marriage of Princess Shireen of Seuss to Raymond Peter of the Kingdom of Bore means that the Borean have an idea for Lake Fes, he is not sure.

Victor is sure that if he is on the side of the Borui Kingdom or Neville, he will definitely take control of the port on the north shore of Lake Souss. However, he is the Royal Highness of the Kingdom of Gambis, and Gambis, who has drawn up plans to expand south, has already regarded Lake Fes as the backyard of the kingdom, and will never welcome warships from other kingdoms to enter Lake Fez.

Therefore, Victor made it clear to Catherine that Gambis should build a port at the mouth of Lake Fez, and if August still had the idea that the Emperor of the Rand could not be cheapened, then gather troops at the mouth of Lake Fez, and form a military deterrent to the Rand Empire, so that the other kingdoms could see the grim situation, lest they really put their hands on Lake Fez.

In short, it's dragging. Take all possible means to delay the layout of external forces against Lake Fez, drag down the Gambis battleship into the water, and drag it until the Golden Regiment builds a port on the north shore of Lake Fez!

Although the Randall family is immature, August has a deep background, and what Victor finds difficult, August can easily do. Catherine had just written a letter to Kiteburg, asking August to come forward to find out the information, and Victor would soon be able to grasp the details to see if his judgment was wrong. If his speculation is true, it is only natural that the Kite Castle will use its diplomatic resources to thwart the attempts of the Nevilles, or the Borees.

How to do the kiteburg exactly, there is no need for Victor to worry about.

Viscount Randall moved his mouth, and the Queen Mother of Gambis was upset by this. This is the influence of a Highness on the Kingdom.

After lunch, Victor returned to his bedroom to change into his two-headed dragon lizard leather armor and set off for the Mist Mountains to survey the terrain of the main canal in Neville. When Victor came out, Catherine, with a pair of wonderful eyes, stepped forward to take his hand, and said affectionately:

"My dear, for the first time I've seen you in a battle suit...... It's fascinating. ”

Victor's two-headed dragon lizard's full-body leather armor was designed by Sylvia herself, which completely fits the lines of his body, outlining the body characteristics of the moon elf who are tall and symmetrical, with a bee waist and long legs, and a metallic appearance with a blue and black appearance, which perfectly blends femininity and masculinity into a unique temperament, just like a pure gold sword in a sheath, deep and introverted, sharp and hidden.

Lady Ariel stared at Victor intently for a long time, and her eyes showed a look of surprise, and she couldn't help but laugh: "Your Excellency Randall, I heard that the gold-level gnolls are still roaming the mountains of Neville...... Do you need my personal protection?"

"Don't worry about my safety, especially in the wild. ”

Victor smiled slightly, looked down at Catherine, and said, "I have Pastor Dain by my side, and Archbishop Vespucci has also sent three high-ranking ruling warriors to accompany him to protect him. All of this can meet the wind teeth, indicating that we are lucky and destined to be praised. ”

"But your diet and daily life need to be taken care of by the maid. ”

Catherine said softly, "My dear, Ariel is a silver knightess, and she took care of her when you were in the Kite Castle, so let her accompany you." ”

Victor couldn't laugh or cry, shook his head and said, "I really don't need to ...... I'm entangled with Ant-Man in Randall, and I'm not surrounded by rough mountain hunters. My dear, I'm not what I used to be, don't think of me as too delicate. ”

It's because you're not what you used to be that I'm worried that some people think of you as too "delicate and delicious"...... Catherine sighed secretly, she kept her respect for a highness, took the initiative to put herself in a lower position, and did not resort to the worries in her heart. If it was Sylvia, there wouldn't be so many concerns, and the one who should speak must be clear.

This is probably the difference between a lover and a wife.

Catherine gently fastened Victor's shoulder armor and cape, carefully fiddled with the details of his dress until she was satisfied, and said with a smile:

"Honey, I'm here waiting for you to come back. But you can't keep me waiting...... You'll have to come back to see me every four months. Otherwise, I'll go to you personally. ”

"I promise you what you wish, your beautiful majesty. ”

Victor took a step back, made a court salute to Catherine, and said with a smile: "If all goes well, I will be able to complete all the work and return to you before the rainy season of this year comes." ”

Catherine nodded, grabbed Victor's arm, and asked as she walked out, "Who are you going to pick to accompany you?"

"Of course, the squires of the Randall family, the guards, and the knights of the Rose Manor, plus the clergy of the Church, a total of 50 people. Alina and the maids of Silvermoon Manor remained in the Earl's Court de Kaiser. In my absence, I would like to ask you to take care of them for me. ”

"I will. ”

Catherine accompanied Victor to the outside of the house, the Randall family's attendants and guards were already ready, and Priest Dain led a brown-haired and blue-eyed high-ranking paladin to greet him, and warmly introduced: "Lord Randall, Lady Catherine, this is Lord Dietmar, the Vice-Leader of the Templars. ”

"Good day, Your Majesty August. Good day, Lord Randall. ”

The paladin took the initiative to step forward and salute, he looked to be 30 years old, his face was handsome, his body was toned, and the skin on his hands was smooth and delicate, not rough, which was obviously characteristic of a knight. His left shoulder armor is painted with 6 dark gold stripes, marking the status of a sixth-level holy warrior.

Catherine couldn't help but be moved, lifted her skirt, and curtsied to the holy warrior, "Good day, Lord Dietma." ”

The supernatural strength of the sixth-level holy warriors is at the level of a senior silver knight, and they can burst out with the combat power of the golden knight when they cooperate with the fourth-level priest. Moreover, the number of sixth-level holy warriors is scarce, their positions are high and powerful, and their social status is comparable to that of the Golden Knight. They were either vice-leaders of the Templar forces or held positions in the Council of Cardinals as Templar commanders. The most important thing is that the vast majority of sixth-level holy warriors are knight nobles, and only the vitality of the knight-level can make the holy warrior promoted to a sixth-level priest.

Catherine pays homage to Dietma in accordance with the etiquette of a high knight, in keeping with the tradition of the transcendent.

Victor noticed Dane's closeness to Dimat, and it suddenly became clear to him that the Templar deputy commander was probably Clement's henchman.

"Lord Dietma, it's my pleasure to meet you. Victor also stepped forward and returned a knightly salute and said, "You can call me Victor." ”

"Okay, Victor, you can call me by my name. Dietma smiled and said bluntly: "I am in charge of your safety during my time in Neville, under the orders of the Pope's crown. Your Majesty Clement has confessed, and I will not interfere with your actions. ”

Effective protection, of course, involves interfering with the actions of the protection target, and not interfering with that is called cooperation...... Dietma's words seem to have a deep meaning...... Victor pondered for a moment and said with a smile, "I'm going to lead my mount, it's hot-tempered, and never obeys orders from anyone but me and Sylvia. I'll miss out for a moment. With that, he pulled Catherine to the pen at the back of the villa.

When Hercules saw the man coming, he lowered his head and made an affectionate cooing sound in his throat. Victor stroked Hercules' blue neck feather, pulled it out of the pen, and whispered to Catherine, "Honey, do you know Dietmar?

"This is also the first time I have met Deputy Commander Dietmar...... I know the reputation of all level 6 paladins. Catherine shook her head and said, "The Templars have one chief and three lieutenants, a total of four commanders, Turnans and Dietmar are the Pope's henchmen, and the other two are the Patriarch of Tamor. They are not related to the Paladin. And the level 6 paladins in the Templar Army are basically the children of the paladin family. ”

"What do you have in mind, my dear?" asked Catherine, her eyes twinkling, and she whispered.

"Turnans is in the northern wilderness. His Majesty Clement sent Dietma over to protect me. There are no sixth-level paladins on the Pope's side...... Don't you think it's weird?"

"Are you saying that Clement received the news that the Paladin Family wanted to contact you privately?"

Victor nodded, "It's possible." ”

"Since the Pope has arranged for Master Dietma to accompany you, there is nothing to worry about. Catherine smiled and said tactfully, "I originally wanted the arcane warriors of the Kite Castle to protect you...... It seems that it is not needed. ”

Originally, there was no need for protection, but now you need to go along...... Victor could tell the opposite, and he climbed into Hercules' saddle and pulled Catherine up.

"The Randall family owes allegiance to the king of Gambis, and the Kite Castle certainly has an obligation to protect the safety of Viscount Randall. ”

Catherine was overjoyed, put her arms around Victor's waist, and said softly, "My dear, I promise that the arcane warriors of the Kite Castle will defend the will of His Highness Randall with their lives!"

Victor smiled and said nothing, this is the treatment that His Royal Highness should be. The internal contradictions of the Gambis are resolved within the camp and are consistent externally.

The ferocious swift bird let out a loud long cry and carried the two of them to the front yard. Catherine raised her pretty face from Victor's arms and asked in surprise:

"Well, I've heard Roland say that Hercules never lets anyone ride except Sylvia and you. Roland couldn't ride the Swift Bird for a ride, and muttered to me for days. ”

"This guy only listens to her orders in front of Sylvia...... When Sylvia isn't there, it does my bidding. ”

Victor patted Hercules on the neck and said smugly. He suddenly realized that he could only be ranked third and bottom in Hercules's mind...... Underneath Sylvia is the chubby Belltina of the little man.