"Master Deacon, what can I do for you?"
The Last Kingdom does not have so many complicated etiquettes. When facing a superior who is far superior to him, Hill just nods to show respect and speaks directly, unlike the human world, which has a set of respectful and humble words to deal with dignitaries.
Ottilia stared at her in silence, blinked two or three times, and said in a cold voice:
"Let's talk about some issues."
……
…………
……
After hanging up the phone, Qi Ji's expression became a little strange and his brows furrowed slightly.
She was a little suspicious... Had Hill's peculiarity been noticed by some people?
Although the living environment of the Last Kingdom makes the residents' minds simple and honest, there is no guarantee that there will not be a scheming person.
Besides, it doesn't take much effort to detect Hill's problem.
"Well, if we're discovered, it's not a big deal."
Qi Ji was not particularly worried about the situation on Hill's side.
She kept her existence a secret from Hill mainly out of caution.
First of all, the Order of Saint Hydra had successfully entered the Gray Forest and built a city of a certain size. Although the city was now deserted, she could not guarantee whether the Order of Saint Hydra still had influence there.
Secondly, the Saint Xudela Society seemed to be a very complicated organization, and there was most likely a god above it... Combined with the fact that the "First Creator" had tried to descend to Stio in the beginning, she had reason to suspect that the head of this organization was the First Creator.
If he rashly lets his "reputation" spread too loudly in the Last Kingdom, it might be known to Saint Hydra and even to the First Creator... This would not be appropriate.
But now that I think about it, it's actually not a big deal. After all, I used a pseudonym from beginning to end. No matter how hard the First Creator searches, it is probably difficult to find my real body.
The only hidden danger is that it may put the people of the Last Kingdom at risk... In any case, the will of an evil god cannot be guessed by common sense.
After much thought, Qi Ji simply let the Last Kingdom take its course. No matter how things develop in the future, it is the choice of the residents of that land.
In the end, people still have to rely on themselves.
After ending his disturbing fantasies, Qi Ji moved his arms away from the windowsill, turned around and prepared to go back to bed and lie down until dawn.
"...Tsk, interesting."
At the moment of turning around, her movements suddenly paused for half a second, and the corner of her eye quickly glanced through the narrow window at the sea surface that was illuminated by the silver moon and was as white as silver.
It seemed that at that moment, she sensed some unusual existence, and a storm was brewing in the mysterious area beyond her sight.
"It seems that the next voyage will not be peaceful..."
With an elusive chuckle, she did not linger in front of the window any longer, but lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. After a while, she was motionless, as if she had fallen asleep.
Chapter 427 The Siren Attacks
After this night, the Challenger sailed for two days without any trouble.
During the boring, monotonous and tedious sea voyage, this light brig was followed by a black paddle boat that originally belonged to pirates, leaving two wakes of white foam on the calm and pure sea.
After two or three days of sailing, the two ships had completed half of the "Lookout City-Steel City" route, left the coastline of the Templar State, officially entered the influence of the Glorious Plantagenet Empire, and approached the outlet of the Dusk Sea in the southern part of the northern continent.
If nothing goes wrong, driving east for another two or three days will bring you to the capital of the Star Confederation, the Steel City located on the south coast of the country.
However, a small incident occurred on the evening of the third day after going to sea.
Qi Ji paced back and forth on the deck with a somewhat bored look on his face, staring at the unchanging sea view in a rogue manner, until night was about to fall and dusk dyed the western sky.
Just as she was planning to go back to the deck to play bridge with Mary and the sailors to pass the time, she suddenly had an idea and turned to look at the sea to the southeast.
There was a sly gleam in his eyes.
"Hey," Qi Ji waved to a sailor who was also walking on the deck, "What do you think that is?"
As she spoke, she pointed to the south of the bow.
"what?"
The sailor was stunned for a moment, and looked in the direction she pointed, only to see a dark and hazy sea surface, and the rest of the details were completely indistinguishable:
"Master 105, I can't see anything... Is there a problem?"
After the battle with pirates two days ago, the ordinary crew members on the ship became much more respectful towards Qi Ji, and they were no longer as frivolous as they were at the beginning when they would harass and chat with him from time to time.
Instead, he would deliberately keep a certain distance, and the look in his eyes when he looked at her would no longer be filled with animal desires, but instead be full of respect and admiration.
Although Qi Ji didn't like the feeling of being treated as a superior by others, his life experience was still much better than at the beginning, so he simply didn't correct it...
Moreover, considering the actual situation, no matter how much I call out slogans like "Everyone is equal, don't flatter me too much", these people will not listen.
“… Never mind. My brain is stuck too.”
Seeing the sailor's confused expression, Qi Ji slapped his forehead, thinking that he was too bored to ask an ordinary person to look at the situation thousands of meters away through the half-covered night, and then ordered:
"Please ask Mary to come over."
"Okay, wait a moment."
The sailor bowed and retreated with a wry smile, trotted into the deck, and soon came out with Mary.
"One Zero Five, what's going on?"
Because she had obtained a galley and a light magic cannon for free, the female captain had been in a good mood in recent days, and her face was always radiant.
"Where are we now?" Qi Ji did not explain the situation directly, but asked in return.
"Hmm... We are almost across the 'Twilight Strait'."
Meili looked at the sky with her eyes squinting, thought for a few seconds, leaned forward slightly with her hands on her knees, looked at Qi Ji, and replied with a smile:
"At the current rate, we will be able to reach the shore in three days... at the latest four days. Oh, if we were the only one boat, two days would be enough at most, but now we have to wait for the rowers on the galley to rest, so it will take a little longer."
Obviously, she thought Qi Ji was a little bored by the boring life at sea, so she took the initiative to comfort him.
Qi Ji resisted the urge to roll his eyes and continued with a straight face:
"I remember that we will soon pass through the Sea of Rage, right?"
The "Sea of Rage" is an area of sea located in the southeast of the northern continent. It is covered by dark clouds, hurricanes, and heavy rains all year round. The extremely harsh climate there alone is enough to be designated as a no-fly zone for all sailing ships.
The most troublesome thing is that this sea area is also a huge mermaid's "nest".
No one knows the origin of these crazy and powerful monsters, but it is undeniable that the density of sirens in the "Sea of Madness" is far greater than in any other sea area.
The vast majority of sirens roaming the ocean basically overflow from the violent sea.
Even the invincible armored fleet of the Templar State's "Sea Knights" hit a snag here and returned empty-handed.
These numerous, horrific alien species with sharp teeth and murderous nature have become the nightmare of all ships on the ocean, and even the coastal areas of the mainland have suffered greatly.
As for the "Dusk Strait", it is a pass connecting the Dusk Sea and the open sea. It is the most central gateway of the Glorious Plantagenet Empire. Without a doubt, the Empire has deployed heavy troops here, and two of the seven rune airships are on standby here at all times.
If anything goes wrong here, it will not only seriously affect the economy and people's livelihood of the entire Twilight Sea area, but may also cause the sirens from the open sea to march straight in, directly threatening core cities such as Twilight City and Sunset Harbor.
After all... in terms of distance, the "Dusk Strait" and the Raging Sea are not far away.
Hearing this term, Meili's expression became a little more serious, she stopped smiling, and said in a slightly serious tone:
"Yes, the next few days may... be the most dangerous stage of this voyage."
"Yes, Lord 105, sirens are countless times more terrifying than pirates."
Then the sailor added with a slightly fearful expression:
"The sirens are like storms. They come and go without a trace. There is no warning or way to avoid them. They are also absolutely ruthless and there is no possibility of negotiation... When facing these guys, you can't let down your guard at all."
It can be seen that these people who make a living from the sea... have a deep fear of sirens. Even with two magic cannons and two righteous magicians in charge, it is difficult to completely eliminate the fear of it.
"Then you better be careful," Qi Ji sighed, "They are already here."
"What!?"
The two of them were immediately furious. Meili's eyes widened in disbelief, and she said anxiously:
"Really?! Where?!"
She trusted Qi Ji's judgment very much and did not doubt the truth of his words at all. Moreover, in her understanding, it was normal for the "Earth" wizard to be sensitive to the existence of alien life forms.
"It's just to the southeast, no more than five kilometers away."
Qi Ji said calmly, not showing any panic at all.
"At this distance, they may not be able to detect us, but we can't take chances... Five kilometers away, if they are coming towards me, they can swim to us in ten minutes, so we must hurry and prepare."
Meili's expression was extremely serious. She did not lose her composure and calmly thought and analyzed the situation. She quickly turned around and shouted orders to the crew inside and outside the cabin:
"Siren! Siren spotted! All ready!"
The whole ship was in an uproar at this moment. Although the sailors pouring out of the cabins and towers looked anxious and nervous, they were mostly calm and composed:
Those who were carrying cannons carried cannons, those who were wearing armor put on armor, those who were holding swords held swords, and those who were on lookout kept lookout...but they were not thrown into chaos by this.
It seems that this is not the first time they have faced the threat of sea monsters, and they are quite skilled in dealing with it.
The entire Challenger was armed to the teeth in a very short time:
Three sixteen-pound cannons and two magic cannons were brought to the deck and fixed; the sailor in charge of lookout climbed to the top of the mast like a monkey, craning his neck to look out at the sea; the crew member who knew how to use flag signals ran to the stern with a few colorful small flags, conveying information to the black paddle boat hanging at the back and rowing forward, reminding the crew there to prepare for battle...
The galleys also quickly set up their guns and used flag signals to inform this side that everything was ready and normal.
It took only six or seven minutes for the two ships, one in front and one behind, to be fully prepared. There were no extraordinary people on the galley, and the magic cannons could not be used, so they were moved to the "Challenger", leaving only a few conventional cannons.
"Don't panic. We've encountered sirens before, but we managed to survive every time."
Meili forced a smile and comforted Qi Ji:
"Besides, our equipment this time is many times stronger than before, so there will definitely be no problems."
In fact, she only said half of this: There are usually only two extreme outcomes of encountering a siren, either being intact or being completely wiped out...it is difficult to find a middle ground.
At this time, the skinny seaman who was looking out on the mast yelled in a terrified tone:
"I saw it! I saw the sirens' splashes! They're coming this way! God, there are so many of them! At least ten!"
"Ten..."
Meili's face turned pale, like a prisoner sentenced to death by the judge.
"is it a lot?"
Qi Ji had no clear idea about these, and seeing her expression, he asked curiously.
=====================
The map shows the relative geographical locations of three new locations, namely "Raging Sea", "Lookout City" and "Dusk Strait", for reference only.
Chapter 428: Booming Gunfire
In Qi Ji's perception, there were twelve spiritual fluctuations coming from the distant sea. However, since she had never seen a sirens before, she did not know the characteristics of this kind of alien spiritual fluctuations, so she was not sure whether they were sirens.
Judging from the strength of the spiritual fluctuations, those attackers were not exceptionally strong. Roughly estimated, they were only comparable to the B-class alien species "Gu Ge Giant" encountered in the Great Forest of the East Territory, but slightly weaker.
Twelve Gug giants... If they were on an open land and swarmed over like a swarm, the two righteous mages plus the two magic cannons would simply be targets, and it would be hard to say how much of a threat they would pose.
——Of course, the premise is that you are not approached, otherwise the situation will turn into a one-sided massacre.
But she also knew that the intensity of spiritual fluctuations was not the only criterion for judging the combat effectiveness and degree of danger of alien species, and it was not even the most important criterion, so she did not jump to conclusions.
Just looking at the expressions of Mary and the crew members...it seems like the trouble is quite big.
"Previously, we encountered only two or three sirens, but this is the first time there are more than ten sirens."
Meili looked at the dark sea with a gloomy face and explained to Qi Ji briefly:
"The sirens are the undisputed top predators on the sea. Their sharp teeth and claws can even destroy the metal armor of ironclad ships... Once they get close to them, wooden ships like ours are nothing but pieces of paper."
She deliberately lowered her voice so that only Qi Ji, who was standing next to her, could hear her clearly. She was obviously worried that her overly negative remarks would be heard by the crew and affect their morale.
However, such efforts were of no avail. After the lookout sailor announced the number of sirens, the crew members were all struck by lightning, with deep despair on their faces and many of them were shaking.
It can be said that there are only two reasons that support them from having a mental breakdown:
Firstly, there was no way to retreat in the actual situation, and they could not escape in the vast ocean, so they could only fight to the death; secondly, the two mages, Meili and 105, had not retreated yet, and the crew members believed that they could lead them through the difficulties again.
"In other words, we must use magic cannons and long-range spells to annihilate or repel them before they get close?"
