in the name of the queen.

In the Winter Palace, the first rain of early summer arrived as expected.

Summer always comes later in St. Rurik's Castle than in other places. The moist sea breeze brings coolness and abundant rainfall, making it the most livable place in the bitterly cold land of Vladimir.

The Winter Palace is the emperor's living quarters, at least it used to be.

But now her owner is a foreigner.

Although this foreigner is now the Imperial Cardinal Minister, the Duke of Kazan, and has the Imperial citizenship appointed by the Empress, the Ruriks' severe nationalism still makes them habitually treat the Master of the Winter Palace as a foreigner.

Roland didn't care about this.

He was just here to work anyway.

Sophia, his boss, was very kind to him, so he worked hard. He didn't have to work hard for a few hundred dollars. The Dukedom and the art treasure Winter Palace were something that even Roland, who was "indifferent to fame and fortune", couldn't ignore.

He has always had a strong professional ethics. He will do his job if he is paid, and he will even risk his life for the money.

Roland felt at ease living in this world-famous top palace. He deserved this reward just because he helped to rectify the internal affairs of the empire, reclaimed the land owned by small landlords through various means, and gave freedom to serfs.

Not to mention that he once risked his life to go to the ice field to save his boss Sophia.

Listening to the drizzle outside the window and sipping the freshly ground coffee, Roland felt a little relieved.

Just now, Angelina placed the evidence of the butler Barov's crime in front of him and explained the whereabouts of most of the art treasures.

Ninety percent of the artworks have been recovered, but there is still a small number that cannot be recovered.

In addition to the recovery of the artwork, there was also some not-so-surprising news.

"The criminal Barov committed suicide out of fear of punishment on the eve of his trial."

Angelina's explanation.

Roland expressed his understanding of this.

After all, Barov is the old butler of the royal family, so Sophia still has to save face.

Although I don’t know whether the old man was respectful on his own initiative or was forced to be respectful, it doesn’t matter.

Roland could imagine that this was because they took into consideration that he had served the royal family for many years and had made great efforts even if he had no merits. By letting him commit suicide on the eve of his trial, he would not have to bear the name of a criminal and his children could inherit part of his property.

He was probably being respectful on his own initiative. Although he was reluctant in his heart, he was willing to give up his already frail body in order to protect his family.

Roland did not make any comment on this, but just quietly put away the investigation report.

In the face of the ultimate divine punishment, the life and death of a loser is meaningless.

His eyes turned to the towering wall, where a fairly clear world map was hung.

His mind has long transcended these gains and losses and is looking further.

For example, the vast ocean.

Since the prophetic poem came out, the first two sentences have come true, which makes Roland more worried about the last two sentences.

Sussex was the number one naval power at the time, and was leading by a large margin, but compared with those monsters that grew up in the sea, the warships of this era were still a little outdated.

The construction of fully ironclad ships is progressing slowly, and the main forces currently in service are still well-maintained old-style battleships and semi-ironclad ships.

These things can show off their power in human civil wars, but the combat power and size of the deep-sea trolls are beyond imagination, far exceeding the combat power limit of the human navy.

When the deep-sea troll awakens, the Sussex Navy will inevitably be the first to bear the brunt.

When the sky falls, the tall people will hold it up, but unfortunately they are just tall people.

Fortunately, they still have an ally, the red-haired female pirate Catalina, or Catania.

Since the magic mirror determines that Katarina exists, then she must exist.

As for why it was Catania instead of Caterina who came to negotiate that day, perhaps they had other ideas.

Roland is more inclined to believe that Catania and Caterina are the same person.

After all, super masters will not appear out of thin air, but a woman dressed as a man or a man turning into a woman can easily be mistaken for the real thing under certain circumstances.

In short, this is his ally's private matter and he is too lazy to ask about it.

Roland recalled the Battle of White Mountain, where no one from the powerful pirate group participated. At that time, the referee said that all the strong men on land were "invited", which shows that the identity of the pirate group is mysterious.

Fortunately, the southern part of the New World they requested was very far away, so far that it was beyond Roland's control.

The last news he had received from his maritime allies was that they were encroaching upon their agreed sphere of influence.

The local indigenous peoples and small countries may still be resisting, but it doesn't make much sense.

In this age when everyone is struggling for survival, the power of fists is far greater than reason.

Roland stared at the map in a trance. According to the chronological order of the prophecy, the deep-sea trolls would be the next to appear.

Humans have a natural fear of the ocean. Staring into the deep sea is like staring into the abyss.

A minor cold in the ocean can be a disaster for humanity.

Even a navy as powerful as the Sussex Navy lost half of its fleet in the Kraken's attack, which shows how weak humanity's control over the ocean is.

Even in modern times when technology is developing rapidly, the ocean is still a huge blind spot for humans.

Ocean allies are important, and Roland certainly hopes that they can eat the meat in the bowl as promised.

Unfortunately, the pirates' fighting power was significantly reduced after they came ashore, and they even fought with the natives of the local small countries.

After reading the battle reports from the southern part of the New World, Roland's only comment was that it was just a fight between weaklings.

With his abilities, he might even be able to become a big shot in the New World.

Roland even wrote a letter to his maritime allies, inviting them to select capable young officers to receive land warfare training.

Even if you can only learn the basics, as long as you know how to maintain a line and three-stage shooting, it will be easy to deal with the local natives.

Unfortunately, his handwritten letter fell into the sea and he never received a reply.

"It looks like it was treated coldly. These idiots have no idea what they've missed."

Roland even called out to the famous Pruden general, Karma, and asked him to prepare a team of instructors to teach these seafoods, but these idiots did not respond.

Then you can't blame me.

Roland shook his head silently, pushing away his worries about his allies.

Just as he was about to leave the room for the study, the new butler came hurriedly and reported to him in a low voice.

"Master, a special envoy from the deep sea wants to see you."

Roland's eyes lit up and the corners of his lips raised slightly.

For these guys, pragmatism really prevails over face.

That's right, can face be eaten? The additional loss of excellent seamen are all elite warriors who have been trained for many years. Once lost, it will be difficult to replace them.

He opened his mouth, but the words that came to his lips turned into "Tell him to wait a moment. I will come to meet the guest after I finish reading these documents."

I invited you warmly, but you didn't come. Now my enthusiasm is gone, so of course I'm not in a good mood.

Roland certainly wasn't acting on impulse; it was an attitude.

The basis of cooperation is mutual trust. If maritime allies feel that they can learn land warfare in a short period of time, then don't come.

I feel embarrassed when I think about it, what is this?

Leave it to air, you must leave it to air, wait until the seafood becomes dried squid.

Roland waved his hand to signal the butler to leave.

The new butler had obviously learned from his predecessor's mistakes, at least for now. He was very measured in his actions and never overstepped the boundaries.

Although sometimes his brain is not very flexible, it is enough. Roland does not like those stubborn slaves who try to figure out the intentions of their superiors. Once these people do something wrong, they will most likely become the next Barov.

Barov even dared to take advantage of Sofia, so what else would he not dare to do?

Butler, you’d better be honest.

Roland strolled into the study, took out a cooking manual on marine ingredients, and flipped through it casually.

Just as he was enjoying reading, steady footsteps were heard in the corridor.

The new butler, Watuddin, seldom disturbs him when he is reading. Is there something wrong?

He put down the book in his hand and looked towards the door.

However, the butler's footsteps stopped abruptly outside the door.

What does it mean to stand at the door without knocking?
Roland pushed open the door suspiciously and looked at him inquiringly.

Vatudin's tone was a little slow, but very clear.

"Master, the envoy from the deep sea said he had an urgent matter and wanted to see you as soon as possible, but you said not to disturb me, so I had to..."

I had to stand at the door.

The sound of footsteps has the same effect as knocking on the door, but without the urgency of knocking.

Roland thought to himself that he had never realized that the new butler, Vatudin, looked honest on the outside but was so delicate on the inside.

"Tell him to wait in the living room. I'll be there soon."

Since it was an emergency, Roland couldn't put on airs.

Three minutes later, he arrived at the reception room and saw from the corner of his eye that although the special envoy was sitting steadily, the expression on his face showed three parts of anxiety and seven parts of pain.

problem occurs?
Roland's heart skipped a beat, and he put away the joke he was about to make, and asked seriously:

"Mr. Envoy, what happened?"

Hearing Roland's voice, the envoy rushed over. Just as Roland silently opened his shield to defend against the assassination, the envoy knelt down with a plop, crying.

"Lord Roland, please save the Big Sister! Only you can save her!"

"Wait, talk slower. Who is the big sister? What happened to her? Why can only I save her? I am not good at medicine and I only know a little about healing. No matter how you think about it, I am not suitable to save people."

Although the envoy was a little worried and lost his composure, his thoughts were still clear, and he quickly told the story of Catalina's experience.

Half a month ago, Catalina sent a team of young officers to Rodinia at Roland's invitation, and then there was no news of the fleet.

Hearing this, Roland's heart tightened and he felt something was wrong.

Catalina did not conceal her Tianmu identity when negotiating with him, and even mentioned that the force behind her was Sea Eye Marshal Pride.

The Palace of Poseidon is dormant because of Poseidon's deep sleep, and the actual ruler of the underwater world is Marshal Pride of the Sea Eye.

With such a huge force protecting them, how could something go wrong at sea?
Roland vaguely sensed a conspiracy behind this.

The envoy went on to say that after the accidental disappearance of the officer corps, Catalina was also very important. She went to Marshal Haiyan's territory in person to complain to him.

However, he disappeared as soon as he left.

The adjutant of the pirate group felt that the situation was not good, and urgently contacted Marshal Sea Eye's herald, only to find that he had never seen Catalina.

In short, a red-haired female pirate who roamed the world just disappeared without a trace.

Roland wanted to say that this story was poorly written, but he vaguely felt that it was true.

After all, no normal person would dare to make up such an outrageous story.

After asking for some more details, Roland asked the butler to take the envoy away to rest and began to think about how to rescue Catalina.

Rescue is necessary. Roland has many allies, and selling out allies will affect his overall layout.

Regardless of whether the rescue is successful or not, at least we have to try our best.

After thinking for a moment, Roland took out the endless letter paper and wrote the question on the front.

"Check Katarina's ranking on the list of attractive women."

The front side of the endless letter communicates with Sif, and the back side can communicate with Sophia.

In this era without 5G networks or corded phones, the only thing that has the ability to communicate across thousands of miles is a magical device.

It didn't take long before Sif responded.

"I couldn't find Katarina's ranking, but she wasn't deregistered. I guess she's missing."

"Your guess is correct."

Roland shared the envoy's report with Sif, and then wrote the same content on the back to inform Sophia.

Sophia responded with her usual indifference.

It took a long time before he replied.

"You decide."

As expected, it was an answer that was very much in line with Sophia’s personality.

Roland had not expected any useful response from this hands-off boss, but he had to share important matters with her.

The leader may not express his opinion, but you must let him know.

Turning the letter over, Roland happened to see Sif's response.

"What are you going to do, save her?"

"I will do my best within my power. If the enemy cannot resist, there is nothing I can do."

Roland's response was flawless. Compared with Catalina, his own safety was more important. After all, he was not alone, there were several women behind him.

Sif was silent for a long time, then slowly asked, "How do you plan to collect intelligence?"

"I want to go to the underwater city and meet your young stepmother. If there are things happening under the sea, I have to go to the bottom of the sea to find the answers."

"In the deep sea, the awakened trolls are ready to move." Sif did not object directly, but brought up Christine's prophecy poem.

Her meaning was very clear. The seabed was extremely dangerous right now.

Perhaps to dissuade Roland from this idea, she volunteered to write: "I don't have anything important to do recently, I want to go see my father."

Sif's father was enjoying his married life with the Sea Witch. Sif's meaning was very clear. She went to see Adina on behalf of Roland.

"She is my stepmother after all. With my father around, she won't harm me at least."

"No, absolutely not!" Roland wrote with such force that he could easily tear through the wooden board, but he did not leave any marks on the endless letter.

"Why?" In the distant Hansa Palace, Sif wrote with one hand and supported her chin with the other, asking with a smile.

Of course she knew that Roland was worried about her, and she knew the reason, but she still had to ask.

You will never get tired of hearing words of concern no matter how many times you hear them.

"Nonsense, your child is still hanging on the tree. If you die, your father can come back and inherit the throne in a dignified manner. Even if he cares about family affection, it would be easy for Aedina to create an accident at sea. Not to mention the mysterious troll."

Roland paused in writing and suddenly laughed.

Of course, Sif didn't want to go by herself, but used this method to remind him not to take risks himself.

"We don't have to go, please ask Raikkonen."

Roland thought of Raikkonen being the only child in the family, and added another sentence.

"Please ask Raikkonen to send capable personnel." (End of this chapter)