I reign supreme in the Western fantasy world for eternity.

Valen learned of the hero's arrival at White Gull Harbor after the naval battle the previous day.

As was customary, he instructed his adjutant to divide the captured grain, cloth, and medicine into smaller portions and deliver them to several nearby villages along the coast that relied on fishing for a living. He then led a group of men to the largest fishing village in the area.

While unloading the cargo, he casually asked the old fisherman next to him, "Grandpa, has anything interesting happened around here lately?"

Valen's act of distributing the spoils to the surrounding fishermen won the hearts of the people, and when he asked the fishermen a few questions, they naturally did not refuse.

The old fisherman weighed the flour sack on his shoulder and grinned.

"There's something interesting going on. I heard a brave warrior has arrived at White Gull Harbor. He's quite young, wearing light silver armor and carrying a glowing sword at his waist. When he stood on the dock, even the sheriff came out to greet him."

Valen paused in his work of moving supplies from the ship.

"A hero? When was that?"

"Just a few days ago, a young man from the village saw it with his own eyes when he went to Lion Tooth City to sell dried fish. He came back and talked about it with great enthusiasm, saying that the warrior looked quite spirited, but his eyes were a bit fierce. At that time, they were preparing to leave Lion Tooth City port, and they should be at White Gull Port by now."

A hero?

He hadn't heard any news of heroes coming to the Southern Seas for several years.

He had heard of the previous hero Alex's battle against the demon vanguard in the western region and his liberation of the Holy Sword, but those events took place on land, thousands of miles away from this sea.

He had never seen the hero in person, nor had he paid much attention to him, but he had seen the hero before him.

That was probably thirty years ago—

Valen was young then, having just been promoted from patrolman to sergeant, responsible for the daily patrols of the sea area north of White Gull Harbor.

At that time, the Demon King had no intention of waging war against the human kingdoms and the elven court. The border between the two countries even had a brief, tacit period of peace.

I heard that there was semi-official trade between the buffer zone between the Western Region and the Demon Realm back then, but unfortunately, for some reason, a local conflict broke out between the two realms, and everything went back to normal.

The previous hero arrived at sea around that time in pursuit of an evil dragon.

The evil dragon dwells on an uninhabited island in the far sea. Every few years or months, it flies to human shipping routes to plunder merchant ships, specifically targeting ships fully loaded with goods and dragging the ship and its cargo back to its lair.

It has been committing crimes for many years, but because its lair is too well hidden, the Kingdom's navy has never been able to pinpoint its exact location.

The brave man heard about this during his years of travels and decided to set sail himself to solve the problem.

Valen remembered that evening when he was organizing the navigation log in the guardhouse when he suddenly heard footsteps outside the door.

He looked up and saw a middle-aged man in old leather armor standing at the door, with an old-looking holy sword hanging at his waist, his face showing the weariness and composure left by years of traveling.

The man was accompanied by three companions of different races: the dwarf and the elf were young, while the human priest and the hero were about the same age.

"Excuse me, is this the Bai'ou Port patrol post?"

Because the other party's holy sword looked so old, Valen didn't recognize who he was at first and politely nodded in response.

Upon hearing this, the person walked in and sat down on a chair by the window, his posture casual, as if he were used to finding a chair to sit on anywhere.

He introduced himself as a hero who had come to the sea to find the lair of a dragon and needed a sufficiently detailed map of the open ocean.

It took Valen a while to realize who was sitting in front of him.

In his mind, a hero should be a hero who raises the holy sword in front of the Demon King's castle, but the person in front of him looks more like an old sailor who has been drifting at sea for many years. He doesn't look like a hero at all.

Valen pulled out several old nautical charts from the cabinet, spread them on the table, and flattened the curled corners with his palm:

"The map of the ocean routes is not complete enough. The dragon's nest you mentioned is in a more distant place. We will need to ask Lion Fang City for it."

The man looked down at the map for a while, then pointed to a sea area in the southeast marked "undercurrent zone":

Have any boats been to this area?

"Rarely. There are many undercurrents and shallows over there, so merchant ships generally don't use that route."

The brave man nodded his thanks, memorized the location on the sea chart, and asked no further questions.

He stood up, thanked Valen, turned and walked out of the outpost, disappearing into the twilight.

Valen later learned that the hero had found the island where the dragon was, only to discover that there was more than one dragon on the island. He immediately unleashed the holy sword, slashed the dragons as easily as cutting vegetables, and finally disappeared into the sea.

It is said that before he burned himself, the hero kept comforting his teammates and telling them not to be sad; he had only done what he was supposed to do.

His teammates brought back the holy sword that had broken on its own, and then went their separate ways. It is said that the priest became a high-ranking figure in the church and was sent to the western border by the Pope...

The word "hero" always easily evokes old memories for acquaintances, and as he thought about it, Valen arrived at the gate of the William family's manor.

The manor gatekeeper recognized him.

William's family had several exchanges with him in terms of supplies and intelligence. After becoming a lord, he also met with the then prime minister, Earl William, in public. They were not strangers to each other.

After the gatekeeper announced his arrival, the butler personally came out to greet him and whispered something as they crossed the courtyard:

"The Hero is in the side hall, and the eldest son is also there."

When Valen entered the side hall, Ji Tian was sitting on a chair by the window, with several transcripts of the interrogations of Lao Hei and the steward spread out beside him. He was occasionally asking the elven woman in front of him something, while the two human girls next to him listened quietly.

Ji Tian already knew the other person's identity when the butler announced it, but still habitually asked when he felt the gaze directed at him:

"You're Valen, one of the Seven Sea Lords? What do you want with me?"

Valen sat down opposite him and stated his purpose directly:

"Hero, I've come about the new type of cannon. I've intercepted several batches, and the range and accuracy of these cannons far exceed those of ordinary bronze cannons. Their origin is unknown, and I've been investigating for months without any results. I would like to ask for your assistance in the investigation."

Ji Tian pushed the statement record over: "Are you talking about this batch of cannons?"

Valen took it and glanced at it, then exclaimed in surprise:

"This is... what you found out?"

"With the support of the William family, we just seized an arms factory on the island this morning. The cannons we seized are the same batch you intercepted. The workers and managers have been interrogated. The supply chain points to a ore processing plant to the north, and the profits flow to a chamber of commerce in White Gull Port, which then splits into more than a dozen small businesses. The source of the orders has not yet been determined."

Valen stared at the few pages of the statement record for a long time before looking up:

"You've only been in Bai'ou Port for two days?"

"A day and a half."

"You found something the church couldn't find in months in just one and a half days?!"

"I conducted the investigation at the request of the church, and it wasn't difficult to do so with the help of divination and prophecy."

What? Prophecy!

This is a special ability known for consuming a lot of magic power and lifespan. It is said that the more it involves, the more lifespan it consumes. Aren't you afraid that the caster will die when his lifespan is exhausted?