It was no longer a rare occurrence for mysterious sea monsters or sea dragons to appear in the Dorne Sea; similar rumors had continuously surfaced over the past hundred years.
These rumors were like the sea monster legends of the Stepstones; many people claimed to have seen sea dragons and sea monsters, but there was no concrete evidence, because all ships that encountered sea dragons and sea monsters eventually sank to the bottom of the sea, and most of the people on board died.
Even those who survived had no evidence to prove their claims.
However, one thing was certain: a large number of ships did mysteriously disappear in the Dorne Sea.
Not only merchant ships, but even warships could not escape the fate of disappearing.
Because of this, even though Torr City, Weil City, and Soul Hill in Dorne, and Cry Town in the Stormlands, all had ports built along the coast, giving them geographical advantages, they still did not develop into large seaports.
When Lynd planned to occupy the Dorne Sea, he had already gathered various intelligence and legends about it, which naturally included the common legends of sea dragons and sea monsters in the Dorne Sea.
However, at that time, he did not take these rumors seriously, believing that they were merely hallucinations of people making a living at sea due to shipwrecks, or at most, some giant marine creatures like whales.
However, now he knew he was wrong; there were indeed sea dragons in the Dorne Sea, and just a few days ago, one had attacked a patrol fleet of fifty longships and four galley warships.
Only one warship and a portion of the people on board survived.
After repeated questioning of the survivors, it was finally confirmed that the fleet was attacked by a giant sea dragon, not the octopus-like sea monster described in Ironborn legends.
"Over the past few months, merchants have successively reported incidents of ships disappearing in the Dorne Sea to the Miracle Port's merchant guild.
Could this also be related to this sea dragon?" Moose asked, making a connection after reading the letter in his hand.
"Possibly."
Lynd nodded slightly and said, "Bring me the relevant intelligence immediately; perhaps we can find some useful clues."
Upon hearing the order, Moose quickly brought his subordinates, who were waiting outside the study, and retrieved the stubs of the relevant intelligence from the adjacent archive room.
Lynd and Nameria both looked at these intelligence materials and found that if these ship disappearance incidents were viewed individually, there were no major issues, but when put together, a connection could be found.
This was because all the ship disappearance incidents occurred in the same sea area as the recent sea dragon attack on the patrol fleet, which was in the waters near the coastline between Torr City and Soul Hill.
If only one or two ship disappearance incidents occurred in that sea area, it might be a coincidence, but in just a few months, more than a dozen ship disappearance incidents continuously occurred in that sea area, which could no longer be explained by coincidence.
"Since more than a dozen ship disappearance incidents have occurred in that sea area, why wasn't it reported to me immediately?" Lynd asked, frowning, after reviewing the intelligence, addressing Moose, the steward, and Baelon, the intelligence chief.
"Because most of these missing ships were smuggling vessels from Across the Narrow Sea, specifically smuggling weapons," Moose immediately explained.
"They deliberately took the southern coastline of the Dorne Sea to avoid our patrol boats, always following the coastline from the Broken Arm Cape controlled by Dorne, taking the Grey Gallows route, bypassing the Stepstones waters we control.
That's why we didn't discover any anomalies."
"I know about the smuggling fleet," Nameria added.
"Because there was news that a smuggling fleet taking that coastline was transporting various types of armor that you explicitly prohibited from selling, so not long ago, the cabinet and I re-added a patrol route, which is the patrol route taken by this troubled fleet."
Lynd was silent for a moment, then said to Nameria and Moose, "I will leave the matters of compensation for the victims of the patrol fleet to you.
I need to go to Miracle Port myself."
Upon hearing Lynd's words, Nameria's eyes lit up, and she said, "I'll go too."
Lynd shook his head, looked down at Nameria's not-yet-obvious belly, and said, "You should stay.
Don't run around carelessly.
Don't forget, you're pregnant now."
When Lynd's words fell, the others in the room also nodded in support of Lynd, unanimously opposing Nameria accompanying Lynd to Miracle Port on a risky trip.
For them, protecting the heir in Nameria's womb was more important than anything else.
Nameria then also realized that she was no longer alone.
She looked down at her belly, pouted, and said nothing more.
Currently, the news of Nameria's pregnancy was only known to the high-ranking officials of Summerhall and Tengshi Town; ordinary officials and citizens were unaware of it.
The number of guards secretly protecting Nameria's safety had also increased several times.
This was mainly done to avoid any unfortunate incidents.
For Lynd, Nameria, and the high-ranking officials in the territory, Nameria's pregnancy was an absolutely sudden and wonderful piece of news.
It should be known that over the past few years, the entire territory had been worried sick about Lynd and Nameria having an heir, but the results had always been unsatisfactory.
For this, Lynd even collaborated with Moroa, using the sacrifice stone tablet, Dragon Rune, and the few bottles of potions Velas gave him, to develop a potion specifically designed to enhance Nameria's physique.
And now, the most important commodity in Lynd's forest, the Seven Gods potion, was just one of the by-products of this potion.
Fortunately, these matters eventually turned out well.
After continuously taking potions to enhance her physique, Nameria finally became pregnant, providing an heir for their territory.
Although for Lynd, it was not his first time having offspring, as he already had several children in his previous life and had long lost the mindset of a first-time father, he still placed great importance on his first offspring in this world.
Therefore, he not only arranged more guards to protect Nameria's safety but also dispatched seven Silent Monks, seven Redemption Sisters, and over a hundred Chosen of God who had taken secret medicine from the Redemption Sanctuary to personally protect Nameria.
Not to mention the hundreds of Chosen of God who had taken secret medicine and were completely capable of sacrificing their lives, just these seven Silent Monks and Redemption Sisters were enough to shield Nameria from any danger.
It should be known that these Silent Monks and Redemption Sisters were not ordinary Seven Gods Church monks; they were warriors who had enhanced their physical qualities to the human limit by taking trial potions.
Such a team of fourteen Sanctuary warriors was enough to directly contend with an army of a thousand regular warriors.
However, none of these protections could compare to Nameria's own strength.
With the help of specially formulated potions, Nameria's overall physique had been elevated to a superhuman level over the past year or so, and her ability to conceive Lynd's child demonstrated the strength of her physical constitution.
Coupled with Lynd's continuous training of her combat skills and constantly taking her to various real combat situations, it was no exaggeration to say that Nameria's strength now surpassed Lynd's strength when he participated in the martial arts tournament, only slightly inferior to Lynd when he had just acquired the second character, Lost Country Knight.
With such strength combined with the protective forces around her, unless she was besieged by thousands of people, or some superhuman mysterious power was used, such as a Shadowbinder's shadow assassin, Nameria would generally have no safety concerns.
After arranging sufficient protective forces for Nameria, Lynd left Summerhall and headed to Miracle Port to deal with the Dorne Sea dragon.
However, Lynd's departure also allowed him to avoid some trouble.
For example, just as he left Redemption Town, an envoy sent by the Archbishop of the Great Sept of Baelor arrived in Redemption Town, wanting to see him, seemingly to gain his support.
This envoy always believed that Lynd was deliberately avoiding him and had no intention of helping the Archbishop, and the statement issued by Bishop Hulen of the Redemption Sanctuary the next day confirmed his suspicion.
As the Redemption Sanctuary's statement was issued, the Miracle Sanctuary also issued a similar statement, and the Sanctuaries in other cities successively issued condemnations of the Archbishop's attempt to overthrow the sacred vows for personal gain.
Among the many Sanctuaries, the statement from the Archbishop of the Starry Sept was particularly severe, almost explicitly stating that the Archbishop had been corrupted and fallen beyond redemption by ambition and money.
For a time, the Great Sept of Baelor, once the center of the Seven Gods Church, became the target of public criticism, and there was a strong momentum within the Seven Gods Church to expel the Great Sept of Baelor from the ranks of the Church Sanctuaries and shift the Church's center back to the Starry Sept.
However, this wave of unrest, triggered by the Archbishop's attempt to restore the Church's armed forces, did not last too long and quickly ended with the Archbishop's assassination by a devout extremist.
Before the various Sanctuaries of the Seven Gods Church received news of the Archbishop's assassination, the Iron Throne found a reason to select a fat monk, who was a moneylender, from the Great Sept of Baelor as the Archbishop.
Although in the past history of the Seven Gods Church, there had indeed been instances of the Iron Throne interfering with the appointment of the Archbishop, such as Beller I, who once chose a stonemason and an eight-year-old child as Archbishop.
However, even if Beller I was as strong as he was at the time, he still had to propose his requirements for the Archbishop to the College of Cardinals, composed of Archbishops, in the form of providing references, and then let the Archbishops of the College of Cardinals select the candidate for Archbishop according to his requirements.
But this time, the Iron Throne directly appointed the Archbishop, completely sidelining the Seven Gods Church, which was undoubtedly the greatest infringement on the Church's power.
Although, eventually, under Jon Arryn's mediation, the various Sanctuaries accepted the candidate for Archbishop of the Great Sept of Baelor, in reality, the various Sanctuaries had already voluntarily severed ties with the Great Sept of Baelor, and the Starry Sept, representing ancient traditions, and the Redemption Sanctuary, representing emerging forces, gradually became the new centers of the Seven Gods Church.
Also, because the Archbishop of the Great Sept of Baelor was replaced, all previous agreements made between the former Archbishop and Lynd were nullified, and Lynd could no longer receive any financial support from the Great Sept of Baelor.
However, for Lynd, this was not a bad thing.
With the change of the Archbishop, all the money the previous Archbishop had lent to Lynd in his personal name no longer needed to be repaid.
The cost for the Great Sept of Baelor to forge bronze armor for the Stone Giant also did not need to be repaid.
Furthermore, the funds the Archbishop had lent in the name of the Seven Gods Church, Lynd no longer needed to repay to the Great Sept of Baelor, but could instead repay to the Redemption Sanctuary and the Miracle Sanctuary, and ultimately this money would return to his hands.
Although the turmoil caused by the Archbishop had ended, the aftershocks of this turmoil did not end there.
Even though Lynd had instructed the Redemption Sanctuary to be the first to issue a statement condemning the Archbishop's actions, this did not alleviate the Iron Throne's suspicion of him.
The targeted new taxes previously imposed by the Iron Throne were not canceled and were still being enforced.
This was mainly because in the condemnations of the Archbishop by various Sanctuaries, many people saw Lynd's influence within the Seven Gods Church.
This influence was not abstract, but a tangible influence that could truly affect internal matters of the Seven Gods Church.
It was no exaggeration to say that the only difference between Lynd and the Archbishop was a crystal crown.
A powerful lord with actual territory, who also held substantial influence in the Church—the emergence of such a strong figure nearby was not a cause for joy for any ruler.
Previously, for various reasons, King Robert had not realized Lynd's strength.
Perhaps in his mind, Lynd was still the hunter from The Reach whom he had just knighted.
Coupled with his affection for Lynd, he never considered Lynd a threat.
But now he seemed to have sobered up, returning to the mindset a king should have, and in his clear state, he must have seen that Lynd's strength had reached a point where it could threaten the monarchy.
That was why he acted to suppress Lynd.
Although the relationship between the two did not show overt signs of hostility, many people could see from various details that cracks had appeared in the close relationship between the Iron Throne and Summerhall, and these cracks would gradually widen as Lynd's strength continued to grow.
For Lynd, all the various changes caused by the Archbishop's rashness were not important matters.
From the moment he made the decision in his castle study, this matter had been cast aside and he had stopped thinking about it.
What Lynd was more concerned about now was the sea dragon in the Dorne Sea, because just as Lynd passed by Black Harbor, the steward of Black Harbor had someone deliver a raven letter that had just been transferred from Summerhall to Lynd.
The content of the letter stated that not long ago, the sea dragon had again attacked a fleet of merchant ships that had to head to the southern coastline for shelter due to a storm.
Two of the ships sank under the sea dragon's attack, while the other two were lucky enough to escape in time by taking advantage of the storm.
This time, because there were many survivors who witnessed the entire attack, more information about the sea dragon could be collected.
However, the raven letter was too small to contain much content, so Lynd would have to wait until he arrived at Miracle Port to review the relevant investigation materials.
Twelve days after the Miracle Port patrol fleet incident, Lynd arrived at the Miracle Fleet military port and dock in Miracle Port, where he saw the warship that had survived the sea dragon attack, which had just been towed back from Long Cry Island.
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