CHAPTER 488: CHAPTER 446: THE FLAME BANNER AND THE SOUTHERN CONTINENT

The autumn air is crisp, making it the best season for sailing on the Black Sea.

On the boundless blue sea, the white waves bloom like flowers.

A grand fleet consisting of thirty-one ships, with the flame banner fluttering on their main masts, steadily progresses southward along the western coast of the Southern Continent, assisted by the Canary Current and Benin Warm Current.

Whoosh—

The white sails billow like a cloud, creating a magnificent sight, and the imposing momentum seems to crush everything in front of it!

In this formidable fleet, the lowest rank ships are at least Level 5 Cruisers; even the rare Level 3 Battleships are not uncommon among them.

Most strikingly, the fleet flagship hoisting the General’s Banner, Noble Banner, Fleet Banner, and Commander’s Banner on its foremast leads the entire fleet ahead.

The ship, with its brightly colored red sails blazing like burning maple leaves, is none other than Hilus’s Quasi-Legendary Battle Armor "Red Maple."

A shrewd and capable adjutant entered the captain’s cabin after knocking.

"Commander sir! The Chief Navigator has just reported that the fleet is about to leave the Benin Warm Current region and enter the Benguela Cold Current, with an estimated three days to reach the destination."

Vice Admiral Dale Griffiths, the Peak Grand Knight, who was meticulously maintaining his cherished longsword with sword oil and soft velvet cloth, replied without lifting his head:

"I understand."

Seeing his superior’s nonchalant attitude, the loyal adjutant hesitated, wanting to say more:

"Sir, we..."

The worries within him were sensitive, difficult to articulate.

This Southern Continent military operation did not employ the original colonial garrisons, but entirely relied on reinforcements from within the Kingdom. The aim was to catch the enemy off guard by exploiting internal weaknesses and to expel their forces from the Southern Continent.

While diverting domestic conflict, the operation would also supplement the Kingdom’s increasingly deficit economy with enormous benefits, providing Hilus a much-needed respite.

Recently, Griffiths was directly accountable for the loss of the entire Treasure Fleet, yet he is now appointed as the commander of this fleet—an opportunity granted by the Kingdom to redeem himself.

Despite encountering the wild Sea God’s Son, ’Great Vortex’ Charybdis, an unavoidable mishap, Griffiths, responsible for the Kingdom’s significant loss, has faced the military tribunal.

Though temporarily unpunished, should the war fail, it’s imaginable what fate awaits him upon returning. Furthermore, the personnel participating in the warfare reveals another hidden conflict.

Because seventy percent are staunch members of the Church Faction, with the Deputy Commander being another Great Knight from the Royal Faction.

The Kingdom’s upper echelons are aware of the true intentions, and their roles as advisors appear more like supervisors.

Recognizing the adjutant’s concerns, the Great Knight smiled slightly:

"Worry not, under the protection of the Eternal Flame, victory shall be ours!

Moreover, basking in divine light, secular kingdoms should serve the God.

Regardless, I shall not let this fleet suffer unnecessary losses, for they are the most loyal warriors to the God.

That has been a promise made to Pope Your Majesty by a Divine Favored Knight of the Eternal Flame!"

Raising the longsword, Griffiths’s eyes fixed on the sword’s rigid spine, the "bend but do not break" quality equally displayed in his demeanor. Nothing wavered his faith.

Even if the other side of the balance scale is the King’s orders, or ... his own life!

....

The Southern Continent stands distant yet alongside the Source Continent of Civilized Countries, separated by the treacherous Treasure Sea.

Its overall shape resembles an animal’s tooth, wide at the top and pointed at the bottom, stretching from Hafeng Cape in the east, to Agulhas Cape in the south, Cape Verde in the west, and Jilan Cape in the north.

Before the first adventurers crossed the Treasure Sea to arrive here two hundred years ago, the Southern Continent was solely the homeland of the Anuma people.

However, with the arrival of pioneers like Hilus Kingdom, Desert Kingdom Heimar, and numerous colonizers from the northern Treasure Sea states, the Anuma Natives gradually slid irreversibly into the abyss of second-class citizens or even tearful slaves.

This decline marked by the fall of the Anuma people’s final empire near Cape Verde, the "Songhai Empire!"

However.

The true force behind the obliteration of the "Songhai Empire" at the time was not Hilus the pioneer, but the Desert Kingdom Heimar.

Two hundred years ago, Heimar Kingdom controlled the only land-based trade route to the Eastern Peacock Islands, and for necessities like tea, spices, and more, countries further west of the continent depended on them.

They amassed enormous wealth due to this unique geographical advantage, being one of the richest and most powerful nations on the continent at the time.

As for Hilus, newly embarking on maritime ventures, they were just a younger sibling and hadn’t even unified the Alfonso Peninsula.

However.

Two hundred years ago, firearms didn’t reach the current level of development. Although the prototype of the flintlock musket had been invented, they were still used in mixed formations with spearmen, and the reliability, range, and power of firearms needed improvement.

Therefore, in battles with the indigenous peoples, the so-called "civilized people" didn’t have a significant advantage through technology.

Even among the weakest, it was easy to cause trouble for others.

Hilus, leading everybody to reach the Southern Continent, saw they couldn’t conquer the powerful "Songhai Empire" and turned to trade with them, providing them with excellent swords, gunpowder, copper cannons, and other war materials, relentlessly hindering Heimar.

In return, they exchanged for countless amounts of gold, diamonds, ivory... and got a deep taste of the benefits.

Eventually, they even sent military advisors to teach these militarily backward indigenous groups how to fight, causing considerable losses for even a mighty entity like Heimar.

But it was right after this somewhat prolonged war ended.

Given the excessively discordant situation, the Pope of the "Eternal Flame" Church and the "Brilliant Starry Night" Church jointly intervened, and several main churches related to the Seven Gods and various countries finally established a peace treaty historically known as the "Pope’s Contract."

Faced with the vast and immeasurable overseas lands, they put aside the contradictions between civilized nations, reduced internal consumption, and united externally; the lands of the believers of strange gods would fall to the people of the Seven Gods.

This laid down the necessary legal basis and rules of the game for the invaders’ colonial activities.

Thus, ushering in the colonial frenzy of civilized nations and the nightmare of the colonized regions!

Until two hundred years later.

The Southern Continent has become an important producer and main exporter of tropical cash crops, including cotton, sisal, peanuts, oil palm, cashews, coffee, cocoa, tea, sugar, and producing tobacco, rubber (for steam engines), pyrethrum, cloves, coconuts, bananas, etc.

It is also the favorite source of rum ingredients for sailors from the Tulip Countries.

Another thing that cannot go unmentioned is the current state of various countries’ colonies.

Because most areas of the Southern Continent are tropical, they are very unfriendly to the Nimansite people from the northern Source Continent. Unless there is a special medicine, these tropical infectious diseases are extremely deadly to the Nimansite who have long lived in temperate regions.

To them, the harsh environment is like hell, where mere survival is difficult, let alone working or producing.

Even explorers with Extraordinary Tiers are reluctant to venture deep into this terrifying continent in search of unknown treasures.

Some of the pioneer explorers even commented:

The Southern Continent is truly the Demon King—the main fortress of natural forces opposing human prosperity. Here, the Lord of the Flies musters worm-like, beastly armies composed of insects, ticks, and nematodes, transmitting diseases to the skin, blood vessels, intestines, and spinal cords of humans and other vertebrates.

Among the few major powers.

The northern region of the Southern Continent is home to the world’s largest desert, occupying thirty percent of the continent’s land. The few habitable areas within it have become entirely Heimar’s domain, with even the faith firmly controlled by the "Starry Night Order."

The True God "Brilliant Starry Night" is the only deity here.

Further south is the continent’s largest expanse of agriculturally unfavorable tropical savanna climate, with extreme differentiation between rainy and dry seasons capable of driving people insane.

After repeated deliberations, the remaining various-sized countries have concentrically carved up the most economically arable region, considered the world’s largest basin, the Zaire Basin.

The remaining colonies are fragmented and scattered.

For them, only lands that have proven their economic value are worthwhile to occupy.

After discovering a New Continent, they turned their attention to the vast fertile lands across the Black Sea.

Unlike the New Continent’s climate, which has become a natural barrier for the Anuma natives, even now, many powerful principalities still thrive in the vast interior regions.

Even along the coastal edge on the western side of the Zaire Basin, there are many indigenous countries, primarily led by the Dahomey Kingdom in the Benin region.

Dahomey Kingdom also benefited from the development of the New Continent, becoming the largest supplier of slaves in the Slave Bay, as well as a wealthy and powerful nation.

So, while Hilus has a developmental advantage in the Southern Continent, the stable occupied territories are few. Most exist as independent deposits of minerals and cash crop resources, with other expansive wilderness being utterly worthless to them.

In this era, the vast regions of the Southern Continent remain shrouded in the War Fog of the "Dark Continent."

After initially occupying some agricultural and mining regions capable of producing cash crops, Hilus has redirected its course eastwards back across the Eritrean Sea, heading towards the wealthier Peacock Islands of this era.

There lies the opportunity for Hilus’s true rise to become a sea hegemony.

As for Aiven in the Navy Academy classroom, the professor believes that after two hundred years of continuous development, the Southern Continent has been thoroughly developed.

Indeed, it has been developed based on current scientific advancements and medical levels.

Once the medicines Aiven holds are launched, perhaps this situation will be completely overturned.