Elder brother's garrison

Barbatos suddenly felt hopeful about his future.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

When Xiaobai and Nia returned from the third node with the ship girls, the crowd at the Admiral's Guild entrance had thinned considerably.

Many of the admirals in the fourth node chose to rest during the sea blockade. Influenced by them, the admirals in the first three nodes couldn't help but join in. As a result, the city's economy was boosted significantly throughout the day, especially at sunset when it was particularly lively, with a large group of beautiful ship girls strolling around the admirals on the streets, which was a real treat for the eyes.

The servants guarding the guild entrance saw Xiaobai and his group from afar and quickly ran into the guild.

Barbatos was handling business in his office when he heard that Xiaobai had returned. He quickly glanced at what he was holding and scurried off the office.

Just then, Xiaobai and his group entered the Admiral's Guild.

"My dear little princess! You've really made me, Barbatos, wait for you to death!" Barbatos ran up to Little White with the same respect as yesterday and bowed to them.

"Hello, Mr. Barbatos," Little White greeted Barbatos.

Barbatos gave Little White a respectful smile.

The world's number one admiral is really a tycoon. Although he didn't give me any benefits, he still managed to solve my problem of not having enough deep-sea metal with just a few gestures and even gave me a list of the admiral's private phone numbers.

Even if I just pick up the bowl she left behind after she finished drinking the soup and lick it a few times, that would be a huge benefit to me.

“My dear Admiral Lu Lin, yesterday you refused the reward offered to you by the Admiral's Guild. Your noble soul and selfless spirit deeply moved me.” Barbatos bowed to Little White and praised him. “I thought about it all night and finally realized that material rewards like money are just dirty numbers to you. They will tarnish the hands you extend to save others. I know I was wrong.”

Barbatos spoke while watching Little White's expression.

Xiao Bai's expression remained as serene as ever.

Barbatos breathed a sigh of relief.

It seems this is pretty much what I expected.

“However, if I don’t do something for you, Barbatos will feel uneasy. So after thinking about it for a long time, I finally came up with the only thing I can do for you two,” Barbatos said.

The admirals inside and outside the Admiral Guild were once again drawn to the matter of Barbatos and Little White.

Barbatos glanced around, feeling quite satisfied.

The more people who watch, the better; ideally, the message should spread to every corner of the city in the next second.

"Admiral Nia is an outstanding admiral! A noble admiral! Her spirit and character are as excellent and pure as yours! Therefore, I, Barbatos, submit an application for reinstatement on behalf of my beloved Admiral Nia!" Barbatos declared in a resounding voice.

His words were astonishing!

The whole hall was shocked.

Barbatos spoke his last words with great vigor.

The sound is extremely penetrating.

Everyone inside and outside the dining area, at the guild gate, and outside the guild gate heard this sentence.

All the admirals gasped for breath, staring at Nia in disbelief.

Being an admiral is a very serious profession. Theoretically, you can be reinstated after being dismissed, but wouldn't that be slapping the face of the person who dismissed you?

Therefore, the road to reinstatement is like walking on thorns, extremely arduous and difficult.

The Admiral's Guild has this right, but everyone knows that Barbatos has no intention of doing it. If it's done well, Nia will benefit, and Barbatos will have no real connection with it. If it's done poorly, he will offend the people above him.

This is something that can make you feel like you're caught in the middle, neither side being a good person nor a good person.

But Barbatos did it anyway, submitting Nia's reinstatement application without hesitation.

Nia covered her mouth as she looked at Barbatos.

She was already mentally prepared, but when it actually happened, her heart still pounded.

"Thank you, Mr. Barbatos!" Nia said to Barbatos, moved.

"It's nothing, just a small thing." Barbatos bowed to Nia.

Barbatos knew that Xiaobai had paved the way for him, and getting back to work shouldn't be too difficult. All he had to do was follow along with what Xiaobai was saying.

Moreover, helping Nia regain her official position not only brings the protection of the governor, but also brings far more prestige than simply giving away 500,000 merits. More importantly, she doesn't have to pay that money herself, which is absolutely fantastic.

Barbatos grew happier the more he thought about it.

After the conversation ended, Barbatos, having achieved his goal, indicated that Xiaobai and Nia could also enjoy the services of the Admiral's Guild for free. However, Xiaobai and Nia did not ask for anything more and simply went upstairs to resupply the ship girls.

Barbatos followed.

The admirals on the first floor of the Admiral's Guild watched these people disappear at the stairwell, and then they erupted into a commotion, like a pot boiling over.

Upon reaching the second floor, Xiaobai discovered that Barbatos was still following behind his group.

"Mr. Barbatos, is there anything else?"

Barbatos clenched his hands, looking at Little White with some embarrassment.

Veneto turned to Barbatos and said, "Just say what you need to say."

Barbatos smiled and nodded at Veneto: "My dear Miss Lu Lin, have you seen that big sign at the guild entrance?"

Barbatos refers to the sign that Xiaobai saw this morning, which read "No Entry to Node 4".

"Yes, I saw him." Xiaobai nodded.

"It's good that you saw me..."

"Does Mr. Barbatos mean I shouldn't go to the fourth node?" Little White asked.

Barbatos quickly shook his head: "No, no, I didn't mean that. With Miss Lu's strength, why would I want to stop you? I just wanted to ask about your ship girl's experience in the fourth node yesterday. The headquarters needs me to investigate the anomalies in the fourth sea area, so they need some information. But as you know, the fourth sea area is quite dangerous right now, so..."

Oh, I see.

Xiaobai nodded.

“Things in the fourth node are pretty much the same as usual, the deep-sea cluster, nothing else unusual,” Veneto said.

Barbatos looked somewhat disappointed.

"What did headquarters say?" Veneto asked, noticing Barbatos's disappointed expression.

"Headquarters said they would investigate the situation in the sea, but also said they would send a few admirals in a few days," Barbatos said.

"Send people?" Veneto's eyebrows twitched. "Who are they?"

"I don't know." Barbatos smiled helplessly.

After all, he was just a guild owner in the first chapter of the sea, and knew very little. He was always passive in these matters, simply entertaining whoever was sent down from above.

The admiral who arrives must be one whom the higher-ups believe can easily handle the fourth node anomaly, so he must be from the high seas. Barbatos knows nothing else about him.

“Oh.” Veneto nodded. “Then how about this, when you report to your superiors, just say this.”

"Please advise."

“The fourth node may have produced the Dean of the Deep Sea,” Veneto said.

Barbatos gasped.

Barbatos knew the term "Dean of the Deep Sea".

He also understood the meaning of that word.

The Deep Sea Dean is the highest form of the deep sea, a life form that can be called the King of the Deep Sea.

The ship's equipment is even more complete than that of the ship girls, and its humanoid form can be mistaken for the real thing when standing among them. It is an amalgamation of beauty and death.

How could such a highly intelligent and lethal super deep-sea creature appear at the fourth node?

That's as absurd as a great white shark jumping out of a farmed fish farm.

“No, that…” Barbatos looked at Veneto with a tearful expression, as if to say, “Are you lying to me?”

“I think I know what you’re going to say, but it’s probably true,” Veneto said, looking at Barbatos.

“I…” Barbatos’s legs began to tremble.

He was really scared.

He wasn't an admiral, but he knew the strength of the Deep Sea Director.

While the Deep Sea Deans vary in strength, none of them who are given this title are mediocre.

That's the strongest deep-sea vessel that emerged victorious from the brutal competition among deep-sea amphibious ships.

Each and every one of them is a hero of the deep-sea amphibious ship.

Even if all the admirals in this first chapter joined forces, they might not be able to defeat them.

“This is just speculation, without any evidence. Whether you tell me or not is your decision, don’t worry,” Veneto reassured Barbatos.

The reason I hadn't told Barbatos about the Deep Sea Dean before was because the Deep Sea Dean's impact on ordinary people was too great, and leaking the information might cause panic.

Barbatos looked blankly at Veneto, then at Little White, and then realized what was happening.

Oh, right!

These men in front of me are the admirals of the world's number one naval base!

"Miss Lu! Please, please save us!" Barbatos pleaded with Xiaobai.

Barbatos was so frightened that he almost didn't realize that the person in front of him was the world's number one admiral.

This is definitely not the first time they've done something like cooking for the Dean of the Deep Sea.

Barbatos looked at the girl with long white hair that reached her heels in front of him, and his mind was filled with five words.

I need your protection, sir!

Bonus chapter progress (9/44)

Chapter 291 Atago

Barbatos' reaction is quite normal.

The destructive power of the Deep Sea Dean is extremely astonishing. If the Deep Sea Dean is allowed to do whatever he wants, the first chapter of the sea area may be turned upside down in just a few days.

Those deep-sea amphibious ships weren't content to stay in the ocean. Once they were strong enough, under the leadership of the Deep-Sea Dean, invading the land would be as natural as eating and drinking.

Perhaps headquarters will send a powerful enough admiral and ship girls to subdue the Deep Sea Dean, but before that, all the admirals of the first chapter's sea area, including myself, will suffer.

Therefore, before the crisis arrived, Barbatos decided to desperately seek help from powerful figures.

"Miss Lu! You're the only one who can save us!" Barbatos pleaded with Xiaobai, tears streaming down his face. "Please don't leave! You'll be the only one left to take down the Dean of the Fourth Node!"

"I won't leave." Little White looked awkwardly at Barbatos, the fleshy ball, sobbing uncontrollably in front of him, feeling as if he were the one bullying him.

She looked around.

Fortunately, due to the fact that the admirals outside are on holiday today, there aren't many people returning to the second floor to resupply.

Because of the distance, no one could hear what Barbatos was saying.

"Mr. Barbatos, didn't you just say that headquarters had sent an admiral to investigate this matter?" Xiaobai asked.

"Miss Lu, I don't know if they can actually defeat Dean Shenhai, but I only trust you!"

Is there any admiral in the world more powerful than the world's number one admiral?

Okay, maybe there are some lousy authors in the world who, in pursuit of a divine plot twist, might suddenly come up with something like "there must be five of the Four Heavenly Kings" while creating their work, resulting in a bizarre plot that contradicts the previous settings. But Barbatos doesn't believe that such a shocking thing could happen in his world.

The girl in front of me is truly the world's number one. If I don't ask her for help, who else can I ask for help?

Veneto walked up to Little White: "Okay, if there really is a Dean in the sea and he's causing trouble, we'll handle it. Can we resupply now?"

Upon hearing Veneto's promise, Barbatos's mournful expression vanished, replaced by a beaming smile: "Yes! I, Barbatos, am more than happy to serve you!"

It seems that although we don't know if Mr. Barbatos has a talent for being a businessman, his acting skills are the most exaggerated yet realistic I've ever seen.

Barbatos wiped his face and happily led Veneto and the others to resupply.

For him, Veneto's words, "We will handle it," were like a shot in the arm, putting Barbatos at ease.

Barbatos was so happy that his work efficiency even increased, and in no time, Veneto and the others finished resupplying and came out.

The group bid farewell to Barbatos and left the Admiral's Guild.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

at the same time.

a long distance away.

Inside an office, the rustling of papers and the soft rustling of small objects constantly stirred in the air.