The next morning, Aldred woke up first after having another dream about Mary. It wasn't as vivid as before; it was more like a memory.
He was standing on top of the hill, overlooking the ocean.
It was peaceful, but he was confused. Why was he here?
He heard a voice in the distance.
"Aldred, wake up."
He turned around.
It was Mary. She was wearing a white dress. Her beautiful face was shining brightly.
"Mary?" He wondered what she was doing here.
"I came to tell you something, dear."
"What is it?"
"I have finally realized my dream."
"Your dream?"
"Yes, my dream. I told myself that I should become a great warrior someday. But now I have realized that I only want to be your wife."
Her words were so lovely and pure.
He was speechless.
Mary smiled at him.
Their eyes met, and then Aldred kissed her.
Mary blushed deeply and kissed back.
They kissed passionately, and Aldred's feelings were growing stronger than before.
When their lips parted, Aldred looked deep into her eyes. He reached his hand toward her, and gently caressed her cheek.
He kissed her again and rubbed his nose against hers. Then he whispered in her ear.
"I love you, Mary."
"I love you too, darling."
With that, they shared a passionate kiss.
Aldred stared at the ceiling, wondering about the meaning of that dream he had earlier. Was it real? Or was it just a dream?
***
The next day, Aldred was walking with Stella when he suddenly remembered the dream he had.
"…Is there something on my face?" Stella asked.
He laughed and shook his head. "Let's go to the deck to get some sunlight."
Aldred entered his bedroom and invited his wives and Krista to go up.
When they arrived, they went for breakfast and relaxed as usual while chatting and joking with each other.
"My Lord, there's a problem," Burchard's voice came from the communication crystal.
"Tell me."
"Well, we are currently more than 200 kilometers from Duria's shore."
"Is there any problem with that?"
"It shouldn't be, My Lord, but their fleet is coming toward us."
Not long after, Aldred saw four aircraft carriers with all kinds of advanced technologies. The planes on the carrier floated. They didn't seem to use a jet engine like the planes he destroyed before, this meant that those aircraft were much more advanced.
Drones rushed out of the carrier and floated around 5 km away from them.
"What business do you have in this water?" a robotic voice came from the drone.
"We're just sailing past," Burchard replied.
"Stop your fleet. We need you to undergo a deep inspection before you can proceed."
"No," Burchard sternly replied. "This region of water is not under your jurisdiction. Anyone can pass here without being questioned."
Aldred nodded with a smile. He liked Burchard's attitude towards the Duria's fleet.
"This is your final warning, stop your fleet or else."
"Or else what?"
The mothership moved its cannon towards the sci-fi-looking fleet.
The warships on both sides were alarmed and started aiming cannons at each other.
One was a modern ship while the other was magical.
Aldred called for the projection and the mothership projected the entire fleet of the enemy with their submarines under the water facing off with Aldred's own submarines but no one attacked.
There were more drones in the sky now. Looking at this, Aldred told his golems to fly in the sky and brandished their weapons.
Even the artillery golems started locking targets.
If the battle did break out, Aldred wanted to obtain some drones so he could analyze them and copy their function to his golems.
A few seconds later, Duria responded by sending out more drones.
Aldred grinned and open a portal for his golem army to come.
About 7.400 fighter golems now fitted with a flame jet could fly around in the air and 9.600 gunner golems were furthermore strengthened with his Fire Bullet spell increased in levels. Plus, they could fly on their own too.
These two golems made up his air force within his fleet, plus his 900 artillery golems that would blast everything in the sky.
This stand-off became tense, and it seemed Duria didn't have a strong reason to call the attack.
They said nothing and slowly made their drones back off.
Burchard also steered the fleet farther from Duria.
When both sides were far enough, they all sighed in relief.
They continued their journey after that tense situation, and soon, Aldred saw something weird.
"Is that a market? In the middle of the sea?"
"That seems to be so," Mary said as she looked at the floating market.
The market was bustling with people, boats, and wooden rafts. The merchants sell fruits of all kinds on the boats. There were those who use big rafts, and there were those who use small boats.
There were a lot of ships stopping nearby and the people bought a lot of fruit.
After a closer inspection, he found out that the buyers were all rich people with luxurious clothing.
This meant that this market must have something valuable.
"This is the Sea Fruit Market," Zafrina said. "They are known to sell fruits that grow in the deep part of the sea."
"Fruits that grow in the deep sea? What about monsters?"
"That's why there are so many people in that market. Not just anyone is brave enough to risk their life diving down to obtain fruits."
"I see. Let's go there then. I want to take a look."
The Destroyer's Fleet stopped 1 kilometer away from the market, and everyone was astonished to see such a huge mothership.
Some were worried that the market would be attacked, but after they saw some speedboats coming from the fleet, they were relieved.
It didn't take long for Aldred, his wives, and the soldiers to arrive at the market. Burchard and the captains were still on the fleet, just in case Aldred needed to bombard the market.
Aldred looked around and picked one fruit. "Can I try this?"
"Sure, My Lord," the seller said.
He bit into the fruit and was shocked at how good it tasted. Not to mention it seemed to help increase his strength too, but not by much. Still, it would help his wives and soldiers a lot.
"How much does this cost?"
"One fruit will cost 10,000 gold coins, My Lord."
"Right, I expect that price."
Note: this is the extra chapter I promised you guys because of the timer mistake.
