She paused, as if giving him time to digest this sentence, and then added, "Now Smoking Sea can still see the outline of Valyrian Peninsula over there.
That layer of volcanic ash has not dispersed yet. Even on a sunny day, it is like a thick gray curtain hanging on the horizon, and nothing can be seen clearly."
She paused again, and her eyes fell on his face, with a serious focus on confirming something. "You have sent so many teams in, each of which is a carefully selected experienced person, and no one can come out alive.
The curse on that island cannot be endured by ordinary mortals. No matter how experienced those mercenaries are, they are only mortals."
Redd did not answer this sentence. His eyes fell on the map spread out on the table, and on the area covered by gray shadows.
His fingers moved slowly across the surface of the map, starting from the outline of Stepstones, passing through the narrow sea area, and stopping at the location marked "Valyria City Ruins".
"It is one of the places with the strongest magical energy in the world."
His voice seemed clear and calm in the quiet room, like a stone being thrown into a deep well, and the sound of it hitting the bottom was heard after a long time. "This is the most ideal habitat for Dragon."
After the doomsday catastrophe, not all Valyria dragons were extinct.
Some of them survived, thrived on that island, and survived to this day under the volcanic ash and curse.
The fact that I was able to find those two dragons means that there are still dragons on the island.
Those two big islands, as well as those medium-sized islands and those scattered reefs, I don't believe there is anything on them."
Redd raised his hand from the map, moved his eyes away from the parchment, and landed on Mesalia's face. "Continue to let the fleet explore around Valyrian Peninsula.
Double the bounty and recruit those who really dare to take risks. Don't be afraid of how many people die.
I want to know the full picture of that peninsula now, know the current distribution of those broken islands, know whether the volcanoes above are still erupting, and know what the terrain there has become.
We also need to know whether there are any Dragon alive deep in those islands."
Mesalia's eyes did not dodge. She looked at him for a few breaths, then lowered her head slightly. She did not persuade him again.
She had been following him long enough to know that when Redd showed that look, no matter how many words of persuasion she said, no matter how many accounts she listed regarding funds and manpower, she could not change his decision.
She just nodded, recited the order in her mind, and then began to think about how to adjust the route after returning, how to recruit new people, and how to make those people willing to go to a place where no one has come back alive so far.
There was a knock on the door. The sound was not loud, like tapping lightly on the door panel with your knuckles twice, with a cautious attitude.
Mesalia moved her eyes away from Redd's face and turned to the door.
She stood up, her movements were neither hasty nor slow, but at the moment when she stood up, she seemed to remember something, her waist swayed slightly, and her hip line rippled under the skirt, as if someone was gently stirring on the water, or as if someone was somewhere out of her reach, setting the rhythm of her walking.
She walked to the door, pulled the latch, and opened the door a crack.
Standing outside the door was a maid in a light-colored dress. She looked young, her face was upright and reserved, her hands were folded in front of her, her posture was respectful and a little nervous.
She was slightly stunned when she saw Mesalia opening the door, as if she hadn't expected this woman to come out of Redd's study.
But her daze only lasted for a moment, and she soon regained her well-trained dignity, bowed slightly, and lowered her voice so low that if Mesalia hadn't been standing in front of her, it would have been almost drowned out by the wind in the corridor.
"Miss Mesalia, Princess Rhaenyra, please come over. I want to ask you for help with something."
When Mesalia heard those words, there was no change on her face.
There was no surprise, no nervousness, no panic when suddenly summoned.
She just turned her head slightly, looked into the study through the crack in the door, and landed on Redd.
Redd was still sitting behind the desk, with one hand on the table and the other on the map of Valyrian Peninsula, his fingertips gently rubbing the blank area marked as "Unknown Area".
He didn't raise his head, and his calm voice came from the direction of the desk. "Go."
Mesalia stood at the door for two breaths, then turned back and nodded to the maid.
She walked out of the study and gently closed the door behind her. The moment she closed her eyes, her eyes rested on Redd for the last time, and then the oak door completely separated their sight.
Mesalia left with the maid, and the footsteps gradually faded away in the corridor.
The sound was not loud. It bounced off the walls a few times in the empty corridor, became lighter and lighter, and finally disappeared completely around a corner.
The study became quiet. The sounds that were still flowing in the air just now - Mesalia's breathing, the friction of her clothes, her footsteps, her occasional slight laughter - all disappeared, as if a hand had pressed the mute button at the same time.
There was only the faint sound of the city coming from far outside the window, like a hum coming through several layers of gauze.
Redd was sitting at the desk, looking down at the map spread out on the table.
The edges of the parchment are somewhat curled, and there are dark signs of wear and tear on several creases that have been repeatedly folded, as if someone had repeatedly touched them with fingers.
It was a map drawn by the fleet when it explored Valyrian Peninsula. It marked the known island outlines, coastline directions and several red marks marked as "danger areas".
The information on the map is incomplete. Valyrian Peninsula was completely shattered in the doomsday catastrophe, and large areas of land sank to the bottom of the sea, leaving only the broken islands and reefs scattered among the Smoking Sea.
Valyria City is located south of the center of the largest existing island, surrounded by towering cliffs. Only at high tide can a narrow, passable waterway be visible from the sea.
He had explored the central island, found the two dragons, and seen the curses covering the ruins.
Those curses are like an invisible, sticky fog that clings to the air and penetrates into the soil, causing everyone who stays on that island for too long to slowly become weak, dazed, and lose their sense of direction, and then fall down silently one day and never stand up again.
The central island is only a part of the entire Valyrian Peninsula.
There are fifteen known islands marked on the map, including three large islands, five medium-sized islands, seven small islands, and some scattered reefs and sandbars that don't even have names.
His original exploration scope only covered the central island and a small area of sea around it, less than one-third of the entire Valyrian Peninsula.
He had never set foot on those two large islands, and he had only seen the outline of those medium-sized islands and scattered rocks from a distance. He didn't know what was on them, or whether there were Dragon alive there.
His fingers paused for a moment on the two large islands on the map. There was a blank space there, like two pieces of white paper waiting to be filled, waiting for someone to break in with courage and luck.
Then he withdrew his hand, carefully rolled up the map and put it in the drawer on the side of the desk.
He raised his head and glanced at the sky outside the window. The afternoon light was beginning to change from bright to soft. The sun was tilted a little to the west, and the light became warmer and more orange than before.