When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#443 - Horn: Rough!

Across the vast expanse of brown and black fields, verdant hills stretched into the distance, gradually rising until they transformed into towering mountains that spanned the horizon.

Standing where Horn was, facing those mountains, lay the Dragon's Rise of the Papal States—the Great Marsh—behind them.

Currently, the river flowing through Jeanne d'Arc Fortress was the Ibe River, which required canals and several tributaries to merge into the Nauan River.

If the Great Marsh's new river dredging project succeeded, one could travel directly downstream from Autumn Dusk Island to Rapid Current City.

Of course, because there would inevitably be mountainous river sections with significant elevation differences—even small waterfalls—between the Great Marsh's lakes and the plains, traveling upstream would be difficult.

But as long as there was this one-way waterway, it would be a huge benefit to the isolated Great Marsh.

Because the wool from the Northern Gravel Plains could be easily transported overland from North Munder County and Upper River County to Autumn Dusk Island as a transit point, and then downstream to Rapid Current City and Jeanne d'Arc Fortress.

Rapid Current City's thriving dye industry could process these raw materials into dyed fabrics, which would increase the price.

If they could also be made into ready-to-wear clothing, the price would jump up two more levels, relying on the dyeing and textile light industry.

These products, produced efficiently with star-forged gears and centralized workshops, could flow down the Nauan River, directly into the Golden Land, and be transported back in basketfuls of gold pounds.

Whether the Salvation Army exported to the southwest to Fran or to the northeast to Norn, it could be exchanged for large sums of money.

Once this money started circulating, Horn wouldn't be able to forcibly halt industrialization even if he wanted to.

But those things were too far off, and Horn shifted his gaze to the present.

In the nearby meadow, Catherine and Jeanne were experimenting with spells, testing their control and precision.

Lightning crackled like a storm in the hollow formed by the hills, while the dancing vampire vines frantically tore at the ground.

Nearby, black-clad soldiers, covered in sweat, carefully released a few wild boars, rabbits, chickens, ducks, and rats every so often.

For some reason, Catherine was initially polite to Jeanne, but once they entered the training ground, they suddenly became aggressive, as if a switch had flipped.

When Catherine cast one spell, Jeanne would cast two.

When Jeanne cast two spells, Catherine would cast four.

For a time, the magic training ground was filled with flying vampire vines and scattered electric snakes, and the overflowing magical power made some of the more sensitive Holy Marksmen gag.

You see, the souls of witches are quite resilient, and they don't need to be separated when casting spells like wizards or familiars do.

The constantly pulling magical power and aftereffects might not be noticeable to ordinary people, but for those with Holy Marks, it was like a dog hearing high-frequency sound waves.

Watching the wild boars and rats being torn apart and electrocuted into a bloody mess of internal organs, Horn took two steps back, afraid of getting blood on himself.

Catherine's spells had been tested for three days, and Horn, arriving early and leaving late every day, had finally managed to summarize Catherine's plant spells.

In general, Catherine's spells are about controlling and accelerating the growth of plants.

But according to the experimental results, this accelerated growth is an act of forcibly injecting magical power to increase vitality.

Once the magical power can't keep up, the accelerated plants will quickly wither when the remaining magical power is exhausted.

Catherine usually controls the accelerated growth of plants to the flowering and seedling stages, but if needed, she can directly accelerate them to the fruiting stage.

Horn tried to get her to accelerate the growth of an apple tree, and although the apple tree would quickly wither after the magical power was withdrawn, the resulting fruits were edible.

The remaining apple seeds could be planted again, and it wouldn't affect Catherine's continued use of magical power to accelerate their growth.

This means that this spell is best used only on annual plants, and not on fruit trees that can bear fruit continuously.

Another limitation is the range and magical power; Catherine can cast spells on a maximum of ten acres of land a day, and can't even use them continuously, and the same piece of land can't be cast on continuously, with a maximum of about two hundred acres per month.

So Catherine mostly uses it on high-value crops, such as annual spice herbs and valuable dye crops.

Catherine initially swept the Rapid Current City dye market with a large batch of valuable dyes.

Taking safflower as an example, it is a very delicate dye crop that people usually plant in pots, but Catherine managed to produce the annual safflower output of an entire county on one plantation.

Of course, in Horn's opinion, this method is still wasteful; this spell should be used for breeding.

While still pondering Catherine's problem, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him.

"Your Grace," Rene's cold voice sounded from behind.

Horn reluctantly turned around, looking at Rene's numb and calm face; he didn't even smile much in front of Horn.

This was to ensure his authority, preventing his subordinates from thinking he was a child and trying to bully or fool him, although Rene had plenty of strength and means to deal with those who were blind.

But repeatedly establishing his authority was too troublesome, and Rene wasn't the type to easily get along with people.

It's funny to say, but Rene is only thirteen years old this year, and although he's already as tall as Horn, he still looks like a young boy.

But it's this young boy who can manipulate many adults in the palm of his hand.

Among the early Salvation Army's child soldiers, Rene was the most outstanding, and with adequate nutrition, his knowledge acquisition speed exceeded Horn's expectations.

But as his knowledge became more refined, the expression on his face became less and less human; the only people who can see Rene smile now are probably Armand and Duvaron, his peers.

This is the only evidence that Rene is still a thirteen-year-old boy.

"What's the situation?"

"We have received the latest intelligence, there are too many people here, it's not a place to talk."

"Why don't you guys take a break, I'm just about to leave for a while," Horn cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted at the two saintesses in the training ground.

"You go ahead."

"Great, just what I wanted."

The faintly gunpowder-tinged words made Horn feel uneasy, and he could only tell the Salvation Army soldiers present that if anything happened, they should fire a musket as a warning.

Then, under the protection of the surrounding Salvation Army and military police, he followed Rene to the carriage.

"Two things," Rene said concisely as soon as he got into the carriage, "First, we have reliable information that Prince Condé has withdrawn his troops from Highfort, but he did not take the southern route, but returned west to Swiftstream Fort."

"Doesn't sound like something he would do." After hearing Rene's words, Horn felt a pang of anxiety and scratched his head, "According to previous information, he should stubbornly stay under Highfort, willing to exhaust his three armies to fight hard, right?"

"He didn't completely withdraw, but built new fortresses near Highfort City, letting mercenary regiments and local knights garrison them, saying something like 'Knights of Upper River County guarding the land of Upper River County', not attacking but only defending, still maintaining a siege posture towards Highfort."

"Could it be a trap? Is he going to attack us?"

"Impossible, he would have to take Anson Fort, or he would have to lead the knights to cross the high mountains and forests; with their current route, neither of these is possible, and we would detect them in advance."

"We need to carefully consider this matter." Horn licked his lips, "Later, let those intelligence personnel and cardinals come to a meeting to see what's going on. What's the second thing?"

"A Fran merchant has come to see you."

"Ah?" Horn blinked, "Shouldn't the Gospel Court be handling the reception of Fran merchants?"

"No, no, no, he has a secret identity." Rene mechanically shook his head, "He brought the Fran Prime Minister Lorenzo's badge and a personal letter from our old friend, Knight Monteac of the Royal Guard."

"Lorenzo? Monteac? Are the Fran people going to get involved in the Thousand River Valley uprising?" Leaning forward, Horn was about to inquire further when he heard two soul-stirring "bang bang!" sounds.

"What's going on?" Horn slammed the carriage door open and looked out, and the answer he received was the angry shouts of the two witches.