When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 748: Remembering the Gulag Brothers on July
Horn stayed in Cold Spring Castle for about three days, then set off again for Upper River County.

He would first pay tribute to Danji, then take a boat north to the Gravel Plain to comfort the soldiers and Meliati.

But when he came, Cold Spring Castle was peaceful.

When he left, the atmosphere in Cold Spring Castle had already become turbulent.

Unlike the nobles who used to resort to assassination, poisoning and other petty schemes, Horn only had two tricks: horizontal and vertical.

The first move is to lure customers with benefits and increase steel orders.

The second trick is to start a new business. If you don’t do it, there are plenty of people who will.

Anyone with a brain can see Horn's intention.

That’s why no one can crack it.

The guild stopped the outflow of craftsmen, so Horn brought them in from Norn.

Local craftsmen will complain because their income will drop sharply when orders are transferred to Cold Spring Castle.

And this is all because of the guild's obstruction.

It would be even more disastrous if the guild didn't stop them, as all the craftsmen would run away to South Mound County.

There is iron in the mountains, but someone has to smelt it.

Even if you have the technology, someone has to implement it.

Did they also bring in the Norns? But even if they did, who would they sell the iron to?
Who else but Horn could place such a large steel order?
Count on Meliati? Meliati still counts on Horn to make money for her.

They had raised their opinions many times before, but each time Meliati asked them to "put the overall situation first" and "put tolerance on the side of the country".

What's more, the main mountain knights have all gone to Hotam County to enjoy their lives, leaving their poor relatives in the mountains to raise pigs.

The same goes for dwarves.

You don't provide the technology, the dwarves do.

The Reformed Dwarves all aspire to become the second "Halkin" family.

All roads are blocked.

Through his own development, Horn was able to mobilize far more resources than the nobles of North Mound County.

Even in terms of public opinion, the nobles' power is not as strong as that of the major newspapers.

They haven't bowed their heads yet, just because they haven't seen the coffin.

Halkin, whom Horn left behind before he left, was the corpse-retriever for the nobles and guild elders.

After getting on the carriage, Horn said goodbye to Cold Spring Castle with a bitter smile and a wave as Spitro turned away.

After a long overland journey, Horn and his party boarded a boat at the Honey River.

Yes, it was the river that ran through the Moulin Rouge village, the same river that had forced Horn and Jeanne to the Holy Grail Mountain.

The river, which once contained carcasses of cattle and horses and driftwood, was now crystal clear, glowing with bright golden light under the sun.

Standing at the bow with a complicated expression, Horn looked at the newly built red mill and the black pine forest on the Holy Grail Mountain opposite, but he didn't know what expression to make.

"Your Majesty, do you want to stop the ship?"

"Need not."

Then the bow of the boat broke through the water of the Honey River, and the old reflections were obliterated in the waves.

The ship stopped to rest only when it reached the vicinity of the Gulag Monastery.

It was evening at this time, so Horn simply took Pettier and walked up the mountain.

Horn thought that after four years, many faces and memories would become blurred.

But when he really stood in front of this forest path, he suddenly discovered that the images were becoming clearer and clearer with the passage of time.

After passing the path where the duel with Durdafo took place, not far away was the place where Meliati blew the bone whistle.

Going further, you can see a slope with fences and ditches. That was the Battle of Little Mud Ditch where the decisive battle of the Papal States took place.

Crouching down, Horn even picked up a broken spearhead from a small mud ditch.

This spearhead was forged by Jeanna herself. They continued to move forward, passing through the bushes with berries hanging on them. Under the setting sun, a charred ruin appeared before everyone's eyes.

"Is this the Gulag Monastery?" Pettier turned and asked the guide beside him.

The guide nodded and said, "It was destroyed once before. Later, deserters, robbers, bandits, and the army of Shattered Stone Plain took turns to occupy it and completely trampled it into ruins."

Horn knew that the Gulag Monastery had become a ruin, but when he saw with his own eyes that only the skirting was left of the door frame, he still smiled bitterly with an ambiguous meaning.

"Look at this gate." Horn turned to introduce to Pettier, "It was here that I launched the coup d'état and took away Tangli's dominance over the monastery."

"Townley..." Pettier muttered the unfamiliar name.

"Look here." Horn pointed to the depression in front of the door. "Back then, I had the honor of leading 4,000 warriors in a bloody battle here and won a great victory. It was in this battle that Madeleine and others stood out.

Das, Monsay, Busak, and Jeshka all became famous in this battle. If Bunian had not died early, he would probably have been a fierce general. "

"Bunyan, I've heard of him from Madeleine." Pettier looked at the depression in front of him and seemed to be able to see faint bloodstains on the rocks.

Horn sat on a big rock and said, "Fortunately, Danji, who holds the main force, did not participate in the battle, otherwise the outcome would be uncertain."

"I think that Danji's decision not to join the war was the will of the Holy Father."

"maybe."

Looking at the ruins in front of him, in Horn's eyes, there used to be straw huts and familiar faces here.

Four years have passed, some people are still there, but some have disappeared into the dust.

"It would be nice if Jeanna and Carrie were here." Horn murmured with his head down.

Although the two always disliked each other and quarreled like children, they were comrades who had lived and died together after all.

Jeanne accepted Carrie's existence, but she did not accept Carrie's existence as Horn's lover or wife.

Jeanne had even been asking recently when Carrie would be back, and why Horn didn't seem to care at all about where Carrie was.

If she really knew that Meliati and I had been hiding this from her...

Horn felt a headache, and it was not just a problem with his lower body.

Behind the wolf girl stand scholars, civil servants and engineers; behind Catherine stand merchants, craftsmen and bankers.

As for Jeanne and Meliati, their fields somehow overlapped.

Both have the support of military officers and peasants from different systems, the only difference is that the former are from the Holy Way and the latter are from the Juano faction.

This was not done proactively by the saints, but rather these factions voluntarily came together and took the saints as their banner.

It is almost impossible for a large political group to not have various small political groups in different sectors.

No matter which saint Horn chooses, it will be a political weather vane.

The favorite thing of many private tabloids is to pair Horn with the three saints, and there are even weird pairings such as Horn and Meliati and even Horn and Sissi.

So, Horn either doesn't marry any of them, or he marries all of them the same no matter how many there are.

Regarding this matter, Horn had once inquired about the opinions of the four persons on different occasions.

Meliati and the wolf girl were quite open-minded, wishing Horn could have sex with every one of them and have many children.

The former is to cultivate the "Holy Royal Family", and the latter is to cultivate "experimental living beings".

On the contrary, Jeanne and Catherine were quite conflicted and still retained the idea of ​​lifelong monogamy.

Jeanne was a country girl and was conservative, but would Catherine, a very realistic banker, also have such thoughts?

Horn couldn't help but think of Catherine's bookshelf of pure love novels.

"It's so difficult, so difficult..." Horn stroked the charred wall and couldn't help but sigh.

Pettier, who was beside him, consoled him, “Your Majesty, the current affairs of the Holy Kingdom are complicated, and the invasion of Leia is imminent.

But you have overcome the most difficult times. Now you have so many devout monks, you can overcome any difficulties."

"Ah, ah, yes, yes." Horn coughed, "It's getting late, let's go back. We have to set off early for Ladenburg tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)