Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 232 Informer

The Papal States, the City of Grace - Goris.

In the sacred hall of the Glorious Cathedral, the Pope's throne high up was empty.

The three cardinals sat side by side, looking silently at the cardinal standing below who were arguing endlessly.

Tosa Ismael frowned and spoke first, "So the intelligence provided by our informant within the Federation is authentic?"

"Yes, the author of the paper who goes by the pseudonym Kel'Thuzad is a registered necromancer with the Union! Humph, but the low-level spellcaster level marked in the file is obviously a cover-up to conceal his identity."

"Low-level? Necromancer? Hasn't the Union always discriminated against and excluded this faction? This is a good way to cover it up..."

Ismail raised a stack of white papers in his hand and asked the waiter to take them and distribute them to other bishops.

"Name: Harvey Floyd. Born in Golden City, the capital of the Principality of Saint Valen. His grandfather was an ordinary city guard knight. His mother died of illness when he was young. His father was an apprentice knight who died in a drunken fall from his horse when he was sixteen... He sold his family property and hired a retired court magic advisor as his magic instructor. He then enrolled in a local undead academy in Saint Valen. Huh? He actually borrowed money to pay for his tuition."

"His resume is as clean as a bottle of water. There is no sign of him being secretly trained by the Federation."

"No, read the rest carefully... The problem is that after graduation, he didn't choose to return to his hometown, Jinhui City. Instead, he went alone to a remote town on the border of the Principality of Saint Valen and established a magic laboratory there..."

Cardinal Bamoa scoffed and said disdainfully, "What's so strange about this? Don't these guys who deal with corpses all day just like to hide in dark corners and tinker with those evil magical researches?"

"That's the strange thing. He hadn't been in that border town for long when he offended the Union's stationed investigator. I looked through the performance report sent back by the Jackdaw Town Church a year ago. Civilians had reported him to both the church and the Union, claiming he had arbitrarily tricked them into participating in his undead experiments..."

These actions do not seem to be suspicious. Necromancers have always acted on the edge of illegality. Secretly stealing corpses, raising zombie puppets to run wild and hurt people, and leaking corruption and epidemics from laboratories to pollute the local area... These are all very common things.

The cardinals who received the detailed intelligence patiently continued to read the thick stack of contents, and gradually sensed something wrong in it.

The spellcaster investigator who had been giving him trouble at every turn was suddenly assassinated after being dismissed. The Lord of Grizzli Castle, who had temporarily imposed taxes on him, was questioned and placed under surveillance by the Union. A witch hunter who had concealed his identity died suddenly in his experimental estate...

"And... for unknown reasons, he secretly left Jackdaw Town over a year ago. Using the pioneering order he bought from the Earl of Grizzly Castle, he headed for the wasteland north of the Divine Spine Mountains. Since then, he has been secretive and has not appeared in the southern border since."

A Knight Commander of the Judgment Army stepped forward and bowed, saying, "In addition, we've also discovered that the Dragonstone Merchant Guild, backed by the Sarath family, has been secretly interacting closely with him. Some have witnessed Dragonstone Merchant Guild caravans constantly traveling to Jackdaw Town, seemingly transporting large quantities of supplies toward the wasteland..."

Ismael nodded and explained to the other bishops, "The person in charge of monitoring any violations by spellcasters in Saint Valen is Chief Judge Felipe. He dispatched an investigation team to Saint Valen two weeks ago, and they should be arriving there by now. We just need to wait and see the results of the investigation."

Chief Judge Felipe, his face gloomy, stepped out from the crowd and responded in a deep voice, "Your Excellency, please forgive me for taking the initiative. I have instructed the investigation team to conduct a divine judgment on the necromancer regardless of the specific results. Among the personnel accompanying the team, a high-ranking bloodline knight will be responsible for completing this task."

Cardinal Bamoa clapped his hands and said, "That's fine. The Necromancer faction has always been like this. Moreover, he publicly made such blasphemous remarks under the instruction of the Union. Even if we have to bear the pressure of the two alliances, he should pay the price!"

Ismael had no comment on this arrangement. Compared to the recent turmoil in the Evil Moon Mountains, a necromancer hiding outside the national border was not worth too much attention from him and the other cardinals.

"Did the Union's informant pass on any other important intelligence information?"

The judges in charge of intelligence liaisons standing below were silent for a moment. Finally, Felipe stepped forward and said solemnly, "That informant... he also mentioned a secret regarding the Federation's collaboration with a mysterious spellcasting organization. This is closely related to their recent independent operations in the Evil Moon Mountains..."

Bamoya stood up suddenly and asked urgently, "As expected! Their recent actions in the Evil Moon Mountains, and the rumored mysterious magical weapon created specifically to target the demons, who are they collaborating with? The High Elves hiding in the East? Or the Sea Clan who have never interacted with us?"

Felipe paused, somewhat embarrassed, and said, "The informant didn't reveal the entire truth. He...he wanted to seek asylum and made a request...he wanted His Holiness the Pope to personally preside over a rebirth ceremony for him."

The sacred hall suddenly fell silent.

Ismael's chuckle echoed in everyone's ears. "Haha, these so-called magicians who pursue truth and knowledge are forced to kneel at the feet of the gods and pray for the grace of life when their lives are about to end. How hypocritical and ironic..."

Bamoa hesitated and said, "Holding a rebirth ceremony for a spellcaster? That's ridiculous... It takes us decades to train a martyr. A single ceremony would cost the lives of at least three martyrs, and there's no guarantee of success. His Holiness the Pope would never agree!"

Ismael said quietly, "No, if the intelligence is valuable enough, I don't think His Holiness the Pope would refuse the other party's request. If the mysterious artifact the Union has obtained truly plays a decisive role in the war situation in the Evil Moon Mountains... we absolutely cannot sit idly by. This concerns the Church's faith foundation and secular reputation in the southern border. This is our foundation—we must not let our believers lose faith in us!"

"What? They can't build it?" Harvey asked Reiner, who was holding a stack of work records, while sitting at the desk.

Reiner cleared his throat pretentiously. "Sir, it is true. The shipyard's supervisors and workers were all transferred from the Ministry of Industry. They are all genuine desert people with clean identities. Most of them have rarely come into contact with sampans, let alone large ships..."

There are quite a few rivers in the northern wilderness, but they are frozen for nearly half a year, making them unsuitable for navigation. Fishermen who are good at fishing can only use a simple sampan made of wood to float in the river and cast their nets.

Reiner changed the subject and continued, "However, if you are willing to purchase a sailboat from the southern border, transport it to your territory, and have them dismantle and study it, perhaps they can try to successfully imitate it..."

Halfway through his words, Reiner felt a little embarrassed and shut up.

Purchasing a sailboat is not a difficult task, but the problem is that the Divine Spine Mountains stretch between the north and south continents. Even if Harvey really pays to buy a ship, he cannot send it to the north. There is no navigable river connecting the two places, and the sailboat cannot grow legs to cross mountains and ridges by itself.

Harvey covered his face with his hands and sighed deeply. He said slowly, "Contact George Santos of the Dragonstone Chamber of Commerce and ask him to help us hire some experienced shipbuilders, sailors, and helmsmen... We don't need too many, just people who can teach us how to build and sail a ship..."

"Hmm... I actually arranged for someone to contact them early on. Mr. Santos said that no shipbuilders or sailors would be willing to travel all the way from their warm and humid coastal hometowns in the south, over mountains and across rivers, to the northern wilderness. No matter how high the price is, it will be useless. After all, they feel their lives cannot be guaranteed, unless... unless they are forcibly abducted."

These words left Harvey speechless. He could only stand up and pace around the study awkwardly.

As the frontier territory gradually develops and expands, the most obvious problem is gradually emerging - the ground transportation capacity is insufficient, and the alchemical beasts that can carry goods cannot be produced infinitely. In addition to the most common camels and reindeer in the wilderness, Harvey has not yet found other types of large herbivores that can be captured on a large scale for soul transfer.

Moreover, the carrying capacity of the alchemical camels is not very high. Harvey needs to devote almost two-thirds of the alchemical beasts to transporting ore in the territory mine alone, not to mention the huge storage area and other manufacturing industries.

So he naturally turned his attention to the glacial river next to the territory. This river originated from the towering Divine Ridge Mountains, rushed out from the Jackdaw Ridge and reached the depths of the wilderness. The river was wide and had plenty of water. Except for the three months in the severe winter when it was semi-frozen, the rest of the time was very suitable for sailing.

The two were halfway through their meeting when alchemist Chris hurried to the castle and joined in the tense discussion.

"My Lord, I am more familiar with the situation in the southern border than Reiner. As far as I know, let alone the border area south of Jackdaw Ridge, even in the entire Principality of Saint Valen, there seems to be no large-scale shipbuilding workshop."

He walked excitedly to the wall, pointed to a map of the southern border, and patiently explained, "For a country located in the central part of the continent, most of the ships used for river shipping are purchased from Pharos. After all, it's known as the Land of a Thousand Sails, and there are countless official and private shipyards of all sizes."

The problem comes back to the core difficulty that even if we find a way to buy a ship, we cannot transport it back.

Harvey scratched his head and stared at the map on the wall in deep thought.

In the end, do I still have to rely on myself, a time traveler, to create it all?

He asked Reiner to find him a piece of white drawing paper and smoothed it out on the desk.

Based on what he had seen in various books and TV dramas in his previous life, combined with the information and knowledge mixed in with some sailing games on the Internet, Harvey could only grope and temporarily list the construction specifications of the ship.

The draft of ships sailing on rivers is definitely shallower than that of seagoing ships. Moreover, the Glacier River is not a straight river channel. The river flow in spring and summer is huge, so the ship must also have a stable structure and not easily capsize.

The most important point is that they do not have skilled sailors and boatmen, so the boat they build must be easy to operate even if it has a strange shape, so that the civilian workers responsible for driving it can quickly get started after simple training.

In this way, the masts, sails and traditional rudders that require experienced sailors and helmsmen to operate must be abandoned, and replaced by a power system driven by magic energy to be responsible for the ship's forward movement and steering.

Thinking of this, Harvey quickly drew the appearance of the new ship with a few strokes, leaving Reiner and Chris confused.

"Sir, this... is this a ship? Why does it look like a giant pig trough?"

Harvey chuckled awkwardly and explained, "The shape isn't important, as long as it's practical. Besides... even if it's a pig trough, it's a sturdy iron trough..."

(End of this chapter)