Rose Empire

Renee fetched a velvet pillow and asked Charlotte to place it under her arms so that she could lie more comfortably.

“Yeah, there are so many things I want to do.”

Charlotte nodded. She wanted to dig a canal to Tonglan Bay, build a giant eagle cavalry, and conquer the Sokya Peninsula...

However, these things are not something that can be accomplished overnight, or even in a year or two. Charlotte knows that she still needs to be cautious and patient.

As Charlotte thought about this, she turned another page of the document in front of her - the document that Cecilia had given her yesterday.

While Jonathan Hackman was cleaning up Abratu County, people sent by Cecilia also mixed in and conducted a registration survey of the Abratu citizen families. On the surface, it was an investigation of criminals, but in fact it was to detect and register the extraordinary qualifications of children from citizen families.

The results of this investigation surprised Charlotte.

There were approximately 4,800 children of appropriate age who underwent testing, including 141 children who were in level 4 or above, that is, "qualified" children according to church standards, for a pass rate of 2.9 percent.

Two point nine percent may not seem high, but the last time Charlotte tested the school-age children in her territory, the result was only a little over 0.5 percent.

Why is there such a big difference in the test results of two samples that are neighbors?

Is it because the citizens of Ambratu eat better?

This was the first possibility that came to Charlotte's mind.

Before Charlotte arrived, the people of Charlotte's territory ate about the same amount as the landlords' livestock. Oh, no, the livestock could eat their fill, but they had trouble even getting enough to eat. Even though there was still a gap between the rich and the poor among the citizens of Ambratu, as the ruling class, they still had food to eat.

It is destined that the nutritional intake of children from Lanwan citizens' families will be much worse than that of children from Ambratu citizens' families.

But is it really so?

Charlotte thought again of the noble children of the Orlan Empire. At least 20 percent of them boasted that they could meet the "qualified" threshold of the church.

Is it just because of the different levels of nutritional intake that the extraordinary talents of the children of the nobles of the Orlan Empire are so much better than those of the children of the citizens of Ambratu? So, is the tradition of overeating among the nobles of the Orlan Empire a good thing? This is obviously a bit hard to convince people. When both sides can eat enough, it is hard to say that the children of the nobles of the Orlan Empire have taken in more nutrition than the children of the citizens of Ambratu.

Of course, the credibility of the lies told by the children of the Oran nobles is very low and can only be used for reference.

“The data is still too little.”

Charlotte muttered softly and turned another page. Suddenly, she saw the names of three children in a row with red circles drawn around them. The red circles meant that these children's qualifications were above level four.

Attracted by the consecutive names, Charlotte casually flipped to the family background information of these children, and then was surprised to find that the fathers of these three children were all extraordinary people.

Charlotte became interested again, and she reclassified and counted the children of the appropriate age who were tested. Among these children, there were 518 whose fathers were extraordinary people, and 19 of them had extraordinary qualifications above level 4, with a pass rate of about 3.7%.

What does this number indicate?

Does this mean that the children of extraordinary people eat better than the children of ordinary people?

Or does it mean that the research conclusions of those necromancers are wrong, and extraordinary talents are actually hereditary?

Charlotte noted this question down for further study later.

After a day's journey, the caravan had to camp in a remote wilderness for the night.

After Charlotte got off the bus, she had someone put up a sign at the campsite and said, "I'm going to build a new city here in the future."

Another item added to the list of “things Charlotte wants to do.”

On the second day, Charlotte and her group continued on their journey and entered the Earldom of Quick Forest before noon.

However, after entering the Earldom of Quick Forest, the further Charlotte went into the prosperous area, the more she could sense an unusual atmosphere. Pedestrians on the road hurried, farmers were silent with smoke rising from their cooking fires, and outside the church, she could occasionally see crosses that she had never seen before on the roadside.

It wasn't until Charlotte saw the body of a crucified man in front of a seemingly peaceful village that Charlotte understood the purpose of the crosses.

"Who is that? Why was he crucified like this?" Charlotte asked someone to stop a passing merchant.

The male corpse on the cross had seven thick nails nailed into his arms, legs, forehead, heart, and genitals, which looked like some kind of specially designed ritual.

"Don't you know, sir? This is a demon captured by the church," the merchant replied in surprise. "Recently, the church has been catching demons everywhere. Once they are caught, they will be crucified like this."

As he spoke, the merchant looked around nervously, as if he was afraid of being heard by someone.

"Evil demon?" Charlotte couldn't help but sigh.

As the convoy continued to move forward, Charlotte saw many more people who were nailed to the cross. There were men and women, young and old, some wearing shabby clothes, and some wearing respectable clothes... She didn't know how the church judged that these people were demons.

"Stop, stop!"

Suddenly, the team in front was stopped by someone.

Feeling the carriage stop, Charlotte lifted the curtain. She was very curious about who on earth would dare to intercept the Melefield family's convoy in the Principality of Greenfield.

Knight Ryan Nasaz, who was leading the way, had the same question as Charlotte. He pointed at the Melefield family crest on the carriage behind and asked those who were blocking the road, "Do you know who is in the carriage?"

"I don't care who it is. Tell your master to come out and talk." A wretched man in a church priest's uniform stepped out from the crowd and said to Ryan Nasaz with his chin raised, "Otherwise you won't be able to afford to delay the church's important affairs."

Ryan Nasazzi's face darkened, his right hand slowly pressed on the hilt of the sword, his eyes swept over the dozen or so people blocking his way, as if he was considering how many seconds it would take to kill them all.

Fortunately, the people in the carriage spoke up at this time: "What's the big deal in the church?"

The man in priest's robe noticed Charlotte talking, and immediately left Ryan Nasaz behind, came to the carriage, bowed slightly through the window, and said with a smile: "Of course it's the big matter of the devil's trial, my noble sir, we are investigating the devil who blasphemed the Lord."

"What? Mr. Pastor, do you think there are evil spirits in my caravan?" Charlotte asked.

"The evil spirits are cunning, it's not surprising that they appear anywhere." The man raised his chin, looked at people with his nose, and answered without thinking.

This was the first time in her life that someone dared to face her like this. Charlotte felt a little fresh: "So how do you plan to check if there are any evil spirits in my convoy, Mr. Pastor?"

The man immediately put on a smiling face and said, "Originally I should have taken you all to the church to be immersed in holy oil, but you are a noble man, so there is no need to go through so much trouble. Our church has exorcism tickets. You only need to buy an exorcism ticket for each person in your caravan, and you can ensure that the evil spirits dare not possess you and your servants. Even if they have been possessed, you can drive away the evil spirits. An exorcism ticket only costs one fuso."

The man took out the so-called exorcism coupons, which were actually some small iron plates two fingers wide and one finger long.

“Really…” Charlotte almost laughed out of anger. She was actually robbed. “But I don’t really want to buy your Exorcism Ticket.”

The man's expression immediately changed, and he said, "My lord, you have to think it over. If you don't buy it, then we will be in trouble. Even the Earl of Quick Forest has bought our exorcism coupons. Can you be more powerful than the Earl of Quick Forest?"

Hearing this, Charlotte nodded: "You make sense."

She grabbed a handful of Fuso at random, without counting how much there was, and handed it to the man.

The man quickly stepped forward and caught it with both hands.

"I wish you a pleasant lunch." Charlotte stared at the man and said gently.

"I wish you a safe journey too." The man's face was full of smiles as he handed Charlotte a large bag of exorcism tickets.

Charlotte waved her hand, and a squire knight took the bag.

After watching Charlotte's convoy go away, the man waved to the minions behind him and said, "Let's go. I'll treat you all to a drink when we get back."

The minions cheered.

The man's name was Steve. Actually, he was not a pastor, but an apprentice pastor who had just joined the church for less than two months. Two months ago, he was just a playboy who was well-known in the surrounding area. Two months later, he didn't even know all the words in the Bible.

More than two months ago, the oracle about the red moon was issued from the oracle, and the church began a vigorous demon trial movement across the continent. Some local church organizations felt that the number of demons being judged increased, and they were short of manpower, so they recruited many priest apprentices like Steve. Although these priest apprentices may not even spell the name of the Lord God Yige wrong, they are undoubtedly dedicated to catching demons.

Steve and his brothers did not return to the church, but went to Steve's home. Because Steve knew that if he took so much money back to the church, all the money would belong to the official pastors in the church. When he got home, he couldn't wait to take out the money Charlotte gave him and count it.

"Twenty-two fuso!"

Steve's brothers couldn't help swallowing as they looked at the glittering Fosso.

Steve couldn't help swallowing.

In fact, there were more than 40 knights and squires in Charlotte's team, as well as more than 20 coachmen and servants, but these minions had obviously never seen so much money.

"These nobles are just rich. The priests told us not to cause trouble to them."

"Yes, those priests themselves sell exorcism tickets to the nobles, but they don't allow us to sell them!"

"Tsk, they just want to keep the money and make it for themselves!"

"..."

Steve's younger brothers were talking excitedly.

However, Steve on the side couldn't help but swallowed twice. He looked at those golden coins and felt an appetite in his heart. He wanted to eat but couldn't help but feel reluctant to eat. The balance in his heart swayed for a long time, and finally tilted towards the increasingly strong appetite.

Under the dull gazes of his younger brothers, Steve reached out and picked up a Fuso, put it in his mouth, and chewed it hard.

"Boss, what are you doing?" a younger brother asked in shock and confusion.

Steve swallowed the first Fuso with difficulty: "Let's have lunch. I'm hungry." Then he picked up another Fuso and put it in his mouth to chew. He was unwilling to stop even when his mouth was full of blood.

"Boss, if you are hungry, I can help you buy some food and wine." A younger brother said nervously.

"It's okay, I'll just eat this." Steve probably felt that eating one by one was too slow, so he simply swept all the Fuso into his palm, stuffed it into his mouth, chewed it in two or three bites, and swallowed it.

Blood was gushing from his mouth.

"I'm not full, is there anything else to eat?"

Without waiting for anyone to answer, Steve stood up and looked around for food, but he ignored the flour, flatbread, and brown bread in the corner of the kitchen and instead dug out a small box of exorcism tickets.

Steve grabbed a handful of exorcism tickets without hesitation and stuffed them into his mouth. The iron tickets broke his teeth and the sharp edges scratched his cheeks, but it still failed to stop his voracious appetite.

Hunger, the intense hunger seemed to have devoured all of Steve's thinking ability, prompting him to constantly eat everything edible in his twisted mind.

Steve's brothers were so cold watching from the side that their legs were stiff as if they were filled with lead, until an exorcism ticket pierced Steve's throat and fell to the ground.

"Devil, devil, the devil is possessing him!"

One of the brothers finally broke down, screamed, and turned to rush out the door.

One person's collapse immediately led to a group of people who were filled with fear and just wanted to escape from there quickly.

However, a gust of wind blew, and the group of people who tried to escape fell down like wheat being cut, blood splattered everywhere, and they were silent in the blink of an eye.

After the gust of wind, Renee appeared in the house, holding a knight's sword dripping with blood in her hand.

Steve was unconscious and was still eating the exorcism ticket with difficulty, but the light in his eyes had faded and his body was covered in blood.

Seeing Steve, Renee breathed a sigh of relief and muttered, "Luckily you're still alive. Miss really causes trouble for others."

Renee raised her sword and beheaded Steve with one blow, ending Steve's life.

PS: Thank you for your monthly blade recommendation tickets

PS2: Thanks to the World Khan for reminding me, the previous article has been corrected.

Volume 73: Chapter 65 Chapter The Turmoil in the Green Plains

"Miss, you are too reckless."

Back in the caravan, Renee couldn't help but complain to her young lady.

Renee didn't complain about Charlotte killing Steve, nor did she sympathize with a gangster who blackmailed Charlotte. It was just that Charlotte could have just let her knight kill Steve on the spot - as a noble, this behavior was commonplace, but she shouldn't use the ability of "confusing the mind" to kill Steve, because this would put Charlotte at risk of exposing her extraordinary faction, especially since Steve was a member of the church.

So, after Charlotte told Renee what she had done to Steve with her "Confusing Mind", Renee hurried after her to deal with the aftermath for her young lady.

Charlotte had no idea that she had caused trouble for the maid, but instead asked about Steve's behavior after his common sense was distorted by his "bewildered mind".

Renee described to Charlotte what she had seen.

Charlotte nodded with satisfaction after hearing this: "This technique is indeed effective."

After repeated experiments, Charlotte developed some new techniques for "Confusing the Mind", such as burying the distorting effect of the confusing mind deep in the human mind like a bomb, and using thinking logic and environmental factors to cleverly control the time and place of the bomb's explosion.

Charlotte had developed this technique for a while - she called it "thought bomb", but she had never tested it in actual combat. Firstly, her "confusing mind" ability was not strong enough to ensure the effectiveness of the thought bomb, and secondly, she had never had a suitable experimental subject.

Charlotte usually practiced with either Beatrice and Anna, mother and daughter, two little slave girls, or three little girls, Lola, Julia and Doris.

These three girls who were selected from the children of the subjects were now nominally Charlotte's slaves. Charlotte only spent one acre of land, and their parents happily sent their daughters to the castle to be maids.

However, although they are maids in name only, the main tasks of these three girls are still to study and train, as well as to cooperate with Charlotte in experimenting with their abilities without knowing it.

After a long period of practice, Charlotte felt that her abilities should have been strengthened. However, to her, the people she was practicing with in the castle could all be considered her own people, so it was difficult for her to use too much force.

Until today, this pastor who was blocking the road for extortion took the initiative to run into the gun...

Steve

"How long did the confusing effect last?" Charlotte asked Renee.

Swallowing metal undoubtedly seriously violates human common sense and instincts, and the correction effect at the subconscious level will definitely be very strong, so Charlotte estimates that the distortion effect of the "mind bomb" should last for a short time.

Renee shook her head and said, "The pastor was almost dead at the time, and the confusion seemed to be not over yet. I don't know how long the effect will last."

"Well, it lasted longer than I expected. It seems that my ability has indeed improved a lot," Charlotte was a little proud, but then she frowned slightly, "I just don't know when I can be promoted to the second wing?"

"Miss, don't be anxious. You have only been awakened for less than three months." Leni smiled and comforted.

"It's been more than half a year since Renee was promoted to the third wing, right?" Charlotte suddenly asked, "When do you think we can perform the Brilliant Ceremony?"

The Brilliant Ceremony is a ceremony for the advancement from three-wing to four-wing, and it is also a ceremony for ordinary warlocks to advance to senior warlocks.

Most of the relatively complete warlock factions in this world have four ceremonies - the awakening ceremony for ordinary people to embark on the path of transcendence. The brilliant ceremony for ordinary warlocks to be promoted to high-level warlocks. The glorious ceremony for high-level warlocks to be promoted to legendary warlocks, that is, the six-winged warlocks to be promoted to seven-winged warlocks. And, the legendary warlocks to be promoted to divine warlocks, that is, the holy ceremony for the nine-winged warlocks to be promoted to ten-winged warlocks.