Rose Empire

However, Herman Green remembered clearly that he was only beaten, while Freddy was bitten to death by the cat.

Is the death of a child really so insignificant?

Charlotte did not stay in Herman Green's residence for long. After making sure that her chief knight was safe, she said goodbye to everyone.

Hermann Green and a group of knights put Charlotte on the carriage.

Before leaving, Charlotte suddenly turned around and said to Herman Green with a chuckle, "Knight Herman, I know you may be dissatisfied with this outcome, but according to the laws of the Empire, Sir Stanley has to pay a maximum of thirty fusos for killing a civilian, and his favorite sword is worth more than thirty thousand fusos. Is that the thirty fusos you want?"

Hermann Green suddenly froze in place.

After Charlotte left, a group of young knights, relieved that Hermann Green would not be punished again, also bid farewell to Hermann one after another. As they each took home what they saw and heard today, Charlotte's prestige in the territory will rise to a new level.

After all the guests had left, Hermann Green stood alone in the courtyard for a long time.

Suddenly, he got on his horse again and headed towards Yushu Town.

When he arrived at the hut outside Elm Town, Herman Green immediately saw Sally, who was peeking out carefully with half of her head sticking out from the crack of the hut door, and her face was a little anxious.

Of course, Sally was a blind little girl and she couldn't see anything.

"Sally," Herman Green shouted as he dismounted from his horse.

Hearing the familiar voice, Sally smiled brightly: "Uncle Herman!"

But then, Sally's face fell again: "Uncle Herman, my brother hasn't been home for many days. Do you know where he went? My brother told me not to go out, and I don't dare to go to him."

Herman Green's throat suddenly felt dry. He had been hiding at home to recuperate these days. In fact, he was more afraid to face Sally and tell the truth to this eight-year-old girl in person.

"I... I know that you, your brother went on a long journey with others to hunt mane cats and make a lot of money. Mane cats are hard to find now, so it should take a long time. When he comes back with a lot of money, he can heal Sally's eyes."

Hermann Green, who always abided by the rules and never lied, finally chose to lie.

"Really?" Sally smiled again, patting her chest and breathing a sigh of relief, "That's great."

"Well..." Hermann Green responded softly.

The little blind girl Sally seemed to have keenly sensed that something was wrong with Herman Green. She asked in confusion, "Uncle Herman, what's wrong with you?"

"No, nothing," said Herman Green. "My uncle had a fight with someone, lost, and got beaten up."

"Ah? Mom said fighting with others is not good." Sally said seriously.

"Yes..." Herman Green sat down on the threshold of the hut tiredly, "Sally, can you sit with me for a while?"

"Okay." Sally immediately smiled and sat down next to Herman Green.

Leaning against the door frame of the hut, Hermann Green looked up at the dim sky. An unprecedented tiredness, pain, and confusion enveloped his heart. At this moment, Hermann Green suddenly found that he didn't know what he wanted or what he should do.

"Under the bed, I heard a little frog croaking. I talked to it and it hid again. Uncle Herman, I have learned to do a somersault on one hand. When my brother comes back, I will show him how to do it..."

Little Sally chattered to the White Knight about the interesting things she had experienced alone in this tiny hut.

PS: Sorry, the second update has been delayed until now. The main reason is that I fell asleep while writing last night. I am very sorry.

PS2: Thank you all for your monthly tickets and blade recommendation tickets.

PS3: Thank you for the correction from Cat Tatalia. The previous error has been corrected.

Volume 110: Chapter 98 Chapter The Development of the Viscount's Territory

"Sister! Why are you here?"

Returning to the castle, Cecilia saw a figure she would never mistake as soon as she got off the carriage - her biological sister, Adela.

"Cecilia," Adela was also very happy to see her sister. She held her sister's hand, "Miss Charlotte bought me as a...maid, so I followed her here."

Hearing her sister's unintentional pause, Cecilia almost understood what was going on and couldn't help but curse her inwardly as a pervert.

Cecilia asked Adela about her parents and brother, and also about her sister's life after she left. Cecilia knew that if she asked directly, her sister would only answer that she was doing well, given her personality.

Adela told Cecilia about how her father had lost his job, how the family had left the theater, and how her parents still wanted her brother to undergo the initiation ceremony again.

Although Adela did not complain, Cecilia could fully imagine how much hardship her sister had to endure as a laundry lady in other people's homes during that cold winter.

Cecilia caressed her sister's hand, which had not yet completely recovered from the frostbite, and said, "Sister, go to my room and rest for a while. I'll talk to you in the evening after I'm done with my work."

"Yes." Adela nodded, and then said, "The Viscount thinks so highly of you, you must repay the Viscount well, Cecilia."

"Okay, I know." Cecilia said with a smile.

After settling her sister down, Cecilia came to Charlotte's study with a pile of parchment.

In the study, Charlotte was also reading a few letters. These letters were sent back by Robin Mancini and the Grey Knights he led via raven when Charlotte was away.

After successfully occupying Ambratu, Charlotte did not withdraw the Grey Knights back to the Viscount Lanwan, but let them continue to operate in the Sokya Peninsula, sneak into the city-states of the Ai Ye Alliance as Ambratu refugees, and gradually establish an intelligence network. Their first target was Ambratu's southern neighbor, Dorukocha.

After the Grey Knights settled down in the city-state of Dorukocha, they began to regularly pass on information to Charlotte. Although Charlotte had already set up a crow shed in the Green Plains Principality, the confidentiality of the communication method of crows was still a little lacking, so Charlotte had all the information left in this castle.

This initial intelligence was relatively superficial and did not involve confidential information of the city-state, but it was enough for Charlotte to have some general understanding of Dorukocha.

Dorukocha is also a city-state affiliated with the Aiye Alliance. It is larger and richer than Ambratu. The city-state is rich in mercenaries. When Ambratu went to the Lesser Sasini, he hired 300 Dorukocha mercenaries. Mercenaries are almost one of their pillar industries. This led to the fact that although Dorukocha has abundant martial virtues, the city-state's defense force is not very strong. Dorukocha once had a navy with dozens of warships, but now it has been transferred to the front line by the Aiye Alliance.

This is a relatively strong opponent, but also limited in strength, Charlotte silently concluded in her heart.

Cecilia entered the study and placed the pile of parchment in her arms on Charlotte's desk. "Miss Charlotte, this is the official business after you left. I have dealt with most of it. Please take a look."

Charlotte took a look at the thickness of the parchment and felt a headache. She said, "Tell me something important recently."

Cecilia pondered for a while before saying, "The most important government affairs recently are probably in three aspects. The first is that a buyer from Pinlus City in the Kingdom of Lesare has ordered 200 ingots of mountain copper from us, 1,500 fros per ingot, for a total of 300,000 fros."

The mountain copper produced in the Sokya region is traded in ingots. An ingot is about 15 centimeters long and 7 to 8 centimeters thick. The price of 1,500 fusos is considered to be quite reasonable. The key is that it is difficult to find such a large buyer for mountain copper.

Two hundred ingots may not sound like much, but pure mountain copper is difficult to be cast into tools. It can only be added to alloys as a raw material, so its usage is limited. Just like the javelins used by the Ambratu citizen militia, the tip of the spear is actually an alloy of mountain copper and ordinary copper. However, people are still used to calling this "alloy copper" mountain copper. Moreover, the price of one thousand five hundred fusos per ingot is expensive enough, and most people can't afford it.

"Three hundred thousand francs? Did you receive the full amount?" Charlotte asked with some surprise.

Cecilia shook her head and said, "The other party has only paid a deposit of 100,000 francs. The remaining 200,000 francs will be settled after all the goods are delivered. We have already delivered two batches of mountain copper, 50 ingots in each batch, and there are still 100 ingots in production."

Cecilia paused for a moment, then suggested, "Miss, we only have one improved smelting furnace at present, which can only produce five or six ingots of mountain copper every day. The production capacity is really too low. Recently, in addition to the buyers in Pinlus City, some merchants have come to buy mountain copper, but I can only refuse them. Should we build two more smelting furnaces to increase the output of mountain copper?"

"No need," Charlotte immediately shook her head and explained to Cecilia, "Scarcity makes things valuable. The reason why mountain copper is expensive is because its production is low. If we increase production on our own and meet market demand, the price of mountain copper will definitely plummet in the second half of this year. We will be the ones who suffer the loss then."

The high price of mountain copper is not due to its mineral reserves, but more importantly, it is difficult to smelt. City-states like Ambratu often cannot produce a furnace of mountain copper in a month. Merchants want to buy mountain copper but cannot, so the price naturally goes up.

"And the reserves of mountain copper are not high," Charlotte added. "The ore in the Ambratu warehouse was accumulated over hundreds of years. Once it's used up, we don't know if we can dig more, so we should use it sparingly."

"Yeah." Cecilia nodded thoughtfully.

Although Cecilia's suggestion was a bit ill-considered, Charlotte was still very satisfied with the results of Cecilia's work.

Currently, in Charlotte's Viscount Lanwan territory, there are more than 350 knights in the Viscount Guard alone, and the daily salary expenditure alone is more than 1,000 fuso.

Moreover, among the more than 350 knights in the Viscount's guard, 197 were surrendered soldiers of Ambratu, which is more than half. This is the huge hidden danger brought about by the small fish eating the big fish.

The Black Wolf entered the Campe Mountains twice and brought more than sixty ferocious wolf warriors to Charlotte. These ferocious wolf warriors were also an unstable factor.

In order to cope with this situation, Charlotte had to force Stanley to keep 900 Oran Knights. The daily salary of these 900 Oran Knights was as high as 2,700 Fusos.

The Viscount's guards have received salaries, Stanley's men have received salaries, so Charlotte certainly cannot favor one over the other as regards the thirty knights supported by Earl of Quickforest.

In addition, the Grey Knights also need funding from Charlotte.

Adding up one thing after another, the daily salary expenses alone were almost enough to drain Charlotte's family fortune. The sales of mountain copper opened up by Cecilia was like timely rain for Charlotte, and it gave her a huge boost in profits.

"The second thing is about the preparation of food and spring plowing. I have ordered a batch of food, seeds and farm tools from the Kingdom of Lesare. The seeds and farm tools are ready to be rented to your subjects to help them complete the spring plowing." Cecilia continued to report.

"Why do my subjects have to farm?" Charlotte complained.

The land suitable for farming in the Viscount Lanwan's territory is basically in the north, and most of it has been granted to local knights. Charlotte's own land is basically in the south, so it really doesn't make much sense for her people to farm.

Moreover, the first phase of the Yushu Town project has been completed, and most of her 4,000-plus people have moved into Yushu Town, with a small number living in the surrounding areas. But overall, they can all be considered urban population. Why do you still have to stick to farming?

However, food is indeed a big issue that Charlotte needs to worry about.

At present, all the food in the Viscount Lanwan comes from the Green Plains Principality, which relies on animal power for transportation. The main grain production area of ​​the Green Plains Principality is in the east of the Principality, and this land grain transportation line is actually quite long. This was not a big problem when the population was sparse, but now Charlotte has an increasing population, and there are more than 20,000 Ambratu slaves and mountain slaves alone.

This food transportation line was already quite tight, so Cecilia began to seek a second source of food, which was the Kingdom of Lesare.

The grain of the Kingdom of Lesare can be transported by ship from Taohu Sea via Yuzhu Sea directly to the dock of Ambratu County. The carrying capacity of the ships far exceeds that of animal power, which can easily alleviate the food pressure of Viscount Lanwan.

Cecilia seemed to have heard Charlotte's complaints, so she asked, "Do you want to dissuade the people from cultivating the land?"

"No, that's not necessary." Charlotte shook her head immediately. "Let them plant what they want. Don't rent out your seeds and farm tools. Just give them out for free. Before you give them out, just remember to tell them that this is my benevolent policy."

“Yes.” Cecilia didn’t take it to heart that someone shamelessly claimed her political achievements.

Charlotte looked up at the map of Viscount Lanwan on the wall, thought for a moment, then stood up and pointed to the location of Qingyu Village on the map, where the necromancer Legba Dando landed, and said, "Draw a thousand slaves from the canal to build a shipping terminal and a shipyard here. In the future, we will transport the food purchased from the Green Plains Principality from the sea and land here."

"Okay." Cecilia nodded again.

Charlotte pointed to the location of Sailfish Island and said, "Send another thousand slaves here to build docks, warehouses, lookouts, lighthouses and other necessary facilities on the island. This will make it safer for grain ships to pass through here in the future."

"Eh? This is..." Cecilia looked puzzled.

"I forgot to tell you that I am now Viscount of Sailfish Island," said Charlotte.

Someone went out for a stroll and came back with a viscount title. Thinking about how her parents had worked so hard for so many years to train a knight but there was still little hope, Cecilia had to sigh at the huge gap between people.

However, after she finished her small sigh, Cecilia said sincerely: "That's really congratulations, Lord Viscount."

Charlotte smiled and shook her head. "It's just a deserted island. There's nothing to congratulate. Let's get on with your topic."

"Well," Cecilia also understood Charlotte's strategy. Sailfish Island was not the goal, but just a pawn to achieve the goal. So she returned to the topic, "The third aspect is Elm Town..."

Elm Town is now on the right track, earning a gross profit of 130 to 150 fusos a day. This amount of income is insignificant compared to the huge expenditure of the territory, but it is a good start after all.

Moreover, Cecilia did not report on the profitability of Elm Town, but on the distribution of houses in Elm Town. Charlotte had agreed to distribute new houses in Elm Town to each family according to their work performance when she started to build Elm Town, but the boss only had to talk and the subordinates had to run around.

Matters like dividing houses are related to the vital interests of every citizen. If there is even a little doubt, people will argue endlessly or even fight. Cecilia has focused most of her energy on this recently. She was so busy that she finally completed the task in a relatively smooth process.

As Charlotte listened to Cecilia's increasingly skilled work reports, she knew that she had gained great training from this tedious work.

When Cecilia finished speaking, Charlotte clapped her hands gently and said with satisfaction: "You did a good job, Cecilia."

"Thank you." Cecilia also let out a long breath and smiled.

"Are there any residential houses left in Elm Town?" Charlotte suddenly asked again.

Cecilia nodded: "There are still two or three of the best buildings left to be distributed."

"Then pick one for yourself so you can live with your sister," Charlotte said. "This castle is too small. There are more and more people here, and my maid has no place to live."

Charlotte brought little Linda with her this time. When she heard that she could come to the Viscount Lanwan with her young lady, Linda jumped for joy. But after arriving at the Viscount Lanwan, Charlotte found an embarrassing problem. There was no suitable room for Linda in the castle, so she had to temporarily let Linda live in Renee's room, and Renee lived in the same room with her.

Because Renee needed to practice swordplay and dragon language every night, she couldn't live in the same room with others.

However, after being stunned for a moment, Cecilia bowed deeply to Charlotte and said, "Thank you."

PS: Thank you all for your monthly tickets and blade recommendation tickets, I love you.

PS2: Thank you for the correction from Yukinoshita Sakizou. The previous error has been corrected.

Volume 111: Chapter 99 Chapter Planning and Fleet

After listening to Cecilia's report, Charlotte stared at the map and thought for a long time, then picked up a pen and drew a fan-shaped area on the south side of Elm Town, saying, "Elm Town needs to be further expanded. Let's start the second phase of the Elm Town project at this location."

"Still building a casino?" Cecilia blurted out.

Cecilia had not been in favor of building a casino before, but after personally managing Elm Town for some time, she deeply felt the casino's ability to make quick money.

Whether it is farming, fishing, mining, or opening a restaurant, workshop, or shipyard, these industries ultimately require an initial investment and a period of recovery, but the cost of the casino is almost negligible. Where there is population flow, there are customers. The first phase of the project in Yushu Town has not yet been completed, and the casino has already begun to generate profits. This completely changed Cecilia's prejudice against the gambling industry. If it weren't for her awe of the shackles of morality, this girl would even want to build casinos all over Charlotte's territory.

Charlotte shook her head and said, "There are enough casinos in the territory now. The profitability of a casino depends entirely on the volume of customer traffic. If Viscount Lanwan's territory only has one or two caravans passing through every day, there is no point in building more casinos."

Hearing this, Cecilia nodded thoughtfully, then she frowned and asked, "But how can we increase customer flow?"

"There's no need to rush." ​​Charlotte shook her head and said, "As long as the Lanwan Canal can be opened to navigation on time this year, the passenger flow in the Viscount Territory will naturally increase. The second phase of the Yushu Town project mainly needs to build housing and warehouses, which is to prepare for the future surge in the population and cargo flow in the Viscount Territory."

Cecilia took out a pen and paper and wrote it down: "When does this need to start construction?"

"Let's wait until the spring ploughing is over. I'll requisition my subjects to be responsible for the construction." After a moment's consideration, Charlotte added, "We can also build a school."

"Academy?" Cecilia was a little surprised and confused. "Is it the Jurong Academy?"

"No," Charlotte shook her head. "All I need is a school that can teach children literacy and arithmetic. After it is built, I will send all the children under the age of thirteen in the territory to learn literacy and arithmetic."

"Well! This makes sense!" Cecilia's eyes lit up and she praised Charlotte's idea.

In Charlotte's opinion, what she was running could not be considered basic education, but only a literacy class. She had no choice but to run a primary school, a middle school, or a university education system. If she did that, by the time the first batch of college students came out, the Oran Empire would have changed several masters. Charlotte now only wanted to urgently train a group of literate people to fill the vacancies of grassroots staff, and a literacy class would be enough.

But in Cecilia's opinion, Charlotte's behavior was simply groundbreaking. Cecilia didn't know about the Wimbledon Empire a thousand years ago, but at least the Orlan Empire had never thought of investing any resources in the education of civilians. For a thousand years, the official education investment of the empire only existed above the knight class. It was an elite education with knight skills as the core. The empire obviously believed that civilians did not need to receive such education. Of course, the church also had its own education system, but it was also a missionary education centered on the "Canon" and aimed at cultivating the strength of the church's younger generations.

There may be some educators like Simone Capriati who conduct educational activities purely for the purpose of spreading knowledge, but the number of common people they can teach is also very limited. Take Simone Capriati for example, he mainly teaches children of nobles, and there are very few children of common people. Cecilia is undoubtedly extremely lucky to be his favorite student.