Witch Troupe and the Undead

Moreover, everyone needs to replenish the medicine they've used up. Most importantly, she's a bit tired from the arduous journey and wants to stay home and rest for a week before doing anything else, although in terms of her mode of movement, traveling is no different from staying at home.

"A week? Perfect, I also need to arrange some things."

Meanwhile, in the capital, the old emperor coughed violently, and it took him a long time to stop. He tried to pick up the water glass on the table to drink some water, but his trembling hand couldn't hold the glass at all and instead knocked the gilded iron glass to the ground with a crisp sound.

"..." The ministers on both sides of the conference table watched this scene with a cryptic and inscrutable look, while the Prime Minister's expression was slightly sorrowful. "Where were we? The matter of the Hot Sands Province and the port customs... Freya's proposal, you've all seen it, haven't you?"

"I've seen it, but..." But what's with that plan? Has this stupid woman even used her brain? Does she even know what the ongoing rebellion in the Hot Sands Province and the governor's losses mean? And does she even understand customs duties?!

The Empire’s overseas trade, or import and export trade, accounts for about one-seventh of the country’s income. This is why the governor of the Gazelle Province can afford to support such a knightly order and troops. The Empire exports a lot of goods, but if we limit it to the ports of the Gazelle Province, the main export is grain.

Grain and timber are the main export commodities of the Emerald Province. Both the Archipelago Kingdom and the Free City lack timber and need a large number of ships to fish and maintain trade routes. However, in the island environment, the growth and harvesting of timber are both problems, and the consequences of large-scale logging are not something they can afford.

Therefore, imports from the Empire were their primary source of goods. Of course, they also traded with other countries for these goods, but the Empire was their closest and largest supplier.

Their exports to the Empire mainly consist of various seafood, pearls, sulfur, and marine resources, ranging from elemental corals to arcane pearls. These items are in high demand, and the Empire often has to pay extra to purchase these essential magical resources in addition to exporting them.

"Now that we've seen it, let's proceed accordingly."

"But then, what about the Hot Sands Province..."

"It's alright, let's try it out first." The old emperor remained unmoved. Of course, he knew that Freya's plan was just a haphazard attempt and would most likely cause problems. But that was his goal. A person who could achieve everything smoothly would find it difficult to sit in his position, because you never know when he might suffer a great loss in the area where he was most confident and proud.

To put it more bluntly, he wanted Freya to suffer a loss, to recognize the limits of her abilities, and to understand how to clean up her own mess. Cleaning up a mess is a core skill that a monarch must learn.

After making a mess, how to cover it up with minimal cost, how to clean up the mess so that outsiders can't at least not see the damage, what kind of people to use to handle the situation, and how to deal with those who know too many secrets afterward—these are all knowledge points that a ruler must learn.

A ruler who can only do things is not a qualified monarch. After all, no one can guarantee that they will never make a mistake in their life. Even if their subordinates praise them as "wise and infallible," they must know that they are mortals who can make mistakes. But a monarch is the one who cannot afford to make mistakes.

So, while he could still hold on, the old emperor decided to give his daughter one last lesson: how to make mistakes as a ruler, and how to clean up the mess after making mistakes.

A monarch who only knows how to do great things may be a wise ruler, or he may be a person who is ambitious and prone to ruining his empire. However, a monarch who is very good at covering up his mistakes and cleaning up the mess can at least hand over the dynasty to his descendants instead of letting it fall into ruin on his own.

Moreover, it is difficult for someone who is particularly good at cleaning up the mess to completely ruin things. In other words, this ability determines the bottom line of a monarch's rule and whether he can maintain a smooth and stable transition in national politics.

However, Freya was unaware that her father had arranged such a lesson for her. She only thought, "As expected of me, I actually came up with such a brilliant plan"—since tariff revenue was the root cause of the governor's excessive power and the merchants' ability to rebel due to the prosperity of trade, wouldn't it be enough to just eliminate tariffs once and for all?

Her plan consisted of two parts. The first part was to avoid the governor's retention of customs duties, so she simply lifted the customs duties temporarily. The second part was to impose a 200% tax on trade between the province of Hot Sands and other provinces, effectively turning port customs duties into land customs duties. After all, Hot Sands itself did not produce much, and the traded goods were all products from other provinces.

From her advisors' perspective, it was like: "You bastard, are you trying to force them to rebel?!"

Oh, they've already rebelled. Oh well, that's alright then.

It's good to be generous with other people's money, but what you're doing... is tantamount to openly stating: I'm going to expel all of you from the Empire—you might as well just declare that the Hot Sands Province is no longer part of the Empire, and that border customs duties will be collected by the neighboring Emerald Province—oh, they'd definitely be happy to do that!

Even those who were misled by the princess's previous impulsive plans, which all ended in some way, felt that she was about to make a huge mess, a mess with absolutely no chance of turning things around. It was a truly massive mess, and it remained to be seen whether she could clean it up.

Regarding whether she could clean up this mess, almost all the high-ranking officials were in despair—if she didn't stand by and add fuel to the fire while applauding and cheering, "Let it burn even more beautifully!" she could be called a wise ruler (by the standards of John the Younger Khan).

Chapter 176 On the Road

The journey from Rock Tower County to the Imperial City is quite long. First, you need to cross the mountains west of Tallinn, pass through the ancient Shield Mountain Tunnel, and then follow the Black River down from the Northern Plateau southwards to enter the richest and most prosperous region of the Empire.

After passing through Ruby County in Kitahara Province, which is famous for its gem and jewelry processing, and three counties in Namhara Province, you will enter the Kinki region, the capital of the capital.

Ruby County is home to the Empire’s largest gem mine and is connected to Rock Tower County by an ancient dwarven tunnel. Due to the Shield Mountains, the cold air from the north is difficult to invade from the south, resulting in a mild climate in the two plains areas of the south and north. The boundary between these two areas is Ruby County, which is mainly hilly with low hills.

For this reason, the two provinces often spoke as a whole in the politics of the empire, with Ruby County existing as an important trading hub connecting the north and south and the capital.

In other words, the "city on the mountaintop" famous for its "ruby" is the most economically developed and wealthiest city in the empire. In terms of wealth alone, even the capital city can hardly compare. The city named after the "ruby on the mountaintop" is also the emperor's traditional fiefdom. Generally speaking, whichever prince is enfeoffed here means that he is the de facto crown prince.

The Stoll royal family was able to secure their throne by virtue of the geographical advantage of these two naturally connected entities, which allowed them to counterbalance the northern provinces, as well as their abundant tax revenue. They carved out a bloody path among the various lords and nobles and firmly sat on that glorious throne.

In the western part of Yanta County, the rolling mountains are painted with a colorful autumn hue, mountain springs cascade down moss-covered, damp pebbles into deep valleys, and the distant sky is a clear blue, dotted with wisps of white clouds.

"Boom!" The rock leg stepped into the ancient mountain path, leaving a slowly healing footprint. The rock platform carrying the hut moved slowly along the path, occasionally startling a few birds. The air was filled with the fragrance of nectar. This season was when the mountain people of western Rock Tower County were collecting nectar.

"Look~ it's golden honey flower~" Livia pressed her hands on the railing, stood on tiptoe, and pointed to a patch of golden flowers in the distance. The color was as light as her hair. In the sunlight, it looked like a flowing golden river. A babbling stream meandered around the flower bushes, and the petals falling on the water shimmered with golden light. Downstream, the entire stream was completely covered with a thick layer of golden powder.

"Does Miss Livia like this flower?"

"Mmm!" Livia nodded vigorously. "It's sweet and delicious."

"..." Rhine hesitated for a moment, unsure whether she should tell her that this flower was poisonous. The petals, nectar, and pollen of the Golden Honey Flower are all highly toxic. Of course, it is also very sweet and contains no sugar. It uses this false sweetness to attract insects and unfortunate animals, whose poisoned corpses become its natural fertilizer.

Local mountain people use this nectar as poison to lure and kill dangerous forest bears and rock bears. The former are normal bears, just twice the size of bears on Earth, while the latter... are more like an unidentified ferocious beast that looks somewhat like a bear but is covered in extremely thick armor.

Of course, the locals don't follow Earth's biological classifications. Since it looks like a bear, they also call this animal a "rock bear." Both of these animals love to eat honey. In order to lure and kill these ferocious beasts that are difficult for non-superhumans to deal with, the locals add the nectar of the golden honey flower to the honey to directly lure and kill these two creatures.

"Poison?" Livia shook her head. "Adding crape myrtle, sage, dandelion, and red swamp thorns can remove the poison," she said seriously. This sweet treat, which doesn't actually contain sugar and cause cavities or weight gain, is the only sweet treat her teacher allows her to eat. After all, given her constitution, if she were to get a real tooth decay infection, it would be quite a disaster.

Golden flower fields are scattered throughout the valley, but only within the valley itself. They require a lot of water; far from the stream, these pale golden, plump flowers disappear. As the altitude increases, the road becomes somewhat difficult to traverse, with small, circular plaza-like clearings scattered with stones appearing from time to time on both sides.

"That's the location of the ancestral stele of the ancient dwarves. The dwarves would erect such stele along the roads leading to their city-states to commemorate the achievements of their ancestors and the history of their tribe. Every visitor could learn about the glory and history of the dwarves from it, but..."

Now only the broken base remains. The local mountain people seem to think it is some ancient shrine, and they have placed some flower petals and bouquets on the base and seats, which makes the expression of Rhine, a dwarf, even more sorrowful.

"This is not suitable for your vehicle ahead... Let's continue. Don't worry, I will arrange for knights to guard it."

"No need, this house doesn't need anyone to guard it."

Alessina stated that even the weakest creature in this house is stronger than your knights. Of course, she was referring to the newcomers who were left behind to guard the house. A proper Thunderbird Knight could easily defeat anything except the cows in the house and the barn.

“Then it is up to you.” Rhine had no intention of arguing with a master who had such creative abilities. Moreover, it was normal for these spellcasters’ workshops and huts to refuse entry to others unless absolutely necessary. They had more faith in their own barriers, magic circles, and puppets, which was understandable. However, he had to mention it to show that he was not truly indifferent.

"Boom!" The huge rock platform sank little by little, and soon squeezed into the rock wall on the side of the mountain path. The hut looked as if it had opened up an arched gap in the rock wall, which looked quite mysterious.

The road ahead became exceptionally narrow, only wide enough for one carriage to pass at a time. The witch's carriage was the same one she had acquired at the Alchemy Institute. The old horse was in charge of pulling the carriage, and Rhine volunteered to be the driver. However, he was ultimately pulled off by Alessina, because if the dwarf were to actually whip the old horse to start moving, the situation would become uncontrollable.

The entire procession consisted of four vehicles: two supply wagons and one carriage, which was said to be used by Rhine's daughter and the scholars. The remaining knights either walked or rode horses, and Rhine himself could only travel along in the supply wagon.

The team was small, as a significant portion of the members needed to stay behind to manage the camp. Although the capital had collapsed, the contents of the city remained intact. If the adventurers were left unattended, they would soon cause a major disturbance.

Moreover, this journey is not suitable for making too much of a fuss. Even if we enter the Northern Plains Province, we can only relax a little. It will not be safe until we reach "Kabeko", which means "the ruby ​​on the mountaintop" or "garnet" in the Imperial language.

After all, this was the emperor's "pre-departure residence" or "place of origin," and its interests were deeply intertwined with those of the royal family. Therefore, there was no need to worry about what the local nobles and powerful figures might do. However, conversely, while there was no need to worry about the official aspects here, there was a need to worry about the non-official aspects.

As the emperor's largest source of revenue and support, this place will inevitably be teeming with spies from opposing factions, as well as agents from various other forces. There will be no shortage of probing, attacks, and assassinations. However, compared to other places, the official forces here can be completely trusted, and the local garrison and knights can be mobilized with confidence for assistance.

In other places, local forces are not necessarily reliable either. However, this is a common situation in countries of this era. Even in modern times, this situation is not uncommon, and only the Chinese would consider it big news.

Shield Mountain is located in the mountains of Rock Tower County. Its shape has nothing to do with a shield. Instead, it stretches like a long snake. It is said that when the royal family was still a vassal, they were besieged by other vassals and fled into these mountains. They used the mountains as a shield to block their pursuers and wait for the arrival of their allies. Therefore, after the eventual success, they ordered that the original "Snake Ridge Mountain" be renamed "Shield Mountain".

“Even now, every year the royal family sends people to the ancient battlefield on the west side of the mountain to hold a celebration. After passing through the tunnel, you can see the newly built mountain road and monastery. Moreover, according to the royal family’s unwritten rules, those who failed to compete for the throne but survived by chance will become monks at Shield Mountain Monastery.”

Rhine explained the legend of Shield Mountain to Livia, but the witch had no interest in it, only looking at the dense ancient dwarf carvings and the ineffective dwarf runes on both sides of the mountain path. Roach, on the other hand, listened very attentively.

The Dwarf Tunnel was built on the southwest side of Shield Mountain, leading to the west. It was a tunnel at least 100 kilometers long. Roach found it hard to imagine how they had managed to carve it out. Later, he asked Rhine and learned that the Dwarfs had spent nearly a thousand years building the tunnel, which made him marvel at the longevity of the race.

The tunnel entrance is in the standard dwarven style, built extremely tall, with headless dwarf sculptures leaning on battle axes on both sides. The tunnel's overall cross-section is square, 15 meters high and wide, perfectly conforming to the dwarven aesthetic style and cultural habits.

Every 15 meters inside the tunnel is a portal frame. The metal chains that once suspended the chandeliers have long since decayed, leaving only the iron rings buried deep inside the diamond rock portal frame.

"Smack!" The knights lit matches and lit the carriage lanterns one by one. The original tunnel had streetlights, but over the years, no one had tried to repair them. Besides, even if they were repaired, the fuel cost would be astronomical. In any case, few people travel this road, so there was no need to waste the effort.

The mounted knights lit the small lamps beside their saddles, while the foot servants could only rely on a few torches or the light of their companions to see the way.

The road was rugged and uneven. Hundreds of years of use had left the wheels with tracks at least a foot deep in the ground. Fortunately, there was no standing water or mud. Apart from the risk of slipping and falling on foot, the carriage moved forward quite easily, simply by following the ancient tracks.

The air in the tunnel was much better than Roach had expected. There was a ventilation opening on both sides of the road about every 50 meters. "Are these ventilation pipes still usable?"

"Because the other end is an underground river," Rhine explained. When the dwarves were digging the tunnel, they also dug an underground river to supply the underground city with clean water. At the same time, due to the difference in specific heat capacity between water and land, this underground river would create a temperature difference with the tunnel, so that fresh water vapor and air would continuously flow into the tunnel.

After all, the main producers of oxygen are actually various algae in the water. If you walk halfway through the tunnel, you will see the entrance to the abandoned ancient dwarven city-state. This tunnel passes through the gate of the dwarven city, connecting the two sides of the mountain, while the underground river runs through the city-state, using water power to provide the dwarves with sufficient power resources, and is also one of the dwarves' sources of food and irrigation.

"However, now there are only abandoned stones and empty tombs visited by grave robbers." The convoy slowly passed through the tunnel, the noise of the wheels hitting the rocks bouncing off the rock walls, creating an unusually suffocating feeling.

The journey of over 100 kilometers would take at least three days. When the dwarves built the tunnel, they also left rooms for travelers to rest on the left side of the tunnel. These rooms were all of a uniform standard.

The three square rooms, one large and two small, are arranged in a triangular pattern. The outer room is used to park carriages and place mounts. It has no door and faces the road directly. Water drawn from the underground river flows out of a barrel carved into a dwarf merrily tapping a wine barrel, falls into a pool carved into the shape of a wine cup below, and is then diverted away along the trough at the bottom of the pool.

"Separation of water and sewage... It seems that the dwarf civilization of that time was not so backward." Modern countries still have a lot of problems with separating sewage and rainwater, which means that this clean water is perfectly usable, although it is still not safe to drink directly.

Dwarfs are physically strong and can be fine with it, but humans might not be able to withstand it. Drinking untreated water in the wild is a big no-no.

The smaller rooms are for resting, and two rooms are enough for two groups of passengers to rest, or for a group of passengers to rest separately by gender.

"Do dwarves pay a lot of attention to this aspect?"

“Of course,” Rhine said proudly, “Dwarves are a very conservative people, and dwarven women are treasures.” Because the natural ratio of men to women is 2:1, there are half as many dwarven women as men. However, surprisingly, the internal competition for marriage and reproduction among dwarves is not fierce.

"Because traditional dwarves practice group marriage." A slightly hoarse female voice rang out, "Jasmine, what are you doing out here!?"

"Cough cough, messed up again." The dwarf girl with bright yellow hair in front of me had a face covered in black soot.

"White Thorn Potion?" Livia sniffed the scent, a somewhat uncertain expression on her face.

"Ah, yes, yes, Lady Livia, it's the White Thorn Potion."

"Why..." Livia wanted to ask why he didn't put thorns in the White Thorn potion, but Roach pulled her away because the old dwarf's expression looked like he wanted to eat her alive.

“Young man, we meet again?” The scholar wearing glasses walked over. “Dwarves always think that people of other races will covet their women, but…” Roach and the scholar looked at the girl named Little Jasmine, who was the same size as Rhine, and nodded in agreement. “That’s just paranoia.”

"She just said that traditional dwarves practice group marriage, is that what I mean?"

“Yes, the female dwarves of a large family do not have fixed spouses. They are essentially shared, or you could say they do not need fixed spouses and enjoy the common support and protection of the male dwarves of the entire community.” Roach hesitated before continuing.

"However, female dwarves also have important responsibilities in the community. They are responsible for tending the hearth, which is of great significance to a traditional dwarven community. They need to tend the hearth, pass on the dwarven runic knowledge, create new runestones, and care for and look after children."

“Dwarf children are traditionally raised by the whole community and taught by the ‘Big Mother’ who tends the hearth, based on their talents and the community’s surname. Some are arranged to learn blacksmithing, while others become brewers and farmers.”

"Hmm, like a school?"

"Yes, it's similar to an academy, but more...stricter, because once a dwarf leaves here, their career is set for life and won't change unless there are special circumstances."

"Isn't this just the caste system?" Roach scratched his head. What a bizarre social system! It's a complete hodgepodge! But this is a different race from another world, right? Oh well, never mind.

"Then the traditional dwarf clans... oh, the dwarf kingdom collapsed."

"Yes, the three great dwarven kingdoms collapsed one after another, which was no longer enough for the dwarves to maintain such a large group life. They had to live in small groups, so they were forced to change and had to get used to family and fixed-marriage life like humans. As a result, the dwarves also lost most of their runic knowledge."

"Because of human invasion?" Roach was very curious about how the dwarf kingdom had come to an end.

"No, it's because of the Elven Wars. The dwarves and elves are at odds. In fact, humans are allies with the dwarves in this regard, fighting against the elves."

"The cause of the elven war was..."

"Because of the mines, what else? Because of the beard?" The scholar told a joke he found very funny, but Roach couldn't laugh because he genuinely believed it was because of the beard.

"The dwarves adhere to the principle that whatever they find is theirs, and they keep mining ore, even extending their mines into the territory of the elves. The elves believe this infringes on their sovereignty, while the dwarves argue that the elves have the right to the surface, but the underground is the dwarves' world, and without the dwarves, they would not be able to dig gems and gold out of the rocks hundreds of meters deep."

"So the two started fighting, one saying he saw it first, and the other saying he got it first?"

"That's pretty much it. And the dwarves' fertility rate wasn't as good as the elves', which eventually led to the collapse of the three kingdoms. Of course, the elves also collapsed to the point of collapse. Now only two elven kingdoms still exist, and the rest are scattered in the dense forests on the east side of the continent in the form of autonomous towns and villages."

"Do they regret it?"

"No, the dwarves think they're too merciful. They should have dug the tunnel under the Tree of Life, installed the Holy Hammer bomb, and blown the High Elves to smithereens. The Elves, on the other hand, think that if it weren't for the rise of humans, which forced them to focus their attention, they would have wiped out the dwarves. So, even now, when these two races meet, it's always...intense."

“I can understand…” Luo Qi gazed into the distance, thinking how realistic the reasons and consequences of war really were.

Chapter 177 Unexpected Events Always Return

The dwarf girl named Jasmine struggled to unload her alchemy cauldron from the carriage and continued to torment the materials there. Not far from her, a light-golden-haired loli stared intently at her.

Livia sat in the corner of the rest area, covered with a thick blanket. To prevent her from catching a cold, no one allowed her to take her arms out to read at this time, so she could only watch the dwarf girl making potions in the distance.

Sufficient water was poured into the crucible, and it gradually boiled under the heat of the firewood. Jasmine rummaged through the medicine box, found the herbs she needed, and began to process them.

"Let me think... The daffodil root needs to be ground, then I need to add a drop of mercury and two milliliters of purple sweet potato juice..."

"..." Livia's face showed an expression of "I don't understand, but I am greatly shocked". Potions is a science, which means that its operation is very rigorous. Of course, dwarves are also very rigorous, but this kind of rigor is different from what potions requires.

"The water's hot," Livia said, opening her mouth slightly.

"Ah, yes, yes, the water's hot." The dwarf then looked conflicted. At this point, the narcissus root hadn't been ground yet, so she chose to turn down the heat and let the water temperature slowly decrease.

"..." The little witch couldn't understand. Shouldn't you have added the narcissus root that you'd ground most of the way up right now? Even though it was ground incompletely, it would have required longer heating time and vigorous stirring.

So she watched helplessly as the water magic in the crucible rose with the steam, diffused, and combined with the already processed golden crystals placed beside it...

"How dangerous!" The witch stretched out her arm, and the thin sleeve slid down to her elbow with her movement. A patch of skin on her fair skin immediately appeared due to the cold stress. She gripped the wand beside her and awkwardly drew a line on the ground. The burst of spiritual energy formed a simple spiritual barrier in the air.

"Boom!" The scalding hot semi-finished potion shot up more than a meter high, causing Jasmine to let out a very sharp scream. "...Look, it's dangerous. Don't follow her example," Livia said seriously to Roach.

The reason why dwarves are not suitable for potion-making is that they are too rigorous and rigid. They are not good at adjusting the formula and processing methods according to the actual situation and the state of the ingredients. As a result, if they follow the standard process in a strict manner, whether the finished product will explode really depends on how much the materials, potion state, environment and standard formula differ in actual operation.

However, this kind of personality is an advantage in constructivism and runic writing. Runes are something that cannot be wrong in the slightest. Even if the strokes are slightly frivolous, it may result in a different rune effect, and then blow yourself up.

"Damn it, Jasmine, don't waste materials. Lady Livia is here, why don't you ask her for advice?" Rhine stormed out of the room. His words were a bit... because the cost of consulting a Gold-level witch like Livia is not a small amount under normal circumstances. Even if you pay, it depends on whether she is willing to teach you something real.

"Lady Livia..."

"..." The little witch looked at the pitiful dwarf girl in front of her, opened her mouth, and finally said in a very soft voice, "I'm sorry, you can't learn this." Of course, she had a lot of potion-making knowledge to teach, but the one in front of her was a complete blockhead.