Witch Troupe and the Undead

As for scraping bones, it's easy to understand. Even the wealthier farmers couldn't afford proper meat, and these scraps of meat scraped from between the bones were the only thing they could taste. These scraps were usually used to make sausages with animal blood, garlic, wild leeks, and so on.

For relatively wealthy self-sufficient farmers, this was already a very precious food.

Because Dan was familiar with these tools, he clearly understood the Squib's threat: the pliers could pull out wolf fangs, and they could pull out his teeth; the bone crusher, while not effective against very hard bones, could easily break his finger bones; the sharp knife could peel off human skin without being worse than peeling off wolf or dog skin; the scraper could continuously scrape his skin or flesh, peeling away the flesh layer by layer...

"You, you didn't ask..." Dan felt like he had wet his pants, but he wasn't sure because he felt cold all over.

"Your name?" "Dan, Dan of Anmirus." Anmirus is a small town in Rye Valley County, not far from the territory of Antal, meaning this guy moved from elsewhere. Squirrel and Wild Sparrow didn't ask his surname, and he couldn't possibly have one. Commoners usually just say "XXX from XXX place," at most adding something like "son/grandson of XXX from XXX place."

"Tell me, how long have you been a member of this church?"

"Today..." Dan also felt very wronged, as she had only joined today and already had such bad luck.

"Oh, still a newbie~" Wild Sparrow shook his head. It seems there won't be much to gain. However, there are advantages to being a newbie. Newbies don't have much of a sense of belonging or honor to the organization.

"Who brought you in?"

"Ron, Ron from the Stroe family, the carpenters!" Dan betrayed his friend faster than anyone could imagine. No, what friend?! I don't have any friends at all, he's clearly a jinx, ugh! Dan quickly adjusted Ron's status and identity in his mind.

"How long has he been a member?"

"No, don't know"

"Oh?"

"I really don't know!" Dan was almost crying from fright because the man was already pouring a potion onto the skinning knife. He didn't understand the potion or the metaphor the man was using, but he knew very well how swiftly the knife could skin people. He didn't think his skin was thicker than those old wolves' skin.

"He told me this a week ago, saying that joining a cult would grant my wish..."

"Is it really that simple?" the wild tit asked.

"Hmm, oh, I remember now." Facing the knife getting closer and closer to his belt, Dan's memory had improved dramatically. If he had always had such a good memory, he might have been able to learn to write and become a scribe!

"You can make a wish the first time you join, and then you can make another wish during the Grand Mass after a month. Other than that, you can only make wishes during Midwinter Festival, Early Summer Festival, and Harvest Festival each year, and you can only make simple wishes." He remembered almost everything Ron had said.

"So, besides new members, there are three wishes a year..." It's similar to other sects. If you replace "wishes" with "blessings," it's the same. However, the blessings of other sects, apart from those clergy who have truly received divine grace, mostly involve giving money and supplies. But this kind of benefit is limited to church clergy.

For believers, the usual practice is to give out diluted grape juice and dark bread with sawdust during the early summer festival, grape juice and dark bread during the harvest festival, and water with grape juice and sawdust with wheat flour during the midwinter festival. Of course, different denominations may have some differences in the specific content and form, but in general, the value of the items given out is about the same.

Foreign religious groups, such as the Moon Goddess Church, tend to go a little further in order to establish themselves locally. They will give pregnant women and newborns diluted milk water during Midwinter Festival and some whey left over from making cheese during Early Summer Festival.

But the wild sparrow had never heard of making a wish before, and this "simple wish" was not so simple. She checked the boy's wallet and found 3 gold coins. In other words, the church provides welfare to its believers at least three times a year, and each wish is worth about 3 gold coins each time.

Indeed, it can cover most of the basic desires of almost everyone. Even if he wants a woman, three gold coins can take him to the best courtyard in the nearest big city for a whole week. He'll be so satisfied that his legs will be weak when he comes out. Even if you put the most beautiful woman in the world in front of him, he will remain calm.

Even when it comes to love, as long as you're not too picky or too sensitive to human nature, basically any kind of "love" you want, the brokers in the city can help you find it, provided that you, a lowly commoner, enter the city with three gold coins and haven't been kidnapped or robbed by the gangsters.

"What else? I don't believe that three wishes a year would excite you so much, or that would be enough to make you so secretive in your missionary work." Because if that were true, noble lords would be more eager to join the church than street prostitutes. In two months at most, the church would stop recruiting any more commoners, because satisfying the noble lords would be enough.

"Uh, it seems there's also the rule that if you bring in more believers, you can get more wishing opportunities, but I really didn't hear that clearly. At that time, the priest started giving out money!" Dan was practically screaming at the top of his lungs, and his performance even made the Squib fall silent for a few seconds, not because what he said was wrong, but because it was too perfect.

To be honest, if he had several gold coins in his share when the bandit group was distributing money, he wouldn't be able to hear what the leader was saying very well, because the yellow, shiny gold would have already occupied his entire mind!

"Is your base always the same mine?"

"No, I don't know. This is my first time here, and Ron didn't mention it. Ah, I remember now, the mine has indeed been cleaned up. It's much cleaner than when I came last time."

"Hmm, so they only recently settled in the mine..." Wild Sparrow thought for a moment, "Looks like I'll have to ask that Ron more. Hey kid, do you know that priest?"

"He was wearing a stone mask, and I..."

"Alright," the wild titmouse said, grabbing a wet burlap sack and stuffing it into the guy's mouth before tying him up and tossing him in a corner.

"Let's go find that Ron next. We'll take them one by one and figure out what's going on with this Holy Fire Cult." Unlike the adventurers hired by the Anta family, they're genuinely after the money, so there's no need to kill them.

Moreover, the town mayor did not commission them to kill anyone; he only asked them to investigate whether this was a newly established religious sect or bandits posing as a church, where their money came from, and whether they had bribed insiders to plunder the town.

In other words, it's just a simple investigation. If the person is indeed a follower of a god who truly gives out money, then the investigation is over. As for what happens next, that depends on whether this god is the evil god Gregory that Rhine and the others mentioned.

If not, then Shadowraven and his group would have to ask if this group needed a particularly capable group of former thief followers—none of Shadowraven's group were ever short of money, or rather, it was precisely because they were short of money that they dared to take on any job. In fact, their original plan was to finish this job and then quit, but who knew that plans could not keep up with changes.

If so, then follow Rhine's plan: deal with this evil god, wipe out the church, and take away their wealth. After that, it's just a matter of dividing the money among everyone. Although it's only 20%, dealing with the evil god and the church's high-level military forces doesn't require our side to lift a finger; it's just an investigation. This share is indeed quite substantial.

Based on the number of people they observed at the gathering today, there were about twenty or thirty people. Assuming each person has three wishes per year, and each wish is worth three gold coins, that's over a hundred gold coins. Even if they split it in half, that's still more than 20 gold coins. The reward for a typical adventurer's guild's "dangerous area investigation" mission is only five to ten gold coins, and that's a mission where you might actually be fighting against threat-level or even disaster-level monsters.

The commission for the investigation mission in the "Living Forest" where the little witch used to live was only 200 gold coins, so getting that 20% share was very easy.

The Anta family resided in the city. "Clang!" A two-handed greatsword blocked the vertically slashing one-handed sword, tilting the blade to one side to quickly deflect the force of the hunting sword. "Bang!" A kick landed on the abdomen, and the hunter-dressed man in front of him fell helplessly to his knees, the tilted, lowered blade grazing just past the side of his neck.

“Next…” The swordsman straightened his stance, drops of blood dripping from the blade onto the ground. On the other side, the priest’s battle was almost over. Two throwing knives only managed two crisp clanging sounds as they struck his rough robe, while the thief who threw the knives had half his head smashed by a spinning mace.

"Really..." The priest stretched out his hand, and a holy mark flashed across his palm. The hammer that had been thrown out automatically appeared in his palm. It was the "Holy Hammer Brand," a common "gift" of the priests of the god of war and courage.

By imprinting their mark onto a blessed weapon, they can summon it at any time as long as the distance is no more than 25 meters. The blessed weapon they chose is a hammer. In addition, there are other corresponding weapon imprints such as holy swords and holy spears, collectively known as "weapon marks". Together with the "holy armor marks" that summon shields and armor, they are known as "armor marks". They are the unique "gift" power that is the hallmark of the war priest.

"Why would you think you can fight a War Servant?" the priest grumbled. War Servants were a branch of the "Wrathful Face," one of the two facets of the God of War.

The two faces of the God of War, the "angry face" and the "combat" face, correspond to the realm of "courage" and "battle". His blessings are all applied to the fighting in war. Whether believers or clergy, they are all big and strong men, and usually wear armor under their robes.

The "cold-blooded" aspect corresponds to "war," leaning more towards the realms of "strategy" and "tactics." It primarily trains commanders and strategists, not the kind of tough guys who are particularly good at fighting. Of course, considering that commanders themselves also require strength, they are not weaklings who can't even kill a chicken—however, it is true that they don't often wear armor.

“It’s pointless to talk to them about this,” Maripol said, looking at the gang members at the end of the sewers, weapons in hand, seemingly unsure of what to do. “They might not even know you’re a servant of the god of war and courage.”

No one would throw knives or arrows at war servants, because these guys wear enormous robes and look like rather bloated, obese priests—but when you lift the robes: onion armor and silence enchantment, isn't that surprising? Unexpected, isn't it?! Even the guys with the angry faces aren't all muscle and brains; without brains, that's not courage, that's recklessness.

"You know what, I used to think all those things the temple said were nonsense. Everyone knows that we war servants are basically always in our armor except when we're sleeping or going to the toilet. Even when we throw knives, we throw them at our heads."

They don't wear helmets because they believe that wearing one doesn't demonstrate their bravery and makes it inconvenient to use the "War Cry" series of powers from the "Wrathful Gifts".

Moreover, this isn't some superstition or habit; there really is a guy who forgot to lift his helmet visor during training before throwing a "Crushing Roar," and ended up blowing his head up like fireworks inside the closed helmet. Of course, he did manage to take down the enemy.

After all, no one would be prepared for an opponent to use "headshot" to blow their head off, causing skull fragments and helmet shards to scatter like shrapnel, achieving the astonishing effect of killing two apprentices in a duel training session—from then on, the War Temple forbade apprentices to wear helmets—without a helmet, at most they would be headshot by the enemy; with a helmet, not only could they blow their own head off, but they could also blow off nearby comrades.

“You must understand, not everyone in this world has been to school or read the scriptures of the Temple. They might not even recognize the emblems of a few gods.” The swordsman pulled his greatsword from a recently slain corpse. “Now, how many are left? Shall we kill them all?”

“These lackeys are unnecessary. Lord Anta won’t pay.” Maripol glanced around. Only a few gang members remained. Most of them had either been hacked down or burned to a crisp by lightning and fire. The underground sewers were filled with a strong smell of burnt meat.

"Collect these gold coins." "Can't you use a cooler spell?" The swordsman kicked the corpse on the ground. The gold coins in his arms had melted and turned into lumps of gold stuck in the charred bones.

"You mean, you want me to throw Frost Rings here?" Maripol looked at his companion, who was wearing chainmail and long soft armor. "Are you wearing padded trousers underneath?"

"..." The swordsman fell silent. Of course not. How could he move around if he wore cotton pants? It wasn't just the weight, but also the issues of sweat and heat dissipation.

"So, you want to experience what it feels like to have your skin and flesh stuck to the nail plate at low temperatures?"

"...Is there any magic that doesn't make the corpse look like this...?"

"Acid or wind, you choose one. I'll just cast acid and wind spells from a distance in this enclosed space. I don't care about the consequences." The wizard said that next time he would at least throw the spells from 20 meters away from the battlefield. As for the consequences, he didn't care since he wasn't a melee fighter.

"How many outposts are there now?"

"This is the fourth one, there are so many..."

“I’d love to join them…we’ve collected almost 1500 gold coins already,” the Hammer Knight complained.

"Wait a little longer. Once we've completed the master's KPIs and taken care of all these outposts that we can easily find with a quick scan, that'll be fine." Maripol also wanted to join, but let's forget about it. They've already gone easy on them; if they really joined, it wouldn't be able to hide it from Master Anta.

Chapter 215 Gold coins won't disappear, they'll only transfer.

The Anta family castle. Lord Anta reclines on a velvet chaise lounge, a bunch of fresh grapes on a gilded plate beside him. They came from the castle greenhouse. The advancement of the times and technology allowed the nobles to enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables even in winter, although maintaining the greenhouse required a considerable amount of gold coins.

The butler, who was in charge of the room, walked slowly into the room and bowed to greet him.

"What is it?" Lord Anta opened his squinted eyes and looked at his trusted old steward. "Captain Scott is back."

Scott was one of his two captains of the guard, responsible for protecting the caravans of Antalland as they went out to purchase and trade, along rivers and roads, delivering local crops and various products to the relatively barren but rich in various ores, timber and gold and silver in Rye Valley County.

The lord of Rye Valley County was also known as "Silver Castle" or "Silver Nest" because of the super-large silver mine near his residence, "Peak Nest Castle". Unfortunately, places rich in minerals are mostly poor in agriculture. The locals mostly grow rye and brown millet, which are resistant to poor soil and drought. The latter requires almost no additional irrigation and can grow in saline-alkali and metal-polluted areas.

As for the taste... well, in other parts of the empire, this crop is classified as "herb" or even "wild grass." Its height is similar to that of wild grass, growing only up to waist height, producing three to four spikes. When fully mature, the seeds are brown and only the size of sesame seeds.

Conversely, Anta territory lacks sufficient iron ore. The two small iron mines within the territory can only sustain the daily production of farm tools. If one does not want to travel thousands of miles to Rock Tower County or Lywood County to be slaughtered, or to the capital to be slaughtered even more, then trading crops with Rye Valley County for iron and copper ore to make weapons and equipment and repair castles is the best choice.

"Ah, I understand..." Lord Anta slowly stood up, stroking a brass key he pulled out from his clothes. The trading caravan had returned with various gemstone ores, magical minerals, iron bars and smelted steel ingots needed to maintain the castle, and money from the sale of crops.

The Antalty is connected to the nearest iron ore and steel production area, the Isores Territory, by a small river that is not navigable by large ships, but perfectly adequate for ordinary inland flat-bottomed boats.

Relying on water transport, the Antalya territory sold flour, wheat, sausages, smoked meat, and charcoal to the other side. Isoles' timber had been almost completely cut down, so it could only import charcoal for smelting and even processed pyrophoric fuel blocks from outside.

Some of the goods were used to offset the debt with products such as iron ore, while the rest were paid in gold coins. After all, the Antar family could not use iron blocks to pay their knights, clerks, and stewards. Similarly, not much of the production capacity in Isores was used for barter. Their lord also needed to sell a considerable portion of his products to other territories to exchange for gold coins to pay the wages of his miners and smelters.

"Pull up the water gate!" Kuhn, another captain guarding the castle, slapped the sentry on the bunker. The sentry hurriedly blew his horn, and three convicts sentenced to hard labor pushed the winch with all their might. Four iron chains as thick as an arm pulled the heavy iron gate upwards, followed by a second and a third.

The Antalburg water gate has a triple gate structure: the outermost layer is a wooden gate encased in steel, the middle layer is a mesh iron gate, and the rear is a steel sluice gate, which is usually not lowered.

The transport ship furled its sails, lowered its masts, and passed through the not-so-tall castle archway carved out of part of the mountain. On one side was a strong, iron-reinforced structure, its magic of order gleaming faintly with a blue light in the darkness; on the other side was a rock wall slightly polished by stonemasons.

After a brief period of darkness, the transport ships docked at the pier inside the castle. The small pond was crammed full of four ships: three were transport ships that had just returned, and one was a warship that had been damaged by aquatic monsters and was still under repair.

"Damn it, you lot, stop slacking off!" The castle steward lashed a passing slave laborer with his whip. These slave laborers were unlucky guys who had committed offenses in the territory and were being punished with hard labor. Not only did they not receive wages, but they also had to pay a fine.

The laborers hurriedly jogged up and carried the metal ingots in straw-lined boxes and the various metal ores in sacks to the oxcarts by the dock, where they were taken to the castle's storerooms for storage, to be smelted and forged into various weapons, arrowheads, armor, and so on by the craftsmen hired by the lord.

As for the magical minerals and gems, as well as the gold coins brought back from the trade, they were escorted by the captain of the guard and a group of soldiers to the castle's treasury. Of course, a small portion of it was a share of the profits for the alchemy and magic advisors hired by the lords in the "Scholar's Tower" and "Moonlight Tower" in a corner of the castle.

Nobles with the means would hire such advisors, partly to ensure they could obtain necessary potions and alchemical services at any time, and partly because there are many methods of harming and assassinating people, such as curses, poisons, and alchemical rituals. If they didn't hire a few professionals to keep an eye on things, it would be best if they were experts in these areas themselves.

Clearly, Lord Anta was not a particularly talented nobleman; even among the nobility, he was notorious for his numerous misdeeds.

The obese lord, supported by his servants, walked to the location of the castle's underground vault, the key to which he had personally kept since his wife's death.

"Click!" The multi-enchanted lock opened, and the nearly 10-centimeter-thick enchanted armor door opened a small crack inward. Although this hindered the movement of valuables inside, it would also take thieves longer to empty the vault.

The treasury consists of three rooms arranged horizontally. Each room is a long, narrow structure supported by multiple sets of arched structures, and they are connected by heavy iron gates. The central room, which connects to the main entrance of the treasury, is the largest, while the rooms on either side are slightly smaller.

The central treasury contained silver coins, copper coins, and some inexpensive gems, stored in small pouches, large pouches, and small wooden boxes. This section was placed in the very center because it was frequently used for payroll and daily withdrawals. After all, compared to the two smaller rooms further inside, this area had much more frequent traffic, and if you put anything valuable here, you had to be prepared for it to mysteriously disappear.

The small pouches contained fifty silver coins, neatly arranged in clusters on a wooden frame, while the large pouches held one hundred copper coins, crammed tightly into a crate. The pouches bore the earl's family crest and simple markings, indicating the type of silver coins inside, as the chaotic minting process resulted in different types of silver coins having varying values.

The time when the castle scribes are most stressed out is when they collect commercial and agricultural taxes and deposit the money from the sale of goods into the treasury. They have to sort through piles of coins that may be rusty, worn, or clipped according to their degree of wear and weight.

Then, among coins of similar condition, different types and different precious metal contents are separated. Large silver coins are grouped together, and privately minted small silver coins are grouped together. Then, based on the price of precious metals, the type, condition, and quantity of these coins, it takes a long time to figure out whether there was a profit or loss this year, and what the total value of the various goods and coins received was.

Such complicated accounting and algorithms naturally create numerous loopholes and opportunities for manipulation. Therefore, the profession of scribe in the castle is passed down from father to son. They use encrypted ledgers to ensure that only their own people can understand the gains and losses under this complex monetary structure.

However, it was much more difficult for the stewards in charge of receiving the money to tamper with it. Once it reached them, the coins were already sorted and packed into bags of various sizes.

However, difficulty and impossibility are two different things. These people mainly rely on two methods to line their own pockets. The first method is relatively simple: they can judge whether the money in their pockets is the correct amount by weighing it in their palm. Since it is manually packaged, it is impossible for every bag to have the exact amount. Therefore, no one will notice anything wrong if one or two coins are taken out from each bag.

This practice is easy to detect. After all, if there are only 49 or 48 coins in a bag of 50, it's probably a mistake in the repackaging. But if there are only 45, then someone must have stolen them.

The second method requires more skill. Quickly determine the quantity, weight, and type of silver coins in the bag, and then replace some of the good silver coins with inferior silver coins that you carry but are similar in weight and appearance. If you do it well, you can even steal more than one-third of the coins.

These tricks weren't so outrageous when the old lord was alive. After all, the old lord was a seasoned veteran who had fought alongside the emperor on the battlefield, and he probably knew these tricks better than anyone else.

In the words of the scribe, the old lord's judgment was more accurate than a scale. After all, he was a high-level superhuman. With his skills in looting and appraising spoils having been deliberately practiced, he could tell how much counterfeit money you had mixed into the money pouches just by flipping them around a couple of times.

So, the people inside the castle definitely stole, otherwise, with their meager salaries... However, they were all very restrained. After all, the old lord had personally led the troops there, and if things were too strictly controlled, it would be easier for trouble to arise, especially among his close attendants—"A dog can't be overfed, or it won't obey; a dog can't be starved, or it'll become a wolf."

That's how the old lord taught Anta, but unfortunately, the obese man clearly didn't listen to a word, so now the people in the castle are touching him very roughly.

"Put all the silver coins here." Lord Anta directed his guards to place the bags of silver coins on the shelf. The steward accidentally bumped into a bag of silver coins on the shelf, and two silver coins of poor condition rolled out. This made him frown slightly. Before the lord noticed, he quickly stuffed the silver coins back into the bag and then changed their positions.

"People these days are getting more and more audacious..." He was somewhat worried. Although the lord never checked these pockets, the money paid to the caravans was carefully selected and had not been tampered with. After all, those merchant guilds that traded across territories were not to be trifled with; they were capable of causing trouble.

After putting away the silver coins and low-value copper coins, only two small pockets of gold coins remained, which the lord needed to personally go deep into the treasury to store.

The small rooms on either side of the vault are for storing gold coins, fine gems, and works of art on the left, and for storing the family's treasures, as well as various powerful magical equipment and items on the right. The magical power of the equipment is maintained by the orderly magic gathered in the castle's cellar, and over the course of time and generations, the equipment may even be further enhanced.

After the lord went in, the rest of the people had a lot less to do. They were not allowed to enter, and besides, they didn't need to help carry the gold coins, given their weight and quantity. Generally speaking, even the most daring stewards and scribes wouldn't dare to tamper with the gold coins.

On the one hand, there were too few gold coins, leaving little room for maneuver; on the other hand, the lord handled all the gold coins personally, so there was little opportunity for him to come into contact with them.

Just when everyone thought it was over, and the manager glared at the few smirking guys in front of him with an ugly expression, a scream that sounded like a woman's came from the depths of the treasure vault.

"Money! My money!!!" Count Anta screamed as he moved his fat body, opening one large box after another, pulling out the pockets inside and emptying them one by one. Instead of the glittering little treasures he had imagined, there were only pieces of stone, wood, and dirt.

Only the first row of small gold nuggets on the shelf were real; the rest were just stones painted with gold paint.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!" The count's legs gave way and he collapsed to the ground, screaming and kicking like a child weighing over 300 pounds. The family's treasury had been almost completely emptied!

After deducting necessary expenses, Antal's net income is about 500 to 800 gold coins per year. His father's generation earned slightly more because of the spoils of war and the revenue from the old railway line, which at one point could reach more than 1200 gold coins per year.

Of course, this income does not deduct the luxury expenses of nobles beyond necessary dignity. For example, Count Antal himself has been spending more and more in recent years, and even needs to take money from the treasury to maintain his expenses.

However, regardless of the circumstances, the treasury accumulated over generations should contain at least ten or twenty thousand gold coins and gold ingots of equivalent value. Including the silver and copper coins outside, as well as equipment, artworks, and other items that are not easily liquidated, the total value exceeds 20 gold coins, which is the entire fortune of an old noble family.

Of course, this is only the figure on paper. In reality, after deducting the portion that was embezzled or swapped, as well as the discount from the sale of fixed assets, the actual wealth is around 100,000 gold coins.

Pure cash, including silver and copper coins, would amount to a remarkable 3 to 4 gold coins. This figure would have been achievable before Count Antalya's ascension to the throne, but now, even after spending a significant portion, he should still have around 2 to 3 gold coins in cash.

However, apart from the less than 5000 gold coins of silver and copper coins outside, Riku's 2 gold coins now consist only of a few boxes of inferior gold coins in the corner, and a few boxes of imperial gold coins in a dusty wooden box on the shelf.

These gold coins were minted during the empire's golden age and are generally considered antiques rather than currency on the market; one coin is roughly equivalent to four or five ordinary gold coins.

After taking stock, even the uneducated Earl of Anta could arrive at a clear conclusion and figure: his gold coin savings, which amounted to tens of thousands of gold coins, now amounted to less than a thousand gold coins. Even including his silver coins, he had at most four or five thousand gold coins left. While not exactly bankrupt, he was certainly on the verge of bankruptcy.