Witch Troupe and the Undead

"The nobles will not agree."

“Yes, but those merchants think it’s a good idea. They even suggested forming a similar alliance and issuing the same kind of vouchers as the Royal Merchant Guild.” The spy’s expression was very strange. “Simply put, they think they can fully implement Princess Freya’s policies and make them work throughout the empire, or at least in the Hot Sands Province.”

"The lords, on the other hand, thought this was utter nonsense, believing that Princess Freya was trying to intrude into their territorial autonomy and, in a way, indirectly threaten their right to self-governance."

The spy didn't know what to say, and the emperor's expression was also very awkward. If Freya had really done it, that would be fine, but this girl felt that she hadn't thought about it at all. She hadn't done anything behind the scenes at all—and precisely because she really didn't do anything, the alliance of merchants and citizens really believed that this system was in their favor.

And because she did absolutely nothing, the nobles and the farmers insisted that the royal family had played a very dishonorable role behind the scenes—you did nothing, are those merchants just bored and have nothing better to do than propose forming a parliament?

"So what's wrong with those farmers now?!"

"Because the Chamber of Commerce is demanding a reduction in commercial taxes, an increase in agricultural taxes, and the abolition of the guaranteed sales system..."

Although the guaranteed purchase system also exploits farmers, to be fair, at least it sets a price for centralized procurement of agricultural products, and farmers can survive as long as the weather is good. But if they really enter the free market... they really won't be able to survive.

"And what about the last party?"

"Oh, it's those mercenaries. They're relatively neutral. On one hand, they think His Highness's Octagon system is quite good, as it allows them to openly become gladiators for those representatives and even infiltrate the council. On the other hand, they don't want a decisive victory immediately, because then no one will hire them to fight."

"Alright, let me sort this out..." The emperor rubbed his forehead. "In other words, the 'rebels' led by those manor nobles engaged in industry and commerce (nobles who have no real power and rely on manor economy, usury, and a small amount of investment for their livelihood), business leaders, and citizen representatives support the royal family and hope that this so-called parliamentary system can replace the nobles' lordly autonomy?"

"Then, those lords believed that the royal family had instigated all of this, threatening their autonomy, so these guys demanded the overthrow of royal rule—no, according to them, the abolition of this unconventional parliamentary system, and the purging of those treacherous 'slanderers'?"

"In other words, the rebels are loyal royalists, and the allied lords suppressing them are anti-royalists trying to purge the emperor's inner circle!?" The emperor couldn't quite grasp the logic. "And then there's a mercenary faction in the middle who want the fighting to get even more intense... Good heavens, what's going on here!?"

The emperor felt the world was changing too fast, and that the scripts had been reversed. Should he suppress them or not? And who should he suppress?

You say you're suppressing those rebels, but they are indeed threatening the lord's rule, strengthening central authority, and demanding that Freya's system be continued.

You're talking about suppressing those nobles, but they were the ones who rebelled. Besides, the empire isn't just limited to the Hot Sands Province; there are quite a few powerful lords watching over it. And ultimately, the royal family itself is the biggest landowner and lord—so, to sum it up, it's…

"I've become a rebel!?" It seems that no matter which side they support, the royal family is always in the "rebel" camp. "Am I rebelling against myself? Did I kill myself?" This conclusion made everyone in the council hall a little uneasy.

"Alright, let's put these overly complicated things aside for now," the emperor said, deciding that he shouldn't dwell on this paradoxical and absurd issue of positions. "Currently, it seems the merchants are demanding the establishment of a parliament, while the nobles are demanding its dissolution? Neither of them has suggested what the royal family should do?"

To be precise, both the nobles and the merchants demanded that things remain as they were.

This means that the nobles demanded that things remain the same, with provincial governors and lords having considerable autonomy and rights, while the so-called Royal Chamber of Commerce and parliamentary system were limited to the royal domains.

The merchants' demand to maintain the status quo meant that the royal family and their directly controlled territories should continue to uphold the parliamentary system and agree to allow citizens, merchants, and nobles to participate in parliamentary discussions and make decisions together, without changing the existing system.

"So, their current demand is to kill the other side and then we don't have to do anything?" The emperor said he had never seen such a strange rebellion in his life. "Well, I thought we would have to find a way to raise funds to quell the rebellion at this critical juncture... It seems that we really don't have to do anything."

However, the emperor forgot that there was another brilliant strategist in his household who might not think the same way.

“Well, speaking of which, I have an idea,” Princess Freya said, raising her right index finger to her advisors. Everyone looked horrified. Whenever she had an idea, it always seemed like a good one—especially before it went bad—but in the end, everyone would find that it was a truly terrible idea.

"I've noticed that the arena is full of familiar faces lately, which isn't very interesting." After all, all three sides have to enter the octagon, so naturally they'll hire professional gladiator agents and mercenaries to fight!

The problem is that Princess Freya did this partly to solve her own decision-making problem, and partly to have some fun along the way. Whether the latter was the main purpose is hard to say.

"Then could we organize these people, I mean, organize these familiar faces who are really good at fighting, and send them to help? Of course, we'd charge them, but I think they'd be willing. They're fighting in the arena, and they're fighting on the battlefield, so the latter pays more!"

"The battlefield and the arena are not the same, but... well, you're right, the recent gladiatorial matches are all familiar faces, and they're getting more and more fake." The advisor said that this was indeed the case, and sometimes the representatives of the three sides were even from the same mercenary group, just like they were sparring.

"But what reason do you have to stop these people from making easy money in the arena?"

All three parties will pay to hire them, and the better the performance and the more serious the act, the more they will earn. It's like an exhibition match. They would never go to the battlefield for such an easy way to make money.

Moreover, these people all hold the titles of acting councilors or gladiator agents, and if Freya were to ban gladiator agents, it would be tantamount to directly interfering with the process, which would displease everyone.

"Aren't they going to establish a parliament? Why don't they send these people to be local representatives?! Aren't they already holding the title of representatives?"

"..."

"So how do you plan to explain this to those nobles?"

"Why do I need to explain?" Freya looked bewildered. "They're just a bunch of gladiators and mercenaries, not people I paid to hire."

"..."

“But what about your men… well…” The advisor fell silent. They could always find new mercenaries to do this, but judging from Freya’s expression, it seemed she was prepared to replace them all when she realized they were all familiar faces…

"Then who will take over the positions of these acting legislators?"

"Let them fight amongst themselves! In the octagon!"

"..." Not only are there term limits, but there's also an electoral system, right? Although the Octagon Election Law looks strange no matter how you look at it.

[PS]

The princess didn't think that way, but her actions would be called "proxy war" in modern terms. Although waging a proxy civil war seems rather strange.

Chapter 123 How can you run a council well when you're with insects!

Porto Garrison, in the province of Thessaloniki, is a place where the word means "wind" in the traditional language. Sea breezes, beaches, palm trees, and white Mediterranean-style flat-roofed buildings are the most prominent environmental features.

Port Garrison not only faces the Viper Sea, a narrow sea area sandwiched between the archipelago and the mainland, but also, beyond the mountain pass to the north lies the Hot Sand Desert, and across the desert is the Red Sand Kingdom, a name that is not its official name but rather a pseudonym.

It's roughly similar to how Rome called China Seres. Due to the obstacle of the vast desert in the center of the continent, trade between the two sides could only be carried out by camel caravans. The specialty of the Red Sand Kingdom was the magical spice that the empire called "Red Sand".

Therefore, in Garland, the Spice Guild is the most powerful of the three guilds. It monopolizes the import and export of spices between the archipelago and the Red Sand Kingdom, and has accumulated a huge fortune. With this wealth, the Unos family, who dominates the guild, naturally wants to seek power and status.

However, the provincial governors only saw them as easy prey, and for Governor Underwood, the three guilds were the basis for his ability to support an oversized governor's army and thus maintain a superior position in imperial politics.

Therefore, for the Duke of Underwood, it was essential to ensure absolute control over Port Garrison and Sherlock Holmes, as well as absolute dominance over these guilds. In this "receipt" controversy, in order to raise the gold coins needed to pay his soldiers as quickly as possible, he naturally set his sights on the huge profits of the spice trade once again.

Moreover, spices have another advantage: even if you can't get gold coins, you can use spices to pay the soldiers. They are valuable, small in size, and have a wide appeal, making them much easier to spend as money than the iron ingots and coal in the princess's hands.

Unos Mansion, situated on a terrace in Port Gard second only to the Governor's Palace, is surrounded by green trees and blooming flowers. Thanks to the climate here, all kinds of exotic flowers and plants bloom in all seasons. However, at this moment, no one has the leisure to stop and admire them. Every servant looks like they are in a hurry and have a tense expression.

"This is outrageous!" Old Unos slammed the notice in his hand onto the table. It stated that the governor had issued a new tax law, citing the reason that it was to suppress the rebellion in the eastern part of the Hot Sands Province. The law imposed a 35% punitive tariff on the three major guilds and ordered them to dissolve the guild alliance meeting because the eastern merchants wanted to establish a merchant alliance and a citizens' council, modeled after the princess's royal merchants' guild.

This was completely unacceptable to Governor Underwood. Not to mention that it was a challenge to his governorship, the very idea that they proposed allowing lords, citizens, and merchant groups to discuss the tax rate together, rather than letting the lord decide whatever he wanted, was, in his eyes, a blasphemous idea.

Are you kidding me? If, according to them, it's allowed to use receipts and IOUs issued by nobles to offset taxes, then how will he feed those soldiers? With these pieces of paper?

Okay, let's assume these receipts, due to their accounting credit, are similar to ancient banknotes and can be redeemed for goods at specific merchant guilds—but can you pay 100 people's wages with just one piece of paper? Impossible!

Even if those soldiers took these supplies, they weren't satisfied. They couldn't use all of the wheat and miscellaneous goods themselves, nor could they finish eating them all. And if they tried to sell them in the market, they couldn't sell them without lowering the price, and even if they did, they still couldn't sell them.

In addition to these demands, the governor also required the Spice Guild to purchase his war bonds, with the agreement to repay them using trade taxes from Garland. This was relatively normal, considering that as a trading port and a city that processed high-value goods, repaying them with trade taxes was quite sincere. After all, just because the empire's merchants had no gold coins did not mean that the islanders and the gold-rich Red Sand Kingdom had no gold coins.

Especially the latter. No matter how much deflation occurs, it is unlikely to affect the other kingdom, which is at least 910 kilometers away in the desert. Even if it does affect them, their trading caravans can only carry small, high-value items such as spices and gold coins to conduct normal trade.

“Father, this isn’t the first time. We’ve done it this way before.” The Underwood family also knew what it meant to raise pigs. They wouldn’t keep raising taxes indefinitely. After the storm had passed, to prevent these fat pigs from turning to the emperor, he would restore the original tax rate.

For guild merchants, it's a matter of enduring it and it will pass. But for small and medium-sized merchants, if they can't withstand it, they go bankrupt and their assets are swallowed up by big merchants. That's how the Unos family made their fortune.

"Endure it? Ha~" Old Unos glanced at his eldest son, his eyes revealing obvious dissatisfaction. "It used to be like this, but this time is different. Look here, the spice trade license will not be automatically renewed upon expiration; it will be re-auctioned."

This means the loss of the Spice Guild's greatest privilege, or that the Underwood family wants to foster a more compliant Spice Guild, or that they intend to do it themselves—though the latter is less likely.

While the spice trade was extremely profitable, it was also very risky. Port Gar itself did not produce spices; it mainly relied on imports from the Red Sand Kingdom and production from the island dominions. However, crossing the desert on land was one thing, but the sea was also fraught with danger.

The fragmented seas and narrow coastline of the archipelago made piracy rampant, and some pirates might even be the governor's henchmen. So, if you rashly change the personnel, you might lose your shirt, let alone make money.

In such circumstances, the governor would collect rent from the guild merchants by issuing a spice trade license. After all, it's much easier to sit back and collect rent than to go through the trouble of doing business and battling the waves.

Yes, that's what the Unos family thought and did too. After obtaining the trade license, they authorized small and medium-sized merchants to use it, collecting a licensing fee periodically.

At the same time, their family also purchased several three-masted sailing ships, which they leased to guild merchants for the spice trade. This was a truly profitable business, and clearly, the governor felt that he was not collecting enough rent, so he planned to use this method to make even more money.

"And this one: using the pretext of a rebellion in the eastern region, he'll provide us with a guard, but in exchange, he needs to increase the percentage of profits." To put it bluntly, it's a military investment. As for you not hiring the governor's troops for escort, hahaha, your caravan might get robbed by bandits before it even leaves the city.

“But Father, there’s nothing we can do. We can’t possibly fight the Governor. Look at the rebels in the east; they were crushed in less than two weeks.”

The result of a group of merchants fighting against a professional army with a small number of mercenaries and a militia composed of citizens was that they were crushed on the spot. Even if there were no supernatural powers in this world, the outcome would be the same, especially since they did not have enough weapons and equipment.

"Hmph, take my invitation and go find the other two guild leaders. Tell them I'm having a birthday party at home today." As for whose birthday it is, with so many children, just find one to take the blame.

“Father!” “Shut up!” Old Unos rubbed his forehead. Unlike the east, Garport had a major advantage: the farmers outside the city were affiliated with the merchant guild, not the lord.

This brings us to two other pillar guilds: the sugar guild and the wine guild. Due to its climate and soil, Port Gard is rich in a plant similar to a date palm, which is also an important local economic crop.

It can be boiled into sugar, and the sugar residue can be fermented into a liquor similar to rum. Needless to say, sugar was a strategic resource and a highly profitable commodity in this era, and liquor was even more so. Those maritime merchants bought it ship after ship.

The local farmers were different from farmers in other places who paid taxes in kind by growing crops such as wheat. Instead, they grew cash crops such as cranberries, olives, and cotton and paid taxes in silver and copper coins.

This is also why the governor's previous issuance of bonds did not provoke large-scale protests from the guild alliance, because he genuinely had a considerable amount of gold coins available to repay them.

When the Unos family put on their famous bourgeois revolution show of loudly plotting a rebellion, they were severely beaten, their homes confiscated, and their entire clan wiped out. The remaining rebels, forced to hide in the dense forests on the border of the Emerald Province, were the ones who finally "got it."

“We lack strong manpower, qualified commanders, and even sufficient weapons. The soldiers recruited with money are simply unreliable!” Sir Burn felt he was really struggling to keep up his act, having just been thrown out of the capital by the princess.

It's said that he was in the arena—no, the council—which demonstrated excellent judgment and leadership skills by hiring several capable nominal councilors (gladiators) and appointing them here as advisors to the citizens' council, to promote the Royal Chamber of Commerce's excellent octagonal cage system.

Well, at first, Sir Bourne thought it was fine, and he vowed to improve the princess's brain-dead Octagon Council, which was so ungentlemanly that fighting in the council should be banned and that normal voting should be used instead of the damn dueling points system.

Even if you hire a very capable nominal legislator, you can still fall from grace. For example, it happens from time to time that your own acting legislator is bribed by the opposing party to fix a match.

He devised many plans to improve the parliamentary system to protect the interests of large merchants, workshop owners, and mine owners like himself. However, upon arriving in the Hot Sands Province, he witnessed how the parliamentary army was crushed by the governor's army.

Sir Bourne now feels that the princess's Octagon Council isn't so bad. If he hadn't honed his escape skills before finding a nominal councilor, in order to avoid being beaten to death by those lowly people in the Octagon, he would be lying on the ground with these guys from the Hot Sands Province now, counting his military achievements.

"Damn it, how can we run a council well with these bastards around!" Byrne said, looking at the local citizen representatives and chamber of commerce representatives who were still shifting blame to each other.

“We now need to establish a stable base, and we should abandon the illusion that those noble soldiers are easily defeated.” Faced with Byrne, the “advisor” from the capital, the merchant guild representative, who had been arguing incessantly, finally stopped.

“Besides, you won’t get any useful results from arguing like this. Why don’t we use the method of our Imperial Capital Council to decide who will take the lead?” Byrne rolled up his sleeves, revealing arms as muscular as the guards he brought with him. “If the votes are tied, we’ll have a fight. Whoever wins gets to decide!”

"This is too barbaric!" The pampered chamber of commerce representative looked at the consultant, whose wealth was said to be no less than his own, after he took off his shirt, revealing a muscular physique that was almost taut.

“Go tell the governor that they are too barbaric. So, if we don’t want to fight, we have to come up with a plan. We can’t just act independently like before. We need a unified command and a unified strategy.”

"Uh..." Whether it was because all they had left was a small border town, or because Bourne looked like a very capable fighter with a "I can kill anyone who opposes me" vibe, the discussion started with astonishing efficiency.

Firstly, regarding the issue of unified command, since all combat personnel combined number less than 1000, there's no need for them to command each other haphazardly. Merging them into one unit is the best solution. As for the unit's name, the various flags and titles were abandoned, and considering that the knight class belongs to the nobility, this unit was simply called the "Third Army Division."

Hmm, why third? That's a good question. If it were first, wouldn't it be obvious that they only have one unit? If it's third, then there must be first and second place, right? Although this deception plan isn't very useful, it's better than nothing.

"And then what? We can't beat those knights at all. Our soldiers are a bunch of rookies who haven't even trained for half a month. They don't even have superhuman physiques. Even if they are armed with magical weapons and equipment, they can be easily broken through." On the contrary, the governor's knights inexplicably managed to get themselves a set of luxurious equipment through the spoils of war.

“Therefore, we need to change our thinking. We shouldn’t blindly pursue advanced magical equipment and high-level luxury equipment. In fact, we don’t need too much training. Cheap, simple, and abundant alchemical equipment is what’s suitable for us. And regarding alchemical equipment…” Byrne thought for a moment, “I remember my uncle mentioning an alchemy master. Although the weapons he created were extremely dangerous, they were indeed powerful and easy to operate.”

"Oh, what's that master's name?"

“Hmm, let me think…” Bourne thought for a long time and nodded. “It seems to be called… Roach or something, a strange name, but his equipment played a significant role in the battles of Hearthglen and Deathwhisper Keep in Lywood County.”

"But we can't rely entirely on alchemical equipment, can we? What will the rest of the people use?" Even the cheapest equipment is expensive. What will we use to arm the citizens and workers?

"Well..." The princess has produced a lot of iron ingots that she can't sell. Perhaps we could write her a letter and ask her to buy up those nearly bankrupt ironworks and use them to forge simple weapons? We don't expect these guys to be great fighters on the battlefield, but they should be able to easily raid the governor's supply lines.

As Roach and his men retreated back to their camp, they received a letter forwarded by the lord of Karius. A wealthy merchant named Byrne warmly greeted Roach and inquired about any new weapon inventions he might have made, offering to sponsor Roach's related research.

"Isn't this a perfect coincidence?" Roach, who was worrying about where to get gold and materials, was immediately delighted. After grabbing the little witch and earnestly explaining to her what a sponsor was, the little girl's eyes lit up, and she gave this unassuming, masked Mr. Bourne the title of "a great person".

After all, the other party was willing to give her money and materials to conduct magical research for free, without making any demands, such as the ownership of the results, and even taking on the responsibility of expanding and popularizing the results.

"Do it?"

"Yes!" The little witch nodded vigorously.

Roach was responsible for taking out the previous Elemental Blast Cannon and other similar items, while the Little Witch was responsible for optimizing the Rune Plate, a necessary component, by replacing it with other alternatives and minimizing manufacturing costs and difficulties as much as possible.

Vivi and Leslie were in charge of organizing the data, and then Roach and the Little Witch would find a way to further simplify the production plan so that it could be mass-produced and manufactured.

Of course, Livia was clueless, but Roach was rational. In addition, to control costs, materials and processes had to be simplified and degraded. Therefore, the power and effect of the final product were very different from the prototype in Roach's hands.

“I heard there’s a large-scale rebellion breaking out in the western part of the empire, this…” Leslie said with some concern.

"Oh, I've contacted Count Carius. This Bourne is a big businessman in the capital and has no connection with those people in the west. Of course, I know that as an arms dealer, he will definitely sell weapons to both sides."

Roach said it didn't matter if the other party was an arms dealer, as there was no shortage of arms dealers in the world. Besides, selling to adventurers and mercenaries wasn't much more noble, and there were examples of adventurers who could easily become bandits and robbers.

"But this matter has nothing to do with us. Besides, we are separated from them by an entire empire, so it won't affect us here." Roach seemed nonchalant, after all, they did need materials and gold coins to complete the magic water pump project—compared to the Lost Capital, the west was too far away for them.

Chapter 124 Magical Version of the Rocking Lollipop

Improving the Elemental Blast Barrel is difficult, mainly because the Arcane Mage's trait requirement must be removed, and the stable mana provided by the Rune Disk must be replaced with mana provided by other magical items, such as magic gems or similar storage devices.

In addition, it is necessary to reduce manufacturing costs and manufacturing difficulty. After all, although the arcane sorcerers and alchemists are from the same source, they are actually completely different professions. The former has higher requirements for mathematics and physics, which means that many alchemy apprentices do not actually have the ability to manufacture and produce the equipment invented by Roach.

However, before that, it was necessary to reply to Mr. Byrne, agreeing to his sponsorship request, and also requesting that he allocate the first batch of supplies and funds, along with a brief description of several projects.

This included a simplified diagram of the large, energy-intensive device that Roach wanted to build, supported by fixed magic circuits; the Little Witch's ideas for three different types of magic circles and combat potions; and the new alchemical weapon that the other party was most concerned about.

Since magical cannons do exist in this world, which are expensive and extremely destructive, Roach did not focus on developing cannons or similar large combat devices. Instead, he provided the other party with a simplified version of the results of his research on "dynamic elements".

This is a very unique magical weapon. It looks like an ordinary crossbow with a crank. At the end of the crank are several cheap malachite patches used to sense and influence the wind element, and they are engraved with patterns representing the wind.

Since wind, fire, and ice are essentially caused by the movement of magic, Roach used the simplest solution to accomplish this since it was too difficult to drive the movement of magic through arcane magic. He had someone crank the handle to charge the device, which consisted of a long strand of arcane essence gel and three simple rune stones, filling the groove of the crossbow.

Therefore, as long as you crank the handle enough and fast enough, you can fire three different types of ammunition. One is to crank the handle normally, continuously charge up the power, and finally fire an arrow.