From Milnor's point of view, the Rose Cross and the Viper Cross were no longer trustworthy.
This inexplicable war came and ended abruptly. After being fooled, Milnor finally understood the crux of the matter. However, when he wanted to warn Charles II, he realized that he had been abandoned.
When the Emperor no longer trusted him, Milnor knew that even if he stood in front of Charles II and explained the pros and cons, the Emperor would not believe him.
Ever since he accepted the mission of "attacking Efta", Milnor had been surrounded by all sorts of problems. Now, he realized that he should not have been so obsessed with "revenge" from the beginning. Now, there were only about fifty of his guards left. The rest of the soldiers had been repatriated because Milnor could not find enough food for them to follow him. As a result, his troops were not even comparable to a reliable caravan.
What made his heart palpitate even more was that on the way back, almost all the civilians chose to stay far away after learning of his name, as if he was a moving plague source.
The assets of the Earl's Mansion were almost depleted in the war. More than half of the farmland and food in the territory had been taken away by the orcs. Not to mention how many people would die in this harsh winter. Just the border of the territory that was connected to the Holy Cathedral was enough to keep him on tenterhooks in the future.
Regret, anger, helplessness … As the loser of the war and the political struggle, Milnor thought of Earl Moore who had been hiding at the side for a long time. If he had half of Earl Moore's intelligence, he would definitely be the most important official in the kingdom. But now …
As he was thinking about this, the carriage suddenly stopped with the sound of horse hooves. Milnor was a little surprised. However, when he peeked his head out, he saw that the soldiers in front of him were being ambushed by a team of cavalry!
They were on the main road in the forest. Hundreds of people appeared on both sides of the seemingly peaceful forest in the blink of an eye. Although they were dressed in different sloppy clothes, the shining weapons in their hands and the shining armor under their clothes were extremely dazzling …
The troops that were about to adjust their formation were killed on the spot. The guards that Mirno had brought were considered elites, but they were quickly defeated by the enemies that outnumbered them three to four times. The bandits that appeared out of nowhere did not give anyone a chance to surrender. Even after Count Milnor's guards threw away their weapons and raised their hands, their heads were still cut off by the bandits' long swords.
Looking at the group of bandits, Mirno knew what had happened. Although he had lost his power, it didn't mean that he would fall into the abyss forever. Charles II might need him one day, and an order from him might allow him to return to the center of power. Obviously, his political enemies didn't want to see that happen.
When the situation in Bergen's territory was chaotic, "bandits attacking nobles" became the most common solution.
When the guards around him were chopped down one by one, Count Milnor laughed bitterly and tried to get off the carriage calmly. However, as soon as he opened the door, he was pulled out by the leader of the team.
"For the sake of your revenge, you have already caused the entire kingdom to lose too much."
The knight with half of his face covered in a red scarf spoke in a low voice. Mirno immediately knew who he was — the most powerful Grand Knight under Count Moore, Napa!
But what was the point of guessing his identity? Knight Napa didn't give him a chance to speak. He pulled out his long sword and slowly pierced it into Mirno's chest.
"Take everything you can and retreat."
None of the fifty guards survived. Mirno's body was thrown to the side of the road. Knight Napa didn't even look at it and left.
*****
After spending three days with Sally, Roddy finally left Hollier City and embarked on his journey back to Elsen City.
After this battle, the Holy Cathedral was unsurprisingly incorporated into Eiffta's territory. Not only did it bring the kingdom another piece of territory, but to Roddy, the most important thing was the population of this territory.
Currently, the Kingdom of Karen was far from being saturated with population. With the increase in productivity caused by the Recharging Crystal, the most important thing in the future was the population … a large number of people.
Roddy was not rich enough to create a large number of arcane puppets to replace manual labor. Therefore, how to make use of the farmers who were fixed in various territories and only knew how to farm was the most important problem that he had to face in the future.
In the world that Roddy used to live in, the Black Death had greatly damaged the vitality of Europe. Due to the fragmentation of the marquises, the continuous years of war and the extremely high infant mortality rate, the population of Europe could not be compared to the centralized countries in Asia. Therefore, in the past few days, Roddy and Sally had a brief discussion about the future development of the Rose Cross. He hoped that this religion would no longer be a "China" with an independent regime and army, but a prototype of a "hospital" in the future.
Eliminating diseases, improving the infant survival rate, reducing the incidence of common diseases to the population, and extending the average life span of the entire kingdom … This was the focus of the future development of the Rose Cross.
As long as they worked hard, they could see results within twenty years. As long as the productivity kept up, the country would quickly enter a period of rapid economic and population growth.
Riding on the Keldar and looking down at the land below, Roddy could see that the "road" built from Elsen to Hollier had already connected to the first town along the way. The distance was no more than 60 kilometers. For modern people, 60 kilometers was not even a "long distance". But here, it was like a natural moat, separating two people who might not have any contact with each other for the rest of their lives.
The construction of the railway was obviously much slower. At this time, it had just extended to the small town outside Elsen. A large number of Orc coolies had joined the work of laying the railway. Because of the influence of the Demonic Gate, their strength had increased a lot, and their work speed was obviously faster than that of humans. Therefore, the various projects that were originally planned to be completed in the autumn were basically completed by now.
Most of the raw material processing plants in the small town, mainly wood and ore, but there were also light industrial plants such as paper mills. Because the small town would definitely expand into a transportation center and an industrial town in the future, Roddy had reserved areas here in advance, using horizontal and vertical streets to naturally separate the factories, residences, leisure, commerce, and transportation areas. It was estimated that in less than three years, this place would become an engine that would accelerate the GDP of the whole of Efta and even the Kingdom of Karen.
Quickly passing over the small town, Roddy quickly entered the territory of Elsen City. Looking at the bustling streets, Roddy thought for a moment, but directly let the Keldar land on the drill ground of the military camp.
At this time, the "Dragon Spear Cavalry Regiment" had already finished their training for the day. A strong knight was taking care of their beloved horses in the horse farm not far from the city. Good horses needed to be carefully raised, and the owner had to cultivate a relationship with them for a long time. Therefore, this group of knights had to take the horses back and forth every day. On the drill ground in the city, there was a group of people engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Roddy glanced at them and found that these 30 or so people were all field agents of the "Elsen Central Intelligence Agency."
Among them, there were soldiers selected from the military camp, as well as Teflin with various skills. Among them, Nora's figure was the most conspicuous. During the actual combat training, she had been standing there the entire time without moving.
Seeing Roddy jump down from the Keldar, the drill instructor hurriedly stopped the training and came over to salute. Roddy waved his hand to signal for them to continue, then pointed to Nora and asked, "Why is she not participating in the training?"
This drill instructor was selected from the military by Sodelor. He was not a knight or a warrior, but an advanced Level 2 "Assassin." Logically speaking, his strength should be quite good. But Roddy's question made him feel a little awkward. "In reply to the City Lord... it's mainly because, uh, her fighting style is a little strange, and I can't beat her."
This answer surprised him a little, but he quickly felt relieved. Although Nora had not advanced a level, after a short period of training, she had quickly broken through to the basic level of 23. This high level, coupled with the several talents she had, was really not a match for an ordinary Level 5 or below.
"During actual combat, just don't let her use any skills."
After saying this, Roddy prepared to leave, but who knew that the drill instructor would say in a low voice, "City Lord... if she doesn't use skills, I, I can't beat her."
This made Roddy feel strange. He glanced at Nora, who was standing calmly at the side, and thought for a moment. "Then arrange for other training first. When the time comes, I will find something for her to do."
"Yes, City Lord."
After leaving the drill ground, Roddy went straight to the center of the military camp. At this time, Sodelor was holding a longsword and slowly practicing his basic skills. It looked simple and unadorned, but in fact, he was thinking about the details of every movement. "Genius Swordsman" did not mean that one could casually fight in a war and surpass the advanced Level 60 Sword Saint. Sodelor could be called a martial arts fanatic, and even if he was not fighting, he would never be idle.
After the war ended, Roddy let Sodelor stay in the city. The main reason was that there would be no more wars for a long time in the foreseeable future. If Sodelor and the soldiers wanted to improve their strength, training alone was not enough. And if he stayed in the city, he would quickly slack off and even regress. Thus, before going to Lassiman, Roddy prepared to carefully discuss the arrangements for the future with this powerful deputy.
"Any new insights recently?"
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
