Chapter 1072: Chapter 1015: The Battle of Five Armies

"Hilov, you’re reading again, why not take a break..." 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Horn opened the door to the study a crack and asked from outside.

"No time! I’m researching!"

The long-unseen Wolf Woman was crouched over the desk, right hand pressing down a parchment scroll, left hand holding a pen.

With the pen’s scribbling, lines of characters appeared on the paper, then were passed to the hands of the surrounding researchers.

This gathering of elite research monks and alchemist scholars from various universities of the ry Court Barracks filled the office with all sorts of noisy clamor.

The sounds of abacuses clicking, the rustle of pen on paper, murmurs of discussion...

Along with phrases like "Turn your report to the front, okay, stop there!" "You only did this much in a week?"

Seeing the room full of scholars engrossed in decoding the "Celestial Maiden Secret Scroll," Horn didn’t want to disturb further and had to withdraw.

Hilov was completely immersed in the "Celestial Maiden Secret Scroll."

She had initially thought the trip to Black Snake Bay with Horn would be just the two of them, but it ended up being five, and then, surprisingly, four without her.

With the huge disappointment, the Wolf Woman turned her grief and fury into motivation, obsessively decoding and researching the "Celestial Maiden Secret Scroll" and dragon language magic.

Since Hilov ignored him, Horn, having returned from Black Snake Bay to the ry Court Barracks and finished his tasks, could only lean by the window and gaze outside.

Mid-June, the summer was scorching, and inside the Holy Seat Mansion was supposed to be stuffy.

Fortunately, the building itself was made of marble, and each room had ice stored in winter or freshly made by Mages.

But those small departments and offices didn’t have such privileges.

They could only open the windows, close the blinds, and use wind-up fans to cool down.

These wooden-cased wind-up fans couldn’t be set to high speed, or they would stop after two hours.

The grooved Secretariat logistics only distributed one small wind-up warehouse for each office.

Nesting at their desks, sweating profusely, the monks cursed through gritted teeth.

This bunch in the logistics really knew how to design things, just making it so: hot but not deadly hot, cool but not comfortably cool, just right.

However, the fans were expensive to make, and they were only distributed, with little circulation in the market.

Looking outside from the window, Horn saw most people in the market fanning themselves with palm or feather fans.

Even those noisy stray dogs were lying under the shade of the trees, tongues out, drooling everywhere.

As for the youths on the street, they wore wide-brimmed straw hats, long-sleeved white shirts with thin woolen vests over them.

On their shoulders, about a third of them draped a fan-shaped half-shoulder cape made of spider silk blend.

This was the latest fashion trend among the youth, the work of a clothing designer from the Falan Court.

Wearing long-sleeved shirts and vests in summer was to avoid being seen as indecent, and the cape was modeled after the half-shoulder cloak of the Holy Alliance cavalry.

Since spider silk blend fabric was light, cool, and opaque, it was always a hot commodity in ry Court Barracks’ fabric stores.

Youths wearing capes often to conceal the swords at their waists.

Thinking of this, Horn couldn’t help scratching his head.

After the war and cultural renewal, he hit the brakes on militaristic tendencies.

But the afterglow was long-lasting, and with no place to channel martial virtues, it seeped into civilian life.

In today’s novel market, knight and Demon Hunter novels are outdated; the most popular are soldier and officer novels.

Especially popular are veteran novels, often about a young man rebelling against oppression, joining the army, winning holy battles to become a veteran, returning to clean up local bullies, navigating challenges, and finally marrying his longtime crush.

They carry a flair similar to future urban soldier king stories and soldier king returns to live with daughter stories.

Many criticize these for lacking refinement, but they sell well and hold much societal relevance.

Because many retired soldiers and officers have returned home to become Hundred Households Captains and Wandering Cultivators.

They often bear responsibilities of combating influential families, purging aristocratic remnants, and dealing with organized crime.

No matter how they perform, those with the greatest purchasing power—the retired veterans—see themselves in these stories.

Their reading level and comprehension perfectly suit this type of novel, plus the fashionable half-shoulder cape style has unparalleled appeal.

It attracted a wave of youth eager to mimic these trends.

Urban residents are wealthy enough to buy the cool capes, while those in rural areas can only wear heavy burlap capes.

But even if they are hot enough to faint, they refuse to take them off.

Among these black-caped youths, immigrant youth represent the majority, akin to some kind of fanatic conversion.

Besides the book and clothing merchants, the swordsmanship academies and clubs also profited greatly.

The knights whose properties were seized sought reemployment, using their family-inherited swordsmanship and extraordinary skills to earn money through teaching.

The youths who received this training, the better ones became swordsmen, joining merchant caravans traveling around.

The worse ones, due to killing in duels, were exiled to Black Snake Bay as bodyguards or joined adventure teams; not a few of them.

Horn had to admit that these idle ruffians indeed formed the main force in the expansion of Black Snake Bay.

They were dissatisfied with earning money through the hard work of farmers and laborers, wished to be officers but lacked either capability or opportunity, and wanted to get rich quickly without capital for trading.

From the perspective of social stability, they were undoubtedly unstable factors.

In terms of colonial expansion, they were natural adventurers.

Since the opening of the eastern county’s channel, thousands of black-cloaked youths have rushed to make their fortunes.

However, their excessive martial spirit also brought a lot of unexpected troubles.

For instance, Horn is currently dealing with the "Five Armies Battle" in Mande County.

Patting his palm with the file in hand, Horn was uncertain whether to be glad or angry.

This issue was simple, last year the canal in Mande County was finally completed, able to draw water from the Ibe River to irrigate fields.

Yet soon, new problems emerged around the new canal, specifically the dispute over water.

The downstream Priestly Order felt like the upstream Priestly Order was withholding too much water; was it intentional or accidentally intentional?

The upstream felt they didn’t have enough for themselves, how could they withhold too much? Are you picking a fight?

The two sides first negotiated but couldn’t reach an agreement.

Then pushing started, because the upstream sluice keeper hit someone, the downstream detained the keeper.

The upstream thought the downstream was trying to control the sluice, immediately sent people to seize it, and severely beat the detaining downstream villagers.

Seeing this, the naturally vicious villagers quickly gathered their troops to prepare for retaliation.

The upstream villagers who received the news also started assembling their troops.

Both sides formed alliances, and eventually, two upstream priest districts, three downstream priest districts, a total of more than five thousand villagers from five Priestly Orders, clashed at the sluice.

The final result was nine killed and thirty-three injured, with both sides hiding many injured.

Originally, such water disputes were commonplace among villagers, with a fight usually involving four to five hundred people at most, yet this time the scale was ten times larger.

The main reason turned out to be the local Priest-in-Charge leading the Defensive Army captain to personally fight for water, fully utilizing the Hundred Households District system’s recruitment and organizational capabilities.

Originally, under the past feudal system, organizing one to two hundred people would be commendable.

But this time, the Priest-in-Charge notified the Monastic Leader, the Monastic Leader notified the Wandering Cultivators, and the Wandering Cultivators notified the Hundred Households Captain.

The Hundred Households Captain, upon hearing someone was trying to seize our water, and even beat someone? Outrageous!

Immediately pointed out the young and strong from the Hundred Households District, the Holy Treasury allocated rations, and the Defensive Army captain led the team to the battlefield.

After calculating, each priest district organized nearly a thousand, almost a tenth of the young and strong of the entire district joined.

Both Priests-in-Charge and Defensive Army captains were from military backgrounds, with former soldiers and mercenaries serving as officers in rural areas.

Between the Priestly Orders, there were already grievances over promotion and evaluation issues, with grain output being one of the metrics.

In a battle, various encirclements, night raids, central breakthroughs, internal and external line shifts...

If not for the timely arrival of the local battalion to suppress the fight, there might have been more casualties.

After the fight ended, neither side admitted fault, claiming it was a misunderstanding and could be resolved internally.

But Horn dared not to let them solve it internally again, lest it escalates into a "Hundred Regiment War."

Just then, the door of the clockwork elevator opened, Jeanne stepped inside, and upon raising her head, she saw Horn waiting with documents in hand.

"My dear Jeanne sister—"

She asked irritably, "Whenever there’s trouble, it’s ’dear Jeanne sister,’ and when there’s not, it’s ’Hey! That Jeanne!’"

"Hahaha." Horn chuckled awkwardly, handing over the documents in his hand, "Please handle this."

Jeanne casually flipped through the documents Horn handed her, then placed them into her portable scroll case: "Alright, I’ll set off tomorrow morning."

"Jeanne, you’re the best." Horn immediately stepped forward and gave Jeanne a big hug.

Jeanne gave him a blank look, "I heard you’re going to Xia Lvcheng?"

"Yes, leaving tomorrow morning as well."

"Isn’t there still three months until the debate with Grandiva? Is there an issue with the military movement over there?"

"No, the military’s movements are fine.

I initially planned to inspect Shuimi Town’s glass workshop and review the troops next month, but it was brought forward due to a certain matter." Horn’s words carried a hint of puzzlement, "You’ll never guess who it might be..."