When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

"Sister Jeanne, you're back."

As soon as he dismounted, Horn was a bit stunned looking at the little girl in an apron before him.

Jeanne gently patted the little girl's head and explained, "This is Jils Lana, an orphan. I saw her being bullied by other kids often, so I took her in as a maid."

The girl named Jils looked about twelve or thirteen, and from the scars on her face and the bruise at the corner of her mouth, it seemed she's suffered quite a bit before.

Horn stepped forward and patted Jils' head, smiling as he spoke to Jeanne, "Why did you suddenly think of getting yourself a maid?"

"After all, I need to focus on military matters recently and won't have much time to clean the house."

This wasn't just empty talk; during this period, Jeanne and the Black Hat Army brigade commanders have been undergoing intensive training at Jeska's place.

Horn brought them here, and in the future, they need to follow the Duke to war, so it wouldn't do just to run away heedlessly; they still need help in preparing for war.

Therefore, Horn required all officers at the brigade level and above in the major corps, as well as all Company Commanders with marshal ranks, to participate in the military courses of Jeska and Hakuto.

These so-called military courses were actually the battlefield experiences of both individuals and their developed strategies for deploying and rearranging troops.

Originally, Hakuto didn't want to participate, but the terms Horn offered were too generous.

Not only was he taken off the Church's wanted list, but he was also aided in being ousted from the White Maple Mercenary Corps.

He had no choice but to follow Horn down this path, come what may.

Even Horn himself would often drop by to audit these classes, and he had to admit, Jeanne had quite a knack for it.

She might struggle to calculate something like eleven times eleven, yet she could intuitively gauge troop numbers and formations with precision almost equal to the formulas Horn had worked out, which was truly impressive.

Leaving the stable, Horn gazed at the sky, which remained grim and overcast.

He took a step back towards the Pope's Palace, while Jeanne, under the guidance of the Holy Grail Knight Order's knights, quickly ran towards the area where a fight had occurred.

Along the way, especially in the square, one could see squads of young men under the direction of the Ten Households Leaders and Hundred Households Captains, stepping in prayer.

If anyone stepped wrongly, the Black Hat Army would take note, and after prayers, they would go up with a cane and whip them until they spun like a top.

Yet, despite three or four days of training, this group couldn't differentiate left from right, let alone march in orderly lines or even stand straight.

Apart from those involved in the formation training, there were some young men carrying shovels and pickaxes, digging drainage ditches under the guidance of the Ten Households and Hundred Households Leaders.

Not far away, one could also see them repairing fences and houses, demolishing rotten buildings, clearing out garbage, and gathering people of the same ten and hundred households together.

Through this period of Hundred Households reform, Horn had under him two veteran Hundred Households Captains with over twelve hundred men, and twenty new camp Hundred Households Captains with over eleven thousand five hundred men.

A total of 22 Hundred Households Captains, approximately twelve thousand eight hundred people.

Among the new camp's Hundred Households Captains, fifteen were elected from the original new camp drifters, and five were appointed from Horn's old camp.

As for those whose past was as bandits or robbers, they either had to settle as good citizens or were exiled after committing three violations of the Pope Country's laws.

Those severely breaking the law and being killed were quite numerous.

Horn had expelled and executed about a hundred drifters in total, with nearly every day seeing someone hung on flagpoles for public display or paraded with their stocks.

Just the day before, he had even confiscated half of two elders' votes for street fighting and damaging public property and demanded them to read out a public confession.

This caused, as Horn strode through the camp's roads, the drifters not only revered him but feared him as well.

Looking at the crowded groups within and around the camp, including people from nearby small camps, Horn shook his head helplessly.

Normally, most of the young men would be nearby repairing roads and clearing rivers; there shouldn't be so many people at the camp during the day.

But ever since the war tax incident, both the Guild and citizens have been mobilizing funds to handle the heavy tax burden.

After running out of working capital, work-for-relief programs temporarily halted, causing many young men to stay idle in the new camp.

Fortunately, due to Horn's influence, the Duke exempted these drifter laborers from taxes, and the young men had some savings, and Horn had also purchased a large amount of grain before prices rose, so the new camp was getting by.

But simply eating without working isn't sustainable either.

With nothing to do, Horn simply had them participate in basic military training together, such as stepping in prayer, formation, marching, etc.

Besides this, he had the Ten Households re-organize the new camp, dividing roads, areas, and trenches; otherwise, the stench would be constant.

To help them better adapt to potential future wars, Horn also organized patrols to reinforce security.

The establishment of patrols was not only to preemptively train soldier mentalities but also due to needs in that regard.

Since the security in the Joan of Arc Castle area deteriorated, many rogues and even bandits posed as tax officers and came to Horn demanding taxes.

But they were all persuaded by Horn's eloquence, leaving obediently.

Occasionally, they would try to sneak attack at night, where these patrols played their part.

The new camp area where Horn resided gradually became a forbidden zone for tax officials, and many laborers from nearby camps moved over.

This led to the drifter laborer count near Horn's camp reaching almost fifteen thousand, the small area nearly outnumbering the residents of Joan of Arc Castle.

On this morning, when Horn went to Joan of Arc Castle, he even saw these drifters holding a small marketplace, and on his return, the patrol reported several arguments, thefts, and fights had occurred at the market.

With more people, there were more troubles. Horn planned to hold another meeting tonight to address the issues of security and the personal conduct of the elders.

Holding the alchemy product ledger and formula book, Horn arrived in front of the Pope's Palace.

The Pope's Palace was remarkably splendid, featuring not only a chopping board with 'Pope's Palace' engraved at the entrance but also guards from a foreign land – Beastmen Varangian Guards from the Black Bone Marsh.

It was quite fitting for the Pope's residence standards.

Opening the door and stepping into the grand hall on the first floor of the Pope's Palace, Horn immediately saw Boned and a few Child Soldiers looking sullen, transcribing the account books.

Lately, Harbin had indeed been diligent, collecting a massive pile of assorted account books, sweeping all the old account books from nearby general stores out of existence.

Horn always felt uneasy about the previous account books, couldn't rest easy thinking about them, and thus tasked Boned with organizing these books.

The order Horn gave was to extract all abnormal cash flows and transactions and tabulate them using a two-dimensional matrix.

Boned's situation was similar to Hakuto's. Caught and landed in the Pope Country, Boned was labeled a short-hair spy and had no choice but to serve obediently as Horn's secretary.

As for what he truly thought deep down, that was unknown.

"How's it going?" Horn tapped the table to wake Boned from his numbers.

"Harbin just brought another batch of books. Still no findings," Boned rubbed his neck. "In this batch, only this one has some value, with two abnormal transactions."

"Keep at it." Horn nodded and was about to proceed inside with the alchemy ledger and formula book when Boned suddenly called out.

"Your Grace, Harbin is waiting for you upstairs on the second floor, and he's brought someone along, supposedly your promised locksmith."