When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

The long bridge connecting Autumn Dusk Island and the shore had already become a large encampment for refugees.

At the end of the road, the refugees sat according to divisions of ten and a hundred households, nervously waiting for someone to call out the names of their Hundred Households Captain and Ten Households Leader.

The first batch of more than 8,000 people who landed on the island had basically been cleansed at the refugee camp outside Joan of Arc Castle and could directly go ashore.

However, the over 10,000 people here now joined later, so they still needed to undergo cleansing.

The lake water from Nanze Lake was brought to half-person high barrels, with half-buried stoves burning a fire underneath.

Fierce flames licked the stoves until the overflowing lake water in the barrels was fully heated, and then the filled barrels were carried to the other side.

Canvas curtains were hung from wooden frames to divide the male and female areas, with each large barrel holding a refugee whose skin was scalded red by the hot water.

According to His Holiness the Pope, this was to wash away past sins.

Bristle brushes scrubbed hard on the refugees, scraping off dead skin, grease, lice, and ticks.

As the refugees endured the "oh ho ho ho" cries of pain from being washed with Sessi-brand spicy bath lotion, a nimble temporary barber stepped forward to begin haircuts.

They trimmed the men's beards to about an inch and shaved their hair to not exceed their ears, while women's hair was cut to not go past their shoulders.

Once everything was complete, people grabbed a handful of insect-repelling powder, slapping it onto the chest and back, then changing into the inner wear and underwear pre-sewn by the Salvation Army, and separated by gender to dry by the fire in wooden houses, along with drying the clothes soaked in hot water and medicated lotion.

The entire process took about an hour, and from morning till night, about 8-10 hundred households could be transported onto the island each day.

At the other end of the long bridge, at the Autumn Dusk Island pier, the refugees crowded onto the floating bridge faced their second checkpoint, which was registration.

"Don't push, don't push, stay with your ten households, Ten Households Leader, keep an eye on the flag in the Hundred Households Captain's hand, and follow it!"

Standing on a stone pillar at the bridgehead, the voice of a senior, now hoarse from shouting, commanded the bloated crowd.

At the end of the floating bridge, a checkpoint was erected with five exits, each exit staffed by five registrars responsible for recording the population.

"Which hundred households? What's your name?" Boritz asked impatiently, holding a quill.

"Mosang's hundred households, Jia, Gashkour."

"Jia Gashkour, is it?" Boritz wrote this name in a two-dimensional table, "Are you married? If you have a wife and children, state their names..."

"Tax, Tax Collector sir, my name is Gashkour..."

"I don't care what you add, are you married? People are waiting behind you." Before Gashkour could finish speaking, Boritz sharply interrupted.

Bear in mind, each river crossing was five to six hundred people, and only when the previous hundred households passed through could the next hundred cross; this meant each exit had to register at least 100 people per hour.

Boritz didn't have the time to slowly correct them.

"Married, this is my wife Shari, my son Domam..." Subjected to Boritz's reprimand, Gashkour could only accept his bad luck.

Quickly jotting down the names, genders, birth years, health conditions, birthplaces, occupations, education levels, affiliated ten and hundred households, and identity codes of this family of five in the registration form, Boritz exhaled deeply and copied it all down again.

Finally, he pulled out a piece of wood, spat twice into a mud of madder, and handed it to Gashkour in front of him: "Press a fingerprint for each person."

He gestured to the old soldier beside him to unlock the chains and small door, tapped the table: "Don't run around after passing, your Ten Households Leader will lead you."

On the way from Joan of Arc Castle to Autumn Dusk Island, Horn had already instructed them to form their ten and hundred households themselves.

With the current organization of around 25,000 people, Horn had 48 hundred households under his command, of which about 14 needed to reside in Beize or the Mountain Foot Shore, while 34 hundred households lived on Autumn Dusk Island.

But this ten and hundred households organization was still relatively loose; Horn needed to solidify this organizational system through a population census to facilitate future manpower management and allocation.

After registering this batch of people, during the break before the next hundred households arrived, Boritz grabbed the water jug by the table and took a sip of light beer.

Does that Saint's Grandson have a few screws loose? What's the use of documenting all these things?

Just say you're binding a tax registration book, why leave Boritz pondering for ages over what a population census is?

After all, it was Horn who cobbled together the words population, general, and survey to make this term.

After passing the test, Boritz was smoothly selected as a registrar and began to receive short-term training.

As a notary, such a big taxpayer, Boritz hadn't eaten pork but surely had seen pigs run, what was the need for short-term training, Boritz could have learned the so-called courses lying down.

But when the short-term training actually began, Boritz immediately sat up to learn.

Not only because the instructor was Horn, but also because they genuinely needed to learn new knowledge, and that was a number system called Arabic numerals.

The Norn accounting companion who came in with Boritz was initially saying this Saint Son Horn was trying to fix what wasn't broken with the Empire's numbering system, what was the point of establishing something new and different.

But when the first math class started, the over a hundred registrars present, especially those former accountants and merchants, were plunged into a mesmerized state.

Was this mathematics?

Although the words of His Excellency the Saint Son were simple, why did they become incomprehensible when put together? Why did the math problems that seemed extremely difficult to them get solved out of the blue by Horn, using abstruse language?

Luckily, Horn was merely intimidating them; what they truly needed to learn was the detailed information for household registration.

Those Arabic numerals were only to teach them how to perform identity coding.

In Boritz's view as a big tax contributor, Horn was still lacking as a lord, only asking about occupations and educational levels and forgetting to investigate birthright, assets, and annual income.

These were the most important things for taxes.

Moreover, during the short-term training, Boritz learned of an extremely important matter, that the Salvation Army might be recruiting troops, and that they were preparing to attack Joan of Arc Castle in three months.

Four thousand peasant soldiers attacking the Edict Chain, really?

At this pace, Boritz thought the Great Pope Country was doomed to fall sooner or later!

But that would be good too; regarding the situations on Autumn Dusk Island and Daze Village, Boritz took note in his mind.

After Horn initiated the peat industry, this former quagmire quickly became a treasured land with resources, population, and a necessary path for smuggling.

In this time, Boritz planned to continue working at Autumn Dusk Island City Hall, attempting to place his small group's people in important positions, and in three months, once the Salvation Army set out to attack Joan of Arc Castle — that would be a certain defeat.

When the Salvation Army was defeated, he could take advantage of the situation to take the well-managed Autumn Dusk Island and ally with the Church or Demon Hunters.

This way, Autumn Dusk Island could transform into a black market, earning heaps of Sola (small gold coins commonly used in the black market, minted by the Royal Court), and by then...

"Boritz!"

Boritz, who had just snuck into a time of daydreaming, stood straight up: "Good afternoon, Sir Busak."

Busak eyed him suspiciously and pointed to another registrar beside him, saying, "Switch posts with him, pack up, and follow me to the Trinity Education Team."