When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

After wandering through several blocks, Horn was quickly recognized by the citizens of Pope Country.

Instead of hiding, Horn boldly removed his hood, turning a covert operation into an overt visit, promoting recruitment while also inspecting public sentiment.

In the newly established ten blocks, Horn spontaneously delivered speeches and met with the Ten Households Leaders at the grassroots level.

As for the citizens of Pope Country still living in ruins and tents, he visited randomly, asking about names and family situations, offering some comforting words.

This may be an old trick worn out in Horn's hometown, but here it works wonders.

Horn hardly said a word and managed to move the young and old refugees to tears, prompting some who had initially not intended to enlist to do so.

Bidding farewell to a reluctant laborer's family, Horn mounted his horse again, looking at the blocks lined along the road ahead, feeling quite emotional.

With the recruitment policy personally confirmed by His Holiness the Pope, initial concerns were greatly eased.

The recruitment initially planned to be completed in three days was estimated to be finished in less than two days, with even more reserve soldiers registered.

However, after filling the quota for recruits and reserve forces, the next step required for them to officially go to battle was still lacking—namely weapons and armor.

This issue couldn't be solved within the residential area they were in; it required going to the high-tech industrial area outside the town's ruin area.

The current town was divided into four areas at Horn's request: the residential area near the Parra River, the high-tech industrial area on the west side of the residential area, the administrative area in the town center, and the commercial area at the eastern dock.

This was part of a first-phase plan for three years, while the second-phase plan for five years needed to add green spaces and high-end residential areas.

The industrial area is situated downstream of the Parra River, which is convenient for discharging sewage and for the navigation and shipment of boats.

When Horn arrived at the high-tech industrial zone, laborers had paved a simple road on what was once mud-sodden land filled with weeds.

In front of the industrial park was a half-human tall fence, with a sign indicating its affiliation—under the jurisdiction of the Holy Casting Department Industrial Park, outsiders prohibited.

Calling it a high-tech industrial park, but from what Horn saw while riding, it could only be considered exceedingly poor.

The park was filled with shabby brick-wall sheds, the small ones only a hundred or two hundred square meters, large ones covering less than an acre.

Each shed had a mere seven or eight people working, the only larger one was the textile workshop, where dozens of female textile workers stepped on wooden pedals to weave fabric.

The yarn on these wooden loom wheels rotated under the belt's drive, turning as the textile workers continually stepped on their pedals.

After the fabric was woven, they hurried to place it in wicker baskets beside them, and soon someone would take the wicker baskets and place an empty basket in their prior spot.

The woolen cloths in those wicker baskets were then placed on long tables formed by several tables, progressing from front to back with people cutting, sorting, sewing, and finally making garments.

This assembly line model was used during Horn's difficult military march, and now it's being picked up again.

Standing at the doorway watching for a while, Horn noticed the textile workers seemed to have disorganized actions, with an increased error rate, so he lightly chuckled and stepped away from the door.

"Go find the supervisor of the textile workshop," Horn said to the Child Soldiers beside him.

Standing in front of the workshop, Horn looked around aimlessly.

The entire industrial area housed a mere 300 people, with only four industries: furniture manufacturing, textile processing, alchemy industry, and armament manufacturing.

The alchemy industry mainly consisted of mortar workshops, while peat production was located in the Beastman foothills.

As for furniture manufacturing, it involved producing basic furniture for the citizens of Pope Country—tables, chairs, beds, cabinets, doors, windows, and floorboards.

This was a product with a high demand; these four groups of 35 carpenters worked from morning till night and still couldn't meet demand.

The furniture workshop actually relied on the sawmill built near the Wild Spider Forest, and it too couldn't meet demand.

But according to the sentry at Wild Spider Forest, in the past two or three days, two more loggers were attacked by giant spiders; if production is to be expanded, they'll need to deal with the spiders first.

As for armament manufacturing, it included iron smelting, forging and assembling gun heads, Mountain Copper Workshop, Spring Gun Assembly Workshop, among several parts.

The armory workshop's population accounted for a third of the entire industrial area, nearly 100 people.

"Your Holiness..."

"Hezi? What happened to your hand?" Horn was taken aback at the sight of Hezi, who was missing his left arm and left eye. "Are you the supervisor of the textile workshop?"

Hezi was one of the first batch of Ten Households Leaders, once his status rivaled Jeska and Busak's.

But he was average in talent and character, repeatedly made mistakes, and now Jeska has become a high-ranking officer in the Salvation Army, Busak has become a bishop, yet he is still a Ten Households Leader, only promoted after the Battle of Joan of Arc Castle.

Hezi forced a smile: "At Joan of Arc Castle, a knight swung at me, I raised my hand to block... anyway, later, Lord Madlan transferred me to the Holy Casting Department to manage the textile workshop."

"...Uh." Horn didn't know what to say, he stepped forward and patted Hezi's shoulder, "What's past is past as if it died yesterday, if you do your job well now, promotion and salary are in order."

Hezi nodded slightly, but he looked dispirited, significantly less driven than before.

From his demeanor, Horn knew he had lost his ambition and likely just wanted to stay in this position, seeking neither merit nor faults.

It's a personal choice he couldn't intervene in or had the time and energy to interfere.

"I previously asked you to make 20 sets of the Salvation Army's standard uniforms, have they been done?"

Hezi turned back gestures to his attendant, soon someone brought oversized, large, medium, and small military uniforms of the Salvation Army.

Horn then called over a guard to model it.

This military uniform closely resembled a coat of later generations, with a collar lapel, open front, using spindle-shaped buttons.

The hem hung just above the knees, with two wrist-length long sleeves that allowed for length adjustment.

On the left shoulder was a red sash, it secured the diagonal wide strap carrying the wooden tube of iron sand pellets.

The bottom of the earth-tone hemp breeches was tightly fastened with leggings, tucking the trousers into long socks and leather ankle boots.

In no time, ten guards all changed into brown-black uniforms and lined up in front of Horn.

These veteran soldiers stood neatly, their eyes held a fierce aura from having killed before, complemented by the black with red hues, causing a chill just by standing.

"By the mountain goat, this is formidable," Duvalon, standing beside Horn, murmured to himself.

"Your Holiness, what do you think?"

"Not bad." Horn reached out to feel the fabric of the uniform, this coarse wool felt rough and heavy, but it was perfect for soldiers' winter and spring combat training.

"How about this, I'll assign you 200 personnel, can you produce 4000 sets within a month and a half?"

"4000 sets?" Hezi, even in his laid-back state, jumped in shock. "Your Holiness, our daily output is only 10 to 20 sets, and that's with ready-made woolen cloth.

Even if we add 200 personnel, with new textile production, it could at most double to 40 sets; we couldn't even make 2000 sets in 45 days."

Horn didn't say a word in response, instead, he took out a lacquered notebook and jotted a couple notes: "No matter, you try your best to organize production, I'll think of ways to increase output."

After instructing Hezi on the details of the textile workers' tasks, Horn put away the lacquered notebook, but he still caught sight of a few people approaching at the end of the road.

"Alright, after the appetizer, it's time for the main course," turning around to face Haimodin and Patrick, Horn smiled.