When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

Recently, Jeanne went with Patrick to the Wild Spider Forest every day, leaving the giant spiders there disheveled and embarrassed.

This served both to train Jeanne's witchcraft and to clear the outskirts of the Wild Spider Forest for the lumberyard to function properly.

Now, the lumberyard employed over a hundred loggers and more than eighty sawmill laborers. These cedar and pine trees would be turned into various boards and transported by water to Autumn Dusk Island.

Standing on the muddy shore of Autumn Dusk Island, Horn sat on his horse, watching the lake amidst the rain.

In the misty rain, beastmen laborers navigated small boats, transporting bark-stripped, short-cut, dried logs to the port.

At the port, several junior officials and craftsmen continuously inspected the results and handed out industrial vouchers, valued less than indulgence vouchers in appearance, in exchange for salt and sugar.

These industrial vouchers could be exchanged at the carpenter workshop for a set of solid wood furniture.

These industrial vouchers were very popular within the Beastman United Kingdom since this beautifully crafted solid wood furniture was quite rare.

Especially since it hailed from the great Third El Empire, an exotic piece from the sovereign country.

Besides, it was functional and could be sat on.

Now, Horn, relying on salt, sugar, and furniture, attracted a large labor force of beastmen. The beastmen from Nanze frequently traded wool under the name of tribute trade to acquire furniture and handcrafted goods.

Thinking about this, Horn couldn't help but sigh again, Duke Dane, you died, and still sent me nearly all-categories of handicraft laborers, how generous of you.

Joan of Arc Castle, a haven for the deity on the wall, gathered a large amount of labor from the Thousand River Valley.

These laborers were not without skills. Having worked for workshop masters for years, they achieved a journeyman's level, but couldn't obtain guild admission recognition and identification.

The positions within the guild were like a carrot in a pit, passed down from generation to generation, leaving no room for these outsiders with unclear backgrounds.

"Ah, the guild."

Spurring his horse, Horn left the shore, quickly heading toward the Pope's Palace.

After crossing the simple little wooden bridge, Horn arrived in front of the Mechanical Palace.

Hilov was already waiting in her wheelchair.

In front of her was a machine over one person tall, placed in a makeshift shed in the courtyard.

Composed of a wooden frame, wheels, lead blocks, a scroll, and slender raindrop-shaped supports, with the turning of star cast gears, black wool wound around iron forks gradually turned into fine black yarn.

"Here, the scroll spinning machine you wanted, I've made it," Hilov said with a smile.

Creating a more efficient spinning machine was Horn's solution to the army uniform shortage problem.

But he didn't adopt the historical spinning jenny's design.

The counter-intuitive thing was, despite the spinning jenny being highly praised, the thread it produced had significant quality issues.

The spinning jenny wasn't a universal spinning machine; it could only spin short-fibered cotton, and the yarn spun was too fine, uneven, and easily broke, with poor quality.

The cotton yarn spun by the spinning jenny wasn't for pure cotton fabric but rather for blended fabric of cotton, hemp, and wool.

When weaving with pure cotton thread produced by it, linen and wool were used as the warp, and cotton as the weft to complete the weaving.

The problem was, Horn didn't have cotton or much linen; he could only use sage as a substitute.

Analyzing specific problems, since there was no cotton, Horn had to find another approach.

The technical direction he suggested to Hilov was the scroll spinning machine by British clockmaker Richard Arkwright.

This spinning machine had four pairs of scrolls driven by water power, twisting fibers together with scrolls and wheels, producing strong yet coarse yarn.

Fortunately, the scroll spinning machine could weave woolen fabric, and a few cartloads of carefully combed black wool from the Shattered Stone Plain might spoil if left unused.

When Horn discussed this with Hilov, he only saw it as a long-term goal, wanting to see if she had any inspiration.

Unexpectedly, in just ten days, she had already created a prototype.

"How does that little brain of yours work?" Horn said admiringly, rubbing the furry top of Hilov's head.

Hilov's ears perked up on either side, enjoying the gentle touch: "It's not my doing. Actually, this kind of machinery had a prototype during the Ancient Aier Empire; it was just called the wind-powered spinning wheel."

"Wind-powered spinning wheel?"

"Yes." Hilov handed a drawing to Horn, "According to Ancient Aiel Records, specifically the 'Book of Agriculture,' wind-powered spinning wheels were widely used on the storm hills on the west coast of the Jade Sea.

Wind-powered spinning wheels had 32 spindles, using windmills as the power source, completing twisting and winding of yarn with spindles and yarn frames. The transmission between components was achieved with guide wheels and belts.

I simplified its structure, replacing its original windmill setup with star cast gears and water power."

Since the number of star cast gears was limited, if water power could be used, it was better to prioritize water power.

However, the prototype over a person's height in front of him was driven by the holy machine with a turn wheel, as the star cast gears had high energy density, capable of driving larger machines with smaller volumes.

If water power were used instead, the entire prototype would probably need to be enlarged at least another fold.

In his thoughts, Horn saw Brock enter through the door, and he immediately called over the dwarf.

Lowering his head, Horn asked Brock: "Have you seen the plans for the scroll spinning machine?"

"I've seen them but didn't understand," Brock admitted honestly, "Though I've seen some of its components which require special materials."

"Can we make it?"

"We can. The components can be substituted, but the whole design needs to be altered, which might require Miss Hilov to redo the design, and it's quite an effort."

"How long would making it take?"

"If we pull over three to five artisans from the clockwork guns, it might take about twenty days," Brock's heavy voice said slowly, "But the production of clockwork guns may decrease by one a day at most."

"Alright." Horn patted Brock's shoulder, "Then this matter is in your hands."

After a brief discussion with Hilov about the principles and design of the scroll spinning machine, and planning the timeline with her again, Horn set off to visit the industrial area.

But just as he stepped out the door, Patrick stopped him.

"What is it, Master Chrispa?" Horn asked, looking at Patrick, who had grabbed his reins.

Patrick, with a serious face, snapped his fingers, and a peculiar little bluebird flew down from a branch: "I received a message from the Ruo'an Faction in Joan of Arc Castle."

Although Horn had basically taken away all the Secret Faction from the Joan of Arc Castle region, he still kept some original informants.

Training troops in Daze Village didn't mean isolation; Horn was quite concerned with the outside world.

Seeing usually lighthearted Patrick becoming serious, a chill ran through Horn's heart.

A message from the Ruo'an Faction in Joan of Arc Castle... could it be the Female Grand Duke was preparing to act early, but he wasn't ready yet.

"What message?" Horn's tone became urgent.

"They said—between the Church and the Female Grand Duke—nothing has happened."

Suppressing his anger, Horn continued to ask: "Enough joking, what's the real message?"

"The mistress of the Meigedi Commerce Association, Catherine, sent an envoy who will arrive at Joan of Arc Castle soon, wanting to meet with you, asking you to send someone to escort him. Our Daze Village isn't easy to enter."