CHAPTER 129: CHAPTER 127: GREAT EXPECTATIONS

"Are you saying that this is my Witch territory?"

"Yes, congratulations, the land you’ve been longing for is right here."

No wonder Qianqian, the little underling, connected so swiftly and quickly.

Jia Li, as a high-ranking member, had to delay until now, turns out she was off doing this.

To be honest, Horn felt a bit touched.

You weren’t spoiling your goddaughter for nothing.

He lowered his head to carefully review the map in his hands, while Jia Li sat nearby providing the introduction.

Horn’s future territory is a place called Swamp Town, with 810 townsfolk. It covers an area of about 50 acres and focuses mainly on medicinal processing.

The nearby seven villages have 1919 villagers, besides planting grains and fruit trees, mainly grow medicinal plants.

The normal annual income is about 30 gold pounds. The people of Black Snake Bay are fierce, the lord can’t collect taxes, but a Witch overseeing might likely collect it.

This place is close to the Ruo’an Faction’s base Long Embankment City, making trade accessible, with the mountains on the side, convenient for Demon Hunters to escape.

Really good indeed.

Once in Swamp Town, he has a foothold, Horn’s Witch sickness can batch-produce Alchemists.

By then, alchemy production, economic development, army training, territory expansion, and then repeat the cycle.

Perhaps his Swamp Town might become Swamp City or even Swamp Fortress in the future!

"By the way, there’s something very important you need to know." Jia Li crossed her arms, squeezing two rounded curves from her silk dress.

"The highest authority in our Ruo’an Faction is the Eleven-member Council, composed of Witches and Wizards, its members are called High Priests.

One of the High Priests, Wizard Patrick, is 71 years old now and has a severe lung disease, he’s likely to retire in five years.

By then, each High Priest must nominate a candidate to Supreme High Priest Ruo’an III, preferably a Witch.

Currently, outside the Eleven-member Council, there aren’t many qualified individuals. All five Witches of the Ruo’an Faction are already within the Council.

Hence, as long as in the next five years you don’t make mistakes or even achieve small successes, there’s a high chance Ruo’an III might promote you to the Eleven-member Council."

Jia Li stood up, pressing her hands on the table: "If nothing goes wrong, in five years, you’ll enter the core power circle of Ruo’an Faction, and as the youngest High Priest."

"Is this something you can maneuver?" Despite being stirred, Horn questioned.

"You think I’m not in the Eleven-member Council? You’ll get nominations from me and my allies.

Furthermore, if we were to have a Witch, Ruo’an III would even wish to appoint her as successor, just like Emperor El Gaius and Gavin.

A stable inheritance of three generations of Witch lineage, how much support and networking do you think we could gain?"

Staring at Jia Li’s bright and sharp eyes, Horn coughed slightly, avoiding her gaze.

"Jeanne is also a Witch. Can she enter this council?"

Jia Li’s face turned displeased instantly: "Difficult, first, there aren’t that many vacancies, you’re lucky; second, Ruo’an III likely wouldn’t favor her."

"Why?"

"Because I’ve spoken badly about her."

Horn was speechless for quite a while before saying: "I remember initially you two had a good relationship."

"She’s my rival in love. I didn’t deal a fatal blow to her just out of regard for you."

"...You’re a good woman, I’ve always considered you like a sister."

"That’s not up to you." Leaning forward, Jia Li tilted Horn’s chin, "You think I’d nominate you for free? There are some hidden rules beneath the surface, and you clearly don’t understand them, Papa."

Horn coughed violently: "Cough, cough, cough, talk about it later, talk about it."

"One more thing, I might have to leave the day after tomorrow." Straightening up, Jia Li turned her face, curling her hair strand with her finger, casually said.

Horn widened his eyes: "Leaving the day after tomorrow, why? Is it so urgent?"

He hasn’t even handled the resettlement of these refugees, not even transferring those evidences to Duke Kush.

"There’s a small trouble at home, waiting for me to deal with it. Don’t worry, I’ve arranged for another Wizard to escort you to Black Snake Bay.

The ship to Black Snake Bay departs every seven days, so after I leave, you’ll have to wait seven more days before leaving, Duke Dane will help handle the loose ends.

It’s quite close to Black Snake Bay here, but now Demon Hunters are hunting Secret Faction all over, so still can’t take too many people at once, at most can only take one boatload."

Jia Li raised three fingers: "When you leave, you can bring up to 30 people. The others will have to temporarily stay here at Joan of Arc Castle.

If you wish to bring them over, then you’ll have to wait one or two more years, until the situation stabilizes."

"Alright."

"Okay, I have other things to handle." Standing up, stretching lazily, Jia Li waved her hand at Horn, "The day after tomorrow, when I leave, I’ll introduce you to the person taking you away."

With her boots tapping in neat steps, Jia Li’s silhouette left the wooden hut, Horn wiped the sweat from his forehead. If only she were as adorable as she used to be...

Nope, she used to be quite annoying too.

Yet, Horn pulled out the campaign notebook from a box, picked up the quill pen, and began to record.

It’s been two days of rest, time to get moving.

This period, neither too long nor too short, makes Joan of Arc Castle quite a talent market, just right for Horn to recruit some skilled talents from among them.

Based on the small town’s situation, Horn wrote down the words "Pharmacist," "Stonemason," "Engineer" in the notebook.

The need for pharmacists comes from Swamp Town’s medicinal processing industry. After all, when processing raw medicinal materials, might as well make high value-added products.

Stonemasons are not stone-carving artisans; their primary role is architects, responsible for architectural design and engineering projects.

Due to the Empire’s low construction technology, a larger building might take dozens, even over a hundred years to build. Hence, stonemasons are essentially lifelong professions and hard to find.

To become wealthy, first build roads; infrastructure is the foundation for economic development, and stonemasons are born for this reason.

The first two are slightly better, while the last engineers are truly scarce.

Because the two main types of work for engineers are water conservancy projects and military engineering.

Both are high techs of the Middle Ages, usually exclusive to lords, one radish one pit.

Most times, engineers are rare, if any, they’re advisors to the lord’s court, enjoying decent status and salary.

Horn needs this group to help him develop water conservancy and spring mechanism development; he always felt spring gun isn’t the limit.

But when Horn laid out the conditions, he found it difficult.

He’s going to a place in the Barbaric Lands like Black Snake Bay.

Even the artisan agents probably can’t find pharmacists, engineers, and stonemasons meeting conditions.

Even if lowering the level and swapping genuine artisans for apprentices, they may not willingly go to his place.

This Joan of Arc Castle has over forty thousand people with a bunch of floating population, like searching for a needle in a haystack, how to find them?

From dusk till the moon hung high in the sky, losing hair over the table, Horn still had to rub his aching head and stand up.

In the end, he needs to find help from Casti.

Can only continue this trick for another ten days.

Such is the way, there’s no alternative.