plumnovel #233 - The Papal States
#233 - The Papal States
December 28th, Imperial Calendar 1444.
Great Marsh Township, Autumn Dusk Island.
The cold wind snuck into Mittenia's clothes through his cuffs, causing him to shiver involuntarily.
Following Krispa, they departed from Jeanneburg, traversed the shadowy Wild Spider Forest, and finally reached their destination after a four-day journey.
"They renamed this place Great Marsh Township?"
"Yes," Sisi said with a smile while greeting someone she knew, "It didn't sound good to always call it Black Bone Swamp."
Nodding in response, Mittenia stood on the dock, surveying the small harbor.
Compared to the cargo throughput of the port, it was far too large, capable of handling three or four times more cargo.
Watching the beastmen laboriously carrying lumber onto the dock, a sense of curiosity arose in Mittenia's heart.
How did this miraculous Holy Grandson manage to subdue these untamed and pagan beastmen?
Eloquence? Or force?
"Sister Sisi!" Accompanied by the sound of hooves, Armand rode over from afar.
Sisi immediately waved with a smile to her companion who had endured hardships together: "Over here!"
Armand dismounted, gave Sisi a big hug, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then noticed the envoys who had come along.
"Haha, sorry, I was a bit excited since we're companions who went through thick and thin together." Armand stepped forward, exchanged greetings with Mittenia and the others, and introduced himself.
"…I am the Great Debater of the Holy Father Society. The Cardinal asked me to tell you that he is busy training soldiers at the military camp and suggests that you first take a stroll around the city, rest, and meet in the afternoon or evening. What do you think?"
This cheerful young cleric made a good impression on Mittenia, which improved his perception of Hohen as well: "Sounds good, no problem, let's go."
The group mounted their riding horses and headed towards the town.
Leaving the dock, as the horse team advanced, everything around them began to look desolate.
A thin layer of white frost clung to the withered yellow grass, and the turbid sunlight shone through the gray haze, struggling to illuminate the yellow-black land.
Although the sunlight was on his back, Andar felt little warmth, as if even the sunlight had been swallowed by the winter's chill.
Sparse bushes swayed in the cold wind, their leaves long gone, leaving only withered yellow branches barely surviving.
As they rode their horses along the road, Andar saw bubbling mud swamps scattered across the fields.
Mittenia pinched his nose, unable to bear the stench: "Lord Armand, how much longer until we arrive?"
"Soon, soon." Armand rode in the lead, "Listen, that's the sound of the Para River flowing."
Passing through a sparse forest and crossing a newly renovated small bridge, a large pile of ruins was hidden behind the bushes.
However, the sharp-eyed Andar still spotted the town gate amidst the chaotic ruins.
"I didn't expect there to be a relic of the El Empire here." As a scholar, Martial's lips curled up, unable to suppress his excitement.
The accompanying Great Chanter Thomas gave a thumbs up: "I didn't expect you to have such good taste. That's right, this is proof that our Papal State is the Third El Empire."
The Third El Empire? Mittenia looked at Sisi with a questioning gaze.
"A guise to deceive those beastmen, don't expose it." Covering her mouth with her hand, Sisi lowered her voice.
"Oh, oh, oh." Mittenia suddenly understood, no wonder those beastmen were so obedient.
Andar looked at Thomas's confident eyes, feeling that something was strange.
Following the Para River upstream, the group arrived at two broken gates. The ancient El-style moldings and grooves immediately caused Martial to exclaim.
"Corinthian columns, classic, so classic."
"Rare! So rare! A portrait of Emperor Alexandrus in his youth!"
Unlike Martial, who couldn't help but shout excitedly, Mittenia, who had a certain level of appreciation, focused on the newly built houses.
Observing the building in front of him, which had both El-style and classical flavors, Mittenia's curiosity grew even more.
He had to admit that the streets of this town were really quite clean, with surprisingly little excrement on the main streets.
This was even better than Rapid Current City.
Looking at the public toilets along the road and the bruised and swollen people pushing carts to collect manure, Mittenia couldn't help but smile.
If there was one drawback, it was the lack of street trees and green plants in the flower beds.
After escaping the desolate wilderness and ruins, the smell of smoke and fire in the air relieved a lot of Andar's previous depression.
Soon, he saw an interesting scene.
In the open space formed by tall houses, groups of young men wearing thin clothes climbed onto horse-drawn carriages in the cold wind and drove towards the wild.
"What is that?" Mittenia also noticed this situation and pointed over to ask.
"Oh, these are the final recruits of our third batch of conscription, and also the last conscription, a total of 1000 Edict Companies are being recruited." Thomas replied immediately.
"How many Edict Companies?"
"1000 what?"
Andar and Mittenia exclaimed almost simultaneously.
Sisi coughed: "Um, in the Papal State's system, the size of an Edict Company, cough, is one person."
Mittenia and Andar looked at each other, their eyes filled with disbelief.
Knowing that the Savior Army was formed by farmers, they were prepared for them to be a little unreliable.
But they really didn't expect them to be this unreliable.
Before Mittenia could recover, Andar suddenly stood up on horseback, looked into the distance, and frowned.
At a street corner, a dozen beastmen with pointed beast ears stood in front of a cleric, shouting fiercely.
"What's that again?"
"Oh, those are our beastman semi-legions, they missed the conscription time and are causing a ruckus." Thomas shaded his eyes with his hand.
These beastmen were mostly war prisoners and laborers who were brought in by Hohen to build military camps. Out of simple religious enthusiasm, they wanted to join the Savior Army.
Hohen only planned to form beastman semi-legions, with one semi-legion consisting of 250 beastmen.
Their main responsibility was to use the eliminated Cannedy Type I clockwork guns and bows and arrows to fight skirmishes.
"What about your night watch guards? Do you want to suppress them? We'll wait here." Andar kindly reminded.
"It's okay, we'll just have their Holy God Priests lead them away later."
"Holy God Priests? What's that?"
"Oh, it's a small sect under the Misaila Church, mainly the Southern Barbarian beastman group, they worship the Holy Grandson as a god."
"Worship who as a god?"
"Worship the Holy Grandson as what?"
Mittenia and Andar blurted out again in unison.
"No need to be surprised." Thomas twitched the reins, proudly saying, "Our Papal State implements a policy of religious tolerance, allowing dual faiths."
What are you proud of?
Mittenia almost blurted out, isn't this pure heresy and paganism?
Andar asked as if in a dream: "Then, then do the clerics have no objections?"
"No, the Holy Grandson asked Saint Lord Misaila in a dream, and the Saint Lord said personally: Go ahead."
Watching the Holy God Priests in their pagan robes, bone ornaments, only replacing their scepters with the Chi-shaped cross, waving their scepters to drive away the beastmen, Mittenia fell into complete silence.
"Sisi, what other surprises don't I know about?"
"Ahem, oh, we've arrived at the central official residence square of El Town!"
"Did you know about these things before?"
"Oh, isn't that the ancient El Theater? Let's look at the church in the distance, my Mittenia."
Looking at Sisi's evasive appearance, Mittenia had an estimate in his heart, probably because she was afraid that Catherine would completely lose confidence, so she helped Hohen and the others hide it.
"Don't look at them like this, they are actually very reliable." Seeing Mittenia and Andar's faces quickly turning strange, Sisi quickly said.
"Is, is that so." Putting away the feeling of disappointment on his face, Mittenia smoothly changed the subject, "Monk Armand, please take us to meet your, um, Holy Grandson as soon as possible."
"It's not noon yet, don't you want to take a look at the industrial area?" Thomas asked with confusion, "There is a rotating Holy Machine with the invisible hand of the Holy Father turning there, I guarantee it will blow your minds, it's so magical."
What industrial area are we going to? It's probably just a pile of rotten blacksmiths and earth workshops.
And a rotating Holy Machine, with their Edict Person and the act of worshiping the leader as a god, Mittenia estimates that the so-called rotating Holy Machine is just a simple hydraulic gear mechanism.
Anyway, Mittenia and Andar wouldn't believe a single word of what Thomas said.
Seeing the hesitant and helpless expressions on their faces, Armand stopped Thomas, who was still trying to persuade them, and said with a smile:
"Since you two want to see His Eminence so much, why not let Mr. Martial go to the industrial area to take a look, and you two come with me to the military camp to see His Eminence?"
Mittenia looked at Martial: "Is this arrangement okay with you?"
"It's perfectly fine." Martial didn't stand on ceremony and said happily, "I really want to broaden my horizons."