Chapter 19: The Aggrieved Chief Doctor, Yang Hao’s Improvements

February 24th.

When Priscilla, pale-faced, arrived in Kagad Town with the imperial knights through the portal, they were once again welcomed by the local lord, Kagad III.

The family of Kagad III had lived on this plain for generations, and naturally, the entire plain, town, and farmlands belonged to him.

He welcomed the arrival of the Night Witch and was particularly delighted about her intention to plead with the diocese on their behalf.

“This is wonderful! If we can get the approval of the diocesan patriarchs, our territory can have a bountiful harvest next year.”

Seeing the Count pray devoutly to the cloudless sky, Priscilla didn’t know what to say for a moment.

The residents here didn’t understand the true nature of the drought, nor did they understand that her trip to the diocese wasn’t really about the drought, but about strengthening the relationship between the royal family and the diocese.

But what could she do? She couldn’t reveal the confidential details directly here, could she?

So, Priscilla could only agree and then turned to look at the streets, which were inexplicably caught up in some kind of fervent atmosphere. She saw residents participating in a mass led by priests of the God of Light and asked, “Yes, if everything goes well, but I notice that Kagad Town seems particularly jubilant. What’s going on?”

“Oh, that’s because our annual festival is approaching. This year, to please the God of Light and ensure a bountiful harvest for us.”

“Festival?”

Although Count Kagad’s territory was a neighboring county to the one where Skool Village was located, Priscilla wasn’t really familiar with the customs of Count Kagad’s territory.

She was very curious about this and thought it was admirable that the residents here were working together towards a common goal, which was better than many other towns in the surrounding areas.

In response to the Night Witch’s question, Count Kagad explained that recently his people had “voluntarily” gone to the Monster Forest to capture some long-horned creatures. They had already cut off their horns and were keeping them penned up, waiting to burn them along with wine and offerings to please the God of Light at the upcoming festival.

However, before he could finish, Priscilla frowned, “Creatures from the Monster Forest? Isn’t it just full of wild beasts?”

“They’re essentially wild beasts, although they have four limbs. But overall, they are still considered magical creatures. Besides magical creatures, we’re also planning to sacrifice some death row prisoners.”

“Death row prisoners? What did they do?”

“They provided medical aid to magical creatures without authorization. The entire family must be sacrificed to the God of Light to face divine judgment.”

“Uh…” 

Why would providing unauthorized medical aid to magical creatures make someone a death row prisoner? And why would it implicate their whole family?

Priscilla opened her mouth but ultimately remained silent.

She wordlessly led the imperial knights away from Kagad Town. Along the way, she saw countless devout believers prostrating themselves at the feet of fervent priests, receiving their blessings and loudly praising the greatness of the God of Light.

“The power of the diocese has increased again,” said Knight Robert through gritted teeth, as his chest wound still hadn’t fully healed. “They could easily muster several armies just within the religious authority, and now with their faith spreading, it seems the only force that can rival them is General Dreycar’s military.”

“But the military… Hmph, even your armor is in such a state. Can we really rely on the military?”

“At least they are better trained. They know how to shoot crossbows, how to form ranks, and understand that war is not about faith and recklessness, but about strategy and tactics.”

“And what about the crucial logistics?”

Priscilla’s heavy sigh left the imperial knight in silence.

Their group left the town, crossed the drawbridge of the gate under the stone walls, and arrived on the national road in the suburban area outside the city.

The neglected national road was overgrown with weeds, and the cracked stone bricks made it difficult for the horses to move without caution.

As they occasionally passed a group of farmers coming to town to sell their goods, they overheard their complaints.

“The drought in the central region seems to be spreading– Ow! Almost made me fall. What kind of roads did the former regent build? This is worse than the ridges in my field.”

“Look at what you’re saying. The road isn’t bad, it’s just not maintained.”

“Then isn’t this the former regent’s fault? Building roads but not maintaining them, what’s the point of building them?”

“You’re right. Sigh… a couple of years ago, things were really bad. Out of nowhere, he started those night schools. Now my wife and daughter are mad about learning to read, instead of staying home to prepare dowries. What’s the use of a wife who can read? After all that grain she eats, she still needs a dowry.”

“And those underground pipes, so hard and unyielding, surely those things angered the God of Light and caused this drought to come.”

“And a few years ago, that Red Cross. My brother clearly had no illness, but once he went there, they found something wrong with him. I told him not to go, but he didn’t listen. Now look, he went, and the illness latched onto him. Going to the doctor is useless compared to praying to the great God of Light, even the holy water from the priests is more effective than the Red Cross’s medicine.”

“And those factories, making it so that my uncle’s painstakingly woven straw sandals won’t sell. If my daughter hadn’t married well, he might have hanged himself by now.”

“And the heating in the capital. Hmph! The Regent didn’t build anything like that for our Count Kagad’s territory. Isn’t that just favoritism toward the royal family that supports him?”

“So now the project seems to have stopped?”

“All the Regent’s fault.”

“All the Regent’s fault. The late Emperor shouldn’t have appointed him as Regent in the first place.”

The chattering farmers quickly passed along the national road.

The Night Witch turned back, looking at the farmers’ backs with an extremely complicated expression. The clothes they wore were still the cheap garments produced by the steam factories a few years ago.

She opened her mouth but was speechless. 

Knight Robert sighed, saying at least they still remembered the late Emperor.

“The late Emperor and the Regent together were the true rulers of the Roman Empire,” Knight Robert said. “The Regent understands countless reforms, but his political maneuvers are not as strong as those of the late Emperor. The late Emperor could negotiate with numerous talents and balance everyone’s interests politically, but he lacked the ability to enact reforms. If they had governed this country together, it wouldn’t have fallen to this state. Why did the late Emperor have to die on the battlefield? Sigh.”

The Night Witch recalled the late Emperor, the father of the little Empress, who died on the battlefield fighting against the barbarians.

He died a heroic and honorable warrior’s death, yet why did such a warrior die because of an arrow to the back during a cavalry charge?

The Night Witch thought of the little Empress’s tongue, the little Empress’s mother who also died due to an accident, and the last remaining male member of the Roman royal family.

She shivered instinctively. What would the Roman Empire have to become to avoid its eventual downfall?

She truly didn’t know.

***

Meanwhile, in the cellar of Kagad Town.

The magical monsters whose antlers had been cut off were sobbing softly, while Joseph, a former Red Cross doctor who had risked his life to come here to save them but ended up implicating his family, could only cry bitterly, holding his wife and daughters.

“I’m sorry, my wife, my children, I’m sorry.” 

Joseph’s face was streaming with tears. His wife and daughters, exhausted from crying, could only nestle in his arms, softly sobbing.

“I shouldn’t have taken this risk. I should have left this filthy and corrupt country with them. These human-shaped beasts, I always knew they couldn’t change their barbaric ways, but I never imagined they’d be worse than animals. These children thought they were rescuing the helpless and wanted to help, and yet those beasts did such things… Ah! Ah!”

Joseph was the chief doctor of the Red Cross established by the Regent. Under the guidance of the night school, he used his intelligence to complete the then-crude study of herbal medicine within two years. After years of providing free medical aid to the poor through the Red Cross, he became the chief doctor.

He was one of those who personally witnessed the Regent being driven away. At that time, he was performing surgery on a dying poor man.

As a result, he and his assistant wife and daughter were dragged out and beaten. He happened to see the Regent’s lonely figure walking down the national road.

Although the Red Cross had been completely abandoned, Joseph still adhered to his oath in front of the Regent.

He and his wife and daughter traveled with their surgical tools and herbal packs, providing medical aid to those in need. Even if the patients they saved never offered him a cup of hot water and instead devoted their gratitude to the God of Light, he lived proudly yet poorly this past year. He often felt he owed his wife and daughter, who could not enjoy a better life.

The more skilled he became in surgery, the louder the praise for the God of Light grew from the patients who survived under his care.

The louder the praise for the God of Light, the more families of patients came to seek his help.

This cycle continued. He earned very little money and barely drank a few cups of hot water from the patients’ families. He saved countless lives, yet those he saved took it for granted.

Friends had once tried to persuade him, saying that the Roman Empire was no longer the enlightened nation it was under the Regent’s rule. They suggested he should cross the sea to Isugard, go to the elves, or even to the kingdom of the Great Khan, which would be better than lingering here.

Joseph, however, still adhered to his oath. He never forgot that he studied to make the Roman Empire stronger, nor did he forget that he practiced medicine to relieve the common people from suffering.

Yet, the events in Count Kagad’s territory shattered his faith completely.

Who had he been saving all this time, people or livestock?

Seeing those magical beings with their antlers cut off, Joseph’s hands trembled uncontrollably. 

These were living beings. Why did they deserve such treatment? Why should they suffer this way? Why?

In a fit of impulse, he grabbed his medical kit and resolutely sneaked into the cellar. He stopped the bleeding and stitched the wounds of the injured girls, but he was powerless to restore the missing organs on their heads.

Such injuries could only be treated by pleading with the elves, begging those who knew limb regeneration magic to cast their spells.

Before Joseph could draw this conclusion, a blow to the back of his head sent him staggering to the ground.

When he awoke, he was locked in the cellar. He saw the farmer whose elderly mother and brother he had once saved through surgery, now grabbing his wife and daughters and dragging them into the cellar.

“Heretic colluding with the demon folk!”

Spitting on Joseph’s face, the farmer’s words, along with the sight of his trembling wife and daughters, made Joseph’s faith collapse completely.

Who had he been saving all this time, people or beasts?

Facing the prospect of being burned at the stake alongside his family and the demon folk on March 1st, the chief doctor wept bitterly.

This man, who hadn’t shed a tear even when his parents were killed by barbarians, was finally broken.

As Joseph was weeping uncontrollably, a pale demon girl stepped forward. She tore off some pieces of her rough clothing and used them to wipe the tears of the three humans before her.

She murmured softly in a language incomprehensible to humans, but knowing she was trying to comfort him, Joseph began to cry once more.

“Regent… Your Majesty the late Emperor! Forgive my presumption. Please return like lightning and bring this corrupt empire to a burning end. I’m begging you! Don’t let these beasts in human form harm others anymore, please!”

In the cellar of Count Kagad’s territory, the utterly heartbroken doctor and the demon folk leaned on each other, venting their fear and grievances.

***

Meanwhile, in the Ling tribe village in the Monster Forest, Yang Hao instructed the tribe.

“Chieftain, have your people follow my directions. Yes, have the children with less magic power make the hands within this framework, and have the adults with ample magic power make the limbs and torso within this framework. Yes! Exactly! Just like that… I knew it. As long as we set a standard, even those of your tribe who can’t create golems on their own can contribute to the golem’s production.”

Watching a golem slowly rise before him, slightly smaller than the chieftain’s over eight-meter-tall golem but still over five meters tall, Yang Hao was extremely excited. This meant that the good days for the people of Kagad were numbered.

Soon, an endless army of golems would break through the lines of the God of Light’s priests and militia, storming into the heart of Kagad Town and catching them completely off guard.

However, with this development, he had a new idea.

These golems, according to the chieftain, required precise control to the point where they could delicately hold a bird egg between two stone fingers.

This meant that one Ling tribesperson could only control one golem, and depending on the precision of the golem’s movements, the magic power consumed could vary greatly, affecting the efficiency of the golem army.

This was problematic, as Yang Hao didn’t need these golems to perform the agile, dancing movements that Narujia was so proud of.

He just needed these golems to smash, hit, push, and charge. Simple actions.

So, after thinking it over, he suddenly had a new idea in his excitement.

Could they reverse the approach, foregoing precise control, and instead, like an ant colony, have one Ling tribesperson control ten golems to launch an attack?

This would not only be more efficient but also free up more manpower to be used as a reserve force.

But whether this could work depended on whether the Ling tribe had the capability.

With this in mind, Yang Hao turned to look for Narujia.

While he was searching for Narujia, he didn’t realize that Teresa was standing in front of Narujia with a serious expression, explaining the preparations needed for the next talk with Yang Hao.