Chapter 558 - A Year of Steady Development
Chapter 558: A Year of Steady Development
Baheshtur saw Kant open the white metal book to the fourth page, but he only opened it halfway before closing it.
“I can’t see anything from this white metal book, but Lord Kant might be able to see something.” Baheshtur thought.
Kant’s expression of deep thought had already lasted for a few minutes.
“Lord, are you alright?” Baheshtur asked carefully.
Kant blinked, shook his head and said, “I’m fine, Baheshtur. Prepare to take over Lionheart City! The west city gate of Lionheart City is no longer a concern. The knight orders of those sects should not come looking for trouble with us anymore!”
Gold, light, darkness, and dark red, the four-colored radiance was incomparably brilliant. This was the scene Kant saw in the half of the fourth page of Book of Prophecy. Above the four-colored radiance stood a figure wearing a blood-colored cloak and with golden hair draped over his shoulders. He held a broken sword in his hand, the four-colored radiance on the broken sword rose, and there were also drops of purple blood.
When Kant saw half of it, he forcefully closed the book of prophecy.
“Even if I read the entire fourth page of the Book of Prophecy, I wouldn’t know who I’m fighting, right?”
Kant thought that way. It was just like how the god of war, Edmund, only showed his war attitude towards him when he stepped into Lionheart City. Perhaps this could explain the scene that the god of war saw on the fourth page of the Book of Prophecy. Was him being surrounded and killed by a golden-haired figure wearing a blood-red cloak? But obviously, the god of war, Edmund, could not judge who his opponent was based on those characteristics.
“My sword is broken. Did I hurt him or kill him? Or perhaps I was defeated, heavily injured, or even killed by him? It’s better to leave all of this to the unknown. I only need to know that I will definitely meet a terrifying enemy in the future. This is enough, knowing the result would be bad instead. Do I have to pay attention to or wait for such a scene to appear?”
Kant refused to have such a scene appear. Now was just the right time. Not only did he satisfy his curiosity about the future, but he also wouldn’t directly restrain himself just because he saw the scene in the prophecy.
It would be fine as long as he continued to be strong.
“Let’s complete the main quest of the system first! Conquer the Dukedom of Leo and become the only ruler of the Dukedom of Leo.”
Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, a year had passed.
Just as Kant had expected, the knight orders from the other countries and sects were called back by the sects when they were halfway through. This was an anticlimactic operation.
As for the rumors of Baron Kant defecting to the devil, the religions of the other countries announced one after another to clarify for Baron Kant, explaining that Baron Kant was a noble and had nothing to do with the devil.
Kant naturally understood that his previous impressive reputation and powerful strength were indeed a great threat to the gods. However, since he had already slaughtered the god of war and advanced to become a world noble, he was no longer a threat to the gods.
Within a year, Kant did not launch any more invasions, and those world nobles who had mistakenly thought that Kant had promoted himself to a world noble never came to seek an alliance with Kant again. It seemed that Kant had really killed the god of war and offended them.
However, they did not shout like the god of war before his death, “We will not let him go.” Kant had a rare year of peace and tranquility.
Over the past year, thanks to the existence of the system, Kant’s estate had developed rapidly. Such a speed of development was not an exaggeration to call it a miracle.
Firstly, Kant’s estate in the Nahrin Desert, the Drondheim located in the Oasis Lookout had once again expanded to the size of a large-scale fortress, with 5,000 soldiers stationed there, Kant’s most powerful subordinate, the underworld apostle Bunduk, was leading them.
Oasis Lookout had also expanded its scope because of the date palm jungle, wheat fields, and the splendor meadow. In the vicinity of Drondheim’s main fortress, many high-class houses had been added to the village. The clean and tidy stone pavement connected these villages to Drondheim’s fortress.
Today, in the Oasis Lookout, in addition to the 5,000 soldiers stationed in Drondheim, there were 30,000 civilians. Most of them worked in the date palm forests, wheat fields, chee grass field, camel farms, and sand grouse farms. Their continuous work, together with Kant’s topographical transformation, made the Oasis Lookout expand.
The civilians who first came were mostly working in the large salt mill, large spice mill, large sugar mill, large bakery, and large mill in Drondheim Fortress. Sacks of salt, spices, and sugar were piled up from the shops all the way to the street, and merchants were driving their carriages to come and go. The air was filled with the fragrance of various spices mixed together.
In the salt mines further north, the scale of the original posthouse had also expanded a lot. It gradually became the size of a small town. Some civilians became miners and settled in this small town. As Baron Kant’s territory became more and more prosperous, as well as selling more fine white salt in Lionheart City, they needed to carry out a greater mining effort in the salt mines. At this time, there were already 3,000 miners in this small town. They were all civilian miners, civilians from the world of “Mount and Blade”, and about 2,000 slave miners.
At the exit of the Senwaya Range, there was a central posthouse that connected the Oasis Lookout and the Aaron Castle in the Senwaya Range, or the Stone Pass. Because Baron Kant’s estate was more prosperous, there were more trade caravan. This made the posthouse, which used to be a transit point, become more prosperous and gradually developed into a perfect town. Of course, the trade caravan that traveled to and from the small station was formed after the commoners from the “Mount and Blade” world developed in this world and chose to become merchants. As for the trade caravan of this world, if they wanted to buy fine white salt, spices, and sugar from the depths of the Nahrin Desert, they could only trade in Lionheart City.
This place was now considered the hinterland of Baron Kant’s estate.
As Kant’s original estate, Drondheim’s development was very good. Its military power, agricultural development, and industrial development were all very good. Salt, spices, sugar, and other luxury goods were still an important part of Kant’s economic industry. But after all, it was limited by the terrain of the desert, so it couldn’t develop too quickly.
This was compared to the second city that Kant established, Aaron.
In fact, compared to the other kingdoms and dukedoms in the world, Drondheim was already a first-class prosperous city. Although it stood in the harsh environment of the Nahrin Desert. But it has become a miracle in the Nahrin Desert. This was the comment from the noble, religious, adventurers, bards, spies and all other professions that knew a little bit of Drondheim, and the comment of the civilians who knew Drondheim through them.
If Baron Kant had not refused to sign the certificate of residence in Drondheim for the people of this world, the population of Drondheim would have increased by ten or twenty thousand.
In fact, not only Drondheim, but all the cities and towns in Baron Kant’s estate were not open to the people of this world. After the outsiders stayed for a while, they would always be politely reminded by the soldiers in Baron Kant’s estate that it was time for them to leave.
Aaron, this was Kant’s second town in the world. It had developed into a big city with a population of 200,000. In Aaron, there were also 5,000 soldiers stationed, led by the battlefield doctor James.
This was a city built on top of a mountain in the Senwaya Range, and it was also the tallest city in the world. In the Senwaya Range, the land was rich, and the resources were abundant. The successful development of the terraced fields made Aaron one of Kant’s granaries.
Aaron City’s unique geographical location made the livestock industry that existed earlier also get great development. Chicken farms, pig farms, sheep farms, cattle farms, bee farms… dotted in the Senwaya Range, they provided fresh meat and milk products to Kant’s estate. They were also one of the suppliers of raw materials for the furry workshops, leather workshops, and tanning workshops in Aaron City.
The rich wood resources in the Senwaya Range made Aaron City the largest supplier of charcoal, wood crafts, and wood furniture in the world. The iron ore resources found in the Aaron mountain range not only allowed Aaron City to own the largest iron workshop in Kant’s estate, supplying the demand for iron farm tools throughout Kant’s estate, but also set up a huge weapons and armor workshop.
Although Kant’s soldiers all had weapons and armor provided by the system, the weapons business was also a business that was as profitable as white salt. Naturally, this business was also in Kant’s hands.
Aaron City had a flourishing agriculture, industry, handicraft industry, and commerce. With the development of these industries, Kant could collect a lot of denars through special taxes. The residents of Aaron City were naturally from the commoners of the world of “Mount and Blade”.
Compared to the great development of Drondheim and Aaron, Kant’s third city, Sargoth, was located in the East County. It was next to the Resniston River and backed by the mountain range that connected the underground passage to Aaron City, however, it did not develop by leaps and bounds economically.
After all, this was the East County. With the betrayal of the noble families of the East County in the civil war a year ago, Kant’s control of the East County was considered to have failed. Kant had been developing his estate for the past year, he was digesting the fruits of victory obtained from the invasion of the Dukedom of Leo.
Although Sargoth did not have much economic development, the level of the fortress was successfully upgraded by Kant, becoming a large-scale fortress like Drondheim. At the same time, the number of soldiers stationed here was also 5000, led by Baheshtur.
These were the developments of the three cities that Kant had established in the first place.
Apart from that, the territory of the Dukedom of Leo, which had been completely occupied by Kant, the entire North County and half of the South County in the north, had also been completely digested by Kant.
The noble families in the North County had all been eliminated by Firentis, while the civilians of the North County that belonged to this world had been expelled by Firentis. This was an order from Kant. Kant was determined to develop an empire that was built entirely on the basis of population of “Mount and Blade” world.
Of course, Kant did not deliberately torture the people of this world who were expelled by Firentis. Instead, he only expelled them after paying them the fixed assets that they could not take away. They did not have to worry about not having a place to go. In this world, population was the most important resource. As long as they were willing to serve, all the lords were willing to accept them.
At the center of the North County that was almost emptied, Kant once again built a city. Kant named it Veluca.
Veluca City was defined by Kant as an inland trading city. It was similar to Aaron, but mainly agricultural. After all, North County was now the hinterland of Kant’s territory.
With Veluca City as the center, with the castles left behind by the noble families as the center, Kant built a large number of houses in North County and upgraded them to high-level houses, attracting a large number of people from the world of “Mount and Blade”.
The entire North County accommodated two million people from the world of “Mount and Blade”. The existence of these people was of great significance to Kant. At any time, Kant could turn them into militia, and after one battle after another, they could quickly upgrade to a high-level up troop class. When they were not needed, they would help Kant farm, and they could also provide Kant with a poll tax and a large amount of food.
So, for now, the job of these people was to help Kant open up the North County and grow food.
The land of the North County was relatively barren, but it was not too bad. No matter how barren the North County was, it would not be as barren as the Oasis Lookout. North County used to grow barley and oats. Compared to wheat and oats, they were more suitable for the barren land. Of course, the taste was much worse, and the price was cheaper.
Kant did not make many changes to this. He also mainly planted barley and oats and introduced potatoes and onions.
The change was that the surplus barley produced in the North County was bought by Kant in large quantities into Veluca City. They brewed delicious malt wine and sold well in various countries in exchange for a large number of golden eagles. The surplus oats were bought by Kant in large quantities into the Veluca City and ground into powder. This was the feed for a good warhorse. The Dukedom of Leo, who loved to train cavalry, could digest more than half of this oat powder.
Veluca City only had 2,000 soldiers stationed there, and they were led by Firentis. In the large number of noble castles in the North County, Kant sent out a number of Swadian Royal Knights and Sarleon Lion Knights to station there and asked them to assist Fatis in governing the entire North County.
Similar to the North County, Kant also established a city South County, and named it Jelkala. In Jelkala, there were 5,000 soldiers stationed, and they were led by Rolf.
Jelkala was the center of the entire South County. It was also the southernmost part of the South County that Kant had obtained. Kant had developed it into a fortress city, which corresponded to Lionheart City from the north to the south.
The development model of half of the South County was similar to that of the North County. However, due to the richness of the land, they mainly cultivated wheat. Half of the South County allowed Kant to accommodate 1,000,000 people from the world of “Mount and Blade”. Furthermore, it was one of Kant’s important granaries.
As for Kant himself, other than patrolling his estate, he had always been stationed in Lionheart City. At this moment, there were heavy troops stationed in Lionheart City by Kant. There was a total of 10,000 soldiers, most of which were level 4 or 5 troop class.
During this one year, Kant’s strength had been developing rapidly, preparing for the system’s main quest.
Now, even if the five world noble families of the Dukedom of Leo were to unite, Kant had accumulated enough strength to prepare for another expedition.