Ready to Begin

I agreed with Augus's suggestion, though he also proposed his own conditions.

Augus quickly gave his assent and then left to begin the preparations.

Once things stabilize, I believe... at least seventy percent of the farmland will be brought under the actual jurisdiction of Brilliant City.

Normally, the transition from an enfeoffment system to a centralized empire and then to a democratic state requires a long period of adjustment.

However, the situation in the Kingdom of the Moon is quite different.

First, both the faith and the royal power of this land are in my hands.

This means that no matter what I do, as long as it is not too extreme, I have an absolutely powerful mandate and standing.

Secondly, the Kingdom of the Moon has reached a point where it must change. Rather than making minor adjustments and continuing the cycle of negative consequences, it is better to strike directly at the peak of a centralized empire in one go.

Abolishing local fiefdoms for central rule, merging the poll tax into the land tax, and centralizing tax surcharges—I want to implement all of this in one step without any hesitation.

It is better to have short-term pain than long-term suffering.

Perhaps this will be painful, but once the overall reform is complete, the Kingdom of the Moon will flourish and reach the pinnacle of the strongest empires.

Of course, all of this has little to do with the common people; the important part is the circle of nobility.

To use a slow knife, one must still be able to stab the vital point with a single blow. If I didn't have five thousand years of history to draw from, I really wouldn't be able to handle them.

But all of this will have to wait until I successfully return alive.

As long as I return safely, this plan can fully begin, starting with the northeast region.

Then, using Brilliant City as the base and the railway as the path, I will roll out these policies all the way.

Uprooting the old ways wherever I go.

I will strive to completely eliminate the plague brought by the nobility.

Of course, this will cause significant turmoil, but I have other backers behind me, including the Holy See, the Dragon King, and even the document tablet in my hands.

With these, developing the Kingdom of the Moon is not difficult.

The difficulty lies in where to begin.

Everything is hard at the beginning. If the first step cannot be taken, then nothing that follows can proceed.

And Augus did not fail my expectations; he truly gave me a perfect opportunity to make the first cut.

The next part is simple. I will have Augus pressure those merchants to buy the land from the northeast nobles at low prices, and then convert all that land into the private property of the Temple.

Using a state-run farming system, I will merge the poll tax into the land tax to relieve the pressure on the people's livelihoods and restore production.

The money from restored production will be used to improve transportation and build railways.

Finally, the northeast will be completely transformed into state-owned land, leased out to the public.

In this way, I can basically reach the limit of what can be achieved right now.

To think of all this requires more than just being clever. Without the path paved by those who came before, who would think to link a state-run farming system with tax reform?

Any citizens who participate in state-run farming will have their poll tax abolished, replaced by a share of the land's yield.

As a result, the poll tax will completely disappear.

After long-term cooperation, once the ordinary people realize that the Temple is truly leasing the land to them permanently, they will naturally work hard at farming and living.

After all... survival is the most basic desire of all living creatures.

If even this is not satisfied, everything else is just empty talk.

The thousands of years of history I studied told me one thing.

As long as the people have food to eat and clothes to wear, they are willing to endure any amount of hardship.

Of course, subsequent reforms will have to wait until this part is finished. For now, these are the only things I can think of.

I turned my head to look at Lina beside me.

She was already listening with her mouth hanging open in shock.

In fact, I hadn't tried to drive her away at all. Precisely because she is also a Saintess and so innocent, I had the idea of winning her over.

Most importantly, the morning practice she mentioned to me today.

Such a thing is impossible to maintain without a great deal of willpower.

The fact that she can do it proves how firm her will is.

If such a person cannot be brought into my team, I must at least never offend her.

I have to say, this truly is a god-tier game; the setting for every character is so fleshed out.

I hadn't reached the later stages in the game, and I had previously rejected this Saintess of War as a potential interest because she was 'flat-chested.'

Therefore, I hadn't paid much attention to her.

Now, I have revealed my thoughts to her without reservation. What kind of reaction will she give me?

Will she turn around and stand with the nobles to oppose me?

Or will she remain neutral and help no one?

Or... will she truly stand on my side for the sake of the common people?

This is very important.

The support of another Saintess would greatly reduce the resistance to my reforms.

If the nobles of the Kingdom of the Moon knew that the Saintess of War also agreed with my reforms, they would never dare to think of rebelling.

At most, they would offer some resistance.

Of course, that doesn't rule out some fools charging in to seek their own deaths.

Until now, Lina, the Saintess of War, had not been on the 'recruitment list' I kept in my mind.

Because her Grandpa Scott, the current King of the Kingdom of the Highlands, is not an easy person to deal with. He is an old fox, and dealing with him is simply too exhausting.

Even though I have the experience of countless predecessors, I still cannot afford to be the least bit careless when facing such an old fellow.

He is difficult to handle, so she wasn't on my list.

Actually, the real list, besides Momoka, only had Elizabeth left.

If I can win the support of these two neighboring Saintesses, the nobles will naturally lose their backing.

Aside from the Holy See, they would have nowhere to turn, and even rebellion would become a pipe dream.

They would have no choice but to honestly take the blow. Of course, I will try to be as gentle as possible, so they feel less pain while bleeding a bit more.

"Lina, what do you think of my plan?"

For this blunt Saintess of War, I completely dropped the word 'Highness,' and by doing so, I invisibly drew our relationship a step closer.

Using such tactics on such an innocent girl did make me feel a tiny bit of guilt.

"It's great..."

Lina froze for a moment, looking down in thought for a long while before replying with those two words.

Clearly, she couldn't find a single flaw in it.

I watched her solemn expression as she rubbed her chin and continued to mutter quietly to herself.

"So you can actually play it like this?"

Hearing her words gave me goosebumps.

Sister, I'm not playing around; I'm playing with my life!

A single misstep could lead to a bottomless abyss.

However, explaining that to her would be useless.

"Yes, your plan is good. I like it very much. By the way... I want to use this method in the Kingdom of the Highlands. What do you think?"

"That... I'm sorry, I don't know the Kingdom of the Highlands very well, so it's hard to say for sure. Such a risky strategy must never be used in an unfamiliar place."

"Oh... that really is a pity."

Lina shook her head in disappointment. Clearly, she could see the benefits of this policy for the nation and the people.

The only ones who would suffer were the nobles.

I don't know what she thought of, but she suddenly turned her head and looked at me with burning eyes.

It made my skin crawl.

"What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?"

I wiped my face. Could a grain of rice have stuck to me while I was eating earlier?

"No, no, no, it's not that. Um... Luo Li, I wanted to ask, did you come up with this idea yourself?"

Seeing the hopeful look on Lina's face, I hesitated for a moment but still nodded and admitted it.

"I thought of it. Why?"

"Oh."

As soon as I finished speaking, Lina showed a look of disappointment, leaving me completely confused.

"What... what does that mean? Is my idea not good?"

"It's not that."

Lina's gaze was a bit evasive, making me even more suspicious.

"Then what is it?"

She awkwardly raised her hand to rub the back of her head.

"Actually... I just wanted to ask if you were the one who thought of it."

"And if I was?"

"Then it's nothing. I'll go first..."

"Wait!!"

Seeing Lina trying to flee and her attitude like a child who had done something wrong, I immediately became alert and asked again.

"What if it wasn't me?"

Lina looked embarrassed, hesitated for a moment, and then said:

"It's nothing, really. I just wanted to snatch the person who came up with the idea... ah, no, I mean invite them away."

Seeing her like this, I was instantly speechless.

This girl... she definitely meant 'snatch' and not 'invite,' didn't she?

As expected of the Saintess of War, she resolves everything in a straightforward, warlike manner.

Kidnapping my people?

Good grief, you're even plotting against me now?

"Li—na—!"

Seemingly sensing my anger, Lina suddenly jumped up from the sacred bed, grabbed her greatsword, and turned to run outside, shouting as she went:

"Ah! Ah! Right! The knight orders from the Kingdom of Flame and the Kingdom of the Sea are about to arrive. I'll go to the South Gate to receive them first! Um, Nara, right? Give your Saintess something sweet to eat. Sweets can help cool down her temper!"

With that, she disappeared from the main hall in a flash.

With a 'pfft,' Nara beside me couldn't help but burst out laughing before I could even say anything.

"You're still laughing? She was openly talking about kidnapping people. Watch out, or she might snatch you away when she's happy! Don't blame me if I can't save you then."

"Eh!? Your Highness, it clearly wasn't my fault. Why are you taking your anger out on me?"

Nara looked at me with a face full of grievance and surprise.

Whatever, I'm the Saintess, so what I say goes!

"Go get me some desserts and black tea."

"Hmm?"

"Didn't you hear Lina? To cool my temper!!"

I gave Nara a sharp look and turned to look out the door.

I expect the knight orders from the Kingdom of Flame and the Kingdom of the Sea should have arrived by now.

Once they are all here, the transaction for the document tablets will officially begin.

By the way, the transactions with the Snow Country and the Kingdom of the Sun aren't finished yet.

So far, only the transaction with the Kingdom of Sand is complete.

After talking for so long, I was thirsty and hungry. When Nara brought the desserts, I didn't bother to savor them slowly; I just started devouring them. I only stopped after I was about eighty percent full.

Time passed quickly, and after about three or four hours, it was already noon.

I leaned boredly on the sacred bed, flipping through a book.

Beside me, Nara used silver chopsticks to pick up a piece of fruit.

I opened my mouth, and the fruit was delivered right to my lips.

I didn't even know what this fruit was called, but as long as it was edible and non-toxic, it was fine.

As for the taste?

As both the Saintess and the ruler, could I possibly eat anything of poor quality?

Everything placed before me was the top-tier ingredients of the Kingdom of the Moon.

Because I had recently dealt with Broderick and the matter of Lancelot, I had become interested in the Great Hegemony War from twenty years ago, so I had found this history book.

Although the record was brief, the Kingdom of the Moon had actually sent knights to provide support.

What curious me was that six of the current eight Guardian Knights of the Kingdom of the Moon are very young.

I was a bit confused at first, but after reading this book about the Kingdom of the Moon's part in the 《The Great Hegemony War》, I understood.

The older Guardian Knights of the Kingdom of the Moon had all perished in that war.

It was definitely one of the few large-scale campaigns on the continent in the last thousand years, excluding the demon race.

The Snow Country had deployed over seven hundred thousand troops. Aside from the ordinary infantry, the knight army alone numbered over one hundred and fifty thousand.

And the Beastmen Empire had deployed two million troops.

Just the recorded Lion-Tiger tribe, Elephant tribe, and Ox-Horse tribe alone numbered over three hundred thousand, and the rest was a massive army composed of various other beastmen tribes.

The other six nations had all contributed to some extent, but the previous Saintess of the Kingdom of the Moon, Susanna, had been a bit too weak.

And a bit too naive.

As soon as she heard it was a struggle for hegemony between humans and beastmen, she had sent out almost all the Guardian Knights without a second thought, leaving only Kevin, the Heavenly Punishment Knight.

And this... had reduced the Kingdom of the Moon's combat power to zero.

Except for Cain Winchester and Klo Follis, the two older Guardian Knights, the other six Guardian Knights had all died on the battlefield within just three years of campaigning.

This was something no one had expected.

The combat power of the Kingdom of the Moon plummeted from that point on.

Originally, the Kingdom of the Moon could even have fourteen Guardian Knights.

But six people died directly in that one war.

The six who were added later just filled those empty positions.

This is why the Guardian Knights of the current Kingdom of the Moon lean toward being younger.

Hilda and Yuna are both in their twenties, and Nar is only fifteen.

And Kariel, Robert, and Tristan are all only in their thirties.

Klo is on the older side at forty-five.

Cain is nearly fifty. Normally, this would be an age approaching retirement.

However, for powerful individuals like knights, aging is very slow and hardly affects them.

As a result, even at over fifty, Cain's appearance remains very youthful.

This is also why polygamy is allowed in this era, because the prime years of the strong are simply too long.

Ordinary women simply cannot last that long before passing away.

The brutality of that war could be seen between the lines.

Both sides suffered massive losses.

Among them, the Ox-Horse tribe—the Tauren and Horse-kin—had a thirty-thousand-strong army, but subsequent counts showed only a dozen or so survivors. The fifty-thousand-strong army of the Horse-kin didn't have a single survivor.

The war eventually ended in a pyrrhic victory for the humans.

Just as I reached this point, Lina's voice suddenly came from outside the hall.

"Luo Li! Stop reading. The representatives from the Kingdom of Flame and the Kingdom of the Sea have arrived!"

Are they finally here?

Then... let's begin!