Chapter 95 — Virodai

Hedy set down her dip pen and thought earnestly for a moment: "Actually... the simplest is to buy serfs. Their origins are basically clean, and there's little need to worry about loyalty. But that requires money, and we may not be able to buy enough of them. The next option is to take in refugees. Harvests in the southern borderlands have been poor these past few years, and several small landed nobles have broken out into repeated conflicts. Even now many refugees have no fixed home. To most nobles, surplus population is a burden, and refugees from other territories are livestock—so these people live hard lives in the cracks, and they're even 'cheaper' than serfs. Give them a bite to eat and off they go..."

At this, Hedy could not help shaking her head: "But the problem is obvious too: these people's origins are hard to verify, and their wandering has given them all sorts of petty thieving habits. If we let them into the territory in large numbers, public order will become a massive problem."

Amber's voice drifted over suddenly and faintly: "If obeying the law meant you could live in peace, more than half the scoundrels and hoodlums would try to find a job. It's not that they enjoy rolling in the gutter that they choose to be rats. Do you think anyone would willingly choose a life of constant hunger and whippings just because they like stealing?"

Hedy stared blankly at Amber, and for the first time did not snap back at the half-elf. Gao Yang, after a few seconds, said mildly: "The day before yesterday you tried to steal my seal and I threw you out of my tent for it—so although what you say makes perfect sense, don't you feel any shame saying it yourself?"

Amber: "I was just joking with you—was that really necessary!"

"Stop!" Gao Shao waved a hand to cut Amber off, thinking to himself, Close call. When dealing with this disgrace to elvenkind, you truly cannot let your guard down for an instant—you never know which of her lines, if you pick up the thread, will suck you into playing the straight man. "Expanding the population still needs planning. Hammer, next, tell us about the progress on the steel side..."

At that same moment, upstream on the Whitewater River, a beautiful great ship with three sails spread and painted entirely white, flying the royal crest of Ans, was gliding smoothly over the water, with several smaller boats escorting it fore and aft.

On one side of the white ship's hull, a special pale-gold mark could also be seen: a ring emitting golden light, and within the ring two crossed beams of radiance.

The mark of the Blazing Sun Church.

Throughout all of Ans, it was rare indeed to see the royal crest and the church's mark flown together, so this sight naturally drew the attention of the townsfolk of Tamsin by the riverbank.

The people aboard this ship had set out from the royal capital of Ans, drifted a month on the Dolgun River, then turned from a canal branch into the Whitewater and drifted a week more before finally setting foot in this barren land on the kingdom's frontier.

It had truly been a grueling journey, yet not one person aboard complained—because someone who, by rank and station, had absolutely no need to endure such jolting was also aboard, and that person had not uttered a single word of complaint.

On the upper deck of the royal "White Oak," in a private prayer chamber, the holy maiden princess Virodai—bearer of the title "Daughter Favored by the Light"—was slowly opening her eyes.

She had pale-gold long hair, and her features bore a three-part resemblance to her brother Edmund Mourne, though hers were softer and more moving. Years steeped in the path of holy light had given her an inconceivable air of sanctity and composure; even wearing only a plain white nun's habit, she seemed like a divine envoy descended from heaven, wrapped in an inviolable presence.

Only several minutes after she finished praying did that transcendent air, one not belonging to humanity, gradually fade from her.

As though sensing the change in the prayer chamber's atmosphere, a knock came at the door only then, and a woman's voice, nearly devoid of emotional variation, came from outside: "Your Highness, we have arrived at Tamsin. Shall we dock and meet with that Viscount Andrew?"

The faint glimmer in Virodai's eyes slowly faded, and she answered with gentle composure: "No. Send an envoy instead. The Lord has given me revelation—I may not linger here. I must make haste to the Cecil territory, for there... there is something the Lord has shown me, something I am meant to see."

The presence beyond the door withdrew. Virodai narrowed her eyes slightly, and the holy light seemed to rise unbidden once more, flickering within them.

She shut her eyes completely and entered meditation once again.