Divine Kingship

Chapter 583 So how much land should be allocated to Rand?

Ellie quickly returned to her body.

Ellie looked at Rand with a wicked smile: "Was that...?"

Seeing Ellie's expression of enjoying the spectacle, Rand nodded helplessly: "Yes."

Ellie leaned closer to Rand's ear: "How is it? Is it tight?"

Rand nodded again.

Ellie's smile grew increasingly sinister.

“My sister is satisfied, but I’m not.” Ellie coughed softly, then sat up, propping herself up in her disheveled pajamas, and put her legs around Rand’s waist.

Her golden-brown hair fell across Rand's face in the candlelight, like ears of wheat in a field.

……

After the early morning, it's time to go to work.

A faint smell of burning and blood still lingered in the city.

But for Rand and Ellie, who were already used to these things, these cruel scenes did not affect their mood or their lives.

The exchange took a long time, which gave the two of them some leisure time.

Occasionally, one could see bewildered citizens looking at the Frostmoon Kingdom soldiers and nobles in the city with somewhat worried eyes.

However, these citizens' concerns are unnecessary.

The nobles of the Frostmoon Kingdom had long ago decided that they would not plunder the citizens of the Kingdom of Bolun within the royal city, but rather plunder the nobles within the royal city of Bolun.

As for why Rand was able to persuade these nobles to change their ways, it was naturally because of the subsequent distribution of benefits.

Because the city of Bolun was breached relatively recently, it did not suffer severe damage overall, and families and a certain amount of personal property were preserved.

These assets can be taken together when they are distributed, but looting them now will only damage them.

Therefore, the nobles even distributed relief funds to the citizens of the royal city of Bolun to prevent them from starving to death due to lack of food.

Rand and Ellie continued strolling along the road.

Since yesterday's wind and rain only lasted a short time, the roads are now mostly dry.

Today is a sunny day, and the warm sun shines its light, so the winter wind doesn't affect the cozy sunshine too much.

After the citizens realized that they would not be robbed, some even set up stalls along the roadside.

Rand also ran into Marcus by the roadside.

Marcus was leading finance officials in taking stock of the looted spoils.

Although they did not plunder civilians, the nobles certainly did.

The city's nobles seemed to possess far more wealth than the commoners.

Last night, while Rand slept, the other nobles of the Frostmoon Kingdom in the city were looting and reveling.

Marcus was in charge of overseeing the situation to prevent the city from descending into chaos again due to the private actions of soldiers or nobles.

The previous theatrical propaganda had led the soldiers, remaining nobles, and knights in the city to believe that they would be treated fairly well after surrendering or being captured.

Rand noticed Marcus's dark circles, but didn't speak to him. Instead, he walked forward with his wife, Ellie.

Just pretend you don't know them.

After Rand walked past, Marcus's face darkened even more.

In such cases of breaching a city, it is very difficult for a general to restrain his men from looting the city.

Whether in the history of Rand's past or in the present world.

Fortunately, it's not entirely impossible.

As long as everything else is done well, that's fine.

Occasionally, one could still see knights whose plundering habits were so deeply ingrained that they were captured and hanged.

You can also see many people repeatedly warning the soldiers and knights not to plunder, and that they will receive a share of the wealth of the nobles they plunder.

Only through a combination of kindness and severity was order maintained in the city.

It must have been very hard for Marcus to achieve all this.

But what does this have to do with Rand?

Rand continued walking forward.

The capital of the Kingdom of Bolun is a damp city, with salt crystals even growing on some of the pale buildings.

Some of the collapsed houses in the city have begun to be rebuilt.

The citizens who had been hiding in their homes because of the war gradually began to move around.

The next destination is the Torch Church and the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health in the city.

Because these two churches do not openly participate in wars between nations, and because they have a history of curing the poison of the dead.

Even if it's a besieged city.

The church did not suffer too much damage.

It's also possible that because the siege was short and the offensive was still fierce, people didn't have time to shift their hatred to the two churches.

Overall, the structure is fairly complete, and the functions are still usable.

Church staff have now returned and resumed church services.

In such a traumatic period following war, the work of the church becomes more difficult.

The Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health undertakes some healing-related work, namely serving as herbalists and doctors to help wounded citizens and soldiers.

At this time, the Torch Church will also carry out tasks such as maintaining order, supervision, and security.

Or help the Goddess of Harvest and Health teach things like burning fire, such as using fire to sterilize and disinfect, or to boil water, as mentioned in the Harvest and Health Canon.

In addition, we will distribute some living supplies to prevent people from starving or freezing to death.

In this period of postwar trauma.

The work of the church is very important, and this is also an important time for spreading the doctrine.

However, neither the Torch Church nor the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health are cults, and their doctrines do not require excessive promotion.

The Torch Church used to emphasize using fire to dispel darkness and using justice and unity to fight evil. Now it has become more moderate, also emphasizing using fire for warmth and for boiling water.

In Rand's view, perhaps in the future we could use fire to boil water or build a steam engine or something? But such things are decades or even centuries away.

However, Rand was still very interested in this development.

As for the goddess of harvest and health, the church emphasizes physical fitness, scientific farming methods, cleanliness, and not drinking untreated water.

These are all very conceptual and scientific things, and there is no need to treat them as transactions or deliberately promote them.

In summary, the Torch Church represents a logic of action, while the Harvest and Health Goddess Church represents methods of action.
In short, these are the two major orthodox religions that exist in the world today.

If you walk past the church and continue for a while, you'll reach the market. There are already a few vendors who are sure they won't be robbed and have started selling their goods.

Keep going forward and you'll reach the port.

The port suffered damage to many buildings due to the appearance of the seven-headed sea serpent, and repairs are currently underway.

The new king of the Kingdom of Bolen did not manage to take all the ships with him when he fled, and thus captured quite a few, though none of them were large or of great value.

In the port of Rand, they also met Karin.

Ellie greeted Karin with a smile.

Karin is helping to clean up the corpses in the harbor and deal with some monsters that have emerged from the sea.

The seven-headed sea serpent escaped, but its journey to this port still caused some kind of impact, leading to the appearance of many sea monsters that normally only appear in the deep ocean near the coast. Therefore, Karin is leading the Torch Church's combat squad to deal with these near-shore monsters to prevent future dangers at sea, or even the possibility of sea monsters coming ashore.

This kind of work, using fire to eliminate monsters and protect safety, is the work of the Torch Church.

Karin glanced at Ellie, who had become somewhat eccentric today, but she wasn't surprised; Ellie was just unpredictable.

"Want to help?" Karin asked.

Ellie and Rand nodded.

Going out to fight monsters near the coast is a good idea; it's a decent form of entertainment.

Rand and Ellie boarded a small boat and cruised along the coast with the Torch Church members and the Naga.

Some people in the Kingdom of Bolun were shocked that Rand and the Torch Church could actually control the Naga.

What shocked them even more was that these Nagas could speak the common language of the continent.

The Naga would observe the underwater situation near the ship. If they found a sea monster that needed to be killed, they would report the location to the Torch Church members on the ship, and then the Naga would also hide on the ship.

Then came the harpoons or spears imbued with immense power.

A high-speed harpoon cutting through ocean currents creates tiny bubbles that rise to the surface as foam.

Then, a faint red color appeared on the sea surface.

If sea monsters are hiding in the deeper parts of the ocean, then we need to take some risks to lure them up.

Some sea monsters, boasting of their own power, recklessly attack ships.

Then Ellie's magic will work.

Archmage Ellie's magic was so unique that even the well-informed Torch Church fighters found it novel.

A dazzling and precise spell struck the arrogant sea monster.

Blood rained down and severed limbs were scattered everywhere.

Then the sea monster didn't even have a chance to regret it before it died.

After working at sea for a while, when it got a little late, the group returned to port.

Since the work was near the coast, the return trip wasn't too slow, and we arrived at the port quickly.

Rand and Ellie said goodbye to Karin.

The two walked back along the street at dusk.

Elsa appeared somewhat abruptly beside Rand.

He reported some news from the surrounding area.

Then it suddenly disappeared again.

As an inspector, security officer, and intelligence chief, this time of dusk to nightfall was Elsa's domain.

Elsa needs to arrange for some of the spies who have been working hard in the city to complete their missions to return to the resort and rest.

Elsa also needs to search the entire city to prevent any remaining enemies or assassins from plotting against her.

These are all very hard jobs, but Elsa insists on doing them herself.

She was not comfortable entrusting this kind of work, which was related to Rand's safety, to anyone else.

So even though Rand delegated the work to Marcus, Elsa still took over the security duties.

And I've been working there ever since.

Return to your residence.

Olena was already waiting at the residence.

"Do you have a job?" Rand asked.

"It's not a rush, a few more days is fine." Olena didn't force Rand to work overtime. Rand had been working hard lately, so it was only right that he spend a few more days with his wife.

Rand leaned over and squeezed Olena's hand.

Olena withdrew her hand subtly.

Rand is always like this; he likes to do little things while Ellie is still around.

“It’s about how the results of this war will be distributed,” Olena said. “This will be very troublesome.”

“I know.” Rand certainly knew why Olena said that.

Conquering the world is one thing, governing the world is another.

This is a problem that must be faced in any era.

Conquering the world is fraught with difficulties, and governing the world is equally difficult; neither is an easy task.

The first problem we face now is how to distribute the spoils of war.

Indeed, the war was almost entirely led by Rand, who contributed the largest share of the force.

The weakening of the Kingdom of Bolen and much of the intelligence support were provided by Rand.

Rand should rightfully receive the largest share of the spoils, and the royal family, His Majesty the King, the nobles, and the ministers of the Frostmoon Kingdom would have no objection to this.

But how should we divide it?

Is it to give Rand a large amount of land in the Kingdom of Bolen, or population, wealth, or something else?
If land were to be divided, Rand should be able to get half of the land of the Kingdom of Bolen, plus a lot of other things like population and wealth.

Then another question arises.

The Kingdom of Bolun is not a small country. Although its land area is slightly smaller than that of the Frostmoon Kingdom, it is still considered one of the larger kingdoms.

The Kingdom of Bolen also has a very unique geographical environment, with special land that is very advantageous.

The Kingdom of Bologna also had numerous coastal cities, which were important nodes in the maritime economy.

If Rand took half of the land of the Kingdom of Bolen.

In addition, there was the vast amount of land under the jurisdiction and direct rule that the RAND itself already possessed.

This would directly cause the area under Rand's rule to transcend the duchy level and reach the kingdom level.

So, should Rand rule over such a vast territory as the Duke of Frostmoon?

That's where the trouble and the problem lie.

The nobles, Marcus, and ministers of the Frostmoon Kingdom would not object to Rand acquiring so much wealth and land.

These are all things that Rand deserves.

Even if there are those who oppose it, they cannot afford the consequences of being hostile to Rand.

Rand possesses incredibly formidable military talent, a fact that is widely recognized.

Now that Rand has so much land, how should everyone get along with him? This is a question that Rand needs to consider in advance, and it's also a question that the people of the Frostmoon Kingdom need to consider in advance.

There are actually only a few solutions.

But none of them will be easy to handle.

One solution is to allow Rand to retain his dukedom after acquiring so much land, directly ruling only a portion of the core lands while distributing the rest to his vassals.

Will this method cause the Frostmoon Kingdom to become top-heavy?
Because within the Frostmoon Kingdom, there will be a duchy that covers nearly a quarter of the kingdom's area.

Another solution is to let Rand establish a nation.

This would be very difficult to handle, as it would cause some of the nobles within the Frostmoon Kingdom to become nobles of Land and join the Kingdom of Land.

This can also lead to a very chaotic and difficult-to-manage situation.

"Let's stall for a while, then I'll ask Marcus." Rand rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on; this was indeed a difficult situation to handle.

(End of this chapter)