After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

Faced with Priscilla's gaze, the nobles of the western ranches stepped forward and said that it was because the Alessars were preparing to establish their own transit point in the western wasteland—they wanted to bypass the Roman Empire's tariffs and enter the Roman Empire to sell their goods through the borders of the western ranch nobles.

"But fish is difficult to preserve, so they thought it better to let us pickle it than let it rot on the way—I've already seen it, and pickling fish is actually similar to salting meat. Once pickled, it can be stored for a long time, enough to support our war effort."

“...I understand. So, what are you going to do about the military district and the border troops? They are General Dereshka’s loyalists.”

"In this respect, we nobles also have our own private armies—and to be honest, General Dreschka's soldiers aren't particularly well-equipped. While they're more than capable of defense, they'd certainly be overwhelmed dealing with attacks in multiple regions simultaneously..."

"..."

For a moment, Priscilla was at a loss for words.

The nobles before them seemed to have everything arranged perfectly.

But upon closer examination, the problems are numerous.

She didn't know whether she should express her support... but ultimately, the Night Witch did need to plan for her own future.

Prince Garsen didn't even spare his own niece... If he continues to stay with the royal family, he will eventually face his own misfortune.

Moreover, deep down, the Night Witch still harbored a sliver of hope. If she could take the little queen out and hand her over to Yang Hao, perhaps...

...Thinking of Mother Teresa in his arms back then, the Night Witch's heart clenched violently. And thinking of Saint Cecilia, who still had no idea what had happened on the ground, the Night Witch's heart began to whimper in anguish.

On impulse, she nodded amidst the nobles' quiet cheers, approving of their plan.

"If only...

Priscilla murmured, her face deathly pale.

Meanwhile, inside the palace...

The young queen and the former chief judge are in a good mood lately.

After completely regarding the Roman Empire as their enemy rather than their "home," they would be overjoyed whenever they heard bad news from somewhere within the Roman Empire, and at one point they almost laughed out loud in the palace.

Although the young queen couldn't laugh out loud, the former chief judge truly couldn't hide his joy.

"Hehe, my little queen, don't laugh in front of others. Although they brought it on themselves, we should save our joy for after we escape..."

"Ugh!"

The little queen made an ambiguous "uh-huh" sound in agreement. Then the former judge knelt down in front of the little queen, carefully wiping the grease from the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief. She then prepared a glass of cool juice, intending to gently feed it to the poor child.

But just then, the former presiding judge noticed an unnatural ripple in the air around her. She turned her head and saw an elf.

The elf nodded to her, and after confirming that no one was around, she spoke:

"His Majesty the Regent has returned to Gaparia with his army. He now needs to rest."

“I know. The young empress and I trust His Majesty—but please, please do not tell him about our situation. I am worried that it will cause him too much anxiety, and even more so, that it will lead him to act rashly.”

"If that's what you want—more than that, poor child, we'll have the ability to restore her tongue in Gaparia... but then again, what's your political situation right now?"

Although the elves could freely gather intelligence within the Roman palace, they were unable to obtain information about the Roman Empire's politics within the court. These political matters could only be explained by the now lowly former Chief Justice. And as he listened to the elves' news, the former Chief Justice, while feeding the delighted young queen, quietly recounted his observations to the increasingly transparent air beside him.

From the former presiding judge's statement, the elves roughly understood that their situation in the palace was not optimistic: Prince Garsen had more than once expressed his desire for the young queen to marry a prince of Alessar to continue the family bloodline—but she was not even ten years old! How could she possibly become someone else's wife?

To be honest, the former presiding judge would rather let the little queen go with the elves and stay here to die than let the little queen go through all this... But in the end, they still have time.

"By October of next year at the latest... that bastard Garsen will agree to the Kingdom of Alesser's request to allow the prince of Alesser to marry into the family—but please don't make His Majesty too anxious. Although speed is of the essence in war, mistakes made in haste will only lead to his defeat."

"I will."

Having said that, the elf left. The former judge sighed softly, wiped the juice from the little queen's lips, and then saw a maid approaching.

That was Garsen's head lady-in-waiting, and she had an ambiguous relationship with Garsen—it was said that the head lady-in-waiting was once a member of the Roman Empire, but her mother was banished by Garsen's brother, the prince, for the crime of "incest," so in a sense she could be considered Garsen's sister.

The former court president was furious with the two of them, but she couldn't risk pushing the little queen into an even more dangerous situation just for the sake of momentary pleasure.

Fortunately, the head maid only glanced at them before leaving. Where was she planning to go?

The young queen pointed to the mage tower not far away, and the former chief justice turned to look, seemingly lost in thought:

"Speaking of which, that bastard seems to be going out a lot lately, I wonder what he's up to... Oh well, it's none of our business anyway. Alright, let's go back first—don't let that bastard offend our eyes."

She picked up the petite little queen, trying to cheer herself up by the parish’s loss, and left the courtyard with light steps.

...........

On the other side, along the coast outside the western border of the Roman Empire.

Over the past few months, Ysgard has completed the construction of the secret port. Thanks to the efforts of the black dragon Nia, a steady stream of supplies has been secretly transported over via Ysgard's merchant ships.

This port has taken shape and is now large enough to serve as a transit and supply point for an army of a thousand men, as well as to bear the heavy burden of medium-sized trade.

Having completed her task of building the port, the Black Dragon Knight Nia is ready to travel to Gaparia to assume her duties as a [diplomat].

Before she went, she still needed to confirm the list of officials she was taking with her, and also inquire about the situation at home with the president...

When Nia asked her question, the president on the other side of the mirror simply said seriously that Isgard was ready for war. As long as Nia confirmed the results of the "public opinion war," Isgard could immediately send a fleet to invade the Roman Empire in early spring of next year.

"We will advance in three columns, landing at your secret port, Drake Port, and the fishing village south of Drake Port. We have already equipped our landing forces with new rifles and have even produced the third [Schwarz]-class ironclad ship—if nothing unexpected happens, our initial invasion of the Roman Empire will go very smoothly."

"My personal opinion is that we shouldn't be too complacent, Margarita. Never be complacent."

“I know. But if what you say is true, then the Roman Empire is now a house that we can watch collapse on its own—we can’t let the Alessars get there first, not to mention that our factories are already facing a serious shortage of raw materials.”

While Nia the Black Dragon was busy, Ysgard was also developing steadily. The core design blueprints for the steam plant gave Ysgard new vitality, but a new plant meant a greater appetite.

In an effort to obtain more minerals, goblin scientists in Ysgard even developed a large mining machine called the "Digging Machine." However, upon actually using the machine, they discovered that the underground minerals had already been largely exhausted. Digging further meant either risking suffocating even dragons by plunging hundreds or thousands of meters underground in search of minerals, or continuing to mine rocks in the shallower areas.

The problem is, the continent of Orros, where Ysgard is located, is extremely poor in mineral resources! You might say rocks are everywhere, but valuable iron, silver, and gold mines... those are almost completely depleted.

Margarita said that the country's mineral resources could only be mined for another ten years at most. If Isugard couldn't find new mineral sources after ten years, then they might have to go back to the era of wooden sailing ships.

Therefore, their invasion of the Roman Empire was inevitable. They needed to acquire the Roman Empire's mining regions, which were destined to extend deep inland...

After confirming that Isgard was determined to conquer the Roman Empire, the President talked about trade with the Elf Kingdom.

She also noticed the regent's protection of the Elf Kingdom's local industries, and her admiration for him grew even stronger.

But despite his admiration, as the ruler, unless the regent becomes her husband and the two countries form an eternal alliance, Issugard will still have to do everything he can to gain benefits from Gaparia.

Since ordinary industrial products couldn't generate profits, Miss Margarita decided to boldly export our culture to the Elf Kingdom!

"Black and white projection televisions, light bulbs, generators, and our plays and movies—although I have no idea why some people enjoy watching female paladins being turned into depraved prostitutes by male vampires, I think they could impact the elven cultural industry... and thus allow us to culturally infiltrate Gaparia."

"Are you trying to make the elves think that we people in our country enjoy erotic content?"

"Let's just say it's a normal movie for now—never mind, the goods should have been delivered by now. Please, Nia, do everything you can to bring him back, no matter what it takes. Use your unparalleled wisdom from the Black Dragon to think of a way!"

"...Don't force me to do something I don't understand."

The dragon girl with long horns, black hair, and black and red eyes sighed. After the magic mirror turned off the image output, she knew it was time for her to leave.

I wonder if that regent actually likes products from his homeland across the sea?

Black Dragon pondered.

Everything she was thinking about had nothing to do with Yang Hao for the time being.

Because he is currently convening a meeting of the old elves.

At the meeting, he wanted to reflect on the mistakes of his previous reforms, and take the opportunity of the elves mourning the victims to propose the "Industrialization Enchantment of Oak Factory" and the "Acceptance of Demons" plan to make Gaparia stronger!

Chapter Fourteen: Increased Efforts and... (Highlights: 9/5)

At noon on November 30th, when Mother Teresa and Finn were supposedly "having important matters to discuss," Yang Hao had no choice but to represent both himself and Finn at the meeting of the old elves.

The theme of this Elf Council meeting is "reflection," and its core is "reform." Naturally, it all began with the war between the Elf Kingdom and the diocese.

According to the elves' tally, approximately 47 elves died in this battle. The demons suffered over 4000 casualties; had it not been for Golem holding the line, the death toll would have been even higher.

The death of 4000 people was a huge shock to the entire demon tribe, while the loss of 47 people to the elves plunged the whole country into mourning.

Given the elves' birth rate, it would take at least several hundred years to produce 47 newborns. Although the elves' reproductive cycle is actually similar to that of humans, as long-lived beings, the elves themselves don't really want to have children, let alone replenish the lost population in a short period of time.

Moreover, these 47 fallen elves each had their own interpersonal relationships... Although Yang Hao didn't investigate in detail how many friends each fallen elf had, judging from the fact that half the elves in the elven kingdom showed hostility towards the Roman Empire... well, perhaps the Roman Empire will forever remain the blood feud of the elves.

Yang Hao shook his head. Following the traditional understanding of the elves, he first had the meeting observe three minutes of mourning for the fallen before getting straight to the point:

"Through the previous wars, we must reflect on the various problems within our country..."

The problems we discovered during the war can be summarized as follows:

1. Insufficient production of both enchanted and regular ammunition. Because our warriors cannot all use enchanted ammunition, this battle has been particularly difficult for us. We even have to wait for the enemy priests to lower their guard before we can find an opportunity to pick them off... If all of us could use enchanted ammunition with high penetration or other effects, we could at least avoid more than half of our casualties in this battle: because that would mean we could free up archers to shoot at the enemy gryphon riders instead of having to keep aiming at the priests we haven't dealt with yet.

Therefore, we must also give the Oak Factory the ability to enchant bullets! Masters, think about it, we can't wait until our warriors continue to sacrifice themselves before we realize this! We must let the Oak Factory replace all our low-end handicrafts, so that our elite artisans can shine in more useful places!

The elves exchanged glances, and then unanimously agreed without any doubt—after all, to be honest, all the elves had reviewed the war after it broke out.

The post-mortem analysis clearly pointed out one problem: the riflemen had far too little ammunition. Whether it was regular bullets or enchanted bullets, their ammunition supply was simply too limited.

Currently, enchanted bullets and arrows are still crafted by hand by the elves. However, the efficiency of hand-enchanting consumables is undeniable. The harsh realities of the battlefield have also shown the old elves that times have changed drastically.

If the riflemen had had an endless supply of enchanted bullets, they could have dealt with the priests and their undead minions much faster, and then turned their attention to the gryphon riders who were launching a high-altitude assault—but there are no "ifs." However, the old elves could at least allow future wars to have this "if."

Therefore, even the arrow makers, whose social status was most threatened, chose to agree to Yang Hao's plan. After all, their loss of social status would at most result in being ridiculed a few times while drinking and eating—but the lives of the elven warriors were real.

However, they still expressed their concerns: if even the enchanting process can be outsourced to the Oak Factory, then where will the newcomers who are currently specializing in arrow-making skills, and the old men like themselves, go to continue contributing their skills?

Yang Hao's explanation and solution were quite simple: the Oak Factory could only mass-produce enchantments with simple processes. To apply multiple enchantments to a gun, or two or three enchantment processes to bullets simultaneously, the more precise work of a bow maker was still required. Therefore, at this stage, bow makers could abandon the tedious single enchantment process and instead customize more powerful enchanted bullets for archers.

In addition, Yang Hao also needs an arrow maker with enchanting abilities to research new things.

"That's the type of bullet itself, masters. Bullets can have iron, copper, or silver tips. Depending on the material, they also have various penetration and killing effects, and even their power varies depending on the amount of gunpowder in the cartridge case."

I think the arrow makers could consider switching to developing new bullets, while those who don't want to switch could advance directly from their work to new research—we need to enchant the interior of the Oak Factory, and this work requires gathering all the elves skilled in enchanting.”

"What is this for?"

"This is to mass-produce more golems. Golems have proven their diversity and strength in the war, and have also proven their value with low cost. We need more golems, but it is too slow if the Listeners can only produce golems by hand. So we may need to use some special spells to enable the Listeners to mass-produce golems in factories."

"I see."

Golems also proved their worth in the war debriefing. If the scarcity of bullets for the elven riflemen only affected the number of elves who would die in the end, then the presence or absence of golems directly changed the course of the war.

If they lose golems, or if their numbers are too few, the battle is already lost. The old elves have no time for a proper, formal meeting; they should be fighting the invaders in the Elven Forest with their longbows in hand.

Therefore, the mass production of Golems became a major concern for all the old elves—but before the elves could vote in favor, Yang Hao changed the subject, saying that Golems not only have potential in war, but more importantly, Golems can adapt to some low-end jobs for elves.

"For example, simple material transportation, such as building houses—although at this stage they only know how to smash stones and wood into the ground, the trench digging on the battlefield is enough to prove their potential in people's livelihood."

In the future, our offspring will certainly rely on golems to operate the basic industries. Naturally, we must increase golem production and also have more people research new magical circuits for golems to make them more intelligent.

This is actually my plan for the current state of the elves. Masters, please use your imaginations. Rather than having elves, destined for longevity and endless learning, engage in repetitive labor—works other than cultivating their minds and interests like cooking—such as manual labor, transportation, and construction, it would be better to have them pursue higher-level endeavors.