Let go of that monster girl!

He cleared the horrific scene from his mind, then thought about it again and felt something was off.

There's something that doesn't make sense.

That's not right. It's no secret that there's a lot of undercurrent between the royal family and the great nobles of the Marigold Kingdom.

If the Cardinal's intention in courting Morren was to have him stand on the side of the "Royal Family" against the "Great Nobles," then there would be no need to use this suspiciously shaped communication stone, especially since it was ostensibly seized from cultists.

The hill is theoretically a barony directly under the royal family, and there are plenty of legitimate or underhanded excuses to win over Moren to serve the Queen, so there's no need to make it so mysterious.

strange.

Moreover, according to Moren's understanding of monster girls, there are many subspecies of rabbit girls, but very few are black. There is only one black-haired rabbit girl witch.

The immortal witch, who had destroyed several kingdoms over the centuries, had long since disappeared from the public eye.

Morren turned to look at the sulfur and asked:

"Can you use the communication stone to send a message to the other side?"

Sulfur shook its head.

"This rune stone is a bit special. It requires knowing the ciphertext of the other rune stone to send a message. It should be designed so that multiple rune stones in the same group can communicate one-to-one."

And the difference between public and private telephones is quite something.

Uh...

That wretched riddle-maker! It seems this riddle isn't as easy to guess as it initially appeared.

This feeling of having a premonition that something big is brewing, but being kept in the dark, is just too unpleasant.

Indeed, the intelligence network of Dwarf Mountain is now outdated. Morren's understanding of the kingdom's situation is basically still based on the version from more than two years ago.

We need to think of some way to find out what's going on in the north.

-----------------

a few days later.

The blacksmith mice had dirty, oily faces and carried various tools on their little shoulders, but each mouse looked incredibly excited.

Moren stood beside the tracks with a smile on his face, while Lyme stood quietly beside him as the Armed Rat Girl Train slowly approached.

The front of the vehicle is fitted with a heavy ramming guard plate, and a large piece of fluorite is stuffed into the iron cage headlights. Reliable iron plate armor is installed on both sides of the vehicle, and an automatic crossbow is mounted on the top of each power carriage. It looks both cool and fierce.

The train's ramming head plowed through the snow on the tracks, and the mouse girls chased after it, laughing and joking.

He's handsome.

This armor, this power, this weaponry, this reliable sense of security.

It's definitely a far cry from being an invincible land-based warship, but it already has some resemblance to a small land behemoth.

Molen reached out and patted the metal plate on the side of the carriage, then turned to look at the blacksmith rat beside him.

"Could you add some insulation panels inside the vehicle? It will be very cold inside during long-distance transport in winter."

"Hmm, we can use wooden boards as a sandwich, stuff the middle with shredded rags, it's light and warm, we can install it when the train comes back."

The blacksmith mouse thought for a moment, then raised its little hand, and Morren nodded.

That white-haired, red-eyed cardinal rat was hardly polite; the first message in the communication stone, "Snowstorm is coming," was probably not meant as a greeting.

The mouse train came to a stop, and the mice lined up in a conveyor belt to carry various pots, pans, and exquisite crafts into the freight cars. The cat girls, on the other hand, carefully wrapped each of the gilded ornaments in cloth and packed them into small boxes.

Many cats have already changed into their new market management uniforms, wearing pretty little brass tags, and are getting ready to go to the Low Hill Market with Jimmy.

Several catgirls tried to climb onto the roof of the car, but were grabbed by the tails from behind by the militia rats.

"We definitely won't run into Chimeramon this time, meow!"

"It's snowing, if you stay on the roof you'll get dried out like a cat, get down here!"

The militia rats, fully armed, prepared to crawl into the engine compartment.

At the very front of the group was a crossbow rat whose thick cotton armor had turned it into a pink cylinder. Only its goggles and two round ears were visible. The rat was wobbling and stuck on the door frame.

"Squeak, it's stuck, squeak."

The mouse pulled from above and pushed from below to finally shove her in.

Because the Armed Rat Girl Train has much greater power and is much faster than the old train.

In this cold winter, in order to avoid freezing the rats' ears, even though they are dressed in cylinders, the ballista rats will only use small ladders to climb onto the roof of the vehicle through the pre-reserved top door inside when fighting.

"Wearing such thick clothes, how can you climb the ladder?"

"The rats in the car will push us up, squeak!"

Moren boarded the armored ratgirl train, turned around, reached out, and pulled Lyme up. Several ratgirls followed him and squeezed in from behind.

"I'll be back tomorrow, so don't worry the cook too much."

The Armed Rat Girl Train rang its crisp electric bell and slowly drove out of the low mountain city gate, surrounded by rats and cats. The ramming guards pushed aside the snow and drove into the wasteland.

A vast expanse of pristine white snow covered the desolate wilderness. The cold wind howled through the car windows, and the mice all shrank their necks in fear.

"It's so cold, the rat is freezing."

"Close the window. Close the window."

The little hands reached out to the wooden windows on both sides and snapped them shut, but the insulation layer on the Mouse Girl Train hadn't been installed yet, and the mice were still squeaking from the cold.

"Make way, make way, squeak!"

The militia rats untied the large blanket tied in the center of the truck bed floor, revealing a thick, fungal-covered mat. The rats and cats all crawled inside, leaving only their heads sticking out.

"So warm, meow."

"It's so warm and cozy."

"My tail got caught, meow."

The militia rats stationed inside the engine compartment shouted through the door:

"There's hot water in the engine compartment. Come and get some if you want a drink."

Along the way, the militia rats were all very excited, their round ears listening carefully to the howling wind in the wilderness outside, and the crossbowman rat dressed like a bucket kept patting its thick barrel body.

"Come on, come on, come on! We've run into a few more Chimera Beasts, let's have some fun!"

A militia rat pressed its little face against the glass observation window unique to the engine compartment, straining to look out into the dark and white snowfield, trying to find the shadow of the Chimera Beast. The rat next to it quickly grabbed its head and hugged it.

"Be careful, glass can freeze your ears."

Unfortunately, the bloodthirsty rats' wish was not fulfilled. Perhaps it was good luck, or perhaps the armed rat girl train looked intimidating. In any case, nothing happened along the way until the Dwarf Mountain Market.

The platform was already packed with waiting merchant beast girls, their ears and tails of various colors huddled together, whispering amongst themselves.

"Is the hill gone? It's been so many days."

"They're definitely trying to whet our appetites. I've been waiting for that batch of fine iron parts for almost a month."

The clanging of iron wheels echoed in the distance, and the merchant beast girls immediately swarmed to the edge of the platform. The market management cats paced back and forth, maintaining order and meowing.

"Don't rush, don't rush, meow! Everyone who registered with Boss Jimmy, meow! Line up, meow!"

As the Armed Rat Girl Train pulled into the station, the merchant beast girls, seeing this completely transformed iron monster, were so frightened that they all took a few steps back, none of them daring to approach.

The carriage door opened, and squeaking rats poured out carrying crates of goods. The merchant beastwomen, realizing what was happening, raised their hands and shouted:

"This batch is mine, and that wooden crate is mine!"

"Where are my goods?!"

Compared to when Molen last visited the hill market, the new market has a completely new look.

Most of the originally chaotic shantytowns have been demolished, replaced by rows of neat stone houses with plastered walls and fluorite lanterns and signs hanging at the entrances.

The new section is still under construction, and the mouse girls are busy moving bricks and tiles between the scaffolds. Small businesses that can't afford to rent storefronts have also moved into the large sheds built uniformly on the hillside.

Nearby, the octopus girls were punished by being made to sweep the floor, their bodies covered with various ornaments to sell to passersby.

Not far away, the rat girls were setting up large pots by the roadside to distribute hot water and porridge, with a large group of rats and other beast girls lining up to wait.

The streets were clean and orderly, and there wasn't a single poor person to be seen on the roadside.

Lord Morren was kind-hearted and couldn't bear to see the poor suffer, so he sent them all to the technical schools they were supposed to attend.

A beautiful town, a town where no one would freeze to death in winter. Even the capital city doesn't have such a scene, and even the major religions can't paint such a picture.

The blonde horsewoman merchant from the Carrot family stepped forward with a smile, extended her hand in a noble gesture, and said with a smile:

“Your Excellency, if word gets out that you’re being so kind, all the refugees from the southern part of the kingdom will flock here.”

Molen smiled and waved his hand.

"It's not that bad."

It can't be that small; he hopes all the refugees from the entire kingdom will come here.

Several golem girls with round ears were arranging goods behind the horse girl merchant. They all had the appearance of rat girls, with small bodies of 1.4 meters, round ears and thin tails. It was unclear whether they were doing this to please Moren's appetite or simply to save on materials.

The female merchant smiled and gestured towards the row of neatly arranged large wooden crates behind her.

"The materials and spices that the Baron desired are all here."

As soon as Molen raised his hand, the mouse girls behind him swarmed forward, carrying various spice bags. They sniffed the spice bags with their little noses, and the aroma made their mouths water.

The rats and golem girls dragged all sorts of boxes, big and small, on carts, squeaking and creaking as they went about, carrying away the various goods provided by the Carrot family and bringing in various local specialties from the dwarf mountain.

Later, these beautiful spices, cryolite, pure quartz, and saltpeter will all be sent back to the low hills to support the next step of the Morren Plan.

Moren looked around but didn't see the silent golem girl, so he turned to look at the horse merchant.

"Why aren't the representatives from the Blood Transfusion Guild here?"

The blonde horsewoman merchant smiled slightly, reached into her chest, took out a badge, pinned it to her collar, and waved to the flesh golems with round ears behind her:

“The Carrot family has reached a cooperation agreement with the Chamber of Commerce, and now I am also a representative of the Blood Infusion Chamber of Commerce.”

Molen's pupils dilated, but she still maintained a polite smile.

This has really complicated things again.

Soon, the sugar coupons changed hands several times, and the goods on both sides were also traded.

Aside from the goods that initially shocked the horse merchant, she was unexpectedly particularly interested in the large quantities of rat-shaped jelly produced in the dwarf mountains. She had only purchased a few bottles last time, but this time she was determined to buy them all.

“We’ll take as much of this wine as you have. Although the ladies usually prefer sweet fruit wines, they turn sour so easily. The chefs have discovered that mixing fruit juice and spices with sorbet works incredibly well.”

Mouse-shaped jute is a specialty of the low mountains, but spirits were clearly not an invention of Molen.

In fact, liquor sales were extremely poor in the Rat Girl Kingdom. After all, liquor was more suitable for sailors and laborers, but there were no sailors in the Rat Girl Kingdom, and the labor rats preferred berry wine. Since pectin fermentation produces methanol, homemade liquor could easily kill beast girls who did not have toxin resistance. No one else besides the rat girls drank it.

It's often exported to the octopus girls across the glowing sea, and it's much more popular than the glowing mud they make themselves.

But spirits have two important advantages.

It won't freeze, won't rot, and is easy to transport.

It can be used as fuel, disinfectant, anesthetic, and most importantly, as a base for alchemical potions.

War supplies.

Molen didn't quite think the Kelly ladies could drink that many cocktails, but of course he was polite enough not to point it out.

He crossed his arms and watched the rats load the last few barrels of Rat Special onto the horse merchant's wagon, then said to the horse merchant:

"I want to extend the tracks of the Mouse Girl Train to the north, so that all the goods from Dwarf Mountain can be supplied to the Carrot family with priority."

The merchant's smile twitched slightly.

Anyone with a sound mind can realize how incredibly valuable a powerful, uninterrupted supply line is.

But anyone with a clear head can realize how terrifying the risk is of that giant iron monster coming to their door within an hour.

Molen remained calm, after all, it was the Kelot family who took the initiative to do business with Dwarf Mountain, and Molen not charging them for road paving was already a huge concession.

He said casually:

"Of course, you are free to refuse. Anyway, there is plenty of territory in the north. If you are not happy, there are plenty of people who are."

The horse-riding merchant pondered for a moment, then glanced at the armed train on the platform. A forced smile returned to his face as he said sheepishly, "..."

"I'm afraid I need to consult the Countess before I can decide on this matter, but it's freezing outside, Baron, are you still able to repair the road?"

Molen smiled slightly.