When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

Chapter 1332: Chapter 1250: Reforging Norn

After the morning meeting, Horn hastily ate breakfast and, without much pause, headed to the fortress group closer to the front line.

He had just seen Gloev among the crowd and immediately thought of the young bear lord mentioned in the report.

Precisely at this moment, the young bear lord was by the border of Shattered Stone Plain, and many of the Holy Alliance’s subsequent strategies required his cooperation.

So Horn simply decided to go personally, to both investigate and meet.

As for André, he followed with nearly a thousand cavalry and Centaur guards.

Aleksei’s Norn Restoration Army camp was just a hundred miles away from both front lines.

If a troop of vampire cavalry happened to come through and startled the Saint’s Grandson, would his district commissioner still be able to do his job?

From a distance, you could see a flag waving at the camp entrance.

It was wings formed by two white scars, with an eagle’s head in the center.

Under the flag was a long brown camp enclosure, sprawling on the gray-green grassland.

"This is the Restoration Army camp." Gloev squeezed a smile, escorting Horn and André, "I’ve already sent someone to inform Lord Aleksei."

Standing at the camp front, under the curious gaze of soldiers and merchants passing by, Horn carefully observed the camp before him.

Compared to a military camp, it looked more like a marketplace.

Norn merchants, vampire merchants, and even Centaurs were buying and selling here.

This was one of the privileges Horn had given to Aleksei, a portion of the border special trade rights.

By the camp walls, near the lakes and streams, one could see many rye fields and a large number of Norn farmers working.

In contrast to the previous desolation and coldness, now there was a lot more bustling life.

Yet, compared to the chaos outside the camp walls, the camp’s quarters, drill grounds, and arrow towers behind the walls were set up with order.

That young bear lord from Norn didn’t waste his education at Saint Danji Military Academy.

Soon, the dust-covered Aleksei swiftly arrived with a dozen Centaur attendants.

Upon seeing Horn, Aleksei quickly dismounted to greet, while the Centaurs fearfully knelt down.

Back in the battle of Ladan Castle, the Saint’s Grandson became renowned for wielding thunder, which scared them out of their wits.

Later, with the vampire invasion, some Centaur tribes who assimilated with the Norns and those unwilling to submit to vampires migrated to the Holy Alliance.

Anyway, the enlistment for citizenship at the Holy Alliance border hadn’t ended, and Shattered Stone Plain was quite suitable for their survival, so they simply pledged allegiance to Shattered Stone Plain.

André had his ways; now, any border general would almost invariably have a batch of Centaur guards as a trendy asset.

André even specially prepared a batch for Horn, ready to deliver five hundred elite Centaur horsemen when Horn was about to leave.

"This place I visited ten years ago; it’s much livelier than before."

"Forgive me, Your Grace, we..."

"I’m not blaming you." Horn interrupted, "Where are these people from?"

"They are from the Norn wild tribes..."

Due to the relative impoverishment of Roaring Corridor, except for several affluent main cities, it remained in a medieval state.

Despite vampire lords taking large territories, the profits were not as imagined.

Quite a few vampire lords even had to sell cattle and horses to the Holy Alliance to ensure profitability.

Under such circumstances, they either headed south to the wealthier South Norn or extracted from within.

Looking inside their territories, oh wait, there were plenty of untaxed tax bases—the Norn wild tribes.

Though called wild tribes, they were almost the same as regular Norn villages, just that they were autonomously governed.

Compared to allegiance, their relationship with the lords was more like vassals or collaborators.

But vampires didn’t care about these, immediately trying to annex the wild tribes.

Aleksei, based on what he learned in diplomacy class at Holy Machinery Court University, followed the principle that the enemy’s enemy could be a friend and vigorously attracted these wild tribes.

Apart from sheltering the wild migrant people, the wild tribes along the border would send many youths to join Aleksei’s Restoration Army.

"Now the Restoration Army’s soldiers, together with auxiliary troops, number over ten thousand." Aleksei accompanied Horn on the grass, "If it weren’t for you granting us trade privileges and equipment aid, where could a sinner like Aleksei be today?"

"Though you are from a great noble lineage and we are bound to be enemies in the future, right now our enemies are all vampires..."

"We won’t be enemies."

Horn stopped walking, turned to look at this young man with short, tough beard: "Do you know what you’re saying?"

In the Holy Alliance, allies and enemies are sorted not by culture or race, but by system and hierarchy.

Like Leia and Norn, this purely feudal system might be naive, but it’s just a medium enemy.

Although Falan is reactionary, it has an advanced system and is considered a minor enemy, with whom slight cooperation is possible.

As for the vampires, just looking at their ultimate reactionary system, coupled with their inherent racial exclusivity, they are regarded as a major enemy.

Even within the Holy Alliance, Black Snake Bay is considered a medium ally, while Dawn Federation’s aristocrats and oligarchs are minor allies.

So on a grand strategic level, the plan is to first band together with allies and minor enemies, and medium enemies, to confront the major enemy.

Then team up with allies and minor enemies to fight medium enemies, subsequently join medium allies to face minor allies, and finally redefine friend and foe.

Continuous struggle, continuous internal cleansing, continuous slicing of sausages... Thus, in Horn’s eyes, both sides may be friends now, but could be enemies in the future.

And Alekseyev’s remark really gave Horn a "what does it mean" kind of feeling.

"I’m preparing to emulate you."

"Emulate me?" Horn paused for a moment, "What do you mean?"

"I’ve studied the system of the Holy Alliance and discovered that the strength of the Holy Alliance lies in the indispensability of every linkage." Alekseyev lifted his head and bravely met Horn’s gaze for the first time. "But fundamentally, it’s the Holy Path and the Republic that can lead Norn to prosperity."

"You don’t want to be a King?"

"Who says a King must wear a crown and be in the Royal Palace?"

"Oh?"

"A king in the hearts of the faithful is a King even without a crown, conversely, it’s merely a demon that usurps the throne."

Horn watched him for a long time, suddenly bursting into laughter: "Good kid, ambition, I await that day."

"That day won’t be far."

"That day won’t be very close either, taking big strides may lead to a fall."

"Huh?" This time, it was Alekseyev’s turn to feel perplexed.

Horn didn’t respond; he walked to a large rock, climbed up, and gazed at the clusters of settlements in the distance.

The vampire invasion of the Roaring Corridor indeed added quite a population to the Shattered Stone Plain.

Whether they would return or stay in the Holy Alliance, or assimilate into the Shattered Stone Plain in the future, Horn wasn’t worried.

The Norn people, especially the Norn savages, essentially don’t have much concept of the Norn nationality.

The Norn Nobility’s allegiance to the Norn Kingdom is entirely based on self-interest; culturally, Norn’s regions are astonishingly diverse, even languages are not uniform.

The Holy Alliance’s tolerant attitude toward different cultures would only allow the Shattered Stone Plain to absorb more and more people.

"Do you want to restore your nation?"

"Yes."

"Can I offer you a suggestion?" Horn asked while looking at the farmers diligently tending the land below.

Alekseyev swiftly pulled out a small notebook and a Dick gold pen from his pocket: "Please do."

"The vampire invasion is both a crisis and an opportunity; Charles VIII used it to suppress domestic political foes and began implementing reforms." Horn gestured, "You should emulate this, and personally, I think the best entry point is these Norn savages."

"Are you suggesting I consolidate power by rallying nobles at the top and savages at the bottom?"

"Exactly, politics is about uniting the many and targeting the few. If you can unite the majority of powers, you’re halfway to success."

"I’ve tried, but they don’t understand the doctrines of the Holy Sect, they merely oppose vampires..."

"Precisely, the construction of self-identity is never based on oneself, but on the enemy. It’s the presence of a common enemy that forms a common self."

Seeing Alekseyev’s bewildered expression, Horn sat cross-legged on the large rock: "Let me ask you, since they don’t understand, why not claim you are the reincarnated deity from the Norn myth?"

"Ah, but that’s a heresy..."

"Who cares if it’s a heresy? It’s the only logic the Norn savages understand."

The foundation of communication has two points: the same platform and the same logic.

The doctrines of the Holy Path Cult they can’t grasp quickly, and there isn’t time or environment to spread them, so what?

Horn initially promoted "Holy Father’s embodiment," then the "Celestial Kingdom dream," and now the "Earthly Heaven" theory.

If truly asked, none align with the fundamental doctrines of the Holy Sect, but they can unite people.

On a shared platform, using shared logic, establishing shared enemies and shared visions.

An imagined community is thus born.

Seeing Alekseyev’s semi-comprehending look, Horn smiled: "I’ll dispatch a group of scholars, you can gather a group of savage warlocks, uphold this philosophy, and soon suitable ideologies will emerge; solely relying on your father’s name can’t bind the scattered Norn people."

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