When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

Chapter 1345: Chapter 1263: Middle-Class Witch

Amidst the creaking of clockwork and gears, Hilov tossed aside the towel covering her chest and stepped into the bathroom.

Pressing the handle gently and feeling the water temperature for a while, she walked into the cascading hot water from the ceiling.

The hot water flowed in streams, gliding over the tender, fair skin of the Wolf Woman, down the streamlined back and buttocks, and then from the soft thighs to the intricately-patterned brass calves.

The hot water washed away the sticky sweat and also carried away Hilov’s nightmares.

Unsure if she was influenced by Horn, since the Holy Tree’s seed event, she frequently dreamed of that Holy Tree.

In her dreams, the Holy Tree always floated alone in the boundless space.

But for some reason, Hilov always felt that the tree was watching her.

Not with malice or indifference, but rather like an adult watching over a child.

Then she would wake up, drenched in sweat.

The witches and wizards related to the dreams had come by and failed to provide a reasonable explanation, often resorting to prescribing calming incense.

Perhaps these weren’t Horn’s kind of vivid dreams, merely her daytime thoughts manifesting at night?

Hilov hadn’t figured it out and didn’t fret over it too much, only occasionally feeling anxious.

After applying cleansing potion all over herself, creating foam, and rinsing off, the Wolf Woman walked out of the bathroom.

At the bathroom door, attendants had prepared a heat blower in advance.

It was a human-height household appliance with a covered elliptical base connected to a handheld fan by iron rings and pipes.

Inside, the heating air was filled with glowing red peat and then blown out by a small spring-driven fan.

Hot air swept over her damp hair, quickly evaporating the moisture and blowing it away with strong wind.

This was the latest hairdryer on the market, expensive, costing nearly 80 Dinars, and usually only found in specialized ladies’ hair salons.

Additionally, its use required a costly ether fee.

Indeed, with the economic and industrial development of the ry Court Barracks, the service industry was also booming.

In the ry Court Barracks, specialized ladies’ hair salons had even appeared to cater to the city’s middle class seeking new fashions.

Besides ladies’ hair salons, bicycle shops, fluorite lamp shops, toy companies, job agencies, elevator companies, etc., had emerged.

This resulted in farmers or immigrants seeking work in the city finding jobs easily.

As for those with diplomas issued by the Holy Council or veteran medals, they were especially sought after.

This caused the ry Court Barracks’ population to grow rapidly at a rate of 5% annually, with the year’s census showing a total population of 218,700.

Though it couldn’t compare to Huaqiu City’s population of over 400,000 or Changge City’s 250,000, it was already the third most populated city in the Eastern continent.

Moreover, in terms of urban infrastructure, spirit, and cleanliness, the first two cities were far behind the ry Court Barracks.

Not to mention the variety of goods available on the market.

Various eccentric inventors were starting businesses, frequently seen promoting their inventions on street corners.

Jia Li and Jeanne were fine, but Catherine and Hilov had strong material desires, often buying a pile of things home.

However, this time, Hilov was influenced by recommendations from other witch sisters to buy these things.

Though witches had varying wealth levels, most were middle class or above.

Horn never hesitated to provide witches with generous treatment.

On one hand, it was due to their irreplaceable strategic and tactical value, on the other hand, to maintain stability.

Witches’ nerves and spirits were much more sensitive and fragile than those of ordinary people.

Many witches’ mental issues largely stemmed from external pressure.

Receiving weekly neural relaxation treatments in a relatively comfortable environment significantly improved witches’ spirits.

Compared to the damage caused by a berserk witch, providing them with some lifestyle and economic convenience was evidently more cost-effective.

Of course, Horn wouldn’t give witches a luxurious life for free; they had to work, even go to the battlefield.

Under Hilov’s Holy Council was a specialized witch bureau to manage these witches.

The entire empire had accumulated twenty-two witches over the centuries, all currently working for the Holy Alliance.

Some served as the Pope’s guards and secretaries (Solan, Edwin), some served as local Shepherd Leaders (Ottatila, Louise), and some were Battle Commanders and Battle Commanders (Selomis, Jeanne)...

In the ry Court Barracks, there were seven witches, some running companies, attending universities, and even being factory directors.

For monitoring and stability purposes, the witches of ry Court Barracks had to meet weekly in the form of a tea party.

The rapid development of the Holy Alliance couldn’t have happened without these witches’ assistance.

However, Hilov sometimes couldn’t help but feel worried.

Being naturally extraordinary and possessing abilities vastly superior, would witches become the next church and empire in the future?

They were already gradually infiltrating all key areas of the Holy Alliance, with an irreplaceable stance.

Long ago, in bed meetings among four female Saintesses and one male Saintess, Jia Li suggested a witch surveillance approach, having witches monitor other witches, using magic against magic.

Moreover, she proposed to thoroughly covertly monitor witches to prevent any large-scale harm.

Especially those witches who could cause great harm; even if they hadn’t gone berserk, it would be best to deal with them ahead of time.

Yet, this method was collectively opposed by Jeanne, Catherine, and Horn, and thus wasn’t implemented.

Deep down, Hilov actually agreed with Jia Li, but...

Sigh, politics truly is complex.

Hilov paused her hair drying motion, and with her three thousand strands of worrying locks at rest, those worries temporarily departed.

Donning a white coat and winding up the clockwork, Hilov stepped out of the room, reaching the door in a few steps.

Outside the Mechanical Palace, Miracle Priests awaiting early bowed their heads in greeting.

Hilov didn’t say much and merely inquired, "So has the vampire cannon been transported?"

"Yes, Your Highness, it’s at the test grounds."

Following the direction pointed out by the Miracle Priest, the test grounds already had a plow-sized object covered in black cloth.

Despite not having seen the cannon yet, Hilov already had a rough understanding of it.

Upon acquiring the cannon, André had done preliminary tests and provided a set of data.

Judging by the data, it didn’t differ much from the Holy Alliance’s six-pound cannon, merely having a relatively slower firing rate.

Numerous newspapers within the Holy Alliance believed a scrapped Vanguard Corps had been hit by the vampire cannon.

Such powerful force caused anxiety among many believers, even soldiers couldn’t help feeling apprehensive.

However, the Truth News clearly stated that the scrapped Vanguard Corps was "scrapped while covering comrades to seize the cannon," rather than destroyed by the vampire cannon.

Due to longer sentences on the signal machines transmitting slower, only key information was sent, with the rest saved as much as possible.

According to subsequent battle reports delivered, that Vanguard Corps was encircled and annihilated while covering comrades’ corps after having no time to withdraw.

Otherwise, relying solely on the cannon, it couldn’t possibly scrap an entire regiment, unless all were killed at once, surely some would escape.

After all, one corps deployed spanned over a hundred meters in combat width.

If the Royal Court possessed such precision in such a large-radius cannon, the Holy Alliance need not even play.

Standing before the experimental target range, surrounding researchers and Miracle Priests gathered around.

Despite having heard some tidbits, true curiosity was inevitable when the cannon actually arrived in front of them.

"Uncover the cloth!"

Hilov ordered, and the black cloth shook off, revealing the vampire cannon inside.

The Wolf Woman was briefly stunned, then heard a chorus of coughing and gasping from all around.

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