When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

Chapter 1347: Chapter 1265: Summer Ceasefire

Sitting under the grape vines in the garden, Leia casually flipped through the Truth Daily, taking a sip of coffee from time to time.

Even though, after the loss of Golden Fleece Beach and the White Sands, Falan was filled with curses and discontent, he himself did not lose his composure.

Compared with the past, he was actually a bit more at ease, only the smile on his face had grown rarer.

While turning the pages of the Truth Daily, he asked Lorenzo unhurriedly, "I heard from the Minister of War that there’s quite a big shortage of armor and weapons for the new recruits?"

Lorenzo, sitting to one side, was swiftly signing and annotating one document after another that were waiting to be reviewed.

His hand never paused, yet he could still answer Leia’s question while multitasking: "Falan lacks iron ore; we’ve always had to import it from the Royal Court, Leia, and Norn."

"Ask the Holy Alliance for it." Twisting his neck, Leia leaned half his body over the small tea table in the middle, pointing at the news in the paper. "Look at this—this year the Holy Alliance produced 12,000 tons of pig iron and 500 tons of steel. What’s wrong with giving us 2,000 tons of pig iron and 100 tons of steel? We’re allies; I’ve already given them so much money."

Lorenzo still shook his head: "We don’t have enough armorers at home. Even if the steel comes, we won’t be able to replenish the front line’s armor, swords, and other weapons in time..."

"Ask the Holy Alliance, outsource it to them. I won’t shortchange them—we’ll give them cost price." Leia thought for a moment, then added, "They pay the shipping."

"Won’t that stir up discontent in the Holy Alliance? Unlike before, we’re at a point now where we have to take their opinion into account."

"What discontent? We’re allies—what’s yours, what’s mine, we work it out together." Leia shook the newspaper and went on reading. "If anything, he poached the artisans from my Golden Fleece Beach and White Sands. I haven’t even gone after him for that, have I? So this is settled."

"All right." Lorenzo turned sideways and noted it down on the memo pad on the tea table.

In fact, the trend of the Holy Alliance gradually becoming the industrial and armaments manufacturing center of the entire alliance was growing more and more obvious.

Especially in that city, ry Court Barracks.

Whether actively or passively, once the alliance was formed and the three sides relaxed their control over migration, large numbers of artisans and technicians poured into the Holy Alliance.

Previously, whether in Falan, Norn, or Leia, they would hide and guard their own technology and craftsmen.

But now, under the immense military pressure from the Royal Court, they were forced to give up certain things in exchange for the Holy Alliance’s logistical support.

To say nothing of others, the Norn Chosen King Jekashausen even called Holy Father just to get equipment from Horn.

Though that is the proper form of address, facing someone ten years younger and calling him Holy Father!

That kind of thick skin, Ask—even the Saint Master would weep blood to see it.

To curry favor with the Pope, he even sent Norn’s crown to ry Court Barracks for exhibition, leaving it in Horn’s safekeeping.

The official reason was "fearing the capital might fall, causing the crown to fall into vampire hands."

But their returns were extremely generous as well; now over thirty percent of Norn’s army has its armor and weapons supplied at low prices by Holy Alliance arms merchants.

"After the battle of Bacon Castle, the pressure down in southern Norn eased a lot." Leia slurped a mouthful of coffee, his tone neither pleased nor displeased. "Whether it’s that little bear cub, or Jekashausen, they’ve actually managed to recover quite a bit of land."

"For the moment." Lorenzo didn’t even look up. "The newly arrived twenty thousand Royal Court troops are being redeployed to the northern route, but at least that’s eased a lot of pressure on our side."

This, in truth, was no lie.

After the vampires invaded Golden Fleece Beach and the White Sands, they even tried to push on toward Flower Hill and the riverlands.

But with Leia and Lorenzo working together, they forcibly brought the Royal Court’s boar-charge offensive to a halt.

Thank the Holy Alliance for inventing Rampart tactics and the clockwork cannon; otherwise Leia really would have had to stand guard at the gate of the realm himself.

And thanks are owed to the Royal Court as well, for giving Falan ample cause and pressure to clean up the slack-off nobles and corrupt bishops at home.

In the tumultuous April Storm, the citizens, the army, and the new nobility joined forces.

Vast tracts of land belonging to the traditional landed nobility and the Church were liberated—either auctioned off to raise money for the army’s pay, or allocated to soldiers according to military merit.

After this small-scale social reform, Falan once again displayed his depth to the world.

Falan’s officers and officials at all levels were more than competent—far stronger than the likes of Leia or Norn.

With the spread of clockwork guns and Holy Favor Seeds, they gradually learned and adapted to this style of warfare, even starting to construct tactics suited to themselves.

On several battlefields, they actually fought the enemy to a draw, even gained slight advantages.

Thus, after intense offensive and defensive fighting, Falan successfully dragged the timeline into summer.

In the blazing summer, the days are too long and the sun too fierce, placing heavy constraints on vampires.

So after June, the vampires’ original offensive gradually stalled and shifted toward digesting the land they’d already taken.

Only after September, even October, did they have the leisure to launch the second wave of this year’s offensive.

As for the patterns of the Royal Court’s attacks, the entire empire was slowly adapting.

One spring offensive, one autumn offensive; summer is generally spent digesting territory and distributing spoils.

The vampires will force the local, real-power key nobles to convert to the Cult of Immortality and become vampires.

Then in the cities, they gather notable local figures and establish a Maintenance Council.

Once the Maintenance Council is in place, whenever any wing of the vampires needs something, they simply submit the request to them.

The vampire armies have to abide by practical logic too—they need wages, supplies, and logistics.

The henchmen may have gained unprecedented autonomy, but their tax burden is not necessarily lighter than before.

And under the vampires there is no such thing as "spending within your means."

As a result, rebellions in the occupied territories are inevitable.

Major uprisings are crushed by the Royal Court itself; minor ones are put down by Servant Armies dispatched by the Maintenance Council.

The entire summer is spent much like the Royal Court’s old suppression of the Black Legion—crushing native insurgent forces.

With every summer of digestion and consolidation, the number of troops the Royal Court can deploy and their combat strength both take another leap.

First, logistics improve; second, they don’t need to keep as many forces back for maintaining order.

Now that Golden Fleece Beach, the White Sands, and the Windmill Lands—these rich and densely populated coastal regions—have all fallen into vampire hands, they’re likely to grow considerably stronger.

As one side waxes and the other wanes, with these rich territories falling to the vampires, the empire’s power inevitably declines.

Thinking of this, Leia’s mood, which had been relatively calm, rippled once more.

So far, this invasion by the Royal Court was unlike any of the previous ones; this time the vampires were far too strong.

Previously, although the empire was at a disadvantage most of the time, at least it could give as good as it got.

This time, in just over a year and a half, the Norn Kingdom lost a third of its territory, Leia lost half, and even Falan had lost at least one-sixth of its lands.

Up to now, apart from the Holy Alliance, not a single power has been able to block the vampires’ advance!

If the Holy Alliance hadn’t provided Holy Favor Seeds, clockwork guns and cannon, and Rampart tactics (with supporting mortar engineering and so on), the empire might already have lost nearly half its domain.

Never overestimate the nobles’ moral fiber and loyalty—when something big comes along, they surrender faster than anyone.

The countless past invasions by the Royal Court have already proven this.

Once the vampires finish digesting those rich coastal regions and advance again, will they still be able to hold?

If he could help it, Leia would never want the kingdom’s lands turned vampire, but the problem was: what could they actually do?

"Have many nobles answered our call and risen to resist the vampires?" Leia put down the newspaper and faced Lorenzo directly.

Lorenzo’s pen, busy with state business, paused for a moment. He looked up at Leia. "Quite a few—but as soon as they rise, their armies are crushed before they can even fully assemble."

Leia pressed his lips together and, unable to help himself, began shaking his leg.

Lorenzo knew that this was a little habit of his, only appearing when he was anxiously thinking.

After pondering for a moment, Lorenzo spoke again: "I’ve heard that the Holy Sect’s Brotherhood and the Saint Father’s Association, on the other hand..."

"What about them?"

"They hope we can make things convenient for them and let them operate behind enemy lines in both regions." Lorenzo chose his words carefully. "They say they have ways to keep the vampires’ rear from ever being at peace."

"Ha." Leia stared blankly for a moment, then let out a mute laugh.

They had exhausted themselves, made so many promises, burned through so many of the kingdom’s secret agents, and still hadn’t managed to do it—

And you lot from the Holy Sect and Saint Father’s Association think you can?

If it were those famous priests from the Holy Alliance, like Thomas or Armand, or Horn himself coming, Leia might find it plausible.

But this bunch?

"Forget it." Leia picked up another newspaper. "Since they’re willing to stir things up, let them. It’s not our strength that’ll be getting burned anyway."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!