Curled up in the warm quilt, he thought a lot.
The shadow of his former lover Priscilla, those people he had helped, the royal family, nobles, landlords, leaders, General Dreshuka who had promised to make this new empire a better place, and the little queen he was educating at the time.
In the end, these shadows turned into silent people, people who spit on them in the Judgment Square and criticized their enemies in the court.
In the end, these scenes turned gray, and only Mother Teresa's long white hair and her annoying and frivolous expression remained:
"Don't think too much. Don't think about this country. Just eat well first."
You annoying guy. Why are you the only one who accepted me in my current state of desolation
Yang Hao's face was in tears, and he felt warmth rising from his heart, and the motivation to continue living under shackles and pressure.
…
At the same time, when Priscilla of the Royal Palace received the order and prepared to lead the team to welcome the return of her lover, she stood in front of the former court president who had been demoted to a maid for the last time:
"Natalia, you really won't go with us? If you were here, maybe..."
"I'm different from you, Priscilla. I still have my own principles as a human being that I'm proud of. I'm different from you guys who are worse than beasts.
You filthy bastards, even animals know how to be grateful, what have you done
Your silence during the Silence incident caused him to be exiled, why don't you continue to remain silent now
Do you plan to let him clean up this mess and then be judged by you for the second time? Ha! ! You bastard, worse than an animal! Get out of here now! Otherwise, I will throw the mop on your face, which is not only delicate but also disgusting to me! "
"Uh..." The arrogant former court president spat fiercely on the ground in front of the Night Witch, and then mopped it clean with a mop soaked in water.
Priscilla opened her mouth silently, but in the end she could say nothing, so she had to turn around and leave.
During the Quiet Exile incident a year ago, many people, including her, chose to remain silent for various reasons.
Perhaps it was for the sake of this country that had been built with great difficulty, perhaps it was for the sake of his own family and territory, or perhaps it was simply out of fear...
Their silence led to the regent being forced to step down and exile, with the former president of the court being the one who despised them the most.
That's all.
The Night Witch sighed heavily. After leaving the palace, she led the last of the Royal Knights towards the portal network of the capital, which was the only reformed building that had not been overthrown after the regent was expelled.
They have until February 21 to bring him back.
Otherwise, the empire will collapse due to external and internal troubles.
Chapter 5: Ignorance, the truth behind his resignation, clues
On February 16, when the Night Witch Priscilla finally arrived at a small town less than a few kilometers away from her hometown, Skull Village, through the portal network of the Earldom of Kagaard, they were all exhausted and felt the hardships along the way.
Now the divisive trend of the Roman Empire is not only reflected in the superstructure, but is also clearly evident among the people.
People in the central agricultural areas are crying out in despair over the impending famine.
People in border areas who are not affected by the drought are mocking their "ungodly" compatriots.
They seemed unable to understand that this drought was not caused by the piety of their faith, and they were unable to understand that they would also be affected.
At least in Priscilla's eyes, the border region has no sympathy or sense of responsibility for the central region. "Robert... According to the previous regulations, you take people to the town to inquire about the situation and pay attention to whether there are any strange things happening. Aya, you go over... Wait a minute? What are they doing?"
Before she had time to catch her breath, when Priscilla was about to order the imperial knights to act according to the plan, her eyes inadvertently glanced outside the portal and saw that some residents seemed to be digging something underground.
Frowning involuntarily, the Witch of Night signaled the knight named Robert to go and inquire about the situation, and soon she got a fact that shocked her.
The residents of the town are dismantling the steel heating pipes laid underneath, which had not yet been completed but had been abandoned due to Yang Hao's resignation.
"What are they after?"
The town's heating system was not fully manufactured, so even if the steel heating pipes were removed, it would be impossible to get the heating that makes people feel comfortable in the winter.
Priscilla couldn't understand why the residents here did this. Even considering that the early spring in the border area was extremely cold, they shouldn't dig up the ground just for a few steel pillars, right
In the face of Priscilla's confusion, Knight Robert remained silent for a long time, then pointed to the arrogant man who was directing the people to dig the ground not far away and said:
"According to the workers on site... a believer of the Church of Light who called himself "Stoat" and had been to the capital assured everyone that [as long as the underground pipes are dug up, brought back home and fueled with faith, the house can be heated]. "
"How is this possible?! I've seen the design drawings he left behind... These things boil water to create heat and then heat it through pipes, instead of using illusory beliefs to create warmth out of thin air?!"
"My lady witch, but this is the truth... The people don't care about that anymore. Every year in the border villages and towns, people freeze to death due to lack of firewood. They do this to avoid freezing to death, so they don't think about whether this is true or not."
“Uh…” Every year, several, dozens, or even hundreds of people are frozen to death in the villages and towns along the border of the Roman Empire.
It was for these people that Yang Hao had proposed the costly and laborious underground heating construction project. Simply because Wangdu was the best testing ground, he first tentatively laid these pipelines that benefited the people's livelihood in Wangdu, and gained Wangdu's recognition within the first two or three years after the founding of the country.
But unexpectedly, a few years later, this became a "fact" used by the followers of the Church of Light to deceive people.
They used the reason that "the faith of the people in the capital is stronger than that in the border areas" to deceive the people, asking them to pay the tithe, give up selling their property to buy "indulgences", and then confess in the church to seek God's grace.
Priscilla had always observed that the people living on the border had always done this. Lacking education, the people living on the border simply could not understand the world objectively.
In addition to cultivating the rice fields with one's own hands, one also needs faith.
In addition to firewood for heating, you can also pray in the church - surviving in the freezing night is because of faith, if you freeze to death, it means that your faith is not pure enough.
Now, there is more... Priscilla cannot understand it at all. The Imperial Knights under her command cannot understand it either.
Faintly, she heard someone sighing quietly, "Everything has gone wrong since the Regent left."
This sigh was soon drowned out by the sound of the people's hard and futile work, and was finally completely crushed by the prayers of the believers.
…
Before leaving for the village of Scuol, Priscilla and others still needed to make some final adjustments.
Although the portal network is convenient, every time a teleportation occurs it will cause irreparable nausea and loss of physical strength to the human body.
Even the strongest warriors would not be able to travel long distances in a short period of time after passing through the portal, let alone a witch like Priscilla.
During the break, they gathered information in the town, asking the townspeople if they had seen a "man who had drifted here from the capital."
"You mean this? You mean the regent? When the news of his resignation reached us, the people of Scuol moved away immediately.
No one wants to have anything to do with this unlucky guy. When he was in his prime, the village chief was still boasting, "I trained him." But now... Sigh."
"You mean the former regent? Um... I don't want to talk about this topic. Because of his disrespect for the God of Light, the harvest in our town is not good now...
Alas, I heard that Kagad has now gained nothing because of the massacre he led!
The farmers there are planning to go to the Monster Forest to capture the heretics and offer them to the God of Light to prove their piety, hoping that the heavens will send down dew to make the land better..."
"I heard that those factories closed down. This is really good news. If it is not made by a craftsman and without the prayers of the priest, it can't be considered a useful farm tool!"
"Uh..." The residents stated rumors that came from nowhere or their own opinions.
But Priscilla, who had just returned from Kagad, knew that the so-called massacre had never happened in Kagad.
The only thing related to "massacre" is the livestock slaughtering and meat salting conference held in Kagad every year.
But even the people here believed it firmly, and even the people in Kagad refused to admit the facts and numb themselves with rumors, using the non-existent "dead" to vent their emotions...
The president of the court had told her before that all the crimes of the regent were fictitious, but Priscilla did not believe it.
She has not appeared in public since entering the palace and has no way of obtaining real information from the outside world.
Because of this, she hesitated to speak out when he was facing accusations. She didn't know what her lover had done, and therefore lost the right to defend him.
Now, she finally knew the truth—but it was too late. He had been exiled, and now he was not sure whether he was alive or dead. Even if she wanted to make amends for the mistakes she had made, she didn't know where to turn.
The people of the town had never seen that man. In other words, he might not have been close to any town at all, but was alone and struggling on the national road he had created.
Priscilla lowered her head. The knights could not see her expression and could only hear her mumbling:
"No... It shouldn't be like this. Why would the royal family lie to us? Why?"
"Mister Witch?"
"There was no such thing as a massacre, and those crimes were completely fictitious... Why is this happening?"
The witch's mumbling made the accompanying knight silent for a long time.
When they passed by the town's abandoned night school, they saw some gifted aristocratic children showing off their magical talents wantonly on the street.
This made the witch dazed for a moment - she recalled the real reason for her silence, and the knight beside her stated it for her.
"In the year 003 of the Imperial Calendar, His Majesty the Regent publicly declared that he would use steam technology to bring the Roman Empire into the industrial age. By then, the talent gap between ordinary people and knights and magicians will be further reduced. Naturally, in the industrial age, people will no longer need the blessings of gods, nobles and landlords, or even the royal family to hold real power. The army will become state-owned under the blessing of industrialization.
His Majesty the Regent's speech offended many people, not only his enemies, but also his former comrades.
The Saint severed ties with him because of his "ungodly" remarks and is now confined to the Great Temple in St. Petersburg, the diocese, declaring that she will only return to the world as God's messenger and guide when he returns to God's arms.
General Dreshuka, the warmongerer who only thought about how to fight and occupy territory was originally an enemy of His Majesty the Regent. The statement that the army should be nationalized rather than owned by warlords gave him a push.
Scholars of noble birth chose to remain silent because of family ties, and landowners fanned the flames to protect their assets - but all this was because of the royal family...
The regent is also responsible for educating the next queen. If the future queen agrees with such remarks, the Roman royal family will no longer be a royal family. At most, they can only become a noble family in the future, or even become ordinary people...
In order to avoid this worst outcome, the royal family took the lead and the nobles, landlords, warlords, and religious leaders united together, and our regent was pulled down by filth.
As for us... we have remained silent for various reasons, for which we must now atone."
Knight Robert raised his head and sighed. Even through the helmet, Priscilla could imagine the painful and twisted expression of the middle-aged man under the mask.
In response, she was silent for a long time, then shook her head: "Robert. You are the most glorious knight in the Roman Empire. He even blocked an axe in his chest for you."
Knight Robert had saved Yang Hao's life. During the war of unification, Yang Hao blocked an axe from the barbarians for him and saved Robert's life with the serious injury on his left hand.
Because of that life-saving grace, Knight Robert swore allegiance to Yang Hao—and then in the Silent Incident, he chose to remain silent.
Facing the Witch of the Night's warning, Knight Robert simply lowered his head and sneered in response:
"Because I am a knight, I cannot sit idly by and watch future knights become equals to commoners. I admit that there is a dark side in my heart that does not abide by the code of chivalry, but—
What about you? Lady Priscilla, the Witch of the Night, why are you silent
Isn't it because in the future of His Majesty the Regent, even the most gifted magicians will not be able to gain favor due to their talents and remain silent in the Silent Incident
You chose to remain silent for the sake of those talented wizards, because you have your current position because of your natural talent!
If His Majesty the Regent truly completes industrialization, then mages may no longer exist...
You betrayed your lover for the mage, and I betrayed my master for the knight. We both chose to remain silent because of the people we each carried, and none of us is more glorious than the other.
We are all shameful traitors. But we must bring him back within the 21st and make him regent again. Otherwise, this country will perish."
As he said, those who kept silent at that time were no more glorious than anyone else. And indeed, it was meaningless for the traitors to blame each other, and now they must atone for the country.
The knight and the witch stared at each other in silence, stabbing each other's sore spots. Just when they gave up the tit-for-tat and prepared to continue their work -
Priscilla saw a familiar white figure on the other side of the street.
That was Teresa, a nun from the village of Scuol, who believed in "light" rather than "the God of Light"—
Now she was leaving with a basket full of bread and necessities. By chance, Priscilla noticed that her basket seemed to contain a brand new razor and a pair of men's boots.
Priscilla and the knight looked at each other. They had found it.
Chapter 6: Mother Teresa's Good Mood, the Queen Who Can't Speak
Today is a happy day for Mother Teresa.
The man in the family finally came to his senses and stopped thinking about the Roman Empire. Instead, he took his axe and went to the mountains to chop firewood.
Although she felt a little helpless seeing his dazed look, Sister Teresa thought that this was better than continuing to think about the dead end of the Roman Empire, right
After all, the entire empire was originally a variety of human territories that were merged into a "Roman Empire" five years ago for various interests, with the royal family as the main body, warlords and the pope as the auxiliary, nobles and landlords as the grassroots, and ordinary civilians as firewood and consumables.
This new country was not stable when it was first established. And those who can become nobles are not fools.
Everyone can see that he intended to reduce the influence and rights of all classes except the common people at the beginning of the founding of the country. But is it so easy
This would take at least 20 to 30 years of preparation - after 20 to 30 years of preparation, it would take even longer to implement... And the worst thing was that the companions around him were more or less related to those classes.
I won't say much about the witch Priscilla, who is also from the village of Skool. She is a witch with outstanding talent, and she is proud of being a magician.
When she heard that he planned to reduce the gap between mages and civilians, and maybe even make mages the same as civilians, she probably had other ideas in her mind.
Not to mention the saint of the St. Peter's Cathedral in the diocese. She is a fanatical believer of the God of Light. In her heart, there is no other sun in the world except the God of Light - how can you expect her to support Yang Hao's policies back then? That's ridiculous.
The founding generals and he were in a relationship of mutual benefit. Even if he did not make public his plan to "nationalize the army", the warlords would stab him in the ass sooner or later...
And among them... the most pitiful one is the heir to the Roman Empire, and now the next empress who is still a little girl.
The next queen was in an awkward position in the Roman royal family. Her parents had died in an accident while hunting when the country was first founded, and now she had two guardians in name—one was the exiled Yang Hao, and the other was her uncle.
Mother Teresa had never met the Queen's uncle, but from what she knew through divine magic, she knew he was a man as sinister as a venomous snake and as cunning as a jackal.