When Horn handled governnt affairs, it was always: a small eting with the Saintesses, a dium eting with the cardinals, and a general assembly with all the representatives.
Today all four Saintesses were present. Since there's no day like today, it was just right to pull them in for a small eting.
It was absolutely not because the atmosphere on site was too awkward, and he proposed it just to ease the awkwardness.
Absolutely not.
Sitting at the long rectangular table in front of the desk, the whole office was silent as a tomb, save for the sound of Horn pouring coffee.
Inside the office, the four Saintesses all sat with perfect posture.
Jia Li had taken off her coat and loosened the ties at the V-neck of her shirt.
Her arms were folded under her chest, pushing out a curve; sunlight fell on the flesh‑colored contours and sohow gave them an amber sheen.
Across from her, Jeanne refused to be outdone; she undid her short cape, revealing a cool off‑shoulder camisole and those smooth, white shoulders tinged with a faint flush.
Hilov sat slightly turned away from the others, wearing the newest white dress from the ry Court Barracks, with puff sleeves and ruffled edges; beneath the soft skirt, her two brass prosthetic legs rested on the wheelchair's footrest.
Catherine, for her part, had changed into Falan's latest high‑low inverted‑V gown, her plump thighs wrapped in spider‑silk stockings.
Holding a tray with the coffee pot and five cups, standing at the front of the table, Horn couldn't help but admire the sight.
At the sa ti, he was sowhat impressed with himself for actually managing to hold back.
Witches were dangerous, sure, but in terms of looks they really were different from ordinary people.
Strictly speaking, ordinary people more or less had so small physical flaws—crooked teeth, thinning hair, nostrils too big, and so on.
The Witches' larger innate facial structure was almost impossible to alter, but they didn't have these little flaws; all minor ailnts and injuries could be fixed, even their skin was unnaturally fair.
It's not that every Witch was absolutely stunning, but their floor was far, far higher than that of ordinary people.
Suppressing the restlessness in his chest, Horn sat back down on the padded chair. "Ah‑haha, coffee's here."
Not one of the four Saintesses bothered to respond.
Horn had no choice but to bite the bullet and keep talking. "You still don't know what this Central Council session is for, do you?"
"The Holy Alliance's coachman wants to pull over for repairs, right?"
"Mm, sothing like that. Not only repairs—we're changing horseshoes and changing the route." Horn spread his hands. "That's not sothing I can do alone."
Horn looked at the four Saintesses with utmost sincerity. "I need you."
But the four Saintesses were used to this sort of thing and didn't react at all.
Clearing his throat, Horn pretended they had all heard him and went on, "The next goal for the Holy Alliance is nothing more than boosting the economy, which requires effort both at ho and abroad.
That's why I set up the Disciplinary Court and the performance assessnt system."
"The Disciplinary Court? What's that?" Jia Li sensed sothing bad.
Jeanne's lips curled into a proud smile. "It's a new departnt my brother set up for . Not only is it in charge of rectifying discipline, it also cracks down on speculation and profiteering."
The undisciplined Jia Li and the often‑speculating Catherine both grew serious.
Jia Li stared at Horn in disbelief. "You're letting her carve off so of my power?"
"This isn't taking your power. You never had this power to begin with. This is a brand‑new departnt—even without Jeanne, I would have created it."
This wasn't Horn stringing Jia Li along; it was indeed the truth.
From now on, every two years there would be a minor assessnt within each county, and every four years a major one.
The assessnt content was Horn's strategy broken down into indicators—in other words, the tasks the Holy Alliance assigned to local governnts.
For example, Horn believed the economy needed to be developed; the advisors from the ry Court Barracks thought that developing the economy required building roads.
Fine. At the beginning of each Central Council, Horn would take out the estimated total mileage needed, and the heads of the various Orders in each county would each claim a portion.
Then each Order head would break that down into smaller tasks and assign them to the Village Monasteries and Priestly Orders below.
It was essentially subcontracting layer by layer, but Horn couldn't personally inspect how those outsourced results turned out.
That was when the Disciplinary Court needed to organize inspection teams to check the results item by item.
Right now, most Orders in the Holy Alliance were more or less connected with the army.
Other than Horn, the one they respected most was Jeanne, this "Big Sis," this "Holy Nun," and Horn could absolutely trust Jeanne.
However, whether Jeanne could truly handle the job would also have to be assessed.
"Don't smile just yet. If Todd's matter isn't handled properly, I'll postpone establishing the Court or put soone else in charge."
Jeanne sobered. "I'll settle things with Todd very soon."
"Once Todd is dealt with, you'll start by straightening out the military police and forming the Disciplinary Court."
Horn's gaze slid over to Catherine. "In the next four‑year period, we're going to gradually climb further up from agriculture, sideline products, and basic processing.
We're going to set up a large number of lathes and steel workshops. Of course, that's a task for forty to fifty years; I don't expect it to be done overnight.
But a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and that first step is to bring the Steel Guild to heel."
Once steel was drawn into the Holy Alliance's monopoly system and then integrated, several key industries would beco solid economic pillars.
With those pillars, Horn could start trying to issue paper currency.
Gold pounds were ultimately physical currency, and not sovereign currency at that.
Once paper money spread, Horn would gain a massive advantage in international trade, where no one had much concept of foreign exchange.
"Let handle the Steel Guild." Jia Li spoke up. "They wouldn't dare defy ."
"No, I should be the one." Catherine squeezed Jia Li's shoulder. "I'm going to command them in the future, so I have to be the one to cow them now."
"Oh? You want to steal my Steel Guild?" Jia Li laughed and lunged to tickle Catherine.
Dodging, Catherine said, "But even the cleverest housewife can't cook without rice—what's my bargaining chip to bring them to heel?"
Everyone's gaze fell on Hilov. Hilov closed the book in her hands. "Before year's end, you'll see the first Lightning Furnace go into operation."
Horn nodded; he had no doubts on that score.
Over these four years, with the help of the clockwork differential engine, they had already calculated six weak points in the astral plane.
Adding the previous two, they could conduct nearly twenty ether channelings a month in total.
They couldn't slt hundreds of tons in a single heat like the steel mills of his previous life, but at the very least he could now mass‑produce steel.
If the Dwarf Artisans could crack White Crystal Steel, that would be joy upon joy; unfortunately, at the current pace it simply couldn't be done yet.
"What about ?" Seeing Horn finish assigning tasks to the other three without ntioning her, Jia Li pointed at herself.
"Your front is covert. We'll report separately."
"Okay." Jia Li agreed at once, but after glancing around she saw that none of the other three Saintesses had gotten up to leave.
Horn had to say, "Co over here, whisper it in my ear… Don't lick my ear!"
The two of them whispered for a while. Horn let out a long breath. "Then you'll be responsible for capturing this batch of spies. It'll be a good test for the Cheka."
After taking the detoxified, weakened version of the Demon Hunter potion, the Loyal Successor Cheka had already carried out quite a few operations in the chaotic new Five Counties.
After so much training, it was ti to test them.
If they perford well, Horn planned to send them to the frontier at Gryphon Point in Falan.
That was where the Falan people shipped their displaced peasants. The Falan Royal Family had enclosed vast tracts of land to plant cash crops, forcing huge numbers of farrs into vagrancy.
This eventually led to a great famine and the Bloody Winter uprising; only then did the Royal Family decide to send the vagrants to the frontier, dressing it up with the nice na "relaxed freedom."
Although the Holy Alliance and the Falan Kingdom were on good terms now, at the end of the day the two sides were still enemies.
From that perspective, the Gryphon Point frontier was almost a natural ally.
Horn was even prepared to secretly support its independence.
"All right, I'm done talking." Horn looked left and right. "If there's nothing else, let's go have dinner."
"There's a banquet tonight?"
"I think the representatives, the returning Order heads, and the cardinals will all be there, right?"
Jeanne cleared her throat lightly and looked at Horn. "Do you need to arrive early and wait on site?"
The four Saintesses all turned to look at Horn. Horn only smiled faintly; he was long since adept at dealing with this sort of thing.
"I'll need soone to help preside over the event. I'll let you know in advance when the ti cos."
Only then were the four Saintesses satisfied; they nodded and left the office.
That night, at the banquet venue, the preparations were overseen by Qianqian, who had gone ahead of ti.
All four Saintesses attended in full formal dress.
Horn did not show up, claiming a stomachache.
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