Chapter 165 The Duty of a Cultist

The next day, Rand got up early and went out with Olenna.

After Olenna and Rand left, Lysa took off her equipment, put her clothes in a normal state, and went out as well.

I stayed under the bed all night yesterday, and there is some dust on my face, which needs to be cleaned.

Rand sat on the huge lord's chair that was padded with an altar and took the document from Olenna.

If it was a quiet time, Rand was used to listening to Olenna's gentle voice, but now there was a lot of information, so it would be faster to read it with his eyes.

Wanyueling has fully implemented the three-crop rotation system. Now it is autumn, and when the autumn harvest comes, we can once again check the results of the updated farming system.

Last fall, the weighing results of the experimental fields have proved that at least the land near the hideout is suitable for the new farming method, and the dung of the minotaurs and centaurs can also serve as a good compost.

Moreover, due to the updates in farming technology brought by Rand, the average output of land in the previous period had actually exceeded that of most other noble territories of different land types.

I don’t know how the autumn harvest will be this year.

The population of Crescent Territory and New Moon Territory is now over 11,000, and there are over 1,000 full-time soldiers.

With the current food output, it is more than enough to support 1,000 full-time soldiers, but the premise is that these are infantry.

There are still many cavalrymen in the hideout who need to be supported.

A horse consumes three times as much food and fodder as a person. If it is in battle, it needs to add more food and beans, and the consumption will surge to five times that of a person.

Of course, this is the consumption of war horses.

But there are a total of 186 cavalrymen in the hideout, which is really a terrible consumption. If it were not for the economic system of the holiday villa that continuously provides economic support to Rand, a barony and a viscountry that has not been developed much would not be qualified to support so many cavalrymen.

However, in recent years, there is still some stock of things that Rand robbed during the civil war, and the current Brown Moon Deer Raiding Group has also robbed a lot, and with this feedback, the group can barely afford to support themselves.

This was because Rand did not equip them with more than one horse per person, and the cavalry and supplies of the raiding group were all assisted by the Marquis of Black and Brown and the Earl of the Stag.

The only troop in the hideout equipped with more than one horse is the White King's personal guards, a total of 36 people, equipped with 108 horses, which is an extremely luxurious configuration.

In comparison, the horses of the magic steel armor soldiers were of much lower quality, and each person was only equipped with one horse.

But they are still infantry in essence. Although they have been training in horsemanship recently, if they are used as cavalry, they are still only at the level of conscripts.

I guess the mercenaries who form a formation are not very good.

But once they dismount and fight on foot, the situation is different. Rand has enough confidence in them that they will not lose to any army in the world if they are equal in number.

Of course, the premise is that it is not something like the upper-level professional legion that violates the rules.

Then there was the matter of the looting group. The group had now all withdrawn to the defense line, and after sorting, Rand's share of the looted goods had also been transported to the hideout.

Including the soil that was stolen.

Rand asked Taner to grab some soil, of course, not just to disgust the Snow Fox Countess, but to test the quality of the surrounding land.

Different soil types have a huge impact on agriculture. Rand plans to try out the planting effects of soil in the south, and also plans to try it on the high-yield and lodging-resistant wheat that is currently being bred.

If the soil in the south was really better, he wouldn't mind borrowing some, such as the Snow Fox Countess's land, for farming.

Finally, there are... the victims.

Although Fenris and Tanr both have good command abilities, the military action plan formulated by Rand is also based on preserving strength and minimizing losses.

But unfortunately, in the battlefield, as long as there is a war, there will definitely be losses.

The idea that the entire army had no casualties may only exist in storybooks, or in the case of an overly exaggerated crushing of strength.

However, the looting group, the pioneering group, and the villagers of the Crescent Village were clearly not strong enough to overwhelm the nobles of the Southern Kingdom, led by the Snow Fox Countess.

Due to the excellent strategy during this period, the losses were definitely much smaller than those of the enemy, but they were by no means zero.

Along with the looted supplies were brought back the bodies of the dead.

Rand went to the giant stone pillar in the center of the hideout and prayed for the victims.

If it is Sunday, then there will be church members participating in the prayer ceremony together, but if not, Rand will do it alone.

The problems that existed before still exist now.

Today, Rand can basically be regarded as a true messenger of the Mother Goddess, and the warriors in the hideout are almost all believers of the Goddess of Plenty. Their hope in their hearts is to go to the Mother Goddess's kingdom to enjoy happiness after death.

If Rand really tried to guide them, and the souls of these warriors really stayed, it would be completely possible.

But Rand obviously won't do that. He said before that the warriors will continue to stay in the human world, continue to fight for the den, and enjoy the offerings of the den.

There was no problem in doing so before, but now Rand also offered sacrifices to the Scourge Apostle. In a sense, he was also connected to the Scourge Apostle.

If we continue to say that, will these victims become resurrected ghosts? It would be a blasphemy if such a thing really happened.

For a moment, Rand was in a dilemma. Fortunately, Olenna was the only one by his side, so he didn't have to worry too much about anything going wrong. He could think about it slowly.

He had never felt that being a charlatan was so difficult before.

Rand thought about it and felt that going back on his word and changing his words again would have a greater impact, so he simply emphasized in his prayer that this was a religious bliss, not the evil resurrection of the dead.

At this time, many people in the dens have already started their activities, such as inspecting farmland or feeding poultry and livestock.

Naturally, there will be some people passing by the center of the hideout, in front of the giant stone pillar.

"The names of the victims will be inscribed on the stone pillars."

Many believers in the dens gradually understood the meaning of this sentence.

Lord Rand's appearance in front of the stone pillar to pray also means the appearance of a new sacrifice.

The believers are willing to fight for the future of the hideout and for Rand's will, and are not afraid to sacrifice their lives for this.

But at the same time, they will have respect for their predecessors who have sacrificed.

The current prosperity and peace of the den are inseparable from those sacrifices.

When the believers passed by the central stone pillar, most of them would stop for a few moments, pay their respects to the stone pillar and Rand who was praying, and then continue to busy themselves with their own affairs.

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After praying, Rand confirmed that no dead people had been resurrected, and he heaved a sigh of relief and walked back with Olenna.

In this way, most of the urgent matters were dealt with. Rand sat half-paralyzed on the stone lord's chair. He planned to build the altar of the Scourge Cult in the next few days.

Rand continued flipping through the report.

As he watched, Rand was a little surprised and said, "Cerce is already an outstanding adult."

Today, the missionary affairs are in charge of Seth, who can be said to be one of the earliest elders to follow Rand.

In the past, due to the nature of the cult, Rand, a member of the den, had never been allowed to go out to work. Now that the Torch Church has shrunk across the board, restrictions in this regard have been relaxed a lot.

Moreover, Rand has recently been researching props that can restrict the ritual objects of the Torch Church. Since the powers between gods are mutually exclusive, it doesn't make sense that only the Torch Church can suppress other religions.

Why can't the power of the Dark Fertility Goddess be used to suppress the ritual vessels of the Torch Church?

Is the Dark Abundance Goddess weak? There is no reason for her to be inferior to the Torch Goddess.

If it can really be developed, then the believers of Rand will be able to move freely, instead of being able to move only in areas that have been explored and clearly do not have the ritual objects of the Torch Church as they are now.

However, even under many restrictions, Seth still performed very well in completing the task.

It's just that Rand hasn't seen him for a long time. It's hard to imagine that the boy who was forced to join a cult because of stealing bread has now grown into a qualified missionary.

No, now you should call Seth His Excellency the Bishop.

But when he thought of Circe wearing bishop's attire and handling missionary affairs solemnly and majestically, Rand wanted to laugh.

He was now somewhat curious about what Seth looked like now. When Seth came back to report on his work, he would definitely take a good look at him.

…

At this time, on the Crescent Territory's defense line, Taner was still constantly patrolling and arranging personnel to reinforce the defense line.

The Southern Kingdom has begun to assemble its army. Taner is well aware that this line of defense will become a main attack route for the Southern Kingdom's army, but Taner certainly does not intend to let this hard-built line of defense be breached.

Taner didn't know what the outcome of the subsequent conflict would be, but he had to ensure that the impact on Crescent Territory and Crescent Territory was as small as possible.

Since the looting order signed by the king was still in effect, the Brown Moon Deer Looting Group was not disbanded.

The Brown Moon Deer Raiders transported part of the proceeds from the looting during this period to the royal city as taxes, and the rest was divided among the Black and Brown Marquis, the Stag Earl, and Rand.

Today, this raiding group and the Fenris pioneer group guard this six-kilometer-long defense line together.

Faced with the gathering of the Southern Kingdom, the Frost Moon Kingdom would not let the border lords resist on their own, and the Frost Moon Kingdom also gathered troops within itself.

But again not much.

Since the beginning of autumn, the Northern Alliance has been sending troops to garrison in the northern border, and this obligation will naturally be shared by every noble in the country.

Fortunately, Rand does not have this task for the time being.

New nobles are exempt from taxes and other similar obligations within five years. This is very humane. After all, the average new nobles will not develop as fast as Rand.

However, this law is actually rarely used, because except for civil wars that will greatly change the domestic political landscape, the class of the nobles is actually solidified and there is no room for promotion.

After all, a title is not an official position but a property. It will only change when there is a vacancy, such as when a family becomes extinct.

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(End of this chapter)