Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party in Another World-Chapter 729:

TL: Rui88

Of course, having a mage participate in the actual breeding work still faced some difficulties, such as the fact that Anderson, who was in charge of the breeding, happened to be a member of the clergy.

For well-known reasons, the relationship between these two groups was rather tense. If they were to come into contact for work, it was hard to say what kind of trouble might arise.

It would be best to arrange the process so that they did not have to interact.

Paul instructed the newly formed Department of Magic to solve this problem.

This was a small, secret department, at least for the time being. Mages and magic were objective realities, and as he learned more, Paul felt that the actual size of this group was not small. Therefore, it was necessary to set up a dedicated agency to handle related matters.

Originally, he had intended for his most trusted mage, Ladi Sertia, to be in charge of this agency, but she had firmly refused. He had no choice but to have Cecil select the most tight-lipped people from the Department of Intelligence to be in charge, and to select staff from the refugee mage community to serve as subordinates.

The director of the Department of Magic had to undergo regular or random mental checks by Ladi Sertia.

Hansel told Paul about his experiences in the royal capital, Crystal Shrine, including his dinner with King Rodney XVIII, the king’s questions about his opinion of Paul, and his replies to the king. Hansel recounted everything in detail.

He looked at Paul with a cautious expression, as if trying to gauge whether his lord would be displeased with his words to the king. When he saw the other man just smile and shrug, Hansel breathed a sigh of relief.

“His Majesty will be sending some young officers to the Northwest Bay. He hopes that you will command them as you command your own soldiers, and have them stationed on the front lines against the orcs.”

“To gain grassroots experience? We can arrange positions for them.”

“Princess Catherine will be coming to the Northwest Bay with them.”

Paul nodded. It seemed Alda was about to welcome a mistress.

“Uh, there have been some personnel changes in the kingdom’s government recently.”

“Is there anything that requires special attention?”

“The Minister of Finance has promoted a fellow named Trevor Stuart as one of his deputies!”

Paul noticed the disrespect in Hansel’s tone and a look of confusion appeared in his eyes.

Hansel explained, “The Stuart family has always been prominent in Crystal Shrine’s financial circles.”

In this era, “finance” basically meant—moneylending!

A flash of disgust crossed Hansel’s face. “Although many people are in this line of work, the Stuart family is particularly unscrupulous. But there’s nothing to be done. The kingdom’s government needs moneybags like them right now.”

Paul understood that this prominence was clearly a negative one.

“Trevor spoke with me privately. He is very interested in our Northwest Bank and our bond issuance. Oh, and your insights on the nature of currency. According to him, he used to have some unformed, unsystematic concepts floating in his mind, and it wasn’t until he heard your profound arguments from someone else that he felt as if the sky had suddenly cleared. He greatly regrets not being there to exchange ideas with you in person.”

“He just feels that your current methods are still too conservative. If you are willing to cooperate with the Stuart family, he is willing to provide us with more financial support and… the more creative ideas he has thought of.”

Paul spread his hands. “As for people like him, it’s best we keep our distance!”

He had no intention of responding to Mr. Trevor’s invitation.

…

In Horn Bay, Fort Ness had fallen into its most critical moment.

As the largest city in the region, Fort Ness had a significant effect on attracting population. In addition to the urban area protected by high walls, there were also large areas of buildings outside the walls.

Before the Crusader Army arrived, Fort Ness had hastily built a temporary wall to protect its periphery, but it was quickly breached by the high-spirited Crusader Army, and all the building areas outside the walls fell into enemy hands.

The Crusader Army had made ample preparations to capture this large city. Huge trebuchets were arranged menacingly around Fort Ness. Soldiers placed huge stones in the slings, turned the winches to pull the long arms back to an almost horizontal position, and then suddenly released them. The slings would then quickly rise and hurl the stones out. With a terrifying whistle, the stone projectiles rained down on Fort Ness like meteors.

As a long-range weapon, the trebuchet had poor accuracy and could hardly hit any precise target. But when there were many of them and they targeted the entire city, it was terrifying.

Almost no civilian buildings in the city could withstand the impact of huge stone projectiles falling from the sky. Countless houses were destroyed, and the sight of those hit by the huge stones was even more shocking.

In addition to hurling stone projectiles, the actual attack on the city had not stopped. Whenever the stone projectile offensive paused, the soldiers of the Crusader Army would push siege towers, scaling ladders, and other equipment, attacking under the cover of arrow towers, each time more ferocious than the last.

With the fall of the major ports on land, the navy of the Horn Bay Alliance was also greatly weakened due to the loss of supplies from the land, and suffered successive crushing defeats at the hands of the Crusader Army’s fleet.

The navy, once the pride of the alliance, had to withdraw part of its forces to the last port, which was Fort Ness, to have the sailors go ashore to assist in the defense of the city. The other part was broken up into small pirate-like groups, desperately harassing the passing ships of the Crusader Army at sea.

Small-scale harassment could not stop the growing maritime power of the Crusader Army—partly from the support of the Holy See, partly from recruiting surrendering forces.

The Crusader Army’s fleet surrounded the port. It was only because the port was blocked by thick iron chains that they could not break in for the time being.

All communication between Fort Ness and the outside world, both by land and sea, had been completely cut off.

The people inside did not know what had happened to their allies in other places. Perhaps they were still fighting.

Or perhaps they had fallen under the iron heel of the enemy, and the entire New Protestant Alliance was left with only this corner of Fort Ness.

The entire city was shrouded in a doomsday atmosphere. The people inside were holding on entirely because of their fear of the punishment the Church would inflict after the city fell.

After the war began, the Horn Bay Church had made all sorts of harsh threats to intimidate the New Protestant Alliance, which now served as the “spiritual pillar” for the people of Fort Ness.

All able-bodied men were mobilized and stationed on the city walls day and night to resist the Crusader Army’s scaling assaults, while women with better physical strength were also assigned various logistical tasks.

The old, weak, sick, and disabled gathered in the various churches, praying day and night for the Lord of Light to send down salvation and punish the degenerate followers outside the city who were using the Heavenly Father’s name to commit tyranny.

Perhaps because of their devout prayers, a miracle really happened.