Rose Empire

Chapter 27 It! Exists!

The day after returning from the church, Cecilia spent a day and night, as Charlotte requested, to produce a reasonably good population registration form. Charlotte assigned all twelve scribes she had brought from the Green Plains Duchy to Cecilia, tasking her with leading them to complete the first population census.

These twelve scribes were all the budding civil officials Charlotte had accumulated over the years who were willing to follow her to Baywave. In this day and age, it was truly not easy to gather talents who were literate and understood basic administration. Among those who had the opportunity to receive education, half belonged to the nobility, and half belonged to the church, with only some scraps left being commoners.

To ensure that these precious budding civil officials were not trampled to death by bandits and local bullies in remote and impoverished villages when they went to the countryside to conduct the population census, Charlotte also assigned two knights and twenty knight attendants to assist the population census team's work.

"Send these letters to the Quake Forest Earldom."

Charlotte handed three letters sealed with fire lacquer and bearing the Mellerfield family crest to Jack Moore.

Among these three letters, the first was for Monica Mellerfield. In it, Charlotte chatted with her cousin about the natural scenery and old castle of the Baywave Viscount Territory, and also discussed what flowers and plants should be planted after the garden outside the castle was reorganized. Although they were all trivial matters, Monica just liked to talk about these inconsequential things.

The second letter was for Earl Philip Mellerfield of Quake Forest. In the letter, Charlotte explained to the Earl of Quake Forest that the Baywave Viscount Territory had been neglected for a long time, the fields were barren, the knight territories had serious vacancies, and there were issues of insubordination. She stated that she would rectify the territory's order and therefore needed to close the territory's borders for a period of time, which might affect the timber trade between the Sorkya Peninsula and Quake Forest, hoping that Uncle Philip could understand.

The third letter was for Countess Simona Mellerfield. After chatting about family matters for most of the letter, Charlotte mentioned at the end that she needed to order a large quantity of timber.

The relocation of the Southern Knight Territories was still ongoing, and during the relocation process, various problems continued to emerge. One of the most troublesome was housing.

The southern knights also needed houses when they moved north, and these knights brought their families, so a considerable number of houses were needed. Fortunately, even the houses of knight lords were mostly wooden in this era, and they were not too difficult to build. At the beginning of the relocation, the southern knights adopted a strategy of building new houses while relocating, moving a group of people after a house was built, which was manageable.

However, as more and more houses were built, the southern knights gradually discovered an embarrassing problem a shortage of timber. The timber shortage was mainly due to two reasons: first, the relocation decision was too hasty, and the Baywave Viscount Territory had not stockpiled timber in advance; second, the Baywave Viscount Territory only produced timber in the Kampei Mountains to the north, but the terrain of the Kampei Mountains was treacherous, making transportation difficult and logging efficiency low. The lack of raw materials naturally dragged down the speed of building houses downstream.

In addition to speeding up house construction for the southern knights, Charlotte would immediately begin territory construction work after the southern knights' relocation was complete. This also required a lot of building materials, so ordering timber from Quake Forest was an inevitable choice.

"Yes." Old Jack took the three letters and carefully stored them in a waterproof wooden tube before quickly riding away.

Not long after Old Jack left, Knight Rayne Nazares came to report that Charlotte's carriage was ready for departure.

Charlotte was going out again, but this time it was not a single carriage traveling alone, but four carriages moving together.

The entourage included Rayne Nazares, the Three-Winged Knight, and ten other knights Charlotte had brought from the Green Plains Duchy, serving as guards. Erik Scamario, a local Baywave knight, served as a guide. In addition, there were Renee, who was always by Charlotte's side, and Beatrice Duran and Anna Duran.

Charlotte's destination for this trip was her neighbor, the city-state of Ambratu, located across the Baywave Isthmus. On the one hand, Charlotte was going to purchase some urgently needed supplies and personnel for the Baywave Viscount Territory, and on the other hand, she was also going to investigate this neighbor whose social system was completely different from the Orlan Empire.

"I apologize for neglecting you two during this period. As your host, I am very sorry," Charlotte said to Beatrice Duran. She had brought the Duran mother and daughter along under the guise of inviting the bereaved family members of her subordinates to travel with her.

"No, not at all, we don't feel neglected," Mrs. Duran quickly waved her hand, a somewhat stiff smile on her face.

"The climate here is somewhat different from the Green Plains Duchy. Are you getting used to living here?" Charlotte asked, staring into Beatrice's eyes with a gentle tone.

"Very used to it," Beatrice nodded.

Charlotte turned to Anna and smiled, "Miss Anna, have you found anything uncomfortable about living here during this period?"

"Apart from the first few days being a bit inconvenient, I'm gradually getting used to it." Compared to her mother, Anna was more straightforward in her speech.

"During this period, there have been many affairs in the territory, and I haven't been able to arrange for someone to check your extraordinary aptitude, Anna. This is my negligence, but I will definitely make it up after we return from Ambratu," Charlotte added.

Looking into Charlotte's brown eyes, Anna suddenly felt that the Viscountess was particularly gentle today. Her pretty face flushed slightly as she said, "It's alright, I can understand your busy schedule."

Charlotte nodded. The strength of the "Charm" ability might be related to the target's trust in her. Anna had a higher degree of trust in herself, so the "Charm" effect on her was indeed more obvious.

Charlotte silently recorded her "experimental results" in her mind.

The carriages moved briskly forward. Passing through the narrow Baywave Isthmus meant leaving the Baywave Viscount Territory.

The Baywave Isthmus was usually a busy transportation route. Today it was still bustling with traffic. However, unlike usual, the Baywave Isthmus was generally undefended because the city-states on the Sorkya Peninsula were almost impossible to provoke the vast Orlan Empire for no reason. Yet, today there was an extra squad of knights and knight attendants, as well as wooden camps, watchtowers, fences, chevaux-de-frise, and other facilities, clearly a newly established checkpoint. This made the passing merchants smell an unusual atmosphere.

Charlotte's convoy passed through the checkpoint smoothly without inspection. However, as soon as this convoy passed, the soldiers guarding the checkpoint moved four chevaux-de-frise and placed them across the center of the road, blocking the already narrow passage.

"What's going on? Why aren't you letting us through?" a merchant shouted.

"Don't make a fuss, don't make a fuss." Jarrod Garcia, the checkpoint person in charge, a well-known lackey of Miss Charlotte Mellerfield, who had already earned the nickname "Mad Dog" in the Baywave Viscount Territory, said impatiently while picking at his ear, "Our Baywave Viscount Territory needs to rectify internal affairs and is temporarily closing the border. Didn't you see the notice over there?"

"But we still have timber business to do!" another merchant yelled.

"Then go do your business, I didn't tell you to change careers."

"If you don't let me go to the Green Plains Duchy, how can I do business?"

"That's something you need to consider yourself!"

"I'm not going to your Green Plains Duchy, I'm going to the Lesare Kingdom," said another traveler who looked like someone from the Lesare Kingdom.

From the Baywave Isthmus, going east into the Baywave Viscount Territory leads to the Green Plains Duchy, and going west leads to the Lesare Kingdom, with the route to the Lesare Kingdom even being shorter.

"Where you want to go is none of my business." Jarrod Garcia responded irresponsibly.

The convoy and travelers on the Baywave Isthmus became more and more congested, and the news of the Baywave Viscount Territory closing its borders spread wider and wider, causing widespread lamentation.

Passing through the isthmus, one entered the Sorkya Peninsula.

Charlotte had read some travelogues about the Sorkya Peninsula. Due to the different city-states visited and the different identities and experiences of the travelogue authors, the descriptions of the Sorkya Peninsula in these travelogues varied. However, the travelogue authors unanimously mentioned a word in their works: "narrow."

The Sorkya Peninsula was actually not small. From nautical charts recorded by navigators and the writings of some well-known scholars, Charlotte could basically confirm that the total area of ​​the Sorkya Peninsula was almost equivalent to the total area of ​​the Green Plains Duchy and the Bonan Duchy combined, and the population of the Sorkya Peninsula had long exceeded the sum of the two duchies.

So why did people who had traveled through the Sorkya Peninsula still have the impression of "narrowness"?

Charlotte guessed that this was mainly because the Sorkya Peninsula was mountainous. Villages and cities were almost all built close to narrow valleys. Sometimes one side of a mountain belonged to one city-state, and the other side belonged to another city-state. This feeling of living in the cracks inevitably made people feel "narrow."

The reality seemed to be similar to Charlotte's judgment. Through the small window of the carriage, before Charlotte had even seen the first city-state on the Sorkya Peninsula Ambratu she had already seen the first mountain on the Sorkya Peninsula. The mountain resembled the upper body of a mule, so locals called it Mule Head Mountain.

The convoy arrived in Ambratu around dinner time.

Ambratu was a small city that looked like it had less than 100,000 people, but it was much wealthier than the Baywave Viscount Territory. It had stone-built city walls, relatively prosperous streets, and solemn churches and elder councils.

Most of the city-states on the Sorkya Peninsula practiced democracy. For example, in Ambratu, citizens of the city-state formed a citizens' assembly, and the citizens' assembly elected ten elders. The ten elders formed the elder council, which was the daily administrative body of the city-state.

Other city-states might be slightly different from Ambratu in details. For example, some city-states called their daily administrative body the Council of Ten Generals, and some city-states even had a few more prosecutors, but they were basically similar.

Since it was already late, Charlotte asked Renee to find an inn for everyone to stay overnight and rest, and then go to the streets to purchase supplies tomorrow.

The inn was located by a small square. There seemed to be a gathering in the square, with many people gathered, and a high platform with a cross was erected in the center.

It was the first time Charlotte had seen such a standard cross in this world. She couldn't help but feel curious, so she stood by the window on the second floor of the inn to watch the excitement.

Soon, two guards in leather armor escorted a young man wearing simple linen clothes, emaciated, pale, and chained, from the east steps onto the high platform. The chains pierced through his shoulder blades, and blood stained his linen clothes black.

The crowd below the platform suddenly shouted, "Burn him! Burn him! Burn him…"

Charlotte pointed at the young man being escorted and asked the inn waiter who was pretending to clean up but was actually also watching the excitement, "Who is that person?"

The waiter had been craning his neck to watch just now. Seeing Charlotte ask about the events downstairs, he couldn't help but look excited and gesticulated to explain to Charlotte for a long time. But Charlotte could barely understand. The waiter kept repeating that the young man was a heinous demon who should be burned to death. As for the young man's background, what he had done, and how he became heinous, the waiter himself probably didn't understand.

Charlotte continued to ask others. There were quite a few people watching the excitement in the inn. However, after asking around, she only learned that the young man who was chained and being shouted at by the crowd to be burned to death was called Heath. Beyond that, surprisingly, no one could explain clearly why he was to be burned to death.

Until Erik Scamario found a merchant for Charlotte who carried an abacus and looked like an accountant.

The merchant spoke the regional language of the Sorkya Peninsula, but with Erik Scamario's translation, Charlotte finally understood the approximate truth.

The young man on the platform named Heath was originally a student of the Gorgo Academy. The Gorgo Academy was the most famous academy on the Sorkya Peninsula, equivalent to the Great Banyan Academy of the Orlan Empire, located in a city-state called Feidi.

Not long ago, this Heath went mad for some reason and told his teacher that he had discovered a non-existent number and publicly debated with his teacher. His teacher thought Heath was both absurd and arrogant, so he drove him back.

Returning to his home city-state Ambratu, Heath still felt unconvinced, so he debated with people everywhere, arguing that there really was a certain number in this world that everyone did not know. Finally, the debate reached the sacred church.

This immediately blew things up. Because the had long recorded that a certain god, when traveling in this world, saw a shepherd worrying about how to identify whether his sheep were lost, so he created numbers and taught them to the shepherd. This was the origin of numbers.

If "non-existent" numbers existed, wouldn't that mean that numbers were not created by God?

If "numbers that people don't yet know" existed, wouldn't that mean that God had reservations when teaching the shepherd?

Wasn't this blaspheming the infinitely great and infinitely benevolent God?

Thus, today's public trial came to be.

Not long after Heath ascended the platform, three more people walked up from the west steps and sat down on three high-backed chairs. It seemed these three were today's judges.

One of them was wearing a decent formal dress, with grease on his hair and a gold-thread-woven brooch on his chest. He looked the youngest. From the merchant's mouth, Charlotte learned that this person was named Martin Cramer, the youngest elder in the Ambratu Elder Council. Because of his handsome appearance, extraordinary eloquence, and humorous speaking style, he was quite popular with the public.

The second person, wearing a simple robe with an olive branch embroidered on the chest, and white hair, looked the oldest. The merchant didn't know who this person was, but an olive branch embroidered on the chest was the symbol of the Gorgo Academy. This person should be a scholar from the Gorgo Academy.

The third person, wearing a priest's robe, with gold-thread-embroidered scales of justice on the hem of the robe. Without the merchant's introduction, Charlotte knew from the style of the priest's robe that this person was a judge from the Church's Inquisition.

However, what attracted Charlotte's attention more was the bare feet of this judge.

Bare feet were the symbol of the mendicant orders.

Mendicant orders, also known as mendicant friars, or begging friars.

In the religious world of this world, in addition to the most common priests, there was another group of people called "monks".

Many years ago, a group of church members who opposed the church being too secularized and couldn't stand the extravagant and corrupt lives of the upper clergy chose to break away from the church, abandon all private property, and practice asceticism in seclusion. These people were the earliest monks.

Later, the number of monks gradually increased, and they gradually formed large and small groups. The mendicant orders were one of the most famous.

Initially, mendicants were considered the most ascetic among the ascetics. They emphasized hemp clothing and bare feet, begging for food, and preaching while traveling. Their quality of life was not much better than beggars.

Because mendicants were known for strictly adhering to dogma and being of pure and noble character, they were often invited by the church to serve as judges of the Inquisition.

However, looking at it now… Charlotte looked at the judge's shiny silk clothes, his fat and round buttocks, and his fair and tender skin.

It seemed that even mendicants could not withstand corruption.

"Great citizens of the city-state of Ambratu, as you must already know," the young elder, Martin Cramer, spoke first. He stood up and said passionately, "This evil and arrogant freeman, Heath, attempts to use cunning means and sophistry to deceive the citizens of our city-state and blaspheme the supreme God. However, you, the citizens of Ambratu, are wise and have seen through Heath's evil sophistry. Last night, the great Lord Ig, also sent down a warning with the red moon, confirming Heath's identity as a demon. Presumably, this is already known to everyone…"

"Demon! Demon! Demon!" The crowd below the platform shouted.

Martin Cramer smiled and pressed his hands down, and the shouts of the crowd gradually subsided. He turned his head to interrogate Heath, "Heath, are you still unwilling to confess where your evil knowledge came from? Did demons give you enlightenment?"

Heath weakly shook his head, "My knowledge was all learned from the Gorgo Academy."

"Nonsense! The academy taught you such knowledge that disobeys God!" The scholar from the Gorgo Academy immediately reprimanded.

Heath looked at the scholar and laboriously twitched the corner of his mouth, "Okay, since the academy doesn't want this glory, then it's not. However, please ask sir to convey a message to my teacher, those numbers, they really exist, yes, I said 'they', not 'it', because I found more than one…"

"Shut up, do you still want to continue blaspheming Lord Ig?" The mendicant judge interrupted with a stern rebuke.

"I didn't intend to blaspheme the gods. I went to the church just to ask, for the omniscient God who created everything, when the side length of a square is one, what is the length of its diagonal?" Heath defended himself.

"Shut your mouth!" The scholar's reaction was even more intense than the judge's, "I don't think there is any need for further interrogation. God's red moon has already given us a revelation. Heath should be sentenced to fire!"

Martin Cramer looked at the mendicant judge, and the mendicant judge also nodded seriously.

The young elder then turned to the crowd below the platform, "Wise citizens, vote! Do you agree to sentence this evil blasphemer to fire!"

The citizens below who had voting rights raised their right hands.

Agree to raise the right hand, disagree to raise the left hand, this was the rule of the Ambratu citizens' assembly.

Looking at the neat rows of right hands below the platform and the faces that were either excited, or disgusted, or indifferent, Heath's cheeks twitched slightly at first, and then his whole body slowly began to tremble. Suddenly, he shouted, "You bunch of fools! It exists, they exist! You are all fools! Idiots! Idiots! Fools!"

In his eyes were tears, blood, despair, disappointment…

Martin Cramer quickly announced, "The citizens' assembly sentences Heath to fire!"

Two strong guards grabbed the chains piercing Heath's shoulder blades and dragged Heath onto the cross, binding him tightly.

Then, slaves piled bundles of firewood under the cross.

"Burn him! Burn him! Burn him!"

The crowd shouted. The inn waiter, who didn't understand what crime Heath had committed at all, was also shouting along. They were extremely excited, extremely thrilled, as if they were watching a novel performance.

A torch fell onto the dry firewood. Flames sprang up, licking at Heath's linen clothes. Heath let out a painful wail.

This wail seemed to ignite the crowd's joy even more.

"Demon! Demon! Demon!"

The citizens of Ambratu clapped their hands and cheered, as if they were having a carnival.

"Aaaaaah…"

The fire grew bigger and bigger, and Heath's wails became more and more hoarse. The citizens could no longer hide the joyful smiles on their faces.

However, Heath was ultimately just a mortal being, and his wails gradually subsided.

Some people were still clapping.

Some people, however, were still unsatisfied, and couldn't help but purse their lips, blaming Heath for not lasting long enough to let everyone enjoy themselves.

However, just when everyone thought Heath was about to give out, Heath suddenly let out one last roar, "It! Exists!"

The crowd once again showed surprise and joy, and the cheers rose again, "Demon! Demon! Burn him! Burn him!"

The carnival continued again.

However, eventually, there was no more sound from the flames.

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