After handling the affairs in Ambratu, Charlotte toured her cement plant and shipyard. Thanks to the deliberate protection of Jarrod Garcia, these two locations had not suffered much damage.
The construction progress of the cement plant was steady and rapid, which was quite gratifying. The five vertical kilns that had been started simultaneously were already taking shape. After inspecting the cement plant, Charlotte worked through the night to produce the design draft for the ball mill and handed it over to the craftsmen to begin casting.
The ball mill was also an important link in the cement production process; it was key equipment for processing materials into powder after they had been crushed. Charlotte had begun designing the ball mill from her memory after completing the blueprints for the vertical kilns, but feeling that the cement plant's construction wouldn't be finished so quickly, she had taken her time, procrastinating until now to complete the design.
The Lanwan Viscountcy had an advantage in building ball mills—Mountain Copper. Adding Mountain Copper to steel could make parts that directly contacted materials, such as lining plates and steel balls, more wear-resistant and reduce loss. Buying Mountain Copper specifically to build ball mills wouldn't be very cost-effective, but who asked Charlotte to have a large amount of Mountain Copper in her hands? Selling all this Mountain Copper would definitely cause the price to dive and profits to plummet, so it was better to use it in her own territory.
The shipyard in Ambratu was building a second fleet for the Lanwan Viscountcy—although this new fleet still consisted of a pitiful twelve ships, merely splitting the difference with the Swordfish Island fleet. There was no helping it; Charlotte's navy was just that weak.
However, having a navy was better than having none. The Lanwan Grand Canal had not yet been opened, so the Swordfish Island fleet could not travel to the Pearl Sea west of Ambratu without bypassing the entire Soqya Peninsula. Building a small fleet in the Pearl Sea would at least provide an early warning if the Delmore fleet attacked, preventing them from being caught completely off guard.
The only issue was that, unlike the cement plant, the craftsmen at the shipyard were mostly commoners, and many of their families lived in the city. Although the riot did not spread to the shipyard itself, many craftsmen lost family members, or even their own lives. Therefore, the construction of warships inevitably slowed down.
At first, Charlotte was at her wit's end regarding this, but later, a passing caravan from Little Sassinian gave her inspiration—she still had an ally! Ambratu lacked shipbuilding craftsmen, but Little Sassinian had them.
Thus, Charlotte dispatched envoys to Little Sassinian to hire shipwrights, figuring that the Little Sassinian people, who still needed to rely on the Lanwan Viscountcy for a lifeline, would not refuse such a small request.
After spending a few days handling various matters, Charlotte finally returned to the Lanwan Viscountcy.
In the bathroom of the Lanwan Viscount Castle, Charlotte, having just finished bathing and wearing not a stitch of clothing, lay prone on a bamboo couch with her eyes closed. The two little slave girls, Nina and Sophia, wearing only gauze as thin as cicada wings, attended to her; one massaged her, while the other fed her fruit mouth-to-mouth.
The knight, Miss Anna Dulan, sat sideways on the floor beside the bamboo couch, reading the official documents that had accumulated over these days to Charlotte.
Renee brought a few maids in to mop up the water stains all over the floor.
"I want to rebuild this broken castle!" Charlotte suddenly said with resentment.
"Didn't Miss say that repairing the castle is a waste of money? Why the sudden change of mind?" Renee asked with a smile.
Charlotte pointed at the wooden tub she had just used for bathing and said angrily, "I've had enough of bathing in this small wooden bucket. I need a bigger bath."
In reality, the bathtub Charlotte used was not small; it was large enough for two or three people to bathe together. But Renee clearly understood her young mistress's thoughts. Just now, Charlotte had taken Nina to bathe with her, so Sophia and Anna could only watch from the side. Otherwise, the tub would have been too cramped to move in. For Charlotte, who enjoyed one-versus-many scenarios, this felt neither here nor there and was very uncomfortable.
"Then how large a bath do you wish to build?" Renee asked.
Charlotte thought for a moment and said, "It must be big enough for at least five people to bathe together, right?"
"Is five people enough?" Renee revealed a teasing smile. "What about Cecilia and her sister? What about Miss Coco? And Miss Heidi—oh, right, Miss Heidi's Etiquette Room recently took in another dozen or so girls as students."
Charlotte had given a formal name to the 'tutoring class' in the castle for teaching and cultivating talented girls—the Etiquette Room, with Heidi serving as the head. Of course, the Etiquette Room was just a cover; Heidi continued to teach the Thousand Faces Faction techniques, training them to be the most elite assassins and spies.
Recently, Charlotte had also sent the little fox, Coco Stello, to serve as an assistant to Heidi. Although the little fox didn't understand the Thousand Faces Faction, she could read and calculate, and she knew a lot about the basic knowledge of extraordinary factions. With the little fox's help, Cecilia no longer needed to go to the Etiquette Room to give lessons.
Although Heidi and Coco 'went to work' in the castle every day, Charlotte hadn't actually done anything to them yet; Renee's words were pure slander. However, Charlotte was magnanimous and couldn't be bothered to refute Renee's slander.
She rested her chin on the back of her hand, thought seriously for a while, and suddenly her eyes lit up. "Hmm, what you say makes sense. I should build a lake in the center of the castle and let all the girls in the castle bathe in the lake. That way, I can not only bathe with everyone, but when I'm tired from handling official duties, I can also admire the beautiful scenery from the window."
Prevented by the presence of other girls, Renee couldn't knock Charlotte on the head, so she could only roll her eyes and say, "You have already stayed in the bathroom for the entire morning. Do you intend to stay for another afternoon?"
"Eh? I'm just taking an occasional break," Charlotte defended herself.
"Miss Cecilia has already come looking for you three times," Renee said with a smile.
Hearing this, Charlotte had no choice but to lazily get up.
The two little slave girls put a clean dress on Charlotte, and Anna brought shoes and socks to wait upon Charlotte while she put them on.
Charlotte sat on the step, looking down at Anna kneeling before her. On a sudden whim, she lifted her leg and used her toes to hook Anna's chin.
Anna smiled gently, lowered her head, and kissed the tip of Charlotte's foot. That charming posture instantly stirred a flame in Charlotte's heart.
"Me too! Me too!"
The little slave girl Sophia also leaned over, cupping Charlotte's jade-like foot to plant a kiss on it.
"You are too forward!" Charlotte smiled and rubbed Sophia's cheek with her toes.
Sophia didn't mind; she rubbed her cheek against the arch of Charlotte's foot, just like a puppy trying to please its master.
After flirting with the little slave girls for a while longer, Charlotte finally stretched her waist and arrived at the study.
But upon entering the study, the first person Charlotte saw was not Cecilia, but a solemnly seated Falcon and a furious Herman Green.
"Do you two have business today?" Charlotte asked with some surprise upon seeing them.
"Your Excellency," Herman Green bowed meticulously to Charlotte, then said, "I wish to impeach the Fierce Wolf Squadron Leader, Falcon, for the indiscriminate killing of innocents without cause or trial! He has no regard for the law and is brutal by nature..."
The more Herman Green spoke, the more serious his expression became and the angrier his tone grew.
"Oh? Such a thing happened?" Charlotte sat down at her desk, looked at Falcon, and asked, "Is what Commander Herman says true?"
"This... the thing is..." Falcon hurriedly explained the sequence of events to Charlotte.
Simply put, Black Wolf had sent a batch of newly recruited Fierce Wolf Warriors to Falcon's military camp. As the Squadron Leader, Falcon naturally had to teach these Fierce Wolf Warriors the rules first. How to teach them? Falcon felt that Charlotte's previous method—something akin to killing one out of every two—was very good. Firstly, it allowed the newcomers to quickly understand what 'violators will die' meant; secondly, it helped them remember which side was left and which was right. It served both purposes perfectly, so why not do it? Thus, Falcon killed the men.
The Commander of the Lanwan Defense Force, Herman Green, nearly drew his sword to kill Falcon upon hearing of this. Charlotte had used 'kill one out of two' because the Fierce Wolf Warriors had collectively disobeyed orders during the defense of Ambratu. What was the logic in doing this when you had just met them?
However, Charlotte had established a military regulation that the appointment, removal, and punishment of officers at the Squadron Leader level and above required her personal adjudication.
Therefore, Herman Green had seized Falcon and brought the complaint to Charlotte.
Falcon didn't feel he had done anything wrong from the bottom of his heart. Born in a tribe, Falcon knew the nature of Fierce Wolf Warriors all too well. If, as Herman Green said, killing innocents indiscriminately was a capital crime, then if you slaughtered every single Fierce Wolf Warrior, you definitely wouldn't be wronging anyone. They were a pack of jackals, a pack of vicious jackals with absolutely no moral compass.
So, being dragged over by Herman, Falcon felt very wronged and very aggrieved. Unfortunately... he couldn't beat Herman Green.
After listening to Falcon's account, Charlotte nodded, pondered for a moment, and said, "Falcon indeed acted improperly in this matter."
This single sentence defined the nature of Falcon's actions. Falcon's face instantly turned pale; he hurriedly tried to open his mouth to defend himself, but Charlotte raised her hand to stop him.
"But the problem lies in how to punish Falcon for killing those Fierce Wolf Warriors?" Charlotte said with a frown.
"For indiscriminately killing colleagues, he should be sentenced to the wheel," Herman Green blurted out.
Falcon's face turned even paler.
Charlotte retorted, "Did those Fierce Wolf Warriors count as Squadron Leader Falcon's colleagues? I said before that one is only considered a soldier of the Lanwan Defense Force after completing the new recruit training subjects."
"Then it is indiscriminately killing civilians; he should be sentenced to hang..." As he spoke, Herman Green himself felt something was amiss and involuntarily stopped talking.
Did Falcon indiscriminately kill civilians?
No, obviously not.
Because those new Fierce Wolf Warriors were not civilians of the Lanwan Viscountcy at all! They weren't even slaves!
If Falcon had killed innocent slaves of the Lanwan Viscountcy without trial, he would need to compensate for the loss and pay a huge fine, but there were no similar legal constraints for killing those new Fierce Wolf Warriors.
"If those Fierce Wolf Warriors had officially become soldiers of the Lanwan Defense Force, then they indeed should have enjoyed the status of civilians under my rule, but they are not right now," Charlotte continued, lacing her fingers together and resting her chin on them. "If we look into it deeply, these Fierce Wolf Warriors should still count as tribesmen. Tribesmen are enemies of the Viscountcy. Killing enemies, that should actually be..."
Falcon gradually caught on; Charlotte was defending him. He hurriedly chimed in, "War merit! Killing enemies should be war merit! I killed over a dozen enemies!"
Herman Green glared furiously at Falcon, and Charlotte also glanced at the fellow. Falcon immediately realized he had lost his composure and sheepishly shut his mouth.
Herman Green then turned his head to continue speaking with Charlotte: "Those new Fierce Wolf Warriors shouldn't count as enemy troops; they should count as surrenderers who have defected to us."
"Is that so? But they haven't passed my test for surrender yet, which is the recruit training." Charlotte spread her hands and spoke with a face full of regret.
Herman Green could not hear much regret in Charlotte's tone. He already understood that Charlotte did not intend to punish Falcon. Perhaps this Fierce Wolf Squadron Leader's way of handling things hit exactly on what the Viscount of Lanwan had in mind.
Feeling that he already knew the answer, Herman Green bowed slowly to Charlotte: "Handling the matter this way is absolutely incorrect. However, since Squadron Leader Falcon does not need to be punished according to military regulations and the law, then Squadron Leader Falcon is indeed innocent."
Then, Herman Green bowed to Falcon: "I apologize to you for my roughness."
"No, no, you don't need to apologize..." Falcon waved his hands repeatedly.
Herman Green took his leave of Charlotte with disappointment. Falcon originally wanted to follow him and leave, but was stopped by Charlotte.
"You can kill some Fierce Wolf Warriors, but there needs to be a limit. Don't kill them all for me. I still need manpower to fight wars! Do you remember?" Charlotte admonished.
"Yes!" Falcon responded hurriedly. "This subordinate remembers!"
Only then did Charlotte wave her hand to let Falcon leave.
A while after Falcon and Herman Green had left, Cecilia finally came in, holding a letter in her hand.
"Who is this letter from?" Charlotte took the letter and asked casually.
"Miss Anna's mother, Beatrice Dulan," Cecilia replied.
Charlotte's spirits instantly lifted. She had arranged for Beatrice Dulan to enter the Rose Priory as a spy. When Charlotte fled Platinum City, she had left Beatrice with the Rose Priory's mentor, Mother Vanessa. For such a long time, Charlotte had never actively contacted Beatrice Dulan, nor did she even expect this casually placed pawn to definitely be useful. Naturally, she hadn't expected to suddenly receive a letter from Beatrice Dulan today.
Charlotte opened the letter and began to read. Looking at the content alone, this letter was not written to Charlotte, but from Beatrice Dulan to her daughter Anna. It talked about trivial matters and a mother's inquiries about her daughter's well-being. The writing was also quite clumsy, with many misspelled words.
But Charlotte knew that this was a letter encrypted using a book cipher. The row and column numbers of the incorrect words could calculate specific numbers according to a simple, agreed-upon formula.
These numbers represented the page number, line number, and word number in a book. That book acting as the codebook was the script Charlotte had taken to Platinum City, City of Nobility.
Charlotte took out a copy of City of Nobility and quickly deciphered the secret letter.
Looking at the translated text in her hand, Charlotte's heart trembled. The first thing that caught her eye was two simple words—Kingdom of God on Earth.