Chapter 1043: Chapter 986: The Aftermath of Holy Seat City’s Fall

At the end of 1453, the streets outside the window were already imbued with a hint of the New Year Festival.

Regardless of wealth, everyone was wrapped in scarves and wool gloves, exhaling white breath, walking on the cold, hard streets.

The fallen Holy Seat City remained on the hot charts of major newspapers for two weeks but gradually lost its heat.

Standing by the window of the Stag Chamber, Delawan held a teapot in his hands. Through the ice-etched glass window, his thoughts drifted to the horizon.

This was his first year entering the Holy Seat Mansion.

Among the Kush students who went to Frick Grammar School back in the day, he was the first to reach this position.

Broadly speaking, the entire Thousand River Valley People are essentially of Kush bloodline.

However, as Horn mentioned earlier, after hundreds of years of mixed descent, the pure Kush bloodline and the Kush Nation’s lifestyle have been obscured by history.

Thus, the Holy Alliance has always advocated "monastic narrative" and "new El people narrative."

The community of Kush people from Jinhe Town slowly transformed from a nationality into a regional group.

They are active not only in the military but also have footholds in commerce and politics, known for their exclusivity and unconditional hostility towards the Empire.

Among the active Kush people in various fields, the most gold-worthy group is the Kush youths who enrolled in Frick Grammar School in 1445.

Eight years have passed, and the youngest among them is already twenty years old.

Due to the early stage lack of literate officers in the Holy Alliance, these young people went on to study and fight wars simultaneously, becoming veterans of two Thousand Valleys Wars by their twenties.

Of course, Delawan knows not everyone can adapt to the brutal battlefield and the intricate political arena.

Even if not everyone can make it through, nearly fifty out of the hundred youths succeeded.

Take the two leading figures of the younger generation, McGowan and Delawan, for instance.

McGowan and Delawan first served as service soldiers before being promoted to formal officers later.

By the second Thousand River Valley War, McGowan was already an intelligence officer for the Black Champion Army, while Delawan became the quartermaster for the Imperial Guard.

However, after the war, unlike other Kush youths who continued their studies in the army, the two coincidentally chose to retire and enrolled in the Holy Machinery Court University.

This was one of three paths to entering Holy Machinery Court University.

Admissions from various schools are like thousands of troops crossing a single plank bridge, and nominations through the Imperial Cardinal Conference are prestigious.

The last path was the back door opened by Horn for the military — through the less competitive military entrance examination.

Thus, the Holy Alliance’s political arena always distinguishes between "military background" and "political background."

After three years of study, McGowan graduated from the Law School, and Delawan from the School of Engineering.

Since Holy Machinery Court University guaranteed assignment, McGowan entered the Gendarmerie, while Delawan went through an audit and directly entered the Secretariat.

The Secretariat’s responsibilities are complex, but essentially, it’s being a secretary for cardinals and senior monks.

According to the Holy Alliance’s training mechanism, Secretariat secretaries can essentially be regarded as preparatory senior monks, acting as a training base for young civil servants.

After three years of study, they would be sent to the county monastery for four years of honing.

Based on their performance over these seven years, they generally have three paths: stay in the Secretariat, be transferred to an influential department, or be reassigned to a local main position.

Delawan was twenty-one years old this year, still in the first year of his learning period, with the specific position as Secretary of the Dispatch Division.

The Dispatch Division’s functions are document transmission and equipment coordination.

Simply put, it’s running errands, delivering messages, arranging venues, serving tea, and cleaning after meetings.

Though the status is low and the tasks are diverse, the benefit is the ability to attend various high-level meetings, gaining exposure before big names and expanding one’s knowledge.

Initially, Delawan felt this department was quite meaningful and could closely engage with high-level politics of the Holy Alliance.

But after gaining firsthand experience, he felt as though his worldview was collapsing.

The high-level politics he previously envisioned, with the Saint’s Grandson towering majestically, cardinals maneuvering intricately, and decisively commanding two capitals (Holy Machinery Court and Celestial Maiden City) and twenty-four counties.

The current high-level politics Delawan was witnessing: the Saint’s Grandson was dozing off, the Exorcist Leader Hakuto and Saint Vault Master Qianqian were slamming the table and shouting at each other over who had the louder voice, Chief Judge Marshall was mediating, Truth Elder Madlan was researching recipes, the Judgment Leader and Purification Leader were sword fighting on the terrace, while the Engineering Leader and Evangelist were absent.

This was considered a relatively peaceful weekly meeting.

If it were a quarterly meeting, with the Abbot, University President, and Holy Estate General Manager attending, it would be more like a chaotic brawl.

As for the year-end meeting, with representatives of the populace and local monasteries in attendance, Delawan couldn’t even imagine.

Fortunately, the topic of military expenditure budget between Hakuto and Qianqian didn’t last long and was promptly stopped by Horn.

"Didn’t we talk about issuing paper money before? Give gold pounds to the soldiers stationed in the new five counties, and paper money to the soldiers on direct territories."

This was about the year-end bonus issue. Qianqian thought the new five counties should be given in-kind, and the inner county should have gold pounds, but Hakuto disagreed.

The new five counties are essentially the front line, and the front line, lacking money, should receive money. What sense does it make to give in-kind?

Both Hakuto and Qianqian were shocked, and then asked in unison, "The soldiers in the inner counties will certainly be dissatisfied."

"I was just about to mention this," Horn continued. "Catherine and I have calculated that to encourage people to use paper money, any purchase with paper money at Enqing Department Store will get a 20% discount."

Actually, Horn hadn’t disclosed everything. Currently, the Holy Alliance has saved nearly 300,000 gold pounds in circulation, but he has only issued 100,000 gold pounds of the Devotion Notes.

Even if there is some loss, it can be made up later with more paper money issuance.

The main goal is to cultivate people’s habit of using paper money, gradually building up the credit of Saint Alliance paper money.

Especially after the Holy Seat City was breached, the empire’s precious metal currency market is bound to come to a storm.

Even though this storm has yet to sweep over the Holy Alliance, Horn still wants to prepare early.

"You all know about the news of Holy Seat City being attacked, right?" Horn shifted the topic, suddenly raising the matter of Holy Seat City.

Madlan immediately put down the menu: "Your Majesty is worried that the Falan people might leverage the situation with gold pounds, causing obstacles to the export of Saint Alliance goods?"

As the chief cardinal, Madlan’s judgment was quite accurate.

Golden Horn Bay is not just the imperial religious and printing center; most importantly, it’s the largest minting center in the entire empire.

Along the rivers in Golden Horn Bay, there are extensive minting facilities, using hydraulic power to massively mint gold pounds.

The empire passed a law to establish a unified gold pound minting standard, set personally by Miseria.

A large number of mints in Golden Horn Bay obtained a significant amount of gold from trade with the Royal Court, minting gold pounds with sufficient purity under the supervision of the El Parliament.

This is why Horn wanted to undertake paper money reform because gold pounds are not sovereign currency.

Although the Devotion Notes aren’t sovereign currency to some extent either, at least they are much more flexible than gold pounds.

Currently, Golden Horn Bay is in chaos due to the madness of the Ogre Warlord Cancun, and the empire’s currency is bound to fluctuate significantly.

As for the Falan Kingdom, it controls the second largest minting base.

When the northern minting center comes to a halt, the minting base in the hands of Charles VIII becomes the largest gold coin production site.

"Yes, the intelligence from Windmill Land shows that this news shocked everyone, including the vampires of the Royal Court."

Horn took out a copy of the "Truth Newspaper," and tossed it to everyone.

"The Royal Court claims it to be a misunderstanding, ordering Cancun to withdraw, while the civil wars in Leia and Norn quickly paused, preparing to expel vampires."

Under the influence of the Hundred Years’ War, although the empire was already numb to the Royal Court, it hadn’t yet reached the point of reacting only when the knife was at its throat.

The fall of Holy Seat City suddenly united the previously chaotic empire.

"There is just one thing I don’t quite understand." Madlan frowned, "I might understand other things, but why did Puliano have the courage to commit suicide?"

Very few people broke the mental shackles of "suicides cannot ascend Paradise Mountain," and Prince Kongdai, Raffel, Ginijis, and others would rather live in humiliation than choose suicide.

Yet, Puliano, a Pope, actually decided to commit suicide!

Generally speaking, such behavior is mostly due to the collapse of a fanatic’s belief.

What exactly happened to cause a Pope’s faith to collapse?

According to survivors, he was still piously reciting prayers before his death!

This really puzzled everyone on the Saint Alliance side.

"Let’s discuss this issue later." Horn pulled the thread back, "Based on the current information, a large number of holy relics and rare treasures hidden in Holy Seat City have disappeared.

Charles VIII immediately issued documents to preside over the peace talks between Leia and Falan, preparing to jointly resist the Royal Court and support Ginijis to ascend the throne again.

The Royal Court has been frequently dispatching diplomats to request peace talks, but from the general trend, the embargo against the Royal Court will at least continue for a long time.

The future situation is still uncertain for us, but Puliano’s death and the fall of Holy Seat City have brought us an unexpected problem."

"What problem?"

"The illegal Pope is dead, the battle of Windmill Land is over, the Falan Kingdom has freed its hands, and Grandiva is preparing to formally take the position of Pope."

Horn picked up a national letter: "Grandiva demands that we abolish the title of Pope, or else he will call on the believers to refuse to purchase any goods produced by the Saint Alliance, to resist my usurpation."