When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Bent lightning flashed through the beech trees, illuminating the previously dim mist.

A faint, fishy smell of rain lingered and swirled at the tip of his nose, and heavy moisture condensed into droplets on Horn's hair.

In the clearing beside the woodland, golden hair danced with the lightning, and Jeanne, clad in a leather-strapped breastplate, continuously unleashed bolts of lightning, striking a metal plate armor hanging from a tree.

"Alright, stop."

Calling a halt to Jeanne's lightning storm, Horn strode quickly to the metal plate armor, using a branch to lift it.

A squirrel with a bushy tail darted out, its escape so swift it almost left an afterimage.

Reaching out to examine the edge of the armor, Horn stared in disbelief at the areas that had been blasted and melted white-hot.

"How is this possible?" Horn muttered, bewildered. "Why isn't it conducting electricity?"

Indeed, Horn had noticed something was wrong when he saw Jeanne pierce Barnett's chest.

Her pitchfork was fundamentally incapable of breaching Barnett's armor, and if the current was strong enough to melt the iron armor in less than half a second, then Barnett inside the armor would have been charred to a crisp.

Barnett was wearing a half-suit of plate armor, similar to three-quarter armor. Although he had iron boots, he lacked thigh armor, meaning he wasn't grounded.

The lightning Jeanne unleashed merely heated the iron armor, rather than electrocuting him through the metal.

It was only when Jeanne pierced his armor and made contact with his body that the lightning entered Barnett's body.

Metal only heats up when electrified? Does this mean that the metal in this world might be a semi-insulator with extremely high resistivity and a high-temperature coefficient of resistance?

Or, is the lightning in Jeanne's hands merely disguised, with a completely different substance inside?

As if struck by a thought, Horn abruptly turned his head: "Jeanne, have you ever heard of something called a magic tide or a divine calamity?"

With dark circles under her eyes, Jeanne looked bewildered, as if waking from a dream: "What's that?"

Staring at Jeanne's confused face, Horn didn't pursue the topic.

He stepped forward, carefully examining the dark circles under Jeanne's eyes: "Does using this arcana art drain your spirit so much?"

"No, if I'm only blasting in one direction, I only feel dizzy after blasting for quite a while. I just need to rest for a bit, and I'm fine again."

"Then why are your eye circles so dark?"

"D-Do you need to worry about that… The ground is too hard; can't I just not have slept well?"

"If you didn't sleep well, you didn't sleep well. Why are you shouting so loud?" Picking at his ear, Horn looked bewildered. He patted his empty stomach. "It's about time for lunch anyway. Let's eat first."

Pulling Jeanne along, Horn went straight from the woodland clearing to the hillside where the villagers lived.

In the clearing, a long thatched shed had been erected early on.

Hanging above the stove fire, several large black pottery pots were bubbling away, emitting steaming vapor, and the sweet aroma of rice cakes wafted over this small hill.

Rice cake was the staple crop of Thousand River Valley.

It was a grain similar to rice, but much larger, with each grain about the size of a fingernail.

Unlike other places, the hot monsoon from the Emerald Sea and the cold currents from the Furnace Highlands converged in this mountainous area, resulting in abundant rainfall and a warm, humid climate in the Thousand River Valley.

The wheat and other crops that the Imperials commonly ate preferred dry conditions, while the rye that could tolerate moisture couldn't withstand the heat.

If the ancestors of the Thousand River Valley people hadn't brought the rice cake crop from the Flesh Throne, it was estimated that the Thousand River Valley would have been as desolate as Black Serpent Bay in the south.

Although rice cake could be eaten directly, the locals were accustomed to boiling it.

This rice cake was Barnett's legacy. That old bastard had hidden a full four hundred pounds of rice cake, unwilling to take it out.

Horn knew that the armed farmers had also hidden some food, more or less. Barnett's food was probably to control these armed farmers.

In the eyes of the people here, stabilizing the armed farmers was enough; the remaining people were insignificant.

Barnett probably never imagined that two magical beings, a Holy Grandson and a Holy Daughter, would appear out of nowhere.

One spiritually destroyed his status, and the other physically destroyed him.

In front of several pottery pots, the villagers were lining up in chaotic formations, clamoring to receive rice cake porridge.

Seeing this, Horn shook his head, picked up the rice cake porridge that had been prepared for him, and walked towards the hunter's hut while shoveling it into his mouth.

The hunter's hut door was open, and in the center of the hut, a pottery pot was set up on the fire pit, inside which fragrant fish soup was boiling, with emerald green wild vegetables tumbling in the milky white soup.

The rich aroma spread outside, and even those villagers who had just eaten lunch couldn't help but crane their necks to look.

In the misty steam, five people sat around the fish soup in the middle. They were the newly selected four heads of ten households: Boussac, Heise, Jieshika, Chapu, and Father Kosay.

Jieshika sat cross-legged with his head lowered, looking absent-minded.

Father Kosay was drawing a "屮" on his forehead and praying, his face pale.

Heise held his palm to the corner of his mouth, tilted his head, and spoke secretly to Boussac.

As the only armed farmer, Boussac sat upright, his gaze towards the others filled with contempt.

As for the last head of ten households, Chapu, he stared blankly at the firewood under the pottery pot.

Walking in from the door and sitting in the seat of honor, Horn inspected the four heads of ten households before him, a satisfied smile on his face: two public farmers, one vagrant, and one armed farmer.

For modern people, it was normal to select these four heads of ten households according to the population ratio. In the Holy El Empire, it was common for all four heads of ten households to be armed farmers.

Swallowing the last mouthful of rice cake porridge, Horn scooped a bowl of fish soup with a wooden bowl, added a fish head, glanced around, and handed the fish soup to Boussac first.

Boussac straightened his back, taking the fish soup respectfully, both as a matter of course and with great satisfaction.

Freeing his hand, Horn didn't waste words and went straight to the point: "The four of you are all trusted and respected leaders within your respective ten households. In the future, I will instruct you to handle matters. If you handle them well, there will be rewards; if you don't handle them well, there will be punishments."

"Today, I have called you here for the sake of the believers within your respective ten households as well."

"To be honest, the food that the Knight Lord hid only has about one hundred pounds left, which can last for one day at most, so the famine must be resolved quickly."

"I said before that you are allowed to enter the forest to forage, but there must be a plan for how to forage. Everyone cannot enter the forest, scaring away the prey. The effort they waste is not worth the consumption of finding food."

At this moment, Boussac finished his first bowl of fish soup. Horn picked up the empty bowl and scooped another bowl for Jieshika beside him.

"Therefore, I have decided to divide the labor. Jieshika, you find a few people with hunting experience to form a hunting team, responsible for hunting animals and birds."

Jieshika accepted the fish soup: "Willing to serve you, Holy Grandson Lord."

Boussac and Heise stared at Jieshika with some jealousy.

Since the previous Knight Lord dedicated the woodland to the High Fort Archbishop, it had been almost twenty years since they had been allowed to enter the forest. The armed farmers who were originally responsible for hunting had switched to opening spinning workshops.

However, there were many poachers or former hunters among the vagrants. Jieshika himself was an old poacher, often dealing with the noble's forest rangers.

To form a hunting team, it was natural to choose leaders and main forces from the vagrants.

"Hmph, stinky outsiders," Heise muttered.

"Each of your ten households, select four or five strong young men, with great strength and good legs, to join the hunting team. About twenty people should be enough," Horn handed the third bowl of fish soup to Heise.

He wiped his hands on his pants and continued: "In addition to the hunting team, there is also a gathering team. Similarly, each of your ten households selects fifteen nimble-fingered and sharp-eyed people, both men and women, to be responsible for gathering wild vegetables, turmeric, wild fruits, garlic, acorns, firewood, and mushrooms, etc."

"The gathering team does not need to act collectively. Each ten households divides areas and gathers on their own. Just take care of yourselves."

The fourth bowl of fish soup was distributed to Chapu. Chapu didn't even say thank you; he just took the wooden bowl blankly and drank the fish soup in one gulp.

"In addition to gathering and hunting, there must also be a baggage train. Every day, each ten households temporarily selects people according to the situation, responsible for cooking, taking care of children, mending clothes, fetching water, building and repairing huts, etc. It was too wasteful to cook separately before. In the future, everyone will cook together, and everyone will eat the same food."

While speaking, Horn handed the soup containing the fish tail to Father Kosay: "As for the remaining people, don't be idle. If you can't work, sing hymns and pray. As for what to sing and how to sing, Father Kosay will stay and discuss it in detail later."

Kosay took a sip of the soup without tasting it.

Stirring the pot with a spoon, Horn raised his head and looked around: "I have said everything I need to say. Go do what you need to do… Oh, right, there's one more thing."

The heads of ten households who were about to get up and leave turned around, looking at Horn in confusion.

"Within your respective ten households, if there are any unadopted orphans, you can send them to me to serve as my servants and guards."