CHAPTER 132: CHAPTER 130: SLIME CORPSE, WE LIKE YOU

In the ruins of the broken walls, the lights of the Pope’s Palace are always the brightest.

Because Pope Horn and Saint Jeanne live in that wooden house, their fluorite lamps shine much brighter than those of ordinary people.

Like stars under the night sky.

Horn squatted on the ground, pushing the glow of the fluorite lamp to its limits.

Sweat beaded on his forehead as he nervously shone the light on the ground.

On the wooden floor, there was a clay basin with brown sugar water, which was dissolved in clear lime water and into which slime gel was added.

Reddish-black lumps of gel floated in the water body, and Horn could clearly see a ring of pale yellow sugar frost condensing on the wall of the clay basin.

This was Horn’s idea of economic development, refining white sugar.

Pure white sugar was a high-end luxury item, with prices reaching 18 dinars per pound.

Black sugar, on the other hand, was only 2 dinars per pound, and after excluding labor and material costs, the net profit could reach 10 dinars.

It should be noted that Swamp Town is located in the south, where even without sugarcane, it is more convenient to grow high-sugar-content fruits than in the north.

If white sugar can be produced, given the southern geographical advantage, it could quickly become a strong industrial chain.

The first method he thought of was the yellow clay water sugar refining method from "Heavenly Creations."

So after purchasing a lot of brown sugar, Horn sprinkled yellow clay water over it for the whole afternoon, to no effect.

Later, Horn thought about it: what exactly is in yellow clay water? Its adsorption ability is not even as good as activated carbon; how can it be used as a decolorizing agent?

The only explanation would be that the so-called yellow clay water is not really water mixed with yellow clay, but kaolin dyed by red soil.

The most useful component of it, then, would likely be the montmorillonite in the kaolin, but the question is, does this world even have montmorillonite?

After consulting with Qianqian, Horn found that there really was a substance with similar effects in this world, often used in making antidiarrheal medications.

That substance is the air-dried and ground slime gel powder.

Going in circles and coming back to the same point.

With a mindset of giving it a try, Horn added the slime gel powder to the brown sugar water soaked in lime water and kept stirring.

In the re-coagulation of the slime gel, the initially black sugar water really turned red.

After letting it sit for a while, the upper layer was a light yellow transparent liquid, and the lower layer was a black-red murky sediment.

The upper layer’s clear liquid, upon air-drying and evaporation, actually crystallized into "white sugar."

Since there was no sugar separator, this white sugar frost still contained molasses and couldn’t achieve a snowy white level; at the most, it could only be considered as yellow sugar.

This was already whiter than the whitest sugar on the market. If someday activated carbon and a manual separator could be made, perhaps white sugar could truly be prepared.

"Slime corpses, we like you." After testing on mice to ensure it was non-toxic, Horn cheerfully hummed a tune as he handed Jeanne the adjusted sugar water.

"Have a taste." Horn took a sip of his own sugar water and smiled at Jeanne.

Jeanne, who was engrossed in "Knight Sifal," looked up, took a sip of the sugar water, and frowned, "It’s too sweet; I’ll drink it later."

After speaking, she bowed her head again, carefully copying sentences from "Knight Sifal" one by one.

Under the influence of Horn, the resident "problem-solver" of the small town, Jeanne had indeed been studying earnestly these days.

Her progress was slow, but she had consistently read through nearly half of the book.

In Horn’s view, one could choose between the cheese snow leopard and the explosion of knowledge.

The routine of these days consisted of Jeanne teaching Horn breathing techniques in the morning, and Horn teaching Jeanne literacy and arithmetic in the afternoon.

The progress of both was not particularly fast.

A cool breeze crept in through the crack of the door, and Horn looked toward the doorway only to see Grampwen walking in with a box in hand.

"What brings you here so late?"

"Mr. Thomas sent you a gift. They said they heard you like books, so they gathered some books with lots of words."

"They even know about that." Lifting the lid of the box, Horn blew away the dust on the covers, "Where did these books come from?"

"Collected as trash from around, some dug out of nearby ruins."

"Such good fortune? They weren’t stolen, right?" Picking up a book, Horn shook it to dislodge dust and grass from between the pages.

In the Empire, books are not cheap, yet they managed to collect nearly twenty volumes.

"I suppose not," Grampwen answered hesitantly, wiping sweat from his forehead, "This area used to be a trading port with many warehouses, but after a fire and a flood during reconstruction, it was abandoned."

If nothing went wrong, these books should have been left by those merchants.

Horn really needed books, as cultivating talent and understanding the Empire’s situations both required them, but when he opened one of the books that were sent, he fell silent.

"Madlan, go tell them, I appreciate the gesture, but just because it has many words doesn’t mean it’s a book; it could be a ledger."

After flipping through the small box of books, Horn found that they were all miscellaneous ledgers from various guilds.

"So what should we do with these ledgers?" Grampwen laughed helplessly.

Throwing them back into the box, Horn covered his mouth and nose, "I taught those Child Soldiers and Bishop Elders the double-entry bookkeeping and statistical methods, right? Lately, when they’re idle, they can use this to practice."

Even if the ledgers are thrown away, they can be used to train their ability to handle complex tasks and data.

Horn did not expect them to achieve anything significant with it but hoped that they would start getting familiar.

He knew that his micromanaging approach was unsustainable; managing 1,200 people was one thing, but it would be cumbersome when expanded to 10,000.

Throughout the journey, for the Child Soldiers, Elders, and Bishops, Horn, Armand, Jeska, and even Boned took turns with the lessons, shackles and all.

With the use of Horn’s simplified alphabet, they at least could read some text and do simple arithmetic.

"Oh right, Your Holiness, in six days, there’s another matter..." Grampwen stood awkwardly and shyly.

"Out with it. Don’t hold back."

"I am planning to get married to Diya, probably in six days..."

"Bang! Bang!"

Grampwen had not finished speaking when gunfire in the night sky drowned out his last words.

Jeanne immediately jumped up and ran towards the direction of the gunfire, but Horn caught her by the wrist.

"It’s the legion commanders from the new camp." Horn said with a calm smile, "Rest assured, I have prepared in advance."

Listening to the gunfire, Jeanne stood at the door, looking that way for a long time before turning back to ask, "How did you know?"

"This morning I used financial power to sideline them; if they don’t resist now, when will they?"

"Do they really have the guts?"

"Even old dogs have a few rotten teeth left, and they’d all try their luck if Miseria came to seize power today." Horn yawned, "At our current level of civilization, if no blood is shed during a power transition, it’s not a real transition."

Looking at Grampwen who was still standing there holding the box, Horn laughed, "Six days later, right? Don’t worry, I will officiate your wedding, definitely."

Grampwen had just left when hurried footsteps sounded again.

With a beaming face, Dass strode quickly to Horn’s side.

"Wanpiao, the bandits ran away. We killed five and wounded three; what should be done?"

"Hang the dead ones up for display, treat the living ones well, and release them tomorrow."

"Why not kill them all?" Dass asked.

"Kill them? If you kill them, who will know how strong we are?"