Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

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Captain Hudson had grown accustomed to such scenes and had long since averted his gaze. He took out a copied letter and handed it to the colonel.

The bald colonel opened the window regardless of the chilly autumn wind, squinting his eyes to carefully read the intelligence report in the light from outside.

After a while, he closed the window and handed the letter back to Captain Hudson.

"No wonder he's eager to send troops in autumn and winter," the bald colonel sighed heavily. "If we don't act now, he'll become a real threat."

"What do you mean?" asked Hudson.

"Draft a letter to Colonel Zibeer Zoltan," said the bald colonel, stepping out of the bath. "We must mobilize our forces sooner."

"Sooner? How much sooner?"

"The sooner, the better," the bald colonel glared with stiff muscles on his left cheek that made his expression look somewhat grim. "That kid has sent who knows how many scouts over here. He knows our preparations better than we do. If we are to fight, we must do so swiftly, while the weather is still warm, and catch him off guard!"

...

...

In Revodan, the officer's quarters.

Since Winters allowed Major Ronald's family to continue living in the official military residence, Anna and Catherine only had the option to stay in the bachelor officer's quarters temporarily.

Anna sat at a desk with a ledger in front of her, chin propped on her hand, writing and calculating.

Winters was severely short-staffed. He had many capable of manual labor, but very few capable of intellectual work. In fact, he could count them all on two hands.

He didn't even have a subordinate who could accurately measure land and calculate its area. The system for distributing land to soldiers was still a broad approach of "divvying up land, livestock, and grain to the military families to farm as much as they can manage."

So all of Winters' personal accounts, the new garrison's accounts, and all the public accounts were currently managed by Anna.

No one else was capable of managing them.

Catherine paced the room with a sigh, unsettling Anna as well.

The Newly Reclaimed Land Province was conservative, and city customs restrained unmarried women even more strictly than those in the countryside.

Having arrived in Revodan, Catherine felt less at ease than she had in Wolf Town.

"If you're idle, Kate, come and help me with the accounts," Anna couldn't help but speak up.

"Alright, Lady Montaigne," Catherine collapsed onto her sister. "You, as a pretend wife, are more attentive than a real wife would be."

A blush spread across Anna's cheeks instantly.

Her current public identity was as Captain Montaigne's wife.

Unofficial cohabitation was too scandalous, but nobody found it strange if she was his wife.

Although officially, not only were they not engaged, they hadn't even formally met each other's parents.

"It's not that I'm being attentive," Anna said with a flushed face. "It's just that there are so many accounts to manage, I'm struggling to keep up."

"Then don't manage them," Catherine said coquettishly. "It was one thing for you to handle his private accounts, but managing the public accounts as well, that's stinginess. Can't he hire a few accountants?"

Anna sighed softly, "He can't hire any."

"Right, who would work for him in a legitimate business?" Catherine grew more irritated as she spoke. "He can only rely on you."

The wind tapped gently against the window panes. Anna laid down her quill, embraced her sister, and said, "You should go back to Wolf Town; it's safer there."

"He urged you to go back to Wolf Town too, didn't he? Why don't you leave?"

"If I left, things here would become even more chaotic," Anna shook her head. "Everyone treats me as Lady Montaigne, so I have truly become Lady Montaigne. If I were to leave now, everyone would think his resolve had collapsed."

Catherine huffed lightly, her voice tinged with jealousy as she complained, "Why aren't you this good to me?"

"Who says I'm not?" Anna flicked her sister's forehead hard, laughing, "Haven't I always been tolerating you since we were little?"

Catherine sprang up like a cat that had its tail stepped on, asking indignantly, "Tolerating me?"

"Alright, alright, it's you who have been tolerating me," Anna conceded.

"If you're not leaving, I'm not leaving either!" Catherine said petulantly. "You say you've always been tolerating me, so keep on tolerating me!"

"You can stay, but you need to find something to do," Anna suggested with a positive example. "You should learn from Mrs. Michel; she leads such a fulfilling life every day."

"You want me to learn from that wild girl?" Every time her sister mentioned Scarlett, Catherine felt particularly aggrieved. "She spends all day in the stables, that's not how a respectable lady should behave."

Since their last heated conflict, Catherine no longer used the word "little hussy" but instead referred to her adversary as the "wild girl."

```

"No, she's doing very well, and I'm actually quite envious of her."

Catherine fumed, "You, you, you... you have her to be your sister! Then you sisters fight over a husband, that would be great!"

Anna remained unperturbed, deep in thought, suddenly took out a piece of paper, quickly wrote a few lines, folded it, sealed it, and rang a bell, softly calling, "Mrs. Madeleine?"

Not long after, Mrs. Madeleine, her hair bound with a black scarf, pushed open the door: "Miss Navarre?"

Mrs. Mitchell remained at the estate, but she was worried about Anna, Catherine, and Scarlett, so she asked Mrs. Madeleine and another nanny to look after the three of them.

"I have another matter I need to trouble you with," Anna handed over the sealed letter to Mrs. Madeleine: "Please deliver this letter to Xial, Mr. Winters' guard. And also, could you call for a carriage?"

As a widow, Mrs. Madeleine, by custom, could appear in public and attend to matters unaccompanied.

She took the letter, nodded, and then closed the door behind her as she left.

Anna stood up, removed her cuffs, and said to her sister, "Alright, let's get dressed up, we're going out to see a visitor."

"Who are we going to see?" Catherine was surprised.

They didn't have any acquaintances in Revodan, and the nearest branch of Navarre Commerce was in Maplestone City.

Anna favored quiet, which also meant that Catherine had few opportunities to participate in Revodan's social events.

"The volume of these accounts has indeed become more than I can handle. And it will only increase in the future," Anna made up her mind: "Since we can't hire an accountant, we might as well train one ourselves."

"Are you out of your mind?" Catherine was scared pale by her sister's idea: "We are women, how can we just come into contact with men outside? Even Mr. M's subordinates are off-limits."

"Of course, I won't be teaching personally," Anna smiled, soothing her sister.

Catherine sighed a sigh of relief, then raised an eyebrow: "Then who will teach?"

"We can hire an experienced accountant," Anna patted her sister's back, "Let's go visit old Lady Priskin. It's also about time I made an appearance."

...

Meanwhile, in the stables, Pierre was saying goodbye to his sister.

Scarlett was helping the foal drink milk; Botayun refused to nurse, and even kicked with her hooves when she saw the foal.

The little foal only had seven days of his mother's milk before Botayun weaned him completely.

As a last resort, Winters brought in several "nannies" for the little foal: a mare currently with a foal, and two sheep.

The mare with the foal was extremely temperamental and did not let the little one nurse.

For now, the little foal relied on sheep's milk to live, and the ewes that produced milk were not even as tall as he was.

Therefore, the ewes had to be propped up before the foal could drink, a process that required assistance from someone nearby.

Winters used to help with this task, but now that he was preoccupied with military duties, the responsibility fell solely on Scarlett.

"A foal raised on sheep's milk, can it still be ridden later on?" Pierre teased.

Scarlett frowned, cutting her brother a sharp look, "Why can't he be ridden? Longevity is doing just fine."

"I'm leaving now."

"Go on then."

Pierre's lips moved, and in the end, he managed to say with difficulty, "The Centurion asked me to look for a blacksmith, dad might be there too, we might find dad."

Scarlett didn't turn around, tears kept streaming down to her jaw, she tried to sound calm as she said, "Then go. Don't be sad if you can't find him, if dad is alive, he will definitely come back."

"Yes, dad is much tougher than me," Pierre said with a smile: "I brought Vasya along with me, maybe we can bring Uncle Sergei back too."

Scarlett wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, "You guys be careful."

"I'm most worried about you," Pierre for the first time adopted a brotherly tone, "You, from now on, stop picking fights with little Miss Navarre."

Scarlett, annoyed, turned around and hurled the sheep's milk at her brother.

"If that fox-eyed girl doesn't come to provoke me!" Scarlett said with grievance, "Would I go out of my way to provoke her? You take her side, you can find her to be your sister!"

With that, Scarlett grabbed a pitchfork angrily.

And so Pierre was chased out of the stable.

When he walked out to the yard, he happened to come across Mrs. Madeleine heading out to deliver the letter.

The two of them walked one after another to a secluded place where they embraced each other tightly.