Chapter 324 Without Your 250, 500 Is Not Enough

When the afternoon sun shone on his back, Grothien finally set foot on the land of Jeanne d'Arc.

Walking through the morning market filled with vegetable vendors and stepping on the bumpy dirt road, he felt inexplicably emotional.

When reading the declaration of war, Grothien was quite excited and shouted loudly, "The end of Knight Ibe has come."

However, there were few responses. Unlike the villagers on Autumn Island, they still had no idea that the other citizens of the Papal States were a collective.

Although Horn made a big splash in Pious District, almost everyone knew his name.

Are the villagers grateful to Horn? Yes.

Are the villagers willing to fight for their so-called beliefs? No.

My gratitude does not mean my willingness.

After all, the Joan of Arc regime has only been established for less than half a year, and neither credibility nor collective consciousness has been formed.

The faith of the Holy Fathers had not yet spread, and the remnants of the knights and the church still existed in their minds.

In other words, they were not fighting for their compatriots or the Papal States, they were fighting only for their "new lord" Pope Horn.

This is completely different from the old Blackcap Guards.

The eight young men looked timidly at the clean streets in front of them and the clock tower standing not far away.

They may have never left the village in their lives, but now they have to follow the legion to the front line.

"The engineer registration point is ahead." Grosien turned around and looked at the young men. "You can still leave if you regret it."

Although their eyes were filled with fear about the future, they still shook their heads firmly.

"We are monks now, and monks cannot escape from the battlefield."

The villagers only appear stupid because of their limited knowledge; they actually know a lot about the important things around them.

Many knights did not realize that the reason they could own the manor was not because they were born noble, but because they proved that they could keep the manor.

But the villagers have always understood that if the Yorkshire terrier cannot catch the mouse, it will be killed and eaten.

Isn’t it that the reason why armed peasants can enjoy so many privileges is because they can fight?

If Horn did not recruit them into the army, they would instead wonder if the Pope would take back the newly distributed land before the harvest and give it back to the war monks?
When the itinerant monks brought the news and Horn really summoned them, they were relieved even though they were just going to dig soil and transport grain.

Leading the young people to the assembly point, Grosien greeted Archbishop Madeleine and walked towards the Apostolic Bank.

In addition to sending these young farmers to transport grain, his most important purpose this time was to withdraw money.

After abolishing the public register system, Grosien and his cousin Palak built a two-acre small fish pond.

In this two-acre fish pond, he raised 800 mirror carps, 600 of which survived and were bought by the Guards Corps to feed the new recruits. They were sold for 620 dinars.

After deducting the costs of digging the pond and labor, the two can still earn 262 dinars equally.

That is equivalent to two gold pounds, and an ordinary farmer would earn about this much in a year.

They earned it in just three months.

Standing in front of the Holy See Bank with the Legion Clerk, Grosien's calves were trembling.

The bank is built entirely of pure white marble, with seven Elnian columns carved with seven saints.

The saints had serious expressions on their faces, staring at everyone present as if they were supervising them.

The predecessor of the Holy See Bank was actually the Pope's agent in various places, responsible for helping him manage his properties and make financial investments.

After these agents joined forces with local wealthy monasteries, they formed a bank that combined the functions of remittance, pawning and lending.

The Holy See Bank was originally only open to citizens and nobles. A peasant like Grosien would be driven away by hired thugs before he could even get close.

"Don't be afraid." As if he could see Grothien's fear, the legion clerk grabbed his arm and said, "This is an era where everyone is equal. What are you afraid of? You are also a fellow monk."

Grosien swallowed his saliva and was dragged inside by him.

His fear actually did not come from fear of the Holy See Bank, but from this deal.

Those 800 mirror carps were not fry at all, but two-year-old adult fish!
They were not bought fish at all, but came from the fish pond of a monastery.

The Papal States could not send anyone to look after the fish pond, and the monks in charge had all gone to Holy Trinity for education and reform, so it had been left there in vain.

Palak thought it was a waste, so he smuggled 800 mirror carps in one go under the cover of night and pretended that he had bought them.

They were handed over to Grosien, who had experience in fish farming, to raise the fish for a while. After they were fattened up, they were sold to the Savior Army.

It was this behavior that gave people the feeling of fleecing the Papal Palace, and this was the reason why Grosien felt uneasy.

The boys are going to the battlefield, and you are still doing this kind of thing.

"Grosien?" Grosien walked forward a few steps with his head down, and suddenly heard a familiar name.

He looked up and saw Squire staring at him with wide eyes.

"Squier? Why are you here?"

"I can read and write. I work as a copyist here."

Squier straightened his hunched back, pretending to be solemn, and said with three parts of pride, three parts of reserve and four parts of nonchalance: "I eat the Pope's food, which makes me half a citizen." "Ah." Grosien exclaimed politely, "That's great. When the gendarmes went to your house..."

"Shhh--" Squire jumped out from behind the table very quickly.

He took two steps forward, covered Grothien's mouth, dragged him to the corner, and said with a fake smile:
"What are you here for? A loan or a pawn? We no longer accept pawns.

Can you write? If you can, go to the counter and get it done. If you can’t, I’ll help you.”

Grothien turned his head and glanced at the legion clerk. He spread his hands and said, "Let the scribe help you. I'm not sure how to do it."

This legion clerk was just a shop accountant a few months ago, so it was impossible for him to know much about bank affairs.

"Oh." Grosien turned around and said, "Get the payment from the Second Guards Legion account."

"Payment? You're still doing business with the Legion." Sitting back down, Squier crossed his legs and said, "Let me see."

Taking the certificate from each of the two people, Squier's eyes quickly moved over the contract, and then his neck froze.

A bright red number was printed on the contract.

"524 dinars, how is this possible..." After rubbing his eyes and making sure that he was not seeing things, Squire almost burst out with a swore.

His monthly salary was only 20 dinars, and he had only been away from this guy for three months. Where did he get 524 dinars?
There is no need to feel anything about this, it must be because of greed!

It's great to be a centurion. If only I could...

Gnashing his teeth and showing a flattering smile, Squier respectfully handed the contract back: "I will help you write the application certificate now..."

"Now that I'm here, I'll buy a Jihad bond, the 5 dinar kind," the legion clerk said to Squire.

After collecting the money and registering in a proper manner, Squire handed the certificate to the legion clerk: "You will be given priority based on your military status. Just go to the counter."

Looking at the brisk steps of the legion clerk in confusion, Grothien asked, "What is this holy war bond?"

Squire said irritably, "It's like lending money to the Salvation Army to fight. It's an IOU, no different from a donation.

It’s worthless. If it weren’t for the Pope’s face, no one would buy it…”

As if he had thought of something, Squire's eyes lit up: "Why? You want to buy some?"

"Yes." Thinking of his act of stealing fish, Grosien nodded in order to alleviate his guilt.

"How much do you want to buy? I'll write it down for you."

"Well, 24 dinars, I'll take out 500 dinars to make it even."

Grosien decided to talk to his cousin. If his cousin agreed, they would each own half of the jihad bonds. If he didn't agree, he would buy all of them.

Squire didn't say anything else, as if he was afraid that Grosien would expose his scandal, so he quickly completed the application without even asking for the usual bribes.

"Sign or put your fingerprint here. Press the same finger as the one on the contract. Press this, this, this, and this.

You have to fill in the numbers here. You know how to write numbers, right? Fill in 24 here, 500 here, and here and here..."

Grosien didn't expect that getting money from the bank would be so difficult. After being directed for a long time, he finally managed to complete it.

At this time, the legion clerk began to yawn.

He handed the application form to the accountant behind the iron counter. The accountant glanced at the two forms and then looked at Grosien: "Are you sure you want to buy so many Jihad bonds?"

"Sure." Grosien didn't want to go through the same trouble again.

The accountant's eyes immediately became full of respect.

He snapped his fingers, pulled out 40 Jihad bonds, counted out 24 silver coins, and handed them to Grothien.

Looking at the thick stack of Jihad bonds and scarce silver coins in his hand, Grosien looked up at the account office, then looked down at the silver coins, and felt like his brain was shutting down.

"Why are there only more than 20 dinars? Where is the rest of the money?" Grosien asked with a dry mouth.

"Where is it?" The accountant pointed at the bond in Grosien's hand. "Didn't you write 500 dinars to buy the bond and take out 24 dinars?"

The clerk was also stunned. He came forward and read the list carefully twice: "You, why did you fill it out the wrong way?"

"I, I didn't..."

At this time, Squier came up to him with a clicking sound: "Oh, I warned you so many times, why did you still fill it in wrongly? You, oh..."

"You, are you...what should we do? What should we do?"

Although he suspected that it was Squier's doing, there was no surveillance in the hall and Grosien had no way to prove it.

He was so anxious that he was about to cry. 500 dinars, such a huge sum of money, had all become waste paper.

"Why are you in such a hurry? The money is not gone." The accountant looked at him strangely. "The bonds you have are worth 2000 dinars."

With the last glimmer of hope, Grosien said tremblingly: "Then, can we withdraw? Can we withdraw half?"

The accountant said awkwardly, "You have already signed and registered it. Unless the head of the Treasury comes, it cannot be returned."

"belch--"

A strange wail rolled out of his throat, and Grothien's eyes went dark. He closed his eyes tightly and fell straight back.

(End of this chapter)