Chapter 377 July Fire Flow
The bright moon cast a tilted black shadow on the city wall, like a crawling black panther.

With four guards following behind and in front of her, Catherine held the wall with her left hand and walked up the stairs beside the city wall one step at a time.

Walking on the quiet steps, she would look into the city from time to time.

The city of Rapids was eerily quiet under the night wind, as if everything was filtered through a light blue filter. The iron rooster wind sign on top of the church pointed east and west.

But if you look closely, the sleeping soldiers in the streets, the blocked rivers, and the smell of blood in the air are very different from the past.

The blue-gray stone bricks were covered with marks from arrows and knife cuts, not to mention the blood that had solidified into black.

As her fingers brushed against the rough wall, she felt a painful friction like a knife cutting her fingertips.

It was like the feeling of thorns scratching her body when she was abandoned in the forest by her mother as a child and walked aimlessly.

If it weren't for her teacher, she would have died at the hands of the wild wolves, beggars and robbers in the forest.

I walked up the steps to the top of the city wall, and the night wind outside the city with the pungent smell of snuff blew on my face.

Under the inured gaze of the guarding soldiers, Catherine walked to a battlement and looked towards the port.

Whenever she couldn't sleep, she would walk around the city wall and take a look at the streets and markets and workshops outside the city at night.

But now it’s different from the past.

Under the wilderness of the night sky, the once prosperous out-of-city market and workshop area were reduced to ruins in the war, and the original port was almost razed to the ground.

After this period of siege, the bunkers originally built outside the city were basically demolished, the shops and workshops were all burned down, and even the tunnels that had been built were filled with water or directly dug down by the knights.

The prosperity that was once raging has now fallen under the sword of the church.

"hiss!"

Catherine, who was feeling the night breeze, suddenly withdrew her hand. A drop of bright red blood was oozing from the tip of her plump index finger.

Although she is already 31 years old this year, Catherine's hands are still well maintained.

But today, these white hands are also stained with blood and scars.

After all, these hands had been used to write at a desk most of the time in the past, and rarely held a sword.

When Catherine was a child in the Blago Monastery, she learned swordsmanship from Juanno.

But as time went on, she almost forgot how to hold the sword.

She lowered her head and looked at the calluses on her knuckles from holding a pen.

Fifteen years have passed since I inherited the Magdi Chamber of Commerce.

In fifteen years, under her manipulation, Rapid City was transformed from a free city in need of reconstruction into the second most prosperous city in the Thousand Valley.

Catherine first used Juanno's connections and her own background to act as a white glove for various estates and cooperated with the secret party in smuggling.

He then used this network of relationships to set up a dye guild, where one person controlled the entire process of dye raw materials, production and sales, and basically monopolized the dye industry in most of the Thousand River Valley.

Naturally, she was given a seat on the Rapid City City Council, and she overruled the majority in the council meeting and developed the current port area.

The port area and its excellent tax exemption policies, public security and services have successfully become a major source of income for the city of Rapid City.

As land prices continued to rise, Catherine's voice naturally rose as well.

She then pushed the city council to establish the Share Act.

Using the funds accumulated in the early stage and the investment from the secret party, the Magdi Chamber of Commerce established the Magdi Bank five years ago.

Through various means such as loans, investments and mortgages, Catherine purchased a large number of shares in workshops and various large and small chambers of commerce.

Through the "Share Law" and the establishment of subsidiary chambers of commerce, cross-holdings were repeatedly carried out and workshops and chambers of commerce were forced to participate in or be forced to participate in the shares.

Gradually, most of Rapid City's industries came under her chamber of commerce or its sub-chambers.

Due to her status as an Aiel, and Rapid City's status as an Azik-allied city, Megadi controls capital worth ten times her own value.

Although on the surface, she was just a small business dealing in dyes.

As the city council member of Rapid City and the headquarters of the Magdeburg Chamber of Commerce, Rapid City has attracted a large amount of population and capital in the past fifteen years, becoming the second most prosperous city in the Thousand River Valley.

At its peak, even a city council member of Rapid City proudly declared that "selling the port area would be enough to buy Flying Castle."

However, the port area that the citizens of Rapid City were proud of has now become a ruin in the flames of war.

Catherine reached out her hand from behind the city wall, as if to touch the ruined port in front of her.

But just as her fingers "touched" the top of the bell tower, she withdrew her hand as if she was pricked.

Every brick and tile here was slowly built by her and her Chamber of Commerce. She personally designed, built, and formulated the policies. Although the Magdi Chamber of Commerce took the opportunity to monopolize the stone industry, Catherine believed that this was the reward she deserved.

From the broken spire of the bell tower the bright moon shone upon Catherine's face.

"Is July 7 already the Flower Festival?"

July 7th happens to be the day when the port area was completed, and it is also the traditional flower festival in Qianhe Valley.

Every July 7th, people in Rapid City pick a lot of flowers and put them on their heads and houses.

Each guild will also contribute money to create a float parade, every tavern in the port area will offer a 30% discount on beer, and will also launch rare locust flower wine, as well as various entertainment activities such as fencing, rowing, boxing and beauty pageants.

The Flower Festival is sometimes even more lively than the Advent Festival. After all, there won’t be so many people running into the streets on the night of the Advent Festival.

Even Catherine herself would ride on the Magdi Chamber of Commerce's float to distribute money during this festival.

Yes, when Catherine said she was throwing money around, she really meant it.

Unlike other chambers of commerce that distributed copper coins, Catherine distributed dinars, and could distribute two to three hundred gold pounds in one night.

Therefore, the Magdeburg Chamber of Commerce has defended the title for three consecutive years in the annual float competition, following voting by the audience and citizens.

In fact, it should have been the four-time defending champion, but in the first edition, the Abbey of Blago float, led by Juano, appeared and eclipsed Catherine’s dinar with just biscuits.

"I've been obsessed with biscuits all my life. I've never gotten tired of eating them in all these years."

Catherine put the biscuit in the box into her mouth and sipped it for a while. Then she suddenly took off her glasses and scratched the corner of her eyes with her little finger.

In the past, when she couldn't sleep, she would go to Teacher Juanno.

No matter how late it was, Teacher Juanno would get up, give her cookies and tell her stories.

Sometimes I told her fairy tales, but more often I told her stories that she could only understand now.

A story based on true events.

Catherine couldn't help but tap the cookie box gently. "What were you thinking when you talked about such dark things with such a young child?"

But at that time, those horror stories could make Catherine fall into a deep sleep.

The biscuits with the taste of brown sugar slowly melted in her mouth, and she gently stroked the biscuit box.

Even though Catherine is already a 30-year-old woman who has not yet married, she still maintains the habit of eating cookies when she can't sleep.

"Teacher, I miss you."

Just as Catherine closed her eyes and immersed herself in memories of the past, she smelled a strange smell.

Is this something burnt?
"boom--"

The next second, a violent flash of light rose behind Catherine.

Although she didn't turn around, her eyes widened involuntarily and a terrible thought arose in her mind.

The huge noise brought with it hot wind, which blew her sleeves forward, and grass leaves and wood chips flew over her head and around her.

The four guards stepped forward together and used their bodies to block the remaining power of the explosion.

But Catherine pushed away the guards blocking her way, put her arms in front of her face to block the hot wind, and stared blankly in that direction.

In the direction of the Red Dragon Breath Warehouse in the city, fireballs exploded continuously, and flames sprayed in all directions like fountains.

Houses were set on fire and people ran out screaming.

Screams and dog barking followed, and the entire city was illuminated by flames, as if it were daytime.

After Catherine's hard work outside the city was burned by the raging fire, even the city of Rapid City was engulfed in flames.

After watching for five full seconds, Catherine screamed in a voice that she had never heard before: "Red Dragon Breath, it's Red Dragon Breath!"

Before Catherine's scream faded, a nightmarish horn sounded.

The reason I say this is because the sound of the horn is coming from outside the city.

Under the bright moonlight and firelight, thousands of infantrymen and knights pushed siege towers and carried ladders, rushing towards the city walls.

Bright flames rose up on the towers of the city walls, and the trumpets warning of the enemy's attack were almost drowned out by the loud explosions.

Amid the shouts of the infantry captains, Catherine felt as if she had fallen into an icy cave and could not utter a word.

(End of this chapter)