The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Flora was leading her nuns on a campaign with the army.

"Your Holiness, there are some wounded villagers in the village ahead, and they have been taken care of by the soldiers at the front."

"I understand. I will bring the nuns over later."

After hearing the scout's report, Flora ordered her men to pour the prepared herbal soup into an earthenware pot.

"Twice a day, just a small bowl each time, until the fever subsides. If anyone else is experiencing fever symptoms, they can drink this herbal soup, understand?"

A mother holding a child, who was standing next to Flora, nodded.

The nuns did not act with the army, but followed behind them, providing medical care and treatment in the areas the army had captured, in order to prevent the spread of plague and disease after the war.

In previous wars, many nuns and priests from the church accompanied the army to war, mainly to guard against possible plagues after the war.

Besides the improper handling of corpses, the sanitation conditions in this world were truly appalling. In addition, Lind was worried that demons might cause trouble behind the scenes, so he paid special attention to the post-war sanitation issues.

Most of the priests became army doctors, but there were still too few army doctors, and the army could not stay in one place for long. So Flora's nuns began to follow the army and treat the sick along the way.

This is a job that ordinary nuns and priestesses cannot do. After all, although they are following behind the army, the North is now full of bandits and thieves who rule the mountains. In the eyes of those bandits, a group of nuns and priestesses who are powerless are nothing more than fat sheep who can use holy light.

However, most of Flora's Sisters had extensive combat experience, not to mention their full armor. Lind equipped the Sisters with gear basically according to the standards of the Royal Guard.

The nuns are no longer just the nuns from the original Basilica of Our Lady of Salvation; now they have recruited many nuns from various places, and many religious people along the way have also joined.

They are also protected by special Lars Knights.

This configuration is practically a small army; to be honest, it would be no problem at all to take down a small city.

Although the central papacy in the capital restored Flora's reputation and made a decision that went against the will of the ancestors, the papacy officially conferred upon Flora the title of saint without her ever setting foot in the central papacy.

The reason Flora hadn't become a formal saintess before was because she hadn't gone to the capital to formally receive her investiture.

Now, the central Vatican is violating ancestral rules by bestowing a title upon Flora, but Flora doesn't feel anything special about it. After all, it's not that the nuns need the Vatican to bestow titles upon them to enhance their prestige, but rather that the Vatican needs some prestigious people to become saints and increase the value of the title.

Moreover, even those in the gray and white-collar circles can confer titles of sainthood. For example, Isa was conferred a title by the religious affairs office of the gray and white-collar circles. In the North, almost no one cares about sainthood conferred by the Papacy anymore.

Moreover, Flora wasn't originally striving for this empty title.

Seeing the village gradually settling down, Flora took out her pocket watch, glanced at it, and called over the newly joined clergy members. She then prepared to lead the group to the next location.

Some of the clergy from Doug's territory did not approve of the gray-collar workers' religious management style, and could even be said to be resistant to it. However, those who were willing to follow the nuns around were basically not bad people. At least these clergy members were only resistant to religious policies, not the order brought by the gray-collar workers.

Some of them wanted to associate with the gray-collar workers or Flora, hoping to get a piece of the pie in the upcoming new order.

However, as the governor said, if someone is useful, they should be used to the fullest. The territory is currently in need of manpower, so Flora left these people in these towns and villages to maintain order. This has always been the case for gray and white-collar workers: you can be cunning, scheming, and opportunistic, but you can't be truly incompetent.

With the cooperation of these people, the arriving civil officials were able to quickly stabilize the local order and sanitation situation.

When Flora left, the entire village gathered at the village entrance, silently watching the nuns depart.

Flora, along with her sisters, kept turning back, mostly reminiscing about the days at the Basilica of Our Lady of Salvation.

Many of the newly joined nuns followed Flora and the others in wearing bird-beak masks. In addition to helping Flora and the others cover their scars, these masks could also effectively prevent infection when in contact with patients, and could also effectively prevent some thugs and vagrants from having designs on the nuns. So they quickly became popular among the nuns.

Along the way, not to mention the fully armed Lars knights and soldiers, even the bandits trembled at the sight of the nuns wearing bird-beak masks.

Perhaps it was for this reason that Doug, who had been secretly observing the Sisters from a distance, asked, "Boss, are we really going to go?"

Many of Doug's troops are only soldiers when they need pay; otherwise, they're just a bunch of bandits. This is one of the reasons why Lind doesn't want to incorporate them.

"I...I'm going to fight this nun order? Really?"

The general, who was known as the leader, immediately lost his composure upon seeing the scene transmitted by the Eagle Eye technique.

He had heard from people who had escaped from Pétain Fortress that the Grey Collar had a unit of nuns disguised as military doctors. The nuns in that unit would use strange weapons that made explosions to saw through your shield and armor, and then insert a musket into the saw cut and fire.

The general felt a chill run down his spine upon hearing this.

"Why don't we go back to farming? I heard that now that the rebels... the governor's army will distribute land wherever they go."

"But boss, we've already taken all the land around here, do we really think we'll get any more?"

"The North is so vast, there are bound to be places where no one knows us. When we reach a place where no one knows us, we will just surrender. Some of you can go back to farming, and others can go home. If any of you brothers are lucky enough to be selected to serve as the governor's soldiers, don't forget your brothers in the future."

Anyway, most of the people in the army were forced to join, and they weren't loyal to Doug to begin with. Shooting a couple of shots into the air was enough to do Doug a favor.

At this moment, a junior officer and staff officer stepped forward and said, "Boss, I have a plan."

“I have observed how the governor’s army treats prisoners of war. What Governor Lind said about the Northmen not fighting each other is true. Even if you fire on the governor’s army, as long as you don’t loot excessively or kill or set fires, the governor’s army will forgive and forget.”

The general shook his head: "Although our looting is not as bad as those real bandits (after all, there's nothing left to steal), and the brothers are all innocent, what about me? What am I going to do? I even allied with those bandits and helped the demons cover for us. I heard that the Gray Collars are ruthless towards the demons. How could the governor possibly let me off so easily?"

The junior officer, who also served as a staff officer, slapped his thigh and said, "Isn't this precisely your advantage, General?"