Your Majesty, Wonders are Harmful to the Country!

So the real reason their Lord Count Bruno was so determined to claim the land south of the Soren River was to build a fortress...

No wonder he wanted serfs instead of gold he had planned this all along!

Damn it!

If butler Ford had known about this in advance, he would never have argued with Count Soren so fiercely!

After all, Soren's army had already been completely wiped out. What was the point of building a fortress?

At least for now, it seemed like nothing more than a waste of money.

Thinking about this, Old Ford felt a sharp pain in his heart. It seemed like the treasury of Idar was about to bleed dry once again...

"My Lord, Idar is already busy building roads. If we start constructing a fortress as well, I fear... our finances won't be able to sustain it..." Old Ford immediately started complaining about being broke.

No, this won't do. If he didn't stop it now, Lord Bruno would squander all their gold...

"The Hanging Garden is already complete, isn't it? Just reallocate the monthly construction funds from the garden to Namur Fortress."

"But... but we still need to build roads! And with the new road connecting the fortress to Idar City, that's five roads in total!" Old Ford protested, gesturing desperately.

"It's not like we're building all five at once... Besides, once the southern road to Mann Fortress is finished, Idar City will become a crucial hub for merchants traveling between the Norman Empire and the Basel Kingdom. You really think we won't make our money back?"

"What if they choose not to pass through Idar City?" Old Ford stubbornly insisted.

To him, this was utter madness. Did they really need to build such a massive fortress just to guard against a few hundred people?

And just by looking at the construction plans, he could tell that this wonder would be just as costly and complex as the Hanging Garden.

"They'll have no choice but to pass through! You know as well as I do that Idar's military force is limited, so some areas might be... less well-protected. Once the new roads are built, any merchant who tries to bypass Idar City and go straight into Thorn Valley is very likely to encounter bandits. If their goods and money get stolen... well, that's just bad luck!"

"As for the Namur Fortress... it's decided. If there are difficulties, we'll find a way to solve them. The captured Soren soldiers and the three hundred serfs from the treaty must be reorganized as soon as possible, and construction on Namur Fortress must begin within a week!" Bruno's tone was firm, leaving no room for argument.

Seeing this, Old Ford could only nod in reluctant agreement.

Although the war was over, there was still a lot of work to be done.

The bodies of the three fallen soldiers had been recovered, and arrangements had to be made to return them to their families and issue compensation.

Meanwhile, a dozen wounded soldiers required urgent medical attention.

Speaking of medical treatment...

The medical knowledge and treatment methods in this world were extremely primitive!

Their absurdity was on par with those of medieval Europe.

This was precisely why Bruno had ordered people to collect feces and clean up Idar City's sanitation earlier—

Because if he ever got sick, he would never dare to see a doctor.

Whether it was a minor ailment or a severe illness, there was a chance his body might heal naturally.

But if he sought treatment... heh, he might end up dead even faster.

The most common treatment method used by doctors in this world was the infamous "bloodletting therapy."

Got a headache? No problem, just let some blood out...

Leg pain? Easy, just let some blood out...

Kidney pain? Don't worry, just let some blood out...

And if bloodletting didn't work at first, that wasn't an issue—it just meant they hadn't drawn enough. Just keep bleeding until the problem is "solved"...

No matter what the illness, the core principle of treatment boiled down to one thing: letting blood.

Forget about herbal medicine bleeding was the real cure!

Bruno suspected that Count Soren had probably been bled too much over the years. Otherwise, he might have been able to live a little longer.

But if you thought bloodletting was their only method, you'd be terribly mistaken.

For example, doctors in this world believed that anything unpleasant or painful could be considered medicine.

So, making a patient sit next to a pile of feces and inhale its stench was believed to be a form of effective treatment.

Another method involved concocting bizarre "herbal" remedies using all sorts of dubious ingredients, either to induce vomiting or for enemas.

There were even more horrifying methods, such as: Burning the skin with a hot iron, Rubbing pigeon feces on the feet, Drinking fluids extracted from a criminal's severed head, Drilling holes in a patient's skull and sprinkling salt into the brain

In short, the doctors in this world were absolutely terrifying.

So, in the spirit of mutual assistance, Bruno generously offered Idar's personal physician to Count Soren during the peace negotiations.

Whether Count Soren dared to use him or not... well, that was his problem.

As for Idar's military doctors? They were no better.

After observing one of them treating wounded soldiers, Bruno immediately ordered the doctor to be locked up in the castle dungeon.

The man had been so eager to show off in front of Bruno that he kept bleeding the soldier non-stop, nearly turning a minor injury into a fatal one.

Quacks are deadly!

Back at the castle, Bruno spent 20 Glory Points to exchange for the distillation method for alcohol from the system store.

20 points wasn't too expensive...

But since Bruno only had 61 points left in total, this purchase left him with just 41 points.

Still, it was absolutely worth it.

Currently, Norman Empire nobles mostly drank wine, while strong distilled spirits had yet to appear in this world.

Introducing distilled alcohol had three major benefits: Personal Consumption, Economic Value and Medical Use.