After being shocked, Huggins gestured to the guards around him, motioning for them to hurry up and gather more troops.

Todd reached out to stop his movements, beckoned to Brünnhilde, and said, "Come inside." ”

Rehanging the spear behind her back, the Valkyrie of the Great Horn stepped over the knight on the ground and walked towards the door of the council chamber.

Huggins took a diagonal step and stopped in front of her, his eyes fixed on the spear, gritted his teeth, and said, "Before entering, you must unload your weapon!"

Brunhilde looked at the king as he disappeared into the depths of the hall, and did not care if he plunged his spear deep into the dirt.

Todd, who returned to his throne, ordered his attendants to bring some simple snacks, and found the Valkyrie standing tall in the middle of the crowd.

Some hunchbacked monk Joe looked at Brunhilde's tall figure of 175 cm beside him, and subconsciously gave way to the side.

Todd looked down at the seat and said, "Has the Twilight Kingdom neglected you?"

Brunhilde shook his head.

"That is, you miss your hometown and want to say goodbye?"

The Valkyrie, who was ignorant of the world, directly said her heart: "We left to find the glory of the gods, how can we go back and continue to guard the tomb?"

Todd smiled and asked, "And your purpose?"

"Fight!" Brunhilde waved his arms vigorously: "We are the war maids of the gods, the Valkyries who charge into battle!

Todd didn't speak, and he didn't show an affirmative or negative expression.

Huggins, who always paid attention to the king's expression, whispered to Cumberland beside him for a while, and said to Brunhilde: "Do the Valkyries want to become mercenaries of the kingdom?"

"Mercenaries, the scum who fights for money?!No, my sisters and I, by the way, and the North Island warriors, want to join the Knights of the Twilight!"

Hearing this, Huggins stayed for a while, exchanged an incredulous look with Alfonso, and then said to the woman hesitantly, "You are ...... Are you going to convert to Heavenly Father?"

Brünnhilde had a look of disgust on his face: "Of course it can't be! We are believers in the gods of the North Island, and Valhalla is the eternal and unchanging destination!"

Huggins angrily took out the cross on his chest and said loudly, "The Knights of the Twilight West are the sword and shield of the Heavenly Father, how can they agree to accept the infidels......"

Cumberland's hand smacked Huggins' thigh under the table, stopping him from talking.

The old knight turned his face to Todd and asked slowly, "Your Majesty, what do you think?"

Todd looked around the halls, Reichel and Jemuro believed in the three gods of Gutaro; the Valkyrie Brunhilde served Odin, the king of the gods of the North Island; the southern scholar Kendi believed in Allah; and the rest were believers in the Heavenly Father.

The belief system of the Twilight Kingdom can now be said to be a hodgepodge, and with the expansion of the territory and the growth of the army, it is expected that the religious beliefs will be even more complex in the future.

Although Todd himself gave a speech on the founding day of the kingdom, emphasizing that the kingdom of the twilight was a religiously liberal country, and that pagans would not be judged or expelled, the crushing and discrimination between religions had always existed in a more or less overt or implicit manner, let alone in such an important area as the military.

"Brunhilde, I'm sorry. The Knights of the Twilight West are Heavenly Father's army, and I can't agree to let you join. ”

The King's decision disappointed Valkyrie, and Huggins and Alfonso let out a long sigh.

Todd paused for a moment, then said, "Although the Knights of the Twilight West cannot accept you, the Twilight Kingdom can. ”

Everyone in the hall held their breath, puzzled by the king's sudden words.

Todd continued with a smile, "The Kingdom of Twilight has always been an open and tolerant world, where all those who have suffered injustice and persecution have been sheltered, and there will be no favoritism or exclusion because of your faith, origin, or even race. ”

Brunhilde gave Todd a grateful look, and the other infidels in the hall looked reverent.

"I intend to build a second army of the Dusk Kingdom, consisting entirely of Valkyries and North Islanders. You will be given the power to roam the battlefield, for glory and for the kingdom. Todd looked into Brunhilde's eyes: "The commander of the army will be borne by you, and the equipment and supplies will be borne by the kingdom." ”

Looking at everything in front of him, unlike Huggins and Alfonso, who were stunned, Cumberland, the captain of the Knights of the Twilight, looked at Todd with a little approval and relief in his eyes, and the words he said could only be heard by himself.

"It's really getting more and more like a proper king......

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The Valkyries and the North Island warriors declared their allegiance to King Todd and formed the kingdom's second army, the Knights of the North Island, marking the beginning of the diversification of the military power of the Twilight Kingdom.

But compared to this matter, the inhabitants of Twilight City are more concerned about the latest way to get rich in the kingdom.

First of all, advances in shipbuilding and seafaring technology in the city, combined with the boom in maritime trade, led to a large number of fleets of ships that roamed the seas in search of wealth.

Secondly, the "patent law" to protect inventions, the growing ranks of scholars, and the strong support of the wealthy people led to the emergence of a variety of new goods in the kingdom.

Finally, the growing population and increasing demand for goods in the Twilight Kingdom created a virtuous cycle of wealth and rapid growth of commerce.

The above three points, the increase in maritime trade, product science and technology, and domestic demand, have created a force with the economy as the driving force, the capitalists, gradually stepping onto the stage of history.

This force included scholars with patents, merchants who amassed wealth, and fleets that traded at sea. They built a complete business chain from product research, to farms, to workshops, to shops, and finally to ocean trade.

This power thriving by commerce has gradually penetrated into every corner of the Dusk Kingdom. began to influence the emerging kingdom in many ways.

The first point is to help the Twilight Kingdom deal with refugees. Whether it is product development or production and processing, free labor is an indispensable factor. Due to the particularity of the Duxi Kingdom, serfs attached to the nobility and landlords almost did not exist, and the labor cost of the residents of Duxi was too high, so the capitalists set their sights on the cheap refugees in the outer city in order to obtain qualified labor.

They educate the refugees to ensure that they have basic job skills, they provide them with food and lodging, and they are tied to them forever with a paper contract. Although these actions are based on profits, they also accelerate the process of urbanization and the popularization of education.

The second point is the generation of the enclosure movement. The production and processing of products requires a large amount of land, for example, the popular commodity in the city of Twilight, "nightshade essential oil", just the "raw material processing factory" of the commodity needs 200 acres of land, if you add drying, purification, bottling and other sites, just a perfume industry, can develop the scale of a small town.

However, the land in and around the city of Dusk has basically been carefully planned and cannot be occupied, so what should we do? The capitalists set their sights on the "noble fiefdoms" that the Knights of Dusk West had plundered but abandoned to occupy. These lands were originally owned by the nobles of the Silver Ring, but the outbreak of war made them all "public wasteland". Originally, people were afraid that King Todd would prohibit development, but after knocking on the side, it was found that the king not only did not oppose it, but was quite supportive of the reuse of "public wasteland". The capitalists paid a pitiful rent to obtain the right to use the land from the royal family for 20 to 40 years.

The third point is the development of agricultural productivity. Unlike the small-scale peasant economy in the Middle Ages, the rise of capital power promoted the development of agriculture and rural productivity. Because of the long-term cheap lease of land, most capitalists are more willing to invest in new crops, add good fertilizer, use better tools, reform drainage systems, adopt advanced farming methods, and increase yields.