Chapter 1005: Chapter 948: I Didn’t Expect You’d Even Prepared Tools for Drawing Lots!

Beside Horn, who was lying prone, there was a red velvet pouch, and what Jeanne saw was a piece of stiff cardboard about the size of a book.

The cardboard itself was nothing, what really made Jeanne’s expression grow serious was the drawing on it.

On the cardboard, there was an engraved line illustration.

It looked like a feather‑pen sketch made only of lines, not yet colored.

Although the drawing looked rather abstract, Jeanne could still tell at a glance that it was a portrait.

Jeanne’s knuckles whitened slightly as she pinched the card, and her back teeth started grinding together.

If she wasn’t seeing things, this should be a portrait of Catherine.

So this good brother she’d been missing and fretting over all this time had actually been carrying Catherine’s portrait around with him.

Jeanne’s hair began to rise without any wind, and faint little currents of electricity flickered through the air.

She was just about to reach out in a fury to slap Horn awake when she suddenly froze mid‑step.

Because she had actually seen more cardboard in the bag; she reached in and pulled one out.

The portrait on this card held a battle flag and looked awe‑inspiring—this time it was herself.

Looking at her own portrait in her left hand and Catherine’s portrait in her right, Jeanne let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

Only once that breath was out did she realize something was off.

"Wait a second, what am I relieved about? He still has another Saintess’s portrait on him!"

Her small nose wrinkled again, her lips pouted up, and Jeanne once more reached out, ready to slap Horn awake.

Only when her hand was just one centimeter from Horn’s shoulder did Jeanne suddenly stop again.

Silently drawing back her hand, she picked up the red velvet pouch and went to squat off to the side.

Holding the two bottom corners of the velvet pouch, Jeanne gave it a light shake, and in an instant a dozen or twenty cards clattered onto the floor.

Staring at the pile of cardboard on the carpet, Jeanne fell into a long, motionless daze.

No expression, no movement, as if time itself had stopped.

She took a deep breath, forced out an ugly, teeth‑gnashing smile, and began flipping through the cards one by one.

"Jia Li, Catherine, Hilov, Istria, Novia... Edwin?!"

Staring at the portrait on that card, Jeanne could hardly believe her eyes.

Edwin too, seriously?

Before, Jeanne hadn’t even considered Edwin worthy of being her rival. Now look, this Holy Father takes all comers!

So what were these cards for, then?

No need to think about it. Jeanne shoved the cards back into the velvet pouch and reached in to draw one at random.

"Moliat? You really know how to play, don’t you." Jeanne’s face completely collapsed; she was angry and aggrieved and could only stew in her own aggrieved anger.

Four aren’t enough, you really have to be this greedy?

At this point, the use of these cards and the red velvet pouch was obvious.

Here she was, still worrying that Horn might be too guilty over what happened back then to dare get married, still fretting that it weighed on him.

And him? Not only is he perfectly fine, he’s even got the tools for flipping concubine cards ready to go!

"Mm..." In his sleep, Horn suddenly felt his hair stand on end; a tension and sense of danger like back when he faced the Angel came crashing over him again.

His eyelids slowly opened, and Horn rapidly blinked several times, looking around the office in front of him.

The quiet office, the warm autumn sunlight, dust motes dancing in the beams, as if golden grains were drifting in the air.

No Angel, no assassins.

Ever since the last Angel incident, apart from sending a few more waves of assassins, the ry Court Barracks hadn’t made any other moves.

Especially after Charles VIII invaded Windmill Land, Puliano had politically acted like Horn and the Holy Alliance didn’t exist.

Besides, the ry Court Barracks had added a lot of anti‑air spring‑crossbows, and soldiers from the Shadow Crow Army patrolled the rooftops day and night.

There shouldn’t be any Angel raids.

But before Horn could recover, he heard a blur of approaching footsteps.

What greeted him was not a gentle caress, but a thunderous roar.

"It’s already three‑something, get up and drink your tea!"

"Ow!" Just awakened, Horn was so startled by the shout that his heart nearly jumped out of his chest.

He turned his head and saw that it was Jeanne; clutching his chest, he said, "Why are you yelling so loud? You scared me."

Jeanne didn’t give him a pleasant face at all; cheeks flushed, she glared at him, both shy and angry. "Enjoying your sweet dreams, huh? Who were you rendezvousing with in there this time?"

"Huh?" Horn was still confused.

Seeing that Horn’s dazed look didn’t seem fake, Jeanne felt a sliver of hope rise in her heart. She lifted the red velvet pouch. "What’s this?"

"How is it?" A smile appeared on Horn’s face. "Those painters are all too old‑fashioned. All of your looks were designed by me personally, and I even made your size one bigger."

"Shameless!" Jeanne pounced on him and pinched his cheeks, her face flushing even redder. "You’ve already become the Witch Emperor, you’ve already started your witch harem, I’ve already turned a blind eye to you and Jia Li and the others, and you still want more..."

As she spoke, Jeanne’s eyes were about to spill over with tears, and only then did Horn panic.

He glanced at the red velvet pouch and, after blanking out for a long moment, finally came back to himself. "Hey, you’ve got it wrong, these aren’t for me to flip cards with."

"Then what are they?"

"They’re for everyone to flip."

Jeanne went still for a second, then the tips of her black hair lit up with a burning gold.

...

Ten minutes later, the crackling office once again returned to calm.

Face still flushed, Jeanne sat on Horn’s knees, slender fingers fiddling with the cards.

"These cards are way too big, they’re not convenient to carry."

The ends of Horn’s hair were slightly singed and curled. He wrapped his arms around Jeanne’s waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. "These are the original engraved plates, of course they have to be big, easier for printing. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Later on they’ll get smaller and smaller, down to palm‑sized, so others can carry them around."

"What are you doing all this for?" Jeanne turned sideways, looped an arm around Horn’s neck, and kissed him on the lips.

Compared to four years ago, Jeanne and Horn were undoubtedly much more intimate now.

Although Jeanne was either studying at Joan of Arc Castle or working at Black Snake Bay, whenever she had free holidays and Horn had time, he would come to see her.

Sometimes to see the maple leaves, sometimes to go on picnics outside together.

Horn had never proactively raised the subject of what they were, but he’d already touched what needed touching, played with what needed playing.

Aside from not taking the final step, they’d done pretty much everything else.

Of course, it should be about the same with the other three Saintesses.

Not because they were too forward, but because Jia Li was way too competitive.

Jia Li spent most of her time in the newly acquired five counties of Leia, leading the Shadow Crow regiment, the Internal Guard cavalry regiment, and the One‑River supply garrison in suppressing nobles and overseeing land redistribution.

Yet every time she came back for the New Year banquet or a vacation, she would cling to Horn.

In her own drunken words: Horn used the Holy Gun to take her Thousand River Valley, and she was going to take Thousand River Valley back with her belly!

More than once, while the other Saintesses weren’t paying attention, Jia Li had dragged a dead‑drunk Horn off to her own bedroom.

If Brother Horn had moved just a bit faster, the raw rice and fruit would already have been cooked into a pot of fully done porridge.

Breathing in the faint chamomile scent at the tip of his nose, Horn could only give a wry smile. "I work every day, and I’m not allowed to have any hobbies?"

In the end you still have to balance work and rest. After four years of war and three years of labor, he wasn’t allowed to enjoy anything?

These cards weren’t something Horn planned to force onto the market. He just wanted to play with them on a small scale himself and sell them as luxury items.

The main thing was that the Holy Alliance had recently brought in a few Artisans from Falan who specialized in multi‑color plate printing, but the Holy Alliance didn’t really have much use for them yet.

So Horn happened to find some work for them so they wouldn’t run off.

"All right, what did you come looking for me for?"

"You dare ask me." Jeanne lifted her head from his collarbone and glared at him. "Weren’t you the one who called me over?"

"Oh, right, right." Horn slapped his forehead. "I’m planning to establish a Devil Inquisition. Interested in serving as the Chief Inquisitor?"