Deep Cooperation

The room was silent. Gilles and Texera were still digesting the beautiful blueprint Edmund had laid out for them.

A few minutes later, Gilles slammed his fist onto the table. With a bang, Edmund felt as though the table had been shortened by the blow.

The guards outside were quickly drawn over by the sound. They hurriedly pushed open the door and asked, "My lords, what happened?"

They saw Gilles and Texera wearing excited expressions—thrilled rather than angry—and had no idea what was going on.

Edmund waved a hand. "Nothing happened. Go back out for now."

The guards nodded and shut the door again.

After the guards left, Gilles finally calmed down somewhat and said apologetically, "Fleet Captain Edmund, my apologies. I was too excited."

Texera, standing beside him, looked at him with disdain, having completely forgotten that he had looked even more excited than Gilles just moments ago.

"It's only natural. To be honest, when I first learned of this, it didn't feel real. I merely thought it was a good thing to exchange for a larger territory.

It was only after I truly came to the Grand Duchy of Vera and completed the occupation of the Sweet Sorghum Territory that I realized what this meant.

A tract of land spanning 371 square kilometers, with most of it lying in mountain and river valleys, all of which could be developed into prime irrigated farmland.

With the Kingdom's three-year crop rotation system, these fields could yield at least 250 kilograms per mu on average. At the Kingdom's current grain price of six small silver dragons per ton, simply growing wheat would bring in 140 to 150 large gold dragons a year."

Upon hearing that figure, Gilles and Texera's breathing suddenly quickened. Both of them could not help imagining what it