Territory

In the bedroom at the highest point of the main tower of Carnford Castle, Princess Louise stood by the window, her slender fingers unconsciously twisting the velvet curtain tassel.

The bright sunlight of early summer bathed the earth, filling the increasingly prosperous outer district below the castle with vitality.

Her gaze passed over the reinforced and even more imposing walls before settling on the bustling construction site farther away.

The new Tunbao Number Four had already risen from the ground. The Rammed Earth Wall was taking shape, and the framework of its watchtower pointed straight into the blue sky.

Beside it, the foundations of Tunbao Number Five had already been laid out. Large numbers of freed slaves and recruited refugees, directed by Engineer Morr and his apprentices, worked like busy ants, shouting work chants as they dug the foundations and hauled stone under the blazing sun.

After multiple expansions, Morr's engineering team had become highly efficient and professional, and construction proceeded far faster than before.

Closer to the foot of the castle, newly built market streets crisscrossed one another, teeming with people.

The entrance of the grain shop was piled high with sacks of freshly harvested rye. Colorful woolen fabrics hung outside the cloth shop. The rhythmic clang of hammering rang out from the Blacksmith Shop, while the air even carried the fragrance of food and faint sounds of commotion from the newly opened taverns and eateries.

It was a thriving, vibrant scene, utterly different from the frontier fortress struggling to survive amid the snowstorms that she had seen when she first arrived half a year ago.

This prosperity was the fruit of Karl's efforts, as well as proof of Carnford's tenacious vitality. In the past, Louise might have felt comforted by the hope filling this land.

But at this