A Person on Terra, With No Books to Read

Kazdel is currently facing a crisis related to Ursus's Rubles. In a way, Kazdel can hold onto Lungmen Dollars and reduce its reliance on Rubles. However, Rubles are Ursus's domestic currency, and even Ursus would be affected by excessive printing. Meanwhile, if Yan prints more Lungmen Dollars, Yan itself would barely feel any repercussions.

"This is Yan's grain export price, in Lungmen Dollars. Please take a look?"

Wei Yenwu wrote down two numbers, one in Rubles and the other in the so-called Lungmen Dollars, with an equals sign between them.

Theresica glanced at it and was surprised to discover that it was only one-third of Siracusa's grain import price!

"How is it, what do you think?"

Wei Yenwu asked with a smile. Kazdel was short on food, but Yan had no shortage of it.

"It's acceptable, but I have a request."

"Please, go ahead."

"I wish to import Yan's crops and farming technology."

Theresica said solemnly, but Wei Yenwu chuckled upon hearing this.

"Although I hold a minor official position, I also have a vegetable patch in my own home. My wife and I tend to it when we have free time. I can confidently say that Kazdel's land is too barren to cultivate."

"So what? Even a small-scale attempt, if it yields even a little, would be good."

Seeing Theresica's firm stance, Wei Yenwu nodded. "This is a minor matter. If you desire it, I shall give it to you as a welcoming gift."

"Thank you."

The two parties then proceeded to sign the agreement. Kazdel would export airships to Yan and provide after-sales maintenance. Yan would settle the payment in Lungmen Dollars and, at an agreed-upon price, export grain to Kazdel.

After concluding their business, Wei Yenwu returned to the test flight field, showing genuine interest in the airships. Madam Wen Yue, who was accompanying him, even expressed a desire to personally ride in an airship for a tour.

This startled Theresica, who quickly advised, "Madam Wei, these are newly manufactured items, and their operational experience is not yet sufficient. Perhaps you should wait a while longer."

"It's fine, it's fine."

Wei Yenwu pointed at the airship and chuckled, "At this altitude, we won't fall to our deaths."

Theresica: "..."

An airship that had already been undergoing test flights for some time slowly descended. Wei Yenwu and an excited Madam Wen Yue entered the cabin.

The airship ascended again and began to circle the Kazdel city. Theresica, watching from the ground, felt a surge of nervousness until Madam Wen Yue was thoroughly satisfied. Only then did the two return to the ground.

"This is a very impressive invention. With this, the livelihoods of the people in the Shangshu Region will be greatly improved."

Wei Yenwu was very pleased. Madam Wen Yue, however, had a more unique observation.

"Looking down at the ground from the sky is so exciting! It's just too slow, can it go any faster?"

"Uh... we will find ways to improve it."

Theresica responded, trying to placate her. In his opinion, simply being able to take off safely was already a feat, and now they wanted increased speed?

The next day, at the material collection point on the Yan border, to everyone's astonishment, an airship loaded with construction materials slowly ascended and headed towards its designated destination. Ursus's operation was slightly delayed by two days due to wind and snow, but it also proceeded smoothly afterward.

A long line of airships sailed slowly through the sky, creating a rather spectacular sight. At the departure points in Ursus and Yan, many residents and newspaper reporters gathered to take pictures. Some refugees in the desert even treated it as a divine miracle and worshipped it.

Without weather interference, the airships' transport efficiency far exceeded the expectations of Ursus and Yan. Initially, they had planned to wait until the mobile landmasses reached the convergence point and formed settlements before preparing for construction. Now, the construction materials were arriving ahead of the mobile landmasses!

The Ministry of Works in Yan, while looking worried and urging the mobile landmasses to speed up, was also beaming with joy. This was because when they initially calculated the construction materials, they had factored in additional costs for long-distance transportation losses and losses due to bandit raids. Furthermore, with no factories in the desert, any missing materials would likely have to be re-transported by Yan! Now, using airships eliminated all such losses. At most, there might be minor accidents during unloading, which saved them a significant amount of money!

The work done by Sarkaz for the two "hooligans" of Terra satisfied them greatly. Ursus indicated that they would expedite the plan to repatriate the Wendigo to Kazdel, with completion expected within six months. Yan paid all transportation fees upfront and also made a 20% deposit for ten airships in Lungmen Dollars.

Theresica did not dare to hold onto the Lungmen Dollars for long and immediately used them to purchase grain from Yan.

However, the dual reporting from Yan and Ursus made Kazdel's airships known throughout Terra. The Dukes of Victoria, Iberia, and Columbia all sent representatives to express their intent to purchase.

Among them, Columbia's purchase volume was astonishing.

The country was in a critical period of western development, where the road conditions were virtually nonexistent, and the cost of transporting supplies was terrifyingly high.

Upon learning of this unique invention, major transportation companies in Columbia rushed to purchase them. Furthermore, due to order prioritization issues, these companies, all belonging to the same country, even engaged in a price war, outbidding each other and essentially paying an "idiot tax."

Why couldn't they just buy them normally? The price they were paying for one airship now could buy five from Yan!

Then, somehow, one airship was acquired by the Columbia Federal Army and dispatched to the Sargon rainforest to drop supplies for besieged troops.

One day, a Federal Army Arts Master aboard an airship spotted Adaklis tribesmen attacking the besieged troops from high altitude. He then unleashed a barrage of Originium Arts, killing many enemies.

The Federal Army's high command, which had been demoralized by the disastrous war situation, suddenly became invigorated. They deliberately sent out troops, waited for them to be surrounded, and then had airships carrying Arts Masters arrive to provide support, achieving their first favorable exchange ratio since the war began. The Columbian newspapers, which had been criticizing them for nearly a year, broke their tradition and praised them extensively. Even the President of Columbia personally visited and commended the soldiers using the airships.

This sent Columbia's high-ranking military officers into a frenzy. Discovering the effectiveness of this new tactic, they also rushed to Kazdel to make purchases. These individuals hoped to use airships to strike the Adaklis tribesmen from high altitudes.

As for Ursus's claim that the airships were not durable, they couldn't care less now.

'Can those primitive tribes reach such high altitudes? They aren't like us, a proper nation! And even if they manage to shoot one down, so what? A few deaths? Is that more than the number of people dying now?'

What was originally just a small factory producing airships was now being stretched by demand, expanding its production capacity and transforming into the Kazdel Airframe Manufacturing.

Chapter 70: Brat

The booming sales of airships brought Kazdel its second source of revenue, aside from the export of high-purity Originium. It also reduced the proportion of Rubles on its balance sheet, though they still held a considerable weight.

Dead money cannot generate profit. To spend these funds quickly, Theresica began looking for places to invest.

His first thought was of the Sarkaz veterans. In the past, the nation was too poor to care for them. Now that they had money, should they continue to let them suffer through hardship and tears?

Theresica ordered the Planning Committee to provide subsidies to all veterans who had participated in the war, as well as their families.

This included better daily food rations, improved housing, priority treatment for illnesses, and preferential placement in schools for their children.

Although Terra possessed Originium Arts that could help injured soldiers quickly reattach severed limbs, many soldiers still suffered from dismemberment for various reasons. Theresica personally attended to these individuals, doing his best to assign them work they could adapt to.

Furthermore, there was a small portion of veterans who were genuinely unable to live independently and had no one to care for them. Theresica established veterans' homes, modeled after those of the former Gaul Empire, and assigned dedicated personnel to look after these old soldiers.

To further comfort the veterans' spirits, Theresica took it upon himself to personally craft a batch of medals, using a small amount of precious metal, in a style he recalled from Earth. He also decreed that this design was never to be used for any other purpose.

After receiving a pile of metal pieces, Theresica personally gathered these veterans, numbering in the thousands, within the Sarkaz palace. He met with two groups a day, for several consecutive days, personally awarding each veteran a medal, pinning it to their chests, and solemnly recounting their combat exploits before handing them a written record of their achievements.

These Sarkaz were mostly elderly, but when Theresica approached them with the medals and commendation books, their aged bodies straightened, and their salutes and gazes still hinted at the formidable figures they once were.

Many of the veterans who received medals bit their lips and wept quietly. While the Sarkaz weren't entirely unfamiliar with such a system, it had completely disappeared a century ago. Back then, everyone was solely focused on war, on numbly fighting, with new enemies constantly appearing, an endless tide. Who would have bothered with a group of retired soldiers?

As time passed, they had truly believed that Kazdel had forgotten them. But now... they had been mistaken.

Looking at these veterans who wept over a simple piece of metal, Theresica felt a pang in his own heart. They had endured silently until this day, asking for nothing. If he hadn't proactively initiated these measures, they wouldn't even have this piece of metal.

What simple fools they truly are.

After implementing some improvements for the soldiers, Theresica shifted his attention to the workers engaged in production.

Most of Kazdel's factories had been built in haste, with the primary goal being to get them operational as quickly as possible. Now, Theresica specifically tasked Mel with redesigning the factory layouts, optimizing production, and improving the working environment.

The living quarters for all production workers were also uniformly upgraded, with improvements to lighting, hot water, sanitation, and other essential living facilities.

After doing all this, Theresica suddenly realized he could no longer wander around the plaza in front of the Sarkaz palace. Previously, strolling and spacing out there alone hadn't drawn any attention, but now, whenever he went out, many people would stare at him, their expressions particularly excited.

He... was a bit thin-skinned and unaccustomed to such an environment.

Moreover, the periphery of the palace's uncontrolled office areas was no longer a place he could freely move about, as a certain female Sarkaz seemed to be constantly watching him, like a heat-seeking guidance head with its thermal source locked.

She was a member of the Hedley mercenary group and appeared to have a peculiar obsession with Theresia. Shining had considered directly expelling her, but Theresica, considering she was a former subordinate of his sister during the civil war, allowed her to move freely outside the controlled zone.

This time, however, Theresica directly approached her and asked, "Why are you always staring at me? Is there something on my face?"

She tossed her head and said, "Tch, brat."

Oh, someone in Sarkaz is calling me that?

As it happened to be his free time, Theresica became a little interested. He threatened, "I am the King of Kazdel. Aren't you afraid I'll have the guards arrest you for addressing me like that?"

"King? There is only one King of Kazdel! That is Princess Theresia!"

She pouted, "You're just a kid. If you weren't Princess Theresia's brother, I'd drag you off the throne. That's not a place you should be sitting. Come on, call me 'sister'."

"Sister."

Theresica said with a smile. She suddenly froze, because at that moment, the hilt of a sword with a tree-like pattern was placed against the back of her head.

"Your Majesty?"

Shining, who had gone to retrieve documents for Theresica, returned at that moment and happened to witness this scene.

"It's nothing, just relaxing a bit. Thank you, unknown sister."

Theresica took the documents, waved at her, and turned to enter the office area. Shining remained standing, watching the female Sarkaz who was now crouching on the ground.

"Guard."

The guards, who had been waiting for a long time but hadn't heard their King's call, immediately surrounded her with hostile expressions.

Although they were far away, their hearing was quite good.

W: "Damn it."

Theresica had Shining bring him two documents. One was a file specifically concerning Oripathy.

For Kazdel, common diseases on Terra were no longer as troublesome as they once were. Improvements in living conditions and the development of medical resources made these illnesses seem insignificant. However, Oripathy remained a persistent problem with no progress.

Terra wasn't without treatments to curb Oripathy, but they were prohibitively expensive. To cover the entire population of Kazdel, all financial resources would have to be poured in, and even then, the goal wouldn't be achieved, while others would profit handsomely.

The other document pertained to the cultivation of Yan agricultural crops within Kazdel.

The results were equally frustrating. Kazdel's land simply couldn't support these plants! Wei Yenwu was right.

Will Kazdel forever have to import grain in such large quantities?

It was disheartening. He actually knew how to solve this; the answer was provided in elementary school textbooks on Earth. Develop hybrid crops adapted to the environment, or combine greenhouses with soilless cultivation to completely alter the environment.

But the key issue was that he didn't understand these things. Those textbooks only contained a few sentences, and who understood the technology involved!

I should have studied agricultural science back then.

Theresica scratched his head in frustration. There wasn't a single person in Sarkaz who knew how to cultivate plants.

After much deliberation, Theresica finally decided to travel to Columbia. Many of the current problems could only be solved in that place.

This time, he didn't bring only Shining. He also summoned Warfarin, Salus, Jian, and a contingent of Shapeshifters.

Some things cannot be done, yet they must be done.

After a monotonous period of sailing across the desert, Theresica and his party finally arrived at Trimount, a mobile city in Columbia.

However, there was a slight change in personnel, as Theresica brought Ptilopsis and Mel with him. Both were native Colombians, and with Columbia's New Year festival fast approaching, Ptilopsis and Mel had been working in Kazdel for over a year. It would be inhumane of him not to give them any time off.

Theresica granted them a month of paid leave, along with an additional holiday bonus according to Columbia's customs, and even purchased gifts for their family members.

"Mel, Joyce, I wish you both a pleasant holiday," Theresica said with a smile. "Mel, make sure you keep an eye on Joyce and don't let her fall asleep on the way."

"Okay, boss," Mel replied excitedly. In Kazdel, she had her own workshop with complete equipment, assistants, and ample funding. Although monotonous, it was the place where she pursued her dreams. This, however, was her home, a place to enjoy life.

Ptilopsis mechanically waved her hands at a fixed angle and frequency before Mel dragged her towards the pedestrian street. "Let's go, Joyce! We haven't been to the supermarket in ages. Maybe they have something new we haven't seen before."

"I must remind you, this isn't Kazdel. According to Columbia's Infected Management Act, we..."

As the two women walked away, Ferdinand and Saria approached from the side, having come specifically to greet them.

"Long time no see, Mr. Ferdinand, Ms. Saria," Theresica waved at them.

"It's really great that you're okay. We couldn't reach you, and if you hadn't sent a letter earlier, we wouldn't have known what to do," Ferdinand said, looking relieved. Saria nodded in agreement. "Yes, we heard there was a sudden disaster in Kazdel, and then you were fighting with Kazimierz. We were all very worried."

"It's fine, I value my life," Theresica replied with a smile, introducing the two to his companion. "This is my consultant for this trip, Warfarin."