A Person on Terra, With No Books to Read

Cumberland, the only one who currently seems loyal, has had part of his forces sent to the Leithanien border, and another part is heading to Leithanien, which is a Victorian colony and the source of most of the country's Originium. The last remaining portion is fully engaged in maintaining order within his territory, though for some unknown reason, the duke's territory experiences extremely severe public order conflicts.

As one side grows and the other wanes, the Emperor's power within the country can no longer suppress the dukes.

"Leithanien has had thoughts of independence for a long time."

Salus noticed Theresica picking up intelligence on Leithanien and said, "Victoria's rapid industrial development is inseparable from Leithanien's Originium. Their Originium is requisitioned at almost zero cost, while the local area sees no development. When I was studying in this country, Leithanien didn't dare to make any moves. In this current situation... the colonial feudal lords might have colluded with the locals."

"A new tax has been added to the price of goods flowing from Leithanien to Victoria proper. The colonial nobles are challenging the Lion King by reducing Originium output."

Theresica put down the newspaper. The nobles within Victoria each had their own ideas, national sentiments were reviving in the lands they had previously annexed, and the colonies harbored rebellious intentions. This state of disunity would sooner or later tear Victoria apart.

The Lion King increasing taxes and military spending at this time might have been an attempt to smooth over all problems with strong military power, but unfortunately, it was too late.

Victoria was once one of the countries that joined multiple nations in attacking Kazdel. A powerful old enemy trapped in internal strife was beneficial and harmless to Kazdel, but Theresica dared not make deals with these dukes. As long as these people maintained Victoria's traditional stance, they would not allow Sarkaz to become powerful once the situation stabilized.

Originally, he had considered Leithanien, which was far from Victoria proper, and Sarkaz had never bothered the Castes there. However, upon learning that it was a massive mining area, he could only reluctantly give up.

What industrial progress could a mine bring to Kazdel besides raw materials?

That left only the Talas people as potential partners. They seemed to have their own independent armed force – the Deepcolor. They possessed the ability to produce some armaments themselves, which meant they must have a certain number of machine tools, or at least be able to acquire them.

Kazdel lacked machine tools, and the Talas people lacked Originium. Both sides had a basis for trade. However, he did not want to cooperate with these people because they had already started causing trouble. Their Ghost troops were collecting military-grade pure Originium all over Victoria, causing many deaths, and their actions were reported in various newspapers. Although they hadn't been caught red-handed yet, it was ultimately unsafe. Such small groups, if they got into trouble, could easily betray Sarkaz.

Then Sarkaz would become the Lion King's tool for diverting conflict, a supply package to prolong their existence!

Those dukes would also actively attack Sarkaz, destroying their clandestine activities that could not be exposed!

"You seem troubled. Perhaps I can offer you a solution. The Absolvers are currently experimenting with a new Originium Art, one that can strip a person's soul and obtain their memories."

Salus suddenly sat beside him, pressing her entire body against him, her face with a faint smile leaning in extremely close.

"Tell me which factory's workers you need. I'll go kill them, then extract their souls, and you can easily obtain what you desire."

"Your leader hasn't mentioned this. It should be an immature technology. Wouldn't it be a significant loss if it failed?"

Theresica leaned back slightly. Frankly, the touch of her hand was very soft, but her smile was truly chilling.

"The possibility you mentioned does exist. It seems you don't agree with my plan. What a pity."

Salus sighed in disappointment and sat back in her original position. Just then, the wooden door was pushed open, and Shining walked in.

"The transaction is complete. Please review the transaction record."

The small slips of paper recorded the Originium grades and quantities given out that night, as well as their earnings for the day.

"It went smoothly. Let's call it a night. Get some rest early."

Theresica nodded with satisfaction and waved, signaling the two Absolvers to leave. Although he said to rest, he couldn't sleep.

He needed to make a decision: continue with the current extremely inefficient but safe method of building Kazdel's industrial base, or take a risk and try with the unstable Talas people. If lucky, they could quickly establish Sarkaz's industry; if unlucky, it would be a complete disaster.

Theresica paced back and forth in the room. This was a decision fraught with danger.

Bang bang bang

The room door was suddenly knocked gently. He opened the door to find Shining standing there. She asked calmly, "You haven't slept. Are you not used to the accommodation here? We have to head to the next transaction location tomorrow, and insufficient rest will not benefit you. I can coax you to sleep like I used to."

"..."

Theresica frowned. Regardless of anything else, he was already 18 years old! Why was he always treated like a Sarkaz baby?!

This is so annoying!

...So good.

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Chapter 14: The Talas People

The bedding was filled with Shining's scent, and the space beside him held residual warmth but was now empty. Theresica opened his eyes. She had already dressed and stood quietly beside him.

"You should get up. We've almost finished replenishing our supplies. We have an hour until departure."

"Mm, I know."

He hurried to get ready. To avoid leaving any traces, they would have to venture back into the wilderness today, taking a detour to the next ducal territory.

Sticking to Victoria's entire eastern border, Theresica actively toured Victoria's towns while learning about the transaction process from the Shapeshifter.

Originium Cataclysms were both an aid and a shackle to Terra's development. They brought Originium veins to the land, but also destroyed all man-made structures within their influence. To escape the Cataclysms, the nations of Terra built mobile cities, obtaining zones of eternal safety at a high cost.

Victoria was located on the central plains of Terra, which had hardly ever been visited by Cataclysms. Originally, this country had no Originium mines and could only develop agriculture through land resources. However, after colonizing Leithanien, the country's shortcomings were addressed, and the factors that had previously restricted Victoria's industrial development instead became its immense advantage.

It had neither to worry about agricultural resources nor industrial resources!

Victoria began to develop rapidly. It did not have to worry about Cataclysms and did not need to divert vast resources to evacuation facilities. Therefore, it built railways connecting various permanent settlements, and the circulation of goods throughout the country was extremely smooth. This led to balanced and rapid development across Victoria, stable and rapid population growth, and at the same time, it fed back into all parts of the country with the assistance of a well-established social mechanism.

Accumulated over time, Victoria and Kazdel were already on completely different paths.

No, that cautious approach wouldn't work! The gap between Kazdel and other countries was too vast!

After days of deliberation and thought, Theresica decided to abandon his original approach and try to expand trade with the Talas people.

The people of Terra want to stir things up; chaos would benefit them. If Victoria were to stabilize, they might not have room to maneuver, and thus, they wouldn't necessarily betray the Sarkaz.

Everyone wants to fish in troubled waters in Victoria!

On the transport ship, he gathered everyone and announced his decision.

"Shapeshifter, I want to participate in tonight's transaction with the people of Terra."

He didn't know much about transactions, so he had always avoided interfering, but now the situation was different.

"You want to cooperate with the people of Terra? Then... the personnel deployment for tonight will need to be adjusted."

Shapeshifter pondered for a moment. "I'll send a messenger right away to say that an emissary from the Royal Court wishes to improve the cooperation contract, is that alright?"

"Yes, go ahead and do that."

Theresica felt his heart racing; he had just taken a dangerous step.

The final stop of the transaction arrived. Theresica and his group of four came to Casterly County. Before they could even head to the immigration office, someone approached them.

He performed a standard Victorian noble bow. "I have been waiting for you for a long time. We have already arranged some minor procedural matters, and the leader has arranged a banquet, hoping to reach a win-win agreement with you."

"Is that so? I hope so too."

With a polite smile, Theresica and his companions followed the guide.

The group walked openly on the street, encountering no one to question them, nor anyone to check if they had Oripathy. They easily entered a very well-decorated restaurant.

In a private room, Theresica saw a young girl wearing a Victorian high school uniform standing naturally beside the main seat.

"Hello, esteemed emissary of the Royal Court."

"Hello, Deepcolor..."

Both sides took their seats, but at this moment, the girl suddenly gestured for them to stop. "Please forgive my servant's lack of consideration. I am merely a leader of Deepcolor, and calling myself 'leader' is truly presumptuous. You can just call me Ahemoni."

"Alright, Madam Ahemoni."

Theresica corrected himself. "I've seen a lot on the way here. Please allow me to express my admiration."

"It is my honor. The people of Terra have long been tired of Victoria's oppression. All of this is due to the strength displayed by our leader from behind the scenes."

Ahemoni said with a smile, raising her cup in a toast.

"Indeed, you are very strong. Therefore, the Royal Court has decided to adjust the terms of our transaction accordingly."

"Please, go ahead," Ahemoni gestured.

"The Sarkaz will continue to export military-grade pure Originium to Deepcolor. If you need more, we can increase the quantity. However, we don't want gold coins; we want machine tools."

Ahemoni pondered for a moment before speaking, "What kind of machine tools?"

"Lathes, boring machines, milling machines, planers, grinders, drills – we want all kinds of Victorian military machine tools. The Sarkaz can afford it, and we can settle the payment entirely with refined Originium ingots with a purity of over 95%. Under standard Originium detection machines, it will have no energy reaction, and you can even bring it into the city easily."

Theresica acted like a nouveau riche, while Ahemoni's expression was somewhat blank. She hadn't expected the Sarkaz to place such a large order.

"I apologize, but these items are not cheap, just a bit of Originium."

"Is that so? Then our transaction ends here."

Theresica immediately stood up, and Shining and Salus followed suit. The group appeared ready to leave.

"Please wait!" Ahemoni quickly called out. "Even if you go elsewhere, you won't be able to buy military machine tools."

"No, merchants are not like you; they have no principles. As long as you can afford the price, you can buy anything, it will just be more expensive."

Theresica smiled indifferently, which caused Ahemoni's expression to change drastically.

"Yes, merchants only recognize money. You are correct."

She spoke rapidly, "But to make money, they often use deceptive methods to package their products. It's highly likely they'll sell you obsolete military production lines as new ones."

"Oh?"

Theresica sat back down, seemingly regaining interest in Deepcolor, but in reality, he breathed a sigh of relief. It would have been troublesome if no one had stopped him.

Seeing that they had returned, Ahemoni also breathed a sigh of relief. A smile returned to her face as she said, "We don't have military machine tools, but we do have civilian machine tools. We can sell you the latest generation of civilian machine tools, and the equipment is brand new."

"Many things can actually be processed with civilian machine tools. The weapons and equipment used by our Deepcolor people are processed by these machine tools. Your guards are here, why not inspect the product quality?"

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Chapter 15: Misinformation

With everyone's agreement, Ahemoni signaled her servant, who immediately went out and soon returned with a pile of items.

A dummy, clad in full heavy-duty armor, holding a thick shield in its hand, and a crossbow besides.

"These are some items that Deepcolor is about to mass-produce. Emissary, you can try them out."

She smiled and gestured to Shining and the others. "You can have your guards try them... Don't hesitate, I trust our collaborators."

"Thank you very much."

Theresica nodded with a smile, and Shining immediately moved. With a slight scraping sound, the blade in her hand was drawn.

[Clang—]

The dummy clad in heavy armor, along with the shield in its hands, snapped in two and fell to the ground with two heavy thuds.

"Defensive strength... it's barely adequate, there's quite a gap compared to Victoria's heavy infantry."

Salus smiled faintly as she picked up the crossbow. She pulled the string directly with her hands, and as the tension increased, the string and the bow arm snapped.

"Huh, the strength is just average."

Ahemoni's eyes widened, and the relaxed, natural expression on her face became somewhat strained.

"The performance of equipment isn't just about the machine tools themselves, but also many other factors like the materials provided. Recently, we've been lacking various mineral resources from Leithanien, and many things have been affected..."

"Ah, I've also been informed about this matter. Madam Ahemoni is correct. I've decided to trust Deepcolor this once, as the beginning of our friendly cooperation."

Theresica wrote a number on a piece of paper. "This is what we have. How many can you provide, Lord Ahemoni?"

"100 units of each type of machine tool, brand new. In batches of 10 units, please arrange for your own transportation, Agent."

"100 is too few. 200 units of each type of machine tool. The price of Originium within Victoria has increased severalfold recently."

"120 units. Too many will disrupt Deepcolor's production rhythm."

"150 units. This is the bottom line. The journey back for us is long, and some losses are inevitable."

Silence fell in the private room for a moment, then Ahemoni extended her hand.

"Deal. We need to make preparations, and the trade will begin tomorrow."

"Deal. I wish us a pleasant cooperation."

Theresica lightly clasped Ahemoni's hand.

After a bout of tedious business pleasantries, Ahemoni looked at the private room where she was now alone. She took out a communicator from under the table.