Erwin solemnly opened the package. Inside was a handful of soil.
He had personally dug it from the Northern Territory that morning. The sky was still bright, yet he had already arrived at Blood Port.
In the past, traveling from Blood Port to the Northern Territory took a full half month. Even mysterious transcendent beings found it difficult to arrive in less than a week.
But now, that time had been reduced to just a few hours.
Natives like Erwin were one thing, but the prince, standing nearby to witness the ceremony, was already deeply stirred.
"Only one day is needed to travel from here to the Northern Territory. Then if a railway were laid from here to Rhine, how long would that take?"
He murmured to himself, then suddenly tilted his head slightly, as though listening to a voice carried through the air.
After a while, he smiled.
Galahad stood to one side, gazing at everything before him with a face full of emotion.
To be honest, he had not really agreed with the prince's approach at first.
An alliance with Castel would not only mean losing control over Blood Port, but also offending their northern allies—Castel might have greater potential, but its population was still small. It was not even in the same league as the Northern Territory or the Empire.
And the threat posed by the Empire was very real. The Duchy of Tis had no shortage of internal troubles as well. It could be said that the prince had taken an enormous risk by allying with Castel.
Yet the developments of the past half year had utterly shattered his views.
Castel's population was indeed small, but its efficiency was downright terrifying. The steel that Blood Port needed tens of thousands of people to produce could be