Strolling through Diffindor's streets, enjoying the summer sun, and watching the busy crowd work — this was a joyous day no matter how I looked at it.
Those foolish tin cans still wanted to find me? All I had to do was slightly change the age of my ring, put on tattered leather armor, and equip myself with a black iron sword, and I would appear as a middle-aged mercenary in dire straits. You guys could take your time searching for the missing little prince.
"What? You're still unhappy? Is it so depressing to not even finish watching the Asiluo Opera Troupe's performance? "
The only thing that made me unhappy was that my companions beside me had bitter expressions, as if they owed me money.
"… The Asiluo Opera Troupe is a famous traveling troupe. Their main star, Elias, is skilled in singing seventeen different classical styles. In the entire world, there are no more than three active singers who can sing the highest key of a heroic ensemble. She's the only one who can possibly sing. Do you know how much I looked forward to hearing her perform?"
Heloise, who had regained her life, seemed to be enjoying life more and more. Not only did she enjoy delicious food, even her natural pursuit of art as an elf had recently been revived.
"To be honest, you should be thanking me. You know why I dragged you away, right? Do you know who the guest who volunteered to sing on stage was?"
"Wasn't it Gria? I recognized her back when she was still alive. Immemorial dragons like her all love to use High Elf forms. After all, humans back then were no different from ants. "
High Elves? I nodded as I recalled Heloise's short-lived adult form. I didn't really understand the difference between High Elves and ordinary elves, but it was true that High Elves were all quite tall, and they were all especially good at putting on airs.
"I feel like you're badmouthing me."
"Heh heh, that's just a misconception."
"Right, Heloise. Do you know her nickname?"
"Isn't it just 'Death's Throat,' which describes how powerful a dragon's breath is?"
"No, that's because you don't know. If you were still listening to her singing in the theater, you would probably know. Poor children. I hope they won't be traumatized. "
"You're saying … that her singing is even worse than yours? That she's even worse than you, the number one singer in Snow Mountain? "
"… If my singing is only at the level of a fireball, hers would be at the level of a forbidden spell. Although this metaphor is terrible, it at least explains part of the truth. "
The paramedics who ran past me in a hurry undoubtedly confirmed my words.
But right now, even though I said such humble words, my heart was bleeding. I knew that this silly cat wouldn't let go of my pain.
Hmph, just wait for all your lollipops to be replaced with the flavor of pickled cabbage. The people of Alistair really know how to eat. They actually treat that kind of thing as a supreme delicacy. With just one bite, the System actually gave me the God of Food Achievement.
But the strange thing was that even though I could barely eat it, even though I had eaten so much of it, it still only counted as one type. The System was far too stingy.
[System: No matter if it's pickled cabbage lollipops, pickled carrot-flavored sesame cakes, pickled fish hamburgers, or even pickled dragon meat, they all have a common name — kimchi. No matter what you say, even if you use kimchi to make a hundred dishes for a state banquet, even if you think of a thousand ways to make kimchi, it won't be kimchi. Can you not learn from Country X and call me stingy? Do you dare to ask yourself if there's really a big difference in the taste of kimchi when you eat it?]
Alright then, I really did think about it for more than ten seconds, but I really couldn't find anything to argue against. After all, I wasn't an Alistair citizen who came from the mountains, so it was impossible for me to taste the minute differences between a hundred types of kimchi.
"Hey, shouldn't you be telling the truth now? You've been shaking me for so long already, so why are you still trying to fool me?"
"… I just don't want you to be troubled. You can tell?"
"Did you forget that I used to be in charge of intelligence back in Xiluo? Do you really think you can fool me with such a small trick? Weren't you the one who notified Gria to come and mess things up? I'm no newbie. Of course I knew that it wouldn't be strange at all for more than half of the members of a traveling opera troupe or circus to be spies. A High Silver Elf actually became a songstress? Do you really think everyone else is an idiot? Those elves are definitely spies from the Southern Kingdom of the Elves. "
Actually, I had forgotten that banshees were undead creatures with the ability to take control of others, so they were basically the best at gathering intelligence. As the Queen of Banshees, Heloise had always been the most powerful intelligence agent in Xiluo.
"Hmm, the ace singer Elias? Heh heh, she should be the Silver Elf Countess Lia. However, they haven't done anything yet. They won't be able to do anything with the 'Guiltless City's' barrier, but it's also impossible to ignore them. Although I can't imprison them since they haven't committed any crimes, and I don't want to offend the elves so obviously, it's quite easy for me to make them unable to eat for several dozen days and have a splitting headache. "
Upon hearing this, Heloise nodded thoughtfully, but then she stuck out her tongue as if she was still afraid.
"Is Gria really that amazing? It can't just be a rumor, right? "
"She's not just amazing, she's vicious. You can imagine it. Just listening to her made my bones resonate for three days and three nights. That demonic sound invaded my brain, causing me to lose all sense of the outside world. She was actually able to give an Undead Emperor a headache for three days and three nights. All the low-level undead who heard her immediately returned to the Cycle of Reincarnation. Just saying that she's amazing is enough. She's basically a large-scale weapon of mass destruction. "
But the strange thing was that even though I was complaining, Heloise was laughing more and more happily as she listened to me. In the end, this silly loli even transformed into her cat form and began rolling around while clutching her stomach.
"Wah, so, so, so … it's not that Your Majesty wanted to listen to my song. So in Your Majesty's heart, wahhh, I'm just a large-scale weapon of mass destruction. Wahhh, so that's how everyone sees me. "
Alright then, even if I didn't turn around, I knew that I had been tricked once again.
When I turned around, as expected, I saw Gria running around in tears. As expected of the Bone Dragon Queen, even the way she ran around in tears was so unique. Every step she took left a hole in the ground, and her tears were actually corroding the ground.
And then, the silly cat stepped on my shoulder, and she settled down on my head. The way she swept her tail around my nose doubtlessly meant that she was in a good mood, or perhaps she was taking pleasure in my misfortune.
"According to those classic love stories, misunderstandings are an excellent opportunity to improve the relationship. As long as the female lead runs around in tears, a series of accidents will occur, such as leukemia, being hit by a car, suddenly losing her memories, recalling her lost memories, and so on. Then, a series of melodramatic misunderstandings will occur, and the two of them will be tortured to the point of death. If you want to redeem yourself, hurry up and chase after her. "
"… It's said that those things all originated from Aris. You've seen those visitors from the Kimchi Country, right? You should watch less of them. It's said that watching too much will even cause you to lose intelligence."
Chase after her? Actually, I wanted to tell her that long ago, but I couldn't bring myself to do so when I saw her excited expression. Now was perfect, as I could save on the extra expense of having to pay for her annual concert. It would be more worth it to use the cannon fodder undead that she had prepared for her annual concert as laborers. Right, the price of zombie laborers and skeleton laborers in the city had been increasing recently. Should I change my job class to become an undead mage and earn some money?
While I was daydreaming, the silly cat spoke up as if she had realized something.
"The most important thing about information is its authenticity, and the most reliable information isn't something that a noob can gather. It's better to personally gather information. In that case, you've been gathering information about Diffindor for the past few days."
"… I'm just slacking off. Donglan's intelligence department is still too inexperienced. They have so many useful and useless people. That mountainous pile of reports is basically the same as not reading them at all. I might as well do it myself."
"When you went to buy food, you were also looking at the prices and types of food? Were you looking at the food market? "
"Yep. The types of snacks, non-staple foods, and alcohol in a region are directly related to the local residents' surplus food, as well as their confidence in the future. If they don't even have confidence in being able to fill their stomachs next year, where would they find enough food to brew alcohol and sell non-staple foods? At the very least, it seems that the food market is quite abundant, and the situation is quite good."
Heloise also nodded slightly. Actually, her conclusion was exactly the same as mine.
"I specifically went to the Blacksmith District and visited hundreds of Blacksmith Shops. Even if it's just to forge a Black Iron Sword that costs 5 gold coins, I even went to the Secondary Goods Market and Equipment Shop, just to buy a poor leather armor? You were looking at the smithy industry's level and the combat resources? What was the result? "
Upon hearing this, I shook my head. Donglan's industrial foundation was far too weak. This definitely wouldn't be something that could be accomplished in a single day.
"It's terrible. Most smithy shops can only forge low-quality farming tools. Their weapon and equipment forging technology is still stuck at the level of three hundred years ago. I searched the entire smithy district, but I only found one Silver-ranked blacksmith. Even if they have new technology, with their current foundation, they won't be able to use it without a sufficiently skilled master personally teaching them. But we don't have more than ten years to prepare."
My investigation had already proved my previous expectations. Due to the arrival of some master engineers from Sulfur Mountain City, as well as Olive and the others' research team, Diffindor's engineering and alchemy were probably at the forefront of the world. Also, with the addition of elves, Diffindor's enchantment technology wouldn't fall behind. However, Diffindor's shortcomings were even more obvious.
Engineering products and excellent weapons and equipment all required industrial products as a foundation. Without the smithy's hard work, even a mechanical titan's blueprint would be nothing more than scrap paper. Without a top-notch sword body, no matter how good the enchantment technology was, it wouldn't be able to create a famous sword.
Although the gray elves had many elven smiths, and their technology far surpassed that of human smiths, I had never had any expectations from the very start when I considered the famous "elven chain mail" incident and the elven smiths' leisurely attitude of being able to carve a bow into a work of art.
If our smiths also learned the elven smiths' work attitude and production rate of one sword every three years, we would be completely finished.
From start to finish, I still preferred the dwarven equipment style. It was simple, sturdy, effective, and had no useless decorations. It was also highly suitable for mass production.
"How about we go to the Underground World and find some gray dwarf smiths? But those bearded men aren't easy to deal with. We won't be able to keep them if we don't have rich mines. We'll have to first go to the barbarians' territory to get some mines. Right, we can also ask Sleuweir to bring some smiths over. At the very least, they'll be able to teach those blockheads how to make things other than farming tools. "
Heloise nodded and didn't say anything else. In this era of cold weapons, smiths would forever be one of the most important strategic resources of any country. Their skill level and number would directly determine the frontline warriors' weapons and armor. Every country treated smiths like treasures. This was a truly difficult problem to solve.
"If it's Xiluo, it'll be simple … Forget it, pretend I didn't say anything."
I didn't need to say anything else. I naturally knew how Xiluo was doing things. Xiluo had only been established for a little more than a hundred years, and their technology was quite poor. However, the undead country had their own solutions. Apart from having a group of human slaves as coolies, they also had a completely different level of technology compared to the undead country.
"Cursed swords and undead armor made from bones? I don't want to become the public enemy of all humans. Besides, won't a living person become a dead person if they hold those things for too long? "
"How's the combat resources situation? It seems that you're quite satisfied with your leather armor? "
"It's just as pitiful. All the low-level equipment shops have low-quality equipment, and half of the mid-level and above equipment are fake. There's no high-level equipment shops at all. I'll have to reorganize this area after I return. "
In my eyes, this problem seemed difficult, but it was actually quite easy to solve. All I needed to do was strengthen trade with other countries. As long as I could sell my goods for a good price, merchant caravans would naturally come and go. Once the Mist Alliance countries signed the tax exemption clause, it was easy to foresee that a large amount of goods would flow into the Mist Alliance, creating an astonishing amount of wealth.
However, this would only be a temporary solution. What I bought wouldn't be reliable, nor would I be able to buy truly top-level equipment. If I couldn't make my own equipment, no matter how many times I bought it, I would always be under the control of others.
And so, I secretly made a goal.
"The royal family will buy all the magical beast materials we obtain from the winter hunt. Even if we lose money, we need to raise our own master smiths."
However, the royal family wasn't rich either. In the end, it would still depend on whether or not this arms trade would succeed. Since it was impossible to solve this problem right now, I could only toss it aside.
We also arrived at our last stop for the day, the floating dock where the Borealis was anchored.
Right now, "Envy" wasn't alone. A pitch-black airship was anchored next to it. Countless undead were busily working around it, reinforcing the ship's hull and laying down the deck.
That's right, they were undead, not smiths. Although they were indeed undead mages and shadow worshippers that most people viewed as enemies, they were currently the most diligent smiths around.
This was a ghost airship that was currently under construction. Its hull and keel were real dragon bones. The pitch-black sails were filled with evil secret spells. Evil winds swirled around the ship, and Marsolit's report echoed in my ears.
"The construction of the Dragonbone airship is progressing smoothly. The First Fleet's second airship will be completed on schedule. The Longtu Project will begin as planned."
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