The Shawen Autonomous Region was a nostalgic name. That was where everything had begun.
Eight years ago, when I first returned to the Donglan Principality, the entire Northlands was hostile towards me and the Mist Kingdom. The only Northlands that had a somewhat friendly relationship with me was the Shawen Autonomous Region, which had many mixed-blood descendants and descendants of the People of the Mist.
In Shawen, Donglan reappeared on the stage of history and formed an alliance with the barbarians and autonomous region's domain lords, beginning the revival of the People of the Mist.
A tremendous amount of ore was transported from the barbarian tribes' mountains. A large amount of money for food imports came from Shawen. More than 40% of the ore and magical gems required for magical machinery were produced here. The very first Northlands survival chain was established here.
Shawen was the only warm valley in the entire Northlands. Although it was too small and couldn't produce enough food for an entire country, Amelia and I conducted countless experiments there. Finally, the breeding of cold-resistant crops was completed there, and the entire Northlands had hope of becoming self-sufficient in food.
Many mixed-blood descendants of various species lived together there. Shawen had once been looked down upon by all the other countries. As the entire Northlands became part of the Mist Alliance, as the Donglan Principality's strongest ally, Shawen's status also rose. Due to Shawen's unique geographical advantage, Shawen became one of the wealthiest regions in the Northlands.
The People of the Mist hadn't forgotten about Shawen's closest ally when they were poor. Many policies and benefits were given to Shawen's small territory. Just a portion of the mining industry would be enough to feed all the residents of the Shawen Autonomous Region. As cold-resistant plants spread, it would be too much of a waste to use the valley in the middle of the mountains as one of the few warm regions in the Northlands. Now, Shawen had become the most famous tourist and health resort in the Northlands.
Yep, only the heavens would know if a certain person had suggested this.
Every winter, a grand ceremony would be held here for the Day of Reconciliation. All the royalty and major nobles of the Northlands would bring their families to participate … to spend the winter here. Yep, the ceremony was nominally to celebrate the reconciliation between the Northlands countries and the establishment of the Mist Alliance. However, the ceremony actually consisted of hunting, singing, dancing, and hot springs. The serious festivities usually lasted less than ten minutes, followed by all sorts of cultural performances and entertainment.
And as the entire Northlands entered a peaceful era, every winter in Sharal wasn't just a holiday for the royal family and the major nobles. It was also an activity to strengthen friendship and alliances. As time passed, the various countries actually had an unspoken rule of conducting diplomacy and business negotiations in Sharal.
"… First dispel the other party's hostility at the wine table, then deepen their feelings in the hot spring, and then reveal their trump cards at the negotiation table. This is quite a familiar strategy."
The Sharal Autonomous Region was home to many species and mixed-bloods to begin with. Sharal truly had an advantage when it came to tourism. Not only did the shops in the tourist area sell elven handicrafts, beastman totems, special beast bone products, dwarven sculptures, small swords, and so on. Everything that one could possibly imagine could be found here. Even first-timers would only buy imported goods. However, those who were familiar with the Sharal Autonomous Region would know that these were all locally produced goods.
It was also quite common to see mixed-blood elves' songs and dances, beastmen's war dances, and so on. Sharal's culture was also quite diverse. Although it wasn't as authentic as the original, the mixed-blood performers made the audience feel much more at ease. As for what romantic things happened afterwards … well, this wasn't the Sinless City, so Wumianzhe wouldn't be able to do anything about it. These gray industries, which weren't convenient to talk about, also became a selling point of this tourist city.
In the past, the closer it was to winter, the livelier this place would be. After the new year, the most comfortable and warm holiday villas would only be reserved for the royalty of the various countries. But this year, the number of tourists had decreased by a third.
The reason? The Holy War had begun. The royalty and leaders of the various countries were incredibly busy. They had to deal with the various countries' internal wars, their own preparations for war, and food supplies. In the first year of the Holy War, stability was the most important thing. A holiday? Perhaps they should wait until next year.
Would there be too few tourists if the royalty didn't come? Actually, with so many tourists every winter, how many of them were actually here for vacation? Perhaps the royalty's descendants were only here to relax (which was highly unlikely). However, the nobles were here on a mission to establish a good relationship with the royalty and other powerful nobles and negotiate with them. Even the wealthy merchants weren't able to establish a good relationship with the royalty, so that their children could enter the upper echelons of society.
Of course, it was also because of the establishment of the Mist Alliance that the royalty and nobles of the various countries were able to sit together and peacefully establish a good relationship with each other. In the past, when the royalty and nobles were really together, they would have long since fought against each other due to old and new grudges.
It was also because of the establishment of the Mist Alliance that the various countries' politicians needed a neutral location to establish a good relationship with each other and do business. This indirectly helped the Sharal Autonomous Region to rapidly prosper. Of course, this was also related to the Mist Kingdom's royalty taking the lead. As for whether or not a certain person was behind all of this … Every year, the Sharal Autonomous Region would give a certain person a super red packet as thanks. Unfortunately, the red packet would always be "kept" by the Donglan royalty's Chief Steward Kelly, just like how an elementary school student would have their New Year's money kept by their parents …
This year's situation was rather special. The royalty and nobles of the various countries didn't have the time to waste on idle chatter. The end result was that the top of the Northlands' pyramid didn't come, and a large portion of the Northlands' pyramid was missing as well. Many "tourists" who didn't know the truth were regretting coming here for nothing.
This year, the royalty had only sent about a quarter of the previous year's royalty, while only half of the nobles had come. This meant that the villas and hot springs were mostly empty. This gave Sharal's Domain Lord a huge headache as he had spent so much effort organizing this event. He was probably going to suffer a loss this time.
But soon, he wouldn't have to worry about making ends meet this year, because he needed to first think of a way to survive …
"… There's still no news from our reinforcements? Has there been any response to our request for reinforcements? "
The Sharal Autonomous Region, which had been peaceful for so long, was actually being threatened. Not only that, it was a group of wild beasts that came out of nowhere. This was something that Sharal's Domain Lord Kakagar couldn't understand.
Over the past eight years, Kakagar's already fat body had become even fatter due to his increasingly wealthy lifestyle and Anton's environment. Back then, people had secretly called him the Frog Prince Kakagar, but now, people were calling him the Hippo King Kakagar behind his back.
"… Damn it, where did our guards go? Where's our Sharal's barbarian elf archers and beastman berserkers? It's time for them to show off their skills, but they're nowhere to be seen. Haven't they finished gathering yet? "
"My apologies, Milord. More than 70% of their warriors have been professional actors and dancers for several years now. Many of them refused our forceful summons. Even those who did respond to our summons need time to find their own weapons and equipment …"
"Ridiculous! Our warriors have become clowns! This is a serious case of corruption! I'm going to have a good discussion with my general. Just which bastard dared to do such a foolish thing!? "
"…"
The government official who had given the order remained silent. However, Kakagar didn't dare to make decisions on such a major matter. He still remembered that it was this "Hippo King" who had pressured the military to make this decision.
Kakagar calmed down quite a bit after venting his anger on Kakagar. He wanted to make up for the foolish things he had done back then. Back then, he had thought that the Mist Alliance's rise would be complete, and he would go on a tourist route. With the two major Mist Kingdoms acting as his shield, the possibility of a civil war in the Northlands would be nearly zero. Rather than maintaining useless soldiers, it would be better to make more actors and actresses to earn gold coins.
The other countries' combat strength was several times greater than eight years ago. The Sharal Autonomous Region's financial income was one hundred times greater than eight years ago, but its combat strength was less than one fifth of what it had been eight years ago.
Not only were the nobles and domain lords in a hurry to make money, even the warriors under them were busy making money. The military was living off of their salaries, and the warriors had become merchants and actors. What combat strength would such an army have?
From a certain standpoint, the fact that there were no external threats or wars was the poison that would cause a country's defense to collapse.
Kakagar was quite anxious as beasts kept roaring outside. Now wasn't the time to blame others. If he didn't think of something soon, he wouldn't have anything else to spend his money on.
Kakagar's round eyes kept spinning as he stared blankly at the villa area under the high walls. Although he had been famous for his intelligence in the past, he really did come up with a solution at this moment, even if it was a solution that would cause endless trouble.
"Tell those foreign nobles that we're no longer able to protect them. Have their bodyguards and mercenaries join the battle."
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