The goddesses attempted to gain my salvation.

Do not......

------

The next day.

Antovia handed a map to Yvette.

"This is a map of the Itami town cluster. The places you need to be careful of along the way are marked. Also, the Itami town cluster is very close to Magadan City, and there are enemy spies everywhere there."

"When you go, remember to conceal your true identity. Under no circumstances should anyone know that you came from Irkutsk. Otherwise, other members of the Seven Stars will try to stop you."

"Don't expect anyone to help you when the time comes."

Yvette snorted, snatched the map, and mounted her horse.

"You don't need to teach me!"

"Antovia, you better keep your word. If that thing in your chest explodes in a few days..."

"Before I die, I will cast a curse upon you."

"Don't underestimate a dark mage's last stand!"

Antovia naturally didn't take Yvette's threat seriously.

Dark-attribute mages are indeed skilled in some strange and unusual spells. However, the number of dark-attribute mages who have died at her hands is approaching three digits.

If Yvette really dared to lay a hand on her, she wouldn't mind adding another tenth to that number.

"My magic is highly accurate."

"One week later, at dawn, when the first rays of sunlight shine on the earth, the stone egg will explode."

"Until then, it won't make you feel anything unusual. Moreover, even the most skilled magician wouldn't be able to detect it until it touches your body."

"You can go without worry."

Yvette touched her chest, feeling her heart pounding, and the time bomb beside it, then glared fiercely at Antovia.

Then, he left without looking back.

All that remained was a long trail of dust left by the horses' hooves paving the ground.

------

The staple food has been safely delivered to Irkutsk, and Maggie's mission is now complete.

Tracy wanted to keep her for a few more days and show her around his main city, but Maggie politely declined.

She still needs to return to the duchy to prepare for the second grain shipment.

During their journey to the Auguston Empire, Maggie was ambushed by the enemy in the Snowwind Valley. Through this battle, Maggie gained considerable practical experience and realized how naive she had been before.

It seems I still have a long way to go before I become an excellent general.

Once she returns to the duchy, she needs to digest this information properly so that she won't be so passive next time she transports grain.

Seeing that Maggie refused so readily, Tracy had no choice but to give up.

After seeing Maggie off, they began distributing the food and working on the next phase of the project.

There are a total of six towns within the Irkutsk region.

When food prices soared, Tracy implemented a series of preventative measures, including making public the city-state's staple food procurement plan and the subsequent distribution of staple food.

Thanks to these decisions, the price of grain in Irkutsk remained dynamically stable. Naturally, it became one of only two city-states in the Auguston Empire where grain prices did not rise significantly.

In order to obtain affordable staple food and to escape famine, a portion of the empire's population traveled thousands of miles to Irkutsk, inadvertently adding a significant amount of labor to this border city-state.

Now that the staple food has been delivered to the main city, it's time to fulfill our initial promise.

Antovia had something to do in the morning and didn't arrive at the council hall immediately. But that's alright, Tracy can preside over it all by herself.

The lords of the six towns, along with their guards, arrived at the council hall on time.

The next step is to announce the allocation of the first batch of staple food that each town can receive.

To stimulate production, Tracy introduced a series of related policies. One of them was that each region would receive a corresponding amount of staple grain based on the production capacity of its main pillar industries and its contribution to the entire Irkutsk region.

The introduction of this system has, to some extent, stimulated industrial upgrading and capacity growth.

However, this led to a situation where towns, in order to obtain more staple food quotas, began to smelt large quantities of low-quality steel and weapons.

This behavior not only fails to contribute to the city-state, but also wastes already scarce resources.

It's important to understand that Irkutsk is unlike any other place. It's remote and resource-poor, and any waste could trigger a domino effect of collapse across the entire city-state.

Tracy intended to use this meeting to give those who had harbored wicked intentions a good warning.

This can also be seen as establishing the authority of a qualified leader in front of subordinates.

The council hall in Irkutsk has very limited space, with a bonfire in the center and seven chairs arranged in a circle around it.

Soon, all attendees were seated.

Wearing a deep purple, floor-length woolen robe and a sword at his waist, Tracy walked slowly to the front and sat down on a comfortable chair.

After instructing her subordinates to distribute hand warmers and low-alcohol rye to each attendee, she cleared her throat and revealed her signature gentle smile.

"Gentlemen, as previously agreed, once the first batch of staple grains from the Principality of Ferrante arrives in Irkutsk, the staple grain quotas will be distributed."

"The reason I called everyone here today is precisely because of this matter."

Chapter 229 Testing the Sword

Due to the soil and environment, the residents of the Duchy of Ferrante are mostly under 1.7 meters tall.

There are almost no people like Vera Nika who are over 1.8 meters tall and have a slender, tall figure.

Their skin is smooth, and their speech and behavior are relatively harmonious.

However, the people of the Auguston Empire were different.

The vast majority of residents are over 1.7 meters tall, and some are even as tall as 2 meters.

More importantly, the extremely cold environment has given these people a physique far stronger than that of people in the duchy, which is related to the fact that they were required to go out hunting from a young age.

Even the women mostly have very fit and healthy figures.

Currently, the six factions attending the meeting, from their lords to their subordinates, are all uniformly muscular and strong men.

It has a bit of a Viking feel to it.

The only woman among the six was an Icefield Warrior with dreadlocks, scars all over her body, and arms thicker than a man's.

There was a double-edged axe, as tall as a person, lying at his feet; it was estimated that even two adult men might not be able to lift it.

Compared to them, Tracy, with her slender figure and thin arms and legs, appeared very frail and weak.

Like a chick waiting to be slaughtered.

Some even said privately that it was impossible for a pampered aristocratic lady like Tracy to survive a year in such harsh conditions and bloody sibling rivalry.

However... they may be strong enough, but they know very little about magic.

If only they understood the essence of magic, and just how powerful water-attribute mages could be in the icy plains.

It's impossible for someone to say something like that.

------

After listening to Tracy's speech, everyone looked at each other.

Then, the first person to speak was a bald, burly man.

He was draped in a dire wolf pelt, with the wolf's head sewn into the back of his collar as a hood, giving him a very imposing look.

After taking a big gulp of his drink, the bald, muscular man stood up.

"Lord Tracy."

"Within three months, my town produced weapons and equipment for 20,000 people, and steel production reached 50 wagons. In just one quarter, it produced the output of a normal year."

"I don't think anyone has a higher production capacity than me."

The bald, burly man looked around, his eyes filled with undisguised pride.

However, no sooner had he finished speaking than another young man with short hair slapped his knee and stood up abruptly.

"Unfortunately, my output is more than double yours."

"Weapons and equipment for 50,000 people, and steel for 110 wagons. The top position in Irkutsk will probably be mine."

The bald, burly man stared wide-eyed at the young man in disbelief.

The first thought that popped into the bald, muscular man's mind was, "Impossible!"

The steel they produced themselves contained half impurities, and its purity was reduced by a full third compared to before.

Only by lowering the standards to this extent could we finally achieve the production capacity I just mentioned.

This kid actually produced so much?

How much of his content was actually exaggerated?

But before the young man could even rejoice, another person stood up.

He is Marvin, the lord of Dunba Town.

"Tsk tsk tsk, brother, the first place is probably not going to be yours yet."

Marvin wasn't particularly tall, but in terms of physique, he was the most robust of the six.

He adjusted the polar bear cape on his back and flashed a confident smile.

"A total of weapons to equip all 52,000 people, and steel for 130 wagons."

"First place should be mine."

After saying that, Marvin took a big gulp of wine and let out a hearty burp.

The entire room fell silent.

The three lords, who remained silent, stared coldly at Marvin, letting out disgruntled snorts.

The other two stared at him blankly.