Book 11: Chapter 48
“Prepare to detonate!”
Freya peered at the tall mountain in front of her and bit down on her lip. According to the scientists, they could blow up a large boulder at the top by detonating an explosion underground. The mountains weren’t linked. To the contrary, they were similar to a collection of wooden towers. It would be more accurate to call it a barrier formed by boulders and piles of boulders as opposed to calling it a collection of mountains. Detonating an explosion from below could blow up said collection.
She wasn’t sure how the place came to be, but that didn’t bother her as long as it could be used. If they didn’t discover the place, then Freya wouldn’t have had the confidence to make the North warm. She merely sent him a letter telling him what she was doing, but her brother expressed absolute confidence in her within his letter to her. Additionally, he gave her ultimate authority, allowing her to have the authority over everything in the North.
Freya had been running back and forth in the North for over a month. She arranged for anthropoids to excavate the long river and had them set up a dam to stop the water from pouring in and drowning the large plain of the North. The palace was also systematically under repair. Freya tore down the palace. The palace was the symbol of power of the ruler, so it couldn’t be kept the way it formerly was. Moreover, the palace was going to be where she could live in peace in the future, so she had to clean it up.
Earth Dragon carriages came and went between Troy City and the North, delivering food produced in the South for the people of the North. That was the first time the anthropoids of the North had seen so much food. The cold and dry climate of the North made it difficult for crops to grow, thereby making it a struggle for the anthropoids to have filling meals. They got by living partially hungry and partially full. They learnt what being full meant for the first time after the food and salt from the south was delivered.
Freya distributed food in my name, but she didn’t just distribute it to everyone. They had to clear the river, build the dam, open up wasteland for farming and so forth. Only those who worked for the North received food, and they were given food according to the amount of work contributed, meaning it was a very fair system of the more you work, the more you received. If families legitimately couldn’t offer labour due to only consisting of elderly or those unable to work, then they were given just enough for each month.
It was the first time the anthropoids of the North received such treatment. It was the first time they knew that working could be exchanged for food and freedom. In the past, virtually all of the food had to be collected by the Imperial City before being resold to them. In other words, they had to purchase back the food they worked so hard to grow. Families were only able to keep a scarce amount of food and crops.
They weren’t planting crops for themselves. Planting crops couldn’t provide them with food, and the plants didn’t belong to them, so why did they have to work so hard to take care of them? That was the reason the majority of land in the North was barren land. As a result, they had to rob the elves in the South in winter to survive.
But even then, it wasn’t as though they were guaranteed to survive, for the elves weren’t easy prey. “We’re bound to die either way, so why not try?” was their logic. If they did manage to kill an elf, they’d have food for winter. They didn’t need to rob anymore, fortunately.