After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

But to her surprise, on this important occasion, it wasn't the King of the Elves who came, but the Regent of the Elves.

"Hello, Miss Nia, it's nice to see you again."

"...Hello, Mr. Yang Hao... Um, may I ask if you are the high-ranking official representing Gaparia in the negotiations with Isugard?"

Although Nia had considered that Yang Hao would wield unparalleled power after becoming regent in the Elf Kingdom, she believed that Yang Hao's life in Gaparia was actually similar to that of a mercenary.

The elves will grant him the power to reform and treat him as a distinguished guest, but probably not to the point of truly accepting him as one of their own.

After all, those are elves! It took Ysgard a hundred years to achieve its current level of multi-racial integration! How could the elves possibly accept a human into their kingdom in less than a hundred years? That's impossible!

But looking at Yang Hao, who sat nonchalantly in front of her, protected by two Gaparian elf guards behind him, Nia's many questions were stuck in her throat:

Gaparia treated Yang Hao not only as a distinguished guest, but also as a superior being of the same rank as [Fen]. They seemed to have not only accepted Yang Hao as the regent of the elves as a [human], but also genuinely recognized his status in elven society.

This is... truly outrageous.

Nia took a sip of water, then stared intently at Yang Hao's face and said:

"I thought [Fen] would come—her name is a bit long, please forgive me..."

“It’s alright. We also refer to her as ‘Fin’ here—she has something to take care of today, so I’m attending in her place. You can also think of me as representing the whole of Gaparia now.”

“I understand... Hehe, Mr. Yang Hao, it seems your life here is much more pleasant than back in the Roman Empire.”

Nia emphasized the word "pleasant".

And Yang Hao did not disappoint her. He simply nodded slightly in agreement, and then blurted out:

"Yes. It's much better than in the Roman Empire."

Perhaps His Majesty the Regent understood Nia's implication, perhaps he simply gave an answer subconsciously, or perhaps he didn't actually care how Isgard viewed his current life—in any case, the Regent acknowledged his position in Gaparia.

His statement about "better" implies that, at least in terms of the "power structure," he maintains extremely high power in Gaparia, a power even greater than when he was regent in the Roman Empire. This allows him to handle all diplomatic matters while still gaining the approval of the elves.

This meant that Nia had to immediately adjust her subsequent foreign policy. Yang Hao's immense power in the elven kingdom had already made the black dragon nervous. Had she not been wearing a long dress this time, perhaps the way her dragon tail was swishing restlessly would have become a bargaining chip for the elves to raise their prices.

Fortunately, Nia quickly calmed down. She took another sip of water, casually glanced at the small notebook in her hand, and then said:

"In that case, let's get down to business—Your Majesty Yang Hao, regarding the further cooperation between Isgard and Gaparia... I think we need to be open and transparent. We congratulate Gaparia on successfully acquiring a new standard weapon... Of course, I also hope to reach a further deal with Gaparia. We hope to grant Gaparia production rights to produce some of Isgard's technological products in their factories. Of course, we will provide the blueprints and costs, but Isgard must be given priority."

This was originally the kind of thing that should have been used in front of Fen, but Nia could only use it in front of Yang Hao now.

Some naive people might be immediately intimidated by Ysgard's offer of "technology and blueprints," but Nia believes that Yang Hao is not one to be easily frightened.

On the one hand, if Yang Hao is willing to accept this industrial gift, it will give Isugard an important channel to directly understand the progress of Gaparia's industrial development.

They can range from low to high, from standard police batons to the cannons of the Schwarzschild-class ironclad warships.

From screws that anyone can make to high-precision screws that require elite technicians to produce.

From simple hand-sculpted dolls that even young children can make, to high-end Siren-customized love dolls—

Ysgard can determine the current industrial level of Gaparia by prioritizing the technical blueprints it provides, and then adjust its strategies accordingly.

If Gaparia's industry can not only produce standard police batons but also mass-produce ironclad warship cannons, it means that Gaparia's industrial strength is comparable to that of Ysgard. Naturally, Ysgard will also need to adjust its diplomatic policy and try to win Gaparia over from a potential enemy to a friend who can make money together.

If Gaparia's industry can easily produce something like the Siren's biomimetic love doll, which even the Siren herself would need decades of her youth to create.

Then Isgard will have to abandon his pride and kneel devoutly before Gaparia, calling out "Father!" while pleading with Gaparia to provide them with technical support at a relatively cheap price.

In the power struggle between nations, face is no object. Perhaps the Roman Empire would find it shameful that a great power like Isgard had to call a small kingdom "father," but if Isgard gained technological progress that might not have been achieved in thirty years through that one word, then so be it.

In any case, the people who care about their reputation die the fastest on the battlefield—and whether it's Nia or President Margarita, the important lesson they learned after living for many years as long-lived beings is that face is completely useless.

Therefore, Nia felt no shame for her thoughts, but rather took them for granted—even so, subconsciously Nia still judged that Gaparia's industrial conditions were not as advanced as she had imagined.

Gaparia's industry seems to be used only for military purposes. They have no light bulbs, no generators, no batteries, not even Coca-Cola—the social structure may seem advanced, but the basic necessities of life are quite traditional.

The people of Isgard today simply cannot imagine how they would endure a night without light bulbs. And in Japaria, although every elf possesses a glowing gem for illumination, those who rely on these gems are destined to be unable to comprehend the power of electricity.

Although Ysgard's research into electricity is still in its infancy, overall, Gaparia's industry is still in its early stages and heavily focused on military applications.

Nia muttered to herself, patiently waiting for Yang Hao to give her a definite response.

But unexpectedly, Yang Hao didn't give Nia the response she expected. He simply smiled and looked into Nia's dark red eyes. After a moment, he spread his hands and said, "It's not good for either of us to waste time testing each other like this. So why don't we just get straight to the point?"

"Isugard wants to confirm our industrial class, and I know that very well—I'm not going to reveal this core information to you now, just as you would never reveal the blueprints for those ironclad ships to us."

Therefore, I can only give you one answer: "Japaria's industry is developing rapidly." As long as Isgard is willing to contact us as an "ally," then Japaria naturally wouldn't mind having deeper exchanges with you.

"Your Majesty Yang Hao, what do you mean—"

"Let's get straight to the topic of what we'll be exchanging. We're willing to accept exchanges in industry and commerce, but if Isgard wants resources like rare minerals, they'll have to exchange them with something equally rare in Isgard."

Yang Hao's words silenced Nia.

The black dragon stared intently into the Regent's eyes, taking a deep breath as if to deny Isgard's emphasis on minerals, but unexpectedly, Yang Hao casually added:

"The elves have gathered a great deal of intelligence from the merchants around Drake Harbor—they say that you have crossed the entire ocean to trade with the Roman Empire not for expensive and rare specialties, but for chests and chests of refined iron and steel ingots, as well as large quantities of silver and gold ingots."

I personally won't comment on the Roman Empire's current supply of you with large quantities of essential national resources. I just want to say that I myself am quite knowledgeable about industry. You certainly wouldn't mint large amounts of gold and silver into coins and then simply release them into the market. But if your sole purpose was to expand your national treasury, you certainly wouldn't be buying common metal ingots along with the gold and silver.

Those things are incredibly heavy, practically worthless compared to gold and silver—but industrial development cannot exist without what we consider cheap goods. Moreover, gold and silver have their own uses in industry and can meet the needs of the luxury goods industry, but most importantly, some core components in the core design of the [Steam Factory] I gave you require [gold and silver] to manufacture.

I think that as a country focused on industrial development, Isgard should not lack the minerals to build factories in its own country—but you still chose to purchase a large amount of minerals from the Roman Empire, and not just once or twice, but every time since you made contact, it has been related to minerals.

Because of the famine, Roman has no choice but to purchase grain from you under the guise of brewing alcohol.

Because of your need for minerals, you have no choice but to try every means to plunder the Roman Empire's mineral resources.

Considering the reasons mentioned above... the mineral resources within Isogai are almost exhausted, and even with the best resources, they are still on the verge of collapse. Therefore, it is necessary to stockpile large quantities of metal. Am I right?

At this point, the Regent took a sip of juice to rest.

Nia, on the other hand, stared blankly at the Regent's eyes with extreme surprise. His eyes seemed to possess a mind-reading magic that was both terrifying and made Nia fully understand how to deal with this straightforward man.

After all, his guess was absolutely right—the Isgard mine was almost depleted, so aside from what was sold in the Isgard-Roman Empire trade, what was bought back were mostly mineral-related goods.

Various kinds of metal ingots, all sorts of gold and silver products that could be melted down into gold and silver ingots, and even the practice of allowing merchants to accept only payments in hard currencies like gold and silver from the Roman Empire...

Everything was designed to satisfy Ysgard's ever-growing appetite. Everything was designed to allow Ysgard to stockpile more metal resources during the ten-year countdown to mineral depletion, in preparation for the upcoming colonial invasion.

The Regent was indeed a clever man. Regardless of exactly when he began paying attention to the trade in Ysgard, in short—his guess was absolutely correct.

Therefore, Nia also chose to give up the struggle and changed her guiding principle from "using underhanded tactics" to "being straightforward".

“Yes, you guessed right. Isgard does have a huge demand for minerals—but how do we trade minerals when Gaparia is also starting an industry?”

"If I had to pinpoint it, it would be mainly about [industrial investment] and [commercial exchange]."

“I understand business communication, but industrial investment? Please explain.”

"Roughly speaking..."

Yang Hao and Nia discussed industrial investment between the two countries. To discuss this, he even took out a pair of black stockings made in Isugard from a box that had been prepared under the conference table, right in front of Nia.

Nia blushed instantly, instinctively thinking that this man was trying to use underhanded tactics to transfer benefits to Ysgard.

Before the black dragon could even hesitate about whether to give it a try, and incidentally ask about the important matter of secretly bringing the Regent back to the country, Yang Hao took the initiative to clear up the misunderstanding:

"Take these black stockings for example—they're made of silk sewn together by Ysgard using real silk, not some synthetic material, right?"

"Eh? Eh... Oh... You, you mean..." Nia paused for a moment, realizing that her filthy thoughts had come at an inopportune time. She cursed herself inwardly before calming down.

Yang Hao, meanwhile, continued his boastful talk, attempting to use his limited knowledge to confuse the black dragon before him, hoping to persuade her to impulsively sign the contract.

"Then I'll assume that Isgard possesses machinery like the [weaving machine]—you can invest in these production materials in our Gaparia and use raw materials from the continent of Elusia to produce similar products. We will maintain the machines for you and deliver a portion of the produced goods and profits to you periodically as a reward."

In this way, we can acquire new technologies, and you can save manpower and resources to obtain free goods from us. It's a win-win solution for both of us.

Not only textile machinery, but other industrial investments are also acceptable to us. Conversely, Gaparia can also make industrial investments in you, and Isgard only needs to provide us with corresponding returns, just as in the message above.

The specific return standards are set differently for different industrial investments.

Of course, the risks associated with the investment are borne by the party receiving the investment. The investor simply needs to wait for the returns to be delivered according to the contract. What do you think?

In a sense, Yang Hao actually intended to use the negligible profits to directly exchange for technological information from Ysgard, so that Gaparia could quickly catch up with Ysgard in all aspects.

After all, Gaparia's current industry is indeed very distorted. Apart from enchanting, which is a common industry, other industries are basically growing rapidly towards the military, which is clearly a distorted development.

Although Yang Hao had some knowledge of military and industrial matters, he dared not gamble with his knowledge of civilian light industry as he would with military applications.

After all, everyone knows that if they don't gamble on military development, they might die in the next war—so everyone will support the development of the military industry during wartime, no matter what, and this is pretty much the same everywhere.

However, light industry for everyday use is a bit of a headache... Not only can you not take a gamble, but the research process is also prone to errors—take generators and light bulbs for example, if you ask Pokémon who are used to using glowing gems for lighting to research these, they'll just think you're doing it out of boredom...

Yang Hao had already reached a consensus among the elder elves at the Elf Council on this point. Even Finn was greatly puzzled by it, feeling that if there were more luxurious and beautiful luminous gems for lighting, then the so-called "electricity" and "light bulb" blindness were actually unnecessary...

Yang Hao didn't blame them. After all, it was only natural. People living on the African continent, which is richest in natural resources, would also find it unnecessary and hard to understand why other places need to stockpile food.

After all, they could gather fresh food just by walking a few steps outside, so they had no need to store food and naturally wouldn't invent skills for long-term food storage.

Yang Hao understands.

So—instead of going to great lengths to persuade or even force the elves to research it themselves, it would be better to simply obtain the technology from Ysgard and replicate it directly.

At that time, Yang Hao simply laid out the circuit, hung up the light bulbs under the guise of a "festival," and then left it on late at night!

He wanted to see what the glowing gemstone, which couldn't even illuminate Teresa's beautiful body clearly on those dark nights, could possibly compare to an electric light.

After experiencing the wonders of electricity and light, even the most stubborn elves will become fascinated by technologies like electricity—just as young boys without girlfriends, before experiencing the Joy Cup firsthand, only feel that having wives on their left and right hands is the most comfortable.

After personally experiencing the thrill of the Happy Cup, how many little boys can resist the temptation to continue achieving their dreams with their own hands?

Yang Hao was scheming a wonderful idea.

After careful consideration, Nia felt that since she would eventually have to have more in-depth exchanges with Gaparia anyway, it was acceptable to trade with Gaparia for a large supply of resources that was almost free at this stage, using some technologies that she had not yet figured out.

Moreover, this regent does indeed always have some ingenious ideas—if he could make any progress in [electricity], Ysgard could rightfully claim a share of the profits from him...

"I think it's acceptable. But regarding the details..."

“We have plenty of time to discuss this today, so there’s no need to rush, Miss Nia.”

......

During the first truly significant meeting between the Elven Kingdom and Ysgard.

The Roman Empire was not idle either.

After Pope Peter finally arrived to attend the roundtable meeting, the threads of division within the Roman Empire were temporarily tangled into a single rope. Although the nobles and landowners still harbored considerable resentment towards the royal family, at least within the framework of the Roman Empire as a whole, they chose to temporarily accept Prince Gassen's arrangements.

The nobles and landowners went to investigate enemies spreading rumors within their territories, General Dreschka and his warlords were conserving their strength to guard against another threat from the Elven Kingdom, and the royal family needed to continue their diplomatic maneuvering with Alesser. Only the parishes—

They are proclaiming their "resounding victory".

This was unavoidable for the diocese—after all, their overall faith and morale were extremely low. After the destruction of the Demon City, many gambling addicts, chanting "Give us back the Demon City!", stormed the lines of guards maintaining order in St. Petersburg.