People in Terra, governing a bizarre little country

There is only one thing that can make the villagers of the tundra happy.

"Fellow villager, did you have a good harvest last year?"

Talulah caught up with an old man passing by and greeted him without any hesitation.

To everyone's surprise, the old man's expression changed, he glared fiercely at Talulah, and began to curse:

"What kind of girl is so ignorant, shouting like that! Who said we had a bumper harvest? We had a terrible harvest last year! We didn't get a single grain!"

This left Talulah completely bewildered. Alina, who had arrived late, quickly apologized to the old man. Only after the old man stormed off did she whisper to Talulah:

"Talulah, it's not customary to say you've had a good harvest on the tundra! And nobody celebrates a good harvest!"

"Why?" Talulah was a little confused. She wasn't particularly good at socializing. Usually, she was with Bozokasti and Yelena, responsible for hunting and raiding the picket lines. This was the first time she had come out to trade supplies with Alina like today.

The person who was originally trading the goods fell ill a few days ago and couldn't hold on.

Straw, its life is as fragile as paper, it can be blown down by the wind.

Alina patiently explained, "There's nothing on the tundra, but the Ursus tax collectors have always been there. They've even set a total tax quota for each village on the tundra. A good harvest means they'll collect an extra twenty or thirty catties of tax!"

Resources are incredibly precious on the tundra. Twenty or thirty kilograms of rice, flour, and cooking oil can be enough to feed a working person in the tundra environment.

Talulah was immediately filled with righteous indignation: "That despicable tax collector, he should have been arrested long ago!"

Alina smiled helplessly and didn't say anything, clearly having gotten used to her friend's somewhat extreme ideas.

However, what puzzled her was the frequency with which Talulah had been making these extreme remarks lately. She hadn't initially paid much attention, assuming it was due to Talulah being under too much pressure. But now it seemed necessary to find an opportunity to provide Talulah with some psychological counseling.

She doesn't have much experience as a professional psychologist, but she considers herself a good listener, and helping her good friend, who is now a leader, relieve stress is one of the few things she can do.

Moreover, what she didn't remind Talulah was that on the tundra, if you claimed to have a bountiful harvest, the first thing you might attract wasn't the Ursus tax collectors.

Tax collectors are, after all, just people who get paid to do their jobs. Their living conditions aren't bad, and they don't have the habit of patrolling the tundra every day. They usually only come at the beginning and end of the year to scavenge for tax revenue. On the tundra, the truly terrifying people are the ordinary people just like the villagers.

You have food, he has a wretched life. If a person is extremely hungry, then "he" will turn into "it".

Alina had seen and heard many such things, but she hadn't told Talulah yet. Alina felt there was no rush. After all, Talulah wouldn't be involved in trading goods most of the time, and there was plenty of time ahead; she would have many more opportunities to teach her this lesson herself.

Telling Talulah to stay silent, Alina officially got to work, starting to persuade the villagers to trade goods.

As darkness fell, the two had filled their backpacks and the back of their snowsled. Alina then approached Talulah, who was preparing to return to their camp, and said somewhat mysteriously:

"Talulah, guess what I traded for in the village?"

Talulah, who was packing her things, paused, looking at her best friend who was unusually keeping her in suspense, and asked curiously, "What?"

"A book!"

Alina took out the slightly wrinkled book with a Victorian cover from behind her and handed it to Talulah.

“This belongs to Aunt Jane’s son in the village. Her son is serving in the Ursus army and asked the tax collector to bring it back. This village is relatively wealthy and is not often harassed by the tax collector, partly because of this connection.”

Although they've long been nicknamed "gray animals," that's in comparison to soldiers in other countries. In reality, if you're simply comparing benefits, joining the military in Ursus is indeed a decent path for civilians. If we go back a few decades, during the era of great expansion, joining the military was the best way to achieve upward social mobility.

Alina said, "I can't read, but you should know Talulah, right? What's this book about?"

Talulah took the book, glanced at the cover, and her long-dormant knowledge of Victorian language surged into her mind. She read the book's title:

"The Chronicles of Erzreel, by Ernst Shivaesh?"

"It's hard to tell what it's about, but it's certainly not a collection of poems praising the Emperor of Ursus."

She smiled, and with a touch of playfulness, extended her hand to Alina, making a gentlemanly gesture:

"Well then, thank you for your gift, Miss Alina. In return, shall I drive you home in the sleigh?"

"Pfft!"

"What are you laughing at!" Talulah blushed slightly.

"It's nothing," Alina waved her hand. "After you finish reading the book, remember to translate the stories and tell them to me. Ino and Sasha haven't changed their bedtime stories in ages; they're not tired of them, but I'm getting tired of telling them!"

"Ok!"

As dusk fell, the girl glided her sled deeper into the tundra, and an ordinary day came to an end.

Chapter 258 Labor Force and Sarkaz

Kjerag, Tukarim, site of the World's Fair.

The newly built large venue is hardly practical. The people of Kjerag don't have high demands for culture and art, and no crazy team would hold a football or basketball game in the freezing cold of Kjerag. It's no exaggeration to say that this is essentially a "one-off building" built for the World's Fair.

This is what's meant by the political significance outweighing the practical significance. If it weren't for the fact that the three major families—Kalan Trade, Manju Academy, and others—had shared the construction costs, Ernst, given his personality, would have agonized over it for a while. It would still have been built, but certainly not on such a grand scale.

It's roughly the difference between the Byzantines seizing the Roman Colosseum and building your own special building, the racetrack; the number of hammers required is on a completely different level.

For this reason, even before the World's Fair had officially started, Ernst had already begun planning how to use the building after the fair ended.

"We could renovate it, turning the exhibition hall into individual shops and renting them out to merchants from Sherag. With more tourists, we wouldn't have to worry about selling them. Or, we could go all the way and turn it into a department store?"

"Converting it into an ice rink and indoor ski resort would be a good idea. Most people in Shelag practice skating on Silver Heart Lake. Although the ice season on Silver Heart Lake is very long, there are always safety concerns. Building an indoor practice area would be a beneficial project for the people."

Ernst thought of the Grand Gardens of St. Marso in Laterano and the water park in Siesta. Perhaps Kjerag could also create a spectacular structure like the Tukarim Ice Rink?

There's still a lot of profit to be made here. Even if you waive the entrance fee to the ice rink just to attract tourists, you can still make a good profit just from the skating equipment, coaches, and by opening up the ice rink to businesses and setting up some restaurants, souvenir shops, etc.

If Ernst were to go a step further, he could emulate Northeast China from his previous life and create an entire "Ice and Snow World." The difficulty isn't high; the only shortages are relevant talent and a large pool of cheap labor.

Thinking about this, Ernst couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

As for talent, he can go out and recruit them himself. It is foreseeable that when the World's Fair officially opens, Kjerag's international reputation will definitely reach a new level, and there is no possibility of it declining—after all, it is already at a low point, so it can only go up, right? At that time, there will definitely be foreign talents who will be willing to come to Kjerag to try their luck, and his recruitment process will be smoother.

But cheap labor is an incredibly troublesome problem.

The population of Sherag is about one million. At first glance, this population seems decent, even a bit large. It is only thanks to the protection of the god Yeragand and the fact that the Arknights developers have set up the game that this small area can support so many people.

But anyone familiar with urbanization knows that this population is rather meager. Even if every single person in a million could participate in industrial-era labor, and even if all one million were able to participate and were all high-quality young and middle-aged workers, what does this number even amount to?

Don't you see, the man we often joke about, Bobo, in his process of counter-urbanization, wiped out an entire Shelag in one fell swoop? That country is about the same size as Shelag.

If industrialized talent is a good sail, helping Kjerag better catch the winds of development, then a large pool of cheap labor is the hull of Kjerag, directly determining how far it can sail.

Sailing the ocean requires a helmsman, but a helmsman also needs a boat. Does relying solely on a helmsman mean the helmsman crosses the ocean by himself?

Ernst confided his concerns to Holhaia, a long-time supporter of Colombia's colonial past. He noted that Colombia's pioneering efforts, fueled by enlightened policies, attracted a large influx of foreign labor, thus propelling the country's overall development. Ernst was curious to see if she had any constructive suggestions.

And Holhayer didn't disappoint Ernst; after a moment's thought, he actually came up with one:

"Cheap labor? Boss, are you talking about slaves?"

"Oh! You've come to the right person. I must solemnly recommend the Sarkaz to you."

Ernst frowned; the transmigrator's moral compass clearly made him unaccustomed to Horhaiya's somewhat explicit language. But in Horhaiya's view, there was indeed no difference.

Endless work, unquestionable duty, subservient companionship, and humiliation endured in Terra's sweatshops—the only difference between cheap labor and slaves is probably their names.

She was aware of the excellent treatment Ernst gave to the Sherag people who entered the factory, and she didn't find it strange, since the Sherag people were not exactly considered "cheap labor."

The Sherag people are the dominant ethnic group, the upper class, and the core of their employers' workforce! Even if they enter the factory, it's only temporary. When more "slaves" flood in, they will naturally be freed. Therefore, it's only natural to treat them relatively well; there's nothing strange about it, isn't it the same everywhere?

Ursus conquered a host of smaller nations, and the ruthless elites who rose to power in Saint-Germain-des-Prés long since retired and began indulging in revelry. Victoria and Letania destroyed Gaul; weren't the former Gauls now just ashes in the factory? The Tara people had been oppressed and intermarried for millennia, and their relationship with the Victoria people was already deeply intertwined, yet the mere difference in their names still made them objects of unequal treatment.

There's no reason to abandon one's own base and fawn over outsiders. This goes beyond the realm of politics; in Terra, a society rife with nationalism, any politician who dares to do such a thing would be hanged tomorrow!

In Horhaia's view, the difference between Shelag and those great powers lay in the fact that Shelag lacked the military strength to conquer other countries. Although Jeragand, for some reason, still refused to speak with her, Horhaia could easily sketch a picture of Jeragand's "divinity" from the descriptions given by Ernst, Hinterlea, Vina, and others—she was indeed a benevolent god, perhaps excessively so!

It is unlikely that He would agree to help Sherag go to war.

Therefore, Horhyah had no choice but to find another way and nominated Sarkaz.

Because the Sarkaz are truly miserable.

Horhaya stated without any hesitation:

"Boss, you might have doubts, but I really have to say this—if you see a dead body on the street, you might sigh about how tough the world is, how unfortunate. But if you see a dead Sarkaz on the street, you have to change your tune. You have to say—"

"Thanks to Jeragand's mercy, this poor fellow is lucky; he can finally be reincarnated."

For some reason, Holhaya felt a cold wind blow past her ear when she finished speaking. But when she turned her head slightly, she didn't see anyone behind her.

Could it be an illusion?

Not paying much attention, Holhaya looked at Ernst and said seriously:

“I deliberately distinguish between humans and Sarkaz. Because, if I may be frank, Boss, the Sarkaz you’ve seen are living a little too comfortably. For the more common Sarkaz, if you give them the status of slaves, you’re essentially giving them a personhood.”

"Is it really that exaggerated?" Ernst asked, somewhat incredulous. But Holhaya simply shrugged.

"That's the truth, Boss. You know what I used to do. The Melland Historical Society is an intelligence agency, which is a bit unethical, but I can share this not-so-important intelligence with you."

“Since the Kazdel civil war split them apart, their currency has depreciated rapidly. The last time I received news of this was last August, when 8 Sarkaz marks could only buy a loaf of bread.”

"What does 500,000 Sarkazm mean? It can't even fit in one car!"

She spread her hands:

"Especially these days, almost everything is going up in price. Ten feathered beast eggs used to cost only 2.33 Victorian pounds, now it's 3.33; a liter of hummed milk has gone from 0.79 to 1.29, a kilogram of pack animal meat from 5.99 to 9.99, and a head of cabbage from 1.39 to 1.99. And these are prices in the Duchy of Windermere, where you have the closest relationship and where prices are relatively stable. Yet, even under these circumstances, the red-light district in Lancashire has maintained a price of 50 Victorian pounds. Do you know why?"

Ernst shook his head.

Holhaya revealed the answer:

"Because they also have the Kazdel district—it can only be said that the expansion of the workforce has caught up with inflation, triggering supply-side reforms."

Ernst had never expected to hear such economic terminology in this place, and for a moment he was at a loss for words.

However, Horhaiya did not stray from the main topic; instead, she circled back to it again:

"Now, for just a little money, the black market can pack up a Sarkaz woman and deliver her to your door. Pay half again, and they'll give you an extra one. It's buy one get one free. If the journey is short and they don't eat each other as emergency food, then you've made a profit. To be honest, I personally don't have any problem with Sarkaz. These Sarkaz women begging in the red-light district, putting aside their status, are actually exceptionally good laborers—after all, Sarkaz are known for their exceptionally resilient physique; they're the kind that won't break no matter how you use them. It's just a pity that they're all somewhat underdeveloped, and some might even be infected with Oripathy. Ah, you get what you pay for, I guess. You get what you pay for."

"Boss, what do you think?"

“I’m actually more curious about how you know all this, especially about Victoria’s prices and the red-light district,” Ernst asked with some suspicion.

Holhaia's expression immediately turned alluring, and she gave Ernst a flirtatious wink, her lips curving into a wide smile.

"Boss, you're more interested in these things? They've gone to great lengths to regain your trust. Would you like to know something more in-depth? I can certainly show you~"

"That's not necessary."

Ernst immediately waved his hand. In broad daylight, under the clear sky, in front of everyone, he had no interest in joking around with Horhaya.

In particular, he was wearing a divine stone.

Yeragand seemed to have been watching this place from the very beginning. Horhya, without the divine stone, couldn't sense it, but Ernst was already used to it; he noticed it the moment it arrived. Regarding Horhya's suggestion, Ernst responded:

"I need to think about the Sarkaz matter first."

It's definitely not enough to just listen to Horhyah's side of the story regarding Sarkaz; Ernst needs to ask someone in the know.

But those in the know certainly didn't include Hedley and Nastie. Ernst wasn't foolish enough to directly ask Sarkaz for his opinion; that would be tantamount to mocking him.

Moreover, besides Sarkaz, he remembered that a lynx lady had also told him, "If you have any questions about Sarkaz, you can come to me."

Isn't that a coincidence? Kal'tsit, you're still in Seraphim, right?

Chapter 259 A Bizarre Little Country: Where Will It Go From Here?

The people of Terra have flexible moral boundaries, and Kal'tsit is no exception.

Kelsey felt somewhat embarrassed when she heard Ernst's rather pointed question.

Unfortunately, as Horhyah mentioned, she was partly responsible for the Kazdel Civil War, which caused the great division of Sarkaz.

Theresis's accusations are certainly not without basis. Although the differences between Theresa and Theresis did not develop overnight, and they are very likely to have irreconcilable conflicts in the future, it would be unfair to say that Kal'tsit played no role in it.

Someone started a fire in the woods. Sooner or later, the fire will get out of control and burn down the whole forest. So if you add a couple of pieces of firewood and blow some air on the fire beforehand, there won't be any problems.

That's not necessarily true.

Of course, she was present when Theresis and Theresa broke off their relationship, and she commanded the Kazdel civil war; she acknowledged these events. But she didn't regret doing them. Because in her view, it was the right thing to do. However, Terra isn't a fairy tale; being right doesn't guarantee victory. She and Theresa simply lost, and no one can judge them solely by their success or failure.

The forest of capitalism will inevitably be burned to ashes by a single spark. Are you going to deny the significance of the Soviet Union's existence?

Of course, Kal'tsit knew that Ernst was unaware of her knowledge of the Kazdel Civil War, and therefore had no intention of discussing with Ernst the significance of Theresa's existence, who was already dead.

With the man gone, Theresa was no longer able to discuss Sarkaz human rights with Ernst. The one who had to answer that question was Kal'tsit. And Kal'tsit, despite being a close friend of Theresa, never considered the issue from the "Sarkaz's perspective."

She is Kal'tsit of Babel and Rhodes Island, but also Ama-10, a civilization preservation machine left behind by a previous civilization.

“Mr. Ernst, if you are asking me to verify what Miss Holheimia said about the current situation of Sarkaz, then I can give you a definite answer.”

Kal'tsit calmly narrated,