People in Terra, governing a bizarre little country

Lola glared at her fiercely, then turned her head away and shook her head shyly.

"No, it's nothing."

Does "you don't have" mean you don't have any improper thoughts, or that you simply don't have any improper thoughts at all?

Ernst gave his secretary, who was always good at talking and producing yellow waste, a rather helpless slap, warning her not to lead Lola astray anymore.

Such a pure college student returned to our poor, remote village for the development of Shelag and the revitalization of its people. How can you be so preoccupied with nothing but love and romance?

If we broaden our perspective, can the grand ideal of providing every household in Shelag with a small heater be tarnished by something like this?

Holhaya stuck out her tongue, indicating that she understood.

Ernst then continued to introduce the next person:

“This is our Chancellor of the Exchequer and our scientific advisor, Joyce Moore, who is not very talkative.”

Ernst said. Joyce's earlobe trembled slightly, as if she had just come back to her senses, and she nodded gently.

Seeing that she didn't intend to shake hands, Kent didn't extend his hand either, but simply offered his usual compliment:

"Ms. Joyce looks very young, but she exudes a meticulous air from head to toe. The position of Chancellor of the Exchequer is of paramount importance to a country, and it is precisely this kind of person who is needed to fill the position. Prime Minister Ernst has a keen eye for talent."

Ernst nodded. Of all the people, the one he trusted the most was White Owl. Although he was a bit sleepy and a bit irritable due to Oripathy, these weren't major problems. The important thing was that he was truly reliable when it came to getting things done.

Ernst entrusted Holheimer to deliver the account books to her, and they were organized and filed into a formal financial report in just one and a half days. Such efficiency is truly worthy of an SSR selected through proper recruitment!

Miss White Owl gave Joyce a thumbs-up and responded with a pixelated smile. Ernst walked past her and headed towards the last ministerial-level figure in the government structure.

“This is my Foreign Secretary, Vina Victoria. She is also from Victoria.”

"Ernst explained. Kent looked at the girl in front of him, and was about to extend his hand to shake hers and offer his praise as usual, but he frowned abruptly when he noticed her face.

"Hello, Mr. Kent."

Vina spoke in standard Victorian, though she tried to suppress it, her old Lontinem accent was still quite distinctive.

Kent was silent for a moment, then extended his hand and shook it back:

"Hello, Ms. Vina."

He paused and asked:

"You're from Lentinium?"

Vina's body stiffened abruptly, as if she hesitated, but seeing Ernst standing beside her, she gritted her teeth and answered firmly:

"Yes, my hometown is Lentinium."

"Have you thought about going back for a visit?" Kent said casually. "Lentinium has changed a lot. If you haven't been back for a long time, you might be pleasantly surprised."

Vina shook her head: "No need, I love Sherag very much and I enjoy life here."

"I see." Kent nodded, smiling as he withdrew his hand.

Beside him, little Daphne glanced back at the group as they had come from, tugged at Kent's hand, and whispered:

"Dad, why is his government full of women?"

Kent gasped, only then noticing the problem.

Holy crap, it seems to be true. Several ministers in Ernst's government are women, and all of them are young and beautiful.

Even if it's about "balancing work and rest," isn't this going a bit too far?

If I leave Daifei here, will the inside break down even though the outside won't?

Sexual misconduct is like a raging flood, endangering the physical and mental health and safety of young girls!

Just as Kent was beginning to doubt his decision, another silver-white Kuranta figure slowly approached from a distance. Hinterlea, holding a wad of loose change, handed it to Ernst and told him some bad news:

"Boss, this is the money that Kalan Trading is refunding to you."

"Kalan Trade?" Ernst paused, racking his brain for a moment, but couldn't quite grasp it. "They don't owe me any money, do they?"

Hinterlea recalled the words of the messenger, Mr. Weiss, and repeated, "It's a refund, a refund. It seemed to say something like, 'Due to a shipping error, the Originium miniature furnace you ordered, along with its pack animal and sled, fell off a cliff and was severely damaged. It's estimated that it can't be recovered. So, we're refunding your money here.' Yes, that's what it said."

As soon as she finished speaking, she noticed that Ernst in front of her had a sad expression on his face, looking like he had been suddenly hit hard and could not accept it.

Sherag's current procurement relies almost entirely on the Carlan trade route, and the Carlan trade wouldn't make a special trip on the international trade route just to order a small stove for him. The reason he was able to bring one back from Victoria this time was because the Duke of Windermere accepted an invitation, giving the Carlan trade, which was responsible for receiving him, the opportunity to add an extra trip.

So how did it break?

Rolling off a cliff? Who did it? This Prime Minister won't let him taste the bitterness of the Holy Stone Judgment. I'll hang him on the Matterhorn and let the feathered beasts peck out his guts!

Seeing Ernst's genuine anger, Kent hesitated for a moment, but wisely refrained from mentioning that he seemed to have seen the small stove before.

Let the little stove, having fulfilled its glorious mission, disappear forever below the cliff along with the frozen gray top hat.

At least here, he can breathe a little easier.

There shouldn't be any problems with Definite staying here, because Prime Minister Ernst has the same, or even more fervent, hobbies as him.

He's also a cynic!

Chapter Fifty-Two: The Path to Heaven Doesn't Have to Be on Earth

Shelag, Tukarim, government office building (future version).

Ernst, Nastie, and Lola sat around the table, pointing at the simple map of Sherag in front of them.

Nasti: "To be honest, the Kherag people have lived and thrived in Kherag for thousands of years, and they haven't even thought of drawing up a detailed map?"

Ernst curled his lip, thinking to himself, "You really know how to talk. Look at Sherag's condition, does he look like someone who can draw detailed maps?"

When the United States expanded westward, it sacrificed hundreds, even thousands, of lives and sent countless expeditions to survey its western frontier, creating a massive wave of westward expansion. Even in Colombia, how many more territories are opened up and how many lives are lost each year in the process of pioneering?

This is under the condition of having professional equipment and technical personnel.

The simple map provided by Ernst was painstakingly carved out by generations of tiger hunters and devout believers of Manjushri Temple, who spent their lives climbing stone by stone and mountain by mountain. During the days when Yeragand slept, they were not as lucky as Horn Peak and Kent Windermere, who were able to be carried back to safety by a gentle breeze after falling off the cliff.

Both are the fruits of countless piles of corpses; there's no distinction between high and low, noble and base.

Furthermore, Ernst would like to ask: Do you Sarkaz have your own maps?

Oh, your house is gone.

Seemingly sensing Ernst's displeasure, Nasty skipped the topic and gave a brief assessment:

“Mr. Ernst, building the road you described as meeting the standards of an ordinary town in Shelag is not a simple matter.”

“After my team’s sampling over the past few days, we found that most of the land in Shelag is either permafrost or heavily weathered boulders. Such a construction environment is extremely unstable. If we were to force construction, the road maintenance costs would increase to an unimaginable multiple. Moreover, even with long-term maintenance, a small avalanche or a landslide could cause the entire road to collapse. It would be impossible to repair.”

She analyzed it seriously.

"In addition, the environment in Shelag makes it difficult to use large construction machinery. Rhine Lab's tower cranes and bulldozers simply cannot drive up the mountain, and there is no way to transport the necessary building materials to the construction site. If we want to rely solely on manpower for transportation, it will be an enormous cost."

Because there were no roads, railways and highways needed to be built, and because highways and railways needed to be built, roads were needed to transport building materials into Shelag.

It was a vicious cycle. Ensiodis, building on his parents' work, toiled for over a decade to barely manage to construct a railway through the flat Tukarim pass, the most well-known exit from the mountains, leading out of the mountains. His efforts were already astronomical.

Achieving what Ernst described as an unimpeded connection between road and rail in every family territory and large settlement of Sherag was virtually impossible.

It's impossible to get there; it's as if a heavenly road leading to the clouds has been built atop the mountain.

But is building a road to heaven really impossible?

Ernst pondered for a moment, then looked at Lola beside him. This only doctor in Sherag represented the next generation of Sherag.

Their future is Sherag's future. They are not unintelligent; they simply lack opportunities.

If this road to heaven had not been built, they would never have had this opportunity.

Ernst took a deep breath and asked:

“Cost is a factor I need to consider. What I need you to tell me is that as long as the cost is high enough, this road can be completed!”

Nast paused, her gaze towards Ernst filled with a hint of incomprehension.

She felt that the Prime Minister, Sherag, might not have understood what she was saying, nor did he understand the meaning of the idiom "knowing when to back down."

She replied:

“Mr. Ernst, you may not understand what I mean. The most important thing right now is that, due to the backwardness of basic education in Shelag, we can hardly recruit any local workers for jobs such as building railways and highways. This means that we have to hire all the professional geological survey technicians and railway workers from outside.”

"Even if you search the entire Terra, you won't find a construction company capable of taking on this kind of task."

This is a fact; whether in Colombia, Victoria, or even Da Yan, construction companies cannot afford to employ a large number of basic workers. Most of the time, if there is a construction project, construction companies recruit locally.

Where can Sherag recruit?

The workers here don't even know how to apply glue!

Are you suggesting they pave tracks with thatch and red bricks so trains can run on them?

"In short, this is no longer a matter of cost. Perhaps this project will be more likely to happen after a few more years of development in construction technology and the maturity of new technologies."

"Wait for the right time" is a polite way of saying "stop dreaming."

Nastie spoke tactfully, but Ernst heard it clearly.

This is reality. The road to the roof of the world that Ernst envisioned was a world wonder achieved by a nation no less powerful than any Terran hegemon, which mobilized its entire national strength, using its military as the construction workers, taking great risks and making great sacrifices.

It's easy to see that Sherag couldn't commit that kind of resources.

Just as Ernst was feeling a pang of disappointment and resentment, Lola suddenly spoke up:

"What if it's not railways and highways?"

The young Ursus girl tentatively asked,

"When I was studying at Columbia University, I heard that Ms. Christen, the head of Rhine Life, had been working on developing a revolutionary mode of transportation!"

Nasti frowned. "You mean an aircraft? No, that's impossible too. Not only is the technology for aircraft still very immature, with an extremely high accident rate, but the aircraft themselves cannot be used in extreme weather conditions. The high-altitude environment of Kjerag is far too dangerous for aircraft."

"What if we could open up a stable and safe shipping lane in the skies above Kjerag?" Ernst suddenly asked.

Nasti looked at him, her face clearly saying, "Are you kidding me?"

Weather, upper-air currents—these are the forces of nature, forces that are beyond human reach and even more difficult to control. To try and control the weather, to carve out a flight path out of thin air—isn't that just wishful thinking?

“What if that’s possible?” Ernst asked firmly. “If the aircraft technology under Christen’s command is mature enough, and we have a way to open up a safe airway over Shelag, is aircraft transportation theoretically feasible?”

Nast looked into Ernst's eyes and saw an unexpected determination and confidence in them.

Where does this confidence come from?

The question flashed through her mind. Faced with his seemingly impossible question, she finally thought about it seriously for a moment, and then nodded:

"If you can really do it, then aircraft are more likely than railroad and highway plans."

Ernst let out a long sigh of relief.

The path to heaven doesn't necessarily have to be confined to the earth.

Chapter Fifty-Three: He didn't even mourn for his weak level of knowledge for a moment.

Shelag, Manju Academy, Saintess's Palace.

As the Son of Kalan, Ernst would climb the holy mountain every now and then to pray to Jeragund.

Jeragund himself said that He didn't really care about such formalities; if He wanted, He could instantly appear beside Ernst, no matter where he was in Shelag. But rules are rules, and Ernst still insisted on this custom.

After all, the death of the Grand Elder, the head of the conservatives, does not mean that the conservatives have disappeared with him. If anyone were to observe the wrinkles on the faces of the so-called supporters of the Holy Sons, they would find that even the location of their age spots is exactly the same as that of the elders of the old council.

They didn't disappear; they just changed their appearance.

Ernst didn't intend to provoke their sensitive nerves; these old men still had some influence in various matters, big and small, in Sherag. Even if they were at their worst, they could be used as scapegoats when trouble arose.

"I always feel like you're thinking of something very rude."

Standing before the Jeragand Stone enshrined at Manjusin Temple, Ya'er spoke thoughtfully.

Ernst opened his eyes: "Where is it? I'm praying very fervently."

Come on, you call me "Mom" more often than you call me "Yeragangd the Great God," and you're quite the pious one.

Ya'er thought to herself. But strangely, even though she knew Ernst's title was odd, she never used the divine stone to correct this heretical title.

On the contrary, He seems to like the title quite a bit.