Shay hadn't been to Chernobyl for a year or two.
In his impression, Chernobyl was just a massive construction site, with excavation and building everywhere, swarms of workers and machines constantly busy.
But this ti coming to Chernobyl, Shay felt it was already a big city.
Stepping out of the train station and getting into a hired carriage, Shay looked at the streets outside the window, feeling a sense of nostalgia for the unchanged yet transford scene.
The construction sites he rembered were mostly completed, now turned into tall buildings covered in snow, which even in this apocalyptic winter had a trace of forr glory.
If it weren't for the overwhelming snow and the large robots occasionally strolling the streets, Shay might even think he was still in Langton.
It must be said, the developnt speed of the Northern Territory was incredibly fast, so much so that it surpassed everyone's imagination.
Three years ago, the Northern Territory was still barren; Perfikot was commanded to develop the Northland, and at that ti, no one would have imagined what the Northern Territory would look like three years later.
In fact, even three years ago, Perfikot himself hadn't thought that the Northern Territory could beco this prosperous in three years.
Yet in three years, Perfikot turned the impossible into reality, building the entire Northern Territory from wasteland, constructing nurous shelters and settlents, allowing countless people to survive in this doomsday winter.
Whenever Shay thought of this, he had an intrinsic sense of pride because he was also a participant in this endeavor and had contributed his share to the Northland's construction.
And it was precisely because of this that he was awarded the honorary knighthood of the White Bear Knights Order, becoming a mber of the now highly respected White Bear Knights of the Northern Territory.
That iconic White Wolf cloak was presently draped over Shay's shoulders, attracting respectful glances from those who saw it.
This made Shay feel proud, and simultaneously also filled him with a sense of pride.
As a child, he had heard his drear father, who longed to restore the family's glory, speak of the Koumak family's history when it was still nobility, but even in those tis, the Koumak family never had such monts of public respect when walking down the street.
"All thanks to the Count; during this audience with the Count, I must perform well!" Shay thought to himself.
The carriage quickly brought Shay to the square in front of the Lord's mansion, beyond which hired carriages could not deeper go; Shay did not mind, simply having the driver help unload the gifts he brought from the carriage.
After paying the fare, Shay picked up his gifts with one hand and walked toward the Lord's mansion.
At the entrance, the guards stopped Shay, even though they saw the White Wolf cloak on Shay, but the guards stationed at the mansion of the Lord of the North were all draped in the sa cloak.
Moreover, unlike Shay, the White Bear Knights guarding here were all official mbers of the Knight Order, essentially different from honorary knights like Shay.
However, they didn't trouble Shay, rely asking him to state his identity and checking the items he brought; once confird safe, they let him in.
Inside the mansion, a maid led Shay to the waiting area of the reception room.
"The Count is attending to other guests right now. Please wait here; soone will notify you when the Count is available," the maid briefly explained, also helping Shay brush off the snow on his body and bringing him a pot of hot tea and so biscuits.
Seeing hot tea and biscuits, Shay's eyes glead.
In his settlent, though supplies were not lacking and he could occasionally eat at, life was considered good among settlents.
Yet, even so, tea and sweets remained luxuries Shay hadn't seen in a long ti.
Although the goods transported by trade caravans included sugar and tea leaves, the high prices always kept Shay at bay, never daring to have any thoughts.
And clearly, those goods weren't ant for "poor knights" like Shay but for the nobles of larger settlents.
These nobles mostly relocated from Langton along with the Imperial Center and settled in cities like Chernobyl and Beloburg in the Northern Territory.
Yet so with less status or who simply self-funded their Northern venture had to reside in those settlents.
These nobles brought imnse wealth and assets, maintaining their lavish lifestyle even in the North, and naturally could not give up luxury goods like sugar and tea.
To reclaim more wealth from these people, Perfikot spent so ti cultivating tea trees in greenhouses and chanizing the entire process of tea plucking and frying.
Though the tea produced wasn't as fragrant as that imported from the East, as the old world's way of drinking tea did not savor real tea aroma, it was purely luxury for them, so chanically produced tea sufficed.
If soone asked Perfikot to implent sothing like girls plucking tea with their lips, she would have them made into a tea-plucking machine servant.
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