Elara returned to the imperial palace and went straight to the imperial study, where she sat in deep thought for a long time.
Half an hour later, she took out two pieces of paper and wrote a letter each to Mr. Yu and Leif.
In the letter to Mr. Yu, besides mentioning their various collaborations, Elara mainly asked about what he knew regarding the "Divine Vein Blessing" in this world.
In the letter to Leif, she asked about the same topic but also invited him to visit Plumera City if he had time, hoping to establish a formal partnership between the Bai Family's Business and Zhaiyun Pavilion.
Originally, she had intended to work with Lianyi Tower on both matters. After all, Lianyi Tower had far more business capital and surely a deeper understanding of the Divine Veins.
If the Bai Family's Business wanted to grow quickly, working with Lianyi Tower would be the fastest route.
But shortcuts are always difficult. After Lianyi Tower revealed its desire for her, it was no longer an option for her to hand over her bargaining chips.
So Elara gave up on Lianyi Tower and chose Zhaiyun Pavilion instead.
Zhaiyun Pavilion wasn't as powerful, but its business network covered the southwestern corner of the continent, which included Plumera and many of its neighboring countries.
In a normal situation, working with Zhaiyun Pavilion was a suitable way for the Bai Family's Business to expand abroad.
Zhaiyun Pavilion's influence wasn't strong enough to threaten her. Their operations were close to Plumera, so even if something went wrong, she could quickly take control.
After finishing the two letters, Elara had a thought, and two strong black eagles flew in through the window.
She carefully tied the letters onto the black eagles and sent them to Mr. Yu and Leif as fast as possible.
After the eagles flew away, Elara continued thinking.
Today's visit to Lianyi Tower had sounded an alarm in her mind. Now all she wanted was to grow stronger as quickly as possible.
Thinking of something, Elara stood up and quickly walked toward the palace where Oswyn lived.
...
In Autumn Ripple Palace
Oswyn was in the palace, focused on experimenting with the strange herbal formulas Elara had given him. When he saw her coming, his eyes brightened slightly, and the corners of his beautiful eyes curved in joy.
"What brings you here?"
Because many herbs in this world were different from those in the 21st century, the book System 92 first gave Elara, "Ancient Pandemic Encyclopedia," had medical knowledge that varied greatly from what was used here.
Not long ago, Elara had made time to copy part of the "Pandemic Encyclopedia" from System 92 and gave it to Oswyn for research.
Oswyn had grown up in the Valley of Divine Healers and had learned many medical practices, but he had never seen such a unique and completely different theory of medicine before.
He had been very pleased when he received the notes. He even treated Elara more kindly for several days, stopped picking fights with the other men in her harem, and often liked to hold her and kiss her.
He would say, since she didn't come to him, he had no choice but to go find her for "food."
Elara walked up to him and, before he could happily reach out to hold her, she quickly stated her purpose for coming.
"Oswyn, when we came back from Anju Town, I remember you saved a few pregnant husbands who were parasitized by worm eggs. You said those eggs could be planted into people and used to grow the Puppet Soldiers?"
Seeing her serious expression, Oswyn knew she was facing a critical issue, so he suppressed his desire to hold her and began to think carefully.
"Yes, back then, those pregnant husbands we rescued from the puppet nest, along with the former Belladonna royal males who were raised as breeding beds, were all treated with medicine to cleanse the eggs."
"But because they were implanted with too many worm eggs, over time, they've laid about forty to fifty thousand eggs in total."
"Most of the men who laid eggs have recovered physically and can now live mostly normal lives, though with some lasting effects that prevent full recovery."
"In addition, in the former Belladonna royal family members you've titled as foreign lords, there are still seven or eight men who were raised as breeding beds since childhood."
"They are too far gone to return to normal. Over the past few months, I've been having them expel the eggs, but the worms changed them too deeply. Even now, they remain in a constant state of egg production, with no improvement."
"This condition may last for many years. They've already come to see themselves as permanent breeding beds and can't change that mindset. They will need medicine and caretakers to survive in the future."
After finishing, Oswyn looked at Elara with his cat-like eyes. "So, what do you want to do? Expand the Puppet Soldiers?"
Elara nodded and, after thinking for a while, said to Oswyn:
"So, what you're saying is that those few royal men from Belladonna who can't be saved will continue producing worm eggs endlessly?"
"Most likely, yes. But my medicine should start working more over time. If there's hope, maybe they'll improve over the next decade or so."
Elara frowned slightly and asked, "And the eggs they produce will always be able to turn people into Puppet Soldiers?"
"Yes."
Seeing her furrowed brows, Oswyn couldn't help lifting his hand to smooth them out, his pale fingers gently pressing the wrinkles on her brow. His voice dropped lower.
"You just reached adulthood not long ago. Don't frown all the time. Tell me how many Puppet Soldiers you want to make. I'll help you."
Elara looked up at him, held the hand touching her forehead, and pressed her lips together. Then she spoke her true thoughts.
"Oswyn, in the past... I didn't really think about expanding the Puppet Soldiers."
Because these things seemed to go against moral values. Though very useful, she hadn't considered using them seriously.
But now, she had to find a way to grow her strength fast.
The Puppet Soldiers weren't humane, but they were the only strong force she could think of right now that could be built quickly without much effort.
Once formed, the Puppet Soldiers would never betray her and never act on their own.
They were completely loyal, nearly indestructible, and strong in both offense and defense. They were an unbeatable army on the battlefield.
"I know. I promised you before. As long as you don't use the worm eggs on innocent civilians, I'll definitely help you."
It was the first time Oswyn had seen Elara look at him this way. He couldn't resist the urge in his heart. He gently hugged her, a bit clumsily, as if to comfort her, and softly kissed her ear.
"Don't worry. Let's go. I'll take you to see the worm eggs and explain how to use them."
Seeing the large number of pale golden Gu eggs that Oswyn had sealed in special containers, Elara sensed a clear connection between the main Gu power inside her and the eggs, which calmed her slightly.
There were nearly fifty thousand Gu eggs in this batch. As long as she found suitable people, she could quickly expand the Puppet Soldiers and increase the entire army to one hundred fifty thousand in total.
After hearing Oswyn's explanation, Elara took him to the Ministry of Justice.
Since Kristof was still on his way back to Plumera City, the Ministry was currently managed by only a few low-ranking officials.
"How many death row prisoners are there in Plumera now?"
The Ministry officials trembled at Elara's sudden arrival. "Your Majesty, after repeatedly reviewing and verifying the cases left by the traitor Ge and others, and adding the new death row prisoners recently judged and imprisoned, there are currently about three thousand held in the Imperial Prison."
After speaking, the official's forehead broke out in cold sweat, afraid that Elara would blame them for being too slow.
But they really couldn't help it. The Minister was still over in Belladonna, and the whole Ministry was practically empty with just the few of them left.
The false charges left by Ge and the others were piled up like mountains. After Her Majesty implemented new laws, she demanded they re-investigate every case according to the new code.
So they had to stay up late every day to work through it. But the workload was enormous, and there weren't enough people.
They had been reviewing for over a month, and being able to process over three thousand was already the result of their full effort.
Elara knew the Ministry had barely any people left, and that they had done their best.
So although she wasn't very satisfied with the number, she still patted the official's shoulder to comfort him. "Well done. You've worked hard. After the imperial exam in three days, new officials will be chosen to join the Ministry and help you. Your hardship pay for these days will be calculated at triple the normal rate."
The officials instantly felt relieved and quickly thanked Elara. "Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Elara picked up a file on the death row inmates and glanced through it.
Death Row No. 336: Background — born into a poor farming family, loved by parents. Started stealing on the streets at age four, often lured and killed neighbors' cats and dogs. Born with a love for killing. At twelve, beat a neighborhood child to death during a group fight, escaped, and joined the rebels. Committed numerous crimes of rape, murder, robbery, and torture of civilians. Crime level: Grade Ten. Sentence: Death.
Death Row No. 397: After discovering an outbreak of malaria in a neighboring village, deliberately collected infected blood and poured it into his own village's well, causing over a hundred villagers to die from the disease.
Death Row No. 2783: Massacred an entire village to steal food, frequently ate human flesh, later incited rebels to attack cities and committed countless acts of arson, murder, and plunder.
Elara only looked at a few before turning away. These scum truly did not deserve to live.
Oswyn stood behind her, looking at the death row files too, frowning deeply with clear disgust on his face.
Elara turned to the official. "These death row inmates will later be taken away by the Wei Clan. You don't need to worry about what happens to them. Any future death row inmates should all be confined in the lowest level of the Imperial Prison. The Wei Clan will handle them."
The official quickly nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty!"
—
After handling the matter of the death row inmates and confirming that the Puppet Soldiers could continue to grow in number, Elara finally felt reassured and her thoughts settled again.
If she developed stronger and more powerful weapons in the future, she decided she would equip the Puppet Soldiers first. After all, they could hide underground very well.
With a constant supply of new Puppet Soldiers, she could shift her focus away from military expansion for now and looked outside the window at Plumera City, still buzzing with construction despite the evening sky.
Reconstruction in Plumera City had been going on for nearly a month now. It was too late to hide anything.
Besides, during the rebuilding process, she hadn't included any dangerous or advanced killing tech.
At most, it was just some materials like bricks and clay. Even if people saw it, they wouldn't be too shocked. So Elara had no plans to halt the construction. It would proceed as planned.
All the trade routes and official roads across the Plumera territory also couldn't be stopped. For the economy to grow, the roads had to be built!
As for powerful siege crossbows and other weapons... Elara definitely planned to build them, but she would do so in secret. Once completed, they would be hidden away in secret bases, not to be revealed unless absolutely necessary.
At the same time, whether it was Marigold County, Plumera City, or any future important factories to be built, she would assign more Puppet Soldiers for tighter surveillance. She would make sure there was no chance for anyone to spy or sabotage.
With a clear understanding of Plumera's current situation and a rough new development plan set, Elara's mind completely returned to calm.
No matter what came next, she had to move forward one step at a time to handle it well.
With her mindset adjusted, Elara returned to the imperial palace after nightfall.
Three days later would be the first major imperial exam in Plumera. She needed to consider it again carefully.
—
In the following two days, Elara went back to her usual routine of handling state affairs and inspecting the streets.
On the second afternoon, she received a reply letter from Mr. Yu.
But before she could finish reading it, a palace attendant rushed in to report.
"Your Majesty! General Qi is outside. He says that at the western border near the Karu Pass, a group of envoys from the Edelweiss Kingdom have arrived. They brought over twenty male courtesans carried on war elephants, along with large amounts of spices, gold, and silver. They seek an audience and say their Empress wishes to establish relations with you!"