Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste-Chapter 647 - 611: Audience with Perfikot

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 time 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 transformed scene.

The construction sites he remembered were mostly completed, now turned into tall buildings covered in snow, which even in this apocalyptic winter had a trace of former 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 development 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 time, 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 become this prosperous in three years.

Yet in three years, Perfikot turned the impossible into reality, building the entire Northern Territory from wasteland, constructing numerous shelters and settlements, 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 member 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 dreamer 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 times, the Koumak family never had such moments 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 same cloak.

Moreover, unlike Shay, the White Bear Knights guarding here were all official members of the Knight Order, essentially different from honorary knights like Shay.

However, they didn't trouble Shay, merely asking him to state his identity and checking the items he brought; once confirmed 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; someone 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 some biscuits.

Seeing hot tea and biscuits, Shay's eyes gleamed.

In his settlement, though supplies were not lacking and he could occasionally eat meat, life was considered good among settlements.

Yet, even so, tea and sweets remained luxuries Shay hadn't seen in a long time.

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 meant for "poor knights" like Shay but for the nobles of larger settlements.

These nobles mostly relocated from Langton along with the Imperial Center and settled in cities like Chernobyl and Beloburg in the Northern Territory.

Yet some with less status or who simply self-funded their Northern venture had to reside in those settlements.

These nobles brought immense 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 some time cultivating tea trees in greenhouses and mechanizing 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 mechanically produced tea sufficed.

If someone asked Perfikot to implement something like girls plucking tea with their lips, she would have them made into a tea-plucking machine servant.