When Elara left Imani's room, she handed the bottle with the remaining pills to the young attendant. "When he wakes up, don't tell him I came. Just say this is the antidote that can suppress his poison. Give him one pill every night."
The young attendant hadn't entered the room, so he didn't know what had happened inside. He also didn't know that the poison in Imani's body had already been cleared by Elara.
He thought the medicine truly worked to suppress the poison and quickly knelt in gratitude, tears welling up.
"Kneeling to thank you, Princess! I kneel and thank you on behalf of the young master!"
After leaving Imani's courtyard, Elara returned to her own.
The place where she had been teaching Haochen was in her courtyard, so as soon as she entered, she saw the child holding the book she wrote for him. He was focused on reading the words on the page.
Noticing her arrival, the child looked up toward the door. His delicate and beautiful face lit up with a smile. He put down the book and ran toward her.
"Sis, you're back."
Elara was thinking about the reports from the Wei family but showed no change on her face. She opened her arms and caught the child running toward her. Just like before, she held him in her arms.
"Yes, I'm back."
The child immediately wrapped his arms around her neck. Just like always, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and clung to her affectionately.
But this time, after rubbing against her for just a moment, he suddenly stopped and looked up at her. "Sis, have you been back for a while already?"
"Yes."
"Then why are you only coming to see me now?"
Elara glanced at the child, who had deliberately spoken with a touch of grievance. "I had something to do and went to another courtyard first."
Sensing that Elara wasn't planning to say much more, the child quietly lowered his head. "Oh." His slender arms circled around her again, and his face nestled into her chest as he clung to her sweetly.
But in the place no one could see, in the shadow of his lowered eyes, a dark emotion was slowly gathering.
Sis... whose courtyard did you go to first...
Over the next half month, Elara continued pushing forward various plans step by step.
Kristof was in charge of negotiating with Leif for three months' worth of grain. On the fifth day after Elara returned to Marigold, the caravans from Zhaiyun Workshop delivered it.
Over a hundred carts of grain left deep tracks in the ground. After arriving at the city gates, the goods were taken over by Hector and Kiyan, with most sent to the military base and the rest to the government granary in Marigold.
At the same time, Elara heard the mechanical voice of System 92 again in her mind.
[Notification. Congratulations. Fifth mission complete: Store one million catties of grain. Reward: Beginner's Ancient Farming Compendium.]
[Notification. Seventh mission updated: Seize a territory of at least 100,000 square kilometers. Reward: Beginner's Guide to Ancient Terrain Management.]
Seize a territory of 100,000 square kilometers? That just happened to match the size of the land she was about to attack in Yudan.
Was this requirement tailored to match her plan? As expected of the support system. It made her next steps easier.
Elara opened the Beginner's Ancient Farming Compendium that appeared in her mind. Inside, it explained many basic farming techniques. Even more surprising, it translated the local plants of this world, which looked different from Earth's but served similar functions.
For example, cotton from Earth took the form of a different plant in this world called "white fluff."
And the "queen of high yield" she had been searching for, the potato, looked completely different here too. It grew deep in muddy ravines, was hard to find, slightly smaller than Earth potatoes, gave off a faint foul smell, but reproduced faster than Earth potatoes. It was still edible.
Elara studied the translated plants with growing interest. She became more and more absorbed.
After reading everything, she thought about the land conditions described by the Agricultural Ministry. She copied down several currently usable farming methods. Then she carefully copied and redrew the diagrams and descriptions of high-yield crops like "cotton" and "potato" onto paper. She planned to send them to the Agricultural Ministry later.
She would have them begin researching these new farming methods while also secretly sending people to search for these strange plants.
Once found, they were to bring them back no matter what.
After finishing with agricultural matters, Elara focused again on military preparations.
Thanks to the constant supply of iron ore from Anqu Town, several new foundries had been built in Marigold. Over the past month, large quantities of iron weapons and equipment were produced. By the thirteenth day after Elara returned, the main forces under the Kiyan army and those under Hector and Egbert had all switched to light and sharp iron weapons.
The moat had already been completed on the fifth day of her return. Water was diverted into it, and all the drawbridges were built. Once war began, Xirui would release his anti-poison agents into the water, marking the final step of preparation.
The city defense ballistas on the walls were also completed by the thirteenth day.
Four large ballistas were pushed onto the city walls by soldiers and positioned at the east, south, west, and north walls. Each ballista had a shooting range of 480 to 520 meters, upgraded by the craftsmen of the Military Engineering Department. Their power was even greater than the two Elara saw when she first came back.
By then, any enemy within 400 meters of the city would be bombarded by the ballistas. This would greatly reduce pressure from enemy siege forces and allow counterattacks to protect outgoing troops.
At this point, it had been fifteen days since Elara returned to Marigold from the border. It was also the end of her second month since leaving the capital.
Her preparations for the expedition against Yudan were basically complete.
That night, she gathered Kiyan, Hector, Egbert and the others for a final war meeting at the governor's office.
Although she had prepared extensively, no amount of planning could change the fact that Yudan had over 200,000 troops. Many of them were puppet soldiers that felt no pain and feared nothing.
On her side, aside from 100,000 Kiyan troops, there were only the 20,000 new soldiers recently conscripted under Hector and Egbert over the past two months.
There was still a gap of over 100,000 troops. Even with iron weapons and city ballistas, it would be difficult to fill such a gap.
So Elara definitely would not choose direct confrontation.
She sat at the head of the table and first looked at Hector and Egbert.
"From your 20,000 troops, pick out the best 6,000 elite soldiers. In a few days, split them into two teams. Each team will carry ten barrels of fire oil. You two will personally lead them into Yudan and approach these two important military granaries."
Elara took out information gathered by her living puppets over the past two weeks from inside the borders of Marigold.
"These two places are among the most important grain storage sites in Marigold. They're guarded by normal humans who haven't been infected. Each of you will lead three thousand elite soldiers, try to blend in with the grain guards, and then find a chance to spill oil barrels over the food and set it all on fire."
After speaking, Elara couldn't help but feel a wave of pain in her heart.
That grain was one of Marigold's main supply depots, and it held enough food to feed her Plumera territory for a whole year.
But unfortunately, she couldn't have people move that huge amount of food during this critical time in the war. If they tried, the plan would be exposed, the enemy would notice too soon, and it would drag down the army, possibly even affecting the outcome of the entire war.
So even though there was so much food, she had no choice but to burn it all.
"Even though the guards at those two grain depots are normal people, there will definitely be living puppets from the Puppet Sect nearby. So before you leave, you must take the pills made by Oswyn in advance. Also, I'll have the animals I control guide you. If there are living puppets from the Puppet Sect, the animals will sense them and warn you, then lead you on a detour."
"But if there's really no way around them, then you must quickly deal with the Puppet Sect's living puppets. Before they can use the poison inside them to kill themselves, you need to cut them open with a small knife and pour Oswyn's special medicinal wine on the inside. That's the only way to fully handle them."
"Do you all remember that? This step is extremely important. Not even one mistake can be made, because if those living puppets pass the message back to the Puppet Sect, not only will your actions be exposed, but the entire battle plan will be too, and the entire army could be affected."
"So you must not make even one mistake. Understood?"
Hector and Egbert both looked serious and nodded firmly in agreement.
After finishing the instructions about burning the grain, Elara looked over at Francis, who was sitting on the other side.
"Francis, your family's army is the largest and most experienced. So in this attack, your army will be the main force."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Francis replied, but Elara continued, "Even though your army will be the main force, once the battle begins, you don't need to attack right away. You just need to act as bait and lure most of Marigold's main troops out to follow you."
Francis looked up at Elara, not confused at all. Instead, he immediately figured out what she was planning and said,
"Your Highness wants me to draw out the main Marigold force, then return to the city and wait in defense?"
Talking to smart people really is easier. Elara gave Francis an approving look. "Yes. Once Hector and Egbert finish burning those two major warehouses in Marigold, whether it's out of fury or because they've lost their food supply, Marigold will definitely send their main force to attack my Plumera territory, trying to take it back and reclaim grain."
"At that time, you'll only need to guard the city with your troops. Use the new crossbows and defense weapons to fight back."
These weapons were created for this reason. Of course they needed to be used in battle to prove their worth.
Francis nodded in agreement, then looked at Elara again. "But Your Highness, aside from those two major depots, Marigold has a third grain depot near the Puppet Sect's base. That one also holds a lot of food. The entire area is guarded by the Puppet Sect's living puppets. If we don't deal with it, the Marigold army may not fall for our trap."
"Also, even though the weapons on the city wall that you designed are powerful, they use a lot of resources. If Marigold's two hundred thousand soldiers keep attacking for too long, we might run out of arrows."
Francis really was an experienced young general. He immediately pointed out the most crucial issue in this battle.
After hearing his words, Elara looked at the others who were also watching her and smiled. "That's why the third grain depot near the Puppet Sect's base will be handled by me personally."
As soon as Elara said this, the whole meeting room fell silent.
Then, Hector, Egbert and the others quickly stood up to try to stop her. In their eyes, Elara was already the commander. How could a commander go into such danger herself?
Even Francis, who had just asked her about that depot, hadn't expected Elara to go in person. He paused for two seconds, then stood up with Hector and Egbert to try and convince her not to go.
But Elara raised her hand to stop them.
"Enough. You all know my physical condition. Back when I killed the 'Poison Spider' under the mine in Anqu Town, I got something from him that helps resist the Puppet Sect's poison. Also, Oswyn will come with me this time. The guards from the Wei family, who can also resist the poison, will be protecting me closely. That grain depot must be destroyed. Among all of us, I'm the best suited to go."
She had Holy Spirit blood and soul power. She could counteract the parasitic insects. That made her the most qualified person to go near the Puppet Sect's base.
Plus, all the experiments she had been doing at the border for the past few days needed to be verified inside the Puppet Sect.
The others were normal humans. They should fight against Marigold's normal army instead.
That was the most logical arrangement.
Elara stopped the others who still wanted to speak. "In short, you don't need to worry about me. Don't worry about that grain depot either. I won't let Marigold have the option to keep it."
"As for the second issue that General Francis just mentioned, don't worry about it either. Once I take down the Puppet Sect's base, Marigold's army will collapse on its own."
"And what you need to do is just hold out until I send a message from inside the Puppet Sect."
"Is that clear?"
The others saw that Elara had already made up her mind. Even though they didn't want her to risk her life, they couldn't go against her command. So they silently vowed to complete the mission without making a single mistake.
"Yes. We obey Your Highness."