Chapter 18: A Born Actress

They weren’t so childish as to be insulting, yet they were difficult enough that the listener would likely be able to provide at least a partial answer. Whenever this happened, she would gaze at Su Na with wide, sparkling eyes filled with admiration, followed by unstinting praise.

Most young people are in a stage of self-confidence where they are eager for the world to hear and validate their voices.

Su Na thought that if it were any other noble young lady in her place, they might have developed a strong fondness for this simple, sweet younger sister.

Unfortunately, Su Na was not that kind of person. She harbored strong vigilance toward this “white-on-the-outside, black-on-the-inside” girl she knew from her memories. Along the way, she provided only perfunctory replies to keep the conversation from going cold.

If possible, Su Na preferred to turn a blind eye and avoid direct conflict with Yulia.

The Regent above was about to embark on sweeping reforms over the next few years. The resolution he had pushed for—empowering central supervisors to govern local regions—had already passed in the Kingdom’s Council. Consequently, the military autonomy of local nobles would be reclaimed one after another in the coming years.

In other words, the Regent was consolidating the power of traditional royalist local nobles like them, further strengthening the central government’s control over regional lords.

Most lords would naturally resist such a power grab, and the kingdom would enter a period of prolonged instability.

Su Na was a transmigrator; she knew perfectly well that the Regent would win this power struggle. It was just that he would eventually be betrayed and wouldn’t be the final victor.

However, there was no doubt that the Regent would be the most powerful person in the kingdom for the next several years. Naturally, Su Na had no desire to be on bad terms with Yulia, a die-hard member of the Regent’s faction.

The Fafnir territory was neither too big nor too small. With the prestigious “Kingmaker” title as her golden shield, as long as she didn’t recklessly pick a side or force her family into the fray, the Regent wouldn’t be bored enough to target them.

When it came to “righteousness,” it was better to have none than to let others have it all.

In the previous life, the situation had been different: the original owner’s idiotic flipping between factions had offended both sides, leaving her with nowhere to turn but death. In this life, without Su Na’s stupidity to force the issue, Baron Kaibuli naturally understood the way of neutrality.

“I heard from Father that Lady Adelaide held me when I was a child.”

“By the way, Nana, I heard that your territory recently manufactured a batch of mining equipment…”

Su Na raised an eyebrow, thinking to herself, Here it comes. She answered naturally: “Yes, they’re called steam mining engines.”

In a split second, she scanned the information in her mind. The Fafnir territory’s use of steam was still in its infancy, concentrated primarily on ore excavation and machinery manufacturing. Perhaps it was the significant increase in output that had caught attention.

Specifically, the steam-powered hammers and steam mills had replaced traditional water power, allowing operations to continue normally even during winter when the rivers froze, leading to steadily rising production.

Baron Kaibuli saw the benefits of the cheap energy provided by steam engines, and he had supported Su Na’s efforts wholeheartedly rather than interfering.

To scale up and form a production cluster, heavy capital investment was inevitable. The territory’s original budget couldn’t sustain it; the best solution was manufacturing, utilization, increased production, expansion, and sales to form a virtuous cycle.

The party most sensitive to the materials market was, in all likelihood, the merchant guilds. Given the special relationship between Yulia and the Pope, her channel for gathering information was undoubtedly the Kortel Merchant Guild.

But for the two sides to be so closely linked this early on? The Rose Duke and her two brothers were still very much alive.

As she thought, Su Na explained: “Actually, they’re just toys I made. They use heat to replace the force of running water on waterwheels to drive mechanical transmissions.”

“Steam replacing water power…?”

“Nana, how did you come up with these? You truly are a genius!” Yulia looked at Su Na with glowing eyes, the little hands gripping her arm tightening, as if she might drag her away and hide her at any second. Her micro-expressions didn’t look like an act.

Su Na shook her head: “It’s nothing; any normal person would understand it at a glance. They’re just toys.”

She wasn’t being modest. As long as one understood the working principle of a steam engine, anyone with decent mechanical aptitude could cobble together something roughly similar. The only difference would be the thermal efficiency.

The hardest part was the 0-to-1 leap of the original inventor. If it existed, it existed; if it didn’t, it simply didn’t.

Every subsequent variation after the prototype was the most vivid interpretation of the phrase, “standing on the shoulders of giants.”

“No, no, no! Nana, you’re too modest. You are a true genius!” Yulia declared emphatically.