North of the Ring of Fire Mountain Range in the Southern Continent, Sun Empire.

The stronghold of the current King of the Sun Empire, [Hand of Wealth] Atahualpa in Chinchasuyu, Hot Spring City of Caxamalca.

Atahualpa, who should have been stationed at the Cusco Royal City overseeing the Four Great Suyu, has handed over the state affairs to his mother, the previous Principal Queen Mother, Kouya.

He himself, along with the royal entourage and numerous queens and consorts, quietly returned to this lair he had managed for years during his time as a prince.

However, the ring-shaped city built on the crater today has drastically transformed compared to a year ago when Byron visited here.

"Sister Aya, you are already pregnant now, you must be careful.

Mr. James, the business department official sent by His Majesty, the Lord of Heaven, specifically instructed that pregnant women should not have too much cold food.

Even if you are a Fourth Order Mythical Creature [Son of the Sun], you can only eat up to three bowls of ice cream a day."

Outside the Royal Palace, by the beautiful volcanic lake, Atahualpa and his sister and Principal Queen Aya each lie on a specially imported recliner from the Sacred Golden Empire.

Around them, a group of maids adorned with various gold and gemstone jewelry stand poised, each holding a few exquisitely designed glass vessels beside them.

Inside the vessels are ice creams of various flavors: chocolate, milk, vanilla, matcha, strawberry, banana, cherry, coconut, durian... and so on, at least a hundred varieties at a glance.

Even the priceless Shampoo Fruit ice cream, which emits a unique fragrance that even affects one’s excretion, is impressively included (Chapter 325).

Almost covering most fruits from the known two continents and the Bantaan Archipelago, suitable for making ice cream.

"Ah. Really, why is it like this?

Today, the two of us finally came out to play alone, can’t this be considered an exception?"

Queen Aya remains as tall and athletic as last year, with eyes of light gold and long fiery red hair resembling blazing flames. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Her aura is immensely strong, sitting quietly like a blazing furnace, she resembles more a stately female general than a queen.

Yet at this moment, her belly is prominently bulging, evidently pregnant for a considerable duration.

She is dressed not in the Sun Empire’s attire of gold and gemstones, but in a soft silk gown imported from the Sacred Golden Empire.

Even her feet are adorned with a pair of sparkling custom-made high heels.

The change in attire adds a touch of feminine charm, making the young king’s heart flutter, feeling that the money spent is indeed worthwhile.

Hearing Queen Aya’s complaint, Atahualpa, reluctant to disappoint his cherished queen who grew up with him, thought for a moment and compromised:

"Then you can have a small spoon from each bowl, as long as the total does not exceed three bowls."

Aya immediately smiled with joy, planting a firm kiss on her husband’s cheek, leaving a vividly colorful lip print with imported lipstick from the Golden Empire.

Thus, the ice cream, each bowl priced at two pounds, equivalent to more than two months’ wages of a sailor and transported over thousands of miles from the Sacred Golden Empire, was all served with a small spoonful each to the queen, totaling enough for three bowls.

The remaining hundreds of bowls were all removed.

This extravagant scene compared to slaughtering a hundred chickens only for the tongue is quite similar.

Fortunately, having the title [Hand of Wealth], destined to be surrounded by fortune, never troubled by money, Atahualpa is wealthy, extremely wealthy!

Especially after nearly a year of foreign trade with the Sacred Golden Empire, he has brought transformative changes to the lifestyle of the Sun Empire, particularly the upper nobility.

Lounge chairs, ice cream, Queen Aya’s silk gown, the lipstick used for touch-ups after ice cream, etc., are merely the tip of the iceberg.

Despite the abundant production of gold, silver, and various precious metals over a millennium with hardly any outflow in the Sun Empire, it does not mean material development is equally advanced.

The excessively decadent upper class and the lower class are probably worlds apart.

Even if the metallurgy and forging industries of the [Son of the Sun] can rival the Old Continent in cutting-edge technology, it still remains at a primitive societal level in terms of industrialization.

Just looking at the crucial agricultural production ability, it is only slightly superior to the Taino People who originally practiced slash-and-burn agriculture on the Bantaan Archipelago.

And gold as a universally accepted general equivalent worldwide, only when it can purchase sufficient goods does it reflect its value; if nothing can be bought, it remains merely a beautiful, never-decaying precious metal.

Thus, when the immense precious metal reserves of the Sun Empire, enough to cause financial turmoil, combined with the powerful industrial capacity of the Sacred Golden Empire, terrifying power instantly erupted.

Especially with the birth of the Whale Oil Steam Engine, as the Golden Empire entered the era of industrial revolution, the Sun Empire, along with nearby city-states and tribes governed by Totem Gods, immediately became the perfect market for industrial goods.

The Sun Empire alone has over 20 million population, lacking anything beyond the production capability of agricultural civilization.

In nearly a year, the Pioneer Guiding Colonial Trading Company has provided them with agricultural technical guidance, including composting, domesticated oxen by [Beast Tamer], the recently invented Quyuan Plough and ridges...

Pigs, cows, sheep, chocolate, ice cream, puffs, refined candies, etc., have greatly enriched their monotonous diet of potatoes, turkey, and corn.