"Good! Good! Good!" After personally verifying it, King Ilo was overjoyed. "Hahaha!! My son Aurelius! You have the qualities of a Great General!"
"The time for the Helios Kingdom to open its borders has finally come! Hahaha!!!"
Overjoyed, King Ilo disregarded royal etiquette and stood there laughing loudly.
Beside him, Queen Elisa also looked at Aurelius with pleasant surprise, feeling a sense of pride that her son was so promising.
As for Aurelius, dark lines appeared on his forehead; he felt like he had heard King Ilo's words somewhere before.
"Phew~"
Finally, after laughing for a good while, King Ilo slowly calmed down.
"Let's go. Follow your father to the Kingdom's Treasury. The sooner your ability is put to use, the better it is for you and the Helios Kingdom."
Hearing this, Aurelius quickly stood up. "Yes, Father."
"Mn." Nodding, King Ilo, having calmed his emotions, spoke to Queen Elisa.
"My Queen, I will take Aurelius to the Kingdom's Treasury first. Wait for me in the back garden later; I originally intended to spend time with you today."
"However, Aurelius's matter is significant, so I might be a bit late."
"It's alright, Your Majesty." Queen Elisa shook her head, indicating she didn't mind.
"Aurelius's matter is more important right now. I can distinguish priorities."
Hearing this, King Ilo nodded and said nothing more, walking directly outside.
Seeing this, Aurelius quickly waved to Queen Elisa to signal his departure, then quickly followed.
...
Led by King Ilo, the two of them, along with over a dozen maids, passed through more than ten palaces and arrived at a palace in a remote corner of the royal grounds.
Here, a large number of Kingdom troops were constantly guarding the treasury from all directions. Furthermore, Kingdom troops could be seen patrolling everywhere within sight.
"Aurelius, this is the Kingdom's Treasury."
Upon arriving, King Ilo began to explain to Aurelius.
"The Kingdom's Treasury is a place of national importance. Every month, a different legion rotates to stand guard. This month, the East Army is on duty."
Just as he finished speaking, a tall middle-aged man wearing full armor and carrying a giant axe on his back walked quickly up to them. "Greetings, Your Majesty."
"Dinol, the current Legion Commander of the Kingdom's East Army."
King Ilo first introduced the man's identity to Aurelius before speaking to Dinol.
"Dinol, this is Aurelius."
Hearing this, Dinol looked shaken and immediately bowed to Aurelius.
"Greetings, Prince."
Seeing Dinol bow to him, Aurelius smiled slightly. "Commander Dinol, there is no need for such formality."
"Thank you, Your Highness." Hearing Aurelius's words, Dinol quickly expressed his thanks.
"Alright, now that you've met, Dinol, open the Kingdom's Treasury."
Seeing that Aurelius and Dinol had been introduced, King Ilo spoke impatiently.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Dinol did not hesitate at all regarding King Ilo's request and immediately went to command the East Army soldiers to open the treasury.
Although he didn't know why the King brought the Prince to the treasury so early in the morning, Dinol did not ask.
After all, the entire Helios Kingdom belonged to the royal family, and the rules of the treasury were set by the royal family.
Now that King Ilo was breaking the rules, he surely had his reasons. Thus, Dinol said nothing more.
Rumble~~
Soon, under the gazes of King Ilo and Aurelius, the palace before them shook violently.
Accompanied by a series of dull rumbling sounds, the heavy stone doors outside the palace began to slowly move to the sides.
As light shone from within the palace, standing outside, Aurelius could still see the tightly closed doors inside the main hall.
"Let's go. Since I brought you here, I'll explain the treasury to you properly."
Seeing the stone doors fully open, King Ilo led Aurelius slowly inside.
Dinol, the East Army soldiers, and the dozen maids waited quietly outside.
...
Walking into the treasury palace, Aurelius noticed the various doors leading to different places.
Noticing Aurelius's curious gaze, King Ilo pressed the button to open the first door.
Creak~~
As the door slowly opened, King Ilo's voice rang out.
"Aurelius, the doors within this treasury palace all lead to different treasure vaults."
"For a kingdom, treasure does not only represent valuables like gold, silver, and jewelry."
"Grain, minerals, and other resources are also a different kind of treasure."
"Of course, to put it another way, these various resources can be called the National Strategic Reserves."
"Behind this first door is our Kingdom's Seed Reserve Warehouse."
Boom~
As the door opened completely, King Ilo led Aurelius inside.
Upon entering, Aurelius found the space inside to be extremely vast; he couldn't even see the other side at a glance.
In this warehouse, rows of precious wooden shelves were arranged in parallel. On these shelves, a large number of well-preserved seeds were placed.
Aurelius followed King Ilo past a random row of shelves and saw Ironwood seeds, Pine seeds, Cherry Blossom seeds... and a vast array of other categorized seeds.
"This is our Kingdom's Seed Reserve."
As he walked casually with Aurelius, King Ilo explained.
"Here, we have seeds for flowers, trees, various grains, and vegetables—everything one could expect."
"Whenever the Kingdom encounters any type of plant, we clarify its use and then collect its seeds to preserve here."
"Half of our Kingdom's territory is located within the Calm Belt. There are many islands in the Calm Belt, and those islands have all kinds of rare plants."
"Those that are beneficial to the Kingdom are cultivated and transplanted. Due to the closed-door policy, the Kingdom must be self-sufficient."
"The appearance of these rare plants allows the Kingdom to produce unique items to meet the various needs of the citizens."
After wandering around for a while, King Ilo led Aurelius out of the Seed Reserve Treasury.
Closing the door, King Ilo took Aurelius into the second door.
"This is the Kingdom's Grain Reserve."
Looking at the various grains piled up like small mountains, Aurelius felt a bit surprised internally.
"Crown Island is very large. Coupled with the complex and changeable weather of the Grand Line, different weather conditions can occur even within the same island."
"Therefore, when a certain area within the Kingdom cannot feed its people due to weather reasons, the Kingdom's Grain Reserve comes into play."
"Aurelius, you must remember, the Kingdom's Grain Reserve must be full at all times. It is the foundation that ensures the survival of the citizens."
Hearing King Ilo's words, Aurelius quickly responded, "Father, rest assured, I understand."
"Mn." Nodding, King Ilo led Aurelius out of the Grain Reserve Treasury with a touch of relief.
Walking into the third door, what entered their eyes were various types of minerals.
Gold ore, iron ore, copper ore, diamonds, limestone, barrels of oil... countless types of mineral resources.
"Aurelius, this is the Kingdom's Mineral Reserve."
This time, King Ilo did not take Aurelius deep inside but stood near the entrance after entering.
"The minerals on Crown Island were mined out hundreds of years ago."
"These minerals come from various islands in the Calm Belt."
"Although the Calm Belt is dangerous, inhabited by various large and even super-large Sea Kings,"
"Correspondingly, the islands within the Calm Belt are rich in various resources."
"Hundreds of years ago, when the Kingdom was first established, the focus of development was not on the Calm Belt."
"But later, as the sea became more chaotic, the Kingdom decided to close its borders."
"To close the borders meant we had to be self-sufficient. Thus, the Calm Belt became the only direction for development."
"In the beginning, the Kingdom's warships suffered heavy losses every time they entered the Calm Belt."
"However, after generations of continuous research and invention, the Kingdom's Research Department discovered that Seastone could play a certain role."
"Thus, the Kingdom secretly purchased some Seastone and embedded it in the bottoms of our fuel-engine warships."
"Oh right, I forgot to tell you. Fuel-engine warships are warships specifically developed by the Kingdom to navigate the Calm Belt."
"There is no wind in the Calm Belt, so sailing ships cannot navigate there."
"After research by the department, they found that burning certain fuels, such as oil and other minerals, can produce various gases to generate power."
"Relying on this power, the Kingdom's warships can navigate the Calm Belt. These are the Kingdom's fuel-engine warships."
"Since then, although incidents where ships capsized and people died still occurred occasionally, the sacrifices of the Kingdom's legions dropped significantly."
"Subsequently, the Kingdom has been roaming various parts of the Calm Belt, searching for resources on different islands."
"This has continued until now, resulting in our Kingdom's reserve treasury being exceptionally abundant in resources."
After finishing his explanation, King Ilo led Aurelius out of the Mineral Reserve Treasury.
Following that, under King Ilo's lead, Aurelius visited several other Kingdom Reserve Treasuries.
The Miscellaneous Reserve Treasury stored a massive amount of civilian supplies and fine wines.
The Weapon Reserve Treasury stored a massive amount of military weapons and arms, such as swords, bombs, and firearms.
The Research Reserve Treasury stored things invented by the Kingdom's Research Department, such as fuel engines, new types of warships, and new types of cannons.
Inside the Knowledge Reserve Treasury were rows of bookshelves, categorized with a vast number of books.
For example: Law-related, Agriculture-related, Livelihood-related, Technology-related, Society-related, Scholar's Notes, History-related, Navigation-related...
The entire Knowledge Reserve Treasury was like a super-large library, where countless books were completely preserved.