Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste-Chapter 546 - 513: Tea Party Politics

Perfikot invited only a few guests, besides Eldest Princess Annie, there were just a few noble ladies who could be in the same social circle with her.

After all, female nobles in the Empire are still few; most women have the title of some lady rather than being directly conferred a rank like Perfikot.

If it were at Langton’s afternoon tea party, Eldest Princess Annie would undoubtedly be the star, and others would at most play supporting roles.

But this is the Northern Territory, where Perfikot is the real host, not to mention Eldest Princess Annie herself is not very keen on tea parties; if not for Perfikot’s invitation, she might have casually found an excuse to turn it down.

However, the other noble ladies were quite attentive to the tea party hosted by Perfikot.

Not only did each of them dress carefully, but they also prepared very appropriate and thoughtful little gifts for Perfikot.

They weren’t anything valuable, but it was evident that effort had been put into them.

This gave Perfikot a decent impression of these noble ladies.

Once seated, the noble ladies naturally started chatting about the weather, the customs of the Northern Territory, and similar topics, quickly enlivening the atmosphere and bringing them closer to Perfikot.

At the same time, they did not neglect Her Highness the Eldest Princess, and ensured everyone at the tea party had the opportunity to speak, leaving a sufficient impression on both Eldest Princess Annie and Perfikot.

This, in fact, is the greatest function and purpose of a tea party, to give attendees an adequate impression in front of important people.

Men typically attend social events like cocktail parties or activities like smoking cigars or hunting, while women naturally attend tea parties.

For nobles, ladies’ politics is also a crucial part of noble social interactions.

After all, some matters that are inconvenient for men to discuss can completely be communicated through their wives with the other party’s wife privately, avoiding issues like being caught on the open.

Many times, such ladies’ politics can be more useful than the obvious noble social interactions.

This also made Perfikot sigh, none of these noble ladies is an easy opponent, whereas she herself is not adept at this kind of thing; on the contrary, she is better at dealing with these noble ladies’ husbands.

As one of the members of the court council, Perfikot often encounters the husbands of these noble ladies.

In a sense, these noble ladies accepting her tea party invitation also aims to foster a good relationship on behalf of their husbands with Perfikot. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

After all, their husbands are the Empire’s nobles who migrated from the Empire’s mainland to the Northern Territory, having no foundation in the Northern Territory. Though their status is evident, the Northern Territory is Perfikot’s domain, and if she does not give her nod, it is enough to make a top Empire noble extremely uncomfortable.

Perfikot doesn’t even need to deliberately target anyone; just showing indifference is enough to get someone ostracized and isolated in the Northern Territory’s social circle.

The phrase goes, "The wall falls and everyone pushes, the tree falls and the monkeys scatter."

Building a good relationship with the Lord of the North in the Northern Territory is definitely not wrong.

"Thank you, Count, for your hospitality! Can you tell me the recipe for this dessert? I really love this not-too-sweet cake." A noble lady cut a small cake into pieces with a delicate fork and knife, sending them into her mouth while complimenting Perfikot.

Perfikot merely shrugged at this, casually saying: "This is a Black Forest cake. Since I don’t particularly enjoy overly sweet things, I had my pastry chef look into it; it’s a dessert primarily made with dark chocolate.

If you like it, I can have someone write you the recipe, though some ingredients might be difficult to obtain. At least, this year’s yield of the necessary sweetberries looks concerning, even though I have an island dedicated to producing these sweetberries."

"Sweetberries? Is it that sweetberry island located at the border between the New Continent and the Northern Territory? I’ve heard it’s a famous product from the New Continent, and Perfikot, you also built a logistics hub connecting the Empire’s mainland, the New Continent, and the Northern Territory there?" Eldest Princess Annie suddenly interjected, steering the topic in another direction.

But Perfikot’s purpose today wasn’t talking about the sweetberry island, so she quickly followed Eldest Princess Annie’s cue, steering the topic back to the issues she intended to discuss: "Yes, the sweetberry island is a vital logistics hub for the Northern Territory connecting the New Continent and other colonial territories of the Empire, but according to reports from officials on the island, serious logistical problems are emerging not just with the sweetberries produced on the island but with supplies transported from various of the Empire’s colonies to the Northern Territory.

In severe cases, some have been interrupted for months, and the remaining, even slightly better, are sporadic."

My port officer even reported to me that if the situation continues to deteriorate, logistics between the Northern Territory and the Empire’s colonies will be completely halted."

And this is almost a foreseeable future, as the impending doom crisis has left little time; once the seas completely freeze, the suspension of maritime shipping will be inevitable."

Plus, those overseas colonies don’t have the capacity to withstand the apocalypse; their climate will be heavily affected, and the production of various supplies will likely come to a halt."

"What a terrifying catastrophe! Can’t they build enormous greenhouses like you did, Count, to ensure supply production?" One noble lady asked with a slightly naive tone.

Being able to sit before Perfikot, of course, she couldn’t be genuinely naive; she was merely cooperating with Perfikot with this attitude.

So Perfikot didn’t find her childish, but instead revealed a bitter smile before explaining: "They lack the resources to do these things. Although building greenhouses, with the help of alchemy, has now been made affordable, wanting to produce various supplies using greenhouses remains a quite astonishing expense."

It’s like the cakes we eat today. Just the sugar needed to make them requires a field larger than my garden to grow sugar crops to obtain."

This forces me to find other ways to obtain sugar; otherwise, we would only be able to drink unsweetened black tea."

"That’s truly frightening! Count, have you found a solution?" Another noble lady timely offered a ladder to Perfikot.

Perfikot smiled as she nodded: "Certainly."