Chapter 552: Chapter 407: Unexpected Joy: Rubber Tree! Steam Engine! (6400 words)_3

This prince was not only rich but also envied for having numerous wives and concubines.

The Queen Consort sitting beside him was only half a head shorter; she was tall and well-built, with pale golden eyes, and her red hair flowed like blazing flames.

She had an extremely powerful aura. Sitting there quietly, she resembled a blazing furnace or a majestic female general.

Clearly, she was also a Fourth Order Mythical Creature [Son of the Sun].

Her garments shone with gold, looking as though they were woven from countless fine gold threads; despite being metallic, she wore them with the softness of silk.

They even perfectly outlined the curves of her waist and abdominal muscles.

Complemented with gemstones of the highest quality, she was practically clothed in a fortress.

"His Majesty, the Lord of Heaven, Your Majesty, the Empress, allow me to introduce you. This is my Queen Consort, and also my sister, Aya Kapak."

Byron did not look further, merely offering a perfunctory compliment, "Queen Consort, your beauty shines as brightly as the sun."

He did not find her status strange.

One only had to look at how everything here revolved around the Transcendent System of the Sun God Inti to understand.

Spreading their branches and producing more progeny—thereby diluting their Beastliness and firmly Anchoring their positions—were some of the main tasks for Divine Descendants like them.

In fact, to maintain the purity of the Royal Family’s [Son of the Sun] bloodline, the Sun Empire had clearly always preserved the tradition of consanguineous marriage.

The Divine Descendants of the Sun God, especially those from the direct lineage of the Royal Family, generally married many wives and had very many children.

Furthermore, to maintain an orderly imperial succession, most of these wives were their own blood-related sisters, who also possessed the [Son of the Sun] lineage.

Of course, aside from wives of status, the noble Divine Descendants of the Empire also possessed far more numerous concubines and female slaves.

Although offspring from less pure bloodlines would not receive the title of Prince, they constituted the source of the Empire’s vast numbers of middle- and lower-ranking Nobility.

If these children, relying on their secondary bloodline and the Solar Codex, could ascend once more through three bloodline sublimation ceremonies, they too could achieve extremely high status.

For instance, Atahualpa’s Captain of the Guard, Xinji Roca, was such an individual.

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP... THUMP-THUMP...

The musicians struck the long drums.

A large group of beautiful and enchanting dancers in splendid costumes filed in, beginning to dance gracefully on the pure gold-paved stage.

The exotic dance was indeed a delightful spectacle, yet Byron, with his peculiar tastes, merely appreciated it as art, his heart entirely unmoved.

His gaze lingered more on their headdresses, bracelets, anklets, rings, navel gems... and other such glittering adornments.

Gold, Mithril, pearls, coral, and gemstones of every hue were present in abundance.

And this was merely what the female slaves wore; compared to them, the royal families of the Old Continent were practically a horde of beggars!

Although this place was called the Sun Empire, it resembled a true Golden Empire more than Byron’s own Sacred Golden Empire.

Even with his resilient spirit, he couldn’t help but feel a sliver of discouragement.

"Come, come! His Majesty, the Lord of Heaven! Your Majesty, the Empress! A toast! Quickly, try the delicacies of our Sun Empire."

As the atmosphere gradually livened, Atahualpa raised a corn-brewed beverage, similar to beer, inviting the two to drink with him.

It was not until then that they finally discovered new business opportunities.

The table was laden with ingredients: corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, avocados... much the same as the crops found in the Bantaan Archipelago.

The meats included roasted llama, roasted guinea pig, and turkey—the last of which Alfred, known as [Blood Red Whiskey], had first discovered on Cannibal Island and subsequently named.

Byron took one bite of the stuff and fell silent. Violet, after taking a bite of a turkey leg, quietly placed it onto his plate.

The meticulous selections made by the ancestors of the Gourmet Nation certainly had their reasons. Some species were never introduced by our forefathers simply because their sole drawback was that they weren’t tasty!

Although it appeared quite lavish, a feast beyond the wildest dreams of the common populace, the taste was remarkably ordinary, and the cooking methods relatively unsophisticated.

Evidently, while the Sun Empire was rich in gold, this did not mean its material culture was highly developed.

The decadent, gold-obsessed upper class and the lower classes likely inhabited entirely different worlds.

In terms of agricultural production capacity alone, it was only marginally superior to the two Great Empires of the Bantaan Archipelago, which still relied on slash-and-burn farming.

And gold, as a universal equivalent, only demonstrated its value when it could purchase sufficient goods. If there was nothing to buy, it was merely a beautiful metal.

Byron and Violet, their minds linked as one, completed their spiritual fusion.

We can’t just look at the upper echelons; we also need to consider the lower classes, numbering twenty million. So, this place isn’t fabulously wealthy and wanting for nothing. Rather, it lacks almost everything. Anything beyond the productive capacity of an agricultural civilization is nonexistent here.

They lack agricultural techniques, draft cattle, our newly invented Quyuan Plough, and compost.

Their diet is also relatively monotonous. They’re missing pigs, cattle, sheep, ice cream, cream puffs, and the like. Everything that can provide enjoyment, we’ll arrange it.

The Queen Consort and the Prince’s bevy of sisters should be adorned in the most luxurious silk attire.

The banquets also lack fine porcelain, as smooth as a beauty’s skin.

We’ll install grandfather clocks in the grand halls and erect clock towers within the palace complex.

And, of course, we can’t forget an array of luxury goods—the kind that don’t overtly exploit the poor—to gift to the upper class to spearhead fashion trends, thereby enticing the middle class to chase them. The same item can be offered in several versions: basic, pro, pro max. We’ll profit from each version, and then we can gleefully fleece the middle class... Heh heh heh...

They engaged in a brainstorming session, each contributing ideas, digging deeper and deeper into the needs of the Sun Empire.