Lord of Winter: Beginning with Daily Intelligence - Chapter 498 - 308: Talent Is the Most Important Asset in the Northern Territory

Chapter 498: Chapter 308: Talent Is the Most Important Asset in the Northern Territory

Dim light fell between the thick maps, scrolls, and drafts, carrying a faint scent of ink in the air.

Outside the window was the Red Tide’s main road under renovation, while inside were the three individuals about to decide the future of Red Tide.

Bradley stood by the window, silently flipping through page after page of briefs, his expression still familiar with its old-fashioned rigor.

At the end near the bookshelf, Lanna stood silently in a simple dark blue robe, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the parchment book clip in her hand, a barely noticeable hint of nervousness between her brows.

Lanna Verdi, once the famous daughter of the Verdi family in the northwestern frontier of the Empire, known for her literary and historical talent from a young age.

If everything had gone as usual, her life would have been one accompanied by poetry and books, later marrying other nobles and spending her life leisurely.

But the gears of fate suddenly broke when her father openly opposed the Imperial Capital’s proposal on land annexation.

The Verdi family instantaneously became abandoned; noble feudal lands were revoked, family private soldiers were purged, her brother disappeared, and her mother passed away.

Wearing civilian clothes, Lanna, escorted by several family knights, eventually arrived at Red Tide along with a group of Northern Territory refugees from the war with Snow Vow.

Because she knew how to read and write, she taught children in school to read and write, thinking this would be her life.

Until Louis approached her, handing her a bill draft: “Write a pilot education program.”

From then on, Lanna hid the Verdi name, only referring to herself as “Lanna,” gradually taking over the educational affairs across Red Tide.

Two years later, on the day the Department of Education was officially established, she finally became one of the youngest core officials within the Red Tide system under the title of director.

But she always remembered the plain words Louis said when handing over the bill draft: “Do something meaningful.”

No pity, no probing, only trust.

At that moment, Lanna suddenly realized she was no longer a fleeing noble orphan, but a useful person.

In this rebuilt land, she found long-lost dignity and purpose, and found a lord worth following.

Of course, Lanna did not disappoint Louis’s expectations.

During the rapid development in the Red Tide Territory over these two years, she earned Louis’s trust and full support,

leading the creation of a network of primary school points covering the main city, establishing twelve elementary schools in total, and setting up numerous adult literacy classes.

The courses she designed followed the principle of “practical first, order as the framework,” systematically teaching the following three basic modules:

Basic literacy connected with the Red Tide’s official document system, covering everything from social etiquette to basic contract formats;

Practical arithmetic matched the Red Tide’s rationing system and market trading system, ensuring students can independently calculate distribution and conversion;

Code education, selectively teaching straightforward clauses from the “Red Tide Basic Code,” supplemented with storytelling, subtly spreading the awareness of rule of law and public order.

As of now, nearly three thousand children aged 7 to 14 among the returning citizens have entered the classroom.

In adult education, young people are continually being selected for the local positions of town clerk, grain allocation assistant, and border post recorder after becoming literate.

More importantly, Lanna assisted in constructing a “teacher assessment and recruitment” system, slowly integrating the teaching workforce into the Red Tide’s civil system, elevating the status of the education profession.

All these achievements not only earned her the respectful title of Lady Lanna but laid the first foundation of order inheritance for the Red Tide Territory.

And today, she was here to report the Department of Education’s five-year plan to Louis.

“It’s the five-year planning document from the Department of Education, please have a look.” Lanna whispered.

She had never been more nervous.

Facing other officials, she was always adept, but in front of Louis, she never dared to relax even a bit.

Louis took the manuscript but did not immediately review it.

He merely looked up at her, smiled, and said, “Lanna, there’s no need to be nervous. You’re not here to be judged; you’re here to report something… that we both care deeply about.”

For Red Tide Lord Louis, education was never merely about “teaching people to read.”

He saw further, farther than anyone else.

To truly lead this land out from under the shadow of war and famine requires more than the knights’ swords or the strictness of decrees.

It requires ordinary people who can stand on their own, who can think, who can change their destiny.

The backward Northern Territory was once abandoned land repeatedly contested by the Barbarian Race and the Empire, not because people lacked courage, but because technology was not advanced enough, industry was not solid enough, and systems were not clear enough.

And education is the foundation of the territory, the most critical investment.

For sustainable development, and to make the people prosperous, more alchemists, draftsmen, people who can understand laws, devise tax systems, design canals are required, all of which require education.

Moreover, education is the widest path to upward mobility.

No matter whether a child is an orphan from a fishing village or a discarded child from the Barbarian Race, as long as he is willing to study and strive to build Red Tide, he can become an official managing an area or a senior craftsman mastering a workshop.

He wants to leave a path of upward progress for everyone on this land.

Furthermore, education enables people to discern right from wrong, respect rules, know shame and honor.

When knowledge is planted, when generations of children learn to think independently and obey the law, the real Red Tide era may finally arrive.

Louis leaned back in his chair, flipping through the five-year development blueprint drafted by the Department of Education in his hand.

Lanna, standing beside him, couldn’t hide her nervousness, her hands folded in front of her abdomen, standing upright, her voice involuntarily carrying a slight tremor: