When Elara later introduced some of the "new types" of goods, Sylvan no longer asked about their origins like he used to.
But he still couldn't wear clothes properly, the collar in front always wide open, his overly full chest muscles would constantly peek out.
After making various deals with Sylvan, all kinds of Plumera Kingdom goods were sold to wider markets through the Lian Yi Building's channels.
The profits Plumera Kingdom gained grew bigger and stronger, and construction and development inside the country formed a positive cycle, with everything improving more and more.
Lian Yi Building began inviting Elara more frequently, and Sylvan, who was originally the building master of the southwest branch and should have been traveling among the countries in that region, now seemed to have rooted himself in Plumera City over the past few months.
Every time Elara negotiated business with Lian Yi Building, Sylvan received her personally, and his clothing style changed each time, but one thing never changed, he never wore his clothes properly.
Besides business with Lian Yi Building, Elara's business with Zhai Yun Pavilion also grew rapidly after Leif returned with her to Plumera Kingdom.
Zhai Yun Pavilion no longer belonged to Sargassum, and a month after Leif returned with Elara to the imperial capital, Zhai Yun Pavilion's new headquarters was officially completed there.
Once Zhai Yun Pavilion moved its headquarters to the imperial capital, the number of foreign business groups, trade firms, and traveling merchants in the city visibly increased.
Because of this sharp rise in business activity, Plumera City's prosperity soared.
In the counties across Plumera Kingdom, the flood of foreign merchants greatly boosted local economies, helping all industries in those areas to develop rapidly.
Old towns were expanded and renovated with enough money, manpower, and materials, becoming more solid and grand.
Even the major counties in the Northern Frontier, which had only recently been taken back, experienced fast development and a complete transformation thanks to the arrival of many businesses.
More importantly, in the third month after Elara personally went to Belladonna to celebrate Prince Yu's coronation and return, the Ministry of Industry finally completed the task of building 500 kilometers of roads, which earned her the "Intermediate Ancient Road Construction Guide."
The Ministry's road construction teams did more than just complete the required 500 kilometers. After the third nationwide exam was held in the capital, they recruited a new group of talented people and formed five more road-building teams.
These new teams joined the original three, bringing the total number to eight.
With the help of improved techniques from the guide, the speed of road building in Plumera Kingdom increased again.
In just three months, the eight teams not only finished the 500 kilometers but also built several times that amount of road.
From Plumera City heading south to Marigold City, east to Sargassum and the three counties of the former Edelweiss in the southeast, and north to the newly recovered Northern Frontier including the old Salvia Kingdom region, the hardworking teams from the Ministry of Industry connected all major towns with at least one main road.
Smooth highways meant booming trade, and also helped different departments set up branch offices more quickly.
So once these roads were built across the major counties of Plumera Kingdom, the country's trade saw another major growth spurt.
Especially the road that stretched from the east of Plumera City, all the way east across Magnolia and Zhaoxiang to reach Sargassum, directly connected the easternmost part of Sargassum County to the territory occupied by the Dahlia Kingdom. It was basically like extending the road right to Dahlia's border.
Trade between the Plumera Kingdom and the Dahlia Kingdom started on this road, and both the frequency and prosperity of trade increased to a whole new level.
At the same time, after the main roads to major counties across the kingdom were completed, officials from the Construction Department were the first to set out on the new roads, bringing many technicians and craftsmen to build countless local branches in various county cities.
In the southern region, including the original nine major cities of Plumera, Belladonna County, and the three former Edelweiss counties, a dozen major counties in the south each built at least one Construction Department branch in their main city.
In the Northern Frontier, including former countries like Periwinkle Kingdom and Salvia Kingdom areas, more than twenty major counties also built at least one Construction Department branch.
Once the Construction Department branches were set up, other departments were able to build their own local branches quickly with their help.
Five months later, the Northern and Southern regions of Plumera combined had over thirty major counties, each with branches of nine key departments: Science, Commerce, Justice, Medicine, Industry, Household, Military and so on.
These thirty-plus major counties also had essential infrastructure completed, such as large hospitals run by the Medical Department, universities, factories, agricultural offices, public restrooms and other key facilities, all built quickly thanks to overtime work by the Construction Department.
Just in time, the third national exam not only brought in a large number of skilled people for the Industry Department, but also helped solve the serious staff shortages in other departments.
The number of candidates in this third national exam was much higher than in the second, especially among women. The number of female candidates was more than ten times higher than last time.
After three days of exams, over 500 people were finally selected as new officials.
Among them, more than thirty women passed the middle exam, making up about 80 percent of all the female candidates. This was much higher than the male pass rate and over ten times more than in the previous exam.
Elara asked Esmira from the Ritual Department to spread this success rate to attract more talented women to take part in the future exams.
Out of the 500 new officials, over 200 were directly sent by her to the Northern Frontier.
After all, the northern area was huge but had fewer than 100 total officials, so it was seriously lacking. Elara sent all 200 middle-exam passers to the north and asked Governor Francis to take them in.
With enough officials in the north, development quickly picked up. The rapid, dramatic changes nearly caught up to the south.
As more and more skilled people were available, every county city developed quickly and at high quality. Five months later, Elara's twentieth mission, [Greatly develop the counties and cities so that at least twenty counties in Plumera reach the level of prosperity Marigold City had five months ago,] showed steady progress and was finally completed half a month later.
Plumera's national economy and military strength grew significantly. Elara successfully earned the mission reward, [Complete Guide to Making Ancient Luxuries.]
After receiving it, she immediately handed it to the Commerce and Industry Department to study it one by one, helping Plumera gain even more benefits in luxury trade.
A month later, with prosperity growing fast in every area, the Plumera Kingdom, which had already stepped halfway into the status of a second-class country, fully reached that level in terms of population, military, economy and territory.
In the last few days of the sixth month, the System voice rang out in Elara's mind.
[Ding. Congratulations. You have completed the second stage of the main mission, successfully raising the Plumera Kingdom to the level of a second-class country.]
[Plumera Kingdom's national attribute panel has now been updated as follows]
[Plumera Kingdom.]