Chapter 934: Conversation of Leaders
Snow was still falling over Asgard.
Not with the cutting violence of the North, nor with that cruel persistence that turned entire mountains into white tombs, but in a calmer way. The flakes descended slowly over the mansion gardens, accumulating on the edges of the fountains, on the bare branches of the trees, and over the stone paths that had been cleared only a few hours earlier by the servants. Winter covered the city with a soft silence, but it could not completely hide the distant sound of factories, trains, and the life that continued running beyond the walls of the estate.
In the inner garden, a round table had been prepared beneath a heated glass structure, allowing the snow to fall around them without directly reaching the guests. The place was elegant, but simple enough not to seem like an official reception. There was hot tea, small sweets, candied fruits, and a few documents carefully organized in a dark leather folder beside Monica’s cup.
Mercedes was seated across from her.
The Monarch of Ice seemed calmer than she had in recent days, though the natural rigidity in her posture still remained. Her pale hair fell over her shoulders, and the porcelain cup looked too small between her fingers. The cold did not bother her, obviously, but even so she seemed to appreciate the steam rising from the tea, perhaps more for the gesture than the need.
Monica, on the other hand, was impeccable as always.
Dressed in elegant but practical clothes, she maintained a serene expression while observing the city in the distance through the transparent walls of the glass structure. From time to time, her gaze shifted to some chimney, some distant rail line, or some team working on a specific point of the property, as if part of her mind continued administering Asgard even during a casual conversation.
Mercedes noticed it.
And, for the first time since arriving in the city, smiled faintly.
"You really did an excellent job."
Monica turned her eyes to her.
"With Asgard?"
"Yes."
Mercedes set the cup on the saucer with a soft sound.
"I had already heard reports. I received letters, numbers, trade maps, and cooperation requests. Even so, hearing about a city growing and seeing it in person are completely different things."
Monica did not answer immediately.
Her gaze turned beyond the garden, where part of the administrative towers could be seen in the distance, emerging between snow-covered rooftops and columns of warm steam. There was pride in her expression, though carefully contained by discipline.
"Asgard is still far from what it should be."
Mercedes raised an eyebrow.
"Far?"
"Very far."
"You turned ruins into a functional capital in less than two months."
"In a month and a half," Monica corrected, almost automatically.
Mercedes let out a small laugh through her nose.
"That does not make the sentence any less absurd."
Monica accepted the comment with a slight tilt of her head.
"Perhaps."
Morgana, who was standing a few steps to the side examining trade reports sent by the North, raised her eyes at that moment. She had remained silent until then, more as an observer than as a direct participant in the conversation, but her interest in the subject was obvious.
"And how is your kingdom now?" Morgana asked, turning to Mercedes. "After everything that happened with Strax, the tomb, and the sealed dragon."
Mercedes’s expression became a little more serious, but not somber.
"Better."
She took a few seconds before continuing, as if choosing the right words.
"Thanks to Strax’s interference and the Blue Dragon sealed in the tomb of the ancient matriarch, Vex’s original mother, the kingdom stopped freezing endlessly."
Monica paid attention.
So did Morgana.
Mercedes looked at the snow falling beyond the glass.
"Before, it was as if the territory itself were slowly falling ill. The cold advanced without limit, crops disappeared, trade routes remained blocked for too long, and many villages lived only trying to survive the next winter."
She paused.
"Now the cold still exists, of course. My kingdom will always be cold. But it is no longer that endless freezing, as if the world were trying to bury everything under ice."
Monica nodded slowly.
"That is good."
"It is."
Mercedes looked at her again.
"The people are happier. Still cautious, still distrustful, but happy. Some villages that had been partially abandoned have started receiving residents again. Merchants are returning to cross the northern routes, and families no longer need to choose between heating their homes or saving fuel for the following week."
Morgana carefully closed one of the reports.
"So the cooperation pact worked better than expected."
Mercedes nodded.
"It worked much better."
She looked at Monica with more obvious sincerity.
"And I need to thank you for that. Thanks to the mutual cooperation agreement, my citizens now have food without shortage. Grain, preserved meat, tools, salt, medicine, cloth. Simple things for those who live in more stable cities, but extremely important for regions where winter used to devour everything."
Monica raised one hand, politely dismissing the gratitude.
"You do not need to thank me."
Mercedes frowned slightly.
"I do."
"No."
Monica picked up her own cup and drank a sip of tea before continuing.
"Being able to export ice from the North was good for Asgard as well. The factories needed stable cooling systems, the warehouses need to preserve food, some of Frieren’s laboratories depend on specific temperatures, and merchants pay very well for magically treated ice during the warmer seasons."
Mercedes blinked.
For some reason, that answer seemed to surprise her.
Monica placed the cup back on the saucer.
"It is a mutual exchange. Your kingdom receives food, materials, and commercial stability. Asgard receives ice, northern minerals, strategic routes, and political access to a region difficult to reach. Both sides gain. So it is not charity."
Mercedes observed Monica for a few seconds.
Then smiled almost imperceptibly.
"You speak like someone who can turn any gesture into a contract."
"Thank you."
"I do not know if that was a compliment."
"I decided to accept it as one."
Morgana let out a low laugh, and for a few moments, the atmosphere seemed lighter. Snow continued falling over the glass, slowly sliding down the heated sides before dissolving into thin water. In the distance, the whistle of a train echoed through the city, long and deep, crossing the garden like a reminder that Asgard never stayed completely still.
Mercedes returned to observing the towers.
"Even so, in only a month and a half, seeing a city like this be born is truly surprising."
Monica followed her gaze.
"It gives that impression from the outside."
"And from the inside?"
"From the inside, it feels like an endless sequence of problems solved too quickly for anyone to have time to complain properly."
Mercedes let out a low whistle.
"That sounds exhausting."
"It was."
"You seem satisfied."
"I am also that."
Monica then rested her fingers on the folder beside her cup, but did not open it yet.
"Most of the locations were built by magic. That is why everything seemed so fast."
Mercedes immediately turned to her.
"Magic?"
The surprise in her voice was genuine.
"Yes."
"I imagined engineering, mass labor, perhaps some kind of accelerated industrial technique."
"All of that too."
Monica tilted her head slightly.
"But the foundation came from magic. Frieren is an excellent mage. What she lacked was not power, nor technical knowledge. What she needed were clear plans, suitable materials, and someone saying exactly what we wanted to build."
Mercedes stared at her.
"And that was enough?"
"Almost."
Monica finally opened the folder and removed a few architectural schematics. They were detailed drawings of houses, foundations, canals, railway structures, and warehouses. Some lines were annotated with magical symbols, others with ordinary measurements, and there were small corrections made by hand in the margins.
"After we took control of three cities and stabilized the territory, we gathered the available money and invested practically everything. We hired masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, engineers, lesser mages, carriers, transporters, architects, and anyone competent enough to follow instructions."
She pointed to one of the drawings.
"Frieren raised the main bases of the houses and public structures. Foundations, initial walls, runic supports, internal canals, and magical reinforcement. Then the human teams finished the details, roofs, doors, floors, heating systems, plumbing, and adaptation for habitation."
Mercedes scanned the papers with growing attention.
"That reduced months of work to days."
"Exactly."
"But it also required absurd coordination."
Monica smiled faintly.
"Yes."
"You say that as if it were simple."
"It was not simple. It merely needed to be done."
Mercedes stared at Monica for a few seconds, then let out another whistle, this time longer.
"I am beginning to understand why Strax leaves so much in your hands."
Morgana smiled discreetly.
"We all understand."
Monica pretended not to hear the praise, though the slight gleam in her eyes betrayed that she had heard it very well.
Mercedes leaned back a little in the chair, observing the snow again.
"And what are you going to do now? If Asgard is already standing, the trade routes are opening, the pact with the North is working, and Strax apparently manages to turn diplomatic incidents into continental crises before breakfast, what is the next step?"
Monica was silent for a few seconds.
Then she smiled.
It was not a casual smile.
It was the kind of smile that made any sensible person immediately suspect that documents, clauses, and long-term plans were about to appear.
She rested her hand on the leather folder and looked directly at Mercedes.
"I have a special contract for your kingdom."
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