Chapter 1053: Chapter 996: Desire and Consumption

With the profits from spices, Long Embankment City has become affluent at lightning speed within four years.

Under Louise’s governance, Moonlight Mansion naturally lives up to its name, and by the end of each month, the financial allocations are completely spent.

Aside from purchasing slaves, it’s used for renovations.

Not only were many ruins rebuilt as official workshops, but an ice room was also created to cope with the hot summer.

Cool groundwater flows out through pipes, then cascades from the ceiling of the pavilion, forming a curtain of water on all sides.

Mages even prepared a few large ice sculptures for cooling ahead of time.

What puzzled Horn was why they fashioned the human head ice sculptures into skull shapes—wasn’t it bothersome? What was the point? 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

However, the people of Black Snake Bay are always enigmatic in their actions, Horn is already used to it.

The people of Black Snake Bay are like that.

He picked up his teacup and looked around: "Is everyone here?"

It’s either open governance or political meetings.

Any Holy Alliance member country basically loves this secretive political style.

Simply put, it’s holding a small meeting.

Now in the ice room of Moonlight Palace, even the retired Emperor Dass of the Snake-man Empire and the respected Military Police Commander Kesuku of the Northern County only serve tea and water.

The big figures seated around the round table were Pope Horn Gallar, Northern County Governor Louise, Adjudication Chief Jeanne, Purification Chief Jia Li, and Holy Production Supervisory Bureau Director Catherine.

Upon hearing Horn’s question, they naturally said everyone was present.

After gulping down the cold tea, Horn lifted his head: "Since everyone is here, let’s talk about what’s for dinner? Can I order?"

Both Bobo and Kesuku initially thought Horn would raise the issue of slavery, and were mentally prepared, but unexpectedly, Horn opened with what’s for dinner.

Giving Horn a sidelong glance, Louise sucked on her pipe: "Why ask about such things? You’re in the Moonlight Palace, just like at home; just tell someone to make whatever you want to eat."

This Pope doesn’t read scriptures, he’s reading menus.

Horn smiled at Kesuku, this Mr. Kesuku was in his thirties, sporting a full beard, yet he appeared quite nervous.

He was originally a member of the Flame Rose Association, fought in the Black Mountain battle with Mormon, then joined the Divine Punishment Battle Group, retired in 1450.

Later joined the Military Police, promoted by Jeanne, but he was meeting Horn for the first time.

"Mr. Kesuku, is there any specialty dish you can recommend?"

Facing this question, Kesuku felt equally helpless, even having the sense that the Pope was asking about dinner at midnight instead of slaves.

"Locally, there’s a dish made from beast-men, ground into powder with various spices and onions and garlic, prepared with butter and purple egg, called curry or something like that..."

"Alright, let’s have curry tonight then." Horn took a bite from the melon on the table, "I heard recently there’s been frequent attacks by beast-man bandits on spice ships and grain ships, resulting in tens of thousands of pounds in cargo being stolen!

What are your Military Police and Tax Police doing? Allowing a group of bandits to roam freely on the Ibe River, what are they up to?"

Tax Police Director Saphie and Military Police Commander Kesuku were caught off guard; how quickly their Pope’s demeanor changed.

One moment jovial, asking about dinner, the next with the fury of an Angel, "What are you doing?"

Saphie remained silent, Kesuku was drenched with sweat, whereas Louise began explaining for the two subordinates.

"It’s not their fault, we’ve sent out the Divine Punishment Battle Group to assist, yet we still can’t wipe out these bandits." With twin ponytails, Louise curled a leg onto the chair, sucking her pipe in small puffs.

"Why?" Dass was puzzled, he was intimately familiar with the level of the beast-men and snake-men.

Dass in the Eastern County was basically unstoppable.

Obsidian spears and rare bronze scimitars couldn’t break his armor, not to mention there’s the clockwork rifle.

Occasionally, it was the native secret society mages or priests with spells that posed a bit of trouble, the rest were just pushed aside.

Finally, Kesuku spoke, wiping sweat from his forehead: "Your Grace, there’s something you might not know..."

Despite Black Snake Bay Federation appearing vast on maps, just the Three Developed Counties are nearly twice as big as the Thousand River Valley.

Yet the actual area and population of the Three Developed Counties, after six years of development, are less than half the Thousand River Valley.

The reason being, despite its name as Developed, the actual developed areas are only the inhabited areas and plantations on either side of the Ibe River.

Further inland into the forest, it’s the territory of native barbarians, beast-men, and even a few snake-men.

"Due to the need to cultivate new plantations, all plantation owners are aggressively annexing the lands of these native villages.

I must speak in their defense, as these natives often use a shift farming method—

where they plant in one place, and once the land is exhausted, they roam to other areas to plant.

Though the land isn’t actively farmed, it would still be considered their territory.

They don’t use it themselves, nor do they let us use it, I really...

Furthermore, they have all sorts of strange holy objects and Holy Trees, if you inadvertently violate a taboo, there’s constant commotion.

During the previous cleansing actions, numerous criminal gangs fled into the jungle, joining those undeveloped villages.

Pretending to be civilians ordinarily, when free, they stir with those jungle river bandits, plundering grain ships daily.

If you pursue them, they’ll paddle into the jungle, aided by geography, with locals shielding them, every chase ends in vain."

Kesuku complained while Saphie chimed in: "There are rumors that Falan’s southern church in the Western County funded some bandits, and even planted spies."

"Falan spies again." Jia Li’s face showed impatience.

This Prime Minister of Falan is obsessed with secret wars, always planting agents, deploying spies, with unending commitment.

Inside the new Five Counties, there’s always disturbances, leaving Jia Li Herman overwhelmed; it’s those Falan operatives causing trouble.

After thinking for a moment, Dass spoke: "Isn’t Black Snake Bay lacking slaves and manpower? These beast-men are right there, why not simply wipe out the village and use them as slaves?"

"Little one, we’ve tried that; it doesn’t work." Louise coughed twice, with a hoarse female voice from her pink little mouth, "Their tribes are self-sufficient, untaxed, surviving on hunting and eating fruits daily.

Sending an army to clear them faces disease and mosquito problems first, plus deep in jungle swamps, even locals from Black Snake Bay hesitate.

Moreover, such actions really don’t justify the cost versus the gain, no one does it.

Dass, kid, you dare not venture deep into the jungle when attacking the Eastern County, should we then?"

Dass didn’t speak further, Louise looked at Horn: "Anyway, I’ve got no solution, only to deploy more manpower to patrol the river."

"What’s difficult about that?" Horn looked puzzled, "Actually, you have the conditions to subdue them, just need time, but even clearing river bandits isn’t hard."

Louise’s first reaction was a laughter fueled by anger, though she composed herself, not knowing what advice the Saint’s Grandson might give.

Perhaps he could simply crush all resistance by deploying thirty thousand troops to Black Snake Bay for a sweep?

Seeing Louise and Saphie were visibly unhappy, Horn just laughed: "Brutal force can’t conquer a region; this I have experience with, you’re just locked into thinking rigidly."