When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 996 Desire and Consumption

Thanks to the benefits of spices, Long Beach became rich at lightning speed in just four years.

The Moonlight Mansion under Ruloris's rule is, as its name suggests, always managing to spend all its government funds before the end of each month.

Aside from buying slaves, the other thing was decorating.

Not only were many ruins rebuilt as government-run workshops, but an ice-drinking room was also built to cope with the hot summer.

Cool groundwater flows from pipes and cascades down from the roof of the pavilion inside the house, creating a water curtain on all sides.

Some wizards even prepared several ice sculptures the size of human heads in advance to cool down the area.

What puzzled Horn was why they made the ice sculpture of a human head into the shape of a skull. Wasn't that troublesome? What was the point?
However, the people of Black Snake Bay have always acted inexplicably, and Horn was already used to it.

That's how the people of Black Snake Bay are.

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

As the saying goes, either open up the country or run a government.

Regardless of which member state is a member of the Holy Alliance, they all basically love to engage in backroom politics.

Simply put, it's a small meeting.

Nowadays, even the retired emperor of the Serpent People Empire, Das, the powerful military police captain of the Northern County, Ksuk, and the tax police chief, Sephi (former leader of the Sisters of Pain), are only allowed to serve tea and water in the Moonlight Palace's Ice Drinking Room.

Seated around the round table were a group of important figures: Pope Horn Galar, Governor of the Northern County Lourdes, Chief Judge Jeanne, Chief Purifier Carrie, and Director of the Holy Preservation Bureau Catherine.

Upon hearing Horn's question, the group naturally all spoke up.

After drinking the herbal tea, Horn looked up and asked, "Now that everyone's here, what do you want to eat tonight? Can I order?"

Both Bob and Kesuku had assumed that Horn would ask about slaves, and they had prepared their answers accordingly. However, Horn's first question was about what to eat for dinner.

Lulus glanced at Horn and took a puff of her pipe: "Why ask such questions? You're at Moonlight Palace as if you're at home. Just ask someone to make whatever you want to eat."

This pope has stopped reading scriptures and started looking at recipes.

Horn smiled and looked at Ksukku, who was in his thirties with a full beard, but was now trembling with fear.

He was originally a member of the Fire Rose Order, fought alongside Mormont in the Battle of the Black Mountain, and later joined the Divine Punishment Order, retiring in 1450.

He then joined the military police and was promoted by Jeanne, but this was the first time he had met Horn.

"Mr. Ksukku, do you have any specialty dishes you could recommend?"

Faced with this problem, Ksukku was also somewhat powerless, even feeling as if the Pope were offering a supper in the middle of the night, asking about dinner instead of the slaves.

"There's a local dish made by mutated animals, using various spices, onions, and garlic ground into powder, then seasoned with butter and purple eggs. It's called curry or something like that..."

“Alright, then we’ll have curry tonight.” Horn picked up a melon from the table and took a bite. “I’ve heard that recently there have been frequent attacks on spice ships and grain ships by beastmen bandits, resulting in the theft of goods worth tens of thousands of gold pounds!”

"What's wrong with you military police and tax police? You actually let a bunch of bandits run rampant on the Ibe River? What are you doing?"

Tax Police Chief Sefi and Gendarmerie Captain Ksukku were caught off guard; how could the Pope change his attitude so quickly?

One second they're all smiles, asking "What should we eat tonight?", the next they're glaring at you like an angel, yelling, "What are you all doing?"

Sephi remained silent, while Ksukkuhan poured out his woes, while Lulus explained the situation to her two subordinates.

“It’s not their fault. We even deployed the Divine Punishment Battle Group to assist, but we still couldn’t wipe out these bandits.” With her hair in pigtails, Lulus bent one leg on the chair and took small puffs of her pipe.

"Why?" Das was puzzled. He knew the level of these beastmen and snakemen all too well.

In the Eastern County, Darth was basically unstoppable. Neither the obsidian spear nor the rare bronze scimitar could penetrate his iron armor, let alone the clockwork gun.

Sometimes, it's a bit troublesome when you encounter local secret society mages or priests who know magic; otherwise, it's a breeze.

Only then did Ksukku speak, wiping the sweat from his brow: "Your Majesty, you are unaware of something..."

Although the Black Serpent Bay Federation's territory, including just the three counties of Kaihua, is almost twice the size of Thousand River Valley.

However, after six years of development, the actual area and population of the three counties of Kaihua are still less than half of that of the Thousand River Valley.

The reason for this is that this desolate place is called Kaihua, but the actual Kaihua area only consists of small and large settlements and plantations on both sides of the Ibe River.

Further inland into the forests lies the territory of native barbarians, beastmen, and even a small number of snake people.

"As new plantations are being established, plantation owners are aggressively annexing the territories of these indigenous villages."

I must say something in their defense: these indigenous people often practiced shifting cultivation—

It involves planting in one place, and then moving to other areas to plant after the soil's fertility is depleted.

Even though the land was not actually cultivated, it would still be classified as their land.

They don't use it themselves, and they won't let us use it either. I'm just...

Besides, they also have all sorts of strange sacred objects and sacred trees. If you accidentally break a taboo, they'll be making noise every day.

In previous laundering operations, a large number of criminal gangs fled into the jungle and joined those uncivilized villages.

They lived as ordinary civilians in their daily lives, but when they had free time, they would associate with the bandits in the jungle and river, plundering grain ships every day.

"When you chase them, they row their boats into the jungle. They have the advantage of the terrain and the protection of the locals, so we always end up failing."

As Kesuku grumbled, Sephiroth chimed in, "There's a rumor that the Southern Church of Fran in the western counties is funding some bandits and even planting some spies."

"Another French spy." Carrie's face showed impatience.

This French prime minister was a great lover of secret warfare, frequently planting informants and spies, and he was persistent in doing so.

There's always some messy stuff going on in the New Five Counties, giving Carrie Herman a huge headache. It's all because of those Fran spies causing trouble.

After a moment's thought, Dass spoke up: "Isn't Black Serpent Bay short of slaves and manpower? Aren't these beastmen just what you need? Why not just wipe out the village and use them as slaves?"

“Little one, we’ve tried your method, it doesn’t work.” Lulus coughed twice, her husky voice coming from her pink lips. “Their tribe is self-sufficient, they don’t pay taxes, and they can survive by hunting and eating fruit.”

If a large army were sent to clear out the area, the first problems would be disease and mosquitoes. Moreover, even the locals of Black Snake Bay wouldn't dare to venture deep into the jungle and swamps.

Not to mention that the cost of this behavior is far less than the benefits, so nobody does it.

"Darthwaite, you didn't dare venture deep into the jungle when attacking East County, do you think we would?"

Dass fell silent, but Lulus looked at Horn and said, "Anyway, I have no choice but to send more people to patrol the river."

"What's so difficult about that?" Horn asked, looking surprised. "Actually, you have the means to subdue them, it just takes some time. But even wiping out the river bandits isn't difficult."

Lulus's first reaction was to laugh in anger, but she eventually restrained herself, since no one knew what kind of advice the Holy Grandson could offer.

What if they could overcome all obstacles with sheer force and directly send 30,000 troops into Black Snake Bay to wipe them out?

Seeing that Lourdes, Sephie, and the others looked indignant, Horn laughed and said, "You can't conquer a region by brute force. I have experience with this. It's just that you have a fixed mindset."

(End of this chapter)