The Rise of the Black Plain

Spiritual professionals such as alchemists were no longer in such short supply in Dry City due to the time the citizens of that place had had to mature during the war. However, with the population increase that the Black Plain was about to experience, not looking for individuals who specialized in specific fields would be a mistake.

After all, the local population would soon increase considerably, raising the demand for cultivation resources.

With this in mind, Minos had not forgotten to give this order, allowing professionals of all levels to be attracted to the Black Plain.

But such an order did practically nothing to change his plans for the initial development of this territory. That is because the difference in proportion between labor immigrants and those specialized would naturally be absurd.

The numbers on one side would be in the hundreds of thousands, while on the other side, hundreds would already be too much to expect specialized professionals to come to this place so soon.

As a result, Dry City was fully capable of receiving these 'additions' right away, even if there was still a lot of work to be done for Minos to look at the migration of more powerful people.

"All right, young master. I will do that." That woman promptly replied to young Stuart.

After talking about it, Minos was not slow to move on with other matters, among them something regarding the powers of Stone Island.

"Stone Island stood by us for much of the war, supplying the demand for crystals and other resources from Dry City..." Minos commented to those six people while holding a cup of iced tea in one of his hands. "After that, they still helped us eliminate many of our enemies, speeding up the war resolution."

"As such, now we can't let our friends in that state miss the opportunity to grow with us."

"So, I want you to work together to bring branch posts of those Stone Island families who stood by our side during those difficult times to the Black Plain."

"We will begin by basing these powers in Naval City-1, and later on, we can make room for them in other cities that will be built around my territory."

Some of those individuals made mental notes about this, while others nodded or sipped their drinks.

"By the way, I want priority for the powers of that state that have been on our side and have ship production as their specialization." Minos remembered this vital point since his products would eventually travel throughout the region and perhaps even the Spiritual World.

Thus, he needed a fleet of freighters, something he did not have so far.

The Black Plain Army had acquired several warships during the war, not only from enemies but also purchased ships from Stone Island powers.

But warships and freighters had different purposes. So, this territory honestly had no ships suitable for transporting resources!

On the other hand, even the number of Black Plain warships was not impressive. Therefore, Minos wanted to stimulate the naval industry in his territory so that his army and his government would have these means of transport in adequate quantities.

"But let's impose some restrictions on them. For every person these families bring from Stone Island to work in the shipping industry, these same organizations will have to hire a citizen of the Black Plain."

Minos wanted to give his war allies a chance. Still, he could not put his territory in a dependent condition regarding the Stone Island organizations. Hence, he wanted his citizens to learn from such an opportunity, giving local powers the chance to join the shipping industry with their own brands eventually.

Finally, he said. "As for other powers that are not in that professional field, they will have fewer opportunities for the time being."

"But let's allow the Stone and Nash families to open branches in Dry City instead of Naval City-1."

Those were the two organizations in that state to which Black Plain had the most connections. As such, it was to young Stuart's benefit to have them near him. And in a way, this was the chance for those families to have a good place in this city that certainly had a great future ahead of it.

That was a good reward for those organizations!

"All right, young master." Those people said simultaneously.

After talking for some more time, everyone there left to settle their affairs and start the migration plans of the Black Plain!

...

Five days later...

While the northernmost states of the region were beginning to stabilize with the actions of their respective royal families and the Black Plain was organizing its migrations, that territory's issues with the Cromwell Kingdom had finally been resolved!

After several days since Cade Cromwell sent the letter of surrender to Dry City, the most influential members of the Cromwell Kingdom had signed agreements with Minos and accepted their punishments.

And since his visitors already knew what would happen if they disobeyed him, Minos had not had to deal with any problems when dealing with the leaders of that state.

Unlike what had happened to the people of the Brown Kingdom, Cade Cromwell's group had already gone to Dry City with their sacrifices and the people who would eventually lead that state.

Because of this, those who had to sacrifice themselves for their families had already left this world to join James Cromwell in the afterlife.

As for the living, they had signed agreements with Minos and then left the Dry City, heading back to their homes.

Thus, officially the Cromwell Kingdom had been subdued by the Black Plain, had had its surrender accepted, and had regained the peace.

But although none of its families had been wiped out in this surrender, the kingdom had lost more than 10% of its territory to the Black Plain and the Hayes and Stokes families.

Besides this, Minos had exacted even greater punishments from this state than he had done from the Brown Kingdom since the Cromwell Kingdom had taken too long to surrender.

Because of this, Minos' government had obtained several hundred million more low-grade crystals and hundreds of grade-2 artifacts!

Not only that, the number of surviving Spiritual Kings in that state before Minos' punishment had been far greater than that of the Brown Kingdom. Because of this, more experts at the 6th stage of the Cromwell Kingdom were executed!

But, now that that whole situation had been resolved, Cade had already sent letters back to his state communicating what had happened and his new orders.

Now that he had bent the knee to Minos, he had to start doing the same as the other states, organize his kingdom, schedule the migrations, and obey the Black Plain.

He had not gotten his revenge, but now at least he and his subordinates could have the peace of not having to deal with the deadly threat called Minos. All they would have to do was follow orders, something relatively less complicated.

With that, even with all the losses, most high-level people in that state were not so unhappy now!

...

While the Dry City government was adding its gains to the local development plans and the region was waiting for news of the pacification of the region, Gloria was arriving in that city.

After days in the capital of the Brown Kingdom, this woman had cleaned up the Church branch in that state, 'firing' all the corrupt Spiritual Kings who had nothing to offer the Church.

On the other hand, she had made Raynard Brown ascend the local throne, finally replacing Thomas as the new king of that state!

With nothing else to do in that city, she had promptly picked up her beast and left for Dry City, where she had things to take care of before going to the Cromwell Kingdom.

That way, she did not take long to land in the vicinity of Dry City and head directly to that area protected by the local defensive dome.

'I wonder how he is doing? It's been weeks since the war can be considered finalized...'

'He's thinking about dangerous things?' Gloria wondered as she thought about young Stuart, worried that he had lost himself in a cruel cycle that might cause him to seek more and more violence, even unjustifiably.

But given her previous stint in this city and her abilities, she did not have to think much about such things until she finally reached young Stuart's office.

...