Chapter 291: The Map

Considering that the size of the spaceship would definitely not be small, Kaelen decided to choose a large wasteland in the West of Lyra city to set the coordinates.

Right after successfully using Divine Energy to fix the coordinates, he immediately proceeded to connect the signal straight to the teleportation array located deep inside the Crimson Shrine.

Thinking that Edward would probably need a few days to carefully select the personnel, Kaelen carefully instructed the guard squad to take turns watching this land. He did not want ordinary citizens to wander in here and accidentally be crushed by the spaceship’s hull upon landing.

Kaelen finished everything, turned around, and leisurely walked toward the City Hall. Along the way, he unexpectedly discovered a few architectural complexes preparing to start construction surrounding the central area, which made him subconsciously raise his eyebrows. Based on the arrangement and scale of these constructions, he could firmly confirm that Sane was intending to expand Lyra’s territory.

The empty plots of land around the City Hall were carefully roped and staked by people from the Department of Labor. Each plot was exactly one hundred meters apart. Sane had already discussed building new headquarters for the Departments with Kaelen previously, but the thing that truly made Kaelen stop his footsteps was a row of wooden stakes flying bright red flags, running perfectly straight from the City Hall’s steps all the way to the South gate.

That row of stakes opened up a space twice as wide as the old road. A stake was placed every ten footsteps, running straight through the square, cutting across the East market area, then disappearing behind the foot of the city wall. Remembering flying high above to set the coordinates earlier, Kaelen also faintly saw a few red flags planted sparsely on the vast grassy field outside the South gate.

No one would have the spare energy to open such a wide road only to go out of the city and hit a dead end.

Kaelen clasped his hands behind his back. The corners of his lips curled up slightly. He leisurely stepped into the City Hall.

The City Hall was busy like a freshly poked beehive every day since the meeting to divide the Departments. Every room door was newly hung with a wooden sign, the paint strokes not yet completely dry. There was the Human Resources division, the Finance division, then Accounting.

The staff hugged stacks of files running back and forth. This person called out asking that person where their new office was located now. That person turned around asking in confusion who the Department of Public Security’s documents should be submitted to for approval now. Two male staff members crashed into each other at the corner of the stairs, causing papers to fly all over the floor.

Both of them hurriedly squatted down to pick them up. They only discovered they had hugged each other’s documents by mistake after finishing picking them up. Consequently, they hurriedly sat down again to exchange every single page.

The chaotic staff immediately stopped their footsteps upon seeing Kaelen enter. They stood solemnly and greeted in unison:

"Greetings, Lord Holy Son!"

Kaelen smiled and nodded. He gently signaled for everyone to continue working. He had just walked up a few stairs when Ivy poked her head out from a room. The little girl hugged a thick stack of papers in her hands, her small face running over with joy.

"Father, you have returned!"

"Yes, I am back. Where is Sane right now?"

Ivy pointed up to the upper floor. She deliberately lowered her voice very softly as if afraid someone would hear: "He is inside the small meeting room. He has kept the door tightly closed, not letting anyone enter since noon. Paul just brought a cup of tea in but was chased out by him before having time to set it down on the table."

The little girl hesitated for a moment, then added curiously: "Paul said there is a map as big as the entire wall in the room."

Kaelen smiled helplessly. He rubbed her head, telling Ivy to continue doing her work. He then stepped up the stairs alone.

The small meeting room’s door was indeed closed tightly. Kaelen reached out to knock lightly twice. Sane’s voice immediately echoed from inside, cold and lacking any emotion:

"I already said no visitors!"

"It’s me."

The door swung open instantly. Sane stood blocking the doorway. The face that was as cold as thousand-year ice just now had relaxed into a gentle smile. He reached out to pull Kaelen inside, conveniently kicking the door to slam it shut behind his back.

Exactly as Paul said, an extremely large map was pasted on the opposite wall. That map was pieced together from over ten large-format sheets of paper. The paper edges were overlapped and glued together. The strokes were drawn entirely with charcoal, some places dark and some places light, but extremely clear.

Lyra city lay right in the middle. It was circled by a red ring. To the West was the wasteland Kaelen had just set the coordinates for earlier, which was also marked carefully. To the East was another wasteland several times wider. Small lines of text were noted densely beside it. Further below was the stream originating from the foot of Lyra city, winding straight down to the South. A few small black dots were located along both banks of the stream. Beside each dot was a village name written in Sane’s familiar sharp handwriting.

Kaelen approached to take a closer look. However, the more he looked, the stranger he felt.

This map was detailed to a ridiculous extent. Where there were forests, where there were barren hills, where the land was depressed or stagnant with water, even the tiny trails connecting the villages were sketched fully by Sane. A completely careful note was written next to a black dot by the stream: Millbrook, forty-two roofs, one abandoned watermill.

"Since when did you have the free time to draw this map?" Kaelen asked in astonishment.

"I drew it while you went to set the coordinates outside." Sane answered with a nonchalant tone as if telling a story about strolling in the market: "I just flew a lap around this area to survey the terrain."

"You even counted the number of roofs?" Kaelen looked at the housing details on the map with interest.

"Mhm. If we want to develop, we must develop comprehensively."

Kaelen looked at the two circled wastelands again, then looked at the red-flagged road he saw down there earlier. On the map, that road was drawn as a perfectly straight line running from the City Hall to the South gate. It split into two branches turning East and West upon exiting the gate. Every branch was endlessly long with no stopping point in sight.

"Looking at these strokes, how far do you intend to swallow the territory?"

Sane did not answer immediately. He picked up the red chalk on the table. He stepped closer to the map. He used the chalk to lightly tap on each black dot along the stream. He tapped them one by one from top to bottom. His hand still refused to stop after tapping the final dot. He just slid further down to the paper edge, then tapped twice more on the place where the map had run out of space to draw.

Kaelen could not hold back a laugh: "This covers the entire Continent already, doesn’t it?"

"We cannot catch up with the progress of the Beastman Continent without taking over everything. You must know that bunch is very smart. They will still find a way to develop by leaps and bounds no matter how much the kids restrain them." Sane raised his eyebrows, casually throwing the piece of charcoal back onto the tabletop.

Kaelen completely did not oppose this plan. He knew full well that once Sane had spent effort drawing details to this extent, Sane had definitely calculated the moves from beginning to end in his head already. It would only be superfluous if Kaelen asked more. However, there was one matter he still had to seriously instruct Sane beforehand.

"I will not hinder you from expanding the territory." Kaelen spoke clearly: "But you absolutely must not bring the army to conquer other people’s land. If people want to enter Lyra, they must personally ask to join from their own mouths."

Sane nodded instantly. He nodded so fast that Kaelen felt as if some wrong scheme was taking shape.

"You agreed so quickly today?"

Sane pulled a chair for Kaelen to sit. Sane himself jumped up, sitting cross-legged on the edge of the table: "We have always used gentle methods to attract human resources all this time anyway. We hold in our hands the things that humans always thirst to touch."

The smile on Sane’s face was a bit sinister. Kaelen observed a moment of silence in his heart for those unlucky bastards who chose to oppose Sane.

Kaelen pointed at the three plots of land circled by charcoal around the City Hall on the map. He asked wonderingly: "What is your intention behind deliberately placing the Department of Military Affairs right next to the South gate like that? You just promised me not to use military force to attack anyone."

"Deploying the army does not always mean bringing swords to slash people." Sane smirked, answering: "There are times when we only need to bring the army out to stand there for people to look at, and that is already enough to solve the problem."

A knock echoed on the room door while the two were still discussing. This time the knock was very soft. It was so soft that Kaelen could hear the timidity and fear of the person standing outside.

Sane frowned in annoyance. Kaelen had quickly called out "Come in" before Sane had time to open his mouth to chase the person away, however.

Elric stepped inside. He tightly hugged an envelope in his hands. The Lord Mayor’s facial expression looked as miserable as a person about to grit their teeth to borrow a high-interest loan. He respectfully bowed to greet the two before daring to speak up:

"My two Lords, please forgive me for abruptly coming to bother you two at this time." He stole a glance at Sane, swallowing lightly: "However, this matter has truly exceeded my authority to resolve."

"Get straight to the point." Sane answered coldly.

Elric hurriedly handed the envelope to Kaelen with both hands. Inside was a piece of yellowed, rough paper folded in four. The charcoal handwriting inside was crooked and slanted, the strokes sometimes large and sometimes small. One glance was enough to tell the letter writer had only started learning to write not long ago. Over forty black ink fingerprints were at the bottom of the paper. Every single mark clearly imprinted every fingerprint line of the toiling farmers.

"My two Lords, the person who brought this letter is a boy working as a porter at the South warehouse, named Toby. His hometown is Millbrook village." Elric carefully explained: "The boy has only attended the evening supplementary class for three months. This letter was personally written by him on behalf of all the villagers over there."

Kaelen opened the paper, beginning to read aloud:

"Respectfully addressed to the Lyra City Hall. We are the villagers of Millbrook living south of the stream. Last spring, Baron Harlan Voss ordered people to build a dam blocking the stream above the head of the village. Since then, if we want water for daily life, every household must send one person to his manor to work for free for three days every week. Any household lacking enough people must shell out money from their own pockets to hire a substitute worker.

We heard rumors that in Lyra, no one has to work for free for anyone. We do not know if lowly farmers like us are allowed to write this letter to send to you Lords. Please generously forgive us if it is not allowed."

The meeting room fell into a very long silence after he finished reading the final sentence.

Kaelen slowly folded the letter. He looked up at Elric, asking: "Did you grasp this oppression matter beforehand?"

Elric sighed sadly: "Lord, I have also heard people whispering about it. Baron Voss looks polished on the outside but is actually quite heavily in debt. He has come up with all kinds of dirty tricks to squeeze money dry from the tenant farmers over these past few years. That tyrannical water dam is also one of his methods of extortion."

He rubbed his two hands together. His facial expression was extremely conflicted: "But Lord, Millbrook is the legal fiefdom of the Voss family. We have no authority to interfere with internal affairs within someone else’s territory. If Lyra’s Department of Public Security personnel set foot on that land, Baron Voss can entirely step forward the very next day to file a denunciation against Lyra for invading aristocratic territory. Once this matter flies to the ears of the Royal Capital, then..."

He did not dare to continue speaking. He only shook his head helplessly.

Sane remained silent, not saying anything. He jumped down from the table edge. He slowly walked in front of the giant map, finding the exact black dot with the note ’Millbrook’. His long, slender finger was placed on that black dot. He then slowly traced upward against the stream current. He slid past a small horizontal line beside which he had personally written the note ’the dam’. He continued tracing upward until his finger touched the red boundary ring of Lyra city. He then lightly tapped twice on the land stretching along the East bank of the stream, lying squarely across the middle of those two points.

The corners of Sane’s mouth slowly curled up into an extremely wicked smile.

Kaelen immediately knew someone was definitely about to face huge bad luck the moment he saw that familiar smile. Every time Sane smiled like that, some fool was bound to hold their face crying in resentment. The most notable thing was that the person would have to kowtow expressing profuse gratitude to Sane while crying, which was truly ridiculous.

"Elric," Sane called out.

"Yes, I am present, Lord."

"You immediately dispatch people to investigate who owns the rocky strip of land along the stream connecting from this point to this point tomorrow." Sane used his hand to draw a long line along the East bank of the stream on the map: "If this land belongs to the Voss family, send people over to ask him how much he prices that strip of land for sale."

Elric craned his neck following Sane’s finger. His face was bewildered, completely unable to understand the thoughts of this Lord Divine Envoy: "Lord, I know that strip of land very well. That place is entirely barren gravel. Even weeds cannot grow there. Goats and cows passing by do not even bother to stop to graze. What do you want to spend money buying it for?"

"I am buying that piece of land just to look at it." Sane casually dropped a sentence.

Elric: "..."

Kaelen had to turn his face away. He cleared his throat once to hold back the laughter surging out of his throat.

Elric left the meeting room holding a belly full of frustrated questions. He was stopped by a male staff member of the Human Resources division asking which floor the Lord Mayor’s office had moved to now just as he stepped out to the stairs. Consequently, the pitiful Mayor had to personally guide the person to find his very own office.

The sky had already begun to turn dusky by the time Sane and Kaelen left the City Hall. The Department of Labor’s construction workers had packed up their tools and gone home. Only the row of red flag stakes stood silently, tracing out a perfectly straight road. The autumn wind blew past, making the flags flutter. Sane grabbed Kaelen’s hand. The two intertwined their ten fingers. They leisurely walked along that row of stakes, walking endlessly until reaching the foot of the South city wall.

Kaelen raised his eyes looking up at the majestic city gate. He then cast his gaze out to the dim grassy field on the other side. He asked softly: "The plan is settled. So when do you intend to personally go meet that Baron Voss?"

"I do not need to go look for him. Let him drag his own face here." Sane answered proudly: "People thirsting for money will always automatically smell the scent of money and come looking anyway."

"Can I sit aside and watch the spectacle when he crawls over here?"

Sane glanced at Kaelen. He raised his eyebrows asking: "What can you see if you tag along?"

Kaelen smiled beamingly. His eyes narrowed like a small fox: "I am going to watch people losing their land while crying and thanking you, of course."

Sane also could not hold back a laugh. He leaned down, giving an ambiguously light bite on Kaelen’s earlobe. He then tightly grasped his mate’s hand, pulling Kaelen back home.