After many people left that place, Minos saw some of Abby's family members coming toward him, including this young man's in-laws and the supreme elder Miller.
Seeing this, he continued walking toward his destination, but without ignoring them, making a hand gesture for them to follow him.
At the same time, Minos nodded in politeness to his in-laws, noting that Eliot was still at level 56 but that Nicole had already reached level 53.
On the other hand, the old supreme elder was still at level 58, but he seemed on the threshold of that level and could soon advance to level 59.
Minos then heard Nicole's voice, of the three, the one who was most comfortable talking to him.
"Minos, don't you feel you'd better rethink your decision a little? I think it's too much to ask that these families lose all their leaders at once."
"They won't stand for that!"
The two men beside that woman nodded in agreement but said nothing.
Minos did not change his calm expression and said to his mother-in-law, "Well, actually, I won't demand the sacrifice of all of them..."
"Since a state preferably should be led by the strongest person, then I will leave the descendant of Thomas Brown alive to rule the Brown Kingdom and those families."
"That is, of course, if he accepts subordination."
"What?" Eliot said in surprise, having been fooled by this young man for a second into thinking there would be more exceptions.
As for old Vince, he did not want Minos to do that, but if so many people were to be killed, it was better to eliminate them all at once. "That..."
"I think that might not be the best idea." He commented in a confident tone.
Minos understood that man's comment and said. "I know you think leaving this fellow alive will be like guaranteeing a future quest for revenge, but that is impossible."
"Not only will he be limited by a Soul Contract, but he will also have to find someone who is either already much stronger than me or has a much better talent than mine."
"I honestly don't see that happening."
"On the other hand, while he can hardly make the Brown Kingdom grow after all that has happened and will happen, the Black Plain doesn't need many years to pass all the regional states."
Minos was obviously not talking about fighting proficiency since his territory had already surpassed the regional states in this respect. Instead, he was talking about the number of experts and cultivators of at least the 5th stage.
In that regard, the Black Plain still lost, even when adding the numbers of the Gill, Miller, Austin, Parkinson, Cohen, Hayes, and Stokes families, who were already part of that territory.
But with the war over, this sovereign knew that he could surpass all the regional states in a few years.
With that, he was confident that the Crown Prince of the Brown Kingdom had no hope of getting revenge.
On the other hand, despite the fact that current power did not guarantee future power, it was advantageous for Minos to show mercy to at least this man and possibly his wives or mother. After all, it demonstrated to the region his acting methods.
Ultimately, he had no interest in ruling the entire region, as the work of doing so significantly increased the difficulty of maintaining a high standard. As such, he did not intend to take the entire Brown Kingdom for himself.
In that case, allowing that individual to stay alive would be good!
"Anyway, they acted against the Black Plain, and now they need to pay. So I have no option but to issue this ultimatum to the leaders of the families in the Brown Kingdom."
"But make no mistake, all that blood is not on my hands. Their leaders, Thomas Brown among them, are the real culprits for all this."
"All I have done and will do is protect the Black Plain, avenge the deaths of my citizens, and punish those who act against us."
"Now, it will be up to the remaining leaders of those families to accept the full weight of their decisions or to share such with the rest of their organizations."
"But even in that scenario, I will only be the executioner, not the one who gives the sentence." He said this, convinced by his ideas of having a vengeful state which acts vigorously against those who try to destroy it.
"Even the Silva family had its chance, even after all that Otis Silva did..." He muttered, but those three people heard him well.
"Sigh..."
'Well, they did indeed have a chance during that period.' Abby's mother thought about that fact, considering that no one would find it unreasonable if Minos had wiped out that family long ago.
They had ordered the murder of Minos' father, something justifiable in cultivators' minds for the slaughter of an entire family. But even so, he had not tried to exterminate them at that time, having, in fact, gone years without even talking about the Silvas.
Thinking about that, Nicole had nothing more to say to Minos on that subject. He had his reasons, minimally reasonable justifications, and that made each of them understand where his orders came from.
And even if they disagreed with his methods, they all understood that this decision was up to him alone and that it would make no difference to pursue the matter.
"And what will you do with these people coming from the Flaming Empire? I mean, besides the ones your group eliminated along with Thomas, there are still two people in the capital of the Brown Kingdom." Eliot said this as he remembered that Diana Brown was in that city.
"Oh?"
"About that, I will naturally let them return from whence they came. I have no grudge against these people, and they have not acted against the Black Plain at any time."
"So that's it..." Eliot sighed in relief, feeling that his daughter's future husband had not lost his mind in the war, still being quite sensible.
'It seems he is making these tough decisions to build a secure future for the Black Plain.' Eliot looked at Minos in silence, feeling better the person his daughter would soon marry was working so hard for the future.
'Well, at least Abby will have strong support!'
After that brief conversation as they walked through the central part of Dry City, those people went their separate ways, with Minos returning to his headquarters.
...
As the forces in Dry City began to prepare to follow Minos' recent orders, a group of 5 people was flying over the vicinity of this city.
Within this group traveling on two beasts were two women and three men, each of whom looked young, which could easily make them appear to be of the same generation as Minos.
However, despite their excellent appearances, none of those individuals were young, and anyone who knew them could quickly tell that. After all, they were all Spiritual Emperors, something challenging to achieve in a few years of cultivation.
"So that's Dry City, huh?" Their leader said in an interested tone, looking in the direction of that sizeable defensive dome, from where he and his group saw 'little beings' coming and going.
"Crispin, when do we act? How will we know if this Minos is here?" One of the two women, someone with short blond hair, asked in a bored tone, wishing to get this over with soon and return to her sect.
These were disciples from one of the sects in the Flaming Empire that had refused Oswald's requests.
As such, they were here to murder young Stuart!
Anyway, after hearing the question from one of his companions, that black-haired, level 64 man smiled and said. "Well, we can ask them nicely to let us in, or..."
"Or we can just destroy that eggshell and make them talk!"
"Hahaha, that's the way I like it, Crispin!" A tall, muscular man with tan skin said this in appreciation. "If he's in this place, we'll deal with him at once."
"Otherwise, we'll make the people here talk or force him out of his hiding place!"
After those words were spoken, each person looked at each other for a moment as if they had agreed on what to do.
Then, the two beasts descended through the skies, heading towards Dry City!
'Hehe, let's see what this 'genius' fellow can do against us.' Crispin thought with interest as he remembered how the Silva family had described Minos.
...
