Capital of the Kingdom of the Waves, the royal palace...
In this place of great importance to this state, the moods of the people who usually lived there had improved considerably in the last four years.
Previously there had been an atmosphere of mourning and uncertainty among the members of the Walker family, something originating from the massacre caused by Minos and the subsequent surrender of this state to the Black Plain.
But as time passed, the mysteries about how Minos would rule the region faded. Many now knew that he would not simply interfere in their lives for no reason. In fact, in all these years, apart from charges concerning promises and information about local development, the Minos government had never interfered in local affairs.
At many times, the people of this government and others in the region could even forget that the Black Plain had won the war and was now the region's leader.
That was a good thing for those powers that were so afraid of losing their privileges and freedoms, and it was critical in improving spirits not only in this state but in the entire region.
With that, while walking through the corridors of this place, royal guards or even the relatives of Blake and Wilfred could feel a lightness in the air, along with tranquility on many faces.
But this had not been caused only by the 'relief' of the nobles and members of the local royalty. In addition to the Black Plain not abusing its position, the many investments made by the Walker family had benefited many subordinates or members of the lower royalty.
Minos had not spent a crystal on investments outside the Black Plain during this period, but his many resource imports into his state had generated grand sums for regional families.
With these resources and the reserves these organizations already had, many of them had invested in the war survivors and their respective cities.
In the case of House Walker, this organization had lost many high-level members to Minos, so they had focused on improving their strength in this period.
Among the measures, this family took to accomplish this were making their Black-grade techniques more accessible to subordinates and investing in resources to raise the cultivation of their members.
No regional organization knew how strong the Black Plain had become. Still, everyone was aware that the power level of this region before Minos could no longer be a standard. If more Spiritual Kings did not emerge in a few years, even ordinary citizens of that state could wreak havoc throughout the region!
In this case, regional powers could no longer think that having 20, 30, or 50 Spiritual Kings was good or enough. Hence the motivation for heavy investment in subordinates, even if Minos had not directly pressured any of these organizations to do so.
Consequently, the current Walker family had more people who were satisfied with the present time than individuals who were rancorous about the events of the war.
Hell, for some subordinates who had grown significantly in that period, the death of their comrades to Minos had been the best thing of their lives!
So, as he made his way to the royal throne hall, Blake could not help but notice the many smiles on his way, particularly on new royal guards.
'I thought my rule would be one of the most difficult in the family's history given the adverse conditions that came my way... But who knew? Things are developing easier than I had thought!'
'Even Wilfred's mother is surprised at all the peace we've had to deal with the kingdom these years.' He smiled as he observed his surroundings, sometimes waving to the people in his path.
Besides the happiness within his organization, something that could also be seen in other regional powers, the peace Blake thought was another of the benefits brought by Minos.
After hundreds of thousands of years, the northern region of the Central Continent finally had a local leader recognized by the entire region.
Because of this, all the states were working with 100% of their attention on solving their problems. Many of them had even ignored old intrigues to act together in cooperation rarely seen outside periods of war.
Because of this, a great harmony had emerged among the regional states in these four years, something that undeniably facilitated the recovery of many local organizations.
On the other hand, the Black Plain had since independence been chasing and punishing criminals at rates never before seen in the region and had considerably decreased crime rates in all the states in that area.
'Well, I suppose these are the benefits of having a tyrant leading the region.' He closed his eyes and found his thought funny, even though he knew he was probably right. 'When we had no one limiting us, we had many possibilities that undeniably brought us problematic consequences.'
'But with the limitation of our freedoms, the responsibilities also decreased...'
'Sigh...'
'Now, we don't have to worry about 2, 3, or 4 troublesome neighbors that are potential enemies. Now there is only one state we have to worry about!' He walked into his workplace and saw some people he expected.
Among those people were King Walker's older brother and the former queen of this state.
"Oh? You finally reached level 59?" Blake asked Wilfred, surprised that his brother had reached that decisive level so quickly.
The Walker family had not forgotten the promise of Minos. That was why they had invested what they could to force Wilfred's advances. For this reason alone, this fellow had advanced so many levels in such a short time, even surpassing the growth speed of some of the soldiers in Minos' Elite Squad.
However, such a thing had not come without cost!
"Yes, I advanced a few days ago... But, in any case, even if I have reached father's level, with my current foundations, even you at level 56 could defeat me." He said in a deprecating tone.
Hearing this, this man's mother sighed and said. "We can't cry over spilled milk, Wilfred. It is indeed a shame that this destroyed your potential, but at least this way, you will have a chance to reach the 7th stage."
"When that happens, even with problematic foundations, you will still be stronger than high-level Spiritual Kings." She looked more seriously at her son and said. "More importantly, only then will we get something from the treasure our family has had possession of for so long."
"I won't be able to do that myself since even though I'm at level 59, there isn't enough time left for me." She sighed in disappointment that she was so old to be able to advance during the remaining time.
They had no information on Abby's current level to know how much more they had until Minos' visit. But considering the advancements of some of the Black Plain's high-level soldiers, these people knew they had just over a year to get a Spiritual Emperor.
"Sigh..."
"I know," Wilfred said in a low voice and looked at his brother. "Forget about that for now. I came here to talk about this communiqué that the Black Plain sent out recently."
"That..." Blake tried to remember what his brother was talking about.
"About the Bank of the Black Plain branches."
"Oh? So that's what this is about..." The king sat on his throne and looked at the two people in front of him. "What is there to talk about? Minos wants to spread his bank throughout the region. So, we will cooperate."
"In any case, the ones who have to worry about that are the powers of the Kingdom of the End. We don't have any bank to worry about that."
Wilfred's mother shook her head negatively and said. "That's not what we want to talk about... The point here is, will the Black Plain open the possibility of investments in that territory to the regional population? Until then, only citizens and allies of Minos could do that."
"Hmmm." Wilfred agreed with his mother. "Also, I think we should take the opportunity and talk to the government of the Black Plain to see the possibility of financing our projects with that bank."
"We don't have what it takes to get that much trust from our citizens, but this bank does. But, on the other hand, since it will be here anyway, why don't we take advantage of the opportunity?" Wilfred opened his arms and smiled. "That could be the answer to many of our problems!"
...
