Chapter 451: The Blunt Speech

“You have that perverted look on your face again,” Melina chimed in with a frown, then pointed at his mouth. “Also, you’re drooling. Fix your shit, we’re heading down.”

With those words, Melina floated down to the large raised platform, and after steadying himself, Rael did the same, with Chop-E following close behind.

They landed on the platform, and as expected, Melina was the one to step forward and clear her throat.

She mumbled something under her breath, and then she finally spoke.

“Hey everyone,” Melina said, waving. “A bit earlier, my partner and I took over the Hollow Kingdom. Do note that we don’t seek some absolute obedience or any of that bullshit, but simple loyalty.”

It’s like one of those school presentations, Rael thought as a shiver ran down his spine.

“We want money, and you want better lives, so let’s make it easier for each other.” Melina smiled. “Oh right, introductions. My name is Malinali Liesa. Some might know me as the Pirate Queen, and others, the ruler of the Unified Kingdom of Elmlot. But now, you will also know me as the new ruler of Aurenthia, and lastly, of the Hollow Kingdom.”

With that, she gave a dramatic bow to the people, and less than a moment later, loud cheers resounded throughout the flat city.

They were ones of joy, and only a very small minority voiced their complaints. However, Rael spotted that those who complained soon gathered the Silver Knights’ attention.

The Silver Knights ran over to the protestors and, without hesitation, slit their throats, turning them into another one of the Silver Knights.

Because of that, the riots were soon stopped, and while the cheering was only half genuine, it was better than nothing.

But damn… People really like when the rulers don’t do all that flowery talk bullshit and get straight to the point, eh? Rael mused. I should start doing that as well.

The cheering lasted a few minutes before finally settling down. The moment it did, Melina spoke up again.

“The government will stay roughly the same, but the people in charge might change slightly.” She raised a single finger. “But that doesn’t mean I will unjustly remove those in power now. I will only do so if I deem them incompetent or corrupt.”

She raised a second finger. “Taxes remain the same for now, but I will be expanding the Hollow Kingdom’s trading network and eventually, I shall merge all the kingdoms into one. You people have so much land but only two major cities. It’s like you’re begging to be poor.”

That seemed to appeal to a few people, especially those who looked richer. They might be seeing this as an opportunity to invest in the several upcoming city construction projects.

But this would also allow Melina to find out who had money, and the more money they had, the more likely they were to be dirty people.

What she planned on doing with them, Rael could only imagine.

Even so, Melina began detailing the basic laws, most of which hadn’t changed. However, people seemed very excited when she promised to implement a fish trading market directly with all the coastal cities.

After all, the Hollow Kingdom was the only kingdom that had no direct sea access except for a tiny uninhabited portion to the east.

Clearly, she had thought this through for longer than she had let on.

Yet when she neared the end of her speech, she suddenly smirked and turned around before pointing at one person in particular, that person being Rael.

“This here is my partner. He’s a bit shy, but he’s also going to be the ruler of you people,” Melina said, gesturing for him to come closer.

Rael rolled his eyes at her behavior and stepped forward before swiftly introducing himself.

“I’m Rael, and I’m going to be a ruler alongside Malinali,” he said with a smile. “My role won’t be as big as Malinali’s, however…”

He narrowed his eyes as a single straight horn sprouted out of his forehead, causing the ground to turn to ice and spread out. It reached the edge of the city barrier, and before anyone could fall from the Fear effect, Rael retracted his horn and gave the people a thumbs up.

“I truly hope we’ll get along, but for those who have some naughty thoughts, you’ll be hearing from me, not the Silver Knights,” Rael added, then turned around before tapping the air a couple of times, causing a Dimensional Shop to coincidentally appear.

<Dimensional Shop: The Infinite Shelf – Landmark>

“This is my shop. It has pretty much everything you could ever want in the universe, so don’t hesitate to stop by anytime,” Rael said with a shameless smirk and walked behind Melina once again.

“Well… That’s one way of doing it,” Melina mumbled. “Having a good ruler and a bad ruler is an interesting tactic. People won’t like you, but they’ll like me, which won’t really change much in the end.”

Rael’s brows furrowed. “Was the shop too much?”

“The shop was okay, but you cast Fear on them.” Melina giggled. “It’s fine. Just remember that instilling fear into the people does nothing but make them think of you as a tyrant.”

She walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Use fear only if you’re in front of unreasonable people. These guys listen, which means they are smart enough to understand what we’re saying.”

“I see…” Rael nodded slowly. “My bad then.”

Melina tapped him on the shoulder twice, then turned toward the people.

“That is all for today. I’ll begin improving conditions by starting a railway system. You have some of the finest builders, and I believe wasting their talents on fancy magical carriages is a waste. Instead, we can use the knowledge of the ancient books and build trains, maybe even other devices with what we have.”

She clapped once. “But enough of that. You’re all free to leave.”

The moment she said those words, the people cheered one final time and dispersed. At the same time, one of the Silver Knights appeared on the platform and tapped an invisible button on the floor, causing the buildings to once again emerge from the ground one by one.

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