Chapter 778.1: Laxi's Entrance

Mammoth City lay on the eastern coast of Mammoth State, less than 600 kilometers from Silvermoon Bay. By comparison, the distance from Silvermoon Bay to Port Gallon was three times as great.

Although the Tassen River ran swiftly and its drainage basin was not as extensive as the Everflowing River's, it still nourished two or three states and supported a population of nearly 30,000,000 people.

With such exceptional geographical advantages, not to mention its proximity to a bunch of fellows who were especially good at doing business, the fact that this settlement had never really developed was honestly rather puzzling.

Mammoth State had a population of at least 10,000,000, yet Mammoth City, its only major settlement, had barely 800,000 residents.

Port Gallon had previously been poor because of the Xilande Empire, but the poverty in Mammoth State didn't seem like something that could be blamed on the Empire. After all, the Empire's control over the region had always been vague at best. Although it was nominally imperial territory, inhabited by imperial nobles and subjects, the lack of road networks and river transport links meant that even the Heavenly City itself frequently forgot it owned this patch of land.

In other words, the region had always enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. Only on rare occasions would Wutuo Xilande remember to interfere with affairs in the region.

To investigate this phenomenon, Han Mingyue, a researcher with the New Alliance Scientific Expedition Team, conducted a study. Her preliminary conclusion was that serfdom had confined part of the population to noble estates, obstructing Mammoth City's process of urbanization.

Another factor was Mammoth State's extremely poor infrastructure connectivity. Agricultural produce couldn't be shipped out, while goods from outside couldn't be brought in. Independent farmers only needed to grow enough food for their own consumption. There was no need to exchange what they had for what they lacked, and naturally no need to gather in cities.

The second problem couldn't be solved overnight. But as for the first, Laxi had cut straight through the knot and wrecked the whole thing in one stroke.

The nobles' estates were all distributed along the Tassen River. Even the embankment used for flood control and irrigation had been jointly funded and built by those noble lords. So if someone blew up the embankment, wouldn't that solve the problem?

Now, the nobles' lands and the local armies they had raised were all soaking together in the floodwaters spreading across the plains.

Even slaves who didn't want to flee their estates had no choice but to join the streams of refugees.

...

Outside Mammoth City, the floodwaters that had suddenly burst from the river channel not only destroyed the palisade outside the city, but also swept away the villages located not far beyond it.

Over the past two days, the weather had finally improved and the waters had begun to recede. The villagers who had fled into the mountains and forests to escape the disaster finally returned home carrying bundles of all sizes. Yet when they saw what remained of their homes, every one of them fell silent.

They stared blankly at collapsed wooden houses and fences, and at the places where their livestock had once been. For a time, no one had any idea what they were supposed to do next.

Gradually, people seemed to accept reality. Some began moving numbly toward the ruins of their homes, trying to salvage anything that might still be usable, anything that hadn't already been taken by those who returned earlier. At the very least, they hoped to find enough to get themselves and their families through the day. Others wandered aimlessly, either searching silently through the rubble or stopping everyone they encountered to ask whether they had seen their missing relatives.

However, everyone knew it was probably futile.

"Mom! Dad! Where are you?!" Beside a collapsed wooden house stood a boy of 14 years old, all alone. His unfocused eyes stared blankly in one direction while every so often he shouted again. His voice was weak and his throat nearly hoarse, but no one answered him until a group of people with white bandages tied around their arms approached.

An LD-47 rifle was slung across Akman’s back, its shoulder strap seeming almost welded into his shoulder. He stopped beside the boy and slowly sized him up.

The kid looked a lot like he himself had a month ago.

No father, no mother, and a pathetic look on his face... He’s probably exactly the kind of person Laxi was looking for.

Without wasting time, Akman asked, "What's your name?"

The boy stared blankly at the fierce-looking youth in front of him, then glanced at the armed people around him before instinctively moving his lips. "Udi."

Akman continued, "What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for my mom... I think she got washed away." Udi spoke quietly, looking at the group with hope in his eyes, wishing they could take him to find his family.

But to his disappointment, and even despair, the boy in front of him, who wasn't much older than he was, did no such thing.

"She's gone." Akman took a captured Ripper rifle and shoved it directly into the boy's hands. "Know how to use it?"

The boy stared blankly at the rifle in his hands, then looked back at him at a complete loss of what to do..

Akman patted him on the shoulder and sighed. "Doesn't matter if you don't. I'll teach you. From now on, you're one of my men."

"But I have to wait for my mom to come back."

Udi fearfully stepped backward, but Akman grabbed him by the shoulder. "I told you, she's gone. Your father too. Your brothers and sisters. If they were still alive, would they have left you here alone?"

The boy fell silent.

Akman tightened his grip on his shoulder for a moment, then let go. "Everyone goes through a day like this. I've been through what you're going through too. Then a man grabbed me by the collar and told me that as long as the Xilande Empire still ruled this place, what happened to me would happen again and again. Everyone around me would suffer it again and again, unless we sent those nobles to the gallows and killed every last person who enslaved us."

"The Empire?" The boy murmured the words. His breathing gradually quickened, his eyes reddened, and his hands tightened around the Ripper rifle.

Seeing the young man hold back his tears, Akman approvingly patted the back of his head and pulled him over to his side. "That's right. Come with me."

...

The villagers outside Mammoth City had no idea what had happened. The survivors inside Mammoth City didn't know either.

For most people, it had taken no longer than a yawn before someone started screaming, "The water's coming!"

Before they knew it, the flood swept in.

The first thing to collapse was the palisade surrounding the settlement. It had only ever been intended to keep out wild boars, wolves, and crocodiles. Against the fury of the Tassen River, it was utterly useless.

Next came the ramshackle shacks scattered throughout the city, along with brick houses built directly on top of the mud. The former were swept away by the first wave, while the latter were simply soaked until they collapsed under the river water flooding the streets.

Apart from the wealthy nobles, only the Silvermoon Church and the homes occupied by merchants from Silvermoon Bay escaped disaster.

Because of habits they had developed while living in Sunset Province, they were accustomed to laying proper foundations beneath their buildings. That was the only way they could sleep soundly.

However, seeing that the entire city had been flooded while their own homes had escaped damage, the merchants from Silvermoon Bay didn't dare remain there for long. They hurriedly packed up their valuables, boarded ships, and fled. Only the missionaries who weren't afraid of dying stayed behind in the church.

The first thing Laxi did after entering the city was send a company to the church by the fishing docks and place the clergy there under protection. It wasn't because he believed that nonsense about "the Moon Clan's Moon God and the Silvermoon Church's Silver Moon Goddess originating from the same tradition." It was simply because Mammoth State's development needed those wealthy charlatans.

Whether he believed in their religion or not, he at least needed to look like he respected their faith.

As for Laxi himself, he led his men straight into the biggest residence of Mammoth City and turned it into the Resistance Army's headquarters. At the same time, he assigned resistance troops to disaster-relief work while ordering his trusted subordinates to invite the city's wealthy gentry and nobles over.

Sitting in the governor's chair, Laxi looked down contemptuously at the trembling dignitaries standing with bowed heads, one military boot resting across his knee.

"I don't give a shit what titles used to hang over your heads. From today onward, anyone who dares put on airs like some noble lord in front of me will have his titled head chopped off along with the title!"

Every one of them fell silent as the grave. They felt as though they were standing at the gates of hell, with two-headed hounds watching them from either side. No one dared say a word. Their knees went weak, yet they didn't dare kneel either.

Seeing that no one objected, Laxi cleared his throat and continued, "I came here to do three things, but you only need to know about one of them. From now on, slavery is forbidden in Mammoth State. Anyone who keeps even a single slave will have his head moved somewhere else!"

His voice was neither especially loud nor harsh, yet it echoed in the ears of every noble present like a thunderclap. Looking over the silent hall, Laxi narrowed his eyes when no one answered and suddenly raised his voice. "Did you hear me?! Respond!"

Startled by the shout, the nobles could no longer suppress their fear and dropped to their knees one after another.

"Y-yes, sir!"

"I-I-I'll go home and free all my slaves immediately!"

"We'll never dare to do it again!"

"We... we never wanted to mistreat the Moon Clan either... It was His Majesty... Pah! It was all Wutuo's orders! We had no choice!"

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