Chapter 249 - Rescue Mission (Part 4 - Escape back to Sklavryet)
Once the palace is cleared of good people (and valuables care of Astrid), we went out of the palace grounds. It is time to drop by on to the other places that Astrid and Rekker marked on my map. I did quick teleportations between each of the places to make our job quicker.
We were able to rescue other loyal subordinates of the previous queen and their enslaved families. It was child's play for me to destroy those slavery marks anyways. I have also confirmed that Astrid's son and daughter were rescued earlier by my men in other locations here in the kingdom. I sent Asteid to Sklavryet after that.
Next thing we went to are the locations of where Rekker's other rebel group members and their families were. We had to visit about five different places since he said that it is unsafe for them if they all stay in one place. Once the guy has confirmed that everybody is accounted for, I teleported the Rekker to Sklavryet as well. I decided to stay for a bit longer since I have one last thing to do before I leave.
I walked leisurely out of the main palace gates and on to the main road going to the southern exit. I hit the guards manning the gates (as gently as I can) till they were unconscious and then exited the territory as if I was any other sight-seeing tourist.
Once I am a few meters away from the palace walls, I casted a kingdom-wide barrier on Viridis. It was a gift and a curse at the same time depending on which faction you belong to, good ones or the evil ones.
It does have defense as its primary function but that was not the only thing I added on to it. I designed it in a way that it will keep all the evil ones in and freely let the good-natured ones out if they prefer to seek refuge some place else.
Evil people from the outside can still come in but they can never get out. I made the kingdom into a sticky trap for pests. If the evil people want to survive in Viridis while they are trapped here indefinitely, everybody have to work their ass off to feed themselves. Without their slaves and most of their labor force, I wonder how they will keep themselves fed, clothed and clean.
Another thing about this barrier is it will keep good people out. I don't want any good-natured people to suffer further in their grasps. I won't let any type of help from the outside reach Viridis. They do have water and crops.There are seeds around as well as some animals that are kept by rich individuals so they should be alright, for now.
They have to make do with what they currently have and mutiply it somehow for everyone. As for the current king, he can stay here for eternity since he did everything and anythinf to take control of this damned place.
Maybe you are wondering if all those that were rescued were good people or if they were worthy of saving. Of course, I had given my team a magical tool to measure a person's nature secretly. If they encouter a slave that was evil in nature, the assassins will skip on saving that person with no second thoughts.
The whole Noir operation only took roughly 5 hours. As per the reports, we were able to rescue an unbelivable number of people. There were 487 people to be exact which includer the war slaves from Crimson and other territories, the members of the rebel group, the loyalists of the previous queen together with their family members and servants as well as the other slaves that were just lucky enough to be saved during the course of our mission.
As I turned my back on Viridis Kingdom, I have a smirk on my face since I have acted on my petty revenge for Richard. I teleported straight to Sklavryet where the rescued people were sent to earlier.
I reappeared in the middle of the teleportation portal and I was welcomed with cheers and claps from a lot of teary-eyed people. I gave them a simple smile then focused on what help I can still provide.
I saw that Noir prepared the things I told them about, perfectly as usual. They have makeshift tents for the people that need medical attention, temporary bathing facilities, plain clothes for changing, haircut and shaving services for those that need them as well as a community kitchen to feed everybody that needed to be fed.
I sent a message through Richard's earring and told him that I have successfully retrieved Wylden and some of his kingdom's citizens. I gave him the coordinates of the secretive place where we brought the people we rescued from Viridis to. I know that he and Chandler want to meet their brother the soonest.
After sending the message, I decided to help in the community kitchen since there are already a lot of people helping out at the other stations. Feeding almost 500 people plus all the volunteers will definitely put a strain on the cooks.
I ran towards the make shift tent of the cooking team and saw some of the people that were rescued have started volunteering to help out. Some were at least washing and chopping cooking ingredients or mixing huge pots of the stew. I helped out on the cooking area to make everything faster by bringing our more kitchen equipment from my storage.
It took us almost three hours of non-stop cooking before we were able to feed everybody and settle them in their temporary homes. After all the refugees were sent to where they would stay, I called for an urgent meeting with the elders of Noir.
Within 10 minutes, all the core members are present in the conference room. The first thing I did was place three gold bars in the middle of the table which surprised them. I explained that this one was taken by the ex-queen Astrid from the royal treasury in Viridis. She offered it as compensation and to help out on taking care of all the people that were rescued so the elders gladly accepted it.
The next topic was on basic needs. Sklavryet does not have the space to immediately house almost 500 people. We never expected to bring back so many since the original list of people we were supposed to rescue was less than 50.
There were several suggestions that came out that were relatively on the safe and thrifty side. Since I was the one who brought most of the people back, I brought forth a bold suggestion. Since my little property was in the northern side, I wanted to claim the rest of the land north of Sklavryet which was half barren and half unchartered to house everyone else that we rescued and will be rescuing in the future.
This bold idea surprised the elders not because we do not have the money but because it was a huge project. I told them that we have the money and the manpower so there should be nothing that would hold us back. As for the barren land, I can definitely do something about it with my mana. If my abilities aren't enough, I can bring my gardener (Samir) over if needed.
The elders told me that nobody owns and nobody wants to claim ownership of the northern hinterlands since only ferocious animals live there. Most of the area are barren soil and the rest were filled with unchartered forests filled with very old trees that are almost impossible to cut. The trees were really tall and lush, creating an intricate canopy of leaves, branches and vines, making it hard to see the path even during day time.
I confidently volunteered to help in the clearing operation. None of the elders contradicted my idea afterwards. I instructed them to measure the land area and create a plan. They asked me what I plan to build in that huge plot of land and I simply answered, "an autonomous and free trade zone".
The elders imediately called for organization members that work in the construction industry. They may have been all called collectively as "builders" in this world but based on their specializations, you can easily identify modern jobs among them like engineers, architects, carpenters, plumbers, roofers and masons whenever they don't have Noir missions.
The composition of this organization and their chosen second professions were impressive. Before we were able to start the plan though, I had to spend almost an hour explaining what "autonomous" and "free trade zone" meant and what it was for. It clearly proves that what I am building is the first of its kind in this world.
To simplify what I explained to them, I just told them that it was a huge place of business which is not solely owned by any human or mystique race. Anybody can live and work there. All types of products (as long as its registered and legal) can be produced, bought or sold there at a low and standardized tax rate.
Our profits will come from taxes, work permits, rent payments as well as toll fees that people need to pay to enter so that they can bring their goods or to work in the zone regardless of social status or citizenship. Anybody can rent, rent-to own or buy land outright but there will be limitations provided to those who want to monopolize land ownership.
I told them that it would be under the joint protection of Noir and the Halcyon Group. I bluntly said that I want to be a little landlord, owning 3/4 of the land area. I honestly told them that I plan to use my land for low cost housing, guard posts, military barracks, a mansion for the city lord (I'll pick somebody), factories, parks, farms, warehouses, cold storage facilities, a hospital, a school, an orphanage, government offices and commercial areas.
As I was explaining the places I wanted, one of the elders brought out a map of the area. It turns out that he was a cartographer for Noir. He creates maps just like me and he already has the land area for the northern hinterlands.
The northeast tip of Noir's territory has a small port. The rest of the coastline is situated right after the vast hinterlands so they have not developed it yet. I plan to develop that as well to make the free trade zone more prosperous and highly accessible.
It was a huge project but with me helping out in both money and labor, a construction project that should last at least a year should be completed in half the time. They said that most of the time will be for clearing up that overgrown forest and if I can help out on that, the construction part can be done quickly.
The meeting lasted from the middle of the morning till dinner time since we have to consider and plan for a lot of things. I teleported back to Kama for dinner and to check on the guy I left sleeping last midnight.