Chapter 672 672:- Myra
?It has been almost 5 to 6 months since the 'The Battle of the Factions' which was a war between the Oracle Alliance and The Cosmic Tide Alliance (previously known as Triumvirate Alliance) had ended.
Since then so many things in the Northwest region have changed and have been changing every single day.
The result of the war changed the politics, power dynamics, and geography of the Northwest region.
It has given rise to a new power in the Northwest region. This new power was the rise of the Hephaestus Kingdom.
Many say that in the war Hephaestus Kingdom played it smart but joining hands with the Istarin Empire and the Echo Dominion Empire. Even though the Hephaestus Kingdom had almost nothing to offer at the time of the war, the Kingdom still received so many benefits once the war had ended.
The Hephaestus Kingdom gained new territories, new sources, billions of gold coins as aid from its allies, and many more. Most importantly this war has given security to the entire Hephaestus Kingdom. The Hephaestus Kingdom did not have to worry about being attacked by other neighboring or foreign Kingdoms or Empires because the Kingdom was a part of the Cosmic Tide Alliance.
This naturally did not mean that the problems in the Hephaestus Kingdom had just disappeared after the end of the war. Before and till the 'Battle of Factions' the Hephaestus Kingdom used to be known as the Capital or the hub of all criminal activities in the Dying Isle Continent.
Despite the aid and military support that the Hephaestus Kingdom has been constantly receiving all this time since the end of the war, it still hasn't been enough to completely clean the Kingdom from the inside.
After the war ended, the Istarin Empire nor the Echo Dominion Empire couldn't send their troops to help the Hephaestus Kingdom. Since both Empires just gained massive chunks of territory, they first needed to send their troops to suppress the rebels. And this whole process took more than a month.
But this does not mean that the Hephaestus Kingdom hasn't been making any progress. In fact, the Hephaestus Kingdom has made progress in every area.
It's just that the condition of the Hephaestus Kingdom was still many times worse than other neighboring Empires.
Though corruption has definitely decreased as the King gained more military and political power, this does not mean that corruption has completely disappeared. The Hephaestus Kingdom has been working actively to remove illegal activities and gangs from the Kingdom. Although the Kingdom has been successful, it's still not enough. There were still many illegal things happening around the Kingdom. It would probably take at least 2 to 3 years to completely clean the Kingdom from inside.
After all, the Hephaestus Kingdom did not have a King like the Istarin Empire. What Aditya did with the Istarin Empire was a miracle. Something like this cannot be repeated.
One might ask why the Cosmic Tide Alliance wasn't helping the Hephaestus Kingdom deal with its problem. First of all, the Alliance wasn't a charity organization. There was an unwritten rule of the alliance. And that was, no one would get involved in the inside problems of the Alliance members. Similar to the Hephaestus Kingdom, other alliance members also had their own inside problems.
If a Kingdom wanted to receive help, it must first officially request it from its members and also give something in return.
Besides, if in a situation where the Hephaestus Kingdom is unable to do anything to fight the illegal activities inside its Kingdom, it's only then the alliance would lend its power to the help Kingdom. But so far the Hephaestus Kingdom was doing well on its own.
Because the Hephaestus Kingdom was a part of the Alliance is the reason why the Istarin Empire and the Echo Dominion were both given massive amounts of loans for the development of the Hephaestus Kingdom.
The Istarin Empire lent the Hephaestus Kingdom a total of 11 billion Royal Gold coins without zero interest. And the Hephaestus Kingdom was given 20 years to slowly pay this amount. If the Hephaestus Kingdom was unable to pay the full amount back in time, then there was an option of adding 10 more years. That's like basically giving free money to the Hephaestus Kingdom.
The Istarin Empire has been too lenient towards the Hephaestus Kingdom. After 20 years even if the amount is paid back due to inflation, it is the Istarin Empire who is going to make a loss from this deal. The only reason Aditya did not give this amount to the Hephaestus Kingdom for free was that he did not want King Aiden to become relaxed. He did not want King Aiden nor anyone in the alliance to think that the Istarin Empire was giving out charity.
The Echo Dominion Empire lent a total of 4.8 Billion Royal Gold Coins to the Hephaestus Kingdom with an interest of 1.10%. And this interest amount won't change. The Echo Dominion Empire has given the Hephaestus Kingdom a time of 10 years to slowly pay the amount back.
Myra was the 9th biggest City in the Hephaestus Kingdom. The City was built on the banks of the Blue Pearl River that flows through the Southern side of the Hephaestus Kingdom. Myra is a very old city. In fact, this city is so old that some people consider this city to be one of the oldest cities in all of the Dying Isle Continent.
Myra was full of ancient structures that have been preserved by the locals as they take immense pride in their birthplace's culture.
The locals claim that Myra is between 14,000 to 15,000 years old but the officials say that this City is as old as 20,000 years old.
Myra was very far from the Capital of the Hephaestus Kingdom.
Because of this geographic reason, the illegal activities in Myra haven't been stopped yet. Even the guards and the City Lord worked with the criminals from the shadows for money.
Any time, a crime was committed, although the guards would arrest the criminals in front of everyone, but a few hours later, the same criminals would be roaming freely in the streets of Myra without any fear of being put in prison again.
The people of this City have been suffering. Major families in the city went to sleep every day with hungry stomachs. People were dying of starvation. There were no jobs for the common people. Prices of commodities had increased by 11 times just at the beginning of this year. All the wealthy and the ones who were enjoying everything were the ones who were doing their illegal businesses.
At first, once the war ended, things had improved a little bit but then the merchants who were bringing supplies to the City got blocked by two bandit groups. Despite being such an important city, Myra did not have a Teleportation Array. It used to have a Teleportation Array but the array was deliberately destroyed by the local gangs and criminals. Whenever the teleportation array was repaired or was in the middle of repairing, these gangs would destroy everything again. Even the City Lord was helpless as he could not do anything.
These two bandit groups used to be rivals but seeing how the King was taking out one gang after another, the two groups joined hands, and now both group members worked together.
Basically, the bandit groups forcefully took whatever supplies were sent to Myra before the supplies could reach the City. And then these groups would sell the same commodities that they have robbed at a very high price. And this is how the price of all things has spiked by 11 times since the beginning of this year.
No one took any action to stop this. The City Lord became blind when he started receiving a 25% cut from the total profits. The voices of the people who are suffering have been totally suppressed. As a result, the horrible things that were happening in this City had been ignored for months now. The King was busy with dealing with other things. And since no rumor had reached his ears till now, he wasn't even aware that the people of Myra were suffering and dying every single day.
In the public, the City Lord kept a positive image. From time to time, he would even go to the streets with his men and would hand out free food to the starving people to gain the people's trust and support. Every time, his people questioned him about why everything was so expensive, he would put the blame on the bandits and would say that the guards couldn't win against the bandits.
At first, his words sold every one. Everyone believed in him. But as time passed and the same thing kept repeating again and again more people started realizing the truth. People started waking up and saw the criminals that the guards captured just a few hours ago roaming in the streets freely.
They realized everything was nothing but a facade.
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I know nothing happened in this chapter. But I need to write all these things otherwise the next chapter is going to be confusing. Next chapter is coming in the next few hours.
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