"Have any of you seen Mr. Light, or have you heard anything about him?" Yoze asked, worried that his plan would be in jeopardy.
"That is the problem. No one has seen him. We only heard rumors that he is the son of the owner of the mining company so it doesn't seem like he was selected for his town management skills."
"Sigh, why couldn't our small town escape this fate? While we didn't have the greatest life, we at least had some say in the policies. Now, we will have no power to change anything. We can only leave while we still can." The father of the family of seven sighed with regret before chatting with Yoze and Evi for a few minutes before leaving.
Yoze and Evi looked at each other and took their heads with pity. In this world, there was no dominant method of governance, so it was a mixed bag when visiting towns and villages.
However, it was observed that the larger the population, the more likely it leaned toward a more democratic method of governance. This wasn't because the people at the top didn't want to have more control of the people or had the people in mind.
It was simply because the higher the population, the more power the top needed to control it. For villages with a population that never exceeds a hundred people a third-rate martial artist could control it with an iron fist.
However, no group of third-rate martial artists could control a village or town with a population that exceeded a thousand. To accomplish complete submission of a population of that size requires Blood Master level power.
The larger the population, the more power was required to suppress it. But it was common knowledge that at the scale of cities, it was nearly impossible for even a large group of Martial Grandmasters to suppress the people and have strong control.
A dissatisfied population of nearly a million people could destroy anyone if they took action. This wasn't a nation of a million people spread across hundreds of miles but a single area.
This was why it was more common to see cities run democratically than these small towns and villages, which a single group easily overpowered. There were plenty of historical examples that mimicked Justice Town's history of being ruled by oppressive dictators.
"Yoze, are we still planning on going to Jelly Town? If what that old man said was true, Jelly Town is nearly dead and will die in another month." Evi looked at Yoze and asked him for guidance.
"Hmmm, we will still check it out. If Jelly Town really is dying, then we will turn in these two robbers before observing the situation for a few days."
"If the town dies on its own, then we will just leave. If the mining company decides to take oppressive means to stop the town's decline, we will save the town and recruit more students for the School of Eternal Knowledge." Yoze slowly spoke as he pondered the best way to overthrow a town.
"You want to do a forceful takeover! Yoze, that is crazy! We will be making an enemy against a powerful corporation with almost unlimited money to throw at us." Evi said in shock.
It wasn't just Evi. Blood Stepper and his brother looked at Yoze as if he was a crazy person.
"Why are you looking at me like that? You are the one who said that we should teach our students to have good morals. And what is more noble than saving people from becoming slaves?"
"In any case, I am not talking about taking over the town anyway. I was thinking of helping the townspeople find a new place to live while stopping Mr. Light from infringing on their right to leave."
"And if we are lucky, a few people will want to join our school and become future Super Scholars." Yoze pouted, seeing that Evi thought he was crazy, and clarified what he meant.
"Oh, thank god! I thought for a second you wanted to make the whole town join our school." Evi clutched his hand on his heart as he breathed a sigh of relief.
He wasn't yet ready to become a town-conquering school. Maybe in the future, but not yet.
"If that is what you want, then I will support you along the way, but it will still be better if this Mr. Light doesn't take such forceful action. Now that the town has been taken over, will they accept the two robbers' bounties?" Evi asked after suddenly realizing that the mayor's replacement could make their entire journey to Jelly Town irrelevant.
"That's what I am fearing, but we have already come so far we might as well visit Jelly Town to see the situation," Yoze said.
Seeing that Yoze still wanted to visit Jelly Town, Evi agreed with Yoze's assessment and followed along. Luckily, they weren't too far from Jelly Town and saw a tall wooden wall surrounding Jelly Town.
The dirt path that they traveled on suddenly turned into a smooth stone path that was suitable for wagon carriages, leading to a massive stone gate guarded by two guards. From a glance, Evi and Yoze saw that the two guards were both third-rate martial artists, which was impressive for a town that now only had a population of a hundred.
The guards finally noticed them as they approached the town and looked surprised. It wasn't every day that these two guards saw people coming to town ever since its takeover.
But once they overcame their pleasant surprise, the middle-aged guards' faces turned pale. Suddenly, Evi and Yoze watched with shock as the two guards played a quick round of rock paper scissors.
The left guard won with paper and ran into town without hesitation while the remaining guard cursed him out.
"Damn, how much have you two terrorized the people around here that they are this scared to meet you!?" Evi's eyes twitched when he noticed that the two guards didn't have this reaction because of them but the two robbers they captured.
Though Blood Stepper hated the fact that he was about to be captured and sent to jail, he felt his heart swell up with pride, seeing how much fear he had struck in the two guards' hearts. These guards could easily beat him up, yet they feared a thief like him.
Blood Stepper didn't know if he was influenced by Yoze's and Evi's insane rants, but a weird thought popped into his head.
"This is the privilege of my hard work over the years. At least I made a meaningful impact on the world."
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