Chapter 77: Patrolling the Territory

A babbling stream coursed through the palace garden. Within it, the noble elven maidens washed their bodies; they lifted water from the stream up with wooden ladles before dousing themselves with the clear liquid. Each drop carried within it flecks of their aromatic essence.

Prior to this, their entire bodies had been covered with honey, and so they needed to cleanse themselves to feel comfortable once more.

They whispered among themselves, occasionally casting glances in Louie’s direction. None dared to meet his gaze, however. And soon, their voices rose in volume as a playful atmosphere overtook them.

Initially, some had thought to refuse Louie’s orders if they went too far. But none of them truly had the guts to do so. After all, they hadn’t the right to refuse his orders given their statuses. That said, Louie did not go out of his way to scare them in any way. And so all their fear was self-generated.

Louie rose up and stretched his neck. He spread his wings and took to the skies in a tour of his territory.

Recently he would do this on occasion to manifest his presence.

He couldn’t do it every day as it would form a pattern. Once he left for Earth for a longer period of time, his enemies would be able to tell when he wasn’t present. At that time, disaster would strike Dragon City.

The time interval between his patrols also couldn’t be too long either. Otherwise, it would make the residents forget that he, the city lord, existed and become detrimental to his rule.

His giant body flew to the skies. Compared to his initial identity as an enemy of the city, his current body was now a lot smaller. At that time, he was a demigod with a body over 300 meters long.

Another change was that the people of the city no longer feared him. When they saw him in the skies, they would salute him from the bottom of their hearts, some would even kneel down and pray to his figure

By satisfying their materialistic desire, Louie had obtained their reverence. He believed that over time, he would also be able to obtain their heartfelt admiration. That would prove to be a source of substantial faith.

These 100,000 people were the foundation of his believers!

Dragon City was not large. It was equivalent to a small country town. In truth, there weren’t many especially large cities in the world of San Soleil. The largest on the continent was the capital of the Empire with an estimated population of one million. This was the limit of the era.

Cities with populations of more than ten million did not exist in San Soliel. A city of ten million would consume an astronomical amount of resources every day, and no force would be able to support that high a population. Even cities in Northern China would require the entire country to supply it. Given their relatively low level of logistical development, such megacities were infeasible for all.

Louie’s goal was to keep Dragon City’s population below 500,000. If it exceeded that, Dragon City could actually weaken as internal forces vied for power.

Under the eyes of the people, Louie quickly finished his patrol.

The buildings in the city had mostly been built. With the resources and food that Louie provided, everyone worked together to build a normal residential district.

The once dirty streets had become much cleaner. At the very least, they had fulfilled Louie’s minimum requirements. New houses had also been erected for those who had lost them in the fire.

The noble district was a bit slower because of its more detailed requirements. But Louie was not in a hurry, because the first people living there were elves and humans who had major contributions to the project. There weren’t many of them.

“Dragon City is backed by the San Soliel Mountain Range. It’s rich in minerals, forests, water sources, and fertile arable land. These are enough to meet the needs of the city, but because it is inland instead of by the sea, salt is a bigger necessity.”

Louie was now more and more like a lord. He even treated this as a simulation game. It’s just that there was no system to tell him what to do like a game and had to think of everything himself.

“Salt shouldn’t be a problem. Earth’s salt reserves are enough to meet the needs of billions of people. I should find some way to bring some salt over next time.”

Earth never lacked natural resources. But because salt was a necessity, the ruling class used to control it in their hands as a means of domination.

“Marches’ research is almost done. Based on his research, I have to decide if I will bring more wasabi or not…”

“But I can’t leave Dragon City before it stabilizes. I also have to find a way to get stronger. Looking for wasabi and salt is not as easy as randomly looting a cargo ship, since cargo ships would only carry a small amount of these items. I may need to find a representative on Earth to help me do these things, but that means I also have to move on land.”

Louie leaked out a human-like expression. How was he going to move on land without being noticed by anyone? How was he going to be able to control more of Earth’s resources? These were tests for him.

Since he created ‘Cthulhu’ on Earth, he had to double down on his deceit. He needed to make the people of Earth believe that Earth was dangerous and that many terrible monsters and evil gods exist. Only when his strength truly reached the level of the ‘Great Old Ones’ would he be able to turn the lie into a reality.

“I also have to plan how to develop Dragon City. Since I’m limiting the population inside the city to 500,000, the food there should be enough to satisfy 500,000 people. It seems that I have to let the residents raise cattle and sheep instead of farming. That way I can have them make more cows, milk, meat, wool, nectar, and other luxuries of the era. Only in this way can my city become the morning star of civilization. I should also establish my own financial system.”

“Moreover, as long as I have a monopoly on food channels, no one in Dragon City would betray me. Betraying me would simply mean the demise of the entire city!”

Louie let out a pleasant laugh. He found himself thinking of ways to centralize his authority.

“Ah, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Dragon City should also have its own army. Well, let’s just take it step by step. I should first enjoy my time more.”

Thinking of those beautiful elven maids, Louie was reluctant to leave.

He originally thought that anime and cartoons were just lies, but when he became a dragon, he found that he was not deceived. There were some things that humans simply could not do, but a dragon can.

The strongest people in the world would often have their nicknames. And so he decided to call himself the Black Beast King.