Rebellion?

"Me a rebel? Mn, that was not my initial intention. However, as my territory starts to be successful, the problems will come to me, and I will have no choice. The Brown Kingdom's noble families would almost certainly try to depose me as the sovereign of the Black Plain, or the royal family would want a large portion of my region's revenue.

Since I am not someone who accepts a situation, in which I do all the work, and then someone comes and tries to take it for themself, there is only one option: Rebellion. It's inevitable," Minos said with an indifferent expression on his face.

He had no problem saying this to the people around him. After all, Elen and her Nash family couldn't reject him. And neither could they invade the Black Plain, as this would cause a war in the region against them.

As for doing business with a rebel, well, the Nash family was a merchant power. They would do business regardless of who their partner was or their problem that was as long as they could gain something.

Who didn't have their own business to do? Of course, the Nash family itself had theirs too…

'His thinking is sensible.'

The three beautiful ladies thought at the same time. But, of course, as long as the Black Plain was a poor place with no options, no one would want to hold on to that hot potato.

However, once agriculture was made possible in these areas, the Black Plain would become even more critical than a medium-level spiritual density area like the Red Valley. That was because the Black Plain, with its 200,000 square kilometers, covered up almost 18% of the Brown Kingdom's territory!

Even if the corps here were cultivated with a low amount of spiritual energy, it would still be enough to yield a few million low-grade spiritual crystals per year for those noble families. Such revenue would be enough to nourish a colossal amount of subordinates and members of a family.

Minos then continued to explain and reveal his ideas to the young women around him. "But you shouldn't be worried about that in the short term, Ms. Elen. From what my subordinates told me, the last time that a nobleman from a large family passed through Dry City was over 20 years ago."

He then let out a mocking chuckle and said.

"Even the king must have only bothered to learn something about the region seven years ago, when my father died, and the region was passed down to me as his inheritance.

As for the other smaller noble families, only one of them has some contact with Dry City, which is the Gill family. However, even they will not be able to know about the new reality of the Black Plain in the short term."

Minos was sure about this, as he had consistently surveyed the director of the Black Star Academy, Lionel Gill.

Upon doing so, Minos discovered that, despite being the director of this spiritual academy, Mr. Lionel would only come to Dry City when someone with Black talent were to appear, such as the three youths who had previously appeared. Other than that, he stayed in other places almost all the time.

After their last meeting with Minos, Lionel and Ralf's family left Dry City and none of them had returned for over a year.

As for the Black Star Academy's subordinates who could possibly divulge any of some information to the Gill family, Minos had brought them all to his side!

He disbursed many crystals to convince each of them not to pass on any information that could attract someone from the Gill family to the Black Plain region and remain loyal to him.

Not only that, the Gill family did not know the fact that even the Black Star Academy no longer existed within the Black Plain!

That place was now replaced by the Preparatory Academy of Dry City, which was under the Black Plain Army's direct command.

This change took place more than a year ago. And not just that, each employee was not paid a salary that was three times higher than before. Therefore, they were all pleased and had no intention of returning to the old reality.

Minos then continued, "In fact, no one cares what happens in Dry City, they would as well like the region to become independent, but no one has ever taken the initiative to do so."

At that moment, Ruth spoke for the first time after entering the room and since Minos and the two beautiful young women had started to converse. She then asked with a confused look, "If that's the case, then why don't you just declare the region's independence and avoid these problems? This would make your situation much easier."

Minos smiled at Ruth's naive question and answered, "Because it wouldn't be that easy. Suppose I decreed independence as soon as I got there in  Dry City, a place where I would practically not be able to increase my wealth or strength. What would they think of this action?"

Elen responded nonchalantly, "They would ask what gave you the confidence to accept such a burden."

"That's right, after that, I would probably be watched for a long time by the spies of the great noble families of the Brown Kingdom and with that, they would quickly find out what I did, or I could not be able to do anything until I was sure that I was not being watched.

For the first option, I would either be killed or lose everything in a few weeks after arriving in the Black Plain. As for the second, I would be considerably delayed in my plans.

After I declared independence, they would still lead a war against me anyway. That would be inevitable. They would not accept that I keep everything to myself. They would simply say that independence was irregular, or any similar excuse so that they could invade us and take everything we have produced," Minos spoke firmly while looking at Ruth.

'Speaking it in this way, there truly is not any easy way out.' Ruth thought to herself as Minos' problems entertained her.

"Anyway, it should still be a few years before they can find out anything about this and as long as I don't do any business within the kingdom or in the Maritime City, we will not be threatened by this.

And with a maximum of four years, my forces will be capable enough to be able to deal with such types of threats," Minos said with a cold sneer.

"It seems like you already have thought of everything…" Elen replied after letting out a sigh. This ally of hers was indeed a person with great foresight and was truly admiring…

'This is good in one way or the other, as at least the chances of him building an empire and falling overnight will be less.'

She was not concerned that Minos would encounter such problems in the future since, in the Spiritual World, anyone who possessed anything valuable would have to go through trials. But not everyone thought the way Minos did. Many of them neglected these problems or even believed the idea that nothing would go wrong.

And as a result, it wasn't uncommon to see someone quickly rise to success, creating brands or elevating the status of their families, only to fall to a level lower than they were at the beginning of all unless they weren't killed.

This was the harsh truth of the Spiritual World.

'Did you inherit or acquire a high-level treasure? Do you deserve it just because of your talent or your hard work? Congratulations on your achievement, but you are weak. Now give it to me!'

That was the brutal reality of this world.

"Well, let's leave that matter for the future. You said that you want to sell your products at a lower price, right? How about we sell your products for ten low-grade crystals per kilo? That is just 20% of the price charged for items of such quality on Stone Island," Elen suggested, looking directly into Minos' eyes.

"Mnn, this price is good," Minos agreed when he thought of something and asked.

"I want to know if you have your own store to sell these products yourself, or you will just pass it on to some other organization on Stone Island?"

"I have my own store. Why the question?" Elen asked curiously.

"I have an idea, but I don't know if it can cause any problems. Anyway, I want to know if your subordinates can advertise Dry City to their weakest customers?

What I mean is to say that the price of a kilo of these products in Dry City is only four low-grade crystals," Minos said with a smile.

Elen smiled and shook her head after hearing this, "Haha, so this is what you are thinking. You want to attract the weaker population of Stone Island to your region...

Well, I can do that. It shouldn't be a problem, as it wouldn't affect the local community that much if some less talented people were to leave the Stone Island."

Minos was pleased by his own plan. Even if he didn't pique the interests of many people, he might be able to entice some less talented alchemists, blacksmiths, and array masters to Dry City, similar to those that Minos had already contacted.

If these people knew that Minos could keep up with the commercial offer that he had made, it would be very tempting for many of them. And this was his main objective concerning this advertisement, to attract this type of cultivators!

As for potential migrations of ordinary people with White talent from Stone Island to the Black Plain, Minos had enough room for millions of them since his territory had nearly 20 million hectares available for planting!

Of course, he would not accept all these people from one place since that would be problematic. However, the Black Plain would have ample room for any of them.