Chapter 286 It's Hard to Come Up With A Name
The East Sea Metropolis population was over one million, which served as a great boost to William's source of soldiers.
Taking into account the civilian populations of the Black Lava Dukedom and the City of Dawn, the overall population under his rule had reached 3 million.
No race other than the humans lived at the East Sea Metropolis.
This city located by the coast had always been reliant on fishery and agriculture to boost its economy.
Of course, there were other factors too.
There existed some rare ores and resources that were also very profitable. It was these things that made the vampires of East Sea Metropolis filthy rich.
Immortal creatures like vampires were extremely similar to human aristocrats.
They were fond of antiques, oil paintings, statues, and other expensive but useless artworks.
Otherwise, William could have pilfered more than 2 million gold coins.
"Having said that… The artworks in the castle look quite nice. I won't profit much from selling them, so I shall just leave it as it is." Ever since William took over the castle at the top of the cliff in the City of Dawn, his mindset had changed.
After all, he wasn't exactly poor now, so there was no need to sell those artworks for a low price.
He might as well leave them in the castle and admire them himself.
"Hm, can this be considered as my temporary dwelling?" William was overcome with emotion. He sat on a comfortable chair, enjoying the view of the loots from his successful battle.
When William's subordinates entered the castle, they were overwhelmed by the luxurious surroundings. They curiously looked around. There wasn't such luxurious and fancy stuff in the City of Dawn. The city lord's palace was furnished in a simple manner too.
Violent Dragon rubbed his hands together and laughed. "Prince William, what about the other castles…"
"Huh? Other castles?"
"Yes!" Everyone was expecting William to let them occupy the remaining castles.
It was a pity.
William waved his hand. "Demolish them and use the debris to patch up the city wall. One castle is enough, too many is a hindrance. They take up so much space. We might as well build affordable housing for residents so that the homeless have a place to stay."
"…"
Burned Cinder and the others were left speechless.
William was the Lord. He called the shots.
Since when did he start to care about the homeless?
Of course, William wasn't so stingy to his subordinates. He glanced at this bunch of fellas who wanted to live in a castle. "Those castles haven't been demolished yet right? You guys can go and take the statues, paintings, and artworks. If you don't, I'll take them."
Swish!
In just an instant, everybody had disappeared from the conference hall of the castle.
They had already occupied the East Sea Metropolis. Other than revamping the city, William didn't make drastic changes to it.
However, there was a need to change the laws of the East Sea Metropolis!
Since William wanted to gain the support and loyalty of the citizens here, it meant that he must punish several troublemaker professionals.
Gang members who collect protection fees, notorious bandits and thugs that tyrannize the city?
As long as the civilians reported them, the Dawn Army soldiers immediately went to arrest them. If there was solid evidence and many civilians reported them, then the accused would be sent to the mines and ores for manual labor.
This continued for many days. The public security of the East Sea Metropolis had drastically improved.
It wasn't the ancient times now. William didn't need the landlords' support when he took over a city.
Some people were strong professionals in the eyes of civilians and were powerful enough to rule a district. However, they weren't qualified enough to even negotiate with William.
Perhaps in the past, they had acted extremely arrogant. But, that was because Bernard didn't bother with them.
However, William didn't need their help in maintaining law and order. He didn't need this group of vermin to continue living here. This wasn't a lowly magical world.
This was an advanced magical world!
One's combat power was the winning factor.
Bloody violence was the only way for the Dawn Army to suppress them.
William hoped that by doing this, the professionals in the city could see that the owner of the East Sea Metropolis was another person now.
Regardless of how powerful they thought themselves to be, they had better not cause trouble.
Before William started revamping the East Sea Metropolis, he gave orders to build temporary toilets and made an announcement to the civilians. If anyone was caught defecating in places of the city that weren't toilets, they would be sent to the mines and ores to do manual labor.
Some people thought they could get away with it and didn't care about that announcement.
In the end, thousands of people disappeared from the city the next day…
The system that Lord William implemented was indeed impressive.
With tens of thousands of legion soldiers maintaining law and order around the city, it only took William seven days to completely rule over this city of one million people.
It could not be helped.
In this world where survival depended on one's combat power, civilians who didn't know how to use magic and battle energy were at the bottom of the food chain.
Even if thousands of civilians attacked with knives and swords, they wouldn't be a match for a single Dawn Army soldier…
Because they couldn't even bypass a soldier's battle energy shield…
They didn't have any way of opposing the legions at all. In a so-called rebellion, if there weren't a large number of professionals to lead them, the civilians could only concede.
The so-called legal provisions were decided by the Lord.
Human rights didn't exist here.
Yes, a neutral Lord's power was this extreme.
He didn't need to consider the problems that Lords in lowly magical worlds and emperors encountered.
As long as William had his own legion and had strong combat power himself, he could ignore any opposing voices.
If anyone resisted?
They would be sent to do manual labor at the mines!
If they were willing to comply with the new law, they would carry on with their lives and abide by the Lord's rules.
During this period of time, William made a favorable impression on many people, but he gave just as many bad impressions.
However, the prince didn't care at all. He wasn't interested in playing mind games with this group of people. If they refused to comply, they would just be sent to be laborers at the mines.
It was a straightforward and violent method!
It was that simple to govern a city.
A groundbreaking vampire auction was officially held.
Other than Lord Bernard, the other 121 vampires that had been caught in the battle had the honor to perform on stage.
They had been tied up and were displayed in their best form and appearance, so that participating bidders could directly see their value.
This auction was held in the castle that used to belong to Bernard.
Many demon hunters were thrilled and brought their gold coins along to this grand affair.
Demon hunters with strong capabilities were often very rich and not in need of money.
So when they heard the news of a vampire auction being held, many demon hunters who were thousands of miles away also rushed here.
There were too many vampires being auctioned this time. This was a grand event to many demon hunters.
The City of Dawn professionals were dumbfounded upon looking at the number of demon hunters who turned up.
They completely didn't expect vampires to be so sought-after.
"Damnit, should I just catch vampires and sell them to demon hunters to make a living in the future?"
"Ahem, I can't look vampires straight in the eyes anymore. They don't seem like terrifying creatures anymore, but rather, expensive and cute little creatures."
As for the other Blood Race creatures that heard about this auction, namely those from the Emerald Grand Duchy and Lan Yu Grand Duchy, they couldn't help but feel a chill down their spine.
They were more determined to keep a low profile, but also more eager to find the blood essence of the Blood Dragon.
The Blood Race could only lead decent lives if they could become powerful experts second to none in the continent.
Meanwhile, William had already left the East Sea Metropolis in search of some Legendary equipment by following memories from his previous life.
He was going to finish his preparations before the Magic Conference started.
He would encounter many rich experts then.