The great dragon city lord, the self-proclaimed Black Beast King Louie, had returned to his lair at the peak of Dragon City.
The city itself was constructed upon a mountain, with the center of the city at its peak and the remainder built upon the downward slopes.
At the peak was naturally the lord’s residence, which was now Louie’s lair. His residence was the palatial church that the Theocracy had constructed over its 300-year administration of the territory.
Below the lord’s residence was the noble district, but it was largely devoid of any of the original nobles as most of them had run away during the siege. A small part of those that remained had been killed under Louie’s orders. They had irritated him with their clamor over their heritage and history within the city. He had promptly declared all of their past accomplishments and rights as moot within his new administration.
According to his plans, the future nobles’ district would be populated by talented individuals as well as their families. Although he would not confer upon them de jure nobility, in the future, they would certainly form a new caste of aristocrats.
As he had never been oppressed by nobility before, he held no strong feelings about their past actions. Nevertheless, he despised the cycle of oppression such a system generated. Even commoners who had once suffered under the yoke of aristocrats would become torturers themselves after being granted superior positions.
Well, that would be a matter for the future, and he might not be around to witness it anyways. It was very possible that he would have ascended by then. It was not like he could convince them about the merits of democracy anyways. In this world, the average level of intelligence was quite low, and they wouldn’t understand why it was a better system.
Below the noble district was the largest district, the civilian district. Gazing upon the neatly organized rows of buildings, the squarish area contained residences, market spaces, town squares, and offices. In the future, it would contain entertainment hubs. It was a far cry from its initial filthy and chaotic state.
Now that the construction had finished, all Louie had left to do was wait. It would not be long before the city would truly begin to thrive.
Louie landed in front of the church and stepped through its gates. In order to show the greatness of the Gods, the Theocracy had crafted large and magnificent doors. This was quite convenient for Louie given his size.
Hanging over the wide hallways within were multicolored beads and golden strips. The path was illuminated by soft candlelight, and various oil paintings decorated the walls.
Each depicted some mythical story or legend. In time Louie would replace them with renditions of his own great undertakings.
In the chapel, many human girls, diligent and nimble, were busying themselves. They were originally commoners’ daughters. As the church was too big for just a dozen elven maids to clean, they assigned the elves to the inner chambers while the humans worked in the outer ones.
Because they were only commoners, their etiquette and skills were mediocre. After being intimately familiar with the beautiful elven maids, Louie didn’t find them particularly interesting. Anyways, they only needed to work diligently.
In the vicinity of these maids were some members of the church. These people were captives that were originally members of the Theocracy’s priests. Louie captured them and did not kill them. That was because they knew how to use holy magic to heal ordinary injuries and illnesses. They were a lot better than doctors who did not know much. As a result, they were kept to render their services to Dragon City.
Additionally, because they were members of the church, they knew how to maintain the luxurious buildings and interior. Keeping them to command the maids would increase the efficiency.
It was also fortunate that the Gods hadn’t revealed themselves for a long time. Otherwise, a few might have declared a crusade against him for daring to use their captured priests.
In some ways, it was the Theocracy’s fault. Their administration had a dislike for mages, who believed in the God of Magic, and so had discriminated against them. Thus very few mages lived in Central City to start with. And when Louie burnt half of the city to ashes, most of them were killed.
Perhaps it would have been better to capture them and have them serve the city.
Seeing that the great lord had arrived, the priests cowered and hurriedly saluted. The maids who were working were at a loss and they just followed their motions
Louie was lucky that the remaining priests were of insignificant rank. Had they been prominent and well-regarded clergymen, catching them would have been useless, as none would serve him. That would, after all, be a betrayal of their covenant with their God. So even if Louie tried to force them, it would be pointless.
The closer a priest was to their Gods, the stronger they would become. Furthermore, they could not allow their faith to waiver. The stronger priests would receive much harsher backlashes for breaking their covenants than the weaker ones.
With a magnanimous air, Louie nodded at the servants and turned to his heap of gold coins.
The priests were quite relieved. At first, they felt trepidation over serving the dragon, fearing that it would cook them one day. Fortunately, it seemed much more intelligent than its kin. Furthermore, it was much more involved and effective than most human rulers. Even they could not help but doubt its race.
Louie lay on the gold mountain with nothing behind him. Louie was thinking of building a huge statue of himself there in the future. It would replace one of the goddesses that the Intelligent brain had used for the permanent positioning device.
“Master! Master! Good news! Good news!”
Just as he was formulating his next plans for Earth, Marches’ joyful shouts interrupted him.