That night, the entire town was gathered around the manor.
On a roughly constructed temporary platform, Andre held a megaphone and shouted to everyone:
"Listen up, everyone, the mayor has been defeated, and from now on, this place is ruled by Lord Natural Disaster! Lord Natural Disaster is the Great Pirate who killed the Heavenly Celestial Dragon, so with him protecting us, we won't be bullied anymore! As long as we faithfully serve Lord Natural Disaster, we'll earn a lot of Belly!"
"Tsk, what's that smell?"
Inside the manor, Sage had just speared a piece of food into his mouth, his ears twitched, and he couldn't help but click his tongue.
Marika smiled and asked, "Does something smell off?"
"Not talking about you, but the one outside... this dish is well-made, smooth, yet somewhat dense, a bit like foie gras and fish meat. Why haven't we made it before?"
"It's from the white-feathered goosebill fish we found in the pond in the yard. It looks really nice, the flesh isn't great, but the liver is very rich and is quite a delicacy."
Marika laughed, "Though the meat isn't great, the yield is quite large and, if cooked right, even if it isn't a top-notch dish, it's still edible."
What she meant by edible was quite different from what most people consider edible.
Marika is someone who obsessively pursues culinary flavor but also dreams of creating dishes that can fill you up.
This edible dish, in the eyes of ordinary people, is quite delicious.
Sage understood this well, so he said, "Good. Another venture in aquaculture... Marika, I recall you're in charge of the food supply, right? Pay more attention to this."
Marika's smile stiffened slightly but quickly returned to normal, "I understand."
Lily sighed softly at the side, holding her forehead in slight distress.
Pay more attention?
The one who pays the least attention is him.
Things surely fall to someone to do.
After conquering the Gares Kingdom, Lily took on all matters, though Moriah shared some of Timadon's affairs, not needed for now, even managing just the main island Gares kept her busy.
Thus she had to find people to delegate to. Marika was responsible for food, Renedia was already dealing with the shipyards and weapons business, and being young, she wasn't given any more responsibilities.
Though Hawkins was designing the Royal Palace, he also shared in rebuilding work, and Urouge traveled across the country spreading word of Sage's rule, ensuring the people of Gares Kingdom knew they had a new master.
After all, the city had just one million people, and another million scattered around, who might not know everything. Of course, they needed to understand the change in governance.
Newcomers Sipher and Misty were now leading the guards who were initially reluctant to join Sage but were now starting to help him, patrolling to maintain law and order within the kingdom.
Everyone had something to do, except for Sage...
He simply knew what everyone was up to, and the rest was handled by them, especially Lily, who basically oversaw everything.
She used to be a member of the Royal Family, after all, well-educated...
Initially, it was manageable, but over time, especially during salary payouts and tax collection two days ago, it stressed her out to the point of wishing she could split herself into eight just to cope.
This was even with other big tasks being shared among the High-Ranking Officers, and further down the hierarchy, the subordinates were more useless than the last.
You tell a Pirate to plunder and kill, he'll do it. But ask him to think, as Renedia puts it, it's like dropping them into the sea to fill their empty heads with seawater. They're as dumb as anglerfish, not as smart as a Sea Beast.
Gin keeping an eye on the merchants and Pirates coming into the port was good, though he didn't understand anything more complicated, and below him every day was just making a fuss, wearing a shield, constantly saying how 'cool shields are,' and 'Absolute Defense,' the loony.
Yes, I'm talking about Pearl!
By contrast, it seemed like Bellamy, who had recently joined Lily in annihilating a hundred-thousand-strong army, had either woken up or been shocked somehow, and started learning how to be a dyer, saying he wanted to make more artistic cloth.
Lacking management talent!
Nobles have a common problem, loving Belly, loving treasure; this mayor was no different. The money he made was exchanged into quite a bit of Gold Coin and jewels, and about ten million Belly. These, of course, now belonged to Sage.
"You want to borrow money?"
The next day, Sage looked at Andre who came to him and laughed, "Of course you can, money-lending is one of my old trades. Considering you're one of my subordinates, I'll give you some reductions. A token 5% for the first three months, 20% within a year, 50% within three years, 100% within ten years. How much do you need?"
Andre came by right after breakfast, asking to borrow money.
His personal assets weren't much, if he were to manage normally, he could squeeze and delay payments to obtain goods first, but crucially, Sage wouldn't allow it, so he had no choice but to borrow money.
If you want to start an industry, it needs a lot of funds, even the simplest farm, acquiring grain and paying people to turn it into shimmering white rice, all requires financing.
Just this island, crops and fertilizers...
Andre thought about it, gritted his teeth, and said, "Master Sage, I'll borrow ten million Belly, just for a year!"
"No rush, I won't push you on the timeframe. However long it takes to repay, we'll calculate the interest for that period accordingly. Work hard, and rest assured you'll be profitable."