92 – Desert Village in Neutral Region
Four days have passed since the ship departed.
I was supposed to land at 9 o’clock, but strangely, I woke up early today.
During my free time, I sit on a chair on the terrace and watch the sea.
From noble mtl dot com.
Perhaps it is because the land is closer, there are a lot of seagulls flying around.
I want to throw something, but there’s no such thing as shrimp crackers.
“Haa… I’m finally going to land.”
I never dreamed that being on a boat would be so uncomfortable.
Maybe it’s because science is less advanced, and it’s hard to sleep because my stomach is rumbling at night.
I hurt my nose while walking yesterday.
I never thought I’d break my nose from a fall when I was old.
Still, it’s a pity that he was cured with recovery magic.
If it wasn’t for Stella or Perry, I would have been in constant pain.
“Huh? I can’t believe that…”
I jumped up from my beach chair, put my hand on the railing, and poked my face out to check something in the distance.
If I’m not mistaken…
“It’s land!”
Just like the adventurers of the past, I could feel the happiness of discovering land.
Why am I so broken?
***
“Sister, look over there.”
I pointed in the direction and Stella clung to my side to confirm the direction I pointed.
Seeing that, he tilted his head and slightly raised the corner of his mouth.
“Isn’t that an oasis?”
“Seobang, that’s a mirage.”
“A mirage? Because of that scorching heat, the murmur looks like water?”
“Yeah, there’s nothing around the water, right?”
Usually, adventurers wandering in the desert are so exhausted that when they look at a mirage, they say that they also see things like palm trees.
When he arrives, there is no water, no palm trees, and nothing, so he is mentally exhausted.
Since I am breathing the cold air of the air conditioner inside the carriage, it seems that it was simply recognized as water.
“Oases are very rare in oases because they are created by flooding of groundwater.”
“Really? Then what about that one?”
“What?”
This time, I pointed to a place that seemed to have real water among the ones I saw earlier.
There were real palm trees open and running water.
I heard earlier, because they said there was no oasis on the road we were on.
“It…Couldn’t be? Now…Wait! Stop everyone!”
Stella shouted at the ring on her right middle finger.
I heard that it is a magic tool that can talk to people nearby?
They say it’s not that expensive since you can only do it with someone nearby who has the same magic tool.
However, I don’t have one.
As soon as Stella shouted into the ring, the horses in front of her began to stop one after another.
The horse we were riding in the middle stopped, and Stella opened the door and ran outside.
To be able to go outside in this hot weather is Stella who can be called a heroine.
Still, I couldn’t get her to stand on her own in the hot weather, so she went outside too.
“Crazy, crazy… Is this a desert…?”
The discomfort index was low because there was no humidity because the hot sun was beating down, but it was too hot.
To the point where I wonder if I would have burned to death if I had been wearing black.
She walked slowly and put her hand on Stella’s shoulder, as her feet were sinking in the sand.
When I put my hand on her, Stella, who seemed a little excited, swung her arms around.
“Mr. West! You have done a great job!”
“Yes?”
I feel good when I receive compliments, but I’m scratching my head, maybe because it’s a compliment I don’t know the root of.
All I did was tell Stella about the distant oasis.
“Exactly! You are the first to discover this great oasis!”
“Ah, no matter what, other people must have seen it.”
“No! No one saw it! I didn’t even know it was there until you said it!”
Is that so?
Surely Stella looked out the right window, but not the left one.
But it’s kind of strange that other people say that too.
What is it?
“But receiving praise for discovering an oasis is a bit… Do we have any water?”
“No! Water is not important!”
Then what’s important?
Isn’t the most important thing in an oasis, the water that seems to flow endlessly from there?
“Your Lady. Your wife doesn’t seem to know the laws of the Neutral Region.”
At that time, her brother Ashut spoke to Stella.
It seems there is something I don’t know about.
“That…I see. I’m sorry sir.”
“Ah, what is there to be sorry about? So? What makes you love it so much?”
“Anyone can build a city in a neutral area. That’s why there are cities ruled by great powers even in a neutral area!”
So, simply put, you can have foreign territories.
By the way, wouldn’t there be a neutral area where there is no land owner?
“No, anyone can build a city in a neutral area, but there are conditions for doing so.”
“Conditions…I can’t believe…”
“Yes. Find an oasis right away. And build a city around the oasis.”
Oops…
It looks like I’ve done a lot more work than I thought.
Then I, the first to discover this place,
You mean you can build a city?
By the way, what am I doing by creating a city in a place like this?
Come to think of it, it’s really useless.
“My cult has no cities in neutral territory.”
“You know? There was a marina and a big village earlier.”
“That’s not possible for a temporary city created by a confederation of countries with the approval of other countries. It’s a meaningless place where we can’t even set up a market.”
It is only used temporarily to move to a neutral area.
It is said that they are also paying a huge levy every year.
“Then…That I found an oasis…”
“If this oasis close to the big river…”
Stella stares at the river that goes far away with her eyes shining.
I feel great ambition.
“Do you really want to be connected to the sea?”
“Perhaps. Then, around this oasis, we can build a city that is unimaginably large.”
In that case, you can trade between other countries and other cities cheaply using neutral zones without paying ridiculous fees.
It is said that so far they have been oppressed by very high tax rates because they have not passed through the neutral zone and traded country-to-country.
I heard about taxes.
I heard that the high priest who accompanied us this time said he was leaving to take care of tax matters.
“How much is the tax on country-to-country?”
“We were paying 45% unilaterally.”
“What if you go through a neutral city?”
“If that happens…0.8%…”
I was surprised by the ridiculous taxes, and it was also strange that the taxes were reduced just by having a city in a neutral area.
With such a benefit, of course there must be an obligation as well.
“The duty is to accept refugees and guarantee the citizenship of the surrounding desert tribes.”
“That’s something you should think about as a religious person.”
“Yes.”
“Then, do I, the first person I discovered, have permission to do anything?”
“Yes, the West has authority over anything.”
Is that so?
It seems I have tremendous power.
Looking at Stella, I still couldn’t hide my excitement, and the high priest sister and brother Ashut were staring at me.
Well, I know roughly what you want to say.
I’m not interested in things like power either.
“But I hate that kind of thing because it’s annoying? Can you just give me that right?”
“Seo…Seobang!? That…That’s really…”
“I don’t need anything else, just my older sister.”
After saying that, he hugged Stella tightly.
And I felt like I was going to collapse at any moment because I was getting tired from the heat.
I couldn’t stand it and leaned against her body.
It’s so hard to stand in the sun…
***
“Oh, I fell asleep again.”
Obviously it was stuffy and hot enough to make it hard to breathe before I went to sleep.
When I woke up, the temperature was so low that the very cold air froze my very marrow.
It seems that Stella is trying to turn me into a frozen human.
“It’s fluffy…”
“Are you awake now?”
“Sister…”
I reached out for a hug, acting like a child.
She gave me a hug and stroked her head, as if she knew how I felt.
“So why don’t you come out.”
“If the wife goes out in this weather and her husband doesn’t, she writes.”
“Seobang-nim is really……”
Then it became quiet for a moment.
She put on a look that seemed hard to get her words out, but she finally lifted her heavily shut mouth and said.
“Would you really mind giving me all those rights?”
“Isn’t it nice to have a sister? Most of the powers of a sister in the Church are decorations.”
Stella must also have proper real power.
You don’t know what will happen in the future.
“Thank you… Mr. Seo.”
“What? Rather, I was thinking about how to repay you until now, but it went well.”
She wiped the raindrops around her eyes with her hand.
We stuck together like that for a long time.