Chapter 437: Not a Purely Good Person
Five years later…
The city is shrouded in fog.
The Fog City today is different from what it was ten years ago.
The streets are still crowded with people, the craftsmen are still doing a brisk business, and the hawking sounds are still heard...
But there are no more "craftsmen" roaming the streets. Instead, there are patrolling public security police.
The arena in the city center was still crowded, but this time it was not a competition, but a public presentation.
“My name is Andrew Brandon, dear friends. I am grateful to you for nominating me as a mayoral candidate again, but unfortunately, I have decided to retire... Today is my last day as mayor, and it will also be the last time I will speak to you here..."
A fat man weighing at least 300 kilograms was giving a speech to the citizens on the podium of the Mist City Arena.
"As you can all see, it's really hard for me to climb up this platform now... It's also dangerous - I'm not sure when this platform will collapse under my weight, I can already hear it creaking... So, goodbye, dear friends."
This fat man named Andrew is an old acquaintance of Li Ang.
The boss of the Fog City Arena.
Four years ago, in March of the 360th year of the Pandrian calendar, Andrew was elected as a spokesperson by the merchants and citizens of the Fog City to conduct a friendly negotiation with King Vidis.
The process of the negotiation was unknown, but everyone knew the result. Since then, King Vidis left the Mist City, and Andrew became the first "mayor" elected by the people on the continent of Pendor.
Not long after, King Vidis announced that he would regard the New Pendor Empire as his suzerain state, and with the support of Emperor Leon, he took the Second and Eighth Legions of the peacekeeping forces to his hometown of Vanskerry.
In the autumn of the 360th year of the Pendor calendar, the commander of the Second Legion, Klose, led his troops back to the Mist City and announced that Queen Agnus of Vanskerry had unfortunately passed away, and Vidis became the new King of Vanskerry.
Vidis and Count Edin did not return to Pendor, they stayed in their hometown.
After this, there was some unrest in the Firdsvain and some minor disturbances.
Under the suppression of the peacekeeping forces, the riots subsided after only a month, and then Firdsvain was divided into three independent city-states.
Mist-shrouded City, Light-roaring Bay, and Windy Island Port.
Merchants and pirates, native nobles of the West Coast, smugglers and slave traders - three groups of people, three forces.
Most of the pirates have left the Mist City with Vidis. Merchants represented by Andrew have implemented self-governance in the Mist City area and announced that they will no longer retain large-scale private armed forces. They will fully obey the policies of the New Pendor Empire and become a directly-administered county of the New Pendor Empire.
The nobles of Guangxiao Bay declared independence and illegally established a country with the Dawn Knights as the main body - the Dawn Knights State. Afterwards, they launched a "holy war" and regarded the New Pende Empire and the followers of the God of Wealth as heretics. However, this unwise behavior was quickly suppressed...
Wind Island Port was wiser. The smugglers and slave traders who controlled the area approached Ramon, hoping to cooperate with Ramon and use Ramon's influence to allow Wind Island Port to retain its status as an independent city-state like Singal.
The final result was that the Firdsvain, which was divided into three independent city-states, became three counties of the new Pendor Empire.
With Leon's strong support and Andrew's efforts, Fog City quickly recovered and once again became the most prosperous city on the West Coast.
Fengyu Port was taken over by Ramon and sold to Leon for one dinar - Ramon was doing another big business of selling cities, but the price was ridiculously cheap.
Meanwhile, over at Light Howling Bay, the Holy Knight Roland personally led the army to uproot the illegal 'Knights of the Dawn' - it took only one month from the time Roland led his troops to the time Light Howling Bay surrendered. They crushed the enemy with ease along the way. There was really nothing to say about an army of 20,000 people besieging 2,000 people...
The Knights of the New Dawn and the Knights of Dusk also completed a true merger in the brief war, and the Knights of the Dawn returned to their original form.
After the Knights' Kingdom surrendered, Roland personally built a sculpture group in Guangxiao Bay that was similar to the one in Changhe City Square.
Although Roland still devoutly believed in the goddess of justice, he had obviously understood that allowing people to live and work in peace and contentment was the ultimate justice.
It doesn't matter what god you believe in or what religion you belong to.
What is important is to serve the people and lead them to a happier life.
Just like the three queens are doing.
As the mayor of Fog City, Andrew was well aware of everything the three queens, Amy, Wendyllf and Alina, had done in the past few years.
In other words, it was everything Leon did.
After all, he had only been following Leon's policies in the past few years and had not done anything extra, but Wulong City had become prosperous and stable again, and was much neater and more orderly than before.
Even the sea merchants in Barkley were exclaiming, "It's only been a few years, and I've never seen such a stable and prosperous big city in Barkley. There's not even a beggar."
In fact, those ignorant Buckley people have no idea what prosperity is.
A city like Changhe City with a population of over 300,000 is considered a big city. There are at least ten "remote small cities" like Wulong City in the continent of Pande.
After finishing his final speech and climbing down from the podium in the Fog City Square with difficulty, Andrew got into an exquisite and luxurious carriage.
This is an 'Alice' brand carriage, which Leon gave to him on behalf of Alice.
After all, Andrew was Alice's 'adoptive father' until she was three years old.
In the carriage sat Andrew's son, a boy of eleven.
However, the child has a well-proportioned body and a handsome face, and it seems that he did not inherit Andrew's obesity gene.
The child's name was Ryan, which was very similar to Le Ang's name and they looked three points similar. This was also the reason why Andrew took good care of the dying Le Ang back then - when Andrew met Le Ang, Ryan had just been born not long ago, and Andrew wanted to do some good deeds for his child who was born in middle age.
"Father, you are only fifty years old, why do you want to retire?"
Ryan reached out and closed the car door for his overweight father, looking at the crowd outside the car window who were still waving to Andrew: "People love you very much, and they all say you're doing a great job!"
"Haha... Actually, being the mayor of Fog City is a simple job. As long as you don't break the law, anyone can be the mayor... Ahem, Bieber, drive quickly. It won't be good if the citizens hear this..."
Andrew wiped the sweat from his face, urged the driver to hurry up, and waved goodbye out the window.
The coachman named Biber drove the carriage out of the square and headed towards the road leading to Changhe City.
The citizens really loved Fat Andrew. Even after the carriage left the square, people still waved at it from behind. Only when the carriage was completely out of sight did the crowd in the foggy city gradually quiet down.
To the southeast of Fog City, a new smooth road has been built. The road surface is more than ten meters wide and leads all the way to Fierce Lion City.
Ryan hadn't forgotten his own question: "Dad, is being a mayor really that easy? If it's easy, why did you retire after only one term?"
"Of course being a mayor is not easy, but being the first mayor of Fog City is very simple... As long as you stick to your duties and have a bottom line, that's all. I guess Bieber wouldn't be any worse than me..."
Andrew leaned comfortably on the sofa in the carriage and explained, "As for why I retired after only one term... I know my ability. The next term's work will not be so easy. His Majesty Leon has set economic growth and people's living index growth indicators for each city."
"Ha, Boss, I'm not cut out to be an official. I can only be a mercenary... or a coachman ."
Bieber turned around from the front driver's seat and said, the partition window of the car was not closed, it seemed that he heard what Andrew said.
"I don't quite understand ... Why is the first term easy, but the next term so difficult? Is His Majesty Li Ang deliberately harming local officials and lords again?"
Ryan was still a little confused.
"He is not harming the officials... Child, don't listen to the nonsense of those fools who don't know the truth. It's just because everything I did as the mayor was in accordance with the orders of His Majesty Li Ang - in fact, I did nothing. It was His Majesty Li Ang who developed Wulong City into what it is today. But future development depends on the ability of the mayor and municipal officials. I don't have the ability to turn stones into gold, so of course I have to step down gracefully and let others take over."
Andrew explained patiently, "Besides, we have everything we need now. His Majesty Leon has left me a large villa in Changhe City. Of course I want to live a leisurely retirement life there... and accompany you to complete your studies at Pender College."
"But I always hear people say that His Majesty Li Ang likes to harm officials and nobles... People say that he is just an enviable lucky man, but they all admit that he is a good emperor. They praise him and scold him at the same time. I don't understand..."
Ryan said with a frown.
"Scold him because his three wives are indeed enviable, and he is indeed not a purely kind person...Praise him because he has indeed made people's lives rich over the years - this is not contradictory, child..."
Andrew answered with a pout, probably remembering some past events.
"Not a pure good man? Haha... Boss, you can just say that His Majesty Leon is a bad guy, a lucky man favored by three goddesses - he doesn't mind others saying that anyway."
Bieber smiled over his shoulder from the front row.
"Hahaha, it's better not to make it so obvious... At least respect Emperor Leon's achievements, otherwise Ryan will misunderstand."
Andrew also laughed.
"Lian, although we all think that His Majesty Leon is a bad guy, it's only because we are jealous of him. In fact, His Majesty Leon is indeed a respectable emperor. It only took him five years to ensure that most people on the entire continent have enough food and clothing. This is something that even gods cannot do. I am also one of the people who have benefited from him. Five years ago, I was just an alcoholic who lost everything. At that time, I just wanted to get drunk to death. But now, I have no worries about food and clothing, a decent job, a new family, and my life is getting better and better."
Bieber nodded, stopped laughing, and spoke to Ryan seriously.
This seemingly inconspicuous coachman is actually an officer sent by the Changhe Corps to protect Andrew - the Changhe Corps is a corps developed by Changhe Express. Since Changhe Express became a "state-owned enterprise" under the Ministry of Transportation of the New Pend Empire, the Changhe Corps has become the largest security force in the New Pend Empire.
“Uncle Bibb, were you poor before?”
Ryan looked at Bieber with even more confusion in his eyes.
He was a child who had never had to worry about food and clothing since childhood, and Andrew never let him suffer.
But he knew what poverty was, and he remembered what the people in Fog City were like five years ago, although he was only six years old at that time.
"I wasn't just poor before... Ha, I used to be a member of the Drunkards' Gang. Have you heard of the Drunkards' Gang?"
Bieber smiled and pulled out a wine bottle, sniffing it but not drinking.
Don't drink and drive, this is the law of the New Pende Empire. Violators of the law will be forced to undergo labor camp. Most of the wide roads connecting major cities were built by lawbreakers.
There is a label on the bottle with a bull head logo with broken horns. The label says "Jiugui Liquor" and also contains a short story about a member of the Jiugui Group written in small print.
"I know the Drunkards. My father also likes Drunkards. There is a story about the Drunkards on each bottle of wine. It's very interesting. Well, I have collected thirty-five labels with different stories. Your Excellency Alaric's experience is very interesting."
Ryan had heard of the Drunkards because they were indeed very famous. Currently, 'Drunkard Liquor' was the most famous beer brand in the entire continent, and was even sold as far as Barkley and Amara continents.
Five years ago, after recovering from his weakness, Alaric received funding from Queen Wendy and built a winery with some of his brothers who did not join the legion - in fact, they were the unemployed people who were not selected by the legions.
But at the beginning, Alaric faced great difficulties - just like every manufacturing company when it was just starting out, it was difficult to sell its products.
But then, Amy helped Alaric register the trademark of "Jiugui Liquor"; Alina provided Alaric with a method - she asked Alaric to write a memoir about his and his brothers' adventures, adapt these memoirs into small stories, and then find a printing factory to print them into wine labels.
From then on, every bottle of wine sold by Alaric has a little story on it. As long as it is not the same batch of wine produced at the same time, the story on the label will be different.
Many people collect Jiugui Liquor labels like Ryan. Even some people who don’t drink alcohol will pay attention to Jiugui Liquor to read the stories.
By now, the stories on the bottles have extended from the members of the alcoholic group to other people, such as the experiences of Klose and Leslie - they are also alcoholics.
Alaric had already begun soliciting stories from drunkards across the continent last year.
Today, Alaric is a famous tycoon and philanthropist. The winery he built in the town of Kwen has more than 6,000 employees, making it the largest winery in the entire continent. Moreover, about half of the winery's employees are disabled.
"Lian, you see, this is why all men are jealous of His Majesty Leon - the three queens Amy, Wendy, and Alina can make anyone rich. Even those drunkards who can't do anything except drink can make a fortune under their guidance! And they are so beautiful... They are real goddesses..."
Bieber shook the bottle at Ryan.
Although Ryan was only eleven years old, he seemed to understand: "So, His Majesty Leon is lucky and got the help of three goddesses, so he is where he is today..."
Andrew smiled and shook his head: "Haha, there are more than three. Alice is also a real goddess. But, kid, didn't you notice why all the goddesses are the wives or mounts of His Majesty Leon? Why not others but His Majesty Leon?"
"Well... is he lucky? Handsome? Good at pleasing girls? Or... is he great in some way?"
Ryan said with a smirk.
"Which bastard did you learn this from... kid, this is because whoever His Majesty Leon wants to be a goddess will become a goddess, including horses... Like I said, no matter who becomes the mayor of Fog City, as long as they don't break the law in the past few years, they can do the same job as me. It's okay even if a horse becomes the mayor."
Andrew didn't laugh this time, and neither did Bieber, who was driving in front.
Ryan was stunned for a moment, then nodded as if he understood something: "I think I understand."
