Supreme Magus novel Chapter 947

Chapter 947 Dreams and Nightmares Part 1

It had taken the mages of the Empire a year to cleanse the fields and make the Dragon Plains suitable for cultivation again. Since most of the territories past Palaron had been occupied by the undead forces and were under reconstruction as well, they couldn’t spare a dime to help with the Dragon Valley.

They were too busy fixing the damages they had sustained during the war to worry about others. It made the Valley dependant on Palaron, which had allowed the city to increase its profits by several folds.

The local underworld was also experiencing a golden age. Large flows of money meant more opportunities for corruption and increase protection money. Being awarded of a public contract could easily make a merchant into a small noble, so many people were willing to pay to oil the wheels of bureaucracy.

Palaron was a model city of the Empire. Its cultivated fields were surrounded by great walls made in dark grey stone over 12 meters (40 feet) high. The cultivated fields were miles away from the city walls, yet they were array protected and heavily guarded no less than Palaron itself.

The farmers lived in the external rim, to take care of the cattle and the fields at any moment. All of them had been trained in the use of light and earth magic to be able of taking care by themselves of all minor emergencies.

Past the city walls, in the outer rim, there was the residential area for the mages and the army, so that they could promptly intervene no matter if the enemy attack came from the inside or the outside.

Every building was built in solid, enchanted stones, and connected to the other districts with their own Warp Gate. It was the most luxurious and expensive area of the city. Aside from public officials, only the truly rich could afford a house there.

The middle rim was the business district, where all the trades took place. Merchant guilds had their offices built in hardwood, while small-time merchants operated in small buildings no bigger than a grocery store.

Each block had its Warp Gate, making the middle rim the place where normal people lived.

The inner rim was occupied by the red-light district of the city. It was supposed to be the slums, but unemployment wasn’t a thing in the Empire. Public healthcare made everyone as fit as a fiddle and as long as one was willing to work hard there was plenty to do, even before the war with the undead.

The only people who didn’t have an honest job were those who didn’t look for one. Gambling, prostitution, drug dealers, they all had their base of activities in the slums. As long as people were alive, they would have vices.

Instead of wasting time outlawing them, the Empire had simply made them part of the system and took taxes even from them. There was a saying in Palaron, stating that the tax office was way scarier than the army itself and better funded, too.

Despite the inner rim’s sordid appearance, the real corruption took place in the middle rim and it was there that the two Abomination hybrids were headed. As all long-lived members of any race, they had an alias in the Empire with a clean record and authentic IDs.

Getting inside Palaron was always the easy part. Getting out after committing any kind of crime, however, was another story entirely. Bytra and Zoreth had chosen the Prancing Dragon as their base of operations. _{freeweɓnovel.cѳm}

It was one of the finest establishments in the middle rim, ranked higher than the Dragon’s Cove and the Dragon Chow.

"Is it me, or is everyone obsessed with dragons around these parts?" Bytra asked.

She didn’t come there for less than a decade, yet everything was changed. Even her favorite dish, the Rewille stew, had been renamed Leegaain’s stew.

"My old man doesn’t make a secret of his existence." Zoreth replied. "Ever since Milea became the Empress and convinced him to return, the Gorgon Empire basically became the Dragon Empire.