It looked like all the problems had been solved, so could they finally welcome a happy ending?
Of course not! Otherwise, Sif and Alfhil would not be sitting here worrying. They would have written their reports and claimed credit from the Heavenly Queen long ago.
Letting corrupt officials and petty tyrants extort resources from the people and hoard vast supplies, then killing those corrupt officials and distributing the supplies to pacify the populace and win a good reputation—this sounded pretty good.
But one had to understand that throughout this entire scheme, there had been no measures to increase production. In other words, the total amount of supplies had not increased; they had merely been concentrated in one place.
And during the process of hoarding and distributing them, some supplies had inevitably been consumed—most of it during the hoarding process. Those corrupt officials had eaten and drunk extravagantly, while Asgardians were upright and incorruptible, relying entirely on the nuclear reactions within their bodies for power. They could work without eating!
Thus, the total amount of supplies had not only failed to increase; it had actually become less than before.
It was like taking the people's rations back to feed pigs, then waiting until the pigs had starved thin before slaughtering them and handing the meat out to the people. Did you still expect them to be overflowing with gratitude?!
So this scheme had not solved any problems. It had merely concentrated and shifted them. It transformed the people's hunger and poverty into hatred for corrupt officials, while creating the illusion that the corrupt had been eliminated and a righteous ruler was about to arrive.
Buying time was the scheme's only success. But that time was extremely limited, and they could only use this trick once. After all, it was like drinking