The Sorrow of Someone Else's Success

The mages would have to be out of their minds to let these prisoners enjoy the treatment of a privileged class—the treatment mages enjoyed in The Alliance.

Maintaining privilege required a large number of people with vested interests. Even the privileged themselves had to serve some purpose, or it would all be a castle in the air.

The Church of the Goddess of Ocean Currents had previously supported these devout believers because they genuinely provided faith and could also attract others to believe.

But the mages supported these believers in the hope that they would prove useful and become nourishment for Territory Mages. Raising every prisoner as though they belonged to the privileged class was simply too costly.

The Tower Battle Mage Corps had previously purged everyone in the Withered Flow District at apprentice rank or above. Everyone remaining in the Withered Flow District was now an ordinary person.

These ordinary people were basically unproductive and had no professional rank. The elderly made up at least forty percent of them.

The Battle Mages had also directly scattered all the guards in the Withered Flow District. It could even be said that there were no guards left. Everyone above apprentice rank had died, while those at apprentice rank or above who feared The Alliance had naturally fled to other districts.

There were simply too many people in the Withered Flow District. The mages could not find enough people to serve these believers.

As for having mages serve them, that was pure wishful thinking. Even if it could be done, they would have to pay an enormous price to make mages serve these believers, who were already close to being useless.

However, the Withered Flow District's attempt had failed so quickly for another reason: the intervention of the Goddess of Ocean Currents.