Governance and Experiments in the Heavenly Kingdom

They rented permanent storefronts in Brian and Rubia, built Blue Sea-style wooden warehouses beside the exchange, brought their families up from the Blue Sea, and sent their children to study alongside Sky Island children in Angel Island's classrooms.

The Heavenly Kingdom specifically revised its laws for this, granting land-use rights and school admission rights to long-term Blue Sea residents while retaining the Heavenly Army's right to conduct regular inspections of long-term residential districts.

Annus had never been the sort to lower his guard just because of temporary prosperity.

The massive influx of outsiders also brought new problems.

The residential districts of Brian and Rubia expanded to nearly twice their former size from the centers of the island clouds. The newly built cloud houses no longer followed the traditional Sky Island domed style. Instead, they blended the wooden frame structures common in Blue Sea port cities with Sky Island Processed Cloud walls. Taverns and eateries with Blue Sea signboards began appearing along the streets.

Pirates who had committed crimes in the Blue Sea and fled into the sky to lie low occasionally showed up. They obediently paid their deposits upon entry and did not dare cause trouble at the exchange.

The guards at Heaven's Gate, the ones Kaido had once sent flying, were now equipped with a new batch of repeating Cloud Arrow crossbows and Impact Dials transferred from the temple armory. Together with Kuma and Nora's regular patrols, the cost of causing trouble had become high enough that even the most reckless pirates had to weigh it over several times.

But what truly gave the Heavenly Kingdom a new kind of rule-of-law order was the Public Arbitration Office Sariye established beneath Brian Temple.

The Public Arbitration Office followed neither the laws of any Blue Sea nation nor the ancient tribal