"Heh! Those fellows certainly went a little too far.
But the results were excellent.
That batch alone had a full two hundred people! Besides, they should have settled down by now."
Xiluo lay beside the bed, his enormous body sprawled out, and spoke rather dismissively.
"In just a few days, they've lured nearly six or seven hundred people here.
If this goes on for a year, will the gold coins in the treasury be enough?"
Alice sounded a little worried.
"You don't need to worry about that. Next year's tax revenue should be quite substantial.
It'll definitely be enough to pay those Astral Realm Walkers.
This is only the beginning. The territory's tax revenue will only grow as time goes on!
I'm confident I can develop the territory further."
"What about the houses we promised them? With so many people arriving at once, where are we supposed to find enough houses for them? We've already put some soldiers to work building them, but they simply can't keep up."
"Tomorrow, I'll start putting the prisoners to work alongside them. Hmm, keeping those fellows fed in prison has been far too easy on them.
From now on, everyone in prison will have to work.
We'll call them reform-through-labor prisoners from now on. By working hard, they can atone for their sins and reduce their sentences.
If we can't build houses fast enough, they can share for now! There's always a way."
"Let's do that, then."
The human and the dragon discussed their plans.
In the days that followed, the entire city sprang into a frenzy of activity. Outside the city, near the walls, work was in full swing everywhere.
Before long, this had continued for a month.
Niro City's population surged from around eighty thousand to over eighty-seven thousand.
But a few