Chapter 292 The Free Border Trade Zone Where Death is Chosen
The soldiers quieted down. They could still feel the lingering phantom pain of their near-death experience, and the memories in their minds were so clear that they couldn't deny it—they had truly died once!
Who would want to die if they could live a good life... Besides, with this Elf Queen around, they probably couldn't even die if they wanted to...
The Elf Queen spoke casually:
As the price for starting this war, all humans who set foot on our territory must labor for us for five months without pay. As for you, you must labor for us for fifty years without pay.
Of course, you have the freedom to choose death.
After delivering the irrefutable verdict, the Elf Queen led her army away, leaving behind only the magical cat that had just woken up in her arms.
A magical creature resembling a magical cat but with strange black fur leaped gracefully above the human army. With just a long stretch, its size swelled to a terrifying degree, covering the entire sky.
It got dark, as if night had fallen.
However, the most terrifying thing was not the dark dome overhead formed by the enormous magical creature, but the aura emanating from that creature—
The soldiers were overcome with fear, a fear that welled up from their very core, an instinctive terror. Some of the more timid ones were even trembling with fear.
That is the law of destruction, that is the embodiment of death.
The Elf Queen's melodious yet seemingly hellish words still faintly echoed in my ears: "...You have the freedom to choose death."
In the dead silence, someone choked back tears and muttered to themselves, "I...I want to go home..."
The human mage, feeling increasingly alone amidst the crowd, closed his eyes in despair. No one could go home; the entire space here was sealed off!
"Your Majesty, what arrangements have you made for those prisoners?" Nana asked.
The high-ranking officials who had been summoned to the conference room all turned their attention to this.
“They’re not prisoners of war, they’re more like laborers,” Shu Xin corrected with a smile. “As for arrangements, what do you think about holding a market in the wind along the border?”
"It's not just held after the harvest month, but all year round," Shu Xin explained.
Shu Xin had always wanted to hold a Wind Market in the Land of Sin, but now that the "Land of Sin" has been renamed the "Land of Life," she still hasn't been able to hold one...
Initially, there were no conditions for this, but later, with the advent of the Magic Cat Supermarket and the establishment of a nationwide transportation teleportation network, there was no longer any need to create a separate Wind Market.
The "Wind Market" she's planning to host is more accurately described as a border trade zone.
Unlike the border trade zones in the scientific world, which have various tax-free policies, Shu Xin plans to impose hefty taxes on the Wind Market on the border of the magical world. After all, Garnal's only tax was the magic tax, which she had already abolished…
As Shu Xin spoke, she organized her thoughts: "This Wind Market needs to be open year-round, mainly targeting foreign merchants. The black fog has dissipated, and that large area of land can't be used to grow crops, so we can build something both in the air and on the ground..."
After an emergency discussion in the meeting room, a preliminary development plan for the border fog zone was roughly agreed upon.
The Kingdom of Ganar will employ humans as key personnel in the Black Fog Border Zone, but their commissions and benefits will be paid as war reparations. Ordinary humans entering the country will be required to work for five months without pay, while human soldiers participating in the invasion will be required to work for fifty years without pay. After that, the relevant humans can receive salaries and enjoy work benefits as normal.
Therefore, the human race must currently rely on itself for everything it needs, including food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, while the Kingdom of Ganar only provides land for work.
But Shu Xin wasn't a devil. She generously allowed the Wind Fairy caravans from the Ministry of Commerce to sell necessities to humans, of course, all at the highest market price. By the way, caravans from the friendly Snow Clan could also come and sell their goods, and they could make money together!
The current chieftain of the Wind Fairies is Kakaori. The previous chieftain, Qinqinlar, has stepped down to enjoy her retirement. This young fairy, in the prime of her life, told the Elf King that this might lead to a shortage of manpower for the caravan.
After all, there are only so many fairies in their family. Apart from those who go out to do business, the rest of them are mostly working at the Magic Cat Supermarket.
Kakaoli inquired whether it was possible to recruit caravans from other wind fairy families, as the massive war outside of Ganar had shattered countless fairy kingdoms, leaving too many wind fairies displaced.
Shu Xin understood Kakaoli's desire to help her fellow tribesmen. Now that Ganar was no longer in a state of being overwhelmed with his own problems, she immediately stated that Ganar warmly welcomed friendly and kind friends from all races, including the wind fairies.
However, let's be clear from the start: the newly arrived wind sprites will not enjoy tax-free policies. Whether they go to the border or do business in Ghana, they will have to pay taxes.
Kakaoli readily agreed, even though her life was in danger, let alone her money!
She immediately presented a stack of information on the Wind Fairy caravans. After Shu Xin confirmed that there were no problems, Kakaoli also guaranteed that at least twenty caravans would arrive in the Black Mist District that day with their goods.
Shu Xin couldn't help but sigh, the wind fairies truly lived up to their reputation as a magical race born of the wind; their travel speed was indeed fast.
Besides the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Military Affairs also need to go to the Black Fog Zone that day. The former needs to conduct on-site measurements of the terrain and magical conditions, while the latter needs to arrange patrols, guards, and protection.
Shu Xin wasn't idle either. She gathered the tax department to brainstorm and work together to develop specific items for the commercial tax.
After finalizing the business tax, Shu Xin continued to discuss other taxes for non-local ethnic groups with the tax officials.
After all the tax items were finalized, the Black Fog District was officially named the Wind Market District.
The human soldiers moved into tents, ate dry rations, and even dug a well. Before they began building the Wind City, they first built public toilets for themselves.
The human mage fell seriously ill after being forced to draw a teleportation array in a public toilet, but apart from him, the mental state of the other humans was relatively stable, especially after the black magic cat left the Wind Market area, many soldiers began to send messages home.
While the human soldiers welcomed a mix of genuine and fake "relatives and friends," Shu Xin also received an unexpected guest.
"Good afternoon, Your Majesty." A female elf with long, flowing crimson curly hair greeted Shu Xin with a smile. "I think you should still remember me? I run a magic cat inn. You met Daisy in my inn, do you remember? I saw Daisy on my way here. You've taken good care of her!"
Shu Xin certainly remembered the flower fairy who used to run magic cat markets with her cat knight. Now that the other party had obviously returned to her fairy form, she wondered if this was a follow-up visit that adopters would encounter after adopting a cat.
After glancing at the innkeeper a couple more times, Shu Xin was somewhat surprised. Meeting his deep red eyes, which were so dark they were almost black, Shu Xin hesitated, her tone unusually hesitant: "Of course I remember you... but why do you look like a magical puppet?"
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Author's Note: There are cats in this world too. How ordinary cats view magical cats is probably similar to how we humans view Transformers...
As for why the black magical cat is so peculiar, to give an analogy, the Autobots are mechanical life forms, basically made of various metals, and suddenly a gaseous Transformer appears—even if you say it's gaseous metal, it's still very strange!
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