Black Sail
Chapter 367: Ⅱ. Dragon, Blood Clan, and the Boss of Heaven Port

Chapter 367: Ⅱ. Dragon, Blood Clan, and the Boss of Heaven Port

April 15th.

Heaven Port.

The construction of the new city was not something that could be completed overnight; it was a long-term process. Over a month had passed since Doringger’s death, but they had only managed to deal with all the dangerous buildings and cleared away the remaining ruins.

The whole island looked completely renewed, but apart from the castle and buildings in the Inner City, openness was visible to the naked eye. The port piers, however, had already been fully reconstructed.

The Outer City had completely vanished. When the residents who had sought refuge on Iron Soul Island returned, their homes were gone.

Poor folks were naturally quite happy to accept projects in exchange for aid, but many who had a bit of money had been content living in their self-built houses. Now they had been demolished?

Even with their grievances, they dared not express them—who would dare to go to the castle and seek an explanation from Liszt?

As the new Boss of Heavenly Port, Liszt had to consider the entire island’s ecosystem. He needed to keep people there for labor and consumer power to form a positive cycle. If people had nowhere to live and gave up, looking for livelihoods elsewhere and disappearing, that would be the real disaster. It wouldn’t be wise to begrudge the money for disaster relief and spoil the bigger picture for a small, immediate profit.

These people were all lawbreakers with burdens on their shoulders—Heaven Port was still a place to settle down and make a living.

Liszt had thoughts of temporarily housing those people in the Inner City.

But Heaven Port wasn’t just Liszt’s alone.

It had never belonged solely to Doringger either.

Many high-rise buildings in the Inner City were personal property of the merchants, who didn’t need to pay protection fees to Doringger, simply buying necessities from him each month—and that was it.

To resettle people in the Inner City, he still needed the nod from the other bosses.

Of course, Liszt could swallow up all the properties in the Inner City, but could he manage them all? Killing off these bosses and taking over their lands and buildings was certainly possible.

But then the market ecology here would be completely destroyed. When they heard that Liszt was doing things even more ruthlessly than Doringger, how would foreign capital come in? Liszt was also counting on making a fortune from the tourism industry in the New Continent.

He was now thinking in terms of being a regional lord.

Even someone as powerful as the Emperor didn’t own everything within Aran.

At Liszt’s level, he needed to think bigger and see problems with a different mindset.

Residents of the self-built houses in the Outer City had three choices.

The first was, of course, work in exchange for aid—nothing more to be said about that.

The second was compensation from Liszt. Everyone had an idea of the quality of their self-built homes. After registration and verification, each household would be compensated seven hundred silver coins. It was a generous offer, covering the costs of labor and materials. As for the land value, that was out of the question in a place crawling with desperadoes.

The third option...was rather ingenious.

The returning refugees could not join the workforce, but they could still obtain living rights in the new city.

However, they needed to buy...

Bonds from Black Sail.

Doringger had monopolized overseas transportation; all of the island’s necessities, such as food and meat, were shipped over by him to wholesale to the many merchants on the island.

Necessities, plus monopoly.

So Black Sail had...the right to issue currency.

But don’t rush. Who would acknowledge you if you issue currency now? There’s nocredibility. You need at least two to three years of stable operations before that’s feasible.

However, bonds were still an option.

If you chose not to work, you only needed to spend five Golden Dragons to buy bonds, and you could also get a set of housing. The operating status of Black Sail would be disclosed quarterly to bondholders. It’s not just about the housing—there was also interest to be calculated.

Heaven Port’s main board financing was just that audacious.

However...

It had been a week, and the bonds had not sold at all. No one was confident in Liszt, because who could understand these flashy maneuvers?

Meanwhile, the construction of the new city progressed extremely slowly, with only the foundations just laid.

Even though Fen had taken on the full package of work—city planning, road construction, hydraulic systems, architectural blueprints—the people on the island, who had failed even prenatal education, couldn’t understand any of it. What was the quality of those self-built houses? Post-apocalyptic wasteland style, anybody would do.

These buildings required professional construction teams; simple laborers wouldn’t be able to handle them well.

Within the castle.

A meeting room in the auxiliary tower.

"Damn it..."

Liszt could no longer contain himself, and ripped off his white fur cloak. It had been one thing after another these days. With Doringger’s death, his Remnant Party crumbled into ruins, suppressed within a month.

But troubles kept coming, one after another.

The business with the Far East Ship Traders Association, naturally, hadn’t been agreed upon. If Liszt had completely subdued the East Sea, with no one daring to cause trouble, peace would have prevailed, and two thousand Golden Dragons per quarter could certainly be feasible.

But Liszt had been in this position for just over a month. Who knew if he could handle it?

Even Doringger didn’t dare to play this way; he could only resort to a free market, piracy, and selling off loot. He couldn’t handle all the pirates, and many were not afraid of Doringger.

But regardless of whether Liszt could keep them in line or not, he was still the Boss, and the vice-chairman representative, fearing future threats and harassment from Liszt to the coastal areas of the Far East Islands, put forward a compromise.

He would first return to the Far East Islands, gather opinions, and propose that those merchants who were on board could pay a sum upfront for a certificate of qualification, start a trial operation to see if indeed no one would come to rob them.

After stability was achieved, five thousand per month, twenty thousand per quarter, all payable in full.

This matter was temporarily unresolved.

Then more bad news arrived.

Dammit, a bunch of people came from overseas, seizing the opportunity of Doringger’s demise to create trouble in the East Sea, challenging him, disturbing the fishing grounds and islands, robbing merchant ships. Others had their own channels for disposing of loot and didn’t need Heaven Port.

At that moment,

It was only then that Liszt understood how effective Diaz’s threats were. Liszt had already opened up to foreign investments, calling on mining and trading companies to set up shop.

But the Thief Guild was such a quagmire, any enterprise cooperating with Black Sail would face comprehensive retaliation from the Thief Guild. No one had shown up even after the message had been out for so long.

Now, the only hope was on those forces OG that Liszt had once rescued from the Northern Prison and Garscek, Sister Gar.

To break through this difficult barrier.

Otherwise, Liszt’s position as Boss would probably not last three months, and he would be taken down by others rallying forces against him.

"Sister Gar, I’m begging you, sis! Help me out!"

Liszt only gave the expenditures a cursory glance, not quite trusting Fen with it, as Mo Yutong was in charge of the finances.

"New Heavenly Port Revitalization New District Plan"

Salaries for internal staff of Black Sail.

Maintenance fees for the Sea God.

And taking over from Doringger, bulk purchases from the inland to supply the island’s needs.

After dealing with Doringger,

The already tight public funds, even with the investment from allies, the quarterly financial report and future projected revenue were not looking good. The first quarter’s loss could still be weathered.

If there was no injection of capital, the second quarter would collapse immediately.

"Hmm... I haven’t decided yet."

Garscek was indifferent, enjoying the atmosphere as Liszt grew more anxious and frustrated, maintaining an air of superiority.

"Name your terms, big sis. If you want me to slap the Emperor, I’ll head to Aran right now."

Liszt realized he had overextended himself.

Through various methods of the He Transmutes Freedom Method, and elixirs that forced him up to the realm of the East Sea King, his foundation was unstable, vulnerable to being challenged by others at any time.

"Terms, you say..."

Garscek also realized she couldn’t stall forever and needed to give Liszt a taste of success.

Right at that moment,

A maid came into the meeting room.

"Boss, the lady has returned," said the maid.

"Hm?" Garscek was taken aback. "You have a wife?"