Alexander Lockhart... or as many people called him, Xander The Great, was currently in the clouds with glee.
And the more he heard, the more thrilled he was.
The boy was smart.
Just to ensure that not many people in Veinitta knew of his moves in Carona, he had done a lot before after setting sail.
But of course, fate helped him as well.
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The Pyno continent itself was too backward, which would seem like an excellent opportunity for merchants to see their goods there.
But the thing was that when compared to the Pyno container, Veinitta was way closer to many other backward continues like the continues of Tenola, Omania and Zohl.
In addition to Veinitta, trade within these 4 continents was easier to deal with.
Why?
Because there weren't as many pirates there.
Around their calm waters, once or twice, one could meet pirates, but it wasn't as bad as when trying to go around the Pyno continent's waters.
The Pirates around them didn't have any damn organizations, primarily operated individually, and were very few in number since the empires constantly hunted them down.
Plus, there weren't many islands around these continents, so most wannabe pirates fled to join the Pirate organization in Morgany.
But that was the thing.
When looking at the map, all around Morgany, trailing to the massive open waters at the center, and finally moving all around the Pyno continent... The Pirate organization secretly claimed those entire water regions!
So how could merchants not get discouraged?
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The most annoying thing was that the Pirate organization collected fees for passing through the waters.
If you don't pay up, then every pirate you meet would attack you nonstop.
In short, along the way, one might meet a total of 15 different pirate fleets, which they would have to fight or pay.
But how could they stay safe while travelling the waters?
Easy.
They had to go to Morgany to get doc.u.mentation from the pirate headquarters.
Even he, a royal of Veinitta, was asked to pay this fee too.
But what happens if it's a person's first time going to Morgany?
Then too bad!
Unlike the journey from Veinitta to the Pyno continent, where one might meet 15 different pirate crews, on the way to Morgany, one might meet 40 or more.
Meaning that they would have to pay each person they saw a fixed amount to pass.
And when they reached the pirate headquarters, they could pay a yearly fee, bi-yearly fee and so on... Which was a hefty price.
From there, they would get doc.u.mentation saying that no pirate should take anything from them once they travelled.
But here was the catch.
That doc.u.ment only saved them if they were going to Morgany or going back to Veinitta from Morgany.
If they wanted to go to the Pyno continent, they needed doc.u.mentation for that too.
And if someone from Pyno wanted to go to Veinitta, they also had to make the long, painful trip to Morgany and get individual doc.u.mentation passes for Morgany and Veinitta.
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It was all a big Scam that only benefitted Morgany.
After all, a certain proportion of what was collected was decided up and sent to the Monarchs of all 3 empires in Morgany.
Those 3 empires acted like the landlords for the Pirate organization that stayed in Morgany.
And so Morgany grew richer, stronger and better, while Pyno and Veinitta stayed below.
At one time, they too wanted to tax people, but it backfired when the pirate organization cane for them.
The change in Morgany was far greater than many in the Pyno continent could imagine.
Almost all roads, even those in the villages, were made of stone... Which made road travel a lot faster.
The ridiculous twig and grass huts that filled many regions around the Pyno continent almost didn't exist in Morgany.
Over 300 years ago, those home structures were banned, and the people were all tasked to build homes, as per the instructions from the architects.
The monarchs wanted Morgany to always stand above the other continents, so they did much to change the continent's outer appearance
Of course, there was still poverty and hungry-stricken people.
But they didn't care.
Provided those people didn't have any diseases that could spread plagues, what did it have to do with them?
Nonetheless, they were still better off than the other peasants in different continents, making them a little happy and content to be Morgs.
Because even though the house changes were done for a greedy reason, one had to admit that the new homes lowered the death rate during winter considerably.
And with good roads, some things were a lot easier too.
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One should know that from the get-go, Morgany had always been decades and centuries ahead of the other 2 continents.
Ages ago, right from the start when the first set of Morgs left Morgany to settle within the other continents... those who left teamed up with the natives to fight the many beasts on the land and secured more areas for human habitation.
And while that went on, Morgany, which had already dealt with that, was on a different journey of making its continent grand.
With time, the other continents picked up, but Morgany was long ahead.
They were the game changers and the trendsetters.
Veinitta was long ahead of the Pyno continent because of its smaller size when compared to the Pyno continent.
And those on the Pyno continent suffered, dealing with those gigantic monsters that crushed and destroyed anything they built over time.
Some of the animals had been turned extinct by them thousands of years ago.
They were really behind.
And that's how the order went.
In a way, Morgany also controlled the seas, as any secret messages could be recovered or snatched by the pirates if they already had information about it.
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And so with all the going on, not many travelled to the Pyno continent.
But for those that did go, Skye used a different means to stop them.
Thinking if he does move, Alexander couldn't be prouder.
So does this mean that his son was now on the Caronian throne?
Good boy!