American: Native Empire - Chapter 110
Chapter 110: Aftermath.
“Jim will never forgive this. He will thoroughly investigate this incident and make the culprits pay for the lives of the sailors. Let everyone know that and act accordingly.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
The meeting ended like that.
Kim Ki-woo returned to his office, but he couldn’t shake off the dirty feeling.
‘So this is what happens when the capitalist class grows.’
Of course, it wasn’t yet at the point where such extreme and inhuman acts were happening frequently.
But there were more and more people who caused various problems by skillfully avoiding the law for the sake of money.
And this was bound to increase as private capital grew and society became more advanced.
‘I can’t stop all of that.’
He was treated as a god in the empire, but he was just a person who brought many cheat keys from the future.
How could he control what was happening in faraway places when it was hard to communicate with distant regions?
The best he could do was to create a social atmosphere that could prevent this and set the right direction.
‘By the way, I wonder if the only one who violated the ban was the one with the sharp eyes.’
He pondered for a moment, but eventually Kim Ki-woo shook his head vigorously.
‘Somehow I don’t think so.’
Unlike before, there was a strong motivation to make a fortune by going to another continent and bringing back relics.
And didn’t they also have faith that it was safe because of the vaccine?
‘Maybe because of this incident, there might be more attempts to smuggle.’
Among those who were considering smuggling, there might be someone who thought they didn’t want to fall behind after seeing this attempt.
Kim Ki-woo erased his thoughts from his head.
‘Let’s think about it after finishing this incident well.’
***
The aftermath of this incident was intense.
The newspapers of the empire competed to report on the mass murder of sailors, and thanks to that, most of the imperial citizens learned about this incident.
“How could this happen? How could such a horrible thing happen?”
“How can they do such a heinous thing wearing human skins!”
“How dare they violate the ban that His Majesty proclaimed!”
All the imperial citizens, regardless of age or gender, denounced the instigators of this terrible act.
As a result, things got bigger and bigger.
“Let’s take this opportunity to investigate whether the public officials have done anything illegal!”
If the vaccine hadn’t been stolen, this situation might not have happened.
People are forgetful animals.
No matter how much public officials were punished more severely for corruption, their sense of crisis would fade over time.
And when a massive inspection storm hit, this suspicion turned out to be true.
“Oh, please spare me! I-I must have been crazy for a moment! Please, just once…!”
“Shut up! His Majesty has made such a good world for us, and you are a public official who eats away at the empire’s wealth! How can you do such a corrupt thing!”
“Eek!”
As a full-scale inspection unfolded, corruption that had been growing in scale little by little was exposed to the world.
“Oh… I didn’t expect so many bad things to come out.”
“Aren’t they afraid of heaven? They’re totally crazy! His Majesty has emphasized the integrity of public officials so much!”
“They get paid a lot anyway, but they’re blinded by greed.”
They clicked their tongues as if they couldn’t believe it.
The public officials of the empire were quite high-income earners.
Kim Ki-woo had taken care of them so that they could enjoy a good quality of life even without corruption.
He knew that if they were pressed by living expenses, they would resort to corruption for survival.
Thanks to that, those who were caught this time couldn’t make an excuse that they had committed corruption for living.
“Hmm… more vaccines were stolen than I thought.”
“Did you really sell it for that price?”
The inspectors were shocked by the number of vaccines that had been smuggled out.
The vaccines were a means of protecting their lives from possible epidemics, and the wealthy wanted to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
There were quite a few capitalists who secretly bought and received illegal vaccines, knowing that it was illegal.
“This is troublesome.”
The situation was so serious that if they were to punish them all, it would have a negative impact on the empire’s economy.
But they couldn’t just punish the sellers and not the rich buyers.
So Kim Ki-woo decided to legally extort money from them.
“I think that the higher one’s social status is, the more they should set an example for others. However, many nobles and wealthy people bought illegally distributed vaccines for their own safety. I am very disappointed in them. But I know that they are serving the empire. So I will give them a chance.”
“What kind of chance are you talking about?”
“If they voluntarily show their sincerity in proportion to their status and influence, I might forgive their mistakes.”
He spoke in a roundabout way, but in the end he was telling them to pay up.
And not a fixed fine, but an amount of money that matched their wealth.
The capitalists who heard this breathed a sigh of relief.
“Phew. That’s a relief.”
“I thought I was going to lose my head if I made a mistake.”
They valued their lives more than anything else, since they had bought the vaccines for the sake of possible danger.
They didn’t mind spending money, as long as they were safe.
And they couldn’t afford to be hated by Kim Ki-woo in the empire’s society.
Thanks to that, they each paid a large amount of money.
This solved the problem of domestic distribution of vaccines to some extent, but the amount of vaccines smuggled out was also too much to ignore.
‘Most of them were sold to the nobles of the Central Continent.’
At present, the richest people outside were the nobles of the Central Continent.
The Andes region had been at war for too long and there were not many people who had accumulated a lot of capital.
But the Central Continent had enjoyed peace for a long time after the Aztec conquest, and the nobles had almost monopolized trade with the empire, so wealth was concentrated on them.
So they bought vaccines at very high prices for their safety.
They were not imperial citizens, so they had no idea when they would be able to get vaccinated.
He could sympathize with their actions to some extent, given the situation.
So Kim Ki-woo thought.
‘Since it’s come to this, let’s sell vaccines positively to the rich outside.’
Of course, he intended to charge a very high price as it would delay the vaccination time for the imperial citizens.
But he still thought that those who wanted to live would live anyway.
***
“We are really innocent! We never thought he would kill all the crew on his ship!”
Even after being sent to the imperial mainland, Fine Sand continued to plead his innocence.
He was sincere.
He had agreed to participate in Sharp Eyes’ plan, but he had no idea that he would do such a horrible thing.
“You never thought? Did you not even wonder what he was going to do with the crew on board?”
“Well, I was a bit curious, but… at that time, there was no sign of anything…”
“That’s just an excuse. Do you think your guilt will disappear even if you didn’t know?”
“Please, please forgive me!”
Fine Sand begged earnestly to the man in front of him, but the answer was cold.
“You should have never started this in the first place. Your fate will be decided soon. So stay quiet until then.”
After he left.
“Oh my! What am I going to do now…”
Fine Sand sensed the hardships he would face in the future.
And he was right.
“Even if they didn’t know, the fact that they cooperated with the sharp-eyed ones won’t disappear. Therefore, I will sentence all those involved in this matter to hard labor. Those who resist can be killed on the spot by the commander’s judgment.”
“Yes, sir!”
The head of the military bowed his head with a determined face.
‘This should be enough.’
He felt that he had cleared up some of the traffic.
Kim Kiwoo thought that the result was not too bad.
Although they were sold illegally, a lot of money was returned to the empire when they were caught, and the capitalists who bought the vaccine illegally also paid a lot.
In addition, considering the vaccine that would be sold expensively to the nobles outside in the future, the profit was even greater.
‘I have to make more vaccines with this.’
He thought he had to increase the production of vaccines much faster than now to minimize the variables.
He had made a lot of money that he hadn’t expected, and he planned to pour it all into vaccine production.
***
As society gradually became more complex and especially as newspapers fully established their position, various issues appeared and disappeared every day in the empire.
But no matter what news came from outside, Sharp Teeth and the researchers didn’t care at all.
They focused only on research on railways and steam locomotives since the laboratory that Kim Kiwoo had made for them was completed.
They had been researching steam locomotives for quite a long time, so visible results began to appear quickly.
In addition, they were located close to Black Sky, so they could directly transport the necessary steel structures.
As a result, a railway and an experimental steam locomotive that could move on it were made in no time.
“Please don’t let there be any accidents…”
“Don’t worry too much. There won’t be any problems.”
“Right? It must be.”
Sharp Teeth nodded his head consciously.
And before the first steam locomotive experiment started, he checked several parts for the last time.
“Good. Everything seems fine.”
The joints of the steel structures were firmly connected, and there seemed to be nothing wrong with the railway.
In addition, the wheels between the steam locomotive and the railway were firmly connected so that they would not derail.
He made it with maximum emphasis on stability, so it seemed that nothing would go wrong.
But you never know until you actually try it.
Sharp Teeth finished all the checks and started the experiment.
“You never know what will happen, so don’t let your guard down. Got it?”
“Yes!”
Then, as planned, they started to heat up the steam engine attached to the steam locomotive.
Squeak!
And at some point.
Finally, the steam engine was ready to operate.
“Start!”
Then, following Sharp Teeth’s shout, the steam locomotive slowly began to move forward.
Screech!
“Oh!”
“Woah, it’s moving!”
The loud metal sound hurt the researchers’ ears, but there was not a single researcher who frowned at this noise.
It was because that heavy steam locomotive was moving forward automatically.
It was the moment they had been longing for so far.
“Ahh…”
Something hot rose up in Sharp Teeth’s chest.
The steam locomotive in front of him was very noisy and slow.
But that didn’t matter.
Wasn’t it the same with steam engines?
At first, they were very inefficient and noisy, but now they have improved a lot.
Just like that, the steam locomotive in front of him would get faster and more stable.
As the experiment continued, his confidence in success grew stronger.
It didn’t derail due to inertia even when passing through not only straight sections but also gentle curved sections.
And finally, when the steam locomotive stopped and all the experiments ended.
“We did it!”
“Hahaha!”
The researchers shouted with joy.
It was the moment when steam locomotives officially showed their appearance in the history of the empire.
