Chapter 1021: Volume 33: Where to Go, What to Do, - 9: Seeking Change
Puber jumped down from the deck and stood on the simple pier, looking around and stretching his stiff body from the long voyage. The warm sea breeze carried a hint of moisture, even making his hair feel slightly damp.
The surroundings were dominated by a somewhat chaotic thicket of shrubbery, with purple-red eucalyptus, gray-green barberry, and needle laurel with its petite white flowers, all common shrubs of the South. Clusters connected to clusters, covering the hills far and wide, extending to the inland before one could finally glimpse some small strips of tall tree forest, no more than three to five meters high.
Looking out, a winding path twisted towards the inland, with almost no one in sight except for a few people within two or three hundred meters of the dock—it truly felt like a land apart from the world.
Puber sighed. This godforsaken place was far worse than Ugru and Mattdam had been initially; at least those places had some indigenous people, at least there were a couple of barely decent roads.
Here, Puber knew, the faint hints of life around the dock were entirely the work of Hayreddin. As for the roads, they could hardly be called that, amounting to nothing more than tracks worn by frequent steps—and perhaps even by the passage of wild beasts more often than not.
Puber had no other option but to sigh; he had no choice but to come, given the task the Boss assigned to him. He was well aware that, in terms of economic value, there was none here, but it was a strategic outpost to prevent the Assyrian People from infiltrating eastward. Further west and north lay the heart of the Mist Flower Hills and the Red Tree Forest. If the Assyrians managed to gain control of the Red Tree Forest and the Iris Basin, their influence would truly seep into the Southern Mediterranean Region.
Nicosia currently lacked the power to extend its influence to the Southern Mediterranean, but that did not mean it couldn’t in the future. Allowing the Assyrians to gain the upper hand was undoubtedly the last thing Komer wished to see. Aiding the Forest Elves in resisting the oppression of the Dark Elves was just an excuse; preventing the far-reaching hands of the Assyrians from reaching the Southern Mediterranean before Nicosia was the true goal.
The essence of the region along the Southern Mediterranean coast was too far from here; there was almost no activity from mortals, and the secluded customs of the Elves also made traders uninterested in this area. Without government support, no one would be willing to pioneer business opportunities here, and now he found himself unwillingly playing the fool.
"Hayreddin, how many people are here now?"
"Roughly a bit over a hundred," Hayreddin said, standing at the bow with his hands on his hips, gazing into the distance. "Most of them are sailors and boatmen we brought. Only a handful of traders have come to establish a presence and scout the area." The sea was as blue as a mirror, a rare quiet time in the Storm Ocean suitable for long voyages. Unfortunately, the place was just a bit too desolate.