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Chapter 311. Occupation

"How... how is this possible?! My Ring of Ethereal Form should\'ve..." Arthur looked down at his hand and found out that the ring that was supposed to be on his finger, as well as the finger itself, had vanished.

The empty space next to him started to shimmer, and a petite figure appeared wearing red sleeves. His hand beneath the sleeves was holding Arthur\'s missing finger.

"Do you know how much time and energy I spent on this plan? Why did you not think that I would send people to keep an eye on the effects of your relics?" Margaret said. She then ruthlessly pulled out the dagger stuck in Arthur\'s chest and thrust it back in.

Arthur\'s blood sprayed out from his back, and the light from his eyes slowly faded away; his body, which was wrapped in steel, went limp.

Margaret looked down at the corpse on the ground. The corners of her lips curled up into a faint smile and widened until she burst out into a chuckle. Her chuckle became louder and louder until it reached a crescendo.

The tightly shut doors on the streets opened gradually until it was slightly ajar. The islanders whispered amongst themselves as they peeked out from the inside.

"Isn\'t that Miss Margaret?"

"No way. The Cavendish Family members are dead."

"That\'s right. But that\'s definitely Miss Margaret right there. I can still remember her face."

Margaret turned around at the noises behind her. The torches illuminated her face. Her visage was marred by a scar, but the islanders still recognized her distinct features.

The nearby houses gradually lit up as the islanders approached Margaret with torches in their hands. Each one of them was silent, yet there was a certain longing in their eyes.

"Denizens of Whereto! The vile villains who have trampled upon our land have been vanquished by me—Margaret Jane Cavendish! I swear upon the honor of my family, I will restore our country—our island—to its former glory!"

Silence blanketed the crowd, and exactly three seconds later, the crowd erupted into cheers akin to a thunderous storm. Some even got so emotional that they shed tears of excitement. They were thrilled to know that there were better days ahead of them. After all, they had suffered for a long time now.

The colonizers hadn\'t treated the denizens well, and Arthur had always been a military man, so he had brought the culture of the military to the island, which included the vile practice of comfort women.

Margaret smiled as she basked in the gazes of the islanders. She couldn\'t conceal the tears in her eyes.

"Father, Mother, Brother, can you see this? Our home is ours once again," she muttered to herself.

Just then, a group of police officers squeezed their way in through the crowd with a whistle. Their expressions changed when they saw Arthur\'s corpse, as well as Margaret, standing in the middle of the crowd. They reacted quickly and threw their weapons away to the ground before saluting Margaret.

Hope Island\'s navy fleet soon arrived, and Arthur\'s lackeys immediately stopped resisting. They surrendered even quicker upon hearing about how Sottom—the mobile island and their pirate denizens—had decided to help Governor Margaret.

A new order was disseminated, and the surviving officials began to serve the new Governor of Whereto.

Meanwhile, Arthur\'s lackeys met the same horrible fate.

Thud!

Several dull thuds echoed as guillotines fell on despairing heads all at the same time. Bloody heads rolled from the scaffolding onto the mud and then toward Margaret\'s feet.

She was standing next to several hundreds of prisoners with sacks over their heads. They were kneeling in front of guards, awaiting their final judgment.

"Next batch! Hurry up!" the sweating administrator roared. He seemed frantic, afraid that if he were to move even a beat slower, a guillotine would make its way to his head.

The guards herded the next batch of prisoners onto the scaffolding, and more dull thuds echoed afterward as the crimson-stained guillotines got to work.

Margaret closed her eyes, inhaling the rusted air. This was the first time she felt even a tinge of joy since her mother\'s death. It wasn\'t strange that she was happy; she had swept away the vermins that had occupied her homeland, after all.

When she opened her eyes, she looked at the distant ruins of the Governor\'s Mansion. The manual laborers were clearing out the debris. Margaret\'s plan was to build a mansion identical to the previous Governor\'s Mansion.

Of course, her plan would have to come later, as she still had many things to do.

She left and headed toward the nearby docks, where the Hope Island\' Navy was taking a brief respite before returning.

"Have you considered my proposal, gentlemen?" Margaret addressed the three men inside the bustling tavern. One of the three men was wearing a pristine, clean-looking uniform, the other was a muscular man with a hook for a hand, and the remaining man was a middle-aged man with a pallid visage.

These three men had been captains of their own exploration vessels until they discovered Hope Island with Charles. Now, they were no longer captains but had become a part of Hope Island\'s navy.

"Join our island\'s navy, and I will double what Charles had offered you."

The hook-handed, muscular man nudged his friend—who had a tattoo depicting an anchor—before saying with a chuckle, "What did I tell you? There\'s no way our Governor has an affair with Margaret. Otherwise, she wouldn\'t have attempted to poach us so blatantly like this."

Despite hearing the man\'s speculations about her and Charles, Margaret calmly asked, "I haven\'t heard your decision yet, gentlemen. What do you say?"

The three exchanged looks and shook their heads in unison.

The man in the uniform gently set his drink on the bar and said, "It seems you\'ve misunderstood us, Miss. We are free to plunder and murder at sea so long as there\'s no one to witness, but there are two things we, explorer captains, consider taboo.

"Firstly, the rules of the Explorers Association. If we were to break them, they would stop protecting us, and they wouldn\'t protect us according to the rules if we ended up discovering more islands.

"Secondly, and lastly, we will never betray our Governor. Our Governor is the foundation of our everything, so we will never betray him.

"Those are our principles, and if we do not strive to abide by them. We\'re no better than the riffraff pirates out there. Folks here call us madmen, but we value our identity."

The middle-aged man with a pallid visage agreed and said, "Also, this place isn\'t exactly friendly. It\'s so gloomy here. It can\'t compare to Hope Island at all, where I can rest easy and be comfortable whenever I want. This place also doesn\'t have Hope Island\'s deadly sun rays, so I\'m going to be bored even if I stay here."

Margaret didn\'t seem annoyed upon seeing the men\'s firm stance.

"In that case, you can stay here and rest up for the next several days. The harbor\'s brothels and taverns are on the house," she said before turning around to leave.

"Don\'t worry. We\'re not going to leave until you\'ve stabilized your position here. As for your poaching attempt, I apologize, but we\'ll have to report it to our Governor without sparing even a single word."