Harem-Powered Kingdom Building: Empire of Carnal Sin-Chapter 40: Land of No Return

Hiro stood inside Furina's tent.

Thanks to him choosing an expensive tent, it was quite spacious. Spacious enough to comfortably hold the six other people who were standing with him.

Among the six, three were from the Berger family. Targon, Fiona, and Vasquen stood in front of him, with Targon leading the group.

On Hiro's right were Tara and Furina. They were here since, apparently, they were interested in learning more about the Desolate Lands too.

On his left, Barbara stood with her arms crossed. She was here since, apparently, she also knew a thing or two about this place.

Targon led the discussion. "My Lord, I mainly wanted to ask if you could share your wisdom regarding the Desolate Lands. It will no doubt be invaluable in aiding the survival of us regular folk over here."

'...You're asking the wrong person, brother,' Hiro thought.

His main aim in inviting Targon inside the tent was to extract information from him, not share his 'wisdom.'

So he said, "Why don't you go first? Let me hear what you already know."

Targon did not find this question strange. He complied.

"As you wish, my Lord."

Targon put on a thoughtful expression for a few seconds, as if organizing the information in his head.

"The first thing that comes to a person's mind when they talk about the Desolate Lands is that it is a land of no return. Over the course of many, many years, several individuals and adventuring parties have ventured into these cursed lands. None of them ever made it back."

Right off the bat, Hiro had a bunch of questions he wanted to ask. But he did not want to reveal his ignorance to the three people in front of him.

So he decided to make use of Tara. He used the telepathic link to speak to her.

"Tara, I have a few questions that I want you to ask Targon..."

After saying so, Hiro quickly conveyed his doubts to her. Tara suppressed a smile, seeing Hiro trying to hide his ignorance from his new citizens. Nevertheless, she decided to obediently get the answers that Hiro wanted.

She asked Targon, "Nobody returned? How is it possible that not even a single one returned? Surely, there must be some people who just walked in and then immediately walked out of the Desolate Lands' territory?"

Targon gave Tara a weird look when he heard her question.

"...Walk in and walk out?" he asked.

Tara felt compelled to explain herself when she saw how Targon was looking at her. "Sorry, I'm originally from the Rorak Earldom. News about the Desolate Lands is scarce over there, and all kinds of exaggerations are mixed into the rumors."

Targon seemed to be recollecting something. After a second or two, he said, "Oh! If I recall correctly, the Rorak Earldom is quite far to the west. It is not surprising if you don't know much about this place in that case."

He then answered her previous question.

"There is no walking path into and out of the Desolate Lands. The only known entrance is from the Outer Desolate, which is south of the Boyang Desert. Anyone that wants to enter the Desolate Lands must ride the Shifting Sands of the Outer Desolate, but that is a one-way trip."

"So basically, the path from the Desolate Lands to the Outer Desolate is not known?" Tara asked. There was some genuine fear in her voice now.

"Precisely."

Furina's face paled a little upon hearing Targon's confirmation. Apparently, there was some truth to the 'rumors' they had heard back in Rorak.

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Since Tara did not ask any more questions, Targon spoke to Hiro. "My Lord, this is the first time I've heard of anyone establishing a realm inside the Desolate Lands. I thought that such a thing was impossible."

"What made you think it was impossible?" Hiro asked with a smile.

"Well, I thought that a Divine Domain could not expand to baronies that were not adjacent to its existing territory. Normally, if a new ruler ascends under Goddess Selune, their territory must be adjacent to that of an existing ruler..."

Targon looked at Hiro with an unspoken question in his eyes. It wasn't just Targon. Everyone inside the tent looked at Hiro with curious and questioning eyes.

How was Hiro allocated territory inside the Desolate Lands?

"Haha. Curious about me being here, are you? Hmm... All I'll say is that there are some divine secrets at play behind me being the Ruler of this territory. And those secrets are not for you to know. At least not right now," Hiro said mysteriously.

!!!

Hearing those words, the three people from the Berger family looked at Hiro with even more respect than before. How much of a bigshot was he!?

Barbara, on the other hand, just squinted her eyes at Hiro. For some reason, she felt that he was bullshitting. She had pretty scary intuition sometimes. But since she had no proof, she chose not to call him out.

Instead, she turned her attention to Targon.

"Is that all the information you have?" she asked with a frown. There was something she wanted to know, but she was unwilling to ask about it directly.

Nobody from the Berger family seemed willing to answer her. Instead, they looked at her with somewhat unpleasant expressions.

Hiro was the one they respected, not her. Moreover, they held a natural dislike for her since she was a "barbarian" from the Boyang Desert.

"Why are you even here again?" Vasquen asked her directly, a frown on his face.

When she saw their attitudes, Barbara's temper immediately flared.

"Look here, you—"

But Hiro wasn't in the mood to watch them bicker right now.

"Shhh! Nobody fight. Targon, you and your family need to set your prejudices aside. And you too, Barbara. You'll need to learn to respect others before others will respect you."

Hiro paused for a second. Every person the World sent to him as a refugee would almost certainly be a Selune worshipper. That's just how the 'realm selection algorithm' worked.

'Everyone's going to hate Barbara and co by default. I'll need to do something about that. What a pain in the ass...' Hiro thought.

After hearing Hiro's words, both Barbara and the Berger family just glared at each other for a while before averting their gazes.

Hiro also decided to get back to the topic. "You haven't answered Barbara's question, Targon. Is this all the information you know?"

"No, My Lord. There is something else. Several years ago, there was a major expedition organized by a Grand Mage who was over Level 200. He entered the Desolate Lands with a party of his own and relayed some of his findings using a long-distance communication spell to the outside world."