Annan raised his eyebrows slightly.
If this place belonged to Isaac’s family...
He glanced again at the man wearing a mask with a smile.
If he appeared here, it would be easy to guess the identity of this booth owner.
He was likely one of the "younger brothers and sisters" of Isaac, a blood relative of one of them.
Isaac seed to have guessed what Annan wanted to ask.
He said in a low voice, "The pupils of my siblings are of this sa brown hue."
"Uh-huh..."
Annan pondered.
This was indeed sowhat beyond Annan’s expectations... yet it seed quite reasonable.
It wouldn’t be strange for a gambling den to open anywhere. After all, it was only a "sowhat special" pawnshop, and any place with a basent could be converted into a gambling den.
Unlike other gambling establishnts, however, gambling dens did not aim to rely profit from gamblers’ money; they specifically served the pirate gangs. They dealt not only with captives plundered at sea but more so with enacting covert punishnts on the gangs’ enemies, as well as enforcing so "family disciplines" internally.
Due to Dennisiowa’s special system, any major noble who wanted to significantly and the law would face substantial obstacles. This is because others cannot judge whether there is a hidden trap within the changes that might interfere with their power.
It could even be said that the opinions submitted to the "mbers’ Council" were signed by soone from the "Committee," but the origins and political objectives of these committee mbers—many tis, were not rely the details themselves but these "extrinsic circumstances" that decided whether the opinions would pass or fail.
This situation made it impossible for Dennisiowa to have large-scale arrests.
They even had to "control the cri rate."
Otherwise, the rising cri rates in this region would beco evidence for one faction to attack another in the council—everyone’s controlled area is "smooth sailing," so why were so many criminals arrested in your area?
Because Transcendents and Ritualists were rampant, cris could not be completely stopped.
So how to reduce the cri rate?
—The answer was simple: just don’t accept any reported cases.
In the United Kingdom, the police stations would only file cases and issue warrants when "evidence is provided by oneself."
Without warrants, only self-confessed criminals would be accepted by them... Even if an enthusiastic public caught the criminal on the spot and took him to the police station, without evidence, the most that would happen is the criminal would take a tour inside, pay a bail, and then he would be released.
There was one exception—when it involved Transcendent cris, the police would take special care.
Because Transcendents and Ritualists could indeed cause huge destruction.
Those superhuman detectives and detectives in the stories could only do their best to investigate cases and pursue suspects. They would need to spend half a month or even several months to arrest the "ring leader"... And they couldn’t arrest too many people, or it would "make the data look bad."
The inco of this job was much more than that of ordinary police officers.
After all, in Dennisiowa, police officers were considered an "idle job". Even the non-hazardous kind.
Throughout the United Kingdom, police officers were accountable not to the public but to mayors. The mayors, as mbers of the "Committee," were responsible to the entire committee and commanded the local "mbers’ Council."
So these police officers did not wish to receive cases.
Even "catching a criminal" ant that at least on paper, the public safety of that area would worsen. Unless it was certain that the criminal could be arrested without the risk of acquittal, they would rather muddle through the case.
—When everyone is cheating, the only one who isn’t becos the target of everyone else.
Therefore, one could not rely on these police officers for city safety.
The pirates, on the other hand, would enforce "underground law" over civilians in their controlled areas. They had their own legislation and forced everyone to comply, or else they would be covertly punished by the elite gang mbers known as "Supervisors."
Severe violations of the "rules" would lead to public execution and display.
This included but was not limited to "escaping gambling debts," "killing fellow mbers," "burglary, robbery, murder, kidnapping, or rape," "burning or blowing up residences," "attempting to assassinate the boss," "stealing from the boss," etc.
Besides activities that could undermine the boss’s authority, there was "don’t chase soone to their ho."
This was the biggest difference between Dennisiowa and Winter—Dennisiowa’s Underground Gang did not permit any form of ho invasion cri.
Even "Damastes Roaring Fang," who Isaac previously ntioned as having his entire family annihilated after being sought out, was held down by a circle of enemies waiting outside the door only after he stepped out.
Because in this land of pirates, everyone has a ho. Everyone has their own family, and everyone has their own enemies.
If the rules were broken, and the unspoken rule of a "safe house" was violated, then everyone would suffer.
Today, it might be you breaking into his ho and killing him, and tomorrow it could be soone else sneaking into your ho to kill you. The result would be that no one could sleep well.
Since this situation was going to be maintained for the long term.
Then, even gangs who were sworn enemies would never possibly fight their way into each other’s hos... Of course, if one turned coward in the battle for territory and hid at ho, that too was permissible.
But once one’s own gang had lost and retreated, there would certainly be several people watching one’s ho all day long. The gang wouldn’t naturally co to rescue such a "coward afraid of battle".
And even so, these gangs dared not fight during daylight.
Because although the local police of Dennisiowa were unreliable... the "Mounted Police" were different.
The Mounted Police were a Transcendent force directly under the royal family—or rather, belonging to the "Dennisiowa Family".
All of them were Transcendents, who patrolled Dennisiowa on horseback throughout the entire day, maintaining at least the appearance of order in Dennisiowa.
This, of course, wasn’t just for show... but to keep the pirates in constant awe of Dennisiowa so they wouldn’t beco so inflated as to carve out a territory and declare themselves king.
The nobles of Dennisiowa, on one hand, used these pirates, and on the other hand, restrained them.
The biggest difference from the police was,
The royal Mounted Police possessed what was colloquially known as the "right to kill" as a form of punishnt.
Should they catch pirates in the act of "bullying the weak" or "beating innocent citizens", they could punish them on the spot after confirming the cri, even going so far as to kill them. All they had to do was write a "special handling report" of about four hundred words for each life taken afterward.
Also, this wasn’t counted towards the cri rate.
They simply existed—just their unmanifested presence could make those pirates behave.
However, the Mounted Police had a well-known weakness.
That was, they only worked six hours a day, without shift changes.
At sunset, the Mounted Police would certainly be off duty. They couldn’t work overti.
And when not in a working state—or simply put, "not on horseback"—the Mounted Police lost their privilege to kill.
Only when they were on horseback could they exercise the right to punish, because the horses themselves were "Lords" knighted personally by the king; each horse had its own na.
And they were rely "Lords’ Companions" after undergoing rigorous training.
Indeed, Dennisiowa was such an absurd country... where even horses possessed the right to kill. These horses were equivalent to nobles personally knighted by the king.
To counter the punishnt authority of the Mounted Police, the pirates devised another strategy—that was, having the person who needed to be killed for intimidation "voluntarily sell themselves off."
As long as they gambled themselves away in the betting stalls and lost...
Based on the still unabolished slave trade tradition of the United Kingdom, those who breached "Pirate’s Private Law" were considered "property of another". If they were killed in public view, as long as soone else’s property wasn’t splattered with blood or a corpse wasn’t dumped at soone else’s doorstep, no one would interfere.
That was the significance of the betting stall.
Turning sothing "completely illegal" into a place that was "at least not illegal."
But it wasn’t money that was being laundered.
It was people.
Or it could be said, this wasn’t due to any oversight of the "Dennisiowa Privy Council."
It was they who deliberately made Dennisiowa’s situation like this.
Because police needed to be reasonable and required salaries, but pirates did not—if they were already employing pirates in large numbers, may as well use them to govern the nation. The "Mounted Police" were the spiked collars around these "pirate vigilantes’" necks.
But if the Mounted Police themselves had too much power, it could lead to their own problems... hence, the real power was ultimately given to the horses.
And the basis of power for these animals—these beasts—was because they belonged to the "nobility".
Annan suddenly understood sothing...
Yawen’s paintings hatched the Paper Princess; Yawen’s sculptures were equally great... So, how was Yawen’s scriptwriting?
After all, the Tragedy Playwright had once been Yawen’s student.
But Yawen seed to have no tiless plays.
And now, Annan seed to understand.
The entire United Kingdom before him had not undergone any interference from Yawen. Or rather, it was because he had not interfered at all, allowing them power, and letting them fool around as they wished.
It let these "people" deep in their hearts, their nurous desires for power and money, to naturally coalesce into an absurd "live drama".
These people gathered together, hands stained with cri and blood, were like marionettes being moved by the threads of desire. Jointly performing a puppet show that lasted for centuries—
A puppet show that was natural, absurd, yet reasonable.
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