Nova Roma Chapter 132 - News about the Caribs

The road to the imperial palace was quite calm, there was only one incident with Ares who, like Zeus, seems to enjoy the pleasure of women and could not stand the beauty of the supreme priestess who asked as a lady of company.
Flavio only shook his head when he saw that scene but for the priestesses to be chosen by a God is a divine act, since from their union a demigod can be born that helps the empire and promotes religion.
As expected Ares traveled in a separate carriage with her priestess, only Yuma asked why Uncle Ares had traveled separately too which Flavio replied that it was why they were making a new cousin for the family to grow.
In the imperial palace, Flavio was received by his cabinet who had the most relevant news of the empire, something he liked was that the temperature felt much colder than normal, which is more comfortable for him.
Flavio has never liked warm climates and much less the air impregnated with moisture, one of the plans for the future is to move the capital to the center of the Tehuantepec isthmus, where the interoceanic canal that you plan to build will go through.
In the conference room in the palace the ministers updated Flavio on the issues of the empire, unlike the limited information that the supreme priestess could give, the ministers gave a detailed report.
Artimer was the first to speak "I hope you enjoyed your emperor trip, during the month that was not we took the trouble to make a quick census of the population.
The Empire currently has a population of 5,000,000, thanks to the immigrants brought by Empress Hellena and to the refugees.
Not to mention that our laws that encourage children are paying off. "
Taneri continued with Artimer's speech "The census not only became a whim but also has a very important function, which is to prepare for the cold weather that comes from the north.
Although the census can have failures because it is not a complete census since it would take half a year to complete one but it gives us the necessary numbers for can work into a plan for avoiding deads by problems of food or lack of supplies.
We are sure that the climate in the Caribbean islands isn't going to fall more than certain degrees so that the habitability of the region is our best option to create farms that feed the continent. "
The marine minister took a report on a situation quite favorable for the empire "During the month that you are on vacation emperor, some fishermen dared to venture away from Insulae Canibalium, to obtain a greater amount of fishing.
What they found was even more important, they discovered that the settlements that were on the beach of the Hispaniola island were completely abandoned.
This surprised him because there were always children or women in the settlements if they were not nearby it could only mean that they were preparing to launch an attack or something had happened.
With great care and preparing their harpoons and some short swords, they approached the coast to be able to better observe the abandoned settlements when they finally arrived they realized that the settlements already had time without being inhabited.
They decided to enter the jungle because they could be victims of some Caribbean attacks so they decided to return and report their findings in the Insulae Canibalium marina.
When this news came to us, our first reaction was to think that there had been a civil conflict between them or that the damn jungle had reached the islands and ended its population.
As we send some ships to investigate some other more distant settlements of the Hispaniola island, to our surprise we find the same scene in all places not a single sample of life and hundreds of settlements devoid of people.
We had to ask for support from the unit of flying Nahuales so that they could take a tour of the island and see if the Caribs had died or if they had taken refuge in the center of the Island, it was only enough for them to review for 3 full days to give us A report that alerted us.
There was no trace of the Caribs, this worried us because our first reaction was to think that the damned jungle if it had attacked the Island and that it had ended the population, we managed to gather a few volunteers who were not afraid to die so they could step on the island and confirm if it was safe or something else had happened.
To our surprise the Island seemed quite normal, the only difference was that there were no Caribs in it, we decided to launch one more expedition to the other nearby islands to check if this phenomenon had been repeated or if it was only an isolated event occurred on the island of the Hispaniola.
The information that the explorers brought was the same, there is no trace of the Caribs, the settlements are abandoned and they are only huts that are being destroyed by nature.
There was absolutely nothing of value or food inside the settlements, so we assume that people left in an orderly manner and were not attacked by something.
Among all the theories that emerged the one that has the most coherence is the one that explains that they decided to leave the settlements and withdraw from those islands, because of the danger that the empire represents for them.
As to where they could have fled we can only assume that they went east, why in the south is the cursed jungle and in the north we are, this would give the result that they fled to Africa so they stopped being a threat.
We are conducting guards and searching the islands to try to find Carib hiding places in case they are cheating to attract us and attack us from behind. "
Flavio scratched his head "The god of the Caribs would win nothing by forcing his people to leave their homes to attack us, by doing so they would lose the advantage in many ways.
But escaping may be that for them it is the best option, after seeing how the Caribbean population was enslaved and died in the construction of the empire that was their best option.
Taneri and Artimer have the mission of starting to found a city on the island of Spain, the security of the island will be in charge of the navy if this goes well, the Minister of the Navy will create a province specialized in the navy. "
On the night Ares and the priestess left the carriage completely disheveled and with scars from the battle they had had all afternoon, but seeing that it was night they decided to continue their battle ...