When she got back home, she received the heated gazes of everyone.
Althea flinched. "What is it?" She asked, and it was the newly-arrived Sheila who spoke.
"We saw the village center was upgraded!"
At this time, Winona was snacking on something while holding a baby, looking at them curiously. When she asked where Althea went, they said she went to check on an upgrade.
She felt there was more to this than they let on, and she felt if she observed a bit more she’d come to a conclusion herself.
"And?" Althea asked. She didn’t remember what was all the fuss, but Harold spoke with enthusiasm. "This means we can formally form an official team boss."
Althea’s pretty face turned a little weird. "I really don’t want it to be named Althea team."
The others looked disappointed, and Winona’s chewing got faster as she watched them.
They looked at each other, wondering about what other name they could use. "Shall we head to the village center to register?" Sheila said, "Thinking if a name is useless if it’s already taken…"
"What’s this official team?" Winona couldn’t help but ask, while one of her hands was gently poking Meatball’s cheek.
"Basically just an identification for a Group." Althea shrugged.
Of course, now that the topic had been breached they would have to make the group. Although they had no plans of forming a caravan, as they planned to just be manufacturers, they still had to make deals with other territories as suppliers.
Ansel’s deal with Bright was not exactly formal because of this. It was more of an oath of sorts, done because both parties trusted each other. However, aborigine territories were said to generally require Official Teams before talking about any deals.
"Can anyone join?" Winona asked, and Althea’s eyebrows rose.
"Want to?"
Winona nodded vigorously, and Althea naturally accepted with a smile.
And so, the group mightily ran out and went to the village center after dinner.
As they walked, Winona admired the equidistant torches that lit up the territory. Although it was not as bright as typical towns back in Terran, it was definitely a nightlife capital compared to the surrounding territories.
Anyway, since the Migration, she had never seen anything so bright at night.
"These must cost a lot…" she mumbled and Althea was busy with Little Pepper, who was burping a lot, and just answered without thinking.
"We probably don’t spend more wood than any other territories…"
"Oh?"
"I found a pretty good oil."
"My Althea’s awesome as always." Winona smiled and continued looking around. "Your product seems to be widely used in the territory." She paused walking and narrowed her eyes at Althea.
She abruptly turned her face to face Althea, stepping forward to get closer. She leaned in and whispered. "You know the Lord don’t you?"
Althea blinked but nodded in the end. "Hmn."
Winona gasped, gossipy eyes sparkled. "Are you very close? Are you finally moving on from that cold-faced-always-away husband of yours?"
"Winona!!"
"Oh, whoops sorry bad joke." Winona put out her tongue. "Seriously though, are you close?" freewebnovel.cσ๓
Althea paused and looked at her, before smiling and nodding mysteriously. "It’s not just me who’s close—
"You are, too."
.
.
Several minutes later, even until they were in front of the marble panel, Winona was still in a daze.
Harold and the others, however, had their shoulders slumped in disappointment. The names of Terran, Eden, and most variants of the name were already taken.
Until a smug face appeared in her head. In her head, he told her with an arrogant stance: "What are you so proud of, idiot? You’re just a friend, I’m her brother!"
Her eyes twitched.
Would be great not to see that redhead’s face though, cuz that would ruin her day.
…
Later that night, Althea tucked her children into her bed. Suddenly curious about the teams, she opened her Territory Tab.
She wanted to see what interface related to Teams appeared.
As the Lord, she naturally didn’t have to access this window all the way from the village center.
Althea saw there was indeed a new Team tab and by choosing it, a list of teams to check theirs appeared. There was information about the number of members. She couldn’t access their home bases, among many other information, as that was only possible with Mercenary Halls.
She arranged from the newest one, her emerald eyes perusing mindlessly while patting her children to sleep.
Then, her hands paused, eyes fixed on a name about a dozen names further in. This meant that this team had been created far earlier than any of the teams in Altera.
"Terran Mercenary Team?" She uttered, unsure why it sounded a bit special when it shouldn’t.
After a while of staring, she told herself that she really shouldn’t think too much of it. After all, at this point, some of the surviving territories could’ve reached level 3.
But her eyes stayed there, and her finger couldn’t help but touch the holographic name…
How mysterious…
Obviously, there were plenty of names she could associate with like the Country of Eden, Aberdeen Team, or TerranFolk…
And yet… she felt a weird connection to this one.
She wondered why…
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