Vanessa flushed, reluctantly sitting on an available chair, not forgetting to send subtle stares in Althea’s direction.
The discussion then began, led by Garan, telling Victor and the others of Altera’s plans for them, their faces brightening the more they heard.
"As you may have noticed in your panels, the name of the village has been changed."
Victor and the others nodded. Although the name was a little too… simple, it did fit what the territory was meant to be.
Althea also brought out a piece of paper with a rough schematic of Limestone Valley. She drafted the current location of the walls, the outline of the valley, and the outline of the cliffs.
Limestone Valley had a very interesting terrain. The cliffs on certain areas outside the territory would make it easily defensible. Inside, there was a shallow valley that not only could create a magnificent vista of the territory. It would’ve also created good basins if the current planning didn’t become so chaotic and haphazard.
"For now, this is what we’re proposing," she said, crossing out certain areas, and clearing certain buildings. "We will be creating avenues here, and here," she said, drawing two obtuse intersecting lines. They followed the terrain for minimal work, avoiding the valley and the steeper slopes.
"Doing a complete overhaul is impossible and we don’t know how much the territory will be willing to spend, so for now we’re proposing to build our dormitory buildings in these areas," she said, pointing at certain areas where the shanties were located.
Of course, while she had won certain building types from Fargo Village and could therefore use them, it was not the same the other way around. Instead, she’d be converting Fargo’s existing custom building, and turning it into a dorm.
Althea also told them she would be proposing upgrading the walls, but that wasn’t guaranteed and don’t let their hopes up.
"It’s okay," Victor said, though he still hoped for the best. "We managed to defend even with those short fences, we will continue managing to do so."
Althea and Garan nodded in approval, liking his optimism.
On the other hand, Victor and the others also sent their requests. For example, if sentries weren’t possible in optimal areas, they hoped to at least build watch towers so they could station people there. freёwebnoѵel.com
Like Garan and the others, Victor had some tools in their space like scopes to be able to see better.
Anyway, having a watch tower was a practical alternative if they couldn’t afford dense sentries.
The next topic had to do with what Altera could take early on.
"Can you tell us about the professionals you have here," she said. Since she didn’t disclose that she was the lord, she naturally didn’t have the access to the population list.
Not to mention, Terran occupation and other details like that were available in Altera because they required a registration process under oath. Fargo, er, Limestone Valley, did not have that.
Although Altera sent an order to temporarily discourage immigration, it wasn’t really a difficult order to implement. As for why the population themselves stayed, it was because a lot of the people were so used to their own land and they—if they weren’t refugees themselves—had heard from the refugees about the territories outside.
Although Fargo’s leadership was horrible, the place itself was much nicer than the others. It was easily defended, had two layers of walls, had sentries, strong guards (though a lot of it had to do with Victor’s team who guarded from mobs), and the resources were ample enough with the wells and the dense interior forests.
In their minds, the people of Altera could’ve gone to war with them to get their good land so they just had to stay put and maintain it, ideally get some good assets before another influx of population arrived.
Hence, except for the rescued slaves and those with acquaintances in Altera or Bright, not a lot of people went through the teleportation array.
They knew it was technically a (not-so-cheap) one-way trip by that time, how could they risk not being able to go back if they wanted to?
Of course, after talking to Turbo and the others, a lot of people had begun to ponder whether their decision was wrong.
Later, the ’influx’ of Alterans really didn’t come and then they found more about Altera and its amazingness from the guards and those who visited it.
Only then did they yell out in their hearts, full of regrets.
Alas!
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