Chương 61: Chapter 60 - Immigrants.

"By Thunder, we need to keep those mud-licking lizigeons out of Myrraval!" Felix shouted in alarm.

"Aye, this could be a problem, if Greymere could sail a fleet up, they would." Lance pulled his boots off the table and sat up straight. Ollie finally spoke up "Most of my sea-sourced have nothing but foul memories of that place, best we put a guard up by the entrance."

"WAIT" she cut in like a wind mage through enemy ranks.

"The entrance is hidden in with the same mist that kills everything past The Edge, there is no way to tell them apart without a specialized skill and knowing exactly where to look. Furthermore the river falls off right before reaching the land, so only a flying ship can navigate it all the way, lastly…" she hesitated.

"Get on with it" Noah urged her.

"Lastly, the entire area near the river has been heavily depopulated by the Duke of Orechester in the last few months" she spat it out.

"Depopulated? What do you mean?" Lance asked. She sucked in a large breath. Time to strike while the sparksteel runs hot!

"We are going to get free labor" her eyes darted around to gauge the reaction. And found confusion.

"I mean that we are going to save the people of Greymere, from themselves, by giving them jobs" Nythera corrected herself hastily. The confused looks only grew more confused. Why is this so hard to get through their thick skulls? Ok well maybe I am dancing around the issue a bit too much. Fine. Direct.

"The Duke of Orechester is tossing peasants off Greypoint by the dozens every. Single. Day." she let that sink in for a moment before continuing.

"We brought back a batch of people from Greymere already. There is a preacher sitting at the end of that rocking tossing free labor into the abyss. We can snatch them up in the mist on the flying ship and take them back to Greymere." Nythera let loose the deluge she had been holding back. She held her breath. Watching. Please take to it, technically it is my fault they are being tossed off a cliff. Come on. Bite! Felix was the first to pipe up "On behalf of Amplewoods we would gladly take on these wayward peasants.

We can always use more farmers or fishermen, Kronan knows we got land to clear".

"Not so fast, Grandport needs more people, we lost the most in the war and the there is still plenty of good forest just waiting to be turned into farmland around these parts" Noah cut in.

"Wait just a moment, both of you greedy little lizards just wait a second. Halsbury sits on the frontier to the island interior" he spat out his piece of geldgrain.

"We need them more, we got more land to clear than you got land". Lance sighed. He spoke directly to her, ignoring the bickering "Most of the lands around here we simply don't have the men to clear, our crop yields could triple and we'd barely scrape the blasted surface of what we got".

"Shouldn't you be clearing easy farmland? I thought the fluxspawn didn't get past the mountains to the coast?" she asked.

"Remember Wrath? You try farming land that gets swamped in seawater once a year, no matter how bountiful it is, it's a pain in the ass. And we already got a huge surplus thanks to our lord's skill" Lance said. Noah sighed and stop bickering with Ollie over who needed labor more desperately "We don't really need more farmers right now, we need land clearers, woodmancers, homebuilders, dungeon delvers, and THEN we need more farmers" he leaned back in his seat, looking at her expectantly.

"Labor is labor, I'll take whoever you can get, we got land, we got food, we need more artisans and homesteaders" Felix harrumphed. Ollie looked toward her "As our Queen, its yur responsibility to fix this" Ah shit, he's right. Felix glared at her "Their Greymereian right?" he asked.

"Yes, yes of course, that's where the path goes to" Why is he so pissed?

"They are the best labor you could ask for, all the sea-sourced pull up work twice as hard as the native born 'round here. They take about a month to settle it and tend to turn out way happier than anyone else 'round. Do you know why?" Felix asked.

"No, I don't" she said.

"Because Greymere is fucking shit." he answered.

"I want those damn laborers". Fine, I have to distribute labor myself then.

"The vessel used will be my second flying ship, The Savior. It will run under a captain I assign day in and day out, the crew will be provided by Grandport. It will pick up as much people as it has capacity for, then head to either Amplewoods, Halsbury, or Grandport on a rotation" A look of approval beamed off Noah's face while Ollie and Felix both wore more calculated looks. Now time for the finishing blow.

"Furthermore, since I am lending the ship, I get a say in where it goes. In addition to the three aforementioned townships, Waketown will also be present in the rotation as soon as it has and adequate population and housing ready, but it will only be visited every other rotation" Nythera said, clutching her left hand in her right in a silent prayer behind her back. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Ollie nodded slowly "Aye, I think that'll do, if Waketown is built up we'll get more lumber and won't be battling as many blasted fluxspawn".

"I approve" Noah said with a look of pride, as if his child had just delivered a cute piece of art to his waiting hands. Is he drunk?

"Fine, I'll bite, but how many people can those ships reasonably carry?" Felix said begrudgingly. Rowen spoke up from behind her "They can carry up to twenty people, far less than we would like. The captain might need break days at the rate the ship will be heading back and forth. It can complete one town every two days if they are fast about it." NICE, I did not even consider that. Felix nodded "That'll do I suppose, twenty people every week is enough".

Nythera coughed, drawing attention back to her "Noah, how are the accounts doing for the taxes?"

"Nythera, it's been two days, we don't have any taxes yet. The system collects them every quarter automatically" he said and then took in a deep breath.

"But they are projected to grow rapidly, we have nearly no expenses beyond Waketown and the ferry system taking up any income, and Waketown may pay for itself in lumber and fluxspawn parts eventually." She nodded "Ok good". He shot her a curious look, as if asking what the Hel she was about to do now.

"I am instituting a new guild-like organization, we will call it the Mancer-Union and it will be based in Halsbury, the gate to the inner island. It will be a guild for all workers of stone, lumber, and other construction-related mancers to direct, use, and pay them accordingly. Lance will be the overseer of the union and ensure that the efforts are directly equally through all the townships on Myrraval, starting with Waketown" Nythera said in one breath, not giving anyone a chance to cut in.

"Now just wait a min-" Felix began.

"Furthermore, to incentivize joining there will be a promise of continuous employment for all members and access to healers of the Delvers guild" Nythera blitzed straight through his complaint. Noah's fist slammed into the table "YES, this will be exceedingly useful." Felix sighed "I suppose we can always use better docks and more housing. Aye, I'm for it" he leaned back in his seat and stared at the ceiling. Ollie merely nodded in resignation. I can do politicking too, but none of them saw this coming.

"Me? You didn't even ask… but it is a good idea, helps settle the new immigrants, we can fix those blasted mineshafts in Rustreach, and we can get land cleared faster. Fine" Lance said. He started muttering to himself "I wonder if we can get big enough river dikes up to protect that farmland".

"All excess taxes will simply be collected and stored until we are prepared to fund further growth or new settlements" Nythera said with no room left to negotiate.

"Any other surprises for us?" Felix asked with a somewhat concerned look on his face.

"Yes, one more little one" Nythera said with an innocent shark grin. She breathed in deeply. Ok all in one go. Here. we. go!

"From now on, Rowen is my appointed council liaison. The flux-seas are vast, unexplored, and frankly I am wasting way too much time coming back here to report to the council when I should be out there finding more for Myrraval to use" she blasted out. Please accept! I fucking hate these stupid council meetings. Maybe I'll go once in a half year but every other week is ridiculous. I should be out looking for another shipyard!

"Is there anything else?" Ollie asked, looking incredibly bored. What just like that?

"Go, get out of here, if you can find more flying ships or giant hoards of tokens that's a far better use of your time than sitting in here" Felix said, waving her out. Rowen had a horrified expression on his face, frozen halfway between confusion and repulsion. Sorry, not sorry. He's better at this stuff anyways.

"Kronan wills it, we gotta keep 'er away. Next surprise is gonna have me clutching at my heart" Ollie chuckled.

"No more surprises?" Lance asked.

"Nope, I'll have the captain ready in no time, get the ship loaded up and a trustworthy crew ready and we can start savi- getting free laborers here within two days. We'll start the rotation on Amplewoods" Nythera glared at Lance when she said trustworthy. She strode out the door with one last wave, pushing them open with bravado. I'm FREE!

"Wait!" Rowen ran up behind her "Nythera, who are you going to trust with the ship? Are you crazy?" he hissed to her as they blazed a path through town, Rowen struggled to keep up with the spring in her step.

"Well Rowen, I want to congratulate you!" she stopped and turned.

"What? What for?" his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"You're going to find me a trustworthy captain and you're going to do it one day" she said with a shit-eating grin.

"You just foisted council liaison onto me and now this? What do I get out of playing as your work-horse?" he frowned.

"You get the chance to be important, you get to pick the captain for a flying ship, and you get to have a council position, through me" Nythera said "If anything you should be honored."

"I suppose" Rowen went into silent contemplation. And now I've bought out Rowen, and with him the Stormbridge estate. For the moment at least. All the mayors except Aldric have been placated and he can be ignored for the time being, especially if they manage to find any resources further inland, break up their mining monopoly, break up their power.

"Fine, I know someone we can trust" Rowen admitted reluctantly. High Administrator (lvl 8>12) (2/4 tokens) And there it is, that's what I get for playing these stupid games. Well I suppose everyone benefiting from it is good.

"And Lord of Fire and Manufactorium haven't budged an inch. I think I need to actually manufacture goods to get them to move?" Nythera talked to herself as she walked. The town boomed around her, business and commerce flowing through the streets. An entire cart full of Mistvale pines blocked off half the street. And we can do so, so much more for this place. She slipped in through a crack and entered Marco's bar without being noticed.

"I'm tired, get me a glass" Nythera called out to Marco as she sat down at the bar counter. Marco slammed down two frothing glasses of beer before her a moment later "Two for the Queen of Myrraval, on the house." Nythera chugged half a glass on the spot. By Kronan, I needed that. Marco walked down the counter, pouring another glass. Finally… just some booze and time by myself. I am going to need to pull together the crew for the next wakepath tomorrow. Some farmer pulled up onto the counter seat next to her.

"Long time no see". Just when I finally get peace and quiet, someone always wants something. Another marriage proposal? She turned to face him "Look, I am a little busy right now, so could-" No way, this bastard is still alive? No way, is it really….

"Ren?"