Chapter 1526: At Peace
Michael, when he heard that the hotel room assigned to him had been extended, didn’t think too much about it.
While the staff said that the spa appointment he set did not show up, he just figured his sister must’ve been really tired and just wasn’t able to get out of bed.
He could only imagine what she had been through after being enslaved for so many months. She would definitely need a lot of relaxation now.
He also took this as an excuse to extend his stay in Alterra. Anyway, the people he assigned back home were all competent people, and he invested a lot in recruiting and increasing benefits. He deserved to relax occasionally.
That said, he was quite proud of what he had done to Bright Village. He could confidently say that, outside of Alterra and its satellites, his village was the best among villages.
However, he was a greedy man. He knew there were still places to improve—as seen with what Alterra had done—so he naturally would like to implement as much as he could in his own place, and perhaps find his own improvements not found elsewhere.
While he knew it’d take years, if not decades, before he could upgrade into a Town, who was to say he couldn’t build it well even as a village?
Alterra managed to do so even before it got upgraded. Back then, even the aborigines said it easily triumphed over many level 1 towns, even as a village.
Anyway, the blonde walked around, admiring the place.
Because Alterra planned well, there was no need to demolish anything it had built, so technically speaking, most of the sights—despite upgrading into a town—remained the same in many areas.
However, the activities had definitely spiked up, and this was not even including the thousands of new elementalists injected into the population.
After all, the guests were once again allowed to enter as long as they paid for their fees, no longer being blocked and forced to stay in their allied territories.
There were a lot more bikes and broat carts traversing the avenues now, though fortunately the avenue was wide so that it didn’t feel too cluttered.
Before, the avenue used to seem too big, too wide, and a bit overwhelming for the traffic. Now, it was just the right width that’d prevent the heavy build-up of pedestrians, bikers, and carts.
As he leisurely walked around, he also received some respectful greetings here and there, especially from those who used to be his citizens.
"Lord Micheal!" A familiar voice yelled and the blonde turned to him with a smile.
This was because he had definitely helped Bright out a lot in his position here. Michael knew it was the big guy’s show his appreciation.
Because Tom was quite the extrovert—though the mild and non-overbearing type— he befriended a lot of people from different aspects of life.
He ended up brokering a lot of deals that would be very good for Bright, especially since they had started to have specialized industries to differentiate from their neighbors.
Bright had begun developing the industries related to bone weapons back then, so having suppliers for the raw materials and the tools, as well as the connection to those who’d use their items for the final product was a necessary step to stabilize the industry.
For bone weapons though, their main market was not Alterra, whose citizens were already leaning towards Class D weapons. Rather, they would get the bones from Town-level monsters from here.
However, the market in the surrounding villages were very large, and their visitors from other villages were definitely helping Bright’s economy a lot.
That said, now that he had found his sister, perhaps they could start another industry together.
Anyway, Michael then shifted his sights to the woman next to Tom.
A lot of men often joined caravans, and among them some went partly to see Betty. According to rumors, some people would run to fight against monsters so that they’d be a little injured by the time they reached Alterra.
A lot of people mourned when the news of her marriage spread. He got quite a few complaints from the business owners whose staff suddenly took on leaves, stating ’heartbrokenness’ as their excuse.
Fortunately, people eventually moved on so even if Tom visited Bright, he would not be mobbed by angry rivals.
"How are you?" he asked. "Congratulations on finding your sister."
In Xeno, the best news to hear about a friend was them finding a loved one.
"I am good, and thank you. I’m just waiting for my sister to finish her vacation and we will head to Bright together."
Betty smiled, patting her husband’s muscular arm. "Why don’t you take him around? It’s been a while since he went on a tour."
Tom looked like he understood her point, but also quite reluctant. "Doctor Cynthia said that you have to eat ____,
"I can buy them myself," she laughed, very gentle.
At this, Michael’s eyebrows rose.
"Good news?" he asked. If he remembered correctly, Doctor Cynthia was Alterra’s top ob-gyne specialist.
If so, he wondered if many people would take leave in his territory again when they found out...
Tom shook his head. "No, it would be a bit difficult for us, but I’m training hard to even out our levels."
It was common knowledge that level differences made it difficult to conceive.
Not everyone could be as lucky as Shiela and Eagle, who were the only couple in Alterra who managed to successfully procreate with a level difference of more than ten levels.
However, all healer-types were useful, so those who had water affinity were quite popular in the dating market.
At the same time, this was also why Tom and Betty were not dismissing the possibility of them conceiving even with the current level differences.
"We are also doing very hard work every night," Tom added, very frankly and with a serious expression, and Betty could only cover her face.