52 Settlers Attracted by Rumors

Blanc woke up after another fantastic night with Helena.

He wanted to cuddle a bit but unfortunately for him, Helena was already in the fields checking the situation of her comrades.

Blanc gathered his wits and forced himself to leave his comfortable bed and he quickly prepared himself for another day of work.

A little while later, he left his hut and headed to the training field.

After a few minutes of walking…

"Helena!"

"Blanc! Good morning!"

"Good morning!"

"Can we talk for a bit?"

"Sure!"

Blanc pulled Helena to the side and immediately started a conversation about her most recent trip inside the Forest of Echoes.

"So, what happened this time inside the Forest of Echoes? Are you hurt?"

"Hmm…Well…There were times that I was in pretty dangerous situations, for example, I saw a huge beast. It has a lion's head, a wyvern's wings, and a scorpion's tail."

"I didn't think I could take it at that time so I carefully chose to back away."

"I also saw another creature which has huge bulging muscles, its muscles were even more bulging than the yeti! It was holding a wooden club as a weapon."

Manticore and Ogre!

Blanc was utterly shocked. The creatures that Helena encountered were way too dangerous. She was extremely lucky to have survived especially her encounter with the manticore.

"Oh by the way! I also found the troll camp! You won't believe what I found there! Here take a look at these two items."

"There's a cave near the troll camp and it contains loads of these two items!"

Blanc examined the two items and shock slowly appeared on his face.

"A-Are these Mithril and Sparkbulb?!"

Helena had a wide smile on her face as she enjoyed Blanc's shocked expression. 

"I don't know about the herb but I think that's Mithril!"

"There were loads of that inside the cave that the trolls were guarding."

A mithril ore mine! If they wanted to have superior weaponry compared to other kingdoms, they had to acquire this mine from the trolls!

"How many trolls are there at the encampment?"

"There were 15 initially but whenever I got the chance to fight a troll one-on-one, I always fight them. They were extremely durable and made for a good sparring partner. I reduced their number from 15 to 8"

Blanc couldn't believe what he heard. Helena basically wiped out half of the trolls in the troll camp by herself.

Just how much stronger did she become this time?

After a few moments of shock, Blanc gathered his wits and continued asking. They had to prioritize and secure this mithril ore mine as soon as possible.

"Do you think our current military strength is enough to wipe out the remaining 8 trolls?"

Blanc asked.

"I believe so, however, there might be some people who will be heavily injured in the process. If we get lucky and I can kill one more before our warriors raid the troll camp, then we should be able to take them down easily."

"Might be hard now though, they're sticking really close together now after I killed half of their population."

"Oh, by the way, I harvested the troll's hearts. Here, take a look."

Blanc took a troll heart from Helena and inspected it.

"Damn! This stinks!"

"Hahahahaha I know right? Maybe these trolls were so evil that their hearts started to stink?"

After laughing for a while, Blanc decided that he still needed to research the troll's heart.

He took all of the troll hearts in Helena's possession to be used for research later.

As for the Sparkbulb herb, it would be sent to the alchemists for experiments.

Blanc was very satisfied after hearing about Helena's harvests during her latest expedition.

They were about to chat some more but little Emma came running to them. It seems that she has something important to report to Blanc.

"Maaayooorr!! Mayor! Haaahh…Haaaah…"

"Hey, hey, little Emma, calm down and breathe first okay?"

"Yes…Haaaahhh…Mayor…"

After a while, little Emma finally caught her breath and continued on with her report.

"Mayor! There's a new batch of settlers who arrived!"

"A new batch of settlers?"

He didn't remember sending anyone to a settler recruitment mission lately.

This means that these settlers came here after hearing the rumors of their prosperous town!

Blanc quickly departed the training fields to meet the new settlers.

After a few minutes of walking, little Emma pointed in a direction.

Blanc followed the direction of little Emma's finger and there he saw the settlers waiting anxiously outside the town.

Seeing Blanc approaching them, the leader of the settlers anxiously ran towards Blanc.

"H-Hello sir! A-Are you the mayor of this town?"

"Yes, I am Blanc Rougenfort, the mayor of this town."

"S-Sir Blanc! Please! You have to accept us! We came here all the way from a southern village in the Kingdom of Kairuku."

"The ongoing war between the Kingdom of Kairuku and the Kingdom of Terravalle destroyed our homes. We heard about a rumor regarding a new prosperous town in the gloomy plains."

"Me together with thirty other people here have decided to risk it all and look for this town. After months of searching, we finally found it!"

"I know we're from the Kingdom of Kairuku and the Kairuku royal family is famous for not allowing their citizens to migrate but I promise! We're not spies! Please sir Blanc! We have nowhere else to go."

Blanc was heartbroken after seeing the pitiful state of the new settlers.

Even if they're from the Kingdom of Kairuku, there's no way he can turn down such poor citizens. 

"Don't worry, Resonance town welcomes you so you can calm down now. By the way, what's your name?"

"My name is Alenna, sir! Thank you so much for accepting us!"

"You're all welcome here. Let's go to the town hall and finish your registrations."

At the town hall.

"Aaanndd you're all set! All of you are now citizens of Resonance Town. Our staff will assist you in choosing your respective huts."

"The accommodation and food will be free for the first three months. After three months, you are all expected to have a stable job with stable wages to afford your own food and accommodation."

After hearing about the living conditions for new citizens, Alenna's group felt like they were dreaming.

Tears welled up in their eyes. They knew that their hardships were over. They don't need to live in the wild anymore. 

Tonight, they will have warm food, a roof above their heads, and a comfortable bed to sleep on.