Chapter 61

As they walked towards the northern part of the village, Leo took the time to take in the scenery around the group and the escorts.

Though the village itself seemed rather poor and the average citizen were clothed in only commoner type clothing, the village itself looked to be extremely self-sufficient. Every hut had either a small handful of smaller animals that were ready to one day be turned into meals, or plants that were full of fruits or small gardens with vegetables.

It seemed that this village was more organized but lacked a proper foundation that the citizens could use to continue building themselves further up than just simply remaining self-sufficient as a small society. However, seeing this on a smaller scale, Leo felt that if this could be applied to other villages, that this region that had many human villages could over time turn into something special.

The city implemented similar techniques and technology to try to battle poverty within and were rather successful compared to the smaller villages. The only issue was that the city used more expensive methods to achieve their results in which couldn't be implemented to smaller villages of this size.

"A long time ago, our society birthed some very technological advanced and creative citizens. Since everything that each citizen owns, is mostly found outside of the village, these citizens would create their own cost-effective inventions and made techniques to battle numerous issues." Christopher, once seeing Leo in awe, tried to explain everything to him.

"What you see in front of you is centuries worth of inventions and creativity coming together to form the type of synergy that could help any society no matter how large or small continue building and expanding. If our village had the means to support more of these practices, there would be no telling what could be accomplished."

"Unfortunately, many years ago, the city you are from tried to negotiate with the Chieftain of our village at the time. The governor of the city tried to strongarm him into giving away all our new inventions and such. The governor just did not want our village to build into our own city in a short period of time."

"War is forbidden between those of our race and would be met with the onslaught of the true rulers of our race that command armies from our dreams. Thanks to having that level of protection, we chose to remain independent, while the city continued creating smaller villages to try to expand its power."

"From what you have done thus far, it seems that maybe over the years, the city finally started to adopt acceptable practices and may be worth trying to negotiate with once again. Our Chieftain only fears that the orcs that are slowly suppressing the city and will overthrow it before an agreement can be made." Christopher finally finishing his explanation paused his words as he looked in front of him.

At this time, the group finally appeared before the Chieftain's massive hut. To Leo, this was not something that could be simply considered a hut, rather it was a massive tent that spanned throughout the whole northern part of the village.

"We will be taking off now so that we can get back to our work. I wish you all well when speaking to our Chieftain." One of the escorts said before signaling the rest to disperse. In only a few breaths of time, the small squad stood there with each other.

"I will take the lead during this meeting. I remember this new Chieftain when he was only a child. I wonder how much he had grown." Christopher said to Leo and the other warrior. Neither Leo or the other warrior had any complaints and just followed along.

Two warriors were outside of the hut's entrance keeping a close watch to their surroundings. Knowing beforehand that these three were requested by the Chieftain to meet with, they casually opened the hut's flap and allowed Leo and the other two warriors inside.

Though the village was considered extremely poor, inside of this hut were many expensive looking rugs and stuffed monster heads covering several walls within as trophies. Sitting eating his fill, was the Chieftain as he took a single look over of the group before finishing his meal.

"It is good to see that you are all grown up now. Truth be told, you always had a leader type aura to you. I can't say that it is surprising that out of all your brothers, that you were chosen to take the title of Chieftain of this village." Slightly bowing, Christopher and the other warrior showed their respects.

However, Leo couldn't help but to hesitate. Sitting next to the overbearing looking Chieftain, was of course his daughter, Maria. Maria's eyes met with his, before she looked away in resentment. If it was not for Leo, she would have died a terrible death, but in the end, he chose to reject her.

"My eldest brother was actually chosen to take up this mantle. A nearby barbaric human group fought in a long drawn out war over many years now once our forces were weakened thanks to the raid on the Spider Queen's nest that ended in failure."

"Their leader at the time was able to, in a sneak attack, slay my brother. I was not going to sit idly by, and I was able to take his head in retaliation after only a small handful of failed attempts. Once I took that leader's head back to the village, my father on his death bed from old age named me the next Chieftain." The man explained with sorrow in his eyes.