Flaret, on the other hand, was won by Bart, who would be given to the leader of their mercenary team. There were many people who had bid for Flaret, most of whom were aborigines.
Many of them definitely had the thought of gathering what was left behind of the lucrative industry. Sad for them, they would never get this Town.
There were also a few Terrans from other territories, but they definitely didn’t have the resources to manage a problematic territory so far away.
Alterra was also a Town—a much younger one, at that— but they were still too busy with themselves to consistently handle another Town. This was also why, for Flaret, they decided to do an alliance instead.
At least with Voumi, although it was also far away and was also a problematic territory, they had been steadily developing the network in that direction, and they had plenty more spies attached.
The aborigine North...was mostly blank for them. Developing in that direction was a bit exhausting, especially with the terrain limitations, and they hoped someone else would soften the way first.
The Elders didn’t want to over-extend and over-expand, now that they were still consolidating the expansion of the Terran region.
Anyway, although subsidiary and alliance contracts had to be renewed every year, their interests were tied deeper, so it was unlikely for the Rolan Mercenary team—unlike most of those who made a bid—to decide to cut off the relationship after a few years.
The team’s proposal was really detailed. They included a plan on how to treat the addicts humanely, and would not be asking for free support from Alterra with this. Alterra already had a cure for this, and they were shouldering the costs of the production.
They also promised to fund the roads from Flaret to Guardian Village, and then to Alterra, as soon as they received the token.
Alterra already had some roads across the Terran region, but the North was definitely still a bit bare. Flaret’s promise to do this really lifted a significant part of the burden from them.
They also promised to send materials they found from the North to Alterra, as if they were still tributes, although they were an ally rather than a subsidiary. Among many other things, this was one of the promises that sealed the deal.
Bart was the team’s official representative in the region, so he could make oaths in the leader’s stead. However, the actual handover and the alliance oath had to be made by the leader himself, so they’d have to wait. Bart was just there to secure the token as well as to lay out everything that had to be coordinated.
Despite his appearance, Bart was really quite capable.
Some people did ask why he didn’t just own it himself, but it seemed like he owed the leader a lot and was raised by him. The man was practically his father, in fact, and buying a territory for a good price was his filial piety to the man.
Later, they’d find out that Bart was named the heir, especially since the new Lord had already lost all his children decades ago to a deadly plague.
As for their base in the previous territory, the Rolans still promised to give Twinwave some tributes and a lot of deals. This way, their branch there would still be maintained well over there.
They also vowed to return all Terran slaves who landed in their territory for free. And since Flaret won the war, a good majority of the Terrans in both territories were actually there.
They were also expressly forbidden to do any kind of drug trade. They didn’t know if it would eventually rise up again, but many nobles should’ve been made aware of its effects by now.
Look, two territories even fell because of it.
As for the origin of the drugs, the chemist was never found. They found tunnels and escape routes, but she was no longer there.
The pharmacy team studied the bottles and solutions found in the laboratory and, other than the drugs themselves—some versions of which were poisonous—there were also other things.
The Grandmasters easily determined it to be a color-changing solution that could change a person’s coloring, whether it was skin color or hair color, or eye color. It was a relatively common inheritance among alchemists, and it seemed like the Chemist had the same opportunity.
The fortunate part was that it only worked for a day, and while the ingredients weren’t rare, they were not too common, so it was impossible for her to keep drinking it every day.
In the end, her face was drawn by someone (using a profiler). It was also in black-and-white. This way, she could be recognized regardless of her coloring
While there were very few people who had seen her, the few who had confirmed that the drawing was accurate enough. This was then spread out to the territories.
It wasn’t exactly a bounty, as they were unsure whether the woman had been forced by Felipe to do what she did, but it was definitely spread out to administrative forces in the network, and they were asked to inform Alterra if she was found.



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