Chapter 2066: Menzon’s Family
Meanwhile, Althea and Garan were now going around the marketplace, buying the things they did not have before or had rarely or not yet reached Alterra.
Bleulle was a City and was the center of trade in its area; they were very likely to find new things there.
Soon, a full one cubic meter was filled with things she bought from the market.
She managed to get some unfamiliar seeds, some types of clothes, rocks, fruits, and so on. She also got some information, map expansions, et cetera.
Interestingly, she could also barter. The crates of sauces she had in her space would sell for 20 times here, so she didn’t have to spend much of her own money despite buying so many things.
Before leaving, they had already replenished their consumables—whether it was healing potions, mana potions, beast-repellants, or food, they should not run out during this leg of the trip, hopefully.
The market was bustling with people coming and going, and soon they found themselves near a gate. Interestingly, as they passed by the gate plaza, they saw a group of people entering carts.
Usually, this wasn’t anything special, and they wouldn’t bother with it. What caught their attention was the signage.
[Trip to Alterra!]
?
Counting, there were already eight beast carts lined up, and the number was growing. There were also plenty of people apparently moving on foot. The group was also getting bigger.
"Odd. Do we have a route in Bleulle now?"
She was speaking about the tour groups. So far, the tour groups were limited to the four related towns, which were already pretty heavy on their operations. They did not expect them to expand to a City so soon.
"I don’t think this is an Alterran initiative."
Alterrans could do business as they wanted, but there was already certain bureaucracy in the territory. It wasn’t as cumbersome as in Terra, especially with the oaths, but there had to be regulatory organizations to protect the people and Alterra’s reputation.
Hence, the tour groups had to request approval whenever they were making trips, as well as opening new routes. This was for everyone’s protection. What if they needed rescue? Would the rescue team be able to get to them at all if they took an unknown path?
It was also to assess whether a caravan had enough fighters, especially depending on the territory they were heading towards.
Since Garan wasn’t aware of this new route, it meant that there was none.
"Look at their staff members," Garan said, and Althea followed his line of sight.
The caravan’s staff had uniforms, albeit a bit gaudy for uniforms. None of them was Terran.
"Except for a slave, none of the staff is Terran," he said, eyes shifting over one of the porters there, an obvious Terran, but looking at the man’s sorry state, they could tell he hadn’t lived that well.
They hadn’t heard of tour groups outside Alterra before, so they did wonder if it was inspired by them.
Then she saw some familiar people appear and join in the caravan. They paid a ticket and were thus allowed to take a ride. They were Menzon’s relatives.
Because the professionals that Alterra ’pirated’ from Bleulle were such sensitive identities, they were part of the reports she received from the intelligence team.
Things got worse when those professionals started churning out good things one after the other!
For Bleumrick, it felt like he was stolen from!
As for why the family was there, wasn’t it to convince Menzon to come back?
Althea didn’t really mind. People coming and going was their right, but she was confident in the charm of her small farmhouse.
The couple watched the caravan finalize their position, heading out in a grand scale, heading straight to Alterra.
They wondered if this batch of people could cause a few ripples in Alterra.
...
Menzon wasn’t very close to his family. It could be said that after he didn’t return the first time he was detected, they had become enemies.
However, they still went in with the caravan, probably hoping to convince him to change his mind. They looked quite desperate, and their characters indicated they were getting benefits.
Whether it was a prospective benefit from Menzon or from someone else, they did not know yet.
Was Bleumrick trying to use this chance to plant spies more organically? Probably.
They had failed so many times already so he was probably looking for other openings. With Princess Naia openly backing them, Bleulle couldn’t exactly attack blatantly anymore—at least not for now.
Due to Valov’s schemes, their presences were already exposed. Not to mention, their movements were really too big. Cheman’s fertility pill for one was extremely famous and characteristic of him.
Menzon himself had also revealed himself during the war, with him part of the battlement fighter-slash-observer who was fighting while he was observing how his tool was faring.
Any new tool naturally got a lot of attention from visitors, and they got a lot of inquiries, the Celeste mirror was no different. With a bit of research, people could figure out where else this was heard of, whether it was to find another maker or not, only to trace it back to Bleulle and one of their missing toolmakers.
Menzon’s family was soon informed. While they were in the desert, a few members headed to Alterra to demand the release of the ’hostage’.
Menzon’s relatives weren’t very good people, which was why Menzon didn’t mind not contacting them. At the same time, they weren’t evil. Just a bit selfish and annoying.
At the time, to avoid the family causing more of a scene than they already were, Menzon guided them around Alterra, paying for their food and accommodation while also showing them that he was living well.
Too bad it just caused them to get greedier, even asking for real estate while keeping their residencies in the City. They also asked him for all the money he made and several copies of the tools.
Menzon had no choice but to shut them up by giving a few copies of the tools, in exchange for quietly returning to Bleulle.
Seeing as they were traveling back to Alterra with more people, Althea could now see that those people might have returned to Bleulle, but they were definitely not satisfied with the goods they received.
They were likely heading back to Alterra to harass Menzon and get more benefits.
Sigh.
That said, other people’s family matters were not within her scope of concern or influence.
However, after spending quite a bit of time with that young man during experiments, she was fairly sure that his psyche had grown a lot.
She wasn’t too worried about him.
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