Alterra and its people were continuously improving, the other territories in the region were the same. At the very least, their progress was noticeably much faster than most.

After all, a rising territory wouldn’t rise alone—it would pull its neighbors upwards, too, like a growing mountain.

Further, things were naturally expedited by the road network, which had already been completed between the territories near Alterra, as well as the vibrant exchanges in between.

By now, there was dense traffic going to and fro the territories, and there were also plenty coming from elsewhere, simply merging with the traffic using the roads, also for wayfinding.

It was also encouraged for territories to have a few specialties to invest in to liven up the tourism and trade in their area.

The best example of this was Bright Village, which had found its niche that was superior even to Alterra: Perfumes, scented soap, shampoo, and so on. They took the specialty route with a brand, so even if many still bought similar things from Alterra, they would also buy things from Bright and sell for extra exclusivity.

Through this, they had already paid their debt to Alterra, and Alterra was now enjoying satisfactory tributes from this subsidiary.

Bright had already prepared various versions and marketing tactics, and they also held back, releasing new items only periodically. This gave time for their chief innovator, Misha, to focus on her pregnancy.

Speaking of which, Misha’s pregnancy was widely celebrated in Bright and further raised the popularity of the Fertility Pill. It managed to help a couple with nearly 30 levels between them to conceive.

This was, frankly, unprecedented. Even Cheman was shocked. For a while, they even feared that there would be horrid effects, like the child taking away Misha’s life force or something.

However, when they checked Misha’s state, they hadn’t seen notable negative side effects, at least beyond the already established side effects of a normal pregnancy. This was a relief, but also a surprise, adding another halo of ’miracle drug’ over Cheman’s pills.

Of course, Otto would argue that their ’hard work’ also had a lot to do with it.

Alterra would never lose ways to make people consume their contribution points, especially those that accumulated a massive amount of them.

Anyway, due to Misha’s pregnancy, Otto had to postpone his trip further east past Basset Town, and just focused on tasks that would allow him to stay within the region.

Although both sides had great relatives, with his parents very hands-on, he refused to leave his wife’s side.

For City-level powerhouses like Otto, their tasks were mostly related to Peak-level towns or city liaisonwork. It hadn’t started yet, but the plan was to begin with Warrior City.

Speaking of which, even if there were minimal side effects, one would ask why they took the fertility pill at all when they both had career plans lined up.

Misha had a whole line of products to develop and improve, while Otto was set to bring his caravan Eastewards.

The answer was...why not?

When Cheman released it to the people ’in-the-know’, they did not delay it. It was a long-shot anyway, considering their level differences, and that % was only increasing the low percentage. If she got pregnant, they just took it as fate. If not, then it was alright.

And who would’ve thought? She really did get pregnant.

The two of them were quite happy, though they did have reservations. They did not expect to face that change so quickly.

Neither of them had grown up to be the truly responsible sibling.

It was not a surprise that their confidence in taking care of another life intimidated them.

Otto had been running a caravan for decades. He certainly wasn’t disappointed that he had to stay behind for a while. He was no longer lacking anything, after all. That caravan was really just to recover a bit of their lost money, and also because Virion and the Lord over there had been urging them to.

They could wait.

...

Next was Belluga Village, which had developed more into linen making. They decided to focus the investment on some common colors and dedicated farms for the raw materials.

Alterra had a lot of farms but they also produced a lot of things, so there were plants that could only have a few farms dedicated to them. Considering Alterra’s market was more than just Alterra, then this productivity might not be enough.

Raine and her advisors decided to select a few raw materials to plant and then sell to Alterra was a good way to ensure money could be made.

Since then, Beluga had saved up a lot of money for development, eventually investing in textile making. Their economy could be said to have bloomed then.

Speaking of blooming, during this time, it seemed that good feelings between the Lord and his guard had begun to flower.

It started when Raine, who had to force herself to train because of the increased level of mobs due to their proximity to Alterra, got injured in battle. Quiro was her closest guard, and he helped her out.

He found out she was a female then, and since he had seen her body, he kneeled down to beg for forgiveness and was determined to take responsibility.

No matter how much Raine wanted to tell him it was no big deal, he claimed it was still against his moral code.

He must take responsibility, even if he was not given a title!

Raine was speechless for a while. Fortunately, her right and left hands, Suide and Orland, were there. Sadly, they started to tease him instead.

"He just wanted an excuse to get close to you, Milord. If you don’t dislike it, just let him be."

It was awkward after that, because Quiro honestly felt like he was the one seen naked.

He had no choice but to stop and pretend none of those happened, but the atmosphere around them had indeed changed.

As for whether or not it would develop into something deeper, only time could tell.

All Suide and Orland were sure of was that, if Raine decided to sire offspring, they would be his/her godfathers~