Chapter 2187: Orcs and Dwarves Settle Down

When Althea’s group arrived, they were greeted by several groups. Baku, Gochi, and the other half-orcs went to greet the orcs, while the goblins and a few of the dwarves went to welcome the dwarves.

This was an entirely new place, after all, and they should at least be surrounded by what was familiar while they integrated. This wasn’t forming cliques or ethnicities, it was simply giving people/orcs/dwarves a sense of belonging.

Anyway, they were all Alterrans in the future; they just looked different and had their own strengths.

The orcs were taken to a massive picnic and barbecue party in one of the town’s camping sites in the mountain area.

This would give them an overview of the territory. Being on higher ground would also wipe away the repressing feeling orcs tended to have inside walled areas.

"To be honest, that feeling is much less here, for some reason," Nuki, the deer orc, said at the side.

The others nodded. The only other territory they had been to was Warrior City (and Quo Town for the orcs from that area). In both cases, they felt a little agitated and grumpy, occasionally making them want to punch something, especially when they got a bit too fired up about something.

Fortunately, it wasn’t to the point that they would definitely act out on it, but it was definitely a bit stifling.

In Alterra, however, it was different. It was refreshing there and there was almost no difference from here to the other side of the walls.

This made the half-orcs curious. "Does that mean you can stay within the walls?"

"Maybe? But follow sister Althea’s arrangements first."

Gochi and the others nodded. It was good to let the orcs try both options and let them choose which living accommodation they preferred. For now, the first option they would try would be staying out, which was Lady Althea’s initial plans, which were to let them build their own small satellites around the region.

The Ministers had already discussed the process of how to handle orcs. Lady Althea had long messaged them about it even before she left Quo Town back then, giving the administration enough time to plan.

For example, the orcs would leave the territory with their tribe at the date of their convenience. They would choose land in between the human territories within the region and Alterra would fund the construction of their village.

In exchange, they had to be on-call whenever a mob attacked Alterra and its associated territories. They would have assigned territories to go to, depending on the location they chose.

Even if they changed their minds later and choose to move into the territory, the location could just be left alone and could be used as a stopover.

They would be the first batch. In a couple of months, if the social experiment succeeded, they would recruit more. Orcs would become more intergrated with humans, ideally fixing the biases associated with them. With Alterra’s prestige, people would likely have a higher tolerance for them.

That said, because their appearance and accommodations were Alterran investments, whenever they were requested to assist in wars or mobs, the subsidiaries and allies would be charged similarly or more to how they usually paid when Alterra sent forces as they requested.

Anyway, this was something for later implementation. For now, they were having a barbecue party!

While the orcs were having fun, eating tens of kilograms of meat and other food every hour, the dwarves were taken to their specialized communities as well as the ongoing projects.

Dwarves knew dwarves best and they knew what would be their reservations and what would dismantle them.

For example, dwarves were just inherently wary of humans. Unlike goblins who could detect emotions, they did not have this skill. At least the goblins, even if they also suffered in the hands of humans, would know that Alterra only meant goodwill to them.

The dwarves did not have this luxury, and they would remain vigilant and stressed unless the suspicion was explicitly proven otherwise. This could not be done with just food or parties—the way was to show them their future.

Led by Batto, the group of goblins and a few dwarves (the rest had jobs to do) greeted the newcomers and introduced them to what made them feel at home in Alterra—their own houses! Their own place!

It was designed specifically for their comfort, their height. The restaurants and several other establishments in the neighborhood were the same.

For races that had been oppressed for so long, to have buildings—and whole communities—designed with them in mind was something beyond their imagination.

After this, the ’local’ dwarves then toured the newcomers around the Town, showing them that humans were nothing to fear. Of course, there were still plenty of people who looked at them greedily, especially visitors, but the rules of the Town were quite strict, so they could be rest assured.

Well, in an ideal world.

The dwarves had never seen so many buildings and amazing things. It was quite overwhelming, especially since they were surrounded by humans.

One of the dwarves even hyperventilated. Fortunately, it wasn’t anything a sour lemonade couldn’t fix.

Amusingly, dwarves really loved sour food. The explanation was due to their traditional abodes, caves, underground, and isolated place, and their fruits were generally fermented.

They were also refreshing and stimulated the appetite, which was important to them because dwarves work for long hours a day whenever they were doing a project. Whether it was a physiological thing of the race or a biological characteristic, they sometimes needed to be reminded to eat.

In the community of short critters, sour food menus had popped up in restaurants and stores when the dwarves arrived. The pregnant women, who had also increased in numbers in the past year, also used this a lot.

"This is really a good place!"

"Miss Althea and Sir Garan aren’t lying!"

"Can we really live here?"

Cotto and the others nodded with smiles. "Now that you’ve seen where you’re going to live, now let’s go to where you’ll be working~"