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Hector, for his part, was still a bit torn about this whole deal. He certainly didn't want to upset the Queen, but from the sound of things, he'd also be upsetting the Lorentians if he refused. And he could see Hanton's point, too. If Lorent really was just doing this in order to manipulate him, then this wasn't exactly the start of a healthy relationship, he felt.

But it was free land. And lot of it, too.

The Jagwa territory alone spanned over three hundred thousand square kilometers--almost double the size of Atreya in its entirety. And the deal currently on the table would grant Hector ownership of about a third of Jagwa, including the areas nearest Warrenhold around the Atreyan border.

A hundred thousand square kilometers...

That was pretty generous. It was no small wonder why Garovel didn't want to make a hasty decision here. Hector doubted that they would be able to make up their minds even after conducting this little survey out here. He very much wanted to hear Amelia Carthrace's opinion about this whole thing.

He was thinking about calling her right now, in fact, but he knew how busy she was. And if this expedition turned up anything crazy, Garovel might just tell him to take the deal immediately.

Thus far, it all looked fairly normal, though. The land was quite easy on the eyes, too. The morning sun made for quite a picture over the windswept grasslands below. He could see the occasional stone formation dotting the plains as the land stretched closer toward Atreya to the south. He even spotted a couple mobs of wild horses grazing in the distance.

He also knew that there were four towns that would technically be falling under his "ownership" as a result of this deal. That wasn't very many, considering how huge the section of land in question was, but one of those towns had a population of around two hundred thousand people.