Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Nati - Chapter Thirty Eight

The embassy was complete.

"It has two stories, three meeting rooms, a kitchen, and a dining room. Plus the living quarters." Fenna boasted as if it was built by herself. Well, her beastkin came to volunteer after all. It had solid foundations, the main walls erected from bricks, but they used plenty of wood too. "I'm honored to become your first neighbor."

"I've never seen a building raised this fast, not even back in my world," I admitted, noting the people here didn't use cranes or modern technologies either. Well, they had something much, much better. Magic.

"No other race can beat us when it comes to craftsmanship." Fenna grinned, her fluffy fox ears proudly twitching. While technically I was a beastkin too, her cute features and masterfully crafted robes never ceased to amaze me. She had a few freckles sprinkled across her nose and looked closer to sixteen than sixty. "The furniture will have to come later though, we have so much more to build."

She was the first to move in, living in her fancy tent earlier. Her volunteers erected a separate settlement inside the village itself, and they still didn't have proper housing, but she got us the nicest rooms.

"I'll give you that and humbly thank you for contributing to our village." Charlotte bowed her head ceremoniously. While they didn't consecrate the building officially, she sure acted formal lately and moved in right next door to me and Fenna, on the same corridor of the first floor. The furniture was indeed missing, but it was incomparable with the old shack. For one, this had a proper wooden floor, and I requested a bed too, no more sleeping on the ground or a few stalks of straw for me.

"The Goddess Alexandra can also take a room when she returns." Fenna swished her orange tail. I sure missed her, even hearing her name made my heart skip a beat. "Lambert and Omerta will have their rooms side by side in the other wing."

"So we have two more for guests..." Charlotte took notes as we explored this fine new establishment. "And I guess the meeting rooms could also house a few people in case of emergencies."

"I hoped we could destroy the old shacks and rebuild them properly too..." The fox girl claimed, looking out the window. I agreed, the new building stood out like a sore thumb.

"We already face a housing crisis and a worker shortage." The chieftain protested. "It would seem irresponsible to demolish old shacks while more than half of the people live in tents. I was shocked to see how many immigrants arrived in the few days since the conference."

"My volunteers didn't complain about their tents. I'll have to request more of them from the village though. If this goes on..." Fenna shrugged as we concluded the inspection. Next to the village's twelve shacks, the beastfolk erected thirty tents last week. "I knew it was the right choice to stay here, this village might become a regional trading hub soon."

"I wouldn't have guessed that the balls will be so popular..." I felt proud of myself. And it wasn't just merchants, from the original fifty orcs, the population grew to almost two hundred by now. Beastkin volunteers, goblin refugees, more orcs, a couple of kobolds, and a halfling too. I wondered how many sentient species even existed in this world...

"We'll have to limit the export on those, and keep the profit to fuel the rapid expansion." Charlotte was very strict about this. "We won't be selling crossbows anytime soon either. Need more people on hunting instead..."

"Except for us, right?" Fenna claimed, bowing her head. "You said tribes with mutual protection pacts will get a limited amount."

"We got our quota, but to be fair, it's all thanks to Omerta's magic," I noted, blushing a little. "I wanted to ensure they are easy to produce, efficient and reliable... But our methods are not there yet."