CHAPTER 541: CHAPTER 286: THE PLACE WITH THE LARGEST INFLUX OF POPULATION IS..._4

Both territories were not particularly kind to their residents.

Especially Qinghe Village, which, like Hope Village, had a similar history, the people there felt uncomfortable and, without any hesitation, left.

A territory like that posing a threat to the current state of Hope Village would be difficult indeed!

"Furthermore, Barnes Village is now controlling the outflow of residents. If residents want to leave their territory, they also have to pay a certain price. Our Lord has mentioned that if Barnes Village continues like this, the inside of the territory may become hollow..." Bernie continued, pausing in his tone after finishing without going further.

It seemed like everything had been said but also as if some words remained unsaid.

After connecting the dots, Lord Bayer understood what he meant.

Viscount Lancelot probably wanted to cooperate with Hope Village to swallow up Barnes Village, using a private attack rather than a territory war.

It had to be said, after coming to this realization, Lord Bayer’s heart began to beat rapidly.

The complete resources of a territory were far more substantial than the spoils of a territory war.

If they could swallow it up, the development of Hope Village could advance another level.

He just didn’t know if the Lord would agree.

Because in essence, this was also a form of "aggression."

"Alright, thank you for the information from Viscount Lancelot. When our village chief returns, I will speak with her," Lord Bayer said, regaining his composure.

This matter was not something he could decide on his own; ultimately, they had to listen to the Lord.

Bernie had also noticed the change in Lord Bayer’s expression; he knew he was tempted.

But he also understood that the decision wouldn’t be made by the person before him.

Thinking this, Bernie spoke, "Our Lord might also often come to Hope Village lately. We could have more exchanges then."

"Mhm," Lord Bayer nodded.

After their conversation, Bernie stood up and took his leave.

Once Bernie had left, Lord Bayer stayed in place, thinking for a while, considerably calming his emotions, then went back to the first matter Bernie had mentioned.

He immediately went to the human resources office.

"Show me the recent population registration," Lord Bayer said to Rao Jiayu.

"Yes." Rao Jiayu had been doing some tallying; hearing this, he quickly searched through the folders on the desk, and soon found the population registration document up to yesterday.

Lord Bayer took it and began flipping through it page by page.

[Toby, Intermediate Professional, 34 years old, mercenary, Bengala Town.]

[Kenny, Intermediate Professional, 30 years old, mercenary, Bengala Town.]

[Bedon, Intermediate Professional, 29 years old, swordsman, Bengala Town.]

[...]

Looking at the large list of residents from Bengala Town, Lord Bayer couldn’t help but support his forehead.

It seemed like Bengala Town also had a significant influx of people!

Rao Jiayu saw Lord Bayer continuously flipping and muttering. His expression slightly changed, and then he pulled out another folder from the side and handed it to Lord Bayer.

"Lord Bayer, I’ve also made an additional tally of the total data of residents from the surrounding territories as well as others entering Hope Village."

Hearing this, Lord Bayer looked at Rao Jiayu with surprise. This wasn’t his scope of work, of course, and they hadn’t assigned it either.

Immediately after, Lord Bayer started looking at the spreadsheet.

On this spreadsheet, all the data was clear at a glance.

Bengala Town: 1409 people.

Barnes Village: 502 people.

Glasgow Village: 238 people.

Yuxi Village: 376 people.

Qinghe Village: 622 people.

Djibouti Village: 192 people.

Ambri Village: 30 people.

Rizet Village: 27 people.

...

Looking at this data, Lord Bayer couldn’t help but internally say, ’As expected.’

The influx into Hope Village, Barnes Village was definitely not making the cut!

Currently, the most influx into Hope Village was from... Bengala Town.

Bengala Town was far more troublesome than Barnes Village!

Absorbing so much of their population, reaching the minimum quantity of a Level 2 Village, was bound to attract attention.

The Lord of Bengala Town was much more of a hassle than the Lord of Barnes Village.

They still didn’t know what the stance of the other side was concerning the loss of population.

They needed to quickly prepare for a response.

Barnes Village + Qinghe Village = no threat.

Bengala Town + Barnes Village + Qinghe Village = a significant threat.

And as Lord Bayer was considering this, Viscount Orkot’s team had already set off from Bengala Town, heading toward Hope Village.