Chapter 868 (2/2)

“Please stop harping on it,” Regina cut across. She folded her arms across her chest. “They had a plan, and it failed. I have no doubt that they will reconsider and enter into negotiations with us soon.”

“Their weapons are crap,” Sam snorted. Regina threw her hands up into the air. Donny leaned back in his seat and scratched his neck.

Mrs. Hamilton smiled at Randidly. “Well, we will get to broader concerns later. So there are generally 8200 fighting Classers under Donnyton’s control at any one point. About one half are present in the city at any one time due to patrols and addressing Raid Bosses. Which doesn’t include the Orders, who each have maybe twenty to fifty members within Donnyton, but they aren't’ really under our control.”

“And Donnyton’s population?” Randidly asked.

“A little less than seventy thousand.” Mrs. Hamilton answered promptly after a glance at her notes. “Although there are a dozen or so farming hamlets in the surrounding area that are technically allied with Donnyton, and thereby receive the protection of our patrols. Puts us up closer to eighty thousand in the Greater Donnyton area.”

Randidly whistled. That was quite a few people. No wonder he saw basically no familiar faces in his time wandering through the North of Donnyton. The city had indeed grown, but Randidly really hadn’t processed by how much just from the slew of unknown neighborhoods that popped into existence in the surrounding areas. These numbers hit home what that confusion had not.

They were big. The most powerful economy on New Earth, they claimed…

Randidly looked to Mrs. Hamilton with a tilt of his head.

She shrugged. “If you have more questions, I can answer them. At this point, we mostly export food, weapons, and liquor. Oh, and potions. Most of our construction materials and furniture comes up from Franksburg. Relatively speaking, we have enough money coming in and out that the government of Donnyton could continue to function for almost a year even if we were all to refuse to take any personal action. That’s the weight of the momentum we have built. That’s why everyone understands Donnyton is the strongest in the world.”

“Fine,” Randidly said. He carefully looked around the table. He appreciated the explanations, but he didn’t quite understand why he was on the receiving end of them. Sure, he valued the information. But why were they providing it to him? And without any context?

The agreed upon reason for the meeting was to catch up. When they said catch up, Randidly had meant that he wished to inform them in person of the things that he had learned about the Calamities from Tellus. Had they perhaps thought that he wanted to interfere more directly in how Donnyton was run…?

If they did… then perhaps this was their way of telling Randidly that they were doing fine.

That made Randidly smile wanly. Yes, Donnyton was more than capable of handling this level of hardship. But ultimately the monsters they faced now were just environmental factors prodding them forward. The only real opponent they faced during this time was the threat of infighting amongst the humans. Was avoiding that so admirable…?

Perhaps so. And Randidly couldn’t deny they had raised Donnyton much more skillfully than he would have been able to. Considering how his Soulskill recently went… much more skillfully. Yet he couldn’t help but keep returning to an unpleasant truth.

It wasn’t enough.

Randidly walked through these streets filled with peaceful people who told him of their dreams and passed on bits of their Aether to him… The Crown of Upheaval and Gloom throbbed in his chest as he recalled the arduous process. Randidly winced; he wasn’t the true harbinger of what was to come, but he was the one who possessed the knowledge of the brutality it would cause.

Underneath the weight of the Calamities, those soft dreams would squish and collapse.

On Tellus, he had buried too many bodies due to the hubris of the world leader. He recalled the stacks of the dead along the banks of the Hallat as the division Randidly was with was forced to gracelessly retreat. If Randidly hadn’t been able to stall the Wight advance across the river...

Everyone was looking at Randidly expectantly. “Fine,” he said again. “But what does Donnyton want to be to the world?”

Hopefully, the answer to this question would demonstrate to Randidly their resolve. Because Earth would need them to be firm.