Ansel was very sad and he sat on a corner looking like he was growing mushrooms.
Winona cackled the loudest and went to him, poking him repeatedly with her fingers.
"Hahaha… oi… you lost a battle pet because of your cologne… hahahha.. I told you it's too strong."
As people close to Althea, they naturally could get a custom scent from Althea's lab if they wanted to. Both Winona and Ansel tapped into this right, and they even fought for the first slot.
Ansel won by rock-paper-scissors and Winona was there to mock the scent he asked for.
Ansel believed in his taste and pointedly ignored her (he couldn't in good conscience mock her scent, because he actually really liked it).
Althea smiled at their antics, before turning to the white wolf that appeared so gracefully. She extended her hand and the wolf tentatively walked over. At first, it was just her nose touching Althea's finger, until she was allowing her to pat her head.
"Good girl…" Althea smiled, turning to the bickering duo at the corner.
"Come on now," she said. "It's time to choose a name."
This made the two walk over to her with determined faces, instantaneously creating names.
"Wolfsbane," Ansel said, crossing his arms in pride. This was a cool name and would've been the wolf's name if she had the foresight to choose him as his master, instead.
Winona rolled her eyes, "It's female, idiot," she said, turning to Althea with a smile. "Serephina."
Ansel scoffed and this earned a glare from the blonde, and soon began yet another banter.
In the end, after much discussion, they decided to formally name the wolf Snow Phantom, because of its appearance and its skill.
"I'll call you Snow~" Winona said, admiring the wolf's white coat. Ansel sneered at her.
"Phantom is much cooler."
"She's a girl, she would prefer pretty names."
"You can understand her? No, right?" he said, tone mocking and it heckled Winona's feathers.
And so… another topic of argument began.
Althea rubbed her forehead, which was replaced by Garan's hand while he glared at the idiots who caused his wife's headache. This naturally made the two shut up, just looking away from each other in annoyance.
Althea gently tapped her husband's hand and smiled at him, before facing the two to make an announcement.
"It's a nickname and she's smart, just call her whatever you want," Althea said and Garan nodded.
"Yes, my wife is wise," he said, followed by the wolf howling next to him.
The wolf howled, as if agreeing with her.
The group continued to bond and chatter in the living area, with the babies crawling about. Fortunately, Baron's team really loved the babies and they already sent teethers even before they could crawl. It was made of rubber from the Waol tree, and they were shaped in various adorable shapes like baby cartoon pandas and stars.
Silicone was another one of the for-development things in the Research Lab—and one of the better materials for teethers—but that'd take a while. In the meantime, this would do.
"Tell us more about what happened in the war," Winona said as they fondly watched the babies in onesies play. She felt very proud of their cute animal ears and the puffs on their bumbums acting like puffy tails.
Althea smiled and told them of the adventures in summary. How they entered so quickly, how the enemies reacted, and how they won.
"Wow.. how exciting!" Harold said. Of course, he wouldn't want to be there either. Not because he didn't want to join (he wanted to contribute in some way), but he knew he'd only be a burden anyway.
"How much money did you take from Fargo?"
"I didn't take it, we put the money in the warehouse." After all, it was too suspicious if she easily took them all. It was funding for Fargo—no, Limestone Valley now—anyway. "I got a few thousand, but that includes the money taken from the thousands of slaves we received."
"Can that buy a lot?"
"It can buy a bit," she said. She knew most villages could only dream of that money after developing their territories, but her standards were high and she naturally needed a lot more for her vision.
"It is the resources that make me happy." That was: Limestone and the Metals.
"Does that mean we can build tall buildings soon?"
"And copper! Do we finally get electricity?" Winona, one of the main proponents of the research center, naturally thought deeper than others.
If only they could convert their copper coins—which they couldn't—then they'd have the resources much earlier. Fortunately, they still found the related resource so it wasn't hopeless.
"Possible, but it'll definitely take a while. As we know, the usual formulas and processes needed to be modified after going here."
While they really won a lot though, Althea's shoulder slumped in the end. Garan immediately felt her change and brought her for an embrace. "I want to say these resources would make the war worth it, but…"
In her mind, the resources wouldn't equate equally to the deaths, even if they were considered 'few'.
"We're doing our best to prepare the entire territory, to give everyone the best chance," he told her and she nodded, understanding this, though it was still too soon for her to feel less depressed about the people they lost.
Seeing her , Winona couldn't help but wonder. "How would wars at town level be like?"
This made everyone pause, thinking. For the most part, the imagery wasn't pretty.
"We will be able to participate fully in that war," Garan told them. This was both worrisome and relieving. Worrisome because it meant the enemies were strong, and relieving because he could be with his wife the entire time—even if they were the attacking territory.
Eugene blinked, an idea teasing his brain. "If wars could be won by the defending territory simply by keeping all of the invading troops outside the highest level wall, what if an enclosure too small to keep the enemies was built?"
Althea laughed, "I asked something similar to Oslo before," she said, "Apparently, there was a territory that built a level 5 wall but only around his house. It was also extremely easy to guard."
"Well, that's one way to not lose a war…"
"Well, not necessarily. A small wall meant concentrated forces would have a higher overall damage. Even if the people can't get in, they can just destroy it instead."
From here, the group continued to review the events of the war. They would mention their own POVs and they integrated the knowledge together to record and analyze the events, hoping to avoid mistakes to lessen the casualties in the future.
Of course, this was only an advanced session and a more detailed one would be done with everyone. This was mostly Garan's job, but Althea and Ansel wanted to share what happened to their side of the war.
Garan planned to make an even more detailed analysis of the war. They would analyze the key battles, the pivotal moments, critical mistakes, and the like.
To be fair, Altera did very well considering everything, but they naturally wanted to minimize damage as they could. This was Garan's main goal, and what they'd be working towards.
Other than the fact that it was his duty—both as the military leader and as a human—he also… just didn't want his wife sad anymore.