A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 75: Meeting The Council (1)

"Apologies for the tardiness." Serena stated as she entered the council room. "I had to deal with something before coming here."

She had just finished smoking the leftover meat she didn’t use for lunch and rushed to get to the council room after leaving Kiro at the village center to play. Theo was busy resting back at the hut, able to do anything because of her.

"It’s alright." Elder Samuel replied. "You did stop me while heading back to your hut to let me know you’d be late. I hope everything is alright?"

"It is." Serena answered, giving him a small smile as she took a seat in front of the Council.

Besides, Elder Samuel sat three other rabbit beastmen and three rabbit beastwomen. She recognized Healer Kai instantly, however, the rest had varying degrees of familiarity.

Either from her seeing them around the village to meeting them once or twice. They were all middle-aged to elderly looking and had an air of importance around them.

"That’s good to hear." Elder Samuel smiled. He was quiet for a moment before he went on and said, "I’ve already told the Council your plan to help develop the village and they are quite keen to hear it."

"Then I will get straight into it." Serena stated. "My plan is to make this village into some kind of resting point and eventually a trading post. It will give the Rabbit Village much better influence within the Forest Alliance and beyond. It’ll also allow us to gain better resources and develop the village while reducing the target on our back from the Forest City."

"Hmmm... And how do you propose we go about this?" A plump beastwoman with grey hair and rabbit ears asked. "We can’t just decide to become a trading post. There are multiple things to ask."

"Not to mention the dangers we could face from trying to develop." A wrinkly beastman sitting next to her added. "Other tribes and cities might try to attack us. Even rootless beastmen might try their luck. Weak villages are weak for a reason. Going against the grain is never a good idea."

Serena pursed her lips at the words, knowing this was going to take some mindset changing to get them to agree to her plan. Because unlike Elder Samuel, who was more open-minded and willing to hear her out, some of the Council members were more conservative.

They feared the power of the Forest City too much to want to change for the better. They had witnessed other tribes and villages try rising only to fail and be destroyed.

And they couldn’t let the same thing happen to their village. Keeping on the down low was what kept their village surviving for so long.

Sure, they had to give up resources and comply with whatever the Forest City said, but it kept them alive. The only problem was, Serena doubted they could keep doing this forever.

Eventually, the Forest City was going to keep taking until there wasn’t going to be enough for the village to survive. And by then it would be too late.

"That may be true, but there is also much to gain from this." Serena argued. "Especially if we get the Forest City involved. I doubt they’ll let someone attack this village if they stand to gain from us developing. You see, the Forest City currently has no direct links to the Horse Clan merchants.

"To get anything they want, they need to go through other cities like the Crystal City. Which in the long run isn’t good for them because now another city has some control over them and could easily use trade against them. This is where we come in.

"A trade route between the Mer City and Forest City can be created with us in the center of the route. The Horse Clan can use the Rabbit Village as a resting point and place to replenish their food supplies. Not only will this allow us to develop with the Forest City’s help, but we gain the chance to exchange food for resources without needing to rely on the Forest City."

Serena took a pause, giving a chance to let words sink in before she went more into detail on how they would achieve this. She watched as some of the Council members began considering her idea.

Suddenly Healer Kai asked, "If it’s possible to create a trading route between the Mer City and the Forest City, why has it not been done before? Surely, there are other tribes better equipped to handle the Horse Clan merchants compared to our village." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Not necessarily." Serena answered. "The Horse Clan are prey beastmen like rabbit beastmen and have a similar diet. They require plants for food, something predator tribes around us cannot supply so easily. That was the main issue with the Horse Clan entering the forest. They can’t forage for food while traveling and need a stopping point to get supplies for their trip."

The plump beastwoman then retorted, "But then how will we supply the Horse Clan with food. We can just barely feed ourselves without hurting the forest. If we increase our foraging it’ll destroy our food supply in the long run."

"Well, that’s where my development plan comes in." Serena responded. "I noticed how every hut has a garden and thought that perhaps we could find a way to do them on a larger scale and use the food grown to supply the merchants. That way the forest won’t be affected nor will the village have to make sacrifices.

"Of course, to do this properly we’ll need to find plants that are easily storable for a long time and convenient for eating on the move. We might need to even develop foods from the plants we grow instead of just selling the grown plants. We’ll likely need more manpower as well, but I believe that will come as we develop."

Her plan for manpower was to get weaker villages similar to the Rabbit Village to join them. That way they’ll get more beastmen with a knowledge for plants within the village.

Research and development would be much easier then. But for now she needed to take one step at a time here.