Mistral.
In an unnamed village, flames raged as the monsters of darkness feasted on the flesh of their most hated prey.
Under the bright light of the broken moon, they painted a gruesome scene as Beowolves pounced on panicking civilians.
Borbatusks blasted through the meager defences that the village had in the form of their wooden walls, allowing for more Grimm to pour in as Goliaths leisurely walked through the buildings, destroying any shelter that the humans and faunus could take while also trampling those unlucky enough to fall in their path.
From the air, Nevermore shot their quills, impaling people as they pleased and taking out any mode of transportation that might allow them to escape.
If there were a Huntsman around, they would be appalled to see such a sight where the Grimm acted with such coordination, as if receiving orders from something.
And they would be right, as they were indeed receiving orders from something higher than them in their primitive hierarchy.
However, as expected from such a Grimm that had gained enough intelligence to plan things out, it would not show itself unless it was sure that there was nothing that could threaten its life.
As such, the only thing that these unfortunate villagers who would soon become refugees would remember would be a spine-chilling roar followed by the steady clops of hooves on stone.
It would be two days later, when a team of Huntsmen responded to the distress call and arrived at the location, that they would find the catatonic survivors of this devastation hiding within the only bunker in the village, which was originally a food storage vault.
However, as the Kingdom of Mistral was already stretched to the limit, the Huntsmen would be ordered to leave a few supplies for the survivors and escort them to the nearest settlement before returning home, callously discarding these survivors as someone else's problem.
An order that this group of Huntsmen reluctantly followed, unaware that they were being silently observed by the mastermind of this attack in the first place, leading it straight to its next prey.
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Steve and Alex sat alongside the various other main families of Kuroyuri as the Huntsmen team from Mistral gave their debriefing about the situation.
"So, you people are basically throwing those refugees at us without any compensation and expect us to feed nearly a hundred people out of our own pockets?"
The young man who led the team shifted uncomfortably at the accusation but steeled himself and spoke in a neutral tone.
"That is the order given to us by Haven, and by extension, the Council of Mistral. Since your settlement also comes under the borders of the Kingdom, you must obey the orders of the council."
"Bullshit!"
"Where the hell was your council when we were facing resource shortage last year?"
"Yeah! What support did those corrupt bastards give us when we first established this place?"
The various old families that had been in Kuoryuri since its founding erupted at that remark, making the young Huntsmen shrink a little at the sheer vitriol in the voices of the people around them. Their worldview and perspective on their home kingdom coming crashing down with each insult.
However, the Ren family did not join in on the abuse of the poor Huntsmen saddled with this task by those corrupt fools in power.
Instead, they were busy staring at the couple that was sitting by their side, completely absorbed in the documents that the Huntsmen brought them.
"The production capacity will not be enough to feed all of them in the long term."
"Maybe expand the fields a little?"
Steve shook his head at the whisper from his wife.
"We are already at maximum capacity. If we clear any more trees and turn that into farmland, we will be causing irreparable damage to the land, losing long-term viability for short-term gains."
"What about verticality? Like we did in the past?"
The man fell silent in contemplation before slowly nodding his head.
"Doable. But it will take time."
"We still have significant reserves. I can set up a communal kitchen in the meantime and provide food for the refugees until you complete the project and start producing the crops."
"Hm. Sound idea. But what about housing? We can't have them roaming the streets."
Li Ren overheard enough to know what this strange and powerful couple were planning, making him whisper towards them while the rest of the town councilmen were still busy hurling insults at the Huntsmen and the Mistral Council.
"For housing, we could have the refugees build their own homes within the city with the wood harvest we've had recently. We could pay them with food coupons for constructing the houses, just like we do regular labourers, albeit a little less since these homes will belong to the refugees instead of going to the town."
Alex frowned at that idea while Steve nodded in understanding.
"I don't like this. Food should never be used as a bargaining chip. It is a basic necessity for everyone."
Steve placed his palm over his wife's hand, giving her a comforting squeeze, which made her lean on him.
"I know you don't like this, but you must remember that we cannot feed everyone for free. Because they will take it for granted and will become the kind of scum of society that we hate. Getting food in exchange for work is more than fair in my opinion, especially when all of this is not our problem to begin with."
Li Ren nodded, glad that Steve got the logic behind his suggestion. As a hunter that had been living in Kuroyuri all his life, situations like this were not all that uncommon, and he had seen more than his share of tragedies where refugees like this turned on their benefactors because they did not value the help they were given in the time of their need.
All because said benefactors had given resources for free and made it so that these refugees took all that help for granted, demanding more until the benefactors could not provide any, as if it were their right to take a share of the town's resources without contributing anything to its development.
As the two families discussed things, Alex spotted one detail in the reports that made her put her foot down.
"I'm fine with the adults working for their food, but these orphan children will get food and shelter, no questions asked. And don't you dare go against me on this, babe."
Steve looked through the list, seeing the names of four children who were orphaned in this attack.
Without hesitation, he nodded at his wife's words as even Lie Ren and An Ren approved of the plan.
With the plan made, Steve stood up from his seat, drawing the attention of the town council families and the Huntsmen team.
"While I agree that Mistral has never done anything for Kuroyuri, I still think that we cannot leave these people stranded like this."
The council members looked at each other before the town's guard captain, Jonathan, spoke up.
"Mr. Steve. I know that you and your wife cannot see so many people suffer needlessly, and I do appreciate your kindness. But how are we supposed to provide food and shelter for so many people? I mean, even with the farms that you two established two years ago, we only have enough abundance to store the grain and food for a few months at most, which will not be enough to feed a hundred people until we can expand the farms. Not to mention that having so many idle hands could lead to instability in our community."
Steve nodded at those words.
"All valid concerns. However, I think I have the answer to those problems. While the town only has a few months of abundance in terms of food, you have forgotten that I have been storing nearly triple that amount in the town's commercial storage so that Kuroyuri can trade that food for a proper railway system. We can dip into those reserves for food."
Those words instantly made the families stare at him with shock.
As the owner of the fields from which Steve and Alex had been producing food for Kuroyurin in the past two years, everyone knew that the couple took nearly 40% of every harvest and stored it within the commercial storage of the town. Since they were the owners of the farms, which were originally forest land that nobody dared to tread, nobody objected to this act on their part since Kuroyuri would never even have such vast and high-quality farms in the first place if it were not for them.
However, they had never thought that the couple were planning to use this stored food to trade for a railway system for their town, which would undoubtedly make them a major settlement with time, similar to Argus to the north.
Unfortunately, that joy and gratitude they felt diminished greatly when they realized that these funds were now about to be used for this refugee crisis instead of going towards developing their town, making them give glum looks at the Huntsmen, who once again started shifting uncomfortably.
Steve knew their thought process and could not help but chuckle.
"Don't worry. I have other ways for trade, so leave that aspect to me. All you people need to know is that, at least for the next year or so, there will be no food shortage even with all the refugees. As for the shelter, Li has come up with a plan on that aspect."
At Steve's words, Li nodded and got up, explaining his plan. Soon, the town council families nodded in agreement as they saw the viability of the plans these two families put forward.
"Then, it is decided?"
"Yes, Mr. Steve. We will go with your and Mr. Ren's plans."
The Huntsmen sagged in relief, finally reassured that they had fulfilled their orders without any further problems.
The leader of the team, the young man named Aoi, walked towards Steve and shook his hand.
"Thank you, Mr. Steve. If it were not for you, I can't imagine what would have happened to the refugees."
"Please, don't thank me. If you want to thank anyone, thank my wife. And thank you for your hard work. We will take it from here."
The huntsmen team nodded gratefully towards Alex and left Kuroyuri swiftly after informing the refugees about the current situation.
In another place, in another time, these refugees would have been left to rot outside the settlement after the councilmen rejected the huntsmen team's plea, making these refugees move on, but not before leaving behind the orphaned children as dead weight.
Soon after, three of the four orphan children would perish one way or another, leaving behind a single girl with orange hair and turquoise eyes.
Fortunately, this is not that time or place.
That night, Kuroyuri warmly invited the refugees into their settlement and informed them about the town council's deal, something that the refugees gladly accepted.
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Author notes: Read 10 chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/Tiranus2