"Tell me more about this… territory war." Althea paused, "And, has this always been the case?"
Brenda looked at the lord's face and saw that she was really not angry, she composed the answer in her head and responded.
"Territory wars are inter-territory fights that have been happening for millennia.
"My father had taught me that wars had been going on since the time of our ancestors. It was the natural way of life back then.
"Plundering, murder, and theft were common practices and were considered common sense at the time—regardless of the race.
"But the wars had gotten so bad that over half the population died. This was some thousands of years ago, I believe."
"Led by the elves, the Concordium began and limited the waging of wars to a maximum of twelve times a year, or once a month. There was also a day required to warn the territory being attacked, so no there are no real surprise attacks.
"To some extent, this really allowed respite time for everyone to recover."
"Concordium?" Althea said, "What do they do? Where are they now?"
Brenda shook her head. "I don't think they still exist, but the rules set applied to everyone who entered the land."
"I don't know much about it, we were only commoners after all."
Althea didn't bother with this Concordium as she felt it was far from her. On the other hand, she was still very worried about the wars. "Won't strong territories just target weaker ones?"
At this point, Brenda now fully understood that the lord truly had no idea what was going on in their place.
Of course, while it was a mystery how the Lord's people had yet to experience Territory Wars, it was none of her business.
Brenda simply answered as carefully as she could, trying to be as helpful as possible.
"Territories were only allowed to attack territories of the same level. However, if a territory wants, it can challenge any stronger opponent."
Althea nodded. Indeed, if wars could be waged without limit, it would only be endless bloodshed.
Wars could be said to be an inevitability for a planet with so many different intelligent creatures.
Even in Terran, where only humans were the only intelligent beings, wars had been an unavoidable part of history, let alone when there were so many races.
Speaking of other intelligent creatures, she'd have to ask this in detail later on.
"Then what're the winnings?"
Brenda swallowed another piece of cookie. She couldn't help it, it called to her.
"Regardless of whether the territory was challenged or was challenged, the loser will give up the current half of its assets to the winner.
"This includes gold, resources, buildings, people, and others."
Then she paused, looked at Althea with a bit of reluctance, but still voiced out her thoughts. "...Unless the Lord themselves are killed and their tokens taken, in which case the territory can be merged with the winning territory."
"What?" But…how? The Lord token was integrated into her. It was not a physical item after use nor was it in space.
From her understanding, a used lord token would not appear until the holder died.
And when they did, as what happened with that other guy from Royal Territory, their land will disintegrate with them.
"I hadn't encountered it personally, but a mercenary I once knew had once been hired to fight for an attacking territory."
She looked a bit bitter at the mention of the 'mercenary she once knew', and Althea saw some history. But Althea was never one to pry.
"They won, and they managed to get the entire territory.
"According to him, during the 28 hours of war, the Lord token will temporarily be disassociated with the body—unable to be integrated and placed in the space."
"It wasn't common knowledge, but it so happened the lord that hired him knew of it and specifically investigated and targeted the enemy lord."
"Hence during the time of wars, even if the Lord died the territory would not. Whoever could take the token would get the territory as well."
Althea thanked the heavens for her decision to be low-key. Otherwise, in wars, if she didn't trust the people around her, she would not only be afraid of attacks from the outside but also greedy people who wished to occupy her land.
Brenda also realized the advantages of the lord hiding the lord identity.
It was just that she had never known anyone who could let go of the prestige of being hailed, respected, and worshipped that came with the status of a lord.
After all, even lords with small villages had a higher status than low nobles in towns.
Not to mention, the lord obviously didn't know about the Territorial Wars before and yet she made this decision. She was obviously a very wise lord. Brenda was relieved to be under her for the time being.
Then Althea looked at the woman. "28 hours is a day, correct? How many days a month?"
Brenda blinked suddenly questioning the wise Lord image in her head for a moment. But then she remembered they were complete foreigners.
"32 cycles my lord."
This confirmed her previous supposition and was relieved it was really longer than Terran months. It meant she still had 24 days to go.
Althea was still absorbing all the information, but it felt like her brain wasn't working very well. Instead, she just asked another issue she had been concerned with. "What other creatures are there? Other than humans?"
"Orcs, dwarves, goblins, zergs, the undead… there seem to be smaller ethnicities but I'm not very familiar with them… " She looked very distressed as she said so. "I'm sorry my Lord."
Sigh…
Althea couldn't even be bothered to comfort her right now.
If those fantasy novels and movies were accurate, then these so-called Orcs, goblins, dwarves, zergs, and the undead—and there were also elves, it seemed—would definitely not be easy opponents.
Even the NPC wasn't clear about it, how could she prepare for it?
Althea rubbed her temples, trying to soothe an incoming headache.
What the heck... was this place?