Next, Odys took Rupert and Noi to survey the island's north using a Flying Scroll.
The land there was uneven, so little of it had been developed. It held only two small villages.
A stretch of untouched jungle separated those villages from Port Town.
After circling the area, Odys landed on a mountain peak and studied the surrounding terrain.
They then flew deeper into the mountains. The valleys were quite scenic, and the farther west they went, the more villages they found.
Those villages had cleared a fair amount of farmland. By Odys's rough estimate, thirty or forty thousand people lived in the mountains alone, with another thirty or forty thousand in Plain Town and Port Town.
The total population was larger than he had expected.
But the people in those mountains were not yet under his control.
After looking around, Odys returned to Port Town for a drink at its only tavern.
The tavern was a wooden building. In fact, most buildings in town were wooden, with few built of stone.
On an island like this, timber was the easiest resource to obtain. Cement and steel could be bought in Bayam, but no one would find them on this remote island.
The tavern was fairly spacious, with a bar and several tables.
There were few customers at the moment. The owner was wiping down the bar when Odys walked in, and he hurriedly smiled. "Captain... No, Mayor. Would you like a drink?"
Odys nodded. "A glass of your local beer."
"We only have one kind," the plump owner said with a smile. "It's a light beer I brew myself. You could give it a try."
"Mm." Odys sat at the bar. "How much?"
"Nothing." The owner smiled ingratiatingly. "It would be my honor to buy you a beer."
Odys