Allen was not considering whether to help these people, but how he should resettle them.
After making a circuit of the stronghold in the gorge, Allen had found almost no able-bodied men between fifteen and fifty. Those who remained truly were the elderly, children, and women.
With the people Hank had brought from three villages, along with some of the fleeing Northmen Allen had taken back, Wilderness Town had essentially reached capacity. If he wanted to settle these women nearby, he would have to establish villages in the surrounding area.
Allen had always intended to do that, and had already put the craftsmen rescued from Orc Town to work on it. But by his rough estimate, at least two to three thousand people were hiding in this gorge.
Putting them all in one village was simply unrealistic. They would have to build a village from scratch, which was asking far too much of these women. Accidents would easily happen if they were forced to undertake heavy physical labor, yet Allen had no more able-bodied men to spare to help them.
"Auston, I can help you find a suitable place to live. But I wanted to ask, do you all have to stay together?"
"No, my lord. These people came from different places to begin with. Um..."
As Auston spoke, he quietly studied Allen's expression, trying to see whether the lord found the request difficult. But he could discern nothing beyond the compassion in Allen's eyes.
"If possible, though, we hope you can let the people from each place stay together. They know one another, and helping each other will let them settle down more quickly."
Once Allen heard that they did not all need to be settled together, he felt much less troubled. He nodded and told Auston, "That's fine.