26

A woman approaches with the drinks Alec had asked for. She informs that the potatoes will take a while longer.

"Anyway." he mutters, after a generous sip on the cold drink. "My idea is to build houses. Real houses, with at least two rooms.”

"For everyone?”

"Sure! How many families are there? Twenty?”

"I think almost thirty." Evangeline says, trying to count mentally. "I’m not sure.”

"Then we will make almost thirty houses.”

"Wow...”

Evangeline didn’t know what to say. She would have thought of several things that would happen in that place, minus what Alec said.

"There’s a catch." he says. "I’ll have enough money to build the houses. And since that was an open field of the city hall and your experience there was considered an invasion, I will need to collect rent.”

"I get it. Fair enough.”

"Yeah. The reason you’re here, I want your help in talking to the locals. I see everything I want to do as a way to improve everyone’s quality of life, but I imagine some peopl