Chapter 146: They should be thanking you

Even people with the strongest nerves couldn’t possibly stay so calm in this situation. They’d just been threatened, yet they still acted like it was no big deal.

“The Lord is here.” Since there were others present, Meck respectfully called out to Lord Su You.

Hearing Meck’s voice, Wang Yi and Wang Er both jumped in surprise for some reason, then hurriedly greeted Su You.

Wang Yi: “Greetings, my lord!”

Wang Er: “Greetings, my lord!”

Su You was silent for a moment, then opened up the information panels for the two of them.

Ignoring the other details, what Su You cared about most right now were their loyalty and favorability stats… What kind of numbers would lead to this kind of behavior?

[Wang Yi]

Loyalty: 35

Favorability: 8

[Wang Er]

Loyalty: 41

Favorability: 5

……

Although these numbers were obviously much lower than those of the previous people, as mentioned before, for people who were forced to join the territory, you couldn’t expect high favorability. As long as their loyalty was above zero, that was already pretty good.

In other words, both of them had loyalty above 30—practically sky-high!

“What did you say to them? Or did you do something to them?” Su You felt something was off, so she walked over to Meck and lowered her voice to ask.

She just wanted to know what exactly was going on with these two right now.

Although Su You didn’t really care whether these two stayed or left, nor did she need to know much about them, the current situation was clearly beyond her expectations. She needed to know what had happened so she could keep everything under control.

Faced with Su You’s question, Meck just shrugged. Unlike her, he didn’t lower his voice, but spoke at a normal volume that everyone present could hear.

“Isn’t it what you said? There’s going to be a dark creature attack tomorrow.”

Su You knew it couldn’t be that simple, so she stayed quiet and listened to Meck continue.

“During a dark creature attack, non-territory members will be kicked out. So to save their lives, they joined the territory. Isn’t that perfectly normal?” As for why they didn’t just leave… well, there just wasn’t enough time.

The merchant caravan left early this morning, before dawn.

But now it was already afternoon. If they left now, it would soon be dark, and everyone knew how dangerous the forest was at night.

Besides, “tomorrow” actually meant the early hours of the next morning, right after midnight.

If they couldn’t leave the territory before then, they’d basically be doomed—because by that time, the dark creatures attacking Sunset Territory would also attack anyone on the roads.

“Exactly, the boss is right.”

“Thank you, Lord, for letting us temporarily join the territory and enjoy the protection of the Heartfire!”

Meck raised an eyebrow, then imitated Su You’s earlier manner, lowering his voice and saying, “I did pretty well this time, didn’t I? Look, they’re even thanking you.”

Su You: “……”

Su You’s eyelid twitched, but she ignored Meck’s words.

Facing the two men’s gratitude, she nodded and replied, “As fellow humans, it’s only right to help each other. If you have other matters to attend to, you’re free to go.”

However, even as she said this, Su You knew it was all a lie.

Meck was actually lying, and she simply went along with the story he’d made up, not exposing him… After all, they were on the same side. Meck only did this because she’d arranged it—she’d have to be crazy to call him out!

The lie was this: during a dark creature attack, non-territory members wouldn’t actually be kicked out. They could still take shelter inside the territory.

But whether it was because these two really didn’t know that, or they were just easy to fool, or maybe their NPC AI was just too low, or perhaps Meck had done something else to them… In any case, they believed Meck’s story.

After believing Meck, the two of them left their original territory and joined Sunset Territory.

For them, joining Sunset Territory was just a temporary measure to save their skins. Meck had told them that after the dark creature attack was over, they could leave anytime…

After hearing this, Wang Yi and Wang Er—who already thought there was no reason for a mage to lie to them—believed Meck completely, without a shred of doubt.

So, even though they didn’t want to leave their original territory, they did it anyway to survive.

As for whether the other traveler had also joined the territory, they were curious, but didn’t want to bother Su You and Meck about it. After all, other people’s lives and deaths had nothing to do with them.

……

“You did well.” Now that the matter was perfectly resolved, Su You could finally relax.

Given Meck’s good performance this time, Su You directly gifted him a batch of kitchenware.

Things like a kiln (as an oven substitute), a grill (for barbecuing), ceramic stew pots (for soups), a chopping board…

These not only enriched the tavern’s kitchen supplies, but also made Meck’s future cooking much more convenient.

You had to know, he’d only had a single stove and a copper pot before. Other than roasting meat with his own fire magic, everything else had to be cooked in that one pot.

While that worked, for a cooking fanatic, collecting all kinds of kitchenware was a unique hobby.

Plus, Su You had given him a bunch of ceramic tableware yesterday. For a moment, Meck felt that Su You was the best lord ever.

“Ah, that’s more like it! If you get more stuff like this in the future, make sure I’m the first to get it.” Meck happily admired his new kitchenware, then ignored Su You and busied himself with his new toys.

……

……

Su You wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt like the ninth day was passing even faster than the previous eight.

She’d just left the tavern and looked up to see that the once blue sky was now covered with a misty gray.

Su You opened the territory information panel, and when she saw a new line of text that had appeared at some point, her expression changed noticeably—

[Sunset Territory]

Lord: Su You

Territory Level: Medium Camp (Can be upgraded to Advanced Camp when population reaches 10 and prosperity reaches 50)

Territory Prosperity: 69

Territory Reputation: 13

Territory Population: 11/13

Territory Aura: None

Territory Events…

(End of chapter)"

"Certainly! Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of the provided Chinese text:

---