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  “I’m back! Sorry for taking so long! Vd! Your mother sent me flying all the way to some weird s with purple water! And when I spshed into the water, a bunch of sarted coiling around my body!” she said. “And then I got poisoned… I somehow mao get back, but I had to drink quite too many potions.”

  “Woah, that was quite the adventure, huh?” Vd muttered. “Sorry about that. My mother is… well, she’s temperamental; that’s how she was designed, I suppose.”

  “I guess she’s muicer than most other vampires! A lot of Pyers had terrible experiences with the members of the vampire empire so far,” said Queenie while ughing, flying around with rge wings simir to Alitheus. “Most of the time wheried to approach them ter a quest or something, they would get thrown away, and that’s only the part. There’s a video of a guy that got their entire blood drained in front of his friends and became a mummy.”

  “W-What? Are they that aggressive?” Vd wondered. “Damn…”

  “Yikes,” Alitheus said. "Well, we do have some little experieh them already. There was a brother of Vd withiory of this world that came to ihe territory, employing a group of bandits and a dragon… The dragon, we rescued him, and he’s now my pet, Argentia.”

  “I-I’m not a pet…” Argentia muttered. “I’m familiar! It is different, priestess!”

  “Oooh! The giant talking draght, right! You’re so cool! A lot of people love you toentia!” Queenie flew around Argentia. “Wait, what?! Did you just say that you were attacked by a rival vampire family?!”

  “This girl really gets distracted easily.” Vd facepalmed. "Yeah, but, I mean, it’s taken care of.”

  Paul didn’t really want to talk about it anyways, because it was a bit sad that the greed and the enviro in which these vampires grew up made them bee such ruthless monsters, even wheill had memories of Vd when his brother wasn’t that evil yet.

  “Evehey were nuts, I’m not quite proud of having sin members of my family,” sighed Vd. “If I could, I would rather not gh the same thing again… but seeing hoires are, I doubt it.”

  "Yeah, they’re pretty musane,” said Alitheus.

  “Big brother…” Camil said, looking at her brother with a bit of pity. “I’ll never be like that! I-I would never want to hurt big bro…”

  “Ah, I know you wouldn’t, Camil,” Vd patted her little head. “We are different than them after all.”

  “Yeah!” Camil nodded cutely.

  Seeing the se, Queenie felt a bit awkward, like she shouldn’t really be here… But at the same time, her curiosity forced her to stay anyway.

  However, she decided to at least not force them to talk about things they didn’t want to talk about.

  “I would love to know more, but I guess asking right now wouldn’t be good…” Queenie sighed. “Anyways! Are you sowing the entire nd? I saw it from above; everything is slowly filling with lots of greens and weird pnts!”

  “Seems like they’re growing faster than I imagihen,” nodded Vd. “That’s good; this should help us create more food for the ey. There’ll be grains, roots, fruits, aables. The only other thing, meat, be taken from the monsters of the Dungeons inside of Elderbridge.”

  “It seems you’re equipped with the power to remedy aire city’s hunger already…!” said Queenie. “Just what is this new mysterious power you’re showg now, Vd?!”

  “It’s nothing new; it’s a farmer subcss; that’s that.” Vd preferred not to reveal it was transformed into something greater than that. “I specifically chose it over anything else because I wao feed my people.”

  “Oooh! So nice of you!” Queenie said, g. “So are you done?”

  “Yes, I think we’re done for today.”

  Argentia stopped walking and sighed in relief, dropping over the ground.

  “Oof… I’m exhausted… Doing so many ps by walking like this is tiring!” he groaned. “I’m not built to walk so much.”

  “Maybe yrowing too fat after eating so many wild monsters, Argentia,” said Alitheus. “You may o do some exercise ter!”

  “Eeeh?! No way!” Argentia cried like a child being reprimanded by his mother. “I’m tired, and I’ve worked hard! I don’t want to exercise right now, priestess!”

  “Hmph…” Chris sighed, gring at the dragon. “If you exercise, I’ll give you tasty treats.”

  “Treats?! Made by my priestess herself?!” Argentia quickly seemed tain some energy.

  “Yeah, they’ll be delicious treats,” smiled Chris with a giggle.

  Vd gred at him with fusion.

  “What are you even ? What treats?” he asked.

  “I’ll bake him something using the ingredients we got bae,” said Chris. “Maybe something sweet… full of Ara, that’ll make him feel good whes it, right?”

  “I-I hadn’t sidered such a thing… You cook?” wondered Vd.

  “Of course I cook! Who do you think I am?!” Chris angrily responded. “I might be… a bit, erm, a bit busy all the time to not do stuff like that. But I’ve learned a lot of cooking from mom and my sister.”

  “Okay, alright then, I believe you,” nodded Vd. “Do your best then.”

  "Alright, Argentia!” said Chris. “Owo, owo! Time to do another p around the city! You’re building too much fatness! You o get fit!”

  “Uugh…”

  Argentia groaned as he started running around the city. Chris occasionally feeds him with cold water jured using magic spells.

  “Ia, e here.”

  As he saw the se, Vd quickly called Ia to his side; with a mere and, she was instantly summoo his side.

  “Yes, master?”

  “Woah! So this is how they’re summoned! Amazing! Territory Heroes are so cool!”

  Queenie was gng at Ia with starry eyes, stantly gazing and admiring every inch of her body.

  “Master, shall I take care of this annoying little rat?”

  “A-Annoying little rat?!”

  Queenie had her heart broken as the ioid beauty ended calling her like that…

  “No, it’s fine, leave her be,” said Vd.

  He was also a bit annoyed by Quee khat if he messed up their retionship, he might end up making the enemy of a bunch of insane simps.

  So he better just have a good friendly retionship with her and bear with her little annoyances every now and then.

  “Anyways, I called you here so you could take care of the farm. Or well, instruct your Beetles to do so?”

  “Take… care of the farm?”

  Ia seemed a bit surprised she was asked such a thing.

  “I know this isn’t what you and your kind were made of, but while you’re not defending the city hting, you have to earn your own foht?” asked Vd. “If you and your children work on the farm, make sure the soil is watered, with nutrients, and there aren’t as, then you’ll be a huge help.”

  “A-Ah…” Ia seemed a bit… disappointed. “Of course, master, it will be done as you and.”

  However, at the end, she still obeyed. It wasn’t what she expected as her first and, but she knew wars and bloodshed would e eventually.

  “I’ll help your territory prosper as I promised you,” she smiled, bowing to him. “Now, my children, e here! I shall instruct you and give you several roles, alright?”

  Several is appeared oer ahe crimsoles, no bigger than goblins, surprised Queenie, and even more wheiced there were over fifty of them.

  “S-So many! Are these your…?”

  “Territory Troops,” said Vd. “I will not disore info than that, but yes, they’re my troops. They obey my ands and might be a bit… monstrous. But they’re useful, or well, I’m trying to make them useful.”

  “I see, I see!” nodded Queenie. “So fasating! So that’s how it works?”

  “Hm, I see what you’re trying to do,” Vd smiled.

  “E-Eh?”

  Queenie suddenly felt the emosphere ge.

  Vd’s Aura surged from his body—a tremendous amount of Ara.

  And then she also felt the cold stare of all the Ioids, and Ia too.

  “You’ve been trying this eime to learn how the Territory system works, right?” he asked. ”How to haerritory, my territory… Are y to gather information? Who are you selling this information to?”

  “W-Wait a sed, yetting it all wrong! I’m only curious because I wao join your Territory, but I wao learn more about it!” she said. “Before… well, making the decision!”

  “Huh?”

  Vd, who had taken things too seriously, felt surprised it was something… like this.

  “Could she be lying? Maybe she wants to bee a spy, master,” Ia said. “I would say we should sy her a her remains.”

  “Eek! No! Don’t do that!” said Queenie, panig. “I seriously am just an i streamer that makes a living by rep news of the game and such! Do you know how much it would destroy my reputation as a cute and reamer if I suddenly did something like that?! Also, I am stantly streaming what I do, so it would be super hard to somehow hide that I’m a spy…”

  “See? She is giving a lot of good reasons why she isn’t one, which means she has phis for a while; she’s definitely a spy.” Ia’s hands suddenly transformed into long, mantis-like scythes. “Let me have her… I shall kill her swiftly~”

  Queenie swallowed saliva nervously; she knew Ia’s power from the moment she saw her. She was a strong Pyer herself, but against a Territory Hero, without an army of Pyers bag her…

  She would definitely die before she could even infli ounce of damage against Ia!

  “W-Wait a sed! Please wait a sed; I’m not a spy! I swear! Don’t be like thissss…!”

  As Queenie panicked, Ia spread out her wings.

  She was getting ready in case Queeried to fly away too…

  “She is indeed quite an experienced predator, huh?” Vd smiled lightly. “That’s enough, Ia. I’ll believe her for now.”

  “Are you sure, my lord?” wondered Ia. “I swear I could easily defeat her!”

  “It’s not because I fear your defeat,” said Vd. “In fact, I am well aware you’re even strohan my mother… But don’t worry, I don’t mean it like that. I’ll trust her because her reasons make seo me. If eventually she ends up betrayiurning out to be a spy, or selling information. Well, that’ll be my fault, and I’ll take responsibility for that. I’ll make sure to destroy her reputation, and everything she has built, everything she loves about this world, and more. So don’t worry. I know the risks I’m taking.”

  “Y-You’re a bit crazy, but that’s kind of hot…” Queenie said while sweating a lot and blushing. “A-Ah! I mean, thanks for trusting me!” She wi him to calm herself down.

  She flew up, sighing in relief as she noticed Ia’s arms going back to normal, and so her wings.

  “You’re lucky my lord is kied,” said Ia. “Be grateful.”

  “I am! I am, seriously!” said Queenie. “Err, anyways. So I was thinking of joining your territory.”

  “Why though? Don’t you have a big unity already?” wondered Vd. “Also your own Guild with all your fans… ’t you find your owory instead?”

  "Yeah, that’s the thing; no army of newbie pyers is ever going to quer anything,” said Queenie. "Also, being part of a territory brings tons of bes to a guild! And jumping the ship to your city would be nice. I swear my fans will help out too and protect the city!”

  “I think there’s another motive behind this…” said Vd, squinting his eyes. “Until you admit it, I am not going to agree with this request, Queenie.”

  “A-Ah! What… do you mean with that?” Queenie wondered, growing nervous.

  “I’ve noticed by seeing your videos that they have very few views,” said Vd. “pared to mihey never surpass 100k views usually. And you’ve been on a dee of viewers and donations.”

  “E-Eh?!” Queenie gasped.

  “I’ve also read in unity forums that not many people like your personality, and they call you a toxic person fetting involved in pces you don’t belong,” said Vd. “Like right now, for example…”

  “Geeh…” Queenie anig.

  “So it’s pretty obvious to me what’s going on in here, right?” Vd asked with a calm smile, his sharp crimson eyes pierg through Queenie’s very soul.

  “Ugh! Okay, fineeee! I’ll say it. I mean, it’s obvious already, but I want to be part of your territory so I appear in your videos and you on mine so I … increase my popurity,” she sighed. “I-it would be a win-win situatiht?”

  “Hahah, you’re truly shameless,” ughed Vd. “Fine, but there will be many ditions to this… Now, follow me. I’ll make you gh a trial first before I agree to this.”

  “T-Trial?”

  Queenie panicked as she was suddenly dragged to the mea, poorest, and most dangerous-looking district of Elderbridge.

  An area of the city known to be filled with thug NPCs that rob pyers from left and right!

  “Why are we in the Bck Bat District?! Isn’t this area super dangerous? Do you want to get robbed?!” Queenie screamed.

  “Stop screaming!” Chris said, screaming even louder.

  “You’ll help us take care of all the criminals of this pce,” said Vd. “Then, I’ll begin sidering having you in my territory.”

  “No way…”

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  Pach