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

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

“I guess she’s much nicer than most other vampires! A lot of Players had terrible experiences with the members of the vampire empire so far,” said Queenie while laughing, flying around with large wings similar to Alitheus. “Most of the time when they tried to approach them to trigger a quest or something, they would get thrown away, and that’s only the nicest 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?” Vlad wondered. “Damn…”

“Yikes,” Alitheus said. "Well, we do have some little experience with them already. There was a brother of Vlad within the story of this world that came to invade the 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 dragon, right, right! You’re so cool! A lot of people love you too, Argentia!” 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.” Vlad 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 environment in which these vampires grew up made them become such ruthless monsters, even when he still had memories of Vlad when his brother wasn’t that evil yet.

“Even when they were nuts, I’m not quite proud of having slain members of my family,” sighed Vlad. “If I could, I would rather not go through the same thing again… but seeing how Vampires are, I doubt it.”

"Yeah, they’re pretty much insane,” said Alitheus.

“Big brother…” Camilla 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, Camilla,” Vlad patted her little head. “We are different than them after all.”

“Yeah!” Camilla nodded cutely.

Seeing the scene, 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 land? I saw it from above; everything is slowly filling with lots of greens and weird plants!”

“Seems like they’re growing faster than I imagined then,” nodded Vlad. “That’s good; this should help us create more food for the entire city. There’ll be grains, roots, fruits, and vegetables. The only other thing, meat, can be taken from the monsters of the Dungeons inside of Elderbridge.”

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

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

“Oooh! So nice of you!” Queenie said, clapping. “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 laps by walking like this is tiring!” he groaned. “I’m not built to walk so much.”

“Maybe you’re growing too fat after eating so many wild monsters, Argentia,” said Alitheus. “You may need to do some exercise later!”

“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, glaring at the dragon. “If you exercise, I’ll give you tasty treats.”

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

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

Vlad glared at him with confusion.

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

“I’ll bake him something using the ingredients we got back home,” said Chris. “Maybe something sweet… full of Arcana, that’ll make him feel good when he eats it, right?”

“I-I hadn’t considered such a thing… You can cook?” wondered Vlad.

“Of course I can 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.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

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

"Alright, Argentia!” said Chris. “One, two, one, two! Time to do another lap around the city! You’re building too much fatness! You need to get fit!”

“Uugh…”

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

“Insecta, come here.”

As he saw the scene, Vlad quickly called Insecta to his side; with a mere command, she was instantly summoned to his side.

“Yes, master?”

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

Queenie was glancing at Insecta with starry eyes, constantly 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 insectoid beauty ended calling her like that…

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

He was also a bit annoyed by Queenie but knew that if he messed up their relationship, he might end up making the enemy of a bunch of insane simps.

So he better just have a good friendly relationship 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?”

Insecta 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 or fighting, you have to earn your own food, right?” asked Vlad. “If you and your children can work on the farm, make sure the soil is watered, with nutrients, and there aren’t any pests, then you’ll be a huge help.”

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

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

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

Several insects appeared one after another; the crimson beetles, no bigger than goblins, surprised Queenie, and even more when she noticed there were over fifty of them.

“S-So many! Are these your…?”

“Territory Troops,” said Vlad. “I will not disclose more info than that, but yes, they’re my troops. They obey my commands 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 fascinating! So that’s how it works?”

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

“E-Eh?”

Queenie suddenly felt the entire atmosphere change.

Vlad’s Aura surged from his body—a tremendous amount of Arcana.

And then she also felt the cold stare of all the Insectoids, and Insecta too.

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

“W-Wait a second, you’re getting it all wrong! I’m only curious because I wanted to join your Territory, but I wanted to learn more about it!” she said. “Before… well, making the decision!”

“Huh?”

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

“Could she be lying? Maybe she wants to become a spy, master,” Insecta said. “I would say we should slay her and eat her remains.”

“Eek! No! Don’t do that!” said Queenie, panicking. “I seriously am just an innocent streamer that makes a living by reporting news of the game and such! Do you know how much it would destroy my reputation as a cute and nice streamer if I suddenly did something like that?! Also, I am constantly 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 planned this for a while; she’s definitely a spy.” Insecta’s hands suddenly transformed into long, mantis-like scythes. “Let me have her… I shall kill her swiftly~”

Queenie swallowed saliva nervously; she knew Insecta’s power from the moment she saw her. She was a strong Player herself, but against a Territory Hero, without an army of Players backing her…

She would definitely die before she could even inflict an ounce of damage against Insecta!

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

As Queenie panicked, Insecta spread out her wings.

She was getting ready in case Queenie tried to fly away too…

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

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

“It’s not because I fear your defeat,” said Vlad. “In fact, I am well aware you’re even stronger than my mother… But don’t worry, I don’t mean it like that. I’ll trust her because her reasons make sense to me. If eventually she ends up betraying me, turning 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 winked at him to calm herself down.

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

“You’re lucky my lord is kindhearted,” said Insecta. “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 community already?” wondered Vlad. “Also your own Guild with all your fans… Can’t you find your own territory instead?”

"Yeah, that’s the thing; no army of newbie players is ever going to conquer anything,” said Queenie. "Also, being part of a territory brings tons of benefits 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 Vlad, 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 Vlad. “Compared to mine, they never surpass 100k views usually. And you’ve been on a decline of viewers and donations.”

“E-Eh?!” Queenie gasped.

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

“Geeh…” Queenie was panicking.

“So it’s pretty obvious to me what’s going on in here, right?” Vlad asked with a calm smile, his sharp crimson eyes piercing 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 can appear in your videos and you on mine so I can… increase my popularity,” she sighed. “I-it would be a win-win situation, right?”

“Hahah, you’re truly shameless,” laughed Vlad. “Fine, but there will be many conditions to this… Now, follow me. I’ll make you go through a trial first before I agree to this.”

“T-Trial?”

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

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

“Why are we in the Black 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 place,” said Vlad. “Then, I’ll begin considering having you in my territory.”

“No way…”

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