Chapter 46: Test

Seeing how pitiful the two of them looked, Dolly’s heart softened a little. So after hesitating for a while, she took all their copper coins and gave each of them enough food to fill their stomachs.

“I know I shouldn’t have done this without your permission, but… anyway, I’m really sorry.” Having said this much, Dolly’s intentions were clear—she was here to explain what happened and apologize for her actions.

Although she didn’t think Su You would kick her out over this—things hadn’t reached that point, after all—she was still worried that Su You might develop a bad impression of her because of it.

It might sound a bit like “the bystander sees things more clearly,” but if you looked at things from a third-person perspective, you’d notice that the roles between Su You and Dolly—or rather, between the player and the NPC—had somehow reversed.

Normally, it should be Su You trying to gain favor with the NPCs, but now it was Dolly who was worried about “losing favor” with Su You.

But perhaps because Su You was directly involved, she didn’t notice anything strange—after all, this was her intention from the start.

She’d deliberately told the two brothers they could buy food, and had also “forgotten” to mention to Dolly that they were allowed to buy food.

So when Su You went out that afternoon, it was partly to explore, but also to give this little “test” enough room to play out.

She was very satisfied with the results. Dolly did give them food, but she also took their money, and she didn’t just hand over the food immediately—she waited until the brothers explained that Su You had told them they could buy food.

As for why Dolly didn’t suspect they were lying… well, since she’d overheard the conversation about the lodging fee, how could she not have heard Su You’s other instructions?

To put it simply, she had heard, but since it wasn’t part of the tasks Su You had assigned her, she still couldn’t act on it.

Aside from that, Su You was also pleased with how the two brothers behaved. The reason was obvious: even when Dolly refused them, they didn’t resort to violence, but instead patiently explained things to her…

Of course, since she didn’t know the brothers’ tempers, Su You had made other preparations in case they tried to use force after being refused by Dolly… but since nothing happened, there was no need to mention it for now.

“It’s alright, this wasn’t your fault—it was mine. I forgot to tell you about it, so don’t worry.” Su You couldn’t exactly say it was all a test, but she wasn’t going to dodge her “responsibility” either.

“In the future, if they need food, just sell it to them at this price… Water doesn’t need to be paid for, but they’ll have to boil it themselves after drinking.” Su You had granted open access to the central fire for cooking—anyone could cook there.

But after cooking, people could only take away what they’d made themselves; they didn’t have permission to take food cooked by others.

“Alright.” Dolly clearly hadn’t realized this was a test, so when she saw Su You wasn’t blaming her, she let out a sigh of relief.

After finishing this conversation, Su You and Dolly went over to the central fire.

Actually, while they’d been talking, Lyle and Lake had been watching them the whole time. They hadn’t tried to eavesdrop, though—they just sat quietly by the fire, not moving an inch.

The first thing Su You did after walking over was to explain that she’d forgotten to tell Dolly about the food-buying arrangement.

To show her apology, she gave each of the brothers a free serving of roasted meat with berries, and also returned the extra money they’d paid for food earlier.

When returning the money, Su You had Dolly explain the prices of the food to them, making it clear that these would be the prices from now on.

According to Su You’s pricing, a day’s lodging plus three meals would cost around 20 to 30 copper coins, depending on how much a person ate and how much work they did that day.

The more work, the more energy spent, and naturally, the more food needed.

After hearing Su You’s explanation and receiving two free servings of roasted meat, the brothers’ lingering unhappiness faded away.

“It’s alright, Lord Su. We’re already grateful that you’re willing to take us in and give us work. As for the roast meat…” Honestly, everyone likes free stuff, but they weren’t sure if Su You was truly offering it out of goodwill.

If she really meant it, that was fine, but if she was just doing it out of politeness, then they’d rather not accept it.

After all, for them, being able to stay here peacefully was the most important thing. It wasn’t worth risking future trouble over a piece of roast meat.

Su You seemed to understand what they were thinking, so she said, “This kind of thing won’t happen again. Please accept the roast meat—it really was my oversight.”

Seeing that Su You was sincere, Lyle’s tension eased, and his tone became less nervous and cautious.

“In that case, we won’t stand on ceremony.” With that, Lyle dug in, and Lake, seeing this, also let his guard down and started eating heartily.

While the brothers ate, Su You and Dolly also got some food and chatted as they ate.

“Where’s Doya? She hasn’t come back all afternoon?” Earlier, because of the wild boar incident, Su You hadn’t let Doya go out, but later Doya had left the territory anyway… Since Su You guessed that the creature who killed the boar was an “old acquaintance,” she hadn’t stopped her.

But Doya had been gone the whole afternoon.

She’d left before Su You went out, and now Su You was back, but Doya still hadn’t returned.

It would be dark in ten minutes, and even if Su You wanted to go look for her, she couldn’t—she wasn’t about to risk herself for an NPC, especially one who hadn’t shown any intention of joining the territory so far.

Hearing Su You’s question, Dolly took a small sip of water and replied, “Actually, she did come back once, but she left again soon after.”

Dolly hadn’t noticed exactly when Doya returned—she’d just happened to catch a glimpse of her leaving again. In other words, she hadn’t seen Doya come back, only her leaving for the second time.

“It’s almost dark… I wonder if she’ll make it back in time…” As she said this, perhaps thinking of something, Dolly suddenly lost her appetite.

The two brothers sitting nearby were a little curious about what Su You and Dolly were talking about, but since they weren’t that familiar with each other yet, they didn’t ask.

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