"Hypocrite."
A whispered sneer sounded below them, catching Ansel's and Leo's attention.
It was a dark-haired young man with huge eyebags, seemingly with a perennially somber expression.
The two people beside him—a short haired girl with golden hair and the short man with a semi-bald hairstyle— nodded in agreement.
"I bet you 10 gold that a bucket of water would be insanely expensive." The girl said.
"I bet you 10 gold he's going to ask for more money right after this." The shorter boy whispered.
Both Ansel and Leo found this conversation far more interesting than the show in front.
It was just that they didn't make those snide side remarks anymore until the well was built and celebrated. They didn't wait to see the results of the bet.
Ansel and Leo watched as the three men and women walked away from the crowd, but didn't do anything more.
While a bit curious about what they knew, it was none of their business after all. They would only care about all this drama if they suddenly decided to stay here for good. Which they wouldn't.
The next day, Ansel and the others went back to the village center to see if there were replies to their inquiries and news of their loved ones.
To their surprise though, a particularly large crowd was there so they couldn't enter easily.
As they waved through the crowd, they soon saw what the commotion was about.
Matthew and his cronies were there, apparently making an announcement. "We are now a Level 2 Village and would need to increase our military.
"We are hiring guards and we encourage strong men and youths to apply."
Ansel knew lords could make announcements via the system. This guy was really patient to always want to appear in front of people every single time…
Uninterested in the so-called announcement, Ansel and Leo continued on deeper into the village center and each found a platform for their transactions.
Unfortunately, none of their inquiries had been answered.
After adjourning the gathering, Matthew approached their direction. He had seen their indifference and went to them with an amicable smile.
"You seem to be very troubled. Can I do anything to help?"
Luke nodded, looking pitiful. "Yes, lord. We sent out inquiries about our loved ones, unfortunately there's no news."
Matthew smiled, "Ah, yes, I saw that."
Ansel approached the man and asked, "You have a list of citizens don't you? Can you tell us if there's anyone with the name of Althea Witt (25) and Kathy Hugh (48) in your list?"
Matthew frowned and did not answer immediately. He sent subtle glances at his surroundings, looking around the people who were surprised to know that he had a list. They looked at him, wondering what else he could see.
Matthew stared at Ansel for a moment. When he saw only saw his genuine concern to find his loved ones, his guard loosened a little.
"The system does indeed send me a list of names," he said, "Along with their age and potential. Like an automatic registration of sorts."
The crowd nodded, thinking their lord really was powerful.
Matthew seemed to be staring at a screen but, a few minutes later, he shook his head apologetically. "I'm sorry there was no one who matched their names at all. There was a Kathy Hugh, but she is only 12 years old."
The three men's shoulders slumped a bit.
"Well, I assume my territory is located in a good place, as a lot of refugees from all directions find me." He offered, "Why don't you settle here and wait for their arrival?
"If you enter a fair employment contract with me, I can give you and your families preferential treatment in buying property.
"I not only sell houses, but also land."
Ansel had seen this advertisement in the tab. Matthew was selling property for a lot of gold. The downpayment alone would cost most of his remaining gold.
This guy was really bent on winning them over.
However, Ansel still had some EQ and didn't reject this lord in front of his people. He decided to defer instead, "Thank you for the offer, Lord Matthew." He said, "We will discuss it."
Matthew nodded in agreement and excused himself, "Well I'm looking forward to your good news." He said, sauntering back to the crowd of admiring citizens.
…
"We're really settling?" Luke asked, a bit looking forward to finally finding a place to stay.
"Of course not." The other two answered him simultaneously. The big guy's shoulder slumped.
"No way I'm gonna spend more money here." Ansel said and Luke blinked at him.
"Well, he is also very poor. Each building must be very expensive. It's a pity we can't use it…" he apparently thought that Matthews' offer earlier was good.
"He's probably not as poor as he claims. Everyone who got a Lord token should have at least 1000 gold to be qualified."
This caught the attention of the twins. "What? They need 1000 gold to own a territory?"
"I owned 5 silver when I got here…" Luke said, downcast.
Leo looked at Ansel curiously. "How'd you know?"
"The lord of the previous territory had a very noisy follower." he said, shrugging, "It's very likely the public knowledge of building costs is false, as well."
This made the twins think a bit, but only shook their heads. It was none of their business anyway. Besides, the lord had absolute rights in their territories, they could charge what they wanted.
As such, the trio just continued to walk around the small village, gathering news along the way.
They found that along with the cities they were familiar with like Z City and Aberdeen, there were three other cities, some a hundred kilometers away from each other.
It could be said for certain that the Migration definitely condensed their distances apart.
This likely meant they could see people they knew soon.
"Or…" Leo mused, "Everyone was distributed uniformly and people from the same city could've been sent farther away."
Their shoulders slumped at this, and their investigation became a bit more frantic.
Ansel had also taken out Althea's photo when he saw some decent-looking people, newcomers in particular.
Except for some compliments about their appearances, there was no one who had seen either Althea at all.
Ansel sighed, frowning, but didn't lose hope.
He felt it, he was getting closer and closer to Althea.
And that they would meet very soon.