My territory is filled with block creations.

Chapter 18 Don't Underestimate People

Having received targeted one-on-two training from Thorne, and having eaten a late-night snack, Lester and Doug were naturally too embarrassed to bring up quitting this shitty thing again.

It's fair to say that Thorne has already invested a significant sunk cost in the two of them, and it would be incredibly inhuman for him to back out now.

However, the two still lacked confidence in themselves and did not want Thorne to gamble away such a huge sum of money as two gold coins and 20 silver coins on them. They wanted to at least get back one gold coin, so that even if they perished with the enemy, the village would not be back to square one overnight.

And so... after Doug lingered in the room with Lester for a long time, the two resolutely left the room and walked toward the backs of Thorne and Alex, who were sitting by the river soaking their feet not far away.

The two of them kept swallowing as they walked. The speech they had been rehearsing in their minds for so long in the room seemed to suddenly stall again.

But now that we've come out, there's absolutely no reason for us to go back into the room and play hide-and-seek.

And so, the two of them slowly approached Thorne and his companion, and just as they got closer, they heard Alex's voice trying to dissuade them.

"You just went all in on those two gold coins, a huge sum of money, to those two people? Wasn't that a bit too hasty? You should at least have kept one as a backup!"

Hearing Alex's words of dissuasion, Lester and Doug couldn't help but nod. She was absolutely right; that was exactly what they thought too. And with Lady Alex setting the precedent, it would be even more reasonable for them to offer to return one of the gold coins later. At that time, the lord probably wouldn't be too disappointed in them.

Just as they quickened their pace, they heard Thorne's voice again: "I believe they are trustworthy."

The moment he finished speaking, Lester, who was firming his steps, felt Doug grab his arm.

He quickly turned to look at Doug, his face full of surprise, as if three question marks had popped up above his head. Even without saying a word, Doug knew what Lester's expression meant.

You were nagging me for so long in the room just now, why are you pulling me to stop now?

Doug couldn't express what he wanted to say with just facial expressions and eyes. He struggled to pull Lestra to his side, his lips moved, but he didn't know how to say it.

Finally, he spoke haltingly, "Has anyone ever trusted us this much before?"

Lester immediately shook his head. Was there even a question?

Doug continued in a low voice, "Now that the lord has to believe us, he gave us all the two gold coins and twenty silver coins without even looking at them. Do you want to save face?"

"But...we did this so that the lord would not suffer any losses..." Lester's mind was a little slow, and he hadn't quite figured it out yet, so he said in a daze.

"Why should we be afraid of the Lord's loss?" Doug asked, gradually raising his voice as he pulled Lester far away from the riverbank.

"Because we're incompetent?" Lester pondered for a moment and said.

"That's how we hone our skills, otherwise we'll just be useless mud that can't be helped forever, right?" Doug always spoke much faster than Lester, and this sentence just slipped out of his mouth. Only after he finished speaking did he realize that he had unknowingly dragged himself and Lester to the training dummies in the Valley Square.

Meanwhile, Alex stared helplessly at Thorne beside her, remaining stunned for several seconds before continuing with her next sentence: "You'd better not say anything like this is some kind of intuition."

Thorne quickly shook his head: "How could that be? My intuition has never been very accurate. It's just a small judgment. Even if Lester and Doug's first business trip fails, we can completely afford the loss of a cart of cloth and two gold coins."

"I paid for the bulk of it, and you only contributed a small portion. How can you afford to lose that much?" Alex said, rubbing her hands, which were covered in leather gloves, with a pitiful expression.

"Actually, that wasn't the real big deal. The real big deal was the cartload of cloth they took away. And not just the initial cartload, but also the continuous stream of cloth that followed, as well as hemp rope, thread, wheat, and even more goods in the future. The two gold coins were just a bonus to improve the village's life," Thorne explained.

"Could you give me back both gold coins? One will do, actually. I think eating plain flatbread for a few months isn't so bad," Alex said quietly.

"Well..." Thorne paused for a moment, pondering in his mind. He had just given away two gold coins during the day, and now he had to ask Lester and Doug to return them. Was that too much to ask?

Seeing Thorne's expression, Alex thought for a moment and guessed that Thorne was probably planning how to reject her. So she stopped humiliating herself and continued talking.

"What I'm really worried about isn't whether their business will fail or whether they'll be robbed. What I'm really afraid of is that they'll just run away and leave the village. Two gold coins, that's not a small amount even in the capital, let alone in this remote place. It's enough for them to gain a foothold in other small towns."

Thorne shrugged helplessly: "Don't overestimate people..."

"Can you please not think too highly of people?" Alex sighed helplessly.

Thorne shook his head: "No, what I'm trying to say is, don't think of people as stupid. Even if they are illiterate and just ordinary farmers, that's only due to their living environment, not because they are less intelligent than others."

"Take a look at this village. The wire-painting machines that appeared out of nowhere can build the foundations of a 4-meter-high city wall in half an afternoon. The endless wheat fields across the river are growing at a visible speed. Don't you think all of this is worth two gold coins?"

Alex paused for a moment. She didn't even need to look to know that all the wonders in the village were far more important and magical than the two gold coins.

But she still subconsciously turned her head to look, and then suddenly asked in surprise, "Didn't you just tell them to go back to their rooms to sleep? Why are they out again?"

Thorne glanced at Alex with some surprise, then turned around and saw that the villagers, who should have been lying in bed asleep, had once again come out of their rooms and were doing their assigned work in a lively yet quiet manner.

Whether it's building city walls, operating a wire brushing machine, or relentlessly attacking two training dummies in the valley square.

The difference is that last time the villagers came out to work, Thorne at least had to shout something, but now...

"Is this a good thing?"

Thorne looked back at Alex with a somewhat blank expression and asked.