Faced with the girl’s cold warning…
Ron merely let out a sneering chuckle.
“Heh?”
“Become unfortunate?”
“That’s just fine. I’m already pretty miserable. A little more won’t make a difference.”
Instead of being intimidated, Ron found the woman rather amusing.
“Someone, come.”
“Use a separate carriage when transporting her. Don’t jostle her too much.”
Hearing Ron’s “special treatment” for her, the caged girl didn’t feel the least bit grateful—in fact, her expression darkened even more.
“Pity… is it?”
“Heh…”
“So even I get pitied by a lowly race one day…”
The girl narrowed her eyes.
After paying the money, Ron had finished all his mandatory purchases for the day.
The household staff to clean and manage the estate, as well as the slaves for farming—he had basically bought them all.
Ron turned his gaze behind him.
That premium-tier Tier-2 magical beast still hadn’t been secured.
Although its quality was undeniably tempting…
Something—maybe his sixth sense, maybe just plain life experience—made Ron hesitate.
Back in his original world, markets like these were practically synonymous with scams!
If you wanted to find a bargain in such places, you had to be ready to get ripped off.
Just as Ron was hesitating about whether to make a move…
Suddenly, chaos erupted in the market.
At first, there were only a few startled cries from the front of the marketplace.
Ron figured it was probably just another argument breaking out at some vendor’s stall.
But the panic quickly spread across the entire marketplace.
Terrified people started flooding down the aisles!
“What’s going on—what the hell is happening?!”
Watching the frightened crowd, even the stall owner was stunned.
He shouted over the commotion, trying to ask what was happening.
But everyone was too busy fleeing for their lives—no one answered him.
“Master, please stand behind me and don’t move around.”
Realizing something was seriously wrong, Perica stepped forward and shielded Ron behind her.
At the same time…
She reached into her storage pouch and tossed Ron a black cloak.
“Master, please put this on for now.”
“If a real conflict breaks out, I might not be able to maintain the cognitive disguise.”
Sensing Perica’s shift into a more serious mode, Ron didn’t dare take it lightly and quickly draped the cloak over himself.
“Perica, this… it’s not aimed at us, right?”
“Should we follow the crowd and get out of the market too?”
Hearing the concern in Ron’s voice…
Perica gave a faint, reassuring smile.
“Don’t worry, Master.”
“As long as I’m here, no one can hurt you.”
When she said this…
Perica’s face held absolute confidence!
Her dramatic reaction wasn’t because she was scared—it was just part of her professionalism as a personal maid.
After calming Ron…The gentleness on Perica’s face vanished without a trace.
Her eyes sharpened, and she reached into the crowd and yanked out a young man!
The man was completely stunned.
Despite being a healthy guy around 1.75 meters tall, he was pulled out like a baby chick!
“Wh-What are you doing?!”
The man stared at the two of them in panic, still in shock that he had just been lifted clean off the ground.
Perica, using her cognitive disguise, deliberately made herself look more menacing—scar and all.
“Shut up!”
“You just need to answer my questions honestly.”
“What’s going on up ahead—what’s causing the chaos?”
Faced with Perica’s simulated scarred face, the young man’s irritation instantly disappeared.
He straightened up and obediently replied:
“I-I’m not sure…”
“I was just shopping…”
“Then all of a sudden, this strange purple smoke drifted through the market, and a bunch of customers just collapsed.”
“Right after that, people started screaming.”
“And then… I just ran with the crowd.”
Hearing the man’s explanation, Perica’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“Purple smoke?”
“A poison gas attack?!”
“How could something this serious happen in a place like this?”
Just as Perica was stunned by the severity of the incident—
A long, eerie chuckle suddenly echoed above them.
“Hehehe…”
“In your eyes… do you really think this is a peaceful place?”
Hearing that voice, everyone instinctively looked up in shock.
They saw a bizarrely dressed man—like a vampire—standing upside-down on the ceiling!
The gravity-defying sight made Ron take a step back in alarm.
“H-Hey, Perica!”
“Is that guy strong?”
Ron frowned at the black-clad, strange-looking man.
With zero affinity for magic, Ron had no mana inside him and thus couldn’t sense someone’s strength.
But judging from the guy’s dramatic entrance and eccentric outfit—
This was definitely a powerful enemy.
“Who are you?!”
“Do you have a death wish, barging into Castrellero territory and causing trouble?!”
Perica didn’t answer Ron’s question—instead, she glared at the strange man and spoke out loud with authority.
Faced with her questioning, the man only let out another weird laugh.
Whoosh—
A blur of shadow darted across the ceiling, and in the next second, the man had vanished.
The next time his voice rang out, Ron was stunned to realize—The man was suddenly standing right in front of them!
“Castrellero?”
“You don’t mean that fading old family, do you?”
“Sure, their power’s on the decline…”
“But they’re still filthy rich~”
“Oh, lovely little maid…”
“Tell me—if I captured their precious young master, how much ransom would the family pay?”
“100,000 gold coins?”
“Or maybe… a million?”
As he spoke, the man suddenly thrust his palm forward!
Whoosh!
A blast of wind blew toward them—In an instant, the hood Ron had just pulled on was blasted off.
Even worse, the cognitive disguise around both of them was stripped away in a blink.
The two “burly men” were instantly exposed as a handsome young man and a beautiful young woman!
“Just as I thought!”
Seeing Ron’s golden hair and those gem-like blue eyes—The man’s expression twisted into one of theatrical, manic glee.
“The heir of the Castrellero family—Ron Castrellero!”
“That’s you, isn’t it?!”
Faced with such an arrogant attacker—Perica drew in a deep breath.
Even her usually emotionless eyes now glinted with killing intent.
“Name yourself.”
“Kato Kaleski.”
“Perica Ewen.”
After exchanging names— The two of them dropped into battle stances, the fight on the verge of erupting.
But just then, the slave stall owner let out a furious roar:
“Girl, stand down!”
“Let me take care of this scum!”
The bald-headed vendor bellowed:
“Boys! Grab your weapons!”
With his order, a dozen muscular men in short sleeves leapt out from behind the stalls, surrounding the vampire-like man completely.
“You little brat—you messed with the wrong people!”
“Out of all the folks you could’ve picked on, you tried to snatch one of Luca’s customers?!”