The following morning, Sigmarus returned to the Blue Moon brothel. A dark blue bruise near his chin drew curious glances from several people he passed by. They only glanced at him out of curiosity, though. Nobody cared enough to ask about it or look for more than a few seconds since injured people were more common than roaches around here.

Shortly before reaching his destination, he noticed a small group of men talking to one of the showgirls out front. He walked around behind them without paying them any attention, but then he noticed their familiar faces and voices. Five members from his former foundation melding team were making a fuss, including Nolan the jerky guy and supervisor Bob. By the sound of things, it seemed like they were trying to reserve time with the girl they only knew as Valerie. The unfamiliar showgirl out front was trying to placate them with other options.

Sigmarus scratched his head and sighed as he thought, Can’t believe these desperate bastards came here an hour early. I’d rather avoid them if possible.

From the other side of the street, Sigmarus leaned against the wall with crossed arms and observed the situation. For a few minutes, Nolan and supervisor Bob complained to the showgirl in an attempt to manipulate her into setting up some sort of reservation with ‘Valerie’. The young woman maintained a moderate level of courtesy which veiled a growing hint of exasperation in her voice. Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, her eyes landed on Sigmarus, but she avoided looking in his direction after that.

Seems like she’s dealt with similar stuff before, Sigmarus noted with a hint of respect. When other people ganged up on him in the past, he had often retaliated after running out of patience, only to get beaten horribly in return, so seeing the woman tolerate being called a filthy slut or other unmentionables for so long impressed him.

Eventually, a different showgirl with a familiar face exited the brothel and approached the rowdy group with a friendly smile.

Isn’t she the one who stood up for Grace the first time I came to see her? Sigmarus thought. Compared to many of the other women he had seen here, her appearance overshadowed many, and her skin looked much healthier.

“Hello, boys. Would you be willing to settle for little old me this morning?”

“Huh? Why would we-” Bob snapped at the woman but stopped halfway after seeing her face. “Eh? Aren’t you Leena?”

“Oh? You know me?” Leena asked in a subdued seductive tone as she stepped close enough to Bob to press her breasts against his arm. She then rubbed his chest with a single finger for added measure.

Sigmarus shivered at how calculated her actions looked from afar, but the men in the group were too involved in the situation to pay much attention to anything other than surface level words or gestures.

“Yes, but we aren’t VIP’s,” Bob said, his voice deepening with disappointment.

“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” Leena immediately replied while pressing even closer to him. “Since we can’t answer your previous request, it’s only natural that I make an exception for you today.”

While spouting such nonsense, Leena glanced toward Sigmarus and winked. One of the guys in the group thought she winked at him and immediately blushed as his lips curled up into a lustful grin. On the other hand, Sigmarus only nodded toward her in greeting and sighed.

Supervisor Bob looked at the others with questioning eyes which were bright with anticipation, betraying his inner desire to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunity. The other four quickly nodded to show their approval of this change in plans.

“Well, then,” Leena said with an inviting smile, “follow me, boys.”

With that, she led the five inside. Watching the entire thing from afar, Sigmarus frowned. Disgust towards his former coworkers had been hidden in Leena’s eyes, and he only noticed it near the end when she invited them inside. That woman obviously threw herself out there for Grace’s sake, though he wouldn’t have figured that out if he hadn’t met her previously. Feeling both pity and respect for the woman, he rubbed his temples with one hand.

Damn. I feel for her, but I really don’t have the emotional capacity to help more people. I’ll burn myself if I get invested.

As he thought that, he suddenly felt his shoulders lighten a little, though he didn’t completely understand the strange feeling until some silver notifications appeared in front of his eyes.

[You made a decision beneficial to your cultivation technique.]

[Intelligence +1, Wisdom +1]

[Experience +5]

The unexpected notifications made his eyes widen. He stared at them for a moment before dismissing them with a thoughtful expression on his face. Which part of his thoughts were beneficial to his cultivation technique?

It’s not telling me to not help others, right? He asked himself. However, he felt his heart clench slightly, and thought, No, that doesn’t feel quite right. It’s more like… helping is fine as long as it doesn’t hinder me or something?

This time, he felt his heart jump. The origin energy within his spirit veins lurched enough for him to notice it even with his passive perception. Focusing inward out of curiosity, he closed his eyes and realized the energy was flowing a little more smoothly than before.

Does my state of mind affect how the energy flows? Interesting. I’ll have to keep that in mind from now on.

While he was contemplating the effects on his origin energy, he suddenly felt the edges of his perception quiver and opened his eyes. The woman who had previously interacted with his former coworkers had arrived in front of him while his eyes were closed.

“Are you Sigmarus?” She asked.

“Yes. Why?”

The young woman’s thin brows lowered ever so slightly, and she answered, “Madame Lee mentioned you’d be taking care of Valerie from now on since you knew her outside of here before or something.”

“And?”

“It makes me a bit jealous,” The woman said, sighing slightly. Then, she grinned and asked without any seriousness, “Wanna help me out, too?”

“No thanks.”

“Aww. Too bad. Anyway, since Valerie isn’t here yet, I may as well bring you inside. Madame Lee said she wanted to talk to you if you got here early enough.”

“Really?” Sigmarus asked, raising a brow. “Alright.”