A few stores back, the group migrated from the left sidewalk to right to visit a jewelry store and continued down this side. There were some spaces between the buildings that could be called an alley, yet they were also slightly smaller than the modern alley. It was a common occurrence in the outside wall, so Cain paid no particular attention to it.

When the party was walking down the sidewalk, Cain noticed a stray arrow from a crossbow coming out from one of these alleys. Veronica also picked up on the movement of a fast object approaching them, but before she could do anything, Cain said, “Jared, duck.” Cain put his right hand on the back of Jared’s head and lightly pushed forward so he could get the signal.

Jared leaned forward in time for the arrow to bounce off Cain’s elbow. Jared looked up at Cain confused, then heard the arrow fall to the ground. Veronica appeared in front of Jared with a small dagger she always kept on her. Dresil mended the hole in Cain’s suit while Veronica shouts into the alleyway, “Who shot that!?” I’m just glad that didn’t hit my funny bone… Cain thought as relaxed his hand back to his side.

Three men walked out from the darkness of the alleyway, there was a small girl and a teenage boy behind them. The teenage boy had some splinters in his hands and the guy holding the crossbow had red marks and burns on his wrists. The crossbow was singed slightly, presumably from the struggle over the crossbow that later caused it to misfire.

From how protective the boy seemed to be of the younger girl, Cain concluded they were being harassed by the three older men. The girl looked somewhat familiar so Cain checked their tags. Wow… So that’s Myles and his sister, this will be an interesting test.

—Dms: Cain and Dresil— (5ms)

Cain: Dresil, record the changes and activity of Myles’ brain during this interaction.

Cain: It doesn’t matter if you have to make mana models every one or two seconds, we just need something to observe for later.

Dresil: Understood, Master.

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“We were just trying to collect some money that they owed us. We sincerely apologize for that stray arrow, but no one got hurt, so can’t we just brush it off?” One of the men, who looked like the living embodiment of the word “thug,” attempted to persuade Veronica and Jared. Due to the narrow alleyway, the trio couldn’t really see the rest of the party.

“Brush it off!? If I got hit by that I could’ve… Yeah… yeah, that sheems o-” Jared attempted to confront the trio, but his speech got slurred and his position on the matter was flipped within seconds. Veronica stared at Jared as if he were an idiot and was about to intervene. However, Cain made the first move while also making sure Veronica didn’t do anything unnecessary.

“Forgive my girlfriend and my brother. They haven’t eaten anything yet so they’re a bit rough on the edges right now.” Cain wrapped his arm around Veronica and ruffled Jared’s hair some. His actions completely froze Veronica due to nervousness and overexcitement.

There’s something odd with that person on the left. Cain thought while scanning that person’s memories. He discovered that they had an ability that altered others’ perception of them, making it seem like they could trust the ability user with their life, even if the two had only just met.

Interesting… a variant usage of the light element that modifies the user’s body language? No… This seems to be a species’ ability. Maybe one of their ancestors was like Aurora. Cain analyzed the second person’s ability, changing his hypothesis after seeing blood drip down the nose of the second thug. Jacob and Victoria appeared on either side of Jared and Veronica in this moment; Dresil instructed Sinclair to stay back so as to not mess with Cain’s spontaneous experiment.

Only a few seconds had passed between Cain’s intervention and his next question. “Why exactly are you guys there?” He directed to Myles and Rachel. Although Myles didn’t recognize this man, he knew he was trying to help them out and went along with his play. “Sorry cousin. We got pulled away since we borrowed some money from these men a few days ago.” Myles said while guiding Rachel behind Jacob.

“Oh? I thought the money I gave you a few days ago was enough for your daily needs.” Cain stated while pushing Jared to Victoria. She performed a simple Mental Cleansing spell to bring Jared back to his senses after Cain was done talking. Myles held his head from a sudden headache he got after listening to Cain while forcing out, “Y-yeah… Rachel needed some medicine though and all of the stores suddenly raised their prices.”

“Damn it! Can’t you guys just shut up! Why are you yelling so much and why the hell is the sun so bright!! Isn’t it supposed to be setting soon?!!” The second guy cries out in pain as he faints and his body collapses to the floor. Cain runs his mana through their brain to figure out what exactly happened; he also scanned Myles’ memories for the reason behind the sudden price increase on the meds. Huh… Interesting… This is unexpected. He thought while saying “Sleep” The two men instantly fell to the floor unconscious.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (43ms)

Rex: What’s unexpected? Don’t leave us hanging.

Cain: …are you ever going to just look through the stored memories to find out?

Rex: Nope.

Cain: :sigh:

Cain: The guy with the ability, Thug 2 for convenience’s sake, had their brain overstimulated from the stress, anxiety, adrenaline, and other emotions that occurred due to being bombarded from my Mental Firewall.

Rex: …hold up, that’s a long ass sentence. I need to digest this for a second.

Bob: That shouldn’t have caused him to faint though, right?

Cain: Yep. As far as I’m aware, he experienced sensory overload since his brain was over-stimulated. Hence his outcry about us “yelling” and the sun.

Cain: I’m thinking the small traces of mana within their brain triggered some self protection mechanism and caused him to faint in order to prevent further stimulus?

Cain: Idk… I was too excited about seeing if Myles would recognize me or not to remember to record their brain during this incident.

Dresil: What about the nosebleed?

Cain: Probably from the stress and anxiety.

Bob: Interesting…

Dresil: Heh… looks like it’ll really take Rex a second to process this.

--------------------------

“So, what’s your name kid?” Cain directed to the startled Myles. “It’s… John. This is my sister Rachel.” Myles introduced himself with a fake name then introduced his sister. “I don’t know who you are sir, but thank you for your help.” Myles bowed while talking to Cain. “We were just passing by. Go ahead and take your IOU note from their bodies and tear it up.” Cain said while finally taking his arm off Veronica’s shoulder. Her face was beat red as she wobbled back to Victoria with a giddy smile.

“Th-they’re not dead, are they?” Rachel asked from behind Myles. “Nah, they’re just sleeping. They’ll probably wake up an hour later.” Cain replies while erasing their memories up until they were last drunk, which happened to be last night. “Thanks once again, sir.” Myles said then took his leave after Cain nodded. He turned around and jumped slightly when he saw Sinclair. Rachel ran up to him to pet his fluffy hair, but was quickly ushered away by Myles.

“Man… I’m still kind of pissed I couldn’t do anything to them after getting bewitched.” Jared commented on the side. “You’ll get over it. Although, we should probably head back to the inn now.” Victoria said while looking at the sunset. Everyone nods or hums in agreement, except for Veronica who was still dazed from Cain’s actions.

She’s like a middle schooler when it comes to matters of love. Cain thought while using SRI to open a portal to the inn, right in front of their doors. “I’ll meet you guys in the lobby of the inn in about an hour. I’m going to walk around with Sinclair.” Victoria nods while instructing Jared and Jacob to carry the bags and boxes strapped to Sinclair. Due to his size, he wouldn’t exactly fit inside the hallways of the inn. This was also why Cain opened the portal in the hallway, just before their doors.

After the party finished unloading and went to their respective rooms, the portal to the inn closed. Sinclair, Cain, and Dresil leisurely roamed around the streets to the capitol. Cain enjoyed the evening breeze and the fresh air while Dresil and Sinclair kept him company. They wandered aimlessly without a word spoken or a thought transmitted for the next hour.