The two searched the rest of the basement, trying to avoid alerting any more guards. Luckily, the thugs did not seem to work in shifts and no one checked on the supposed guards either.

They quickly found the storeroom where Evan’s lantern was being kept along with several other expensive looking items, some of which were from the Galien house, others from unknown sources.

‘Well, finders keepers.’

‘Problem though, how do we carry all this stuff back home, wherever home is?’

‘Wait, didn’t David mention something about the Lantern having multiple features?’ Evan thought.

Excited, he held the Lantern and channeled mana into the Lantern while activating his breathing technique. Now that the Lantern was active, he could see a sort of videogame interface written in Runic, the language for magical chants and spells.

After recognizing a rune that said “Storage”, he tried powering that specific group of runes with his mana and they began to glow.

‘Here goes nothing!’

Then, the lantern began to vibrate slightly, creating a vortex that sucked everything inside the room into the dimensional storage.

“Yes, it worked! Haha, money!”

"..."

'Is this boy actually human, or is he some sort of mutated goblin?' Fel thought to herself.

“It’s a magical artifact,” Evan said, mistaking Fel’s gaze before turning away quickly.

Now that they were up and walking, Evan found it somewhat painful to look at Fel.

Being slightly more than twenty centimetres shorter than her, he was reminded about the insecurities he had about his height.

Noticing his discomfort, Fel grabbed his shoulder.

“Hey Evan?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"I just wanted to say thank you for saving me. If we make it out of here and we have to part ways, I’ll remember you.” She said, somewhat flustered that someone so powerful could envy something she had taken for granted.

“No problem. Besides, you did offer to protect me when you thought I was a helpless baby. I’m just returning the favour.” Evan replied.

“Are you calling me a helpless baby?” She asked, glaring at him.

“Maybe, what are you going to do about it?” He asked with a mischievous grin.

“You! W-well, then you're a little gremlin!" Fel shouted in anger, then she stopped.

‘Right, I am weaker than him. I can’t even beat him, even if we get into a fight.’ Fel thought.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Are you alright?”

“No, it’s nothing. Let’s just get out of here.” She said with a sad smile.

“Alright. By the way, while we are waiting for the transport, I could teach you several theories I have about magic and in return, you could teach me some elven magic."

"I've read that elves have a slightly different way of circulating mana than humans. Maybe we could both learn something.” Evan offered, guessing what was on her mind.

Fel smiled at the offer, “That would be great.”

“Excellent, could I join in your little learning session?” A new voice asked, dangerously sweet.

A hooded person appeared and stood in front of them.

He was not alone though. A ginger-haired young adult dressed in finely embroidered clothes with two people following him close by, and some more of the thugs stepped out into the dim light of the basement.

'Shit, the nobleman's here.'

Evan immediately pulled Fel behind his back, earning a laugh out of the hooded person and a snigger out of the young noble.

“Ah, chivalry at its finest, but tell me, do you think that little extra distance would stop us from getting her back?”

‘Fuck, it looks like we’re going to fight and I can’t risk letting my emotions run loose.'

'My body hasn’t fully healed yet from my previous stunt.'

'When the pentagram construct cracked, my heart started beating way faster than normal.'

'Although I had access to a lot more mana than would be normal for my age, I ended up putting my body under a lot of strain just to kill that other guy.'

'If we want to get out of this alive, we have to play this smart. Guess I’ll have to try that out. First, I have to rile them up.’ Evan thought to himself

“What’s the matter, too scared to talk?” The young noble asked.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware there were people talking. All I heard and saw was a pack of dogs barking.” Evan replied, pretending to grin smugly.

“You dare! Do you not know who you are talking to? This is Claude Haughbernet, third son of Viscount Haughbernet, ruler of these lands. You will show the appropriate amount of respect!” One of the bodyguards yelled angrily.

‘Alright, he seems to be riled up.’

“Was I not showing the appropriate amount then?” Evan asked, sounding genuinely surprised. “I do apologize, let me try once more. Hello chamber pot, my name is Evan and you are full of shit so do kindly fuck off.”

…

Meanwhile, Fel was conflicted about the situation.

She wanted to laugh her ass off at the outrage in both the guards and the noble’s faces but she was still deeply terrified that she would lose the freedom she had just gained.

The thugs behind them, however, did not have the same problem and some were openly sniggering at the noble’s expense.

“Silence, you filthy dogs! I demand respect!” He yelled in outrage.

“Oh boo-hoo, did someone get angry for being bullied? Hey, let me tell you something, pal. Respect has to be earned, not inherited. You’ll get more respect out of these guys if you paid them more, am I right?” Evan asked, the smug grin still plastered on his face.

The thugs immediately agreed and nodded. If there was anything that could sway their loyalty, it was money. Catching on to Evan’s plan, Fel decided to add.

“Hey, the noble called you all dogs too, right? Shouldn’t a ruler be more respectful to his citizens? If other people knew that their nobles acted like this, they would stage a revolt. You guys should also get some hush money to keep rumours from spreading.”

“Hey, that’s right.”

“Yeah, pay us to shut up or we’ll make you.”

Soon, the thugs began to turn on the noble and his bodyguards. Evan signaled to Fel and whispered. “Great job, now stay behind me, things are going to get ugly.”

“Oi, settle down, all of you!” the hooded person roared while sending out a pulse of mana, silencing the conflict.

“You can settle the bribes later. Don’t you see, the boy is trying to get you to fight so he can escape with the elf slave! No amount of hush money will be worth anything if he escapes and snitches on us.”

…

The conflict died as both parties realized the truth in the person’s words.

Fel’s hopes fell as more and more people calmed down and began looking at them with renewed hatred.

If they were caught now, Evan would be killed to silence him and her life as a slave would be even more miserable than before.

Evan, however, did not seem worried in the slightest. In fact, he was smiling and laughing at the surrounding people.

“Took you fools long enough to realize my little plan.”

“You bastard! You tried to trick us!”

“Kill him!”

The thugs and the bodyguards began rushing in while those who could use magic began firing spells at Evan and Fel.

“For Young Master Claude’s honour!” One of the bodyguards yelled.

‘Mom, dad, I’m sorry. I guess I won’t see you ever again.’ She thought with tears in her eyes.

However, she noticed that Evan was not even trying to defend himself in the face of certain death. In fact, he was staring it down with a mad grin on his face.

He was standing straight with his palm open towards the sky.

‘What is he doing?!’ Fel thought frantically.

“Evan, get down!”

But it was too late. The spells were only 5 meters away from obliterating the boy and the elf.

Fel grabbed Evan and hid him behind her, trying to shield the boy, but he stood firm.

‘Why won’t he-’

Then, she saw the look in his eyes.

‘Trust me,’

She let go of him.

‘I’m sorry.’

…

‘Those idiots! We could have just killed the boy and sold the elf slave. Now, we’ll only make money from the artifact, the valuables, and the bribe. All of which don’t even come close to the value of a slave!’ The hooded person cursed inwardly.

However, it was too late. Spells of all different kinds came hurtling in at the duo.

‘Oh well, at least I’ll still be making some money off of this. I can also blackmail the viscount using the transaction records of this deal.’

‘Hang on, what’s that boy doing?’

Evan suddenly dropped down and slammed his open palm on the ground. All the spells in the narrow corridor then vanished into thin air, as if they never existed.

“What the hell?!” The noble exclaimed, voicing the surprise of the many that were present.

“To obtain something, one must give up something of equal value. Such is the Law of Equivalent Exchange, but whoever said that the “something” you had to give up had to belong to you?” he asked with a smug grin.