Red examined the kneeling merchant for a while. His fluctuation seemed to show his sincerity, but as he came to learn, it was not a completely reliable measurement of a person’s true feelings. The vendor from yesterday, for instance, showed no hostility towards the youth when they met, yet today he went and destroyed his store.

It was an excellent lesson for Red not to be overly reliant on this power to read people, and he wouldn’t commit the same mistake again.

“Did you know this was going to happen?” he asked.

Gustav stood up and shook his head in a panic. “By no means, Master Viran! We truly had no idea!”

“Yet you must have known about their discontent.”

“I-I…” The merchant seemed at a loss for words. “I did, master, but they never did anything like this before! I swear it to you.”

Red actually thought he was telling the truth. As he considered earlier, the way they treated him yesterday made no sense if they were only going to turn around and stab him in the back. Still, he was on the losing end of the entire ordeal and wouldn’t let this matter slide.

He stared at Gustav. “You will repair this mess, won’t you?”

Gustav smiled when he heard these words. “Of course, Master Viran!”

The man didn’t seem to care about costs as long as he could keep on the good side of this cultivator.

“We will also forego any rental payments for the next three months! And we will make sure this never happens again by posting some of our own personal guards nearby!”

Red nodded. “As long as you understand, it’s fine.”

“Of course we understand, Master Viran! Our guild takes our business matters very seriously, and we will make sure those responsible for this are properly punished even if the guards try to protect them!”

Others might be happy to hear there would be payback, but the youth was not too pleased.

“Just leave them alone.” Red said. “It’s unlikely they will try something like that again.”

The only thing he wanted was for this conflict to fade away and to keep some semblance of quiet and peace in his life. If the Golden Hand tried to punish the perpetrators, even going so far as to challenge the capital guard on the matter, then how could these issues stop here? They were bound to continue, and depending on how stubborn the two parties were, it was hard to imagine Red would be uninvolved in their disputes.

The last thing he wanted was to be in the middle of a war of interests between two local powers.

Gustav seemed to guess the meaning of his words, but he had a complicated expression. “I’m afraid this is beyond my powers to decide, sir.”

Red frowned. “And what do you think those in power will do?”

The merchant hesitated. “… Our guild has a reputation to maintain. This is the first time in years that it has been challenged so directly.”

‘In other words, it was unlikely they will let the matter go.’

Red was truly starting to reconsider his choice to come to the capital for safety.

“They can do as they will.” He said. “But make it clear to your superiors they are not representing my interests with their actions.”

He didn’t know how much good this disassociation would do, but it was the least he could try to prevent future troubles.

Gustav nodded. “I will let them know.”

“Good”

Red walked out of the ruined store and began to walk away.

“W-Wait, Master Viran!”

Gustav called out to him, causing Red to pause and turn around.

“What is it?”

“May I ask where you are going?”

“I’m going to buy some things with the money you gave me.”

“I see. Then would you like me to accompany you?” The merchant asked. “I can direct you to the right places to buy what you need.”

“What do you think?” Red stared at the man with his icy gaze.

Gustav shivered under his eyes and nodded with a complicated expression. “I understand, sir. Then you can feel free to ask me anyth-”

Before the man was done speaking, Red had turned around and walked away.

The first store he went to visit was also the biggest cultivator store in the city. It was called Lehmann Traders, and it was specialized in selling raw materials for cultivators, including Spirit ingredients for alchemy, forging, and Arcane Scripture. There were other cultivation stores in the capital, but this one fit his interests the best.

Of course, the only unfortunate thing he came to learn was that the owner of the store had a connection to the Golden Hand. He wasn’t officially a member of the guild, but the only thing he lacked was the title.

To the youth’s luck, this store was also on the main plaza. He could see it from across the way already - a large three story building built out of refined dark wood and decorated with curved roofs and eaves in a style Red had never seen before. It displayed more elegance rather than the extravagant style of the golden temple, and yet a peek at the materials that made up the building was enough to know the owners were no less rich.

Movement in the store was also slower. That was, of course, because their pool of clients was mostly limited to cultivators, which still only made a small percentage of the population of the capital.

Red felt at least four Lesser Ring Realm fluctuations inside the store, to no surprise. The frequency with which he was meeting such powerful cultivators was increasing, but it was not because they were located everywhere in the city. It was only because the places where Red visited just so happened to intersect with the interests of cultivators of that level, so of course he would find more of them.

This was not to mention that this was all because of his crimson sense. Without it, he would have had no idea about how many powerful individuals were within the city.

As he approached the store, a black-haired, elegant woman greeted him at the door, as if expecting his arrival.

“Master Viran, welcome to our Lehmann Traders store!”

She bowed towards him out of respect with a wide smile on her face. The woman was wearing a flowery dress that stuck tightly to her body, and certainly didn’t fit with the more conservative style of the locals. Red himself had never seen this type of clothing before, which made him wonder where these people came from.

The woman noticed his intense gaze, and she looked up at his mask with a timid expression. “Master Viran…?”

“How do you know my name?” Red asked.

She smiled. “Oh, Master Lehmann has contacts within the guild who informed him about your interests. Of course, if it is within your interests to draw arcane scripture, our store would be the best option!”

‘That man really can’t keep his mouth shut.’

Red frowned as the image of Gustav flashed through his mind.

“Would you like me to show you the way in?” she asked. “We have already prepared a private room to attend to you.”

“Very well.” Red nodded.

The woman smiled brightly once more, extending her arm towards him. Red, however, only looked down at her hand in confusion.

She seemed to notice the awkwardness of the situation and retracted her arm. “Sorry, Master Viran, I thought-”

“Just lead the way.”

She nodded. “Very well.”

The doors to the store were already open, and inside, Red saw a wondrous assortment of items on finely built shelves. Although the store was specialized in raw materials, they still offered plenty of other items like talismans, weapons, and even cultivation pills. The pleasant smell of Spiritual Plants suffused his senses, and he could feel his skin tingle from the overwhelming Spiritual Energy in the room.

He looked around, noticing various other cultivators browsing through the items, though only a few of them seemed to be important enough to be attended by similarly dressed clerks like the one by Red. Without exception, those were Lesser Ring Realm cultivators.

No one spared more than a passing glance at Red as he entered the store, which came as a relief to him.

“Please, this way, Master Viran.” The woman pointed at a set of staircases leading to the upper floors.

Soon enough, the youth was led to a private room. To his surprise, though, the decor here seemed to differ from the Golden Temple’s, as instead of chairs, they sat upon small cushions on the wooden floor with a low table between them, not to mention the sliding doors.

It was a strange sight for Red, who was so used to the rather chaotic and practical architecture of the kingdom. Still, he kept his thoughts to himself.

“I have only noticed now that I haven’t introduced myself.” The woman sat down across from him, looking at the youth with a smile. “You may call me Elena. May I get you something to drink, Master Viran? Perhaps some tea?”

Red frowned. He still found these sorts of pleasantries annoying.

“I’m fine.” He shook his head.

“Then I suppose you must want to get to business.” She seemed able to pick up the hints. “May I ask what we can do for you?”

“I have a list of materials.” Red picked a paper where he had written down everything he needed. “You might not recognize some of the names, though.”

The youth was using the arcane scripture manual he won from the trial as reference for his practice. He had no idea how old the book was, though, and there was bound to be some difference in the names of the materials. At the very least, when he was building his Parting Storm formation over the years, that turned out to be a bigger issue than he was expecting.

She picked up the list with a smile. “Don’t worry, Master Viran. We are aware that many recipes are written using older terms, so our store also specializes in finding the analogues for such materials.”

“That’s good, then.”

The youth waited as the woman read the paper. However, quickly enough, her expression changed to one of confusion.

She looked up at Red with an embarrassed expression. “Can you wait here for a moment, Master Viran?”

He nodded. “Go ahead.”

The woman left the room with a bow, closing the door behind her. Red didn’t see where she was going, but he could track her progress through the building as she climbed up to the third floor.

There she seemed to meet with other fluctuations, one of which belonged to a Lesser Ring Realm cultivator, another woman. They were supposedly having a conversation and were undergoing quick changes of emotions.

First, there was embarrassment from the attendant.

Then, there was anger from the cultivator.

Then, some fifteen seconds later, there was confusion in this same cultivator, as well as a hint of embarrassment.

A minute later, as more fluctuations gathered around these two, only one sentiment was prominent.

Confusion.

This all caused Red to sigh, as he could make a guess as to how the interaction went.

It took almost five minutes before someone returned to his room. It was that same attendant, but this time she was accompanied by the cultivator she was talking to. A young woman, around her mid-twenties, with a long black flowing hair, facial features that didn’t seem to belong to a local, and wearing what looked to be cultivator robes, but much longer than normal, covering her hands and feet.

Her garbs weren’t as revealing as the attendant’s, but she seemed to display elegance and beauty in even greater measure.

When Red looked at her struggling expression, however, he couldn’t help but feel like it didn’t match the rest of her appearance. In fact, he recognized this expression, as he had come to deal with it a lot over the past few days.

The expression of a salesman who didn’t want to disappoint their client.

The woman spoke with a dramatic tone. “Master Viran! I’m afraid we have to disappoint you!”

“You don’t recognize the names?” Red asked.

“Ah, well…” She scratched her chin with an embarrassed smile. “It happens from time to time for new terms we don’t know about appearing on a client’s list, but… I’m afraid that beyond Spiritual Paper and leather, we can’t recognize any of the names you wrote down!”

This was indeed a big problem, considering Red’s list had more than 50 different materials.

The youth began to wonder if the problem with the names was just a matter of how old the book was or if it was the author’s deliberate attempts to rename every material to his tastes.