"Delarosa family is…"

Latifa pondered carefully before explaining the Delarosa family's background to Vaan. Although she omitted some confidential information, Vaan heard everything he needed to know.

The Delorosa family was a powerful and influential aristocratic family situated in the capital city of the Great Ratholos Empire. They had many Rank 4 Body Refiners and even an ancestor on the verge of becoming a Rank 5 Body Refiner.

They also had many Senior Witches and several High Witches and were said to be pioneers in uncommon magic applications.

Vaan didn't doubt Hexes was included in their so-called uncommon magic application.

The Delarosa family was involved in politics, military, and business.

Among the seven great aristocratic families living in the Great Ratholos Empire's capital city, it was only ranked fifth. However, the Delarosa family was allied with the first-ranking aristocratic family – the Merak family through marriage, making them a force to be reckoned with.

If Vaan wanted to learn more confidential information about the Delarosa family from Latifa, he could not do so without paying her. Furthermore, his actions would alert the Delarosa family, prompting a counter-investigation on him.

Although Vaan intended to be high profile in the Great Ratholos Empire, this wasn't the kind of attention he wanted. As such, Vaan did not dig further into the Delarosa family. Instead, he inquired about the other top aristocratic families and their warriors to obscure his intentions.

Because of that, he learned about the Glory Ranking – a list compiling the names of the strongest warriors in the empire.

However, the most surprising discovery was that Emperor Varan, a Late-stage Aura King, was only ranked second. Moreover, the first ranker didn't have a name, only a title – Sea Emperor.

Vaan couldn't help but develop a stronger interest and curiosity towards the Eastern Sea. It was full of hidden dangers and possibilities. Even history itself could be buried in the depths of its dark waters.

Meanwhile, Jihaad found himself a new goal to strive for during his training period in the Great Ratholos Empire – to have his name carved on the Glory Ranking. Unfortunately, with his present strength, he was still far from his goal.

Every warrior on the Glory Ranking was at least a Rank 4 Body Refiner. As such, challenging them would be no different from throwing an egg against a hard rock.

Even so, Jihaad still had it on his mind after leaving Madam Morning Dew. He did not notice the looks of surprise when Vaan paid Latifa three mid-rank mana stones for the service. After all, everything added together didn't cost that much.

Furthermore, Vaan had paid with mid-rank mana stones – something only an extremely wealthy person would do.

Latifa felt ashamed of her initial assessment when she received the mid-rank mana stones. But after she recovered from her shame, her eyes burned with interest and anticipation.

'Sure enough, Sir Vanderlin is not a simple person,' Latifa thought. She looked forward to the day she unraveled his strength and background.

Meanwhile, everyone else at the bar cast their greedy eyes on Vaan's departing back. Everyone knew better than to flex one's wealth. Doing so was only asking for trouble.

'A fat sheep has appeared,' the simpletons thought.

During the period of Vaan and Jihaad's stay at Madam Morning Dew, news of Vaan's feats had spread by his defeated challengers. As such, many warriors below Rank 3 Body Refiner immediately gave up the thought of challenging him.

Since even a Mid-level Rank 3 Body Refiner was defeated with a single slap, the few High-level Rank 3 Body Refiners temporarily staying at Sunrock Bazaar also hesitated to challenge him.

However, several greedy and unscrupulous warriors who had been present at Madam Morning Dew never thought about letting Vaan walk away with his wealth. They figured that even if they couldn't beat him, they could still rob him.

After all, fighting and pickpocketing required different sets of skills.

…

As Vaan and Jihaad left Madam Morning Dew and made their way northward through a busy road filled with street vendors and people, even Jihaad became alerted to the signs of people tailing them.

"There are people following us, Sir Pendragon," Jihaad carefully warned in soft whispers.

"It's fine. Let them follow us," Vaan nonchalantly replied. The matter was something he had anticipated but was of no particular concern.

And since he had said that much, Jihaad no longer concerned himself with the matter. He didn't believe Vaan didn't know what was going on.

Mana stone was a universally accepted currency in Pangea, and it was also the currency Vaan could have used to pay the beautiful waiter. After all, using currencies of the seven witch kingdoms or the Holy Knight Empire was nothing short of foolishness.

In order to avoid drawing attention from traveling light, Vaan didn't keep everything stored inside his Heaven-Swallowing Space. Instead, he had been carrying a medium-sized leather bag on his back and had a money pouch strapped to his belt.

The greedy warriors tailing him could not escape his detection.

He noticed they had stopped tailing behind him and went ahead to the other end of the road before turning back, heading towards him from the front.

Thud…

"Sorry," a warrior apologized after seemingly bumping into Vaan by accident before hurrying off with a small money pouch in his hand.

"Watch where you're going!" Jihaad snarled at the increasingly distant warrior and didn't think much further. But then he thought something was strange and noticed Vaan's money pouch was missing, and his expression immediately turned ugly.

He had already warned the person, but the person still got pickpocketed!

"Sir Pendragon, you've been pickpocketed!" Jihaad informed with a heavy, grim expression.

"Hm? It's fine. I didn't lose anything," Vaan casually replied, revealing a bigger leather pouch for holding money. Evidently, it wasn't the same one strapped to Vaan's belt previously.

Jihaad wore a look of wonder as realization dawned on him. He was awed by Vaan's deft hands. He didn't know how Vaan did it, but the pickpocketer didn't seem to realize what he had lost either.

"Not bad," Vaan commented after confirming the content of his new money pouch.

His previous money pouch only had some useless pebbles to make up the mass, but the new money pouch he acquired actually had some gold coins, crystals, and low-rank mana stones.

He replaced the content with useless pebbles and strapped the new money pouch to his belt.

"Sorry."

"Pardon me. I'm in a hurry."

"Apologies."

"My bad. Gotta go."

…

Vaan continued to be 'bumped' by several more pickpocketing thieves on the busy and crowded road while wearing a nonchalant expression. A slight manipulation of the Spatial Law made it far too easy for him to steal. He didn't even need to lift his hand.

But since Jihaad couldn't see how Vaan did it, he was even more amazed and dumbfounded at the same time. He didn't know who to feel sorry for.

The thieves lost all their money while the 'victim' became richer and richer.

"Sunrock Bazaar is such a nice place… I didn't expect to receive so many gifts on a casual stroll. The people here are too friendly… too friendly…" Vaan softly muttered, seemingly talking to himself.

The corners of Jihaad's lips twitched.

'Who are you trying to fool? Damn! While you are rejoicing, they are probably crying!' Jihaad silently thought, feeling slightly agitated.

He felt fortunate that he did not make an enemy out of Vaan.