"Excuse me, you shouldn’t talk about a woman like that," Vlad said in a calm tone, tapping each of their shoulders with both his hands.

"Eh? Who is this retard?" Theo, the brown-haired one of the duo, muttered.

"Remove your hand unless you want to die," Matteo, the grey-haired one, added.

They tried to remove Vlad’s hands from their shoulders, first with one hand, then with both, yet they failed to move even a finger of his. It was as if they were standing before an immovable wall.

While they were struggling, Vlad suddenly withdrew his hands and continued,

"Speaking nonsense about someone behind their back might lead you into trouble."

"H-he must have a screw loose," Theo said, both confused and annoyed.

"Fuck, he ruined my mood," Matteo added, stepping forward and breaking the line. He paused for a moment, then muttered as he turned around,

"You put your hands on the wrong people. You better be careful in the city."

Strangely, no one stopped them as they skipped the line and moved ahead.

Vlad ignored their comment with a shrug.

Over two hours passed before the line in front of Vlad finally ended. Before him, across the table sat a man wearing a simple white robe with a cross crest engraved on the chest. He was a cleric of the Holy Church.

"Your birth certificate," the man asked without lifting his eyes.

Vlad handed him the documents. The man placed them inside a magical box beside him to verify their authenticity. Once confirmed, he handed Vlad a token bearing the number 267.

"Come to the church tomorrow at noon," the clerk told him.

"Thank you," Vlad replied with a bow before turning away.

The clerk lifted his head for the first time, his gaze fixed on Vlad’s departing figure.

"He is clearly a commoner, so how could he radiate such a noble presence?" the clerk murmured, his voice carrying a hint of awe and surprise. "Tomorrow’s Awakening Ritual is going to be interesting."

---

The last traces of sunlight had already melted into the horizon. One by one, countless stars flickered to life across the sky. Yet the streets remained bright and lively, unlike Grimwood village, where it would become difficult to walk in night due to the darkness and the threat of wild animals.

"I clearly told her to stay here," Vlad sighed, standing beneath the watchtower at the crossroads where he had told Chloe to wait for him.

The line for women had been relatively shorter than that for men, so she had received her token much earlier than Vlad.

"She must have gone to a nearby restaurant to eat something," Vlad assumed.

He decided to wait for her, but then the words of the young thugs who had been standing ahead of him in the line echoed in his mind.

"That’s it. She’s completely my type. I’m going to ask her out."

"Besides, do you think I care about her consent?"

Vlad had not thought much about their words at the time. He had brushed them off as young delinquents making careless remarks. But now, an unfamiliar restlessness began to creep over him.

"I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off Chloe," he muttered, clenching his fists.

Just as he was about to leave...

---

"Is this really the place?" Chloe asked, her voice carrying a hint of suspicion.

She stood before a dark, narrow passage between the buildings. On either side of her stood Theo and Matteo, carrying smirks on their faces.

"Yeah, you are new here, so you must not be aware of it. It’s kind of a secret place," Theo said. "Just beyond this passage, there is a restaurant that serves the best dishes in Barton."

"Best dishes," she murmured, stepping forward with Theo and Matteo closely following her from behind.

"Oh, I haven’t asked yet. Where are you from?" Matteo asked, moving his hand towards Chloe’s shoulder.

She moved away his hand before he could touch her and answered, "I’m from the Grimwood village."

’So she is from some no-name village. No one will even know if someone like her just disappears,’ Matteo grinned inwardly.

After walking for a few minutes, they reached the end of the passage, which ended in a wall.

"Huh? It’s a dead end. Where is the rest—"

She immediately grabbed the wrist of the hand reaching toward her mouth from behind.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Oh, there was something on your face. I was trying to wipe it," Theo said awkwardly, holding a handkerchief in the hand that Chloe had stopped.

"Fuck it, I’m already pissed because of that red-eyed bastard," Matteo said, pushing Theo aside.

He continued glaring at Chloe with a lecherous gaze.

"Forget the restaurant. Let’s have some fun together."

"No restaurant... you lied," Chloe mumbled, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Don’t try to act innocent," Matteo snickered, moving his hand forward. "You aren’t so stupid as to follow strangers into a dark alley just for food. You must have been expecting something."

She really had followed them for food.

And now that there wasn’t any, she was very annoyed.

In the blink of an eye, Matteo’s figure went flying before Theo’s eyes, landing behind him after flipping over his head.

"Wh-what the hell!?" Theo gasped, his eyes widening at Chloe, who had one leg stretched high, her foot pointing toward the sky.

He turned to see Matteo’s chin broken, with a few of his teeth knocked out. He had fallen unconscious from a single kick.

"How dare you lie to me about food?" Chloe muttered, slowly moving toward Theo.

"D-don’t come any closer, bitch," Theo shouted, pulling a knife out of his pocket.

For just a split second, Theo took his eyes off her to draw the knife, and Chloe had already vanished from in front of him.

"Wh-where did she go—"

His words stopped mid-sentence as a kick struck his head like an axe splitting timber.

Blood gushed from his mouth, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed unconscious as well.

"Never lie to me about food," Chloe muttered before leaving.

She normally didn’t resort to such violence, but she had been lured in with the promise of food like a child. If Vlad learned about it, not only would he scold her, he would also tease her endlessly.

The mere thought of Vlad smirking as he teased her annoyed her.

---

"I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off Chloe," Vlad muttered, clenching his fists.

Just as he was about to leave, a hand grabbed his arm from behind, and a familiar voice reached his ear.

"You are late."

He turned his head and found Chloe leaning against his shoulder. A sigh of relief escaped his lips as he asked,

"Where were you?"

"I went to buy this for you," she replied, handing him a bottle of apple juice. "You must be thirsty, right?"

"Thank you," Vlad said, taking a sip from the straw already placed inside it.

"Vlad," Chloe called softly, almost a whisper.

"Yeah?"

She tightened her grip around his arm and murmured,

"Don’t leave me alone again."

"Did something happen?" Vlad asked, his voice serious yet warm.

Chloe shook her head and leaned further against his arm without replying.

"I won’t," Vlad answered, patting her head with his other hand. "By the way, why does the bottle look half empty?"