"What a waste. That venison came from the Wild Treehorns in the Kingdom of Scarlet Flame. They're quite costly to import," Helia Ashenborn casually muttered with a shake of her head.

The Wild Treehorns were a species of deers with tree-like horns and wood-like hooves. They were endowed with the wood element.

People that eat their meat gain a variety of health benefits. Increased recovery, lesser fatigue, youth extension, and more.

After Helia Ashenborn continued to eat by herself, she suddenly lost strength in one of her hands, causing the knife to fall out of it.

Helia Ashenborn immediately furrowed her brows before removing the glove to check the condition of her hand.

Before long, the fair skin of Helia Ashenborn's hand was revealed—only to be overshadowed by the glaring purplish skin near the tips of her fingers.

Seeing the purplish skin slowly but surely expand towards her palm, Helia Ashenborn sighed in resignation.

"This damn illness…"

Helia Ashenborn felt helpless against the strange disease. Healing magic and purification magic couldn't cure it, nor could food with healing properties.

"Magic and medicine don't work. On the contrary, they're accelerating the spread of this weird disease," Helia Ashenborn frowned with worries.

Nevertheless, Helia Ashenborn didn't dwell on the problem. She quickly put her black gloves back on to hide the purple skin.

Shortly after, Helia Ashenborn called in the servants to pack up the food. She was also done with them. Afterward, she called one of her top combat witches.

"What is Vahn Cadieux doing right now? He should have been back by now."

"The person in question headed into the city shortly after bidding farewell to Marquis Delarosa's daughters, Lord Helia."

"Oh? Without requesting any guards?" Helia Ashenborn furrowed her brows in thought for a moment before saying, "Go and accompany Vahn Cadieux. Someone will need to guide him to his designated room when he returns."

"Understood, Lord Helia," the combat witch complied and left.

…

…

…

Meanwhile, Vaan secretly changed his outfit and hid his face before dropping by a pawnshop and pawning off some sellable goods from his Heaven-Swallowing Space.

After Vaan secured the bag of coins with no questions asked by the pawnbroker, he immediately left and found a place to switch back into his original black outfit.

Following his course of action, he asked around on the main street and found a popular tavern named Wretched Seal Tavern to drop by.

It was rarely frequented by witches and only had rowdy men with big mouths for drinks and gossip.

Wretched Seal Tavern was the perfect place for Vaan to effectively gather information without being hit on by witches for his slender and handsome figure.

Of course, the possibility of being hit on by men was not zero. However, such instances were quite rare.

The world was filled with beautiful witches. Male witch descendants with their witch bloodlines also possessed superior appearances to ordinary people.

Even so, men that could be more beautiful than witches were very rare.

Thus, men who lust for other men either had something wrong with their eyes or something wrong with their heads.

…

Dingling~!

The bell rang as soon as Vaan pulled open the door and headed inside Wretched Seal Tavern, filled with rowdy men of varying strengths and wet floors due to spilled drinks.

Vaan quickly headed over to the bar to order himself a drink.

"What can I get for you?" the cute female bartender with blonde hair and mesmerizing golden eyes asked with a charming smile.

"Surprisingly, there is also a lovely lady here to serve the drinks in a place of men," Vaan complimented with a smile of his own.

"I like the vibe here," the cute female bartender casually replied while maintaining her smile, "I'm Raina. And you are?"

"Vahn Cadieux. You can just call me Vahn. And as you can probably tell, I'm new around here, my Lady. If you may, can you recommend a drink to me?"

"Oh my, aren't you one with manners? Since you asked so nicely, It'll be hard for me to refuse. For beginners, I'll recommend Serpent's Kiss. As for experienced drinkers, I recommend the Dragon's Kick, our tavern's specialty."

"A mild drink with an interesting spice or a heavy drink so strong it can knock out a person, huh? I'll have a mug of the Serpent's Kiss, please. Thank you."

"One mug of Serpent's Kiss coming right up. Thank you for your patronage."

Although the cute female bartender maintained her professionalism, Vaan could clearly tell the disinterest in her eyes, which was also the result he sought.

A young lady who enjoyed the rowdiness of men like the cute female bartender naturally wouldn't be attracted to a gentlemanly and weak-looking man buying light drinks.

Nevertheless, the cute female bartender was surprised by Vaan's ability to guess the nature of drinks by their names and became a little curious; not enough to be attracted to him, but enough not to ignore him.

After Vaan paid for his drink with some of the coins he earned, he found himself at a table in the corner of the tavern and sat down, seemingly minding his own business.

However, his ears were perked and took in all the words of the rowdy speakers.

No one minded Vaan's quiet presence, which conflicted with the vibe of the tavern. In fact, the men inside the tavern treated Vaan like he was invisible.

Everyone had their own circles and only chatted boisterously within them.

Vaan didn't have to worry about someone coming over to strike up a conversation with him. But even if it happened, he would welcome it.

…

"Hey, do you what—?"

"No, I do not know what."

Before a rowdy man with the aura of a Rank 1 Aura Warrior could finish speaking at the table behind Vaan's table, one of the man's buddies interrupted.

"Hahaha, you fucker. Are you trying to be funny? Shut up and let me finish," the Rank 1 Aura Warrior smacked his buddy on the back.

"Anyway, I heard something interesting about…"