Max didn't immediately respond when he heard Janice's question and just looked at her in silence. Although she claimed to be Flavia's sister and seemed like a good person, When he had an unsettling feeling about her.
After a moment, he responded by saying, "Yeah. She was alright the last time I saw her."
Janice frowned inwardly and thought, 'Is he really her friend? How can he not know she was injured during the outing? Maybe she didn't tell him. Yeah, that makes sense. She has been always the type to keep things to herself. However, it doesn't seem to be the case here.'
Despite feeling something was amiss, she maintained her smiled and said, "Good. If you see her, please tell her to contact us. We have been worried about her."
"I'll do that." Max curtly replied. He didn't want to talk to her any longer because of the uneasy feeling she gave him. Therefore, he glanced at the old shopkeeper who was standing there, glaring at him begrudgingly, and said, "Please, excuse me, I've things to settle here."
"Yes, Please." Janice didn't seem surprised that he wanted to cut short their conversation and this caused Max to feel this woman was really something. After bidding Max and others farewell, she turned around and left with the old woman.
Watching her leave, Rime and Belen commented simultaneously, "That woman is dangerous."
"Oh! How can you tell?" Max asked, surprised.
"It's just a gut feeling," Rima replied.
Max looked at them and thought, 'It's true when they say a woman's intuition is terrifying.'
He then glanced at Janice departing back and thought, 'It seems it isn't only because of that guy Dalton that Flavia always seems sad.'
Shaking her head to calm his wandering thoughts, Max turned to the old shopkeeper. He took out 60,000 Mana stones, and sent them toward him while laughing, "Old man, if weren't so greedy, you could've earned 600,000 Mana stones."
The old man's body trembled and his expression darkened upon hearing this. He knew what Max said was true, and he also regretted his actions, however, that doesn't mean he wouldn't feel humiliated and angry when someone said this to his face.
Alas, despite feeling incredibly angry, he couldn't do anything about it. He just accepted the Mana stones and shut his shop's door.
Little Arya and Leticia laughed seeing this, "Hehe, this is what you get for trying to swindle us."
Bang!
As soon as their voices fell, they heard something breaking inside the shop. Most likely, the old man had punched the furniture in anger.
Max chuckled and said, "That's enough guys. Let's return now."
"No, big brother. I still want to explore the market and eat more delicious things." Little Arya pleaded with puppy eyes.
Seeing her acting all cute, Max couldn't bring himself to say no so he nodded, "Okay. Let's go." However, how could he have known that this little girl won't let them off the hook until night?
...
At night, in the city lord's mansion, dining hall...
Everyone was sitting around the dining table. Elena, the beautiful city lord glanced at Max and others and apologetically said, "You guys must be quite exhausted after following around this naughty child for the whole day. To rid you of your exhaustion, I have asked the servants to prepare the medicinal baths for you."
"Thank you, city lord," Max smiled lightly at her before moving his gaze away. However, it was a trying task for him because Elena's beauty wasn't in any way lower than Siana's or Lilly's if she dress up nicely like them. So, he very much wanted to let his eyes feast on her beauty but didn't dare to since Ryan was sitting right beside her and he would glance in his direction once in a while.
"No, mother. I wasn't being naughty. I was only showing the city market to the big brother and big sisters. If you don't believe me, you can ask them. I even took them to the auction house." Little Arya said with a wronged expression.
"Yes, yes, you are only showing them around." Elena helplessly said.
Ryan glanced at Max and said, "Kid, I hadn't expected you to master a top-tier grade-three spell. I've to say, you exceeded my expectations."
Max wasn't surprised about the fact that he already knew about this. He and his wife were this city's rulers after all, and they must know what was happening across the city at all times. So, something as significant as the appearance of a powerful spell like the [Destruction wheel] was sure to catch their attention.
Max only smiled in response to his compliment since he didn't wish to lie about mastering it if not necessary.
After that, they had dinner and when they were about to head back to their rooms and have their medicinal baths, Ryan stopped Max and handed him a spatial bag.
"What is this, Uncle Ryan?" Max asked.
"It's a small token of gratitude from me," Ryan said and headed out, not giving Max any chance to say anything more.
Max glanced into the spatial bag and saw five small wooden boxes lying there.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
His heartbeat quickened when he saw the wooden boxes because they were identical to boxes that contained the spirit fruits he received from the auction hall.
'Are there really five spirit fruits in them?' Max was so excited that he couldn't wait to open them right there and check whether his assumption was correct or not. But since he was still in the dining hall and it wouldn't seem good, he decided to check them after returning to his room.
Rima and others saw the excitement on his face and became curious as to what he had gotten which made him so excited.
"What is it, Max? Is it something more valuable than the spirit fruits?" Leticia asked, her eyes sparkling in anticipation. Rima and Belen reacted the same.
They knew as a matter of fact that he wouldn't get so excited if there wasn't something really good because earlier when they had heard about the spirit fruits being auctioned, he wasn't so excited.
"I'm not sure yet. Let's go and check it out." Max replied and walked toward their room with large strides.
