Once they left this shop, Estelle and Vince resumed their stroll in the busy streets, looking for a weapon for Vince.

“What weapon are you looking for, Vince?”

“I’d like to get a pair of daggers and a bow for the time being.”

“A bow?”

“Yup. As you know, the weapon that we master now also heavily influences our future paths. Once we breakthrough to the Flowing Realm, those who picked ranged weapons and have a strong affinity with mana will have the possibility to become mages. I’ve always wanted to become a mage. Thus I’m picking the weapons in preparation for that.”

“You want to become a mage? Even though you are so good with swords?”

“I’m already good with swords, right? It only makes sense for me to focus on magic.”

“Aren’t you too conceited calling yourself good with swords? You might be better than me, but I’m not worth mentioning in front of the real experts.”

“Eeeh… Well, don’t worry. If I fail at magic, I can always become a swordsman this way, no?”

“You’re a lost cause.”

“Many tell me that.”

At this point, Vince stopped and pointed towards a very small shop in one of the small alleyways. Most people wouldn’t even think there can be a shop there.

“Milady, let’s go in that shop.”

“Are you sure? It looks like a shady place… You don’t have to worry about money. I won’t mistreat my faithful attendant; we can go in one of the main shops!”

“I’m sure about this choice; let’s go.”

‘What an interesting shop… even though it’s so hidden, it has such good quality weapons. I think Estelle will be quite surprised once we get inside. This might be an excellent find.”

Thus, the two little children entered the shop. But no one was inside, even though the small wooden sign outside clearly stated that the shop was open.

“There seems to be no clerk in this shop. Should we go to another shop?”

“Let’s not be impatient. I’m going to look for a good bow in the meantime.”

The shop had all kinds of weapons inside, from swords to shields and hidden weapons.

‘This place seems like a shop not for nobles but for actual professional warriors.’

Even though the nobles were the strongest warriors in the nation, they rarely fought. In the first place, revealing their strength was, in most cases, very detrimental. Unless there was a call to arms or a particular need, no noble would fight.

Therefore most of the fighting, especially against monsters and beasts, was done by lower cultivation warriors. Those warriors looked for very different qualities in their gear. Usually, they would prefer a very durable weapon over one that was slightly better but easily broken.

As those warriors often fought for very long periods, durability was their priority. No one would want to find themselves without a proper weapon in the middle of the fighting.

Nobles would prefer not so-durable weapons, but that performed better, as they usually intervened only for short battles that ordinary warriors could not win.

After browsing through all the bows there, he picked a relatively small bow, but it was reasonably big since he was just a kid.

“Milady, I picked one. We can go now. I already own a pair of daggers. My dad left them as a parting gift for me.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

But there was still no clerk in the shop. Thus they waited at the entrance of the store.

It took some time before someone arrived. It was an old man not much taller than the two kids. He had a long white beard that almost touched the floor and a pointy hat that almost wholly hid his short white hair.

He came from the backdoor and proceeded to greet the two little customers.

“Hello, how may I help you? I’m the owner of this shop.”

“Hi, we would like to pay for this bow.”

“That would be fifteen silver, milady.”

Thus Estelle proceeded to take out the purse. Vince noticed something amiss as she counted the silvers that were given her as change in the last shop to pay.

‘There’s not many people in the streets anymore. Something must be wrong. We better be careful.’

Once Estelle was done, she gave Vince his new bow. And as they were going out of the store, Vince whispered in Estelle’s ears.

“Milady, there’s something wrong here. We should be careful and look for your uncle.”

“What is there so strange to warrant this much carefulness?”

“There’s nobody around. It’s abnormal. Better be careful than sorry.”

“I’ll trust you then.”

But Vince didn’t tell her that he was almost sure at this point that something big was happening. He sensed many powerful presences in the area, and he could guess what was happening. The problem was if they were involved in this as well.

Thus, they started sneaking around the small alleyways that branched off the main street, but it was all empty no matter where they went. You could only see here and there some thieves taking advantage of the situation to steal from the shops.

But suddenly, Vince had a terrible premonition. He grabbed Estelle’s hand and started to run in one of the alleyways as far as he could. But all was to no avail. In no time, they were trapped by people in black hoods on both sides.

“Boss, we found them.”

One of the men screamed, and soon another two or three people jumped down from the roofs of the buildings.

“Good job. Be sure to leave the face of the girl intact. We need it to get the reward.”

‘Crap, we really were their targets. Let’s see if I can get us out of this situation.’

Thus he whispered to Estelle a plan.

“I’ll try to get us out of here without fighting, but in case I fail, I’ll extend my hand towards you. When I do that, you have to give me your sword and run away from the main street as fast as you can. Understood?”

Estelle was slightly trembling, clearly fearful of what was going to happen.

“Everything will be alright. You only have to trust me, okay?”

Estelle merely nodded. Thus Vince started his plan.

‘Who would ask for an assassination on the daughter of a duke? One that isn’t even known to be particularly talented? Considering what people they sent to fight us, they don’t seem to know how important this little girl is. The powerful auras are not here. They probably have another target. But there are too many possibilities to be considered here. I’ll have to try to get some information out of them.’

“Who is your leader? I want to negotiate.”

“Ahah, you heard him! A toddler wants to negotiate with us!”

‘Annoying. They don’t seem to be taking me seriously. I’ll have to try cold reading and force them to be wary of me.’

“I know who sent you. It’s so easy that as soon as they find our dead bodies, anyone with a little brain would be able to guess who sent you.”

“And who would that be? Let’s hear it.”

“The only ones that would have the courage to try and assassinate a duke’s daughter are either people from other ducal houses or people within the same family that want to take out a competitor. But considering that they placed so much importance on her brother, and since I doubt his talent was made known outside the family, I dare to say it was someone among the Von Sideria.”

Once the Von Sideria name came out, some of them showed some slight reactions. Vince was sure he had hit on the spot. These guys were probably not even professional assassins.

‘Seems like I got lucky today. I got some good info. But I doubt they’ll let me continue. I already see some of them getting uneasy. They’ll probably act soon.’

“We have no intention of negotiating with a brat. Let’s go and kill those two.”

Thus Vince extended his hand towards Estelle, who understood immediately. She gave him her sword and started running. Vince was with her and preparing to make way for her.

‘I’m a Early-Noon Stage Awakening Realm with an Orange core. Their leader is a Late-Dusk Stage with a Yellow Core. He is better than me in both Core and Realm. Killing him will be difficult. But the others seem doable. Most of them have an Orange Core like me. They are twenty in total. But I’d rather not show a kid something too gruesome. I’ll make way for her first.’

With the sword in hand, Vince started to attack anybody that put themselves in the way. Wanting to avoid spilling blood in front of Estelle, his attacks were either feints or attacks aiming to throw off the opponents’ balance.

One, Two, Three. Soon there were only two people still in the way.

‘I sense nobody up this street. She should be fine by herself. In any case, the ones pursuing us are small fries. As long as I keep their leader at bay, Estelle should be able to run away from anybody. She has the same cultivation base as me, after all.’

Vince thus made a last-ditch effort.

“Don’t let them run! We must capture them!”

But the leader yelling made no difference. Vince jumped, and sticking the blade of the sword in the ground between the two, he erected himself on his arms and threw a kick in the face of the remaining two enemies.

Since he wasn’t tall enough to kick them in the face alone, he used the sword to gain some height and put himself upside down. The double kick formed a T shape, and the enemies for a second, were so stunned that they didn’t know how to react. They had never seen anybody pull a stunt like this on them.

Estelle managed to run away since the way was now clear, but Vince stayed exactly where he was.

“What are you doing, brat? Aren’t you running for your life?”

Estelle turned to look at Vince for one last time, but she kept running away, as Vince had told her.

Their leader was now in front of Vince. He wasn’t too worried about Estelle running away as he should catch up thanks to his improved physique.

“No point. I’m just waiting for the undesired observers to be away. It’s almost time.”

“What do you mean with undesired observers?”

“Nothing you should worry about. Well, at this point, for sure they can’t hear us, so it’s fine for me to tell you. Estelle is protected at all times by one of the old geezers from the Von Sideria. I’d rather not show him that I’m already an Orange core, you know.”

“She has the protection by an old geezer? Are you an Orange Core? Ahahah, the pressure is making you go crazy?”

“Well, now I can let myself loose. Don’t worry; you’ll soon find out. Taking on a Late-Dusk Stage with a Yellow Core seems fun.”