I left my new residence at sunset — unfortunately without having some extracurricular fun, to both of our disappointment. I changed back into my expensive clothes and washed away the cosmetics.

Also, before leaving, I taught Pearyin a few basic takedown moves for her to practice along with a few more stances. In that, the other four martial arts I learned helped. Then, I gave her a detailed explanation of when and where to use the pills I left for her, along with strict instructions never to show those pills to anyone.

Then, I left her to practice the Forest Dance, my bastardized martial art. Forest Dance was still inferior to even the weak variants of the five martial arts schools, mostly because it lacked a concept to enhance the essence, but that was not a huge problem. I could always improve it in the future.

And even if that failed, it wasn't a great harm. The System seemed to only care about the cultivation realm. As for Pearyin, being a substandard Muscle Reinforcement Martial Artist was still far better than anything else.

While thinking that, I managed to get near the compound, the darkness making it even easier to move around. The guards and servants were moving with a greater speed than I expected. Once I was sufficiently near, I appeared from a side street, making a show of trembling in fear.

"Great Scholar, you're there," said the first guard who noticed my presence and led me toward the compound. "Where were you?"

"I have been chased by a few persistent thieves, so I decided to stay hidden for a while," I explained, feeling no need to shout about the suspected involvement of Lord Eirto with a random guard.

"A thief," he said, looking surprised for a moment as he looked around. Then, he shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Follow me. Master Elsana is concerned about your safety."

"Thanks. It was a harrowing experience," I said, sounding as cowardly and pitiful as I could manage. Even without the System, making others believe that I was able to escape due to pure luck rather than skill was to my benefit. As I walked, I occasionally looked around in a twitchy manner like I was afraid of others attacking, like my legs turned to jelly from the sudden turn of events.

It was a reasonable reaction for a man who had been pampered since childhood.

As I walked, I took note of the way people looked at me, taking note of who looked at me with disgust, and who looked at me with pity. The former, in particular, felt very important … if I could actually make them give me anything in an attempt to insult me.

Unfortunately, even with the high multiplier, it represented a niche source of income at best.

It was hard to convince people to give away valuable items as an insult.

In contrast, the ones that looked at me with pity were far more beneficial. If I was lucky enough, I might actually earn a few gifts from them. Some lessons about obscure topics were valuable, and so were the clothes and other knick knacks they might pass.

The Inventory feature was too useful during emergencies to be neglected. Having extra clothes, some extra equipment, and maybe even some higher quality cosmetics that I could use for better disguise, could prove critical to my survival.

Of course, that assumed there was neither a time limit, nor a capacity limit to Inventory … but that was a problem for another time.

For the moment, I let the guard lead me to the same private garden, and both Lannayin and Elsana were there. Lannayin looked worried openly, and while Elsana tried to hide her expression, I caught the signs of distress in her eyes as well.

"I heard you had an adventure," Elsana said. "It looks like you have another story to tell."

"Not much of a one, I'm afraid," I said with a dismissive shrug. "Just a bunch of thieves, though they were surprisingly persistent," I said.

"They were not thieves. It must be Lord Eirto's men. That guy is too persistent, and just because he has friends in the capital, he thinks himself to be untouchable."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Now, Lannayin—" Elsana started, trying to calm her down, but Lannayin ignored.

"Oh, come on. We both know what's going on there!"

Elsana sighed. "Of course. I'm not a moron. But throwing accusations without evidence doesn't help anyone. Eirto doesn't leave evidence behind. Why else do you think they chose him to handle this mess," Elsana explained.

I wondered exactly what that mess was, but I didn't ask. I didn't have the luxury of playing the local kingmaker. Well, that was not entirely correct. I probably could, but that would require me to stay longer in Markas than I had planned.

Not a sacrifice I was willing to make.

"You should have sent some bodyguards," Lannayin said.

"What's the point of saying that now," Elsana said. "We haven't considered the possibility, leading to this situation. We are going to be more careful next time."

They spoke over me, confident in their assumption that I couldn't be trusted with my own safety. Considering that only through my hard work in acting they believed it, I didn't feel like complaining about the implicit insult.

Their discussion about my safety soon turned into various tricks Lord Eirto was pulling to further penetrate the town politically. I acted like any proper mistress or trophy wife should do, and just nodded while sipping my wine.

I tried to understand what was going on, but without knowing the names of the people they mentioned and the events they discussed, it was difficult to understand. I barely managed to compile a general sense of the issue. Eirto was rich enough to monopolize some of the trade channels, and the ones that he failed to monopolize were suffering through some unfortunate bandit or beast attacks.

It was suspicious, but I was more interested in the way they described the general dangers of traveling between cities. Apparently, there was a reason for the City Lord's relatively high independence. Traveling between cities was even more dangerous than I had assumed, and they were separated by a great stretch of wilderness, filled with monsters and bandits alike.

Traveling alone was impossible for all but the strongest martial artists, and the closer to the kingdom borders, the harder it got. An interesting situation.

Unfortunately, I was supposed to be a great traveler, which prevented me from asking follow-up questions. I busied myself with food and drinks.

[Cultivation Difference Bonus - 26, Pity Bonus - 5]

[31x Return - Flame Flicker Wine, Profound Medium-Grade]

However, seeing the drop in the cultivation difference bonus was annoying. The drop was lower than I feared, which was good, but it still represented a great loss of potential.

Unknowingly, Lord Eirto managed to deliver a blow against me.

While they were talking, a servant knocked on the door and burst in, her expression making it obvious that whatever happened was not good news. She passed Elsana a note.

Elsana read it, her general levity disappearing in an instant as she passed the note to Lannayin, who looked even angrier after reading it. "They are pushing their luck," Lannayin growled in anger.

"Maybe we should consider moving away," Elsana whispered, too soft for me to hear if I were in Initiate Realm like I convinced them. "I'm sure another city will welcome the presence of two experts of our caliber."

"No. Are you forgetting all the help she has granted to us? We can't just turn our backs on her. Not now!" Lannayin answered, much louder. "Not after all the effort she put into blocking the others when we were weak. We owe her."

Elsana sighed. "We don't have the power to make a difference."

"Doesn't matter," Lannayin growled as she stood up and walked away. She didn't even bother to open the door, just kicked it away.

Elsana just sighed, showing that she was used to angry displays from her friend. I said nothing as I stood up as well, but instead of leaving, I poured her another glass of wine and started rubbing her shoulders.

She was tense.

The safer thing was to walk away without saying anything and let her anger fade, but their discussion implied that, soon, the city would get too dangerous for my taste. And, whether I stayed or left, the extra power would help.

"Feel free to tell me if I'm doing anything wrong," I said.

"Bring your fingers higher. And be careful of the fourth acupuncture point, it's too sensitive to be manipulated directly …" she started, correcting my moves, her requests getting more and more demanding.

I recognized the pattern, as she was not the first rich and powerful woman I tried to keep happy. Sometimes, they dealt with other issues, and subconsciously wanted an excuse to blow up at someone unrelated. Wrong order at the restaurant, a loud servant…

A masseuse who was unable to follow her extremely complicated requests…

Unfortunately for her, her subconscious attempts to trip me up failed spectacularly. Instead, she was giving me a very advanced massage lesson, every complicated order teaching me more. That lasted almost an hour.

The best part, she was too frustrated to pay attention to notice that maybe I was a touch too skilled at massaging. Luckily, while essence massage was important, its real value came from actually helping people break through, which required Muscle Reinforcement Cultivation, which I kept hidden.

Coming from a master of her field, such a lesson was already valuable enough, but as she suddenly stopped with a beautiful growl that showed a different kind of frustration, I was happy to receive a shocking System return.

[Cultivation Difference Bonus - 26, Pampering Bonus - 51 (Capped)]

[77x Return - Essence Massage Technique Lesson, Minor Familiarity - Minor Accomplishment]

Talk about an unexpected reward. Minor Accomplishment was no joke.

Maybe, even with things getting dangerous, sticking around a few more days was the correct choice.