No sooner had Jason entered the small building, Jason's nostrils flared as a pungent smell hit him, almost making him gag.

Out of reflex, he manifested a mask made of black flames around his nose and chin, allowing him to breathe freely once again.

Jason was not sure how exactly he should feel right now because he was seemingly imprisoned, yet nobody cared about him!

This situation was weird as he wasn't supposed to leave the building and instead wait for the others to return just to punish him.

Shaking his head at the situation he had to face right now, Jason couldn't help but chuckle, thinking that everything was a little bit weird.

He was already confused that he had only seen women, and even the outlines of energy fluctuations of the servant he had perceived inside the buildings were females.

Other than that, the Crazy woman, the three female Variants had been talking about was a female, as well as the City Lord and her disciple.

Because of that, Jason assumed that the City Lord had something against men, which was extremely bad for him as he was evidently male!

Sighing deeply, he walked through the small building, whose interior looked much larger than he initially expected.

Taking a look around the first floor, Jason didn't expect to encounter someone and was sad to be proven correct.

He knew that someone was on the first floor, but knowing that he was imprisoned, there was no need to rush to the second floor.

Instead, he wanted to take his time to look at everything on the first floor because it was extremely interesting!

Almost every single object had a hue around it, indicating their high quality that stemmed from the manufacturers' skills or the raw material's quality.

Even the beakers he saw had a faint black hue enveloping them, which caused Jason to wonder what exactly the benefits of a high-quality beaker were.

There shouldn't be much of a difference, and he wanted to appraise the equipment by seeing with his eyes, touching it, and enveloping it with his mana.

Unfortunately, this was something he shouldn't do as a stranger, let alone a person under temporary house arrest of sorts that too in the City lord's place while waiting for his punishment to be inflicted.

However, when he stopped right in front of a bunch of inscribing pens, Jason couldn't help but halt in his tracks and approach the small table.

Stooping down, he keenly observed the pens from a distance of fewer than 10 centimeters in order to see the finest details of the runes that had been engraved into the pen.

"That's some amazing work." Jason exclaimed under his breath while trying to decipher the meaning of every rune.

Even though he didn't know a single rune inscribed onto the inscription pen as they were several times more complex than every single rune mankind had ever produced, there were a few he found somewhat familiar.

"Did I see some of those runes on the man-made world bridges?" Right now, Jason didn't even notice that he was speaking his thoughts out loud.

His entire mind was focused on the inscription pens that were one of the most exotic objects on the entire first floor.

At the same time, Jason, who was oblivious to everything in his surroundings, didn't notice that a woman had appeared on the stairway that led towards the second floor.

White feathered wings with several black feathers were folded behind her back, while her eyes were filled with excitement as she had heard the words spoken by Jason.

Everything Mara, the ice-cold-looking Aeus told her seemed to be true, and even better, the young man's eye trait seemed to be even better than initially expected.

Because of that, Pera couldn't help herself as she interrupted Jason's train of thoughts.

"Brat...can you see the runes inscribed on activated world bridges?"

This question came out of nowhere, and Jason jumped up in astonishment.

Turning around, he faced the woman who was called crazy.

Taking a deep breath to overcome the short, yet impactful fright that had spread through his entire body, Jason introduced himself properly once he was done.

"Hello, my name is Jason Stella, and I'm the person who accidentally entered the City lord's abode"

After saying this, Jason scratched the back of his head before smiling drily, cursing himself for various reasons, including the fact that he seemed to have spoken his thoughts out loud before!

"Since you ask this question, I guess, you heard me mumble... Yes, I can see certain runes of an activated world bridge, but the number of world bridges I have seen is restricted to a few, and all of them were low-ranked."

Instead of hiding the partially exposed fact, Jason revealed a few more, preventing the barrage of certain questions that could force him to lie or expose other secrets.

This worked to some extent, because the woman, who introduced herself as Pera, simply nodded her head before changing the topic.

"It's quite brave of you to enter the CIty lord's abode, which only men with permission can enter. You may be a Variant..or not, but it was definitely not the best move for you to come here!"

Hearing this Jason could only sigh, wondering what exactly had he done that even the crazy woman said that he was brave, only to indirectly hint that he was stupid.

"It's not like I want anything except a place to forge, concoct, and inscribe so that I can make some money...."

Pera wanted to say something, but she heard an overly familiar voice running out from the direction of the main building's connecting hallway.

"Pera, do you have more invigorating potions? Calming potions wouldn't be bad either! This batch of dual awakened Manyrs I saved are truly below average this time!!"

Hearing the sonorous voice of a young woman, Jason turned around, only to squint his eyes.

The young woman had fair skin, flawless facial features, and long eyelashes that highlighted her deep, dark brown eyes.

Her physique looked gorgeous with her long and slender legs while her long hair cascaded down her back.

However, it wasn't her beauty that caused Jason to squint his eyes.

While he simply stared at the young woman, Pera was oblivious to this as she looked for some potions in the storage.

Smiling lightly, he couldn't help but feel that him being inside the City lord's abode might be more interesting than he initially thought.

"So it's like that!" Jason mumbled before he released his stigma and Celestia aura while increasing the amount of mana he inserted into his Emperor Eyes.

With this, he exposed himself, but that was not important because the young woman in front of him seemed overly familiar to him despite having never seen her before.

At least, that was what he had assumed, only to notice that his Emperor Eyes had been rendered useless.

There was a faint membrane, concealing the woman's identity, which was the reason for Jason to reveal his stigma and Celestia aura.

This attracted Pera's attention, and the young woman, who only now noticed Jason because he had been standing in the corner of the room.

'Isn't that?' The young woman thought, barely avoiding looking straight into Jason's eyes as he spoke,

"Oh? Isn't that the second time we meet? You look different now...not that it looks worse"

These simple words caused the young woman to stiffen for a short moment as Pera, who had heard Jason returned with a few potions in her hand.

"You know Jen? Are you sure? She almost never leaves the City lord's abode...only"

Just at that moment, Pera bit her tongue realising that she had said a lot, which made her quiet down really quick as she approached Jennifer, the young female, Pera liked to call Jen.

Handing her the potions, Pera felt that it was the best for Jen to leave as quickly as possible, only to hear her say,

"What do you mean, the second time? I have never seen you before!"

Hearing this, Jason couldn't help but smile brightly, as he nonchalantly replied,

"Ok, must have been someone else with three activated cultivation veins, and a darkness and holy affinity then. I apologize!"

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