Bang!

The moment Vicente raised one of his hands, everyone in Darek's group looked at it in doubt, but then the sound of a gunshot came.

A bullet covered in mana traveled at over 1,500 m/s from its position until it passed beside Darek's cheek, making him turn pale with fear instantly after noticing the slight wound on that cheek.

The whole square became silent after that gunshot sound while the expressions of the young men in Darek's group changed from earlier smiles to seriousness and fear.

Vicente looked deeply at that blond young man and said. "You're not in the academy anymore. Remember that, Darek.

Out here, we don't act like children, and we don't condone childish idiocy. Be more careful with your manners. It would be bad if something like that had been aimed at the middle of your forehead..."

Gulp!

Darek looked at Vice with his eyes wide open and took a step back.

He now felt that he had stood face-to-face with death and provoked it.

His heart was beating faster, and all his instincts were telling him to run from there because something that could have killed him presumably had him in its aim right now.

And this was indeed the reality. Currently, Vicente had more than 15 armed men in this village, not even counting those working for his allied merchants.

Among these men, three always stayed at different points around this village to watch the paths he, Nina, and Rory traveled daily.

If anyone tried to harm them, the order Vicente had given these men was to shoot such people in the head without mercy!

If one of them raised one of their hands, then one of these men was to give a warning shot like the one one one of them had just given in the direction of Darek's cheek.

The man who had shot this tall, blond young man was with Darek in the aim of his rifle at this very moment, waiting to carry out his mission if necessary.

"Wait! Wait a minute, Vicente! I was just saying hello... I have no negative intentions." Darek said as his voice trembled.

The other young men in his group wanted to run, but Rory said. "You guys better not move too much. Our friends around the village have nervous fingers and might make a mistake if you move strangely."

Vicente looked at his associate's face and saw that Rory was trying hard not to smile.

Rory had never had the chance to really take revenge on these people. The battle years ago had been a draw, which had not satisfied him even though it had solved his problems.

In this situation, scaring them a little while humiliating them was excellent!

Gulp!

"Please don't do anything. We were just playing..." A fat, tall young man said this as the middle of his pants became darker.

Something began to drip down his shoes, forming a small puddle below him.

"He..."

"He pissed himself in fear?" Someone in the vicinity asked in a low voice, trying to hold back his laughter not out of fear of this fat man but of Vicente and Rory.

'What fools! Don't they know that this village practically belongs to Vicente and Rory?' One of the Duke's family guards in this village saw the situation from afar and shook his head negatively, seeing how foolish those young men were.

Technically the village was the king's, like all the cities in the kingdom. In a second analysis, it was under the Duke's management because it belonged to the province ruled by the Scott family.

But in the world, things were not so simple.

The owner of a place was not always the one who had the rights to property or government but the most powerful and influential.

Vicente did not want to own anything and did not interfere with the affairs of the nobles and the Duke of Province's family in this village, but he was the most influential locally. As such, many saw him as he deserved, as the leader of the village, or rather, the place's owner.

Vice looked into Darek's eyes in silence for a moment, seeing the nervousness of this young man. "Go away!"

With that shout, Darek and his group took off, running from there under the eyes of a few dozen people in the surrounding area.

Amid this, these people were already discussing the matter among themselves, seeing yet another reason to respect Vicente and Rory.

These two did not want to become famous and were intent on raising a family living in the shadows. It was not in their interest to be known and feared by an entire village.

But acting in such a small place where everyone knew they had no powers and depended on other forms of strength to act, they had no way of hiding part of their activities.

They needed to have persuasion power in the village to justify their influence with many local suppliers and avoid problems.

It was contradictory to their interests, but it was necessary.

Vicente didn't bother to demonstrate a little more of his power today and soon continued on his way beside Rory, ignoring the comments about them in the surroundings.

"Let's go to my mother's brothel. She said she wanted to talk to you, Vicente." Rory said as he led the way, changing their plans a bit.

"What does she want?" He asked.

"My mother is not dumb. You know how she is." Rory said, indicating that it wasn't his fault. "She's already figured out what we intend to do. That's why she wants to talk to you."

"What are we going to do? What, in specific, does she think she knows?" Vicente looked at his friend in front of him.

"She thinks we will soon leave the village and expand our operations. In particular, she thinks we will get involved with the criminal underworld..."

"It seems that her hunches are really quite good..."

"What can I say? My mother lived her whole life relating to people from the underworld."

Prostitutes and their workplaces catered to all kinds of people in this society. From the marginalized scum to even the high nobility.

As someone with magnificent beauty in her youth, Rory's mother had gone off the deep end and met every type of client.

This enriched her but also gave her profound knowledge about how prostitution existed in this society.

Usually, brothels were closely related to criminal groups. As such, a good place to understand crime in this society was in places like this.

Vicente knew this and sighed, 'She probably realized this from our actions... Hmm, it will be good for us to leave the village and not relate so closely to people with her knowledge. That will avoid problems.'

"Alright, let's see what Miss Point has to say," Vice said before entering Rory's mother's brothel, following in that young man's footsteps.