The adventurer at the bottom is fantasizing again.

"What...what did you say?"

Hawthorne took a step back as if struck by lightning.

"Miss, you may not know who you are talking to." He gritted his teeth and spat out these words, which carried a hint of threat.

Upon hearing this, the two guards behind him stepped forward in unison, their fingers reaching for the hilts of their swords at their waists.

Eileen wanted to take a closer look at Lorraine in his dark blue outfit, but he blocked her view, and her words finally carried a hint of genuine anger:

"I told you to get lost! Someone who has to introduce themselves by their father's name dares to talk back to me?"

Hawthorne, furious, failed to notice the subtle shift in the atmosphere in the shop. He took another step back, pointed at Eileen, and snapped:

"Grab her for me!"

He waited two seconds and found that the woman in front of him was looking at him with a half-smile, while the guards behind him were as silent as if they were dead.

"What's wrong with you all! Are you all deaf...?!"

Hawthorne turned away angrily, his scolding suddenly stopping, like a chicken being strangled.

He noticed that the woman's attendant had somehow appeared behind him, gripping the hilt of his guard's sword firmly with both hands.

"Young...Young Master..."

The guard on the left blushed, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pull the knife out.

"Young Master Hawthorne... if you're willing to forget what happened today and obediently disappear from our sight, perhaps I'll take pity on you and spare your life. What do you think?"

Lorraine frowned, looking at him with a deep, unsettling gaze.

[Human hair, male, approximately 25 to 30 years old, unusually agitated]

Another anomaly?

He quickly connected the word with the strange young man from before.

Lorraine has used hair perception many times, but the emotional results obtained are all rather vague.

But even those adventurers who got into fights in the tavern only felt "very" annoyed by the hair-sensing.

He had initially thought the young man was mentally unstable, but after seeing this "abnormality" again, he keenly sensed that something was amiss.

Perhaps these people were influenced by something?

But the information he has is still too little to make any judgment.

There might actually be people so stupid that they can't even understand hair follicle perception, and yet they still have to give it an "abnormal" rating.

Hawthorne's eyes widened, seemingly unable to believe that this person dared to threaten him. He angrily retorted:

"You lowly commoner, how dare you threaten me? Do you know who I am? How dare you threaten the son of a baron!"

"You two pieces of trash, what are you waiting for? Didn't you say you'd die for me? Kill him for me now!"

The two guards looked troubled, and the lackey gritted his teeth upon hearing this, wanting to rush forward to help his master.

"Tsk."

Lorraine suddenly sprang up, grabbed the heads of two guards, and slammed them together forcefully.

The two poor guys didn't even have time to react before they instantly passed out.

He then kicked the young lackey who lunged at him to the ground, and drew a knife from a guard's waist, placing it against Hawthorne's shoulder.

"You're threatening me," he said calmly.

Hawthorne's angry expression froze on the spot, his nostrils twitched, and he swallowed hard.

He glanced at the knife on his shoulder; the cold blade pressed against his neck, and he could even vaguely feel his skin being cut open.

"You...you'll regret this," he said, trembling.

"What did you say your name was again? Hawthorne Blaine... Let me think, let me think."

Eileen put down the cloth in her hand, rubbed her head, and seemed to be trying hard to search her memory for the name.

She suddenly snapped her fingers and laughed.

"I remember now! Herbert Bryan, the poor baron who was questioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the nobles' meeting in the capital last autumn for owing three years' worth of wool tax?"

Hawthorne's face instantly turned from red to white, and he stared at the woman in front of him in disbelief.

How did she know her father's name?

Did I see it somewhere before, and this time I'm just fooling myself?

But what she said...

The capital city, the noble council, and the finance minister—these were all things he had heard about from his father and used to show off to those poor bastards.

He slept with many women using this trick, so how could she know all this? She actually called her own father a poor wretch...?

"I..." He opened his mouth.

Eileen didn't have time to pay attention to him anymore. She walked over to Lorraine and gently patted his hand holding the knife.

"Alright, you're lucky."

Lorraine chuckled, sheathed the sword in the guard's scabbard, and leaned to the side to watch the show.

Eileen secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

She originally didn't want to pay any attention to this Hawthorne. He hadn't even inherited the family fortune yet, and he wasn't even a knight. If this were in the capital, he wouldn't even be qualified to see her.

But she was afraid that this fool would anger Lorraine again, causing him to kill them all in a fit of rage, which would make things difficult to handle afterwards.

"Get out of here!" she said coldly.

Hawthorne fled as if granted a pardon, but halfway there he remembered there were still two guards, so he gritted his teeth and ordered one of his henchmen to drag them out.

The shop finally quieted down.

Eileen turned around, picked up the dark blue cloth again, handed it to Felix, and said:

"Including this one, how much does it cost in total?"

Felix snapped out of his daze, quickly did some mental calculations, and gave Lorraine a number that sent chills down his spine.

Holy crap... how can a few pieces of clothing cost so much!?

His composure while watching the play vanished instantly, leaving only a look of heartache on his face.

Eileen tossed a small bag of coins onto the counter and asked casually, "Hmm, how long will it take to collect?"

"You can pick it up in a week."

Felix picked up the bag, glanced at it, and reminded her, "Miss, you've given too much."

"Make him another pair of trousers with the rest, to match that dark blue one." She waved her hand.

"OK."

Felix accepted the gold coins, took out a receipt, quickly wrote a few words on it, and handed it to her.

Eileen took the receipt and stuffed it into Lorraine's pocket. Seeing his stunned expression, she pursed her lips, maintaining her composure, and said:

"Come on, what are you standing there for?"

Lorraine followed her out of the shop, still reeling from what had just happened, watching Eileen's light steps.

Am I being kept by a sugar daddy?

He felt a little awkward, and after walking for a while, he couldn't help but say, "I'll pay you back later."

"Need not."

"How can that be?"

Eileen turned around, looked at him seriously, and said:

"Do you feel like you owe me something just because I paid for your things?"

"Well..."

"You were able to recreate the disguise technique after only looking at the model a few times; that's an extraordinary talent."

Just as Lorraine was about to answer yes, Eileen spoke up.

She slightly raised her chin and said with a hint of disdain:

"But you can't become a spellcaster just by being talented. You need spell tools, materials, scrolls, and lots and lots of money."

"So you paid for it for me?"

Lorraine raised an eyebrow.

He decided to retract his previous impression that she was just a young girl; this woman was too good at flirting...

"I'm just investing in a future archmage. All I need to give is a few small pieces of clothing to win over an archmage."

Eileen's tone became unusually flippant, but her slightly reddened ears betrayed her mood.

Damn it... how could I have said something like that?

I don't want any kind of unwavering devotion!!!