System vs Rebirth

"She's entered the building," whispered Rose while looking at the building through the window. She was sitting in front of Noel inside a restaurant not far from the brothel. This was a perfect place to use to observe the brothel. Although it was a bit hard for even a strong fighter to see from this angle, it wasn't a problem for Rose.

She was monitoring the brothel's movement and Anna, making sure nothing went wrong.

The brothel was called Eternal Flower. Because the business was booming, the brothel building had four floors, standing far higher than most buildings in the area.

Looking at how the building was furnished, it seemed that the higher the floor, the better the rooms. It showed that there were different levels of service and the top floor must be used for an important customer.

"What should we do?" Rose asked gently, glancing at Noel, who was calmly eating his meal.

Although he looked like he was focused on the meal, he was actually thinking about the information they had.

According to Dimitri, the brothel was owned by the second in command of the Ardagan Family's espionage division. The leader was called Harley.

Noel couldn't help but wonder how much they knew about their arrival. On the one hand, they had come to this place unannounced. On the other hand, if the brothel truly had that vast and powerful information network, the other party should have heard about their arrival.

That was why Noel wondered why the other party hadn't contacted him yet. He thought it was due to him hiding his identity. It seemed that the other party only knew about Iadre, not the fact that he was Noel.

Though, they should have some suspicion, considering they should be aware of Anna's existence and the fact that they were helping Anna during the gate's inspection.

Noel stopped eating and took a sip of water before saying calmly, "I'm just worried that we've underestimated them."

"Is that so?" Rose tilted her head in confusion. She thought the leader shouldn't be that strong. Even if he managed to employ a powerful expert, it shouldn't be as strong as theirs. After all, a loose Spirit Master was hard to come by.

So, they should have some advantages during this operation.

But Rose couldn't assure Noel of that fact simply due to Dimitri's existence. The Ardagan Family had concealed their true strength the whole time. Dimitri was one of the examples.

So, it wouldn't be strange if there were multiple Spirit Masters inside that brothel. Still, he didn't think there would be a Spirit Grandmaster inside. At the very least, if they ended up in the worst-case scenario, they should be able to escape.

Rose might still have underestimated the true power of the Ardagan Family. Although their rank had declined, it was still considered one of the oldest families in the kingdom.

Even if they appeared to be ruined on the surface, the strength that no one had ever seen might still be hiding underground, biding their time.

This was the reason why Noel wanted to meet this man. He actually wanted to know the depth of his own family.

Now that he didn't have parents who taught him about this, it was better to experience it himself.

After a few minutes, Noel added, "Tell Anna to get out of there after thirty minutes whether she has found or hasn't found anything."

Rose didn't understand why he wanted it that way, but she still relayed the message.

While waiting for Anna, Noel took a deep breath as he scanned the entire restaurant with his Affection Medal. He had changed his medal before coming here, so he could see whether the people around him were a bystander or not. Of course, he didn't plan to use this on Anna yet because he chose to trust her for the time being.

To his surprise, he found three unique affections among these people.

Name: Hansen

Affection: Hostile (21/100)

Description: Someone who is suspicious of you and tries to find out more about your information.

Name: Hana

Affection: Hostile (60/100)

Description: Someone who hates you as if you have attacked her.

Name: Gants

Affection: Jealous (67/100)

Description: Someone who is envious of your status, relationship, or resources.

'What in the world is happening…' Noel immediately frowned, retracting his gaze. He assessed these three unique affections carefully.

But because of the degree of hostility, Noel tried to focus on the one with the highest number first.

His eyebrows immediately twitched the moment he read the description. 'Jealous? Is it because I'm sitting with Rose? Well, she is a beautiful lady, so I can kind of understand. But seriously, this guy doesn't think with his brain but with his instinct… I'll ignore it for now.

'As for the other two… This Hana is a woman. And judging from the description…' Noel suddenly fell silent before asking Rose, "By the way, when are we going back to the inn tonight?"

"Huh?" Rose tilted her head in confusion, but she soon saw Noel telling her to stop looking with his lips. In that instant, she realized that they were being watched and played along. "As soon as the sky turns dark. I don't want to go back far too late."

"Alright." Noel smiled. From the looks of it, Noel believed that this Hana was actually one of the women from the brothel. She must have been suspicious of them and tried to figure out the situation. That was why Noel asked her to stop.

'When did she arrive? I had scanned this place earlier, but she was not there, I think? Or was she here the whole time and became hostile after suspecting us?' Noel frowned.

Hana was his main concern, but he couldn't ignore the last guy as well. He didn't know why this person was suspecting them as well, considering they were tourists here.

However, one thing was clear in this situation.

'It seems that our stay here will be more dangerous than I originally thought.'