Chapter 12

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

After navigating through the crowd, Harlen followed the men to a bar at the corner of the street.

The moment he opened the door, a strong aroma of wine blasted straight towards Harlen.

Harlen followed the group of uncles into the shop.

At a closer look, while the decor in the store was not too shabby, it was not like it was very high end either.

The house was neither big nor small, being a square roughly five by five meters.

There was also a second level, but it seemed to be where they stored their goods.

There were no lights on the second floor at all, as though there were no lights installed.

There were three long bar counters in the shop itself, joined together to form a complete whole without any gaps in the middle.

The bench was similarly of the long type to match the bar counter.

As for the floor of the bar, it was padded in a warm wood flooring.

The wooden floor was very new and did not look like many people had stepped on it.

One side of the bar was painted gray, with wine barrels lining the wall as decorations.

The only source of light came from two candles hung from the wooden ceiling, with the bar counter placed directly below the lights.

And the finishing touch was having a large liquor cabinet behind the bar counter.

It was clearly a bar, yet…

Everything inside was as if no one had entered the store in a hundred years, and no one could find it.

“Little brother, would you like something to drink?”

The leading uncle walked behind the bar.

He took out a few bottles of liquor from the wine cabinet and prepared to start mixing them.

“I don’t drink.”

“Anything else is fine.”

Harlen randomly found a seat, sat down, and continued looking around.

However, his eyes often looked at the liquor cabinet behind the bar counter.

From the moment the door opened.

Harlen could smell a scent of blood coming from behind the liquor cabinet.

“Well… have some orange juice.”

Uncle put the liquor back in the liquor cabinet.

Then, he took out a few oranges from the cabinet below.

He put the orange into a juicer and squeezed out the juice.

Within seconds, an empty glass was filled with orange juice.

The uncle walked over to where Harlen was sitting with the glass of juice, placing it in front of Harlen.

“Come, drink.”

The uncle said enthusiastically.

Harlen picked up his juice.

Under the gazes of the uncles.

He sniffed it at lightning speed, before placing the glass down again.

“I’ve had a bit of a stomach flu recently, so I can’t take cold stuff.”

Harlen could smell something wrong with the juice.

However, it was not the man who drugged the juice.

With Harlen’s current eyesight, even the slightest movements would not escape his eye.

Therefore, it could only be that the juicer used to squeeze the orange had been tampered with.

Or maybe the orange itself was problematic.

Seeing that Harlen was looking for a reason to postpone drinking the juice, the man grew a little anxious.

However, he did not know the young man’s true identity, so he did not dare to act rashly.

“Then… let’s get a warm drink to warm your stomach first.”

Then, the uncle gestured to the others to pour a cup of warm water.

“Why are you so enthusiastic?”

“Just say what you want to say.”

“There’s only me and your people in this room.”

Harlen held onto his chin with one hand, while he placed the other on the table top.

His fingers continuously tapped on the table, appearing as though he was impatient.

The uncle saw that Harlen was getting impatient and motioned for his men to bring him a bottle of liquor.

He started to find something to talk about with Harlen.

“I don’t think you and your sister look like locals.”

“Where did you all come from?”

“What are you doing in Saint Calloran City?”

The middle-aged man said as he poured some liquor into a glass.

“It has nothing to do with you!”

Harlen said in a temperamental tone.

“Sigh…”

“Just chatting.”

“If not, what’s the point of just drinking without conversation?”

With that, the uncle’s subordinate brought a cup of warm water to Harlen’s table.

Harlen looked at the cup of warm water that was handed to him, before immediately gulping down several mouthfuls of water.

But that wasn’t because Harlen’s throat was too parched; instead he had to drink something.

It was because the entire bar was suffused with the smell of blood.

Deep in such an environment, this caused Harlen to be unable to properly control his desires for blood.

Harlen grabbed the lukewarm cup, and under the gaze of the man, he quickly took another sniff.

He realized that this cup was just ordinary warm water and nothing was placed in it.

Then, he downed the cup of warm water.

This slightly calmed down his urge to suck blood.

When the middle-aged man saw this, he hurriedly gestured for his subordinates to pour a few more cups of warm water.

“Looks like you’re really thirsty.”

“Come, come, there’s more here.”

The uncle helped pour the water and put it on the table.

There were already a few cups of warm water on the table.

When Harlen saw this, he quickly put down the glass of water he had finished, before taking up another.

Whenever Harlen drank water, he would take a quick sniff to ensure there were no problems.

Luckily, the man had really just poured out warm water and did not add anything extra in it.

As he finished the cup after cup, the table was very quickly drained of water.

Even the large water bottles that the uncles used to store warm water were empty.

“Little brother.”

“Did you just come from the desert?”

“How long has it been since you drank water?”

“Surely you can’t be this thirsty?”

The uncle put down the empty second pot.

He was about to ask his men to turn around and get the third jug of warm water.

“I’m sorry.”

Harlen caught his breath before speaking.

“I was indeed a little thirsty just now.”

“But it’s better now.”

“That uncle over there, there’s no need to take another jug.”

Actually, Harlen did not feel much better even after the two jugs of water.

More accurately, he did not feel good at all.

No matter how much water he drank, he could not suppress the urge to suck blood.

It was only because he considered the option if the uncles’ third jug of water would be drugged.

If it was drugged, then it would be suspicious if he downed two jugs but refused the third.

As such, Harlen sat back on his stool.

One hand on his head, the other stroking his throat.

From time to time, he would stick out his tongue and purse his lips.

When the uncle saw Harlen sit back in his seat, he instructed his subordinates to clean up the empty cups as well as wipe the table.

The moment Harlen sat down, the uncle once again started to converse with him.

“How is it?”

“Are you feeling better?”

“If you’re still thirsty, do you want to try some juice?”

As he spoke, the middle-aged man placed the glass of juice before Harlen.

The middle-aged man pushed the glass of juice in front of him again.

However, Harlen hurriedly reached out to intercept the juice.

“There’s no need, uncle.”

“I just finished drinking water, if I still drink the juice, my stomach will not be able to take it.”

He shook his hand in thanks as he pushed the glass of juice away from him before continuing to speak.

“Alright.”

“There’s no need to say anything unnecessary.”

“Let’s go back to the main topic.”

“Forcing me to come into your shop.”

“What do you want?!”

Harlen looked at the uncles surrounding him as he impatiently spoke once more..