Hearing what Jason said, the group of men on their canine soulbonds were astonished about his youthful voice which told them that Jason was most likely not even at the magus rank.

Additionally, they couldn't believe that Jason straight out lied to them about Emily being his employee.

He seemed to hail from an influential family which was able to acquire a concealment technique, but his confidence when he lied was still somewhat baffling to them.

They were sure of the fact that nobody cared about Emily because her family was already dead while the orphanage she was sent to was not any better than trying to survive alone in a world after the mana breakout.

Jason was also considered an orphan but he never wanted to go to an orphanage because they would take away all remaining belongings of the deceased, leaving the orphan with nothing except the things they wore.

When his mother died, he was often requested to go to the orphanage which Jason always declined because he didn't need their hypocritical help, which was however the case for other youths that couldn't live independent at such a young age, whether it was because of fear, uncertainty or that they were manipulated and lured over.

The leader of the small group made two steps forward and summoned a longsword in his hand as he threatening said

"Don't you dare to lie to me you little f*cker!! I know that you're lying, who the hell do you think you are?!"

Smiling behind his mask, Jason couldn't help but feel amused before he nonchalantly said

"Oh? I thought it was common sense to start lying if the other side starts the conversation with a big lie too? Otherwise, please explain to me why this girl has the most basic quantum bracelet for orphans?"

Jason never understood why orphans had to give away their original quantum bracelet only to receive the most basic one which couldn't even use access federation network to purchase anything or to look at videos on certain streaming platforms like Starstream and so on.

Orphans didn't receive good education and combat techniques to learn how to defend themselves either as long as they resided inside an orphanage.

There were more things about orphanages that were rumored to be vicious or unfair for the orphans but Jason was not sure if they were true.

Either way, in his opinion the girl behind him was interested because it seemed that the emerald-green colored crystal in her hand still belonged to her.

There had to be something more which Jason just didn't know but he was curious about it and wanted to figure it out.

Hearing the black-masked youth's answer, the small group leader's lips twitched before he said

"We have no bad blood between each other and only want to retrieve the girl because she escaped us! Do we have to create a feud with each other over such a small thing? You don't know with whom you're messing with!!"

To Jason, this sounded more like a threat than an offer which caused him to shrug his shoulder when he said

"I was only on transit and saw something that bothered me about you guys, so I decided to help. As for whom I'm messing with...why should I care? It should be you guys who are afraid to mess with me because you don't know who you're messing with! Creating a feud with me will cause a huge loss, more than losing out on the little girl behind me.

That, I can promise!!"

Ending his short announcement to the group of young men, he released his killing intent towards the small group as his cold golden eyes shimmered through the black mask turning the atmosphere eerie.

Gulping down their saliva, the group of men behind their leader became nervous while the same applied for the canine soulbonds who could only look at Artemis and Scorpio nervously, knowing that they could die any second if a battle between them would start.

Gritting his teeth, the leader knew that the black-masked youth was not someone they could mess with easily and that Jason's words shouldn't be wrong.

At least from the overbearing aura that radiated from him, while the black-masked youth's soulbonds seemed to be a rare race and a powerful one at that too.

However, even if they turned around and left without the girl, there was another issue they would have to face that seemed to be similarly problematic to offend the black-masked youth.

"If we come back to our master without the girl, we will be punished! 2 Star notes and she'll belong to you!"

When Jason heard these words, he didn't know what to say at first before he regained his senses.

"2 Star notes? Why? Shouldn't she belong to nobody...as a free human?..." 

He was completely unaware about what was going on right now and could only look at the leader opposite him with a baffled expression that was fortunately covered by the black mask he was wearing.

However, hearing Jason's question, the leader could only laugh out loud before he said

"Free human? If this little girl behind you didn't escape us, she would already be enslaved and not a troublemaker anymore. If you want her, hand over 2 Star notes, otherwise, we can only try to take her with force. Bear in mind that if you want to continue living here, paying us will be less troublesome."

'Enslaved? 2 Star-notes? If I want to continue living here, paying is less troublesome?!.... What is going on here??'

Pondering for a moment, a horrifying premonition began to form in his mind, when he realized what the small group leader's words meant.

'A slave merchant....or maybe even market?' 

This was the most likely answer and Jason could only shake his head, thinking that Terebrean didn't seem to be nice to orphans as he sighed.

He was already aware of their ranking system, but it shocked him that the Jual family even allowed enslavement.

At least that was what Jason comprehended from the leader's words 'If you want to continue living here,...'

Maybe it could also be only one city and that he coincidentally entered this particular city where the slave market was situated, but how much of a coincidence would that be?

Shaking his head, Jason decided that it might be better to stay lowkey and not to kill potential underlings of the B-grade cities' slave market that might even have connections throughout Terebrean.

As such, he took out two-star notes, enveloped them in mana, and threw them towards the leader, who smiled slightly at him.

However, Jason's next words caused him to frown

"Now that the girl behind me belongs to me, don't even dare to appear in front of her again, otherwise, I'll kill all of you."

Turning around towards the girl, he wanted to reassure her that there was not another matter he had to be careful of.

"Did anyone force you to sign a soul contract or did you ever sign one with someone voluntarily?"

Emily was still under shock to have witnessed the last few hours that were full of terror because her other peers from the orphanage were forced into signing a soul contract.

She could only escape because one of the slave merchants neglected his work which caused her to end up in the current situation.

Shaking her head, Jason noticed that she still shivered, but he didn't know what to do to reassure her that everything was fine because a calming pat on her shoulder might end up scaring her more than helping out.

If she had been violated this would be even worse and it was only fortunate that her clothes seemed to be perfectly fine with the sole exception of them being dirty and smelly.

Now that the group of men that pursued the girl received their money, they turned around and disappeared without saying anything else.

Nothing special happened which caused Jason to lift his eyebrow because he expected to be blackmailed or something like that.

'Is it over now?'