Max could feel her levels skyrocketing.
The heat change in the surrounding air was easily detectable and slowly rising.
He had to handle the situation diplomatically and fast.
"But sir…"
"Sorry. Final offer," he shamelessly concluded his bargain.
Max couldn't figure out what next to do.
He turned his gaze to Melfina and from there round the forest, perhaps hoping there was gonna be another merchant come by or…
It was then that he noticed something.
He looked at the back of his carriage and let off a wide grin.
"Is it just me or did the sun get angry all of a sudden," the merchant said as he waved his straw-woven hat across his face.
"If I might ask, why did you come by this route?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, this isn't the public trade route established by the government, is it? So why did you tread this path instead?"
The question caught him off guard for a second before he thought of a flimsy excuse that matched his exact personality.
"I was actually on that path moments ago but I got hungry and decided to pluck some fruit to eat."
Max walked silently beside the covered carriage and stationed himself behind.
"If that is true, why didn't you go back the route immediately?"
He couldn't quickly come up with a cogent excuse.
"I see what you're doing. Trying to get me to talk. I see. Well, you'll be sad to know that I don't do those kind of stuff."
"Oh really. Is that so now."
"So why did you flinch the instant you saw that forest guard?"
He maintained an indifferent demeanor and kept a calm expression on his face in total silence.
"Now, why would you do that if you don't have anything to hide?"
"I don't know what you are talking about?"
"Don't worry. You'll know in a second."
Max unlaced the thread holding the veil over the carriage.
Beads of sweat were dripping off the merchant's face and drowning him quickly.
He tried to control his fidgeting but it seemed his arms had a mind of their own for the minute.
It was obvious now that he had something to hide.
"Wait. Don't –"
'I knew it!', he said as he parted the veil.
"Smuggling. A vice of the old days."
He climbed into the back of the carriage, sat on one of the logs carved onto its side and spoke to the merchant through the opening between the carriage and the rider's seat.
Max had tried being friendly but obviously for the likes of him that wasn't working, so he is trying another option – blackmail.
"Here's my deal. You take us across to Aurorix with zero tricks and you don't have to deal with the authorities. Do we have a deal?"
"..."
"Well of course you don't have to agree right aw–", he attempted to drop out of the carriage.
"Okay. I agree," he recalcitrantly complied with much reluctance in his words.
Max beckoned Melfina to come in.
The carriage took off and they were hitching a free ride to the Aurorix.
In the carriage, Max mused over the past spectacle – his ability to sense mana signature despite not being able to wield it.
The phenomenon got him thinking for a while but like the extreme mana saturation summit, that was simply an innate constitution of phantoms.
Melfina also couldn't contain her curiosity and couldn't help but ask "How did you know all that?"
"I didn't… I guessed what kind of man he was and gave him a mirror."
"Even the forest guard bit?"
"Nope."
She chortled surreptitiously.
The mocking sound irked the merchant but there was nothing he could do.
'Maybe she isn't so bad,' Max thought.
About an hour later, they arrived at Aurorix and got off the carriage at the city center.
"Hey, kid. Now that I've got you here, we're square, right?"
He simply ignored the merchant's words and strolled along the streets.
He didn't want to make any promises he couldn't keep. The merchant seemed like a handy little puppet and he was not ready to let go just yet.
Notably, the first thing Max observed in the city was the diversity in culture and technology accountable to the predated celestial war which caused the remnants from each dimension to migrate here for safety and regrowth.
The center of the city was flooded with people.
They all seemed to have their attention fixed on a particular activity going on.
He walked closer to the forefront of the crowd to get a better look.
There was an enormous banner hanging over the mini stage leaning against the feeble wall.
He quickly read over the wordings as his system deciphered the text to him and discovered:
It was an Awakening ceremony.
'What luck.'
He began to wonder about the different elements that existed and filter out the ones he would love to wield based on their versatility and efficiency in battle.
Tangled deep in his net of thoughts, an average psychotic man hit him hard on his back.
"Stupid hybrid."
He looked up to see the haggard, average-aged idiot that hit him.
He held a half-empty bottle of alcohol in his arm and something that looked like a card in the other.
"Get in the line bastard."
He was so engrossed in his thinking that he hadn't noticed that the disarrayed crowd had torn into two lines.
He looked over at one of the lines and saw Melfina in there. He walked up over there and immediately got hit in the head by the bottle. Alcohol and droplets of blood flew in the air.
"Not over there. Get in line with all the other good-for-nothing hybrids.
"Seriously, if I had the power to, I would have long ago wiped out you hybrids. Can't even get a queue right."
The man quickly left and headed onto the stage.
Shockingly, he was the operator of the awakening ceremony. The way he was ruggedly dressed didn't sound any of that at all.
While he spluttered the details of the ceremony, a boy not too far from Max's age walked up kindly to him.
"Are you alright?"
He stretched his arm out and helped Max up.
Max looked up to see the boy's face.
"Chris!"
He said in a shrill and shocking tone.