When Aesop finally arrived at the bar, he noticed that something was off with the atmosphere here for today.

He came today earlier than normal, hoping he could at least sleep for a couple of hours on the bar's sofa. After all, he did stay awake all night, he needed some rest to be able to work.

However, when he saw the other workers at the bar had already come earlier than him and they were cleaning the place. He needed a moment or two to process the scene in front of him.

Then a slap on his head made him snap out from his daze. Turning around to see who did it, he saw his boss behind him.

"What are you daydreaming about brat? Get to work!"

Aesop immediately lowered his head and ran to work. He grabbed a cloth and started to clean the bar table. As he was cleaning, he heard his boss continue to curse behind him.

"Today we'll have a very important guest," He glared at Aesop, "Brat, If you annoy the guests, let alone wages, you may not be able to save your life."

Aesop gripped the cloth in his hand and just kept on cleaning. Luckily his boss did not notice him as he turned his attention to something else.

Seeing that he was out of his boss's attention, he looked around the bar. He was a bit confused now. The bar shouldn't be opening for more than an hour. Why did his boss seem a bit worried?

It was not the first time a customer rented the whole bar but he had never seen his boss acting like that. However, he did not really care about that now. As long as he was paid nothing else mattered to him.

He then felt his stomach rumbling. He did not eat yet. He sighed at this. Then he remembered something. He rummaged through his pocket to find something. When he felt it in his pocket, he quickly pulled it out.

In his hand was a candy that was in a red warper. He stared at it for a while. A question came into his mind.

Can he really eat this?

He hesitated but after some thoughts, he unwrapped it. He then tossed it into his mouth. The effect was instant.

As the candy touched his tongue, his face wrinkled.

What the hell was this?!

Why was this thing spicy? He could taste chilis and hot sauce in his mouth. Wasn't candy supposed to taste sweet? Where was the sugar?!

With how bad the candy was, Aesop almost shed a tear by its taste alone. Was this what his sister tasted when she ate her candy? Was this what Originium tasted like?

No. He was sure it was not as bad as this. When she ate the candy she looked like she enjoyed it. This candy was not enjoyable.

He then forced himself to swallow the thing in his mouth. He gasped for air after he did this.

He soon felt a warm feeling pouring up from his stomach, spreading to all of his body. He suddenly gained a lot of energy after eating … that thing.

" …Okay. Did she just give me a magical candy?" Aesop muttered to himself, "Or maybe it was just the adrenaline of almost dying that made me wide awake?"

"Oi Brat, what are you doing?!" The boss's roar sounded behind him again, "Are you stealing again?! Do you want to die?!"

Aesop just grabbed onto his cloth and went back to cleaning. When he was done cleaning the table he went to the back of the bar to change. He did not take long to get himself in working clothes and went back to the bar.

As he opened the kitchen door he saw a person just coming into the bar. He saw the man was an Ursa that had rust coloured hair. The man slowly walked to one of the private rooms that the bar had. He noted that it was the most expensive one. Seeing the man when in. He immediately got a tray and placed on it the best wine that the bar had to offer. Seeing that everything was in place, he slowly walked to the private room and opened the door.

What he saw was his boss and the mysterious man chatting with each other. He also noticed that there was someone sitting next to him. He did not get a good look at him because he was wearing a robe to cover his whole body.

When he opened the door, their chat died and the man's cold eyes landed on him. He ignored them and just placed what he brought on their table. After he was finished, he immediately excused himself and left the room.

However as he closed the door behind him, he could feel a pair of eyes glaring a hole into his head.

When the door was finally closed, BronzerHammer retracting his eyes, turned his head to look at the boss in front of him. A smirk was on his face, "You still hire child labor here, Boss."

The boss said with a smile, "He's a child from a relative's family."

"You still have those, huh?" BronzeHammer chuckled at this, "He looked like a real hard worker. I like that boy. Let him come to me tonight. As the current manager of the town, I think I should give a little reward to such a child. Maybe I should take him? What do you think?"

The boss wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and responded. As a person who has lived in the small town for more than ten years, the boss had some connections and means.

He knew that the person in front of him was a former emperor's personal guard.

He knew that BronzeHammer was expelled from the army after killing several new recruits to test how strong they were.

There were still many people in the army who could beat him, but in a small place like Sokk, there was no one who could fight him. It was not a surprise for the boss that this man took over this place in only a week by himself, making this place his personal kingdom.

For such a person, the boss naturally didn't dare to provoke him, and Aesop was nothing in his eyes, so he did not really care about that boy.

Although he had expected that he would need to throw that boy in the garbage to get rid of him, he never thought that BronzeHammer would take him away.

After agreeing to give Aesop to him, BronzeHammer turned his attention to the black robe man sitting next to him, who was the reason why he was here in the first place. BronzeHammer then told the boss to leave the both of them alone. Not wanting to anger him, the boss left the scene as fast as he could.

Now, BronzeHammer and the robed man were left.

"Mr. Chris," BronzeHammer said faintly, "Do you still refuse to agree to my request?"

The person called Chris shook his head and said, "I'm just a small person in charge of this branch. I don't have the right to give all bounty tasks to you. The bounty tasks are for all bounty hunters. This is the rule."

"The rules can be changed, Mr. Chris," BronzeHammer said, "You should already know how strong I am. I don't think there are any bounty hunters that can compare to me."

Chris looked up at BronzeHammer and said with a sneer, "Mr. BronzeHammer, I know that you were once the guardian of His Majesty the Emperor, but I still want to say that it is best not to be too arrogant. Bounty hunters in this world are not as weak as you think."

"Is that so?" BronzeHammer did not seem to care, "In that case, let's make a bet."

He put his hand into his pocket, then took two gold bars and put them on the table.

"... What are you implying?" Chris asked.

"This is the reward," BronzeHammer said faintly, "Get your best bounty and hire them to kill me."

{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}

Draft: Jaq

Proofread: Jaq

Edit: Jaq