Eric then noticed Livy was trying to escape, and some people were still gawking at both girls, so he decided to help Livy by diverting her attention.

  "Liv, why do you keep your hair loose and not tie it into a ponytail like Ly? Also, aren't you uncomfortable with such long hair? Shouldn't you cut it down to at least Ly's length?" He was genuinely curious.

  Before Livy could respond, Lyria lifted her head and answered, "Brother Eric, my sister has very unique hair. It grows back in no time, even if she turns completely bald, her hair will return to the same length within a month!"

  Eric was amazed. He believed that women from his previous world would kill to have such genetics, with such a beautiful color and such long hair.

  Livy gave Lyria a furious glare.

  'H-how dare she talk about me being bald in front of Brother Eric!'

  Lyria didn’t even glance at Livy and continued, "Not only that, but her hair also can’t get dirty! Even if she never washes it and lets it drag through dirt and mud, it will still maintain its pristine, glossy condition, texture, and even smell!"

  Livy’s hair smelled like lavender, though not strongly enough to affect others much. Lyria’s hair similarly had a faint rose scent- it was overall very pretty and gleamed with a dark brown luster.

  Even Eric couldn’t help but widen his eyes. Riya’s vile, evil shout in his head confirmed what he was feeling: "Kill her! She is the enemy of all women in the world! We must get her DNA and genetic code for all my sisters on Earth!"

  Eric could imagine how jealous the girls from Earth would be. All the shampoo and conditioner companies wouldn’t be able to tolerate Livy’s existence. They would definitely kill her with fire!

  Meanwhile, Livy’s glare turned murderous.

  'H-how dare Ly talk about me not washing my hair and dirtying it in front of Brother Eric!'

  Lyria again didn’t glance at Livy and continued, "But it has one disadvantage. She can’t tie her hair! Well, she 'can', but it makes her feel like she’s suffocating and causes discomfort. Nothing too severe, but if possible, she doesn’t want to tie it down."

  Eric felt numb. Wasn’t that basically forcing Livy to show off her hair to the world? Like- Look how beautiful I am- her hair probably. Also, what was with Livy’s luck with suffocation? Everything she did seemed related to it!

  Watching Livy’s ugly expression as she glared at Lyria, Eric wondered, 'Wouldn’t she make a fortune just by selling her hair? Even if not used for wigs, people could use such a beautiful color for ‘natural’ clothing or designer bags...'

  Eric's focus shifted to Lyria's shining dark brown hair, and he asked curiously, "So... what unique properties does your hair have?" He was fascinated, it felt like uncovering the secrets of the universe.

  Lyria suddenly grew shy under Eric's scrutiny. She whispered, "N-Nothing special."

  Livy snorted and exposed, "It's like mine- it doesn’t get dirty. Even if she washes it in mud or garbage, it stays clean!" In truth, their hair could get dirty, but nothing stuck permanently, and filth could be removed effortlessly, even without water.

  Lyria flushed with rage and glared at Livy.

  'How dare she mention me washing my hair in mud and garbage in front of Brother Eric! What if he misunderstands?'

  Noticing Lyria’s furious glare, Livy found inner peace.

  Eric found the world truly fascinating. Nonetheless, he felt Livy should use long-range weapons rather than her close-range fighting style.

  If an opponent grabbed her hair, wouldn’t that be her end?

  While Eric and the girls were chatting about the 'hair' subject, Eric, who was walking in front, didn’t notice, as his head turned behind, suddenly bumped into a person who had just walked out of an alley beside the road.

  THUMP!

  "Ah... What the hell! Who dares push me?"

  The drunkard who collided with Eric dropped onto the muddy street and started whining.

  Eric didn't budge, but he also halted in his steps. He wondered if people in the town all got drunk during the daytime. He could clearly smell the foul alcohol stench emanating from this guy's entire being, and because of this, his mood began to sour.

  Eric had tasted almost every alcohol around the world in his past life, but only for taste, he didn’t like to drink. In fact, later in life, he avoided it altogether. This was largely because he tended to lose control and become destructive.

  He remembered how he destroyed his pitiful laptop and even his 4K OLED monitor after getting drunk once. So, only when he was with friends who didn’t mind being beaten, or at least could fight back, did he drink; otherwise, he avoided it.

  Similarly, Eric was not a fan of strong alcohol smells, especially when it was too close to him. He had just been directly bumped into by such a smelly person, and now his body reeked of alcohol too.

  His cheerful mood immediately plummeted. Though his expression remained indifferent, inwardly, his mood turned rageful.

  After such a long time without drinking, Eric’s alcohol tolerance had plummeted. Without noticing, he was already starting to lose control over his destructive nature, and his eyes turned cold.

  Two other equally drunk people rushed out of the alley and crouched hurriedly beside the drunkard who had fallen, crying as if a great tragedy had occurred. "BROTHER! BROTHER! Are you okay?! Who dares to do this to my brother? I-I... will-" Their voices cut off abruptly as their gazes landed on the person their 'brother' had bumped into. Their eyes widened slowly, flooding with pure horror.

  The fallen drunkard remained oblivious, still whining, "Ah...Ah... m-my back! I think I broke my back! This will cost at least 100 bronze coins!"

  Eric heard the drunkard’s whining, and his eyes turned even colder.

  Riya also roared with rage, "Eric! Make sure his medical bill reaches 100 gold coins! How dare he charge us so little money? We have our pride!"

  Suddenly, out of nowhere, the other two drunkards stood up and bolted away while crying out loudly, "I-IT'S THE BLUE-EYED DEMON! R-RUN!!!" Their screams were so loud that the entire street heard and turned to see the commotion.

  Both drunkards dumped their pitiful brother and ran with such frenzy that even Eric was stunned. It was almost as if they were slowed by even a tiny bit, the so-called blue-eyed demon would swallow them whole.

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  Eric wondered if there was some terrifying entity behind him.

  He understood that the 'blue-eyed demon' was probably him, but he wasn’t the only person with blue eyes in town. So he took a quick glance behind him and saw only the wide-eyed stares of the three girls, and no new blue-eyed monster had appeared behind them.

  Eric turned back to the broken-backed drunkard.

  The drunkard had suddenly turned into a statue, mesmerized by Eric's muddy shoes.

  He slowly, very slowly, raised his head, and for the first time in his wasted life, he experienced absolute terror.

  Large blue eyes stared down at him as if he were mere dirt. Those eyes shone like two huge blue suns packed inside them.

  But none of that mattered. What he felt while gazing into those eyes was everything. It was as if a horrifying demon had crawled from the deepest pit of hell, appearing suddenly before him, staring down menacingly, as though his soul couldn't escape its clutches and would become its next plaything.

  He was so horrified that his body started trembling in uncontrollable dread. Soon after, he rolled his eyes back and fainted.

  Eric was even more shocked than the fainted drunkard.

  What just happened?

  The condition of this drunkard somewhat reminded him of the incident at the tavern. But…

  This was even more nonsensical than the incident back at the tavern. At least Jerry had seen him performing some actions, but this time he didn't even lift a single finger!

  Eric could guess that the previous two were probably friends of Jerry and the thugs' group, so they may have heard of him, and to avoid getting beaten up like them, they ran away as quickly as possible. But this drunkard’s condition didn't make any sense.

  Eric, along with the three girls behind him, stood rooted to the same spot, completely bewildered.

  But what the surrounding pedestrians did next truly shocked, and even horrified Eric in his heart.

  The entire boisterous marketplace suddenly turned dead silent, as if everyone had died while standing still.

  The first to wake up were the people near Eric and the girls. All of them quickly backstepped, as if out of nowhere a calamity-bringing monster had appeared in the street. Then, without making a single noise, they all turned and ran.

  Others on the street simultaneously woke up and, like the previous group, fled in whichever direction was in front of them, but no one headed toward Eric.

  One blonde girl even slammed into a stone wall, rebounded, and fell onto her backside, but she scrambled up and bolted in another direction without so much as a whimper of pain.

  The entire busy street was suddenly emptied.

  Even the shops were left wide open and unguarded- evidently, even the shopkeepers had fled without hesitation.

  The only people visible on that broad daylight street were Eric, Lyria, Livy, Hannah, and an unconscious drunkard.

  'What the hell is going on?!' Eric screamed inside his mind.

  This was way too abnormal! Fear was one thing, but this? Where he didn't even act, neither did he say a word, and the whole street fled in terror? This made no sense!

  Livy glanced at the unconscious man and hesitantly asked, "Ah, um... I-Is that guy dead? D-did Brother Eric kill him?"

  Lyria glared at Livy in disdain. It was obvious that Eric hadn't done a single thing, and the man had simply collapsed from fear. Yet Livy and the entire street assumed Eric had killed him, sending them all fleeing like cowards.

  To Lyria, that seemed the only logical explanation for this bizarre situation.

  Hannah snapped back to her senses and spoke quickly. "Let's go. It doesn't matter if that guy's dead. He doesn't look like a noble—just some wasted thug." With that, she gently pushed the two girls forward, steering them around the 'crime scene.'

  Eric followed behind the girls with a blank expression. He felt all this was too surreal.

  He asked with a solemn tone inside his mind, "Riya, what just happened?"

  Riya was also bewildered by the strange event and equally confused. She spoke thoughtfully, "Eric, I don’t see anything strange with your biology. But there’s a chance something is wrong with your Mana Veins, and that’s something I can’t see unless you’re practicing Mana Channeling. I think, only when you truly become a Mana Wielder will I be able to see and study everything properly, just like I can see your physical nerves at this moment."

  Eric understood Riya’s point, but it didn’t help him make sense of the current bizarre situation.

  From the outside, it seemed like two guys ran away because of Eric's reputation, and one guy, for whatever reason, got too scared and fell unconscious, possibly for the same reason: his past reputation. Then, the rest of the crowd thought a murder had occurred in the middle of the street and similarly ran away in fear, worried they might get themselves into trouble. All of this seemed normal from that perspective, but it was still way too abnormal.

  The two drunkards' actions were understandable, and the guy falling unconscious was very weird, but still possible.

  But the entire street emptied with people running away as if a tiger had appeared, and without even letting out a single noise despite being in obvious fear and panic- that was way too abnormal!

  What was even stranger was that shopkeepers had run away instead of just hiding inside their shops or closing them. That absolutely shouldn't have happened as their shops are their lifelines. Even if danger occurred, unless it was directed at them, they would either hide or quickly close up.

  Too bizarre!

  Eric sighed and rubbed his temples. Even the incident back at the tavern hadn’t been this abnormal. And why had nothing happened to Lyria, Livy, or Hannah?

  The four finally left the ghostly street and entered a new one, with few people going about their own business.

  Lyria at this moment asked Hannah in a whisper, "Um... Is Brother Eric very famous? And people are very scared of him?" She was about to ask if Eric was terrorizing and bullying the people of this town, but that sounded awfully rude, so she changed her words to a more polite tone.

  Lyria's thoughts were not baseless, as how the first two ran away the moment they spotted Eric and called him 'Blue Eyed Demon'. He was the only one with blue eyes among the four of them.

  Livy nodded heavily to agree with Lyria's question, almost as if she was also about to ask the same thing.

  Hannah glanced at both Lyria and Livy, then back at the 'Blue Eyed Demon,' who seemed deep in thought, and started giggling.

  Eric saw Hannah peeking at him and laughing, so he got pissed again. But what could he say? Don’t laugh? She was the boss lady, enough to shame thugs with trash talk! So he smartly kept quiet.

  Hannah pulled both Lyria and Livy closer to her sides, as if she were about to share some juicy secrets.

  She leaned her head forward; both Lyria and Livy followed and came closer to hear what Hannah had to say.

  Eric didn't hear a single thing as the girls were whispering among themselves, and he was still preoccupied with what had just happened back at the market, so he ignored them.

  The event bothered Eric very much, as it probably was directly related to him. If he didn’t understand, then someday it might backfire on him.

  After thinking for a while, Eric shrugged and decided that it was just better to stay within the orphanage until he grew up. He only needed to finish checking out the library books; then he could continue enjoying his princely lifestyle. It would be great if he could finish all the books today, after all, he just needed to flip through the pages.

  Eric then saw both Lyria and Livy straighten up and peek behind them- at him, with admiration, respect, gratitude, and shyness?

  Eric wondered what the blonde gang leader had told both girls. Hopefully, she wasn't officially recruiting sisters for her gang yet. Lyria and Livy were just barely eight years old!

  Hannah didn’t turn around to see what was happening and continued walking forward.

  Lyria and Livy slowed down a bit and came beside Eric.

  Livy spoke softly, "Brother Eric, thank you for protecting our honor."

  Lyria nodded and whispered with a voice filled with gratitude, "Thanks to you, we won’t hear any bad rumors about us within the town, and no one will even dare to speak badly of us, since Brother Eric has already taught them a harsh lesson!"

  Lyria and Livy didn’t say anything wrong. Though it was a bit exaggerated, it was mostly true.

  Eric calmly nodded. "You’re welcome." He wasn’t in the mood to delve deeper into the topic, as it was just a small incident.

  Lyria and Livy smiled happily. They were truly very grateful to Eric for standing up for them and fighting three adult thugs, and it was on the same day they had met. In other words, Eric had protected them without even considering them friends!

  Both Lyria and Livy had always been worried, fearful, and helpless, feeling as if they were alone and that nobody would stand up for them in trouble. But Eric had stood up and caused such a big incident that shocked the entire town for two whole days, and he never said a word or bragged about it to them. How could they not be moved?

  Their hearts swelled with so much sweetness that they suddenly felt the world had become beautiful, colorful, and filled with warmth.

  Both Lyria and Livy’s eyes teared up, but they swiftly turned their heads away to avoid being seen by Eric.

  Riya was speechless. 'Why are they so touched? Was it really that touching?'

  Eric didn’t say anything, nor did he care.

  Heroes and villains go side by side. He believed Jerry and his friends were thinking the exact opposite of these little girls.

  Lyria and Livy were just barely eight-year-old kids. In a few more years, their memories would start to fade, and they would no longer care about such small incidents.