In a meeting room deep within the identification branch, a child and a woman sat across from each other at a table positioned in the center of the room.
The boy, dressed in tattered clothes stained with old, unknown blood, appeared ordinary with no distinguishing features. He had a plain face, black hair, and eyes, and an average build.
"Yone, tell me what happened with Darius. Did he attack you on purpose?" The woman, who was seated across from Yone, asked in a gentle yet serious tone.
Yone, who had been eating, placed his food on the table and looked at the woman before him. She was a brown-haired woman clad in an impressive set of silver armor.
Yone's instincts told him immediately that she was someone he could not hope to fight. Her aura felt as powerful as Charlotte, the ice witch he had encountered back in his village.
"He had no intention of hurting me, which is why I'm not angry and didn't call my guardian to deal with the problem," Yone replied truthfully, though there were obvious lies mixed in. "His aura was simply a bit too much for me to handle, and it injured me slightly on the inside."
He then thanked the woman sincerely, "I would have likely suffered greater injuries if you hadn't healed me in time, branch leader."
Hearing his words, the woman could only inwardly roll her eyes at his shamelessness.
'Injured? And thank you for healing me?' she thought, her expression twitching. 'All of that was your act to begin with!'
But she couldn't help but marvel at the craftiness of this child.
Despite most likely having a deep background given his cultivation base at his age, Yone still sought to extract benefits from others.
His method, however, was clean and left no room for accusations. He simply used the fact that Darius liked to test juniors his age, didn't make a fuss, and even thanked the branch leader for healing him.
Given his behavior, the identification branch had no grounds to accuse him of anything, as there was no evidence of his self-harm.
He didn't even ask for compensation and acted as if Darius had made a mistake, which he had graciously forgiven.
Olivia felt a headache as she looked at Yone, but she accepted her subordinate loss and spoke in a plain tone, "Even though your injuries weren't serious and were healed quickly, our branch will fully compensate you for your mental distress and the time you lost. Please, don't hold Darius accountable or bear any grudge against him; he truly had no ill intentions."
Olivia sincerely apologized on behalf of her underling, even bowing her head slightly.
Despite their backing by the royal family, she knew that the royal family would never defend them if the opponent was too strong and might even use them as scapegoats to appease the other party.
Since Olivia was unaware of the strength of Yone's backers, she dared not act arrogantly.
Yone could only smile as he watched this unfold.
Yone was impressed by the woman's cleverness.
She not only apologized but also went a step further by offering compensation, fully aware that her underling couldn't possibly harm a citizen who had come to identify himself.
In Yone's eyes, the identification branch, backed by the royal family, its leader, and its staff should be more arrogant than this.
Yone had anticipated this, which is the reason he had refrained from acting arrogant or making a commotion when he awoke. Instead, he had thanked Olivia with a smile.
His initial plan had been to unseal his cultivation base and display it openly, hoping that someone stronger would scrutinize him and assume he had a significant background.
He obviously didn't know that Darius existed and didn't have knowledge about his odd habit of testing juniors.
Yone just unsealed his cultivation to get more respect and get acquainted with a few people here, but Darius gave him unexpected gains which he then had to adapt to by creating a plan.
He even expected that the branch leader would be arrogant, refusing to offer compensation easily, and he was prepared to lie further or even use the ring in his possession to intimidate the other party.
However, all his plans turned to dust as things played out far more smoothly than anticipated. He didn't need to lift a finger to gain benefits from this place, a turn of events that Yone found quite satisfactory.
He graciously accepted Olivia's apology on behalf of her underling and assured her that he wouldn't hold a grudge.
'Not that I could make things difficult for him anyway,' he thought with an inward chuckle as he finished his food and water before standing up.
"Then I'll take my leave. A friend of mine is waiting outside, and I think I've spent enough time here," Yone said respectfully, his tone different from the one he had used with Darius.
He wasn't foolish; he had spoken to Darius in a way that would provoke him into using a bit more aura than usual, making Yone's act more believable. Fortunately, Darius didn't disappoint him, and none of the staff seemed suspicious.
"I understand. Before you go, take this," Olivia said, handing him a spatial bag with a two-meter interior. "This is your compensation. It's not much, but I hope you're satisfied with it."
Yone knew how to use spatial bags and quickly manipulated a wisp of qi to check its contents. 'I'm not sure how much this is worth, since even the guard hadn't seen such an amount before, but I can ask Sara.'
Olivia observed Yone's expression closely as he opened the bag. When she saw his lack of reaction, she sighed with relief, glad that she had personally apologized and kept the conversation smooth.
'This amount of spirit stones and the few pills are probably nothing to him,' she concluded, leading him to the door.
Had Olivia known that Yone's lack of reaction was due to his unfamiliarity with the world's currency, she might have fainted from frustration.
However, since they were accustomed to arrogant young masters from powerful clans and geniuses from various sects, she didn't suspect anything from his impassive response.
"Follow me. I'll take you to get your ID card," Olivia said as she turned to lead the way.