The man with the two swords was Jack the Ripper, captain of the royal guard, and the second man was the vice captain.
In short, the receptionist could do nothing, since that man was her superior. Even so, Vesta was accused of assault, but the captain said he would drop the charges, since he was in a good mood.
Vesta removed a crystal from a clasp on her dress, she poured a bit of mana into it and the image of the fight was displayed in the room. Many people saw it, including an important minister. Jack was already able to move, he rushed at Vesta, but it was useless, he took a punch and passed out.
The minister approached and directly asked Vesta what had happened. She told him, he grew angry, but his expressions were controlled. He listened without interrupting, then looked at the two men and then at Vesta and Lyn, he gave a slight bow and apologized to both of them. After that, he asked the receptionist to call more guards to arrest the two men.
"I am Max Millian, currently the Minister of Justice, and once again I apologize. I do not know what happened, but we will deal with it in the best possible way soon."
"It's fine, I appreciate your attention," Vesta said gently, Lyn found her behavior strange.
"I am curious about that artifact you used, I have heard of it, but I have never actually seen one. Where did you get it?"
"It was made by an alchemist from the Red Castle Merchant Company," she said with excitement.
At that moment, Lyn understood the reason for the courtesy, Vesta wanted more customers.
Vesta explained and gave the man the address, but there was a problem. Those items were for exclusive use of the Tower, Vans was not making them to sell, but Vesta did not know that.
On the other side of the city, Vans was with Sandra and Niko, they wanted to buy more materials for scrolls. They first went to the adventurers guild and posted a request to collect some herbs and monster crystals.
They saw a fat man hitting a human child. The child did not have one hand and could barely stand, she was very thin and covered in scars. Vans approached the man.
"What do you want here?" he said rudely.
"Is she for sale?"
Those words caught Sandra by surprise.
"I didn't know you liked little girls," she said, almost giving up on speaking.
"I love little girls, they are perfect and…"
Niko slapped him.
"At least think before you speak, that is not what she meant."
He paused to think and then rephrased it.
"Yes, I love children and I think they are our future."
Sandra did not know how to react.
The man's expression changed, he seemed calmer and less angry. Vans held a bag of coins and asked the price.
The man began to think about the value, he did not know how much he should charge for her. He settled on a number, two gold coins. The price was low, slaves were very expensive, their value was usually based on debts that the family or the person had accumulated. But she was not worth much, since she only caused losses due to missing one hand, and no one would buy someone like her.
Vans paid the two coins and then picked up the little girl, she was crying, but he gently stroked her head to try to calm her down.
"Here, take her collar."
"I don't need that," Vans said as he walked away.
The girl was hungry, so they went to the shop, Vans left her in one of the empty rooms, then he went to a nearby restaurant and bought something for her to eat.
Sandra gave the girl a bath, then Niko used magic so the girl would not feel any pain. Niko picked up a sword and cut a bit more of her arm, the little girl began to cry, not from pain, but from fear, it brought back memories she wanted to forget. But Niko was patient with her. Niko kept calming her down and then used healing magic, the girl's arm began to grow and the scars started to disappear. But she was very weak, that had been a mistake, it would have been better to wait for the girl to eat something first.
The little girl began to eat some soup with bread, she ate very quickly. Vans gently asked her to eat more slowly, that way she would not choke or feel sick afterward. But the girl had gone many days without eating. She ate happily while shedding a few tears, but she did not say a single word.
"What is your name?" Vans asked.
But she did not respond.
He repeated the question, but was more polite the second time.
She still did not answer.
Sandra was observing how Vans and Niko seemed different, they were always yelling at each other, but beside the little girl, they were different people, it was as if all their mutual hatred had disappeared.
Sandra did not like the idea of having slaves, but she did not oppose Vans, she also felt that she should not and believed he was a good person and that he would take good care of the slave, but she still thought it was wrong for someone to work without receiving anything. She did not understand the confusion in her thoughts.
"That's fine, you don't have to tell me now, but at some point I will need to know your name."
He got up from the bed and approached her, she reacted as if she was about to be hit.
"You don't need to react like that, no one here is going to hurt you, I just want to fix this pillow, may I?"
She nodded, but she was still scared.
"We need to buy clothes for her," Vans said.
"Where can we find a clothing store?" Niko asked Sandra.
Sandra guided Niko, the little girl continued eating in silence, she still felt afraid of Vans.
"I see you chose an excellent specimen for your experiments," Vesta said.
The girl became frightened, Vans denied it and said he would not perform any experiments on her. Vesta apologized.
"Does Victor know about her?"
"Not yet, I will tell him soon."
"I don't want to know the details, but I hope you do not cause any trouble for him. That said, speak to him as soon as possible."
Vesta was right, Vans had been too hasty. Even knowing Victor would not oppose it, not telling him would certainly be a big problem, especially since he was the owner of everything and the leader.
Vans was a bit afraid of how Victor might react, he had many thoughts, but Victor reacted in a very different way than Vans had expected. He thought Victor would be curious, then point out the problems this could cause, and then say it was fine and that the girl could stay. But Victor simply said it was fine and that Vans should take care of her, he showed a bit of indifference, a little more than Vans had expected.