Gehram, Whiskey Street, Old Harris Pub.

"Snowflakes like embers, dancing with death. I scream through the storm, a flame in despair. The cold doesn't kill—it dares me to care!"

In the pub, sitting in a cage at the center of the room, a short-haired woman sang till her voice turned hoarse, her words echoing off the walls.

"Wohoo!"

"Crimson winter!"

The pub's patrons listened and shouted. Beer spilled on the floor, feet stomped on the floor, and angry laughter broke out.

All the round-shaped tables were filled.

Some were drinking with their friends, some were playing card games, and some were lost in their own thoughts, silently sitting still.

It looked like those sitting still had lost their soul. They weren't smiling or blinking. They just lifted their glasses to their lips and drank.

By the bar, sitting on a high stool, Kael traced his finger across the rim of his glass and stared blankly at the foam that sat on top of his beer.

"Why is that woman sitting inside a cage?"

A man asked the bartender—the man looked like he didn't quite belong here and looked a bit confused by the scene in the bar—it was easy to think of him as a tourist who had wandered into the wrong place.

"There wasn't a cage before, but some people thought that it was completely acceptable to throw their glasses at the singer if they didn't like the song, leaving them all bleeding and scarred."

The bartender said with a wry smile.

The singers only had to worry about getting hit by the spilling beer anymore.

"O-Oh…"

The man said, then turned to Kael, and asked with an awkward chuckle.

"W-what about you, young man? W-why've you come to this place?"

"A job."

Kael said, sipped on the beer, and put it back down.

"M-Me too. It's my first time being in Whitesky as well, haha. It sure is quite a sight, haha."

The man said awkwardly.

"Mmh."

Kael mumbled, scratched his chin, and then took a long swig to empty the glass of all of the beer.

With his money situation, he was only able to purchase one beer—he settled on the Rock Orc Beer—it was quite strong and bitter, but it was all he could afford.

"Bartender, more beer!"

At that moment, a man stumbled to the bar, knocking Kael's glass, but luckily, it was already empty.

"Hey, watch it!"

The man said to Kael, leaning so close that his breath, which was a mix of alcohol and meat, almost made Kael gag.

The bartender gave him his drink, and the man returned to his table to continue playing some poker with his friends.

"Tch."

Kael wiped the drool of the man off his right shoulder, looked coldly at his own reflection in one of the alcohol bottles, and forced a smile.

'Pretend~ Pretend~ I've been pretending to be happy, but I should also try being an Outlaw for once. I've been keeping an eye on my level of divinity, but it hasn't increased one bit.

'I shouldn't think it's easy.

'From what I've read from the books, pretending to be Outlaw is all about chaos creation, breaking societal norms, challenging the authority, embracing danger, operating like a revolutionary, making enemies, and being bold.

'With my actions, there should be witnesses and consequences to my actions to increase the chance of my divinity increasing.

'I don't know why that's so.'

Kael thought.

"How rude that man…"

The tourist-looking man said beside him while looking annoyingly at the direction of the drunk man.

He hated people like that who couldn't control themselves after a few beers.

When Kael looked at him, the corners of his lips curled. It was a genuine smile. And quite a wicked thought came to his mind.

"Hey… Watch this."

Kael tapped him on the shoulder, making him turn his head at him, and then Kael started to walk towards the drunk man while rubbing his chin.

"W-what is he doing?"

The tourist asked himself.

At that moment, Kael wrapped his arm around the drunk man's shoulders and looked at the people gathered around the table.

"Huh, who the hell?"

The drunk man turned him, recognizing him as the little shit from the bar, and thought that he would need to give him a beating.

"That guy at the back called you a fat bastard. I don't know why he did that, but I thought you should know."

Kael said, pointed his thumb at the bushy-bearded man at the corner of the pub, and then the people around the table looked over.

"What the fuck? Is that so!"

The drunk man slammed his fist at the table, spilling his drink all over the place, and with his friends, headed to confront the bushy-bearded man.

The tourist watched with wide eyes.

"Who're you calling a fat bastard, fucker?!"

The drunk man punched the bearded man in the face, which made him stumble to the side.

"You drunk fuck!"

The bearded man grabbed a bottle from the table, swung it at the drunk man, and shattered it on his head.

It caused the drunk man's head to bleed profusely, and thus, his friends jumped the bearded man, resulting in a chaotic and violent brawl.

However, the bearded man wasn't alone, and his friends came to help. It was absolute mayhem. And soon everyone in the pub was fighting someone.

"Hahahaha!"

Kael laughed, stepped over the collapsed body, and stepped out of the pub into the cool night air while the ruckus sounded behind him.

Chairs flew out of the windows, shattering against the cobblestone street, and the pedestrians just hurried away.

The tourist stumbled out of the pub, looking shocked, and then looked at Kael as if he were some psychopath.

"W-Why did you do that?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I did nothing."

Kael lit a cigarette between his lips, placed it between his lips, and let out a puff of smoke, which quickly dissipated in the air.

At that moment, his brain started tingling. It felt rather nice. And at that moment, his divinity started increasing in size.

His Mind Image, which was a very tiny puddle just moments ago, expanded slightly and became the size of a small pond.

It was a pond that could fit inside a fountain.