MMORPG: Crowd Control

After Chris finished his sentence, Lei Zhen's mouth was wide open, almost like he had swallowed a mouthful of food.

"Are you serious?" Lei Zhen asked in a disbelief tone.

Things such as encountering a royalty out in the middle of a road were actually possible?

How could he possibly be that lucky to encounter someone of that caliber when he was unlucky all these times?

"Of course, I'm serious. Have you ever seen me this shocked before?" Chris scolded coldly.

This was truly a shocker to him and it was a good thing he had discovered her identity. Otherwise, if they somehow misspoke and offended her, then he could kiss his career as a merchant goodbye.

No one would be willing to do business with a merchant that had offended a royalty, especially a caliber of Kate Norton.

"Hurry and use this Superior Healing Potion on her," Chris said frantically.

His attitude took a 180-degree change and was in a hurry to give the best healing potion to Kate.

Profits are important, but so is the social connection as a merchant. In fact, social connections are technically more important than profits.

Meanwhile, Lei Zhen was rendered speechless, but still took the healing potion and fed it to Kate.

And no, he wasn't going to do some cringe stuff that all men supposedly tried to do to justify their vile behavior in mouth-to-mouth feeding a woman just because she's unconscious.

Humans are constructed weirdly and could swallow liquified stuff even if they are unconscious as long as they're positioned at a certain angle.

By putting the lid close to Kate's lip and pouring it down slowly, Kate would unconsciously swallow the Superior Healing Potion.

Of course, Lei Zhen made sure to hold her body in a position that allowed easy access for her to drink.

Though it was heavily criticized by Chris who thought he was trying to take advantage of a princess.

"Be careful not to touch her anywhere inappropriately. I don't want my career to end because of your carelessness." Chris warned repeatedly.

"What do you take me for? A lecher?" Lei Zhen hissed coldly.

He was here trying to help Kate recover, but all Chris had in his mind was that Lei Zhen is trying to do something lewd.

Not all men think with their bottom part!

Sometime later, Kate slowly regained her consciousness once the effect of the healing potion kicked in.

Kate opened her eyes and saw Lei Zhen and another unfamiliar man. Though with a simple glance, she could deduce the unfamiliar man was a merchant based on his clothes.

"Who is he, Lei Zhen?" Kate got up slowly and asked him.

"Ah, he was the merchant that I was supposed to protect, Christopher Rhombus." Lei Zhen scratched his head and introduced Chris.

As for the matter of Chris stepping in at the crucial moment to save him, that was decided by the two of them to keep it a secret from Kate.

Chris didn't want others to know he was capable of defending himself and Lei Zhen wasn't going to go against his wish, especially after being saved by him.

"I see…" Kate nodded her head.

She then glanced around and saw the two hounds' corpses.

"Did you kill them by yourself?"

"Yes, I borrowed your sword and stunned them before decapitating them." Lei Zhen lied with a straight face.

To explain the burn scar done by Chris, Lei Zhen and him worked together to create a fake wound on the Hounds of Nightmare to fool Kate.

Kate might be a princess and born from royalty, but her fighting skill and inspection skills are not to be underestimated. For her to be able to last so long in such a strenuous fight, only an idiot would believe she's some weak princess.

And it didn't take them by surprise when Kate slowly stood up by herself and went to inspect the wounds of the Hounds.

As much as she was grateful for Lei Zhen's timely arrival to save her, there were still suspicions on her mind.

How did he end up here when she was sure the area was sealed off to the public?

How did he kill the two Hounds when he wasn't that powerful?

All these questions were in her mind, and Kate squinted her eyes at one of the hounds.

'This hound was decapitated, but the fur seemed to be a bit burnt.' Kate wondered silently. 'The corpse seemed to have been tampered with.'

Alas, she didn't have enough evidence in hand to prove that it was done by Lei Zhen.

After all, the fur could have been done by the black mage that targeted her. She knew exactly how eccentric black mages can be, to the point that they would abuse their own summoned monsters for an experiment.

Unable to make a conclusion with her lack of evidence, Kate turned and smiled briefly. "You have my gratitude for saving me."

"No worries, I was just passing by here because of the roads being damaged." Lei Zhen shook his head, not daring to take any claim.

He may have killed one of the hounds alone, but that was because it was weakened by Kate.

As for the last one, he was pathetically defeated and without Chris, he would have respawned elsewhere.

"Anyway, where were the two of you headed?" Kate asked.

"We are headed for Yors Castle," Chris answered on behalf of Lei Zhen. "As a merchant, Yors Castle is currently embroiled in chaos, so I'm planning on selling some of my merchandise there."

"Oh? Yors Castle is embroiled in chaos?" Kate raised an eyebrow, acting ignorant about the matter.

"Mhm, the two princes had started to vie for the throne and corrupted nobles have begun to impose heavy taxes to increase their funding. Citizens are suffering, so I'm going to make some profits." Chris smiled gently.

His intention was easy for Lei Zhen to know what he was planning.

By saying this much information to Kate, who didn't expect her identity to be exposed already. Chris wanted to hoodwink her into buying his merchandise and create a cooperative relationship as well.

'What a devious merchant.' Lei Zhen thought.