My Muscle System in the Mage World

"This is…" Jackson's mouth curved upwards, though it seemed forced, with his entire face in wrinkles, the more he looked at the painting.

In the painting, there was a nude painting of a woman sitting at the bed, drawn relatively simply, although he could see the effort and attention that was given to this painting.

However, that was it—the painting was mediocre at best, with no special feeling or anything like the one a simple street painter could make without much effort at all.

"Is this one of the greatest paintings?" Jackson looked at Aur with a questioning gaze.

"Yes, young master?" Aur asked with a smile on his face.

"Did I get scammed?" Jackson thought. The more he looked at the painting, there was nothing special about it.

The strokes were ordinary and didn't give any feeling. He couldn't even feel any mana in the strokes that were drawn, causing him to be disappointed.

Jackson had initially thought that Aur knew the fabled technique of infusing mana into the drawing; however, from the looks of it, this was simply impossible, only causing him to be disappointed.

Although he knew that this was likely not possible, still he tried his luck either way he didn't care.

"Brother Aur, can you help me with one thing?" He folded the sketch and gave it to Liam.

"What is it?" Aur asked straightforwardly.

"Hahaha, I like your straightforwardness with me. Good. Then, can I see other paintings of yours?"

"Okay." Aur nodded with a smile on his face. He casually reached into his pouch and acted like he took out something as a painting appeared in his hand out of thin air.

"Here it is."

"Are you giving this so easily to me?" Leo looked at the sketch in his hand with a little astonishment.

"Yeah." Aur nonchalantly replied.

As Jackson folded the paper and looked at the sketch, he couldn't help but frown. The painting was of a setting sun where two people sat together with a very minimalist drawing, even worse than the previous drawing.

"This guy might not be lying to himself that the woman's picture might be one of the 'greatest' paintings he had drawn…" he thought while shaking his head. However, deep down, he couldn't help but feel scammed instead.

He wouldn't actually care about this much money. For him, this amount was at the middle line where it wasn't too less, and neither was it too much for him to care about so significantly.

"Forget it, I will spare this guy for now, whether he did this intentionally or not." Leo's eyes narrowed.

Aur just remained standing with a smile on his face.

"Brother Aur, the sketch I bought from you is truly one of the greatest paintings yet. I couldn't help being impressed." Leo praised as a smile appeared on his face.

"Good, then can you guys leave?" Aur spoke while looking at the three of them with a strange expression on his face.

"Wait, as a gesture of goodwill, I can treat you for some drinks. Will you take it?" Jackson hurriedly said.

"Hmm, I am getting tired after making my masterpiece, so I might as well rest for a moment then." Aur mumbled to himself with a contemplative expression.

"Then it's decided then." Jackson smiled as he looked at the woman in the kimono.

"Follow me, young master. I will show you the place for it." She obediently bowed with eyes closed.

"Good."

Jackson nodded with a smile as he slowly guided Aur to the drinking zone.

Although the pleasure palace might seem like a brothel only, there was still a place to drink in the place, which was, in fact, very popular.

With people crowding in every time, whether it was for setting the mood for the customer or something, there was even a gambling den, which was even bigger than the drinking place, where countless people gambled away with women at their laps.

Inside the pleasure palace, in one of the huge rooms underground, there was a hustle and bustle of a crowd of people as seductive men and women walked here and there, carrying drinks while showing almost their entire naked body, barely only their sensitive bodies covered by thin films of cloth.

They walked teasingly, almost as if inviting the onlookers who were at the table, who were ogling at them with lust in their eyes.

However, in one of the far corners, there were four people sitting down with thin films of a barrier covering them, which seemed to be unnoticed by the onlookers, no matter how they tried.

One of them was a bulky youth who seemed a head taller than his peers, a royally clothed man with a smile on his face, a silver-armoured man, and a woman who wore a loose black kimono with her black hair falling like the night sky.

Her loose kimono thinly revealed her large cleavage seductively.

Aur sighed as he sipped on the water with a smile on his face.

"Brother Aur, you really don't drink the wine?" Jackson looked at Aur with a strange expression on his face.

"Yeah, I don't drink it." Aur spoke with a warm smile on his face.

"Not even a single iota of it?"

"No." Aur shook his head firmly.

It was not that he truly didn't drink. In fact, he liked to drink quite often in his previous life. However, he was still careful with it. But now?

In this world where there are strong rules and one can be attacked at any time no matter where you are, being vulnerable by even a fraction of a second was a sin to Aur.

He didn't like to become vulnerable and wasn't interested in losing even an iota of his combat strength if he ever was attacked by someone even once.

That was something that was unacceptable for Aur currently, so he had to refrain from consuming such things.

"Sigh, if you don't want to, then don't." Jackson shrugged his shoulders as he enjoyed himself with a smile on his face.

"What about you, Liam?"

"I am not allowed to drink on duty, young master." Liam replied firmly with a firm stance.

Jackson wanted to say something; however, he was abruptly stopped by Liam's words.

"It is the order of the master, Young master."

"Tsk tsk, you guys really don't want to enjoy life except for this lovely woman and me." Jackson said with a smile.

"So why are you here, woman?" Aur suddenly looked at the woman who was also sipping her wine elegantly.

"My name is Eleanor, young master. I wanted to take a breather, young master." She said with an apologetic smile.

However, Aur was unmoved as he pressed on. "Then why didn't you sit at the other seat?"

Eleanor became silent as she just smiled at Aur.

"Hmm?" Aur frowned, but he didn't continue to question things as he silently sipped his water.

"It's because I invited her, brother. You don't have to bully these poor girls so much." Jackson laughed.

Aur rolled his eyes. "In what sense does she look 'poor girl' to you?" However, he refrained from further retort as the lively atmosphere of the bar didn't affect them at all.