楼上的上瘾女士

Elsa shook her head with a smile,

"My job description is not to protect you. Watching you is very much on the table by virtue of interpretation.

I can't tell you exactly why I am here though."

If she expected Hal to pester her for answers after what she just said, then she was sorely mistaken as the blue-eyed handsome devil merely nodded with understanding,

"I understand." Was all he said.

He had his own theories on why Elsa was here and felt it was most likely to source for information to eventually pass on to the one who had hired her.

He had to admit that it caused him to pause and wrack his brain for a reason for this behavior from the Duchess.

After all, she had ignored his existence all this while, why was she actually sending someone to watch him now. What was the big game-changer?

It was then that it clicked in his mind,

'She must now know I can cultivate' he thought.

This meant that long before Elsa, someone else sent by this mother of his had sourced for information about him.

It was why he was now worth finding out about.

Why she sent this sexy Elsa to dog his steps.

Seeing how anticlimactic his reaction was, Elsa admitted to herself that she was a tad bit disappointed and also decided it was about time she left.

"So soon?" Hal asked with a hint of teasing in his tone.

Elsa played along and sighed with melancholy,

"Afraid so. Sticking by your side will only bring you unwanted attention and watching you from the shadows will make me a borderline stalker so I feel it best to give you some space." She said and stood up from the bed.

She stepped closer to Hal and stared into his eyes before she grinned,

"It won't be long before we meet again Hal and by then maybe you'll be paying me back for the Blowjob" she said.

Hal stepped back a little to bow to her,

"It would be my honor" he said and even though Elsa knew he was messing with her, she liked the gesture all the same.

She took one last look at him and vanished.

At first, Hal thought she had manipulated space just like the Dane patroness but shook his head at the unlikely thought. Elsa had just been incredibly fast. Much faster than his eyes or senses child possibly follow.

Once she was gone, he slumped back on the bed with a sigh while he thought to Svetlana and her roundabout means which were only proving annoying to him.

If she was serious about anything, she should have at least made a direct attempt at communication with him.

"Oh well, let's think happy thoughts. Like how I'll finally be leaving Black lagoon and heading back to the Silva Duchy capital"

...

The next morning...

Hal made his way to the Sheik's residence, not to see the Sheik but to see Lucile who he was guessing would be leaving the city that day as well.

At the gate, he met new guards and was more than a little surprised that the Sheik had managed to recruit men already. Especially since all the past guards were dead.

Were trepidation and a healthy dose of love for survival really that lacking?

To make matters, when he arrived, the guards were discussing how this new job if theirs was heaven-sent.

Apparently, they had been eyeing something this cushy for a while and could not believe their luck that they finally got it.

"It's good those guys rebelled, they freed up job vacancies for us. And as the Sheik's guards no less" one of them said.

"I know right. I mean, he's still a piece of shit who doesn't really care about the common man but working for him is very lucrative." The other one said.

Although Hal had expected Wade to eventually pull this off, it was quite surprising that it was this easy.

In fact, without making mention of Gavin and the past guards, these new guards would still readily accept the job.

With no interest in being involved in their talks or even interrupting them for that matter, Hal turned invisible and walked past them undetected.

As it turned out, he did not need to choose to either visit Lucile or Wade, even though the choice in such a situation was clear, the two were in the same location with one other fellow.

Runemaster Fenrir was on his knees and shaking with fear.

After Hal left the temple grounds, Wade remembered the treacherous runemaster who was bound to realize soon that his insurance, Gavin was dead and attempt a quick getaway.

So he personally hunted the runemaster down and had him locked up in the residence where it would be impossible for thee Runemaster to escape with the use of Astral sense and then brought him out this morning just as Lucile came over after he called for her.

Both he and Lucile were seated and eyeing the shivering Fenrir when Hal arrived.

"Why so grim? You still have your seat and from what I observed at the gate, recruiting new guards is going well. Don't tell me Fenrir is the cause of this atmosphere." Hal said with a mild chuckle.

His arrival seemed to be the final nail in the coffin of Fenrir's descent into intense fear for his chances at survival.

He allowed himself a glance back at Hal and his eyes bulged while his whole body seized up.

Hal noticed the reaction and merely smiled at this older man while tipping an invisible hat at him.

It was not just him who noticed the reaction, the other two did as well and wondered what it was about Hal that terrified the older man so much.

"What do you plan to do with him?" Hal asked while taking an empty seat beside Lucile.

Wade sighed,

"Well, I can't exactly kill him. At least not in a way it can be traced back to me. He is still a Runemaster and if word of his death got to Rune castle, even though that seems unlikely, it could spell trouble. They care for their own.

Holding a Runemaster token makes Fenrir one of their own." He said and was doing a good job not deferring to Hal and treating him like he normally would.

If there was something Lucile found suspicious, it would be that their disagreement in regards to her was not coming up, and since she saw that as a plus, she did not really care.

"If you can't kill him, why is he afraid?" Hal asked and was obviously referring to how Fenrir was before his arrival.

A nasty smile spread over Wade's face,

"Well, I said it would be troublesome if his death was linked to me but if I could make sure that it wasn't, I could kill him. Poison is top on my list of murder weapons." He said.

Hal nodded in appreciation of the tactic. Especially since he had poisoned a runemaster himself.

In fact, he considered poisoning Fenrir with Astral energy in which case, it would be untraceable to anyone and blamed entirely on Fenrir for not being careful enough when harnessing the energy that should not be held in the body.

However, he felt that it would be unnecessary and mostly directed at aiding Wade's vindictiveness.

He had a better idea...

"Come with me" he told Fenrir as he stood from his seat.

As though the words commanded every part of his body, Fenrir stood from the ground as though in a trance.

"I'll take care of this" Hal said to Wade and walked out of the Hall with Fenrir...

... leaving Wade to give Lucile some news.