I'd have to deal with the repercussions of this with Rila later, but if she was both Arne's daughter and a student at Caemor, she was bound to find out Gerard Viscoti and Trygve Teigen were the same person eventually anyway; it wasn't as if I was doing that good of a job separating the identities. I also now knew she lived a double life. Perhaps the real contract to be made here was between us--to keep each other's secrets.

I smiled. "This has been fun."

"Excuse me?" Dina asked. She didn't look entertained.

[Notice] Mastery of [Demeot Eyes] has increased by .05%.

"You got the wrong person, Lady Rashania. I'm not the real Gerard Viscoti. You kidnapped the wrong person. My name is Trygve Teigen, and I'm going to see myself out now."

"Wha--"

I activated [7-Lives-Bloodlust] and felt the deep coil of satisfaction at the result. Dina seemed to freeze in place. Rila stared at me in wide-eyed alarm. The guard suddenly took two steps backward. I could smell the fear rolling off of him.

"He'll kill us both!" he shouted. Did he hear how ridiculous he sounded? He unsheathed his sword. Stupid mistake when terror had taken hold of him and he was shaking in fear. He should've just ran. But trying to stay and fight me?

I didn't need a sword for this. Even with my bones aching like they were, he was no match for me.

I let the ropes drop as the guard's blade came down toward me across the table, and I dodged it easily. What a joke. I grabbed the chair I'd been sitting on and threw it at him. He stumbled back as I jumped and slid across the surface of the table and punched him right in the face. Broke his nose. He went down, and I finished him with a knife.

"P-please," Dina stuttered, her eyes darting from me to the door. "They'll kill me..."

[Notice] Mastery of [Demeot Eyes] has increased by .05%.

She was probably stalling until another guard checked in after hearing the commotion. That was fine. Let them come. She was probably too scared from [7-Lives-Bloodlust] to even run away.

I said, "You're more valuable to me alive, but it wouldn't be hard to kill you. So while I kill all the guards who you're hoping will come save you, think about what you want to do. Take my deal or die?"

"Gerard," she whispered forcefully. "You-- Are you really not Gerard?"

"Never have been," I said. And it was true. I wasn't Trygve either, but what difference did that make? "Your answer, Lady Rashania?"

She glanced at the door again. Then her face brightened with a ray of hope when it opened, and a guard entered without a clue about what was about to happen. His eyes fell to Dina, then to me, and then finally on the dead guard too late to save himself. It happened fast. Rila was on her feet, surprising given I still had [7-Lives-Bloodlust] activated, pulling him into the room and stabbing him through the throat.

The guard cried out in pain before he tumbled to the floor, uselessly trying to stop the blood pouring from his neck. Another came in behind him and at least got out a yell before she killed him. These weren't trained guards. They'd been trained, sure, but only well enough to handle Rila. Let alone me.

With my new level and stats, my perception had expanded enough to hear footsteps not far away. Five people. Heading this way. The way two of them sounded when the moved made me think they might know their stuff. One was likely a full foot taller than me. The other one was shorter than me but were quick. These two might not be too deterred with my [7-Lives-Bloodlust]. My body tensed for a moment knowing that I'd be in pain after this bothersome fight.

"Gerard--Trygve--whatever your name is," Rila said, cocking her head toward the door. "Let's go. Forget Lady Rashania."

"Five incoming," I said quickly. One glance at Dina told me she was going to sit pretty the entire time, so I rounded the table in preparation. "Stay alert. Two might put up a real fight."

Rila took a big breath, readying herself. She was quite useful, wasn't she?

The quick one arrived first, her sword already drawn. Good for her. She charged me and it wasn't as if I wasn't impressed. It just was that my response was immediate, even if the movement sent a jab of pain through my arm. A single strike knocked the sword from her hands, and I stepped forward and kicked the weapon out of reach while she grabbed her knife. Not quick enough for Rila to slit her throat first, though.

The other swordsman arrived at the doorway and for a moment seemed to hesitate before entering as he assessed the blood pooling beneath two dead guards, the frightened Dina, Rila covered in blood, and me in my shit-eating grin. The other three I'd heard arrived with him, their bows aimed at me. Not bad, but they had no coordination.

The second swordsman lunged at me, possibly deeming me the more immediate threat although Rila's kill count was higher than mine here, so the others couldn't let their arrows fly without possibly hitting him, too. Not only that, but his swings were sloppy. The worst part about this was how weakness was slowly clawing at my muscles, slowing me down.

While Rila held the first swordsman in front of her as a shield as the woman choked on her own blood, I blocked the second swordsman's every move. Each time he would try something different, but I anticipated each move because this dance was all too familiar to me. Arrogance is an enemy to anyone fighting someone better than themselves.

The swordsman swung his blade wide, which allowed me to grab it and throw him backwards onto the ground. I threw a knife into his throat because that seemed to be the theme here. He went to pull it out, and that did not end well for him. Now it was just the others with their bows ready, desperation a foul smell rolling off of them.

When I turned to face them, one of the bowmen dropped it and ran. The second one started releasing his quivers at me, but I caught them one at a time. The third hollered in frustration, dropping her bow as well, but she instead took out a few knives. Why did they want to engage in close combat so badly?

The woman chose that moment to rush forward and slashed wildly at me. My reflexes reacted faster, and I ducked under the slash. When she spun around, I caught her arm as she raised it to stab me again. The other archer was trying to move behind me, which would be a pain if Rila wasn't stalking them like a leopard.

To woman in my hand, I threw her against the wall, though not without a pained groan of my own, and ended it quick with a dagger. At the same time, Rila quickly disarmed the other archer, stabbed them in the chest until he fell to the floor in a lump. Then she picked up the bow and aimed it at Dina. Not bad.

There were still at least twenty other people roaming the warehouse, so we didn't have a lot of time. The quicker we left this room, the fewer people we'd run into outside. Eventually they'd notice they were missing numbers. Almost a fifth of them were lying dead on the floor of this room, after all.

Dina sat there like an idiot waiting to die. "Gerard... Trygve... Please don't do this."

[Notice] Mastery of [Demeot Eyes] has increased by .05%.

"So what's your answer, Lady Roshania?" I asked, pleasant as I'd ever been. I could practically see her heart fall.

"I-I'll try to answer your questions," Dina said. "Whatever you want. But you have to promise you'll keep me safe."

"No," Rila growled.

I hated it when people answered for me. I sighed. "You pissed off the boss's daughter it seems, but I'll help you. But only if you tell me where else Rashania and Co has you take people to talk. Or if you happen to know where their potions warehouse is, that'd be great. I'd love to know what you talk about as well."

Dina nodded eagerly. "I'll tell you everything you want to know, but you can't leave me here."

That meant she didn't have any magical contract binding her to silence. Or that she thought she could escape me without revealing anything at all. I needed a place to hold her then. A place that'd be decently guarded.

Rila spoke up, crouching for the rope she'd wriggled out of earlier and rounding the table to Dina. "The Triam Drana has a place to get information out of people like her. We need to get out of here though. Now." She seemed on edge. Maybe my [7-Lives-Bloodlust] was making her cagey or she could have some [Instinct] skill yelling at her.

Dina didn't protest as Rila tied her hands behind her back. I deactivated [7-Lives-Bloodlust] as soon as we left the room. I could tell there were a number of people still here, but none of them seemed to care about this hallway. As odd as it seemed to leave the warehouse the way we came, that was what we did and we didn't run into a single other person.

Rila had Dina walk in front of her, leading the way through the slums and back to the red light district. My raven noted nothing suspicious along the way. When we got to Kashana Casino, Rila had a few guards take Dina and headed inside without so much as a goodbye. Maybe she realized I'd asked Arne to kidnap myself.

Figuring she'd fill in Arne about everything, I headed back to my apartment. By the time I got there, I felt nearly as beat up as I had the night before. Rajal and Danio greeted me but left me to shuffle into my room. The money Danio'd retrieved from Lando was on my dresser. I didn't bother undressing, easing myself into bed. Although my plan hadn't quite worked, my situation wasn't any worse for it.

In fact, I'd be able to send a ransom note to Father soon. Given how easily Dina had accepted that I was Trygve Teigen disguised as Gerard Visocti, it was probably [Silver Tongue] working passively in my favor. I could convince Arne and Rila with the same way that I'd been pretending to be Gerard all along, essentially killing the real version.

Unfortunately, I fell asleep knowing that Rashania and Co was becoming a bigger problem than I'd anticipated.