The girl in male disguise returned after two hours. The vampire quietly left the room and managed to overhear a conversation between the manager and the mage. The man honestly and clearly explained what had happened and that he had said nothing to the bandit who inquired about the lady.
Nodding with importance, the girl ascended to the second floor and stopped in front of her room door. A draft from the spell she had used wafted over the vampire, who was once again hiding in the neighboring room; evidently, the mage was very cautious and checked the room before entering it.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Sergey prepared himself, and as soon as a single step was heard from behind the wall, he quickly darted out and, using all available speed, rushed towards the target, striking her on the head with the club. The girl, already inside her room, had no time to react, and the shield she had put up beforehand only covered the front hemisphere.
"Lesson for the future, protection should be all-encompassing!"—the vampire thought as he dragged the mage into her room and searched her belongings.
Money and amulets, like any valuables, were set aside immediately, to be taken later to simulate a robbery. Examination of the woman's clothing revealed it was double-sided. Both the outer skirt and jacket were sewn in such a way that they could be easily reversed and worn inside out. However, one side looked like luxurious attire in the dark, while the other side looked impoverished.
"Very clever, I should get myself some like this."
Unfortunately, the search yielded nothing more, and the vampire moved on to the most interesting part. Drinking the girl's blood and testing how well he had conducted the search using only his hands and eyes, without the knowledge of the item's owner. It turned out he had done an excellent job, and there was nothing more to find. After drawing almost a liter of blood from the mage into a flask, the vampire left her room and openly headed for the exit. Passing the frightened and panicking manager, he nonchalantly said:
"Say anything, and Shnyr (a man who is powerless to obey an arbitrary master and works entirely for him) will cut you up!"
Deciding he had done enough pretending to be human, he left the building and quickly ran through the deserted streets. He needed to leave the city and deliver the blood to the castle.
The girl who appeared here in the fall had indeed come at her father's request to expand his trade contacts. However, the Tap family understood this "expansion" very specifically. Robbing and ruining a competitor? Easy! Killing? Absolutely! Robbing a wealthy person? Why not? Buying stolen goods? Bring it all here faster! And landing in the fertile grounds of the duchy, with its total highway robbery, she quickly resumed her usual work, establishing contacts at the city's lowest levels and creating an entire network of informants.
A servant brought a glass and a pitcher of water. The man and woman, who had been sitting in the living room and speaking quietly before, fell silent as soon as he opened the door. Under the watchful eyes of the two pairs observing him, the young man calmly left the room with an already empty tray in hand.
"This one seems better than the previous one," the girl remarked.
"The execution of his predecessor in his presence did him good," the man remarked with satisfaction.
Alexey Gennadievich did not rejuvenate his body. At forty, well-groomed and handsome, he preferred this to being a twenty-year-old youth. And the locals showed more respect to experienced-looking individuals rather than to beardless lads. Youth is important for women, but as an old film sang—"gray hair adorns a man" (the author misquoted the phrase; to find out how it actually sounds, watch the film "Dog in the Manger"). He did not have gray hair, nor any ailments in his body. Olga Viktorovna, on the other hand, now looked sixteen years old, or even younger. The woman was unstoppable and made some sort of correction to her face and body almost every day.
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