"Get off me!" Saigo exhaled, his voice hoarse with pain and lack of air. His entire body ached as it was, and after her "landing," the pain had become simply unbearable, concentrating into pulsating clusters in his wounded side and back.
"No, I won't let go!" Her cry was loud, almost hysterical. She squeezed him tighter, pressing his face into her firm chest. From there, from the darkness and warmth, came the scent of expensive perfume and something sweet, almost suffocating. Bitch, I could suffocate like this, a slight note of panic flashed through Saigo's mind. He had no choice left.
Chomp…
He sank his teeth into her delicate skin.
"Ow!" Katarina's hands loosened. And immediately, with all her might, she slapped him so hard that he was thrown from the bed right onto the floor, and the air was split by a shockwave that made the canopy over the bed tremble.
"You seem to want my death?!" Saigo, rubbing his burning cheek, struggled to get up from the floor. "That's what I want to ask you!" Katarina retorted, her eyes shooting lightning, but a predatory, almost animalistic smile flashed on her face.
Saigo looked around. As he expected, Marcus was gone without a trace. Slick bastard, he mentally cursed.
"I was worried!" Katarina plopped onto the bed and hugged a pillow to her chest, embracing it instead of Saigo. "I can't leave you alone for five minutes!" She clicked her finger on her nose, suddenly animated. "Maybe you have… ferocity, umm, savagery? Or a curse? Yes, that's it, a berserker's curse! You have to kill and can't stop!"
Saigo barely held back a snort. If only, he thought. "No, I just…"
"You wanted to make me happy!" Katarina instantly bounced up and covered his mouth with her palm. Saigo tried to say something, but her hand was pressed against his lips with a force that left no doubt; no one was going to let him speak right now. "And I won't believe your excuses! Just think!" her voice became sweet and insinuating. "All I had to do was remember your reputation! How selflessly you charge into an attack against a hundred ghosts and uncover a conspiracy of vile murderers! So noble! Brave! And stupid! It's worthy of a ballad!"
"You might as well commission an ode and a theatrical play about it!" Saigo burst out indignantly, while trying to evade her hand, which was desperately trying to grab his sleeve.
Katarina only smirked mysteriously and, leaning back slightly, declared, "So I did. In two days in all the capital's taverns and theaters."
Saigo felt shivers run down his spine. He felt like crying. This woman was incorrigible.
"But why are we talking about politics!" she exclaimed lightly. "A hero has performed a feat, which means he deserves a reward!"
Her fingers slowly, almost weightlessly, reached for the silk ribbon at her neck. Saigo instantly assessed the construction of what could only be called a dress in a brothel: one light movement and the dress would be on the floor.
Vzshhh.
Before Katarina could even half-untie the bow, his hand forcefully clenched her fingers.
"That's unnecessary," he growled.
"I don't think so," Katarina pouted and tried to pull away, but her fingers remained in a steel vise.
"I think it is. And if you don't want a repeat dis-arming stop fooling around."
Katarina deflated, her shoulders slumping. She reluctantly removed her hand. "You're so mean to me… What don't you like about me?"
"It's not about that…"
"Then what is it? You're a man! All of you, without exception, should throw yourselves at a beautiful girl without further explanation!"
Saigo sighed tiredly. "Not all men are like that." In response, Katarina shook her head.
"And how many like me have you met?" Saigo decided to clarify, to know what he was dealing with.
"A few," she answered, gazing thoughtfully at the ceiling. "Well… a couple of percent of all the men I've ever known."
"How dire…" he muttered.
Seeing his despondency, Katarina hurried to change the subject. "Better tell me, what was it like there? What were those ghosts?"
Saigo inwardly sighed with relief. Their heart-to-heart conversation was postponed indefinitely. For now, he would simply engage in a task quite familiar to him skillful, elegant, and, from his point of view, utterly "realistic" lying.
He nodded and leaned back on the pillows, adopting a thoughtful expression…
"…and then, when the main group was dispersed, I located and neutralized the source of the necrotic anomaly in the northeast corner of the attic," Saigo's voice was even, dry, without a single emotional note, as if he were reading a boring field report to the head of the Cotto Clan. He sat, leaning back on the pillows, trying not to look Katarina directly in the eyes so she wouldn't catch the slightest hint of deception.
He explained quickly and clearly, arranging the facts into a coherent, logical chain. But everything concerning Inevitability the star-shaped helmet, the violet blades, the teleportation, and everything else connected to him had to be ruthlessly excised and replaced with carefully crafted lies. The story without this mysterious guest felt flimsy, too simple for such an uproar, but Saigo was almost sure: Katarina would swallow the bait. Her excessive emotionality and hyper-reactivity would clearly play into his hands.
He omitted the strange guest for one simple reason: he needed to deal with this himself. And knowing Katarina, her fierce, reckless nature, she would immediately do something stupid throw the entire imperial might into a search, hold public executions, start a war with ghosts. What was needed here was silence and caution.
Of course, there was a risk. The guard-dummies or Mona could spill the beans. But Saigo had considered that too.
He wasn't too worried about the guards. In three days of continuous proximity to them, he had noticed one very important detail: they didn't talk. At all. Not a single word. Not among themselves, not to anyone else. This raised serious doubts about their… aliveness. The possibilities varied: undead, golems, demons under contract anything. In any case, silent witnesses were the safest.
But Mona… She was a loyal servant of the crown. And, from his observations, she reported to Katarina personally. But Saigo knew how to deal with witnesses…
Furthermore, there was the third party, the one because of whom this circus had partly started the Banshi. Her fan was with him; the servants simply hadn't been able to recognize it as an anchor due to the extreme depletion of the ghost's magical resources. But how to talk to her? That question occupied the young man, but he would manage, as he always did.
So he lied. Clearly, coldly, and convincingly, putting all his weary sincerity into his voice, watching as Katarina listened, and her irritation and resentment gradually gave way to curiosity, and then to her familiar, admiring interest. He led her along the path he wanted, leaving the most important things deep in the shadows.