Dick and Lana had returned close to nightfall. The news was disappointing. The locals weren't exactly eager to rant about the estate and its curse. Nothing useful could be gleaned, except that the locals were already taking bets on how quickly the new "lucky" one would get off the estate.
"Oh, bitches!" Dick finished his report with an angry expression on his face. Lana was standing nearby, and you could tell from her expression that the company of the forest robber was weighing on her, but she tried not to show it.
"Ouch. What are you doing?" Dick bellowed, Lana elbowed him, and given her height, she hit him right on the liver.
"Dick, don't you have anything to add?" The girl turned to Dick and raised her head and stared him straight in the eyes. The woodsman shrugged his shoulders and shivered incomprehensibly.
"I made a bet," Baldy stared at Bondrewd and continued in an apologetic tone. - When the locals told me about the bets, I thought at first I'd call the whole thing off, but then I thought it was a good bet, so I put all my money on us getting rid of the curse.
Lord of Dawn tilted his head slightly, "What are you doing? And said. "The act is certainly strange, but what's it to me, anyway I intend to deal with this situation."
"So what are we going to do?" Asked Lana, the girl looked hopefully at her new master, she was hoping for a sensible plan. But she was snapped at.
"Go wash and then sleep, at night be at the ready and at arms, the house is big of course, but you can hear me shouting for a rise." Bondrewd shifted his gaze to Dick, and thought to himself. "I'm hopeful." If the situation becomes critical break through to the central hall, there's a general assembly point there, and wipe out the two of you as well....
"And separately for you Dick, no drinking tonight, I don't need your drunken ramblings." Bondrewd finished, and turned towards the baths, Lana and Dick saw him off with a look, and as soon as their master was out of sight they went to their rooms.
The baths were located in the basement of the mansion, and looked quite good, everything was lined with beige brick and the same colour tiles, in the centre of the room was a pool of seven meters. In the corners were oak barrels, and benches. Bondrewd removed his armour and stacked it on the nearest bench.
A naked figure approached the bathing chamber. The man stuck his hand in the water - it was quite pleasant, Bondrewd bent down, trying to see the bottom in search of a water source. He found it quickly enough, in the centre of the bottom of the bathing tub was a large hole, from which large bubbles came out from time to time.
"So they got to the source." Lord of Dawn plunged into the water, it didn't take long to wash, all the necessary supplies were found in the barrels. Ten minutes later, the Lord sat in the bathing chamber and stared at the ceiling, musing.
"I've been in the manor for a good four hours now, and I haven't felt a thing, I wonder." His sense of danger, which so often helped him in the most difficult situations, was silent and showed no signs of life at all. He had zero in magic too, it was impossible to become a high mage in less than three months, but even Mira noticed his incredible ability to learn, and the first of his requirements was to teach him how to track magical auras. The skill was basic, gifted wizards could feel it literally from birth, the rest of the tracking was not too difficult, although many considered this skill useless Bondrewd was fundamentally disagree with them.
Tracking had a lot of uses: detecting traps, and artefacts and primarily hostile mages, which deprived them of their main advantage - the advantage of the first strike. Of course experienced, and even more so combat mages could hide their magical aura, but you could also delve deeper into the use of tracking, sensing literally minimal movements of magical energies.
"There were no magical artefacts in the house, at least not that he could feel. After some more soaking in the warm water, the man got up and changed his clothes and went to his chambers. He had ordered that he be given a room roughly in the centre of the mansion, and that Lana and Dick be sent to the right and left wings respectively."
Bondrewd looked out the window The sun had already set over the horizon, and night was coming on.
...
Lana sat in the bath, she was in doubt, no she was not a coward, but the idea of staying overnight in the cursed manor she frankly did not like. But she couldn't do anything about it either.
"I thought his new master would have some kind of plan," Lana put her hands behind her back and exhaled heavily. That jerk Dick kept popping into her head.
"I don't know why Lord Bondrewd keeps that jerk around," she remembered their fight, tears welling up in her eyes, it was humiliating to lose to that scum. And now she was here in the cursed manor, waiting for who knows what.
The door opened loudly and Dick came in, humming something to himself as he began to take off his clothes.
"Oh, fuck, I'm so steamed." The man took off the top of his clothes and with a smile on his face, looked around the bath, and then he met Lana's gaze, whose face was already the colour of hot metal.
"What are you doing here, you pervert!" Lana shouted as hard as she could, throwing a wooden ladle at Dick, hitting him squarely in the temple. Dick, who hadn't expected such a sudden attack, didn't even think he could dodge. The ladle reached its target and crashed into the bald man's forehead with a satisfying crunch.
Dick fell like a hamstring, not giving signs of life, and Lana remained in the bathing room not knowing what to do in such a situation.
...
2 a.m.
Bondrewd waited patiently, and to his disappointment nothing was happening, Lord scanned the room with his eyes.
"Nothing absolutely nothing, I ca..." His inner monologue was interrupted by one small detail, the picture hanging calmly on his back began to move, more specifically the eyes of the lady it depicted. The lifeless eyes of the painted beauty moved after Bondrewd's gaze. The man's face lit up with a smile. The man began to rise slowly from his chair and rushed towards the painting.
Already after a couple of seconds his face was a couple of centimetres away from the portrait, the painting froze just for a moment, and....
"AHHHH." The face of the painted girl distorted, taking on the features of a bloodthirsty monster, Bondrewd stumbled back, not because of the strange face, but because of the sudden heightening of his sense of danger, the painting began to emit a strange aura, in some places similar to the background of the cursed house, but greatly amplified.
"AAAA." A woman's scream was heard, Bondrewd struggling to pull himself away from the portrait that interested him. Kicking the door with his foot, the Lord rushed down the corridor, into the left wing
"Lana should be in there, oh fuck." The door in front of him suddenly opened and the head of one of the maids appeared out of it, Lord barely had time to slow down, grabbing the corner of the wall with his hands.
"AAH." The frightened girl screamed, looking at the black figure, illuminated only by the faint light of the moon coming from the window.
"LL-ord, where are you going?" The maid asked in a frightened voice, looking at Bondrewd with a slightly glowing yellow eye with a vertical badge.
"To Lana, and you go to the central hall." The girl only blinked at the Lord who had fled to the far side of the manor. A barely muffled shout came to Bond's ears.
"Give it back, you bastard," Bondrewd broke down the flimsy door with his body to save time. The red-haired girl was waving a knife around the room, scrolls and books flying around her, Bondrewd didn't know how, but he was very curious.
Bursting inside the half dome of flying books, he pulled Lana against him and asked.
"What's going on?"
"Those bitches stole my stuff," Lana shouted angrily, still waving the knife at him. Bondrewd let go of Lana and standing up to his full height, he reached out and grabbed the flying book. It tried to get out, making inhuman and rather loud noises. Bondrewd tore a piece of cloth from the curtain and tied up his attacker, throwing the fluttering book into his bag. His fellows came at the Lord with triple force.
"And that's it" the Lord was disappointed, books were just flying around and poking at his Armour, it could only be called a blow.
And then Bondrewd got that feeling of danger again, Bondrewd quickly grabbed Lana's hand and ran out into the corridor, as soon as he left the room the curse was gone. The man set Lana on her feet and squatting down looking her in the eyes said.
"Go to the centre of the hall and I'll get Dick." She blinked fearfully.
The situation was heating up, strange shadows began to walk along the walls of the corridors, playing out horrible scenes of death and murder. But as soon as he approached them, they synchronously stopped and turned towards the Lord, baring their black fangs.
"It's getting more and more interesting every time, what's up with Dick," Bondrewd expected anything, except that to his hearing, quite loud noises began to reach him. Expecting the worst, he pounced into the room and....
"Dick was lying on the bed, snoring like a bear, with a frightened maid sitting beside him, trying to bring him to his senses."
"Go to the main hall, I'll follow you." The girl with the strange eye turned round frightened, and rushed out of the room. And Bondrewd stayed, he was curious about what was about to happen, except that seconds passed, and nothing happened. Bondrewd looked at the sleeping squire and thought.
"Maybe a curse..."
"AAA." A piercing scream came from the central hall, and hefting the sleeping body onto his shoulder the Lord of Dawn rushed to the rescue.