Bondrewd creaked on the old floorboards and raced into the centre hall, 'If Dick hadn't been drunk again it would have been a lot easier.' Lord dragged the outlaw's body on his shoulder, the landing already in sight.
"AAA." The source of the sound was very close, and Lord of Dawn, deciding to shorten the distance, jumped over the wooden railing in one fell swoop. He landed on his feet in a tenth of a second, the floor beneath him cracking with an unpleasant crunch and Bondrewd's boots sinking into the stone tiles.
Bondrewd looked up, in the centre of the room stood the entire staff and his companion, Lana, to Lorde's surprise the situation was calm. Wanting to be extra sure of his initial judgement the Lord of Dawn wiggled his head. 'What the fuck?'
A mute question flashed through the lord's mind, being extremely annoyed he quickly approached the people standing in the centre of the hall. As he approached, a ripple travelled across everyone's skin. In the moonlight that illuminated the Lord from behind, the Lord looked scary as hell, and the purple visor made him look even more sinister.
"What are you yelling about?" The man shifted his gaze to Lana, and there was a look of confusion in his eyes.
"L... Lord Bondrewd, what are you talking about?" One of the maids asked fearfully, dimming her eyes to the floor. Bondrewd began to realise, but he asked.
"Lana, you didn't scream, did you?" Lana's legs were shaking, she had not had enough of ghosts and devils, but compared to her new master, it was a child's play.
"No." The girl struggled, her strength draining away, and she sank to the floor, exhaling heavily.
"I see." said the Lord and turned round, the sense of danger was silent, but having felt strange movements in magical streams on the first floor, he wanted to go there. But something stopped him, he turned round to the shivering people. 'Hmm, they need to leave, before I would have ditched them and headed upstairs, but now...' Bondrewd remarked to himself, he himself didn't know why he didn't rush to the first floor, throwing the ballast in the form of the bald rogue out.
"Take Dick and hang out in the village," the watchman and the manager felt the Lord's cold gaze and hurried to him, unloading Dick the group under Bondrewd's gaze went to the door.
Lana tugged at the knob. It wouldn't budge, the girl applied maximum effort literally hanging on the doorknob and....
'Crack.'
Lana dropped to the floor, and trying to ignore her aching heel, looked at the door, but the handle was gone.
"Lord Bondrewd I don't think this is going to be as easy as we thought." Said Lana showing the doorknob in her hand. Lord of Dawn didn't hesitate long and took off in the direction of the door, gaining speed he used the inertia to turn in the air and kicked the door corner.
'Bam.'
The lord bounced off the door and cast his gaze over it, it was about as he had surmised - the door was unharmed. 'That punch would be enough to break through a stone wall,' Lord stepped closer to the door and touched it. A strange cold feeling ran down his arm.
"I take it we're stuck here until dawn." Bondrewd turned to the group of panicked people. There was real panic and animal terror on their faces.
"Is there somewhere safer?" Lord Bondrewd asked without looking round. The man looked with interest at the staircase leading to the first floor.
"Yes, we can go to the dining room." said the maid quietly. The locals nodded in agreement with their colleague's opinion.
"I don't think so, we're going to the baths." Before the Lord could finish, he was interrupted by frightened voices.
"No, it's dangerous!"
"We're not going in there!"
"Lord Bondrewd, with all due respect, the bathhouse is underground, and there is only one entrance to it, and if it falls we shall be buried alive." The estate manager summed it all up.
"Perhaps, but I want to check something, so follow me." Bondrewd commanded cheerfully and strode off down the hill. The crowd followed him in silence, the locals tried hard to hide their displeasure, but it was rather difficult to get anything from Lord Bondrewd.
'Hmm,' he scratched the back of his head nervously, touched his forehead absentmindedly, and licked his lips, 'of course it can all be put down to panic, but I wouldn't discount lying.' The crowd walked down the corridor of the ground floor, the atmosphere was heated and everyone walked, keeping silence as the most sacred value.
"GHAAAAA" there was a loud growl, it came from somewhere behind them, everyone synchronously turned their heads back, all except Bondrewd. On the opposite side of the corridor stood a humanoid creature with grey skin, and black dirty tangled hair, the whole face of the creature was covered in blood, the monster slowly walked to the side playing with its huge claws.
"Lord Bondrewd!" all of them shouted in one voice, but the man didn't even think of doing anything and continued walking towards the bathhouse. 'Here comes the descent to the baths.'
"Don't pay any attention, just keep walking forwards." Bondrewd said calmly as he approached the massive door leading to the basement baths.
"GHAAA!" the monster came closer and closer, the monster appeared for a second in the faint moonlight coming from the small window. Its completely empty white eyes and a row of sharp white teeth, which the creature clacked constantly, making loud noises.
"Lord, I beg you to kill it!" Lana wailed, clutching tightly at the cloak of the Lord, who was already opening the massive doors.
"Of course, but only after you've gone inside," Lana nodded silently and everyone ran into the dark corridor, behind which Bondrewd had so thoughtfully slammed the door.
"Well now let's dance," Said the Lord and turned towards the corridor, 'as expected'. There was absolutely no one in the corridor, 'A picture is beginning to emerge.'
"Very interesting, can you explain it to me?" exclaimed the suddenly awake system assistant.
"Firstly, it's only a theory, and secondly, now is not the time, I need to check something. Maybe you have something to add?" Bondrewd asked this purely out of curiosity and a considerable and very burning desire to point out to the system moron his complete and irrevocable uselessness.
"Well, if you look at the situation from my side, there is definitely something wrong. Firstly, the eyes of all the local inhabitants bother me a lot, there is something wrong with them and I have an assumption. The curse has something to do with them, think about it, if there were bloodthirsty monsters roaming around here, then normal people would be long gone. Secondly, very strange the very action of the curse seems to me that it does not seek to harm you and your people, but only to scare you all to shit."
"I agree with all of the above, I just need more information and I intend to get it."
"Well, good luck, if you need anything, don't hesitate to get in touch."
"I will, no." Bondrewd said tiredly and strode down the long corridor, downstairs.
...
'What's wrong with that psycho,' Lana sat silently, leaning against the stone wall, the girl was thinking about what had happened, and the conclusions were not the rosiest. 'He's been gone for quite a while... no he's fine, he'll get out of any trouble,' the girl tried to calm herself down the bad thoughts were brazenly creeping into her head.
Lana looked up, the locals were sitting by the pool, the women were silently staring into the water, the men were nearby trying to resuscitate Dick with the water, an extra fighter would have been nice.
'Why didn't they let me take my armour, I would have been able to fight, aaah!' Lana's thoughts were interrupted by loud footsteps, everyone shifted their gazes to the passageway, no one doubted the Lord's power, but everyone prepared for the worst. Lana gripped her knife tightly, she wasn't a great warrior without her armour, or with it for that matter, but she didn't intend to give up.
Luckily for her, a familiar purple visor appeared from the aisle, the man nodded silently to everyone present and sat down on the nearest bench, letting everyone know that he was not to be disturbed.
Lana unable to contain her curiosity, approached the resting man.
'Well fuck, what the fuck does she want from me, I think my silent gesture should be clear to everyone.'
"Lord you destroyed the monster, was it strong?" Lana asked, her eyes wide. The lord looked round nervously and gestured to the girl and said quietly.
"No, he ran away, but about that to no one, clearly." Lana was beaming at Bondrudd with an incomprehensible look, but nodded and was about to step aside.
"GHAA." Bondrewd and Lana turned their heads towards the pool. Dick was there, frantically turning his head trying to figure out where he was.
"Well, what did I miss?"