Bruce's manor wasn't that big, just appropriate for a small town like Border Town, it was located in the good parts of the town and had the best location in the area. It was surrounded by a group of 3 to 4 story buildings that were used for rent by upper-middle-class families.

At that moment, I, Captain Dunn and his wife, Mrs Sam, were all standing inside a secluded alley overlooking the street behind Bruce's manor, or more precisely, the cloaked man with a bow strapped to his back who was making his way down that street. The alley we were in was disgusting, it was full of the smell of piss and human excrement, something the main streets fortunately missed due to the cleaning efforts that were carried all over the town, but those didn't reach secluded alleyways like this one. It was only due to Dorian's familiarity with such an environment that I was able to stop myself from puking all over the place.

We watched in silence as the cloaked man made his way down the streets in slow and steady steps. It was already way past midnight and the sound of his slow footsteps reached even us who were quite a distance away from him. We watched just like that till the archer left our line of sight, and I let a  sigh of relief when I saw that nothing happened to him.

I looked to my side where captain Dunn was and he returned my gaze and gave me a slight nod, before returning to keeping watch over the streets and the back wall of the manor. Just like that, we fell again into silence as we waited.

We didn't have to wait for long this time, as soon enough I heard captain Dunn's voice:

"So, what did you see?" 

I looked at him in confusion, not understanding who he was talking to. But as I turned around I came face to face with the cloaked man from before, he was standing just a few steps away from me with his head still hidden below his big hood. I didn't notice him getting closer at all, it was as if one moment he wasn't there and the second he was. I soon calmed down as the initial shock of being startled went away and I patted Lambert, who probably came from the other opening of the alleyway, as I asked him worriedly:

"How are you? Did everything go well?"

"Don't worry, everything's alright," He first nodded towards me before turning to captain Dunn and saying, "I could feel no less than 7 gazes on me as I made my way around the whole manor. Fortunately, only 3 of them are overlooking this side of the street, and even of those, we only need to worry about two as they are the only ones who can see the place we want to use as our way in."

After getting all that we could from Rodney and after coming up with a plan that seemed good enough, we tied Rodney well and made our way stealthily to Bruce's manor where the kalla was most likely kept. When we finally got there, captain Dunn led me and his wife to this secluded alleyway, while Lambert, who had changed to a long hooded cloak we got from Rodney, had separated from us and took the road circling the manor to see if he would be able to notice any people keeping watch or the like.

"Ho- how did you know that they were not just some people that peeked out of their windows when they heard someone walking outside?" I couldn't for the better of me stop myself from questioning Lambert.

"Because I could feel their eyes focusing on me the whole time I was in their field of view, with the intensity of a hunter following a prey," Lambert answered me honestly as he patted the bow on his back, his Inheritance.

Captain Dunn only listened silently, when Lambert was finally done, he turned to his wife who nodded at him then he said:

"Okay, we will need to first deal with those two before going in," he looked at me and Lambert before continuing, "Dorian, you and Sam will deal with one and me and Lambert will deal with the other, we will then return here before making our way inside."

I froze when I heard that I needed to deal with one of the people keeping watch over the street. As I looked at him with my mouth opening and closing without even being able to say anything, he seemed to have understood what I wanted to say as he added:

"Don't worry, Sam is more than capable of dealing with them if things don't turn bad."

"Exactly sweety, don't worry and leave it all to me~" Mrs Sam's voice sounded from behind me.

Looking back at her easy-going and confident smile, I calmed down a bit. I knew that I had to get used to things like this, especially with how a war was heading my way, I was going to be amid a meat grinder and I need to accept that.

"Okay, do you know how many people are in each one of those locations?" Captain Dunn asked Lambert after seeing me calm down.

"My senses can't tell me that," he shrugged carelessly, before adding, "I was only able to feel them looking at me. But if I could guess, I would say maybe two to three people in a location? They need at least two people in a place to keep watch for the whole night without problems."

We talked a bit more as Lambert told us about where he felt the gazes from and how to deal with things before we finally separated while wishing each other good luck. My and Mrs Sam's targets were in the rightmost room in the building that was, by chance, directly facing the place where we wanted to go in through.

I followed Mrs Sam as she led the way confidently while making sure that we stayed out of the eyesight of the guards all over the street. Soon after we found ourselves at the building's door, it was a 4 story building that housed a number of apartments on each floor.

Mrs Sam approached it silently before listening next to it for a while. She then turned towards me and nodded, showing that there should be no one there. I nodded back and she tried the door, which was unsurprisingly closed. 

I looked at her worriedly but I just saw her flick her hand and two long thin needles appeared in it, she then inserted the needles into the keyhole before starting to mess around with them, not long after that, I heard a click and she pushed the door open. Turning around with a smile on her face, she gestured for me to enter before closing the door behind her. Then we slowly made our way up, with her leading the way and making sure that nothing went south and me just following silently and preparing myself for what to come.

When we finally stood in front of the door the guards were behind, the expression on Mrs Sam's face became more serious as she got closer to the door and listened for a long time, it was so long that I started worrying that something had gone wrong, but then she moved and started using her needles on the door's lock. This time she was more careful and took her sweet time working on it, with each movement being as gentle and small as could be.

I don't know how much time passed like this before she finally lifted her head and looked at me and nodded slowly. telling me to prepare myself for what was coming, I steadied my heart, took a deep silent breath and nodded towards her. She then turned her attention to the lock in front of her before moving her needles for the final time.

Click!

A slight and crisp sound chimed in the empty hallway, freezing my blood and sending my heart into a turmoil. I saw Mrs Sam freeze too as the lock opened, but unlike me, she seemed to be giving her full attention to the apartment inside, listening to see if she could gain any clue about what was happening there. Seeing her like that, I too tried to listen with held breaths. Under that strange atmosphere, we waited as we listened for any reaction from the inside

Creak!

Suddenly the sound of a wooden board creaking came from inside the room, and as soon as I heard it, my heart skipped a beat and Mrs Sam threw me a glance, a glance that I understood momentarily, we were starting, she then pushed the door open.

As soon as she did, we came face to face with two men, one of them was standing next to the other and looking our way while the other was on a sofa and in a half-standing position, it seemed as if it was him who made that sound while trying to get up from the sofa after his friend woke him.

While such useless thoughts were going through my mind, the standing man suddenly opened his mouth as if he wanted to scream. In response, Mrs Sam threw one of her needles at him and lunged forward.