Theresa held a glass of wine sitting in her favorite armchair in front of the fireplace while sighing heavily, thinking about how to talk with Noah.

Archduke and Royal investigator would probably visit her soon and expect to talk with Noah then too, but he is currently busy with helping some friend in trouble and she did not want to stress him with this problem as well, but she had no choice. Laying all out at the last moment would be even worse.

/Tessa?/ Sounded Noah's voice in her head all of a sudden, startling her a bit. Normally bite marks would have allowed them to have a telepathic conversation at a close distance, however, with Ugy's manipulations this method now worked at least across the entire North Region, as Noah was currently hundreds of miles away from her.

/Yes, dear?/ Answered Tessa.

/I wanted to ask for advice./ Said Noah thoughtfully.

/What is it?/ Asked Tessa, with a detached tone. She was worried about how to have a talk with him about her problem and did not put too much thought into the conversation, but when she heard what he told her, her hand shook, spilling the wine.

"What!" She asked aloud, losing her calm /Y...you sure, you saw that thing go transparent before changing appearance?!/

"What is it, mom?" Asked Priscilla from a seat next to her, looking at her mother with a puzzled expression. However, her mother did not reply, lifting her hand in a gesture asking to wait.

/Yeah./ Answered Noah. /Pretty sure. It turned almost water-like and mostly transparent, then morphed into that guy./ 

Tessa sat back into her armchair breathing out with a heavy sigh.

/Then it must have been a Doppelganger. God, you scared me for a moment./

/Why?/ Asked Noah puzzled.

/Remember I once told you about a creature named 'Skinwalker' on our first meeting?/ Said Tessa.

/Yeah. Naaldlooshii, the ancient race or something. Some kind of Children of nature, whatever that means. What about them?/

/Noah, if you ever see a creature that changes appearance without losing its previous appearance, as this doppelganger, but simply morphs from one appearance into another, run. Drop everything and run. Grab Bri and teleport back to the mansion instantly. You understand?/

/That skinwalker is so powerful?/

/You are not even in the same league of power as that creature. I told you before. To fight that thing you need Me and Cassandra to fight it together on the home turf of our barriers. Without it, even we are no match for it./

/Well, I am glad this was not the case here, then. So this doppelganger, is he dangerous?/

/Doppelganger family is a very old and respectable Guardian family. They are one of the first monsters to ever join the human race and one of the largest families. Their branch houses are in every human country. As individuals they aren't very powerful, however, they are very versatile thanks to their ability to imitate others. Depending on who they preyed on, they can use the magic or sword skills of the people they devoured./

/Wait. People they devoured? I thought monsters living with people aren't allowed to feed on humans./ Said Noah surprised.

/Doppelgangers have a special relationship with humans. Their ability is very useful for espionage and undercover missions, so they are very welcome in the military or investigative services. Because of that, countries tend to close their eyes on the 'necessary kills' that such work entails, as long as the ones they prey on are the enemies./ Explained Tessa.

/I see. Thank you./ Said Noah wanting to end the discussion

/Wait, Noah. Last time you said that the problems you investigate there might be connected with Theron and Cassandra's household./

/Yeah. I think that Theron is doing some dirty deeds. Not sure if your friend is involved though./

/And this doppelganger, pretended as one of his people?/ Asked Tessa thoughtfully.

/Well, not exactly. As a servitor to one of his fiances./

/That is interesting./ Said Tessa frowning.

/How so?/ Asked Noah puzzled.

/Servitors live in the mansion and have to pass through Cassandra's mansion's barrier. But I am quite sure that doppelganger would not be able to pass through the barrier unless…/

/Unless someone inside the household allowed him to pass through, fully aware of who he is?/ Said, Noah.

/Yes./ Confirmed his words, Tessa.

/Could not he switch places with a real servitor somewhere outside the mansion just recently? I mean, if he is a servitor and donates blood to that woman he serves. Would she not recognize the difference in blood taste or something?/

/Not really./ Said Tessa. /That's why their ability is so highly regarded by humans. As long as the target they devoured was alive, they can imitate it to the genetic level and even retain its memory./ 

/Alive/ Said Noah with surprise in his voice.

/Yeah. That's the peculiarity of their breed. If they devour a corpse then the level of imitation drops. The longer the body was dead the lesser the result. For example, they would barely gain any memory of the prey if it was dead for more than an hour./

/Alright, so there is a possibility he's been pretending for a longer time? But for that, someone would have to let him pass the barrier of Cassandra's mansion. But who and why would they do that…..?/ Said Noah and something clicked in his mind. /Oh! Cassandra./

/Yeah, you probably thought right. That someone must have been Cassandra./ Said Tessa with a smirk. /It looks like my friend is not so blind to his wrongdoing and has been keeping an eye on him. If we are right, she hired the doppelganger to spy on Theron. I will contact her and ask her what she knows about Theron's deals./ Said Tessa.

/Thank you./ Said Noah releasing the connection with Tessa and then telepathically recounted everything to Brianna that was watching him silently this whole time, noticing his silent conversation with someone.

*****

As the sun was setting, the forest was filled with shadows creating an eerie feeling. Despite that, a man dressed as a noble casually traveled through that forest without fear.

Although this place was part of a monster-free area or so-called safe region, people were so imbued with the danger of monsters that hunted them for hundreds of years, that even in the safe regions fear of dangers that may lurk in dark places still stopped them from waltzing outside the city areas after the sunset, especially in the forest. Which made this man leisurely taking a stroll through the dark forest even more suspicious.

*Caw.* The sound of a raven croaking came from one of the trees, making the man stop and finally take a serious look.

"Good evening, sir." A voice of a man came out from behind the trees in front of the nobleman.

The man looked at the stranger before looking around the area, noticing a few other figures surrounding him from the side.

The man lowered one of his hands and clenched it into a fist, no doubt readying a magic spell.

"Good evening to you, sir observer, as well." Said the man lifting his gaze to the branch of a tree where a raven sat staring at the scene. "And I would not do that, sir. Whatever spell you are reading, once you use it the people you're following will be aware of your presence and your mission would most likely be a bust." Said the man in front turning back to the nobleman.

"I do not understand what you are saying. I think you are mistaking me for…"

"For a doppelganger pretending to be a servitor of a Vespertine house." Said the man in front.

The nobleman closed his mouth his expression going dark.

"Who are you?" Said the creature pretending to be a nobleman.

"My name is Noah Lewenred and I was hired by these ladies here, who you should know very well." Said Noah as Samantha and Kate came out of the shadows of the forest on the nobleman's sides, flanking him.

"Samantha Wild." Muttered the nobleman staring at the women. "So you escaped from Gorig?" He said and Samantha clenched her teeth grabbing the handle of her sword with anger.

"You could say that. To be exact, Gorig and his team are dead." Said, Noah.

This took the nobleman by surprise, but just a moment later he took a hold of his emotions and donned back his poker face.

"So you came to take revenge?" Asked the nobleman.

"At you? No. At the person that hired them, absolutely. There is however a problem and I believe we can be of some use to each other." Said, Noah.

"Help each other how?"

"For a start, I will help you with your mission and you give me an opportunity to save Samantha's friend that those bastards managed to capture 3 days ago." Said Noah

"I don't need your help though." Said a nobleman.

"Oh, in fact, you do. You, see, you are lacking some crucial information at the moment so even if you manage to switch places with one of those adventurers and sneak into the group it will not give you anything. When they get back to wherever they are going, they are going to be either disposed of or sent back home. And that is not what you need."

"Don't listen to him!" Said raven from above them, finally opening his mouth.

"And why is that?" Asked the nobleman, briefly gazing at the raven, before returning his gaze to the people around him.

"You were hired by Cassandra Vespertine to find out what her kin Theron Vespertine was up to. However, you are not aware of the reason that he sent all these people to hunt down Samantha's team, even risking earning the dark society's ire by killing their assassins."

The nobleman frowned but did not say a word continuing to listen to the man in front of him.

"You see, he does not need Samantha's team. He only needs one particular woman among them. The reason he needs her I am not sure of, however the one you all captured 3 days ago is not the one they need. So if those adventurers you follow return as is they will fail their mission and Theron will simply send them packing. That would also mean you will fail to find out what he is up to."

"They lie. We know that women will be sent to the auction. This is probably what Theron aimed for…."

"Healer." Said Noah, interrupting the bird. "You must have heard of the recent case of healer kidnappings in other countries. This is what they discussed when I overheard their discussion."

"Bullshi…" Started to say the raven

"Shut up!" Said the nobleman interrupting it before turning back to Noah. "Go on." He nodded beckoning Noah to continue his words while gloom covered his face.

"Well, this is just my assumption, but in view of recent events of healers' disappearances in other countries, any case of high-level healer disappearance now is treated with utmost importance and would be investigated by a Royal investigator. And as we all know bringing their attention is akin to bringing doom to the whole region's underground society. Capturing a criminal healer though would be overlooked. If everything went according to his plan, Samantha's team would have disappeared without a trace. He would have gained the healer that he needed and would have made some money from selling the rest of the women in a high society auction. The dark society assassination order, however, threw sand in the wheels of his plan. However even gaining the ire of dark society did not stop him, which makes me believe the healer is very important to him. If you want to find out what he is really up to. You need to bring back a healer."

"What?" Said Samantha surprised. "What the hell are you planning to do, Noah?" 

"Oh. I plan to let this guy here capture you all and bring you to Theron." Said Noah looking at her with a wicked smile.