"She's dead!" Exclaimed Noah, moving toward the limp woman to feel her pulse.

/No! Don't touch her./ Suddenly stopped him Ugy.

"What? Why?" Asked Noah backing away from the corpse.

"Leave her and get on with your business. I need to look up the information on this case but leave her alone. She is dead, there is nothing you can do." Reasoned Ugy.

"You know something. What is it?"

"You may not have noticed it, but your minimap does not just show people as dead the moment their heart stops. The dot on the screen would darken slowly, the light of the shining dot dimming as the soul in the body slowly disperse. But this woman and the way she died? Her dot just became black instantly."

"What does that mean?" Asked Noah.

"This is how monsters and spiritual creatures die."

"But minimap showed her as human. It has never been wrong before. It even saw through Tessa's and Cassandra's facade, and they are high-level monsters," said Noah.

"That's what I need to find out. It seems that this trophy wife was not as simple as we thought. I don't have an answer to what exactly she is at the moment, so for now just get moving," answered Ugy.

Noah threw one last glance at the dead woman and quickly adjusted his clothes before walking out of the room.

Leaving her like that was dangerous as someone might find her, but Ugy strongly recommended not to get close to her, so Noah left her like that, only closing the door lock on his way out, with the key that she left in the lock. This way at least no one would stumble there accidentally. Seeing as she wanted to have a rendezvous in this room it was relatively safe to assume that no one should come here without a reason or a key for quite some time.

Walking through the corridors back to the elevator he carefully checked the minimap for the presence of other people and as he came closer to it, he noticed the group of servants that went down to the basement a short time ago, returning with the carriage of new lots. 

He waited until they walked further away from the elevator before turning the corner and quickly making his way toward the elevator.

"What now?" Asked Noah watching at the password panel.

/Put your hand on the panel, I will do the rest,/ answered Ugy's voice in his head 

When Noah did as told, he felt the weak stream of magic passing through his palm and fingers in a strange sequence and the elevator opened without trouble. He entered the wide elevator made to carry big cargo and the door closed behind him before it started to move. 

/Cil?/ Said Noah in his mind, concentrating on his true mate's bite connection with Priscilla. /You can start./

*****

As the elevator dinged reaching the basement the team of guards standing at the vault's huge door tensed up.

The team of porters had just left a few minutes ago and it was too soon for them to return.

When they saw butler Vernon exiting it, they breathed out with a slight relief, however still stood at attention, watching intently his every move.

"Master Vernon, what brought you here?" Asked one of the Guards.

"We suspect a problem with one of the lots, master sent me to check it before we auction it." 

"Problem? Which lot?" Asked the guard, surprised.

"Lot 30066, I can't tell you what the fault is, I need to see it for myself," said Noah in Butler Vernon's disguise, thinking hastily about how to convince the guards to open the door.

"Alright, but I did not get the owner's confirmation. I still need to check," said the guard taking out the small magic communication device.

Noah tensed seeing that his plan was about to fail if they called the owner. His thoughts swirled quickly before a light of an idea shone in his mind. 

Just as the guard was about to contact the Auction House Master, Noah raised his palms as if stopping him.

"Please look at this light," said Noah when guards looked at him suspiciously. Bright white light blinded the guards when they threw their questioning gazes at his hands. As the flash of light passed, the guards stood with their eyes glazed as if in trance.

"So?" Asked the stern voice of Butler Vernon rosing the guards from their trance. "How long are you going to space out? Master confirmed that I can be let in, what are you waiting for? Open the damn door! I don't have the time to stand here all day, we need to check the lot before it's going for the auction. Get moving, damn it!"

"Ye…yeah…My…My apology, sir!" Answered the guards with his mind still clouded from the memory-erasing skill. Until now Noah got to use this skill only on high leveled enemies which usually barely gave him any advantage. However, it is when the target's level was close to his strength that this skill shone with its true splendor. In the short period after the moment of the memory was erased, the target was in a weakened state of mind and very susceptible to suggestions and confusion. 

Noah made a quick assumption that the guards of this house would not be some high leveled warriors, so the difference in levels between Noah and them was just enough to succeed with this trick.

As the guards hurriedly moved to open the door, one of them placed his palm on the panel on the wall, then looked at another guard and nodded at him. 

The safe had a system of two side confirmation. Before opening the vault's door, one of the guards would make an inquiry from the guards locked inside the vault through the magic panel on the wall connecting both sides. Once they got a reply that everything was alright inside from the guards on the other side, the door could be opened.

The huge metal door made a quiet sound as if the pressure air exited from it and slowly started to slide open, bringing a gust of wind passing through the newly opened seam between the door and wall.

Just as the seam became wide enough to look at the other side, the eyes of the closest guards widened in surprise. 

"What the…" He managed to exclaim before a hit to his head made him fall unconscious.

As Noah looked to the side he saw another guard similarly lying on the floor with a puppet standing above him. 

"You took your time," said Samantha through the opened door watching Noah in his disguise from inside the vault.

"Sorry, there was a bit of trouble with getting here," answered Noah apologetically while his thoughts momentarily flew to the picture of a madam of the house bent over an armchair with her eyes full of lust and her juices streaming down her legs while her ass had a red hot skin mark from the palm slaps. As he gulped loudly, Samantha's eyes squinted watching him intently, which made Noah sweat.

"Maybe you can find a better time to flirt?" Suddenly said a voice from the side, distracting them both.

""We are not!"" Said Samantha and Noah at the same time turning to the person that just spoke, which brought a few snickers from other people standing behind Samantha.

"Ara-ara. So cute." An elated feminine voice came from inside the vault.

"Why are you two behaving like virgins? You two slept together." Said Kate rolling her eyes at them.

"Ara…I heard you had a happy time with Master as well," said Dahlia, covering her smirk with a hand.

"T…Tha….that wasn't a happy time!" Exclaimed Kate with a fluster.

*Khe-khem. Coughed Noah feeling the urgent need to change the topic. "Thank you for your help, Mr.Purrils, Dahlia," he said looking at the Dryad maid and dark-furred cat standing on the two back legs while dressed in a black cloth suit behind Samantha.

"No need to thank, master," answered Dahlia with a smile.

"It is my pleasure, Count," answered the mist cat monster that Noah and Priscilla met at Cassanra's ball a few days ago. "I hope you keep the promise that your mate has given us." 

"Of course, Mr. Purrils. She made the deal in my name and I will fulfill all terms of our side of the deal, you don't need to worry. Let's have a reliable business relationship from now on." Said Noah stretching out his hand toward the monster gazing at him with his feline eyes. The cat monster looked him over carefully just as he did back on the ball as if measuring him with his gaze before giving his hand in return

"You are a very interesting human, Count," said Mr.Purrils shaking Noah's hand.

"Hey, human!" Sounded someone's voice more akin to a deep growl of an animal, from within the vault. "Human! I beg you. Let me out as well! Please!"

"Who's that?" Asked Noah looking over Samantha's shoulder as she walked out of the vault carrying Daniella in her hands with Kate following out behind her, stepping over the bodies of two guards that were standing guard inside the vault.

"Lizardman," said Kate, shrugging her shoulders. "He is one of the auction lots…well, I think it's a he at least, they all look quite the same to be true, so I can't be sure if it's a he or she."

"Huh? Why do you need to specify the gender?" Asked Noah with a strange expression on his face.

"Well, you're the one having all kinds of beasts as mates and friends here. Not sure if it's your kink."

"Now, hold on a minute!" Said Noah astonished. "I DO NOT HAVE SOME STRANGE KINK!" He exclaimed quickly looking in Samantha's direction but saw that she averted her eyes with a bit of blush on her cheek. 

"Anyway," said Kate, attracting his attention back to herself, seeing the shy blush on her friend and smiling a bit. "I don't think it's a good idea to free him."

"Why?" Asked Noah surprised.

"Lizardmen are loyal servants of mermaids," said Samantha. "And one of the mermaids has just been taken for auction. The moment you free him, he will rush to save her and ruin any plan to escape, raising an alarm as soon as he is spotted outside."

"Hmmm." Voiced Noah thoughtfully. "Maybe that's not bad for my plan."

"Oh. So you do have a plan." Sighed Kate with relief.

"Yeah, sorry I kept you all in the dark. I did not want to give too much information to that doppelganger. I don't trust him."

"But you trust us?" Asked Kate surprising him.

"I…" Started to say Noah but then stalled while glancing at Samantha that was gazing at him from the side and stopped his sentence closing his mouth.

What was he going to say? Kate was right. They were not friends. He hurt Samantha and her teammates, then deceived her, and then shattered her feelings when she found out the truth a few days back. He was happy she did not try to kill him, but this did not mean she did not despise him or would not want to pay him back for what he did to them once they got out of there. After hearing Kate's question he caught himself thinking that he was deep in his heart naively hoping that he had a chance to make up with Samantha and immediately felt stupid at his own feelings.

"I just, don't trust it to not betray us and sell us behind our backs. The less doppelganger knows the better," finally said Noah, averting his eyes from Samantha's gaze, feeling a bit ashamed of his own naivety.

Kate turned to look at Samantha and saw a ray of disappointment in her eyes when she dropped her eyes from Noah.

A few seconds after Noah's answer, they all heard a strange sound from behind them. The elevator that Noah rode to the basement started to move up. Someone has just called it back to the upper floor. 

"Oh shit. The porter's team is back!" Said Noah

"I told you we have no time for your flirting!" Said the dark-mist monster cat hissing. "What do we do now?"

"I have an idea," said Noah. "Sam, Kate quickly...Strip," he added, turning to look at the two women before getting a slap from both women a second later.