As Noah walked out of the merchant's house he glanced to the nearby roof seeing a barely discernible black bird perched on gazing at him. 

“Good night to you, sir Observer.” Said Noah, nodding slightly and walked off followed by Dahlia.

“What do you think, Dahlia?” Asked Noah a few minutes later as they walked the dark streets of the town.

“About Madam Irene or Nu?” Asked Dahlia walking just a step behind him.

Noah shrugged “Both.” He said simply.

“Not really my place to comment on it, Master. But this idea with Madam of the Entertainment house sounds plausible. It may also improve your relationship with those four when we offer protection to their friend. As for Nu…we should watch her more. She does seem sincere, but we really don’t know much about her yet. Maybe you should ask about her from her previous employer?” 

“Cassandra?” Said Noah thoughtfully. “We’ll see about that. My relationship with her is quite on the strange foot right now. The thing I did on Ugy’s suggestion last time, did seem to turn around her view of me, just as he foretold. But what her disposition now after she had the time to calm down and think things through is questionable. She may even have me assassinated to release herself from the Gorean Oath she gave last time. This is one of the ways to go around it.”

Dahlia did not comment on the topic any further walking in silence as Noah seemed to be deep in thoughts. 

They walked through the streets crossing through several alleys for a few minutes when Noah suddenly stopped in the middle of one alley and gazed into the darkness in front of them with a steely look in his eyes before turning back and looking over his shoulder to the way they just came from.

“Surrounded eh?” Muttered Noah.

“You seem to have a keen senses, brother.” A rough voice came from the darkness in front of them. “But it is a bit late as you can see.” Added the voice in a glee as the figures of several people showed up from in front and from the back of Noah and Dahlia, blocking both exits of the alley.

“Who are you people?” Asked Noah.

“Oh, pardon my manners, brothers. I am Brother Snake and these here are my mates.” Said the man pointing at the three men beside him. Creepy snickers came from all the men surrounding Noah and Dahlia. 

“Now that we are acquainted, why don’t you leave everything expensive here and walk away? But leave this girl here too. We will be her company for tonight.” Said the man who seemed to be the leader of those hoodlums as Noah threw his cold gaze at him. 

“Oh don’t be afraid, brother. We will not harm her. We ain’t some bandits here. Killing someone in the city is too costly, you know? All those investigators sneaking after you. Too much trouble to pay them off, you know? As long as we leave her alive no one’s gonna care about this. So it’s a win-win for all of us if you don’t provoke us, brother, and be obedient. Walk away without causing a scene and she’ll come back to you tomorrow, while you get to walk away without your ass beaten badly. What do you say?” Said the man smiling with a vicious smile as his mates laughed now heartily.

“I will take care of them, Master.” Said Dahlia but Noah stopped her with a raised hand.

“No need.” Said Noah. “Let our friends here take care of this.”

Dahlia glanced at Noah surprised before turning to look at the hoodlums again noticing that one of the men in front of them was missing.

“Where did he…” She whispered when a sudden shout attracted her attention from the back.

“Hey, what the hell? Where did he go?” Asked the guy behind Noah.

“He was right here a moment ago!” Said another one with a disturbed voice.

“Oy, you lot, what are you doing there? Shut the fuck up! Don’t attract attention.” Said the leader from the front.

“But boss! That damn Skunk is gone!” Said the guy behind Noah.

“The fuck your on about, Ape? What do you mean gone?”

“He means that he disappeared just like the guy behind you.” Said Noah pointing to the leader with his eyes.

The leader and the two men at his sides suddenly glanced back and saw that one of their team members was indeed missing.

“What the?” Asked the guy on his left.

“Did someone see where he went?” Asked the leader of hoodlums, turning to his men but noticed that the man on his right was now gone too.

“What the hell?” Whispered Dahlia. She was staring right at them and still did not see how the third guy disappeared. He was there one moment and then was gone the next moment.

“What the fuck is going on!?” Shouted the guy on the left in a scared voice but stopped as he glanced at the leader and saw his eyes going wide in fear. He tried to look back to see what his leader saw behind him but was suddenly covered in black mist and disappeared into the darkness of the alley as his scream echoed through the street before going silent in a few seconds.

“Oh shit! I am out of here!” Said the guy behind Noah turning to run but stopped seeing that another of his companions was missing, leaving only a puddle of blood on the ground. He heard a rustling sound and turned his head up to where it came from seeing his friend's body dragged over the ledge of the roof where it disappeared from the sight

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, fuck!” Screamed the guy starting to run out of the alley into the street but something grabbed his ankle making him fall face flat and started to drag him back into the alley. The man screamed as a swine dragged to the butchery struggling to shake off whatever was holding him, but saw only black mist that gradually consumed his body, hiding him from view and muting his scream. His screams stopped entirely a moment later after he was fully covered in darkness.

By this time the leader of hoodlums who was the only one left alive was running through the alley like mad, without turning back to see what happened to his last mates.

He ran toward the light coming from the street at the end of the alley hoping that whatever killed his friends, would not follow him to where the light was. But something suddenly appeared right in front of him, making him stop with eyes wide open in terror. 

Two big bright cat eyes gazed at him from the empty air right in front of him. There was no head, no body. Just two eyes and a big wide smile full of teeth starting to spread in the void space right below these eyes.

This smile grew into a big grin full of sharp teeth before opening into a wide monstrous maw that flashed toward him. Before he could even scream he disappeared into the thin air leaving no trace behind. One second he was standing there at the edge of the alley and the next moment he was simply gone.

“This is…Black Mist Cats?” Whispered Dahlia doubtfully as she and Noah still stood in the same spot where they were stopped by the hoodlums.

“Yeah. But not quite.” Said Noah Nodding with a smile.

They stood in silence for a few seconds before Noah gazed seemingly at nothing as if he saw someone.

“Mr.Purrils, I am glad to see you have successfully evolved.” Said Noah and a moment later two bright cat eyes appeared in the empty air in front of him with a wide maw full of sharp teeth spreading in a grin right under them.

“I heard from my mate that two of you in the pack have finally managed to evolve into Grimaskin. Accept my late congratulations. Your father must be very proud of you.”

“Indeed, Master Noah. You should have seen the joy of our whole village when I did. We are finally making our comeback. All thanks to you, Master.” Said the mouth floating in the air as the eyes squinted in the gentle expression. “How long have you known that we were here?” He said as the black mist on Noah’s side swirled and two black cat monsters walking on their hind legs appeared at the sides of the floating eyes and maw standing in front of Noah and bowing in respect.

“Ever since we crossed the town gate, one of you was following us, until we came close to Nu’s hideout. You stayed back to not get close to the observer. When we came out all three of you were following us back.” Said Noah smiling.

“As expected of our new Master.” Said Mr.Purrils surprised as the cats on his side gazed at Noah in shock. “What gave us out?”

“I have my ways.” Said Noah, smiling without elaborating. His minimap showed everyone around him even pointing out monsters and humans in different colors. The medallion with his mark, that one of them was holding was also shown there so it was no brainer to figure out who his monster followers skipping from roof to roof were. The only guess Noah made was calling out to Mr.Purrils. He knew that lately two of the Black Mist Cats managed to break through their bottlenecks and evolved into Grimaskin Cats. One of those two was Mr.Purrils and for some reason, Noah was sure that if someone would be here it would be Mr.Purrils. His guess just happened to be right. But for Cats, his guess seemed like an almost divine skill capable of seeing through their best ability, which they were so proud of. It was not so. He could not really see them. Just knew they were there. But Noah decided not to dissuade that notion, instead adding to the mystery of his persona in their minds. The less they knew of his skill the more in awe they would be of their new Master.

“Still, even with your invisibility, these kinds of actions are quite dangerous, if corpses are found…” Said Noah, his smile disappearing.

“Don’t worry, Master. We will make sure their bodies cannot be found. Besides Black Mist Cats and Grimaskin are uncommon monsters in this area. Even if there were any sightings of us, people just would not know what they saw. No one would even expect such monsters here.”

“Still. There are plenty of adventurers here. Some of them are true monsters that you better not get close to even while invisible. You can never know where you can meet someone powerful here. So don’t cause too much trouble. I don’t want you to expose yourself.”

“We are careful, Master. But if we die, we will make sure nothing ever points your way.”

“Is that so? You were the ones to assassinate the merchant for Nu, right? You do know she is under the constant watch of the observer?” Said Noah raising his eyebrow.

The expression on the floating mouth changed from a grin to a serious one. “We thought Lady Gnundweingur was on an important mission given by you, Master. Is this not it? Should we have not helped her?” Asked Mr.Purrils as the ears on the two of his pack mates standing at the side flattened against their heads in a fearful expression.

“No. You did well. What I am saying is that no one knows what skills observers have. You should not expose yourself in her proximity. And this is a town of adventurers, who have myriad of skills to hunt monsters such as you. By the way, why are you here anyway? I thought now that you two broke through you would be busy getting your dark energy quota done for the Labyrinth.” Said Noah.

“The commotion you made in Labyrinth last time paid off. We are safe for quite some time even without fulfilling a quota. So coming to this mission by myself was no problem.” Said Mr.Purrils.

“Mission?” Asked Noah.

The floating face changed to a questioning look.

“Yes. We were sent here by Madam Theressa to check on the situation in town.” Said Mr.Purrils uncertainty in his voice.

“By Tessa? Why?” Asked Noah.

“Umm…You don’t know? We thought she had the right to give us orders as your mate while you were away. Were we wrong?” Asked Mr.Purrils the ears on the head of his friends flattened once again. 

“No. Sorry. You did well. It’s just that I knew of Nu’s mission here but Tessa did not mention that she sent you guys here too. What was your task here?”

“We were on the watch of the Hero team and reported all its actions to the Madam. Of course, we stayed at the distance and only observed.”

“Hero team?” Asked Noah surprised.

“Yes, Master. Madam Theressa said that she heard the rumors of the big procession from the Central Cathedral coming to this town in tow with the Legendary Hero. She was worried that you may encounter problems so she sent us to be on the lookout. Lady Gnundweingur contacted Madam on the far-talking device just a few days ago and Madam asked us to contact her in secret and see what she wanted. We thought the task was easy and no risk to our current mission at all, so we helped her out immediately.”

“Just call her Nu for God’s sake. How do you even pronounce it so good?”

“Can I? To tell you the truth I almost broke my tongue spelling it. But she is from the respected Doppelganger Guardian household so I did not dare.” Said Mr.Purrils, a wide smile spreading on the floating in the air maw, as the eyes floating above it shone in amusement.

“I think it’s no problem.” Said Noah. “I call her that all the time so I think she’s used to it. Anyways, you’re saying there’s a Hero here in the town?” Asked Noah.

“Was. Their team left early this morning. They seemed to be in a hurry too. But we don’t know why. The Madam asked us to stay here on the lookout until you finish your training in the Labyrinth, just in case they come back soon. Now that you are here, have you finished your training, Master?”

“No. Unfortunately, not yet. I had some important matters to solve, so I took a day off. I intend to get back as soon as possible once I get everything here solved. You guys have the medallion on you as I understand?” 

“Indeed.” Said Mr.Purrils as his mates on the side nodded.

“Good. This is actually very helpful that you are here. I think I might need your help again today.” Said Noah thoughtfully.

“Kill someone?” Asked Mr.Purrills smile spreading even wider on his floating maw.

“I hope not.” Said Noah. “Let’s get off this bloody alley and I will explain what I was going to do.”