Alaric looked at the two girls looking at him and smiled. There really wasn't anything he could do. He wasn't doing anything wrong in the first place.

"Hi Jezebel, hi Samantha, fancy meeting you two here," he said awkwardly. Kisha was still on his lap, and she looked like she wasn't going to budge.

"What are you doing here?" Jezebel asked, her eyes flickering to Kisha, who was now looking at them with a smile.

"We came to clear a dungeon," Kisha answered before Alaric could even say anything.

"What, you could have called us," Jezebel said, looking at him with surprise and a little hurt.

Alaric didn't know how to answer that.

"Get off me a little," he whispered into Kisha's ear.

She looked at the girls before opening his side of the door and stepping out. She was taller than all of them when they stood next to each other.

Alaric felt a headache coming. He got out and closed the car door slowly before breathing in and walking to Jezebel and hugging her.

"How have you been?" he asked as he bent down to kiss her, his eyes looking at Samantha who was blushing. After the short kiss, he walked toward Samantha and greeted her.

"You must be Jezebel's friend," he said, his voice low. He rubbed a finger in the middle of her palm and then let it go.

Samantha nodded, her face blushing. He shot a glance at Kisha, who had her eyebrow raised in amusement, clearly understanding what he was doing. Alaric leaned back on the car and looked at the blushing Jezebel, who kept glancing at Samantha.

"Have you guys finished class?" he asked Jezebel.

"No, we just finished theory. We'll be doing combat this afternoon, so we decided to get lunch before that," Jezebel answered.

"Alaric, we should be leaving soon," Kisha said, going around to the driver's seat. She opened the door, got in the car, and turned to look at him.

Alaric gave the others an apologetic smile and got in the car. Kisha backed up, hitting the car behind them, and drove out of the parking lot.

"Don't you love your car?" Alaric asked, a smile on his face. Kisha didn't laugh at all.

"Are you sleeping with both of them?" she asked after a small silence.

Alaric sighed.

"Yes."

"Why don't you tell that Jezebel girl?"

"Customer privacy," he said, his hand combing through his hair.

"That's cold," she said, her eyes still on the road.

Alaric's voice turned serious.

"I'm a prostitute, Kisha, and that's not going to change. I'm not suddenly going to be exclusive to one woman that's a fact, and all of us know it. So I know sleeping with both of them isn't right, but I go where business calls," he said, looking at the quiet Kisha.

He also wanted her to know his stance on everything. He wasn't about to lead her on if she thought he might quit.

Kisha chuckled.

"I know, silly, that's why I came to you, no attachment."

Alaric nodded and looked outside as the buildings moved past. They were going to the guild, where he would get a cab back home.

....

Alaric arrived at the brothel an hour later, tired and mentally exhausted. He went through the back door to his room and took a hot bath, to make his muscles relax.

He had been thinking of how to spread the word about the mana basement. He wanted to open it in a week or so. But just choosing who to send to was going to be a problem.

The system required him to keep it a secret, and the worst fact was the patrons had to sign a charmed confidentiality contract.

He had quite some time to think about it , so he threw that out of his mind.

He had a few hours before the main traffic started to arrive, so he decided to go for his routine walk around the estate. He just hoped no assassin would appear; he was tired of that.

They were weak, and probably because his bounty was little he was going to just get the scraps.

He left his room fully dressed and went downstairs, only to find James worried and disheveled. He must have missed something since his phone had been off the moment he went into the dungeon.

"James, is something the matter?" he asked before he could even reach him. James turned to him, surprised.

"You've come back, we couldn't reach you at all," Alaric looked at his dilated eyes, he'd never seen James this panicked. The man has always been stone faced.

He knew what was going on was serious.

"What's wrong, just tell me!" he said urgently. The procrastinating was torture.

"It's Bethany, she… she's…" he choked.

"She's what!" Alaric could feel his heart beating out of his chest.

"Haaa… let me just take you," he said as they walked upstairs to her room. In front of her room were the others crying.

Alaric didn't need to be told twice. He walked into the room to see Bethany unconscious on her bed with bloody bandages around her and healing patches scattered everywhere.

Alaric was on her bed in seconds, looking at her pale face and cracked lips.

"What happened!" Alaric demanded, his voice getting colder. He just couldn't wrap his head around what he was seeing. She was just fine when he left, and a few hours later here she was bloodless.

"It was a customer," James said, his voice shaky, "an awakened. He blocked all her senses and tortured her."

Alaric's eyes widened and he pulled the covers. He gasped. She was wounded everywhere except for her face, legs, and anywhere that was visible.

There were crisscrossed marks from whips and bruises on her body. Alaric could see them healing, but it just gutted him that he wasn't there to protect her or just the girls.

"Where were the guards?" he asked, turning to Darius and the others who had their heads down, "what did I get you for if you can't even do your fucking job?"

He covered Bethany and stood up. He was really getting angry.

"We really don't have an excuse. Bethany told us it was okay," Kael said, his voice getting smaller.

Alaric laughed a humorless laugh.

"This is what you call okay! You are telling me you believe her words at face value when her customer is an awakened!?" Alaric was now breathing heavily.

He turned and punched into the wall just to prevent himself from hitting them.

"Bethany is considerate by nature, but that's not good enough reason to not do your fucking job! You are supposed to patrol the halls and listen! What were all of you even doing! There are four of you! Four!" he said, leaning against the wall in defeat.

"Can you tell me who found her at least," he said, his voice dry as he looked at the crestfallen guard.

"It was Rhea," Kael said.

Alaric turned to her, his eyes having gone red from suppressed anger.

"Thank you," he said, covering his eyes. He looked at the unconscious Bethany and just felt all the energy drain from his body.

"It's my duty," she answered, her voice small.

"So did you catch him or did you fail that as well?" he said, his voice becoming sarcastic.

"We caught him, he's in the empty storage room," James said, clearly sensing his irritation with them.

The empty storage room was located at the end of the servants' quarters, just a small unassuming room that had been left for when there was a surplus since it was far away from the kitchen.

Alaric touched Bethany's forehead and turned to them.

"Let's go, I want to see this man that got you," he said as he left the room, heading directly to the storage room.

He pushed open the door to see a man tied on a metal chair with metal chains and blood dripping from him, pooling at his feet.

The moment Alaric entered, the man smiled at him, his mouth full of blood.

"Aah, you brought another..."

Before he could finish, Alaric punched him in the face. The man's head snapped back violently and the chair tilted back, falling.

Alaric stepped on it, bringing it back to the ground. The moment the man raised his head again, Alaric punched him again, his nose, teeth breaking and falling all over the floor.

This pattern continued on and on as the man tried to get a balance, only to be punched in the face until he lost consciousness without saying a word.

Alaric was thankful the man was an awakened, so he was durable and he could beat the crap out of him however long he wanted.

He turned to James with a polite smile, "Can you bring me some ice and water, if you may?"

Alaric removed his shirt and set it down and started to untie the locked-up man.

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