南瓜影院

"How long have you known?"

"How long have I known what?" Henry asked.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Dana and Charles walking up the bodies of the dead Vykers all over the courtyard, searching them for gold just as they had found the last time.

Of course, with a simple click of a button on a screen that only he could see, Henry had taken it all for himself.

1,350 Gold from 14 dead Vykers. Not a bad haul.

"How long have you known of our resident Witch\'s secret?" Angus asked.

He might not have deemed it necessary enough to mention before now but Angus had noticed Henry was the only one not surprised by his reveal of Yelena\'s supposed immortality. In fact, he readily offered insights.

Angus\' purple eyes bore into Henry\'s black ones but Henry met the stare without a change in his expression as he answered truthfully,

"A while."

"And you didn\'t think to share this piece of information?" Angus asked.

"I didn\'t think it was important," Henry said with a shrug, and on an impulse, he added,

"Besides, I had no idea you\'d consider using her as a guard dog."

Angus frowned and his eyes flashed but then he let out a sigh,

"Fair enough. But what would you have preferred? That she did nothing and let more of us die?"

Henry said nothing. He wasn\'t sure what he would have preferred. He was very much aware that he was simply going through the motions with hardly any actual motivations to be part of the Dionisio Gang besides the memories he had inherited. Memories he had no real attachments to.

He stayed with the Gang because when he first arrived in this world, it made sense to stay. Plus, he could not deny that he liked not having to make plans. Not having to come up with heists and money-making schemes.

Angus took care of that just as he always did before \'Henry Morgan\' came into this world and Henry was okay going with the flow. But, now he was starting to think it would be best if he took more agency. It was time he took a more active part in the way things were going in his life.

\'I could get on Nyx and ride away right now,\' Henry thought and then he looked over at the members of the Gang, he looked at the Mansion and thought of Yelena who still wished for freedom and was reminded he had a standing quest to kill her and let out a sigh,

\'Who am I kidding? I can\'t leave. I\'m in too deep. I have to see this through.\'

Angus took Henry\'s moment of silence as his answer and grabbed his shoulder,

"Decisions had to be made. Besides, you saw what the Vykers did to the Mansion. She would have had to step in any way."

Henry\'s brows furrowed at that.

\'Would she?\' He wondered.

Yelena had lived for over three centuries and had stated herself that she wanted to be free of the Mansion and yet, she had stepped out to defend the Mansion from getting torn down even though that would have given her the freedom she wanted. A morbid freedom but freedom nonetheless.

\'She doesn\'t want to die,\' Henry thought with certainty, \'She wants to be Free!\'

Henry looked at the Mansion, at the walls that had been destroyed by the Vykers and his grip on his gun tightened as his lips pressed hard together,

\'I will free you,\' he decided,

\'Screw the System\'s non-optional Quest to kill you. I will Free you. I don\'t know how just yet, but I will.\'

"Come on," Angus said. He looked like he hadn\'t noticed Henry\'s gun clench or tightened lips and just led the way into the Hadron Mansion.

Henry followed him after putting his guns into his holsters.

The moment he stepped into the Mansion, he received an alert from the System;

[\'Optional Quest: Infernal Partner\' Completed]

[Number of Kill-Steals: 10]

[You have received a total bonus of 1500 Exp]

[You have leveled Up]

[You are now Level 10]

[Hit Point Maximum increased to 100]

[Mana Point Maximum increased to 110]

[You have received 6 Stat Points to Allocate]

[You now have 18 Unallocated Stat Points]

[Now that you are at Level 10 and are properly attuned to your *New* body, you will no longer receive or be required to complete Daily Quests.

Note: This is subject to change should your body undergo a drastic change that requires you to re-familiarize yourself with it.

Good luck!]

Henry focused his attention the most on the last notification but he found he was not all that bothered. His Exp requirements were so high now that he doubted the 10 Exp the Daily Quests gave him upon completion mattered all that much.

Of course, he had adopted some routine practices —namely Meditation—, that he was going to continue on his own even with no incentive but all in all;

\'I don\'t think I\'ll miss it.\'

•••

—Minutes Later—

The core members of the Dionisio Gang were in the meeting hall while the entire Mansion compound behind their closed door was loud with cheers and conversations as the newbies discussed what they had just witnessed. The ones who had been injured by the crumbling bricks didn\'t even bother tending to their wounds.

They brought out Alcohol and drank while creating legends to better make sense of all the magic they had seen today.

Henry heard his name pop up more than a few times.

"So loud," Dana said with a frown.

"You don\'t like cheers?" Stefan asked with a small smile.

Dana clicked her tongue,

"Who gives a fuck about cheers? There was no Gold! Not one gold on any of them!" She said as she revealed what actually had her feeling annoyed. Her short hair bobbed with every movement she made.

Devon secured the Vyker Captain into a chair with thick ropes and then searched the insides of his clothes, eventually pulling out two handfuls of gold that he poured onto the table,

"This guy had some," He said.

Dana scoffed. She was still disappointed and for some reason, her eyes went over to Henry.

"What?" Henry asked with his brows raised, "You can\'t possibly suspect me again."

Dana did suspect him. She just couldn\'t bring herself to say it especially since her suspicion made no sense so instead, she let her eyes roam from his face to his chest still bare, and then her eyes went lower as her stare grew long.

Henry cocked his head to the side,

"Find something you like?" He asked.

Dana\'s eyes slowly moved up until they were back on his face,

"Put on a shirt," she said.

"No," Henry answered simply and definitively.

Triss smiled at his response and allowed herself a look at his bare torso before following the rest of the Gang to look at Angus who approached the slumped and tied-up body of the Vyker Captain.

"What did you do to him, anyway?" Devon asked referring to the purple energy Angus had injected into the Vyker earlier.

"I bonded him to me. Subjugating his mind to my will," Angus said.

"You can do that?" Devon asked with his brow raised.

"Apparently," Angus said. It was one of the things he was learning were possible with the Vinculum. He had a feeling it had something to do with why Maude Aleric, Lord of the Black Manor, even wanted it at all.

Angus snapped his fingers and the slumping body of the Vyker Captain snapped up and he straightened up in the chair without attempting to free himself. His eyes were lifeless with a dull purple hue.

"How determined is your Lord to get his item back?" Angus asked as he began his interrogation.

"Very," the Vyker answered in a dull tone.

"How many Vykers is he prepared to send after it?" Angus asked.

"As many as is required."

"I need a number," Angus pressed.

"Five."

"That little?" Angus asked.

The Vyker took a second to answer and then said,

"The others are not available. Last I heard, They were all still battling away inside the Dungeons."