The Mistress of the Manor had spoken, and with her words carried the unquestionable commands of her youth. Though as usual, she was caught up in her own little delusions of grandeur. There was indeed the mimicry of fangs, but what she saw as happy acceptance was, in truth, an annoyed grimace at the goal ahead. “Yeah, yeah. Freaking taskmaster,” grumbled her accomplice before the darting shadow dispersed away to seek out his prey for fight and play.

It wasn’t a difficult mission, not when the newcomers were making a ruckus of the castle’s hallways. The fighting could have woken the dead with how much noise they were causing but the plant-like hounds that guarded this domain weren’t relenting. Mindless in nature and bestial in craving, they continued leaping away and snarling despite their dwindling few numbers. As it turned out, these intruders were much more powerful than the last batch, though some noted Caprice’s familiar scent, eyeing her up in their hollow holes for eyes.

“Hey, you lot. You mind explaining what you’re doing here.” Upon the voice of their subsequent master, the hounds backed off; or rather, it was more accurate to say they rooted themselves in place, cutting off their motion entirely. Little remained of their pack anyway, aside from torn asunder and discarded thorn vines and bracken that littered the floor. “Cleaning this is going to be a mess,” the voice continued to complain, marking its source to the end of the hallway.

There stood a man who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there, already weighing in the option of leaving Victoire to clean her own damn messes. “If you’re going to come into someone’s house, maybe don’t make a mess on the front matt. And you!” The man pointed at Kanbaru accusingly. “What did you say!? A butler? Do I look like a butler to you, huh!?” Even as he spoke the side walls of the hallway bristled with an angry red energy that raised hairs.

“Oh, I get it. Yeah, you’re the ones who stole that dumb book the rabbit brat’s been complaining about. It’s dumb to break in again and think you can make off with more loot,” the man continued, unknowingly giving information. A missing item and a false accusation could only lead to the evidence pointing to their group. Perhaps. It was usually how these things tended to go.

---

"But of course, what clown doesn't love a straightman?" Caprice answered Kanbaru with a flourishing bow, waving Kanbaru forward as she quick dashed past.

Caprice pranced out of the way of the incoming wolf helpfully provided for her by Clair. As her cloak flitted out of the way like a matador's cape, it revealed that she had forged a candy net between herself and the wall. The wolf's momentum pulled it back and back, Caprice's boots digging into the rug she was standing on. And then the wolf was snapped back, sent flying back the way it came. Caprice's aim was to fling it in front of Clair so that her Starshot could handle the problem.

"Hmm? Another person seems to be talking to something imperceptible. Maybe crazy invisible nuns are real, and both Akiko and Kanbaru can see them?" Caprice wondered at Akiko's actions.

Caprice didn't seem to pay the butler much heed.

Not expecting her goading words to be answered, Kanbaru gaped in a fish-like fashion as she beheld the vision of a shirtless....leather-clad....wolf-man.

The white haired orca doubled over, laughter roaring from her lips as her chest heaved from the exertion of releasing her mirth for all to hear. Rearing back she thrust an accusing finger towards the shirtless man so easily offended by terms of station, a snicker preceding, "You are the spitting image of the phrase 'Dating what Daddy doesn't want'. Is the mistress of this castle some insecure maiden? Bwahahaha!"

It was all too much, such that even Caprice couldn't sour Kanbaru's good mood, nor could the oppressive feeling radiating from the walls that tried and failed to make her hairs stands on end. Phantom limbs reminded her of a far more intimate feeling of omni-presence and she brushed it aside with a snort that turned more mocking then amused.

Oh ho, so there are thieves here already? Well that only means there's something worth stealing in first place, and if we spot the thieves, we can liberate them of their ill-gotten goods for ourselves. She thought before leveling her plushie at the werewolf- It would be ridiculous to dress like that and not be one- and wreathing it in shifting waters. "Hey Fido, we'll think about getting that book your mistress wants if you have a mountain of treasure for us. Quid Pro Quo, am I right~?"

She certainly wasn't saying they had or hadn't stolen the book, but if the Butler wanted to think this was a ransom demand, Kanbaru wouldn't dissuade him of that notion.

"That's what I love about you, my dear," Victoire replied the wolf's sarcastic remark in a fitting tone as he begrudgingly departed to do her bidding. There was nothing more entertaining than seeing the contradictions between one's mouth and their actions. It was always enjoyable to wonder which one told the truth of a being's true desires.

"Just make sure you don't let them go anywhere near the library. We can't afford to lose anything else until the thief is found," the vampire said imperiously, her voice reaching her servant even after it had already departed. "If you need to, throw them on the cellar or something like that, I know you are creative enough."


Clair kicked the wolf sent flying back at her, smashing it against the ceiling on the way up and hitting it with her blade on the way down, before it crashed against the floor. Right as she did so, a new kind of beast came up to them. However, this one had more than thorny barks to offer.

"Woo~ Hi there, hottie~" Clair thought as she held back a whistle.

"Hey! You could at least let us steal something before accusing us of being thieves," the blonde said in an indignant voice, more outraged at some third party beating her to the punch than at the accusation itself. "I guess it's just like she said. We are here on an adventure, and adventurers help people. If you and your mistress want some helping hands on the case, we can offer your some, for the right compensation, of course."

"I guess you know how these things work, don't ya?"

With his newly acquired weapon, Thomas felt an abnormal confidence within himself, and he found himself hesitating less as he quickly made his way towards one of the wolves at a quick pace. With every step he took towards the thorny creature, he felt the glaive lighten up in his hands more and more. It felt almost natural to hold it, despite having never even used it before. At this point, he could only assume it was something to do with the Tower. It was a curious place.

However, before he’d even had a chance to engage with the monster, it ceased moving completely, something that caught him off guard. He stopped himself mere feet away from the beast, wondering whether to just go at it anyway, after all it was just standing there. A decision was made very quickly once he realised the new possible threat that had shown itself down the hall, or rather, himself.

The boy backed away towards the others, who at this point seemed to just be tormenting or trying to reason with the bare-chested fellow. He decided to keep quiet for now, and besides it’s not like he had anything to say that hadn’t already been said. They hadn’t stolen anything, at least while he’d been around. So, he just listened to what was being said, looking between his comrades and the man down the hall, eyeing him with an unsure look.

---

"You can see it too, Kanbaru?" Akiko asked, raising her arms to block a strike before seeing Castle fly forward and strike another dog into plant mush. Her thoughts were provoked even further when Caprice spoke up about it being imperceptible. "And Caprice can't...?"

[ It is true. Your friend, the Wheel of Fortune, can see me through some greater supernatural power, but the Fool cannot. It's an interesting situation, your friends not being able to see me excluding the Wheel. I cannot say the same for their Serei, though. ] Castle backpedaled to hover behind Akiko, the onslaught of dogs dying down more and more, though it occasionally kept diving forward to jam a hole straight through a dog that dared to get too close.

"Might be something to test out." Akiko pulled out the Lorelai card and held it for a second, deciding whether to summon her or not. At the approach of the well-dressed gentleman, she decided to be safe and summoned Lorelai. At the very least she'd be nice to hold.

After the brash accusations of the man at the group, Akiko sighed at everyone else jumping to conclusions before she stepped forward, Castle floating behind her in defense. "Like the blonde said, we haven't committed any sort of larceny so far, as enticing as that might seem and as guilty as we may look." She straightened out her dress and pushed some hair out of her face. "That being said, perhaps our sudden and mysterious arrival can work out in both of our favors. Maybe if you call off these dogs and we talk things out like reasonable people we can reach a consensus?" Akiko looked back at the group and sighed.

"Okay, maybe if we can talk things out like reasonable people. No offense to any of the party members behind me, but I don't think that I'd be hard pressed to say that I'm the person that speaks for the group."

As Akiko spoke, Castle's eyes flashed along with Akiko's own. Perhaps it was just the way she stood in the moonlight to this man, but Kanbaru could see exactly what she was doing.

"If you need to, throw them in the cellar or something like that, I know you are creative enough." Those were Victoire’s last orders, which could be seen as nothing short as ironic. Because although something was being thrown, it wasn’t any of the party, nor was the trajectory the dungeon. No, instead, the wolfish man had since begun picking up one of the standby thorny dogs and, with a growl that rumbled the hallway, tossed it like an upheaved missile right at Caprice. “You there, in the funny looking clothes and stupid mask! Don’t ignore me!” The dog was thrown with such considerable force at Caprice’s candy net that it threatened to snap the thing entirely tension by tension. The dog remained caught in it, though any leeway would have sent it flying forward.

A second, just as equally spiny mutt was hurled at Kanbaru’s face as well. If the guard dog was supposed to be impressed by her waving around a toy whale, she’d be mistaken with thorns to pick out her face. “And you! How about you take that toy of yours and shove it between your eyes or better yet, right between your-” Before the wolfman could get any more volatile in their treatment, some of the group used their common sense in approaching the matter diplomatically. Or rather, as diplomatic as the rowdy group possibly good. At least the one male in the harem had enough sense to watch instead of saying something equally provoking.

“Oh, so you just so happened to be stumbling here on adventure. Yeah, of course you are. Wouldn’t be the first,” the wolfman growled at Claire with an eyeroll. He was just about to consider lodging another thorned dog at the fox girl before Akiko stepped forward. It was good news for everyone because he was running out of ammo and, stoic as they were, even the plant mutts were beginning to whine at being treated like fodder. Perhaps being the resident bard had some merit for reason because eventually the wolfman calmed down with a huff.

He placed his latest projectile back to the ground, giving the thorny dog a pat. “Whatever. Frankly, none of you clowns look like the culprits anyway.” He put a stare on Caprice. “Almost all of you. Doesn’t help there’s conflicting reports on what the thief looks like.” Upon Akiko’s powers activating, she’d be revealed from memory that there were, in fact, three possible culprits. One who wore a cloak red as blood, one who carried a great blade, and one draped in black like the night. She also at last glimpsed the wolfman’s name: Garou. If nothing else, it explained the suspicion on Caprice, the only one wearing all black.

“Are you done staring?” Garou growled at Akiko. “If you want compensation, you can take that up with the brat in bunny ears who runs this place. I’m just here to make sure the toilets keep flushing and the water keeps running.” Garou glowered at the lot of them though made no move to be hostile. “If you somehow locate the culprit, fine, whatever, you’ll get a medal or something. Depends how the brat baroness feels about free food.”

---

Rose didn't shift all that much as Thomas fought off his wolf, all in all she found herself pleasantly surprised that she didn't have to jump to his rescue. The battle would rage on for a bit as everyone dealt with their respective plant monster things, Ami was particularly violent as she incinerated everything that got near her. Some butler showed up and started accusing them of stealing stuff, which was really rude considering Rose hadn't even stolen anything yet! She was totally going to, but she didn't do it yet! Rose got up from her perch and hopped off of Thomas's shoulder as she patted him on the cheek with a quick "Good work kid." and then flew off. Flew off where? Why directly onto Clair's shoulder of course! She was the only one that Rose both liked and didn't have things being thrown at them currently. She already kicked hers away.

"Alright so here's what I'm thinking. We let the bard do all the big mystery solving, meanwhile all us cool kids can take a look around this castle and stumble onto the culprit by total accident, maybe find some cool treasure or meet some cool new people while we do so. Hothead can hang out with Akiko as a bodyguard if she really needs one." Rose proposed as she played with Clair's hair, seeing no reason to go back to human form just yet. Less walking when you can just hitch a ride on someone's shoulder.

Ami shot Rose a glare as she just volunteered her for this thing without even asking, but she wouldn't complain all that much. "Tch, why do I have to hang out with the weirdo who stares at people all the time...?" Alright maybe a little bit of complaining. She had that right.

Angry gray gargoyles shout with unconstrained rage and swipe with deadly precision to tear apart a fleeing woman running across the rained on the rooftop of the vampire’s mansion. The human figure chased by monsters is only discernible by the shocking red of her scarf flowing as she runs as quickly as she can across the narrow rims where the rooftops meet. Being sure to avoid slipping off the watered down shingles, if she didn’t, she’d fall onto the sharp decorative fleur de lis shaped spikes and have a very painful death.

These predators behind her fly with their two feet long wings, screeching and howling like banshees as they taste blood on their lips already. Surely they will reach the end of their hunt now, and can devour this intruder without mercy. The red clad vagabond finds she has run out of rooftop to run on, and barely skids to a halt before the long drop to the mansion grounds below. Perhaps a less painful death awaited her below than being mauled apart by the gargoyles about to descend on her. After chasing her for several minutes, the monsters are delighted to end this chase with a bloody feast.

“I got you right where I want you!”

Instead of a terrified plea for mercy. Riku has turned around and extended the retractable scythe hidden on her belt. It shoots out a long blade that’s almost as long as the wings on those monsters for comparison. Coated along the sharp edges of that curved blade is powdered gunpowder. Riku waves a hand casting a short flame like a match across her weapon, and when the fuse is lit she swings up into the gathered crowd of gargoyles right as the flame ignites the powder.

They thought she was fleeing for her life? She was only waiting to line them all up for a devastating attack! A thunderous explosion of flame incinerates the gargoyles, coating them in a cloak of fire along with a long and wide cut cleaving across their chests, tearing apart flesh. Igniting them with fire. Even if the burning is mitigated by the downpour, the initial attack is enough to send them all falling back and howling in great pain.

Riku has to smirk at how successful her attack was, how perfectly timed and planned it all had been! She has to swirl her scythe in the air and land the bottom of it’s pole against the ground in a gloating manner. “No one can make fire in rain, other than me.”

The explosion makes the mansion rumble below, the force of the impact echoing down the floors. Brightness from the blast was visible several floors down.

Knowing that strike would not keep the gargoyles away for long, she turns away from her victory and gets to terms with the intimidating drop below. Pacing herself and taking a deep breath, Riku leaps from the parapet and falls several feet. She twirls around in midair and uses her scythe to catch into the wall like a hook holding a slab of meat, but it’s Riku instead, catching her from falling and also tearing the nice decorations up. Not that Riku minds, it wasn’t her home after all.

If the crying of monsters and explosion during a rainstorm wasn’t enough to draw attention to her, then defiling the mansion by tearing up it’s walls with large scythe marks would definitely piss off anyone unfortunate enough to be the owner. If all else fails, the Riku sized hole in the once majestic glass window being shattered is the cherry on top.

“Time to find the secrets of this mansion.” She says to herself, pulling her scythe back into it’s compartmentalized form. She flexes her shoulders and steps forward into the unknown with a smile.

There was too big a ruckus not to see the red blur dancing across the rooftops; smashing the stone guardians into rubble in a blaze of bloodlust. It was a sight to catch anyone's eyes, though there was only a few reasons that just anyone would be hanging around a place like this. Though, the woman in red wouldn't be lucky enough to get away scot-free. A certain passerby with narrowed eyes catching each of the girl's deeds as the rain dripped silently over her body. Whatever reason she had to be in a place was neither here or there; instead the curiosity and intrigue of what had just transpired brought a change in direction to her steps.

The red menace was a big enough diversion to let Vi-vi quietly skulk along without being dealt with. Peacefully walking behind the trail of destruction, a cat with an over-sized sword slung across her shoulders strolled behind the sight of the girl. Heart beating with excitement as she stalked her prey with interest fixated in her eyes.

Rather than attempt to hold the net, Caprice simply... let it go. The wolf smashed into it, pulling it away from the wall and tangling itself up. Caprice brought her hands up to her mask, one finger tapping on each side of the mask, alternating in rhythm as she looked curiously at the wolf as if to wonder how it could have gotten there.

Then, she turned to the true Hound of the House with a large grin before she winked and stuck out her tongue.

For all her antics, she had little desire to speak at this point. She felt no difference between one path forward or another, so why not let her fine 'companions' bargain amongst themselves on whether to take Garou's offer.

Alas, for all the teasing from Clair and Kanbaru, the saner members of the party had managed to convince the lupine boytoy to settle down. Tempting though it may have been to rile him back up and see if she can force a shirt upon the wolfman, the white haired girl had her interest taken by a searching question from Akiko of all people. "Hmm? Of course I can see it. What, is the Serei supposed to be invisible? If so, I think Emilia might have ripped you off with the card exchange."

It wasn't like she'd noticed the whole debacle with the self inflicted arrow or its results, not when the inn had been the very picture of chaos in motion at the time. The 'Serei' in question had an impressive voice and its power was not to be understated, so she considered the cat girl fortunate to be inundated with such energetic guardians.

Thinking of such seemed all the prompting Lorelai needed to be summoned once more, assuming a guarded stance before Akiko in the face of Garou. Her head quirked sideward, reacting to the presence of Castle with a widening of the pupil, yet she felt no hostility and judged it a fellow protector over anything else. Given Akiko wasn't cowering from it looming over her she turned back to the wolf as it settled down, seemingly content to leave them to their own devices.

"Mah, Mistress, you certainly find yourself in interesting lands. And you solicited additional help. How forward thinking." Lorelai lauded the cat girl in a low, pleased voice, her words vague enough to still be heard as a reference to the now far larger party around them while she rested her sword back in its sheath and dispelled her standard with a thought. "You'll have to tell me more when we have the time."

"Ughh, I surely can't get a moment of peace tonight, can I? I wonder if this is what Aunt Caroline feels every time someone decides to break into her home?" Victoire said to herself as she became keenly aware of the commotion taking place at the roof above her head. The vampire brought a hand up to soothe her temples, casting her gaze on the floor as the stained glass windows of her throne room shattered with the force of the impromptu entrance of a duo of interlopers. Or at least one of them, since the other one appeared to be taking her sweet time making her way down here.

"I would like you to know that we have perfectly serviceable doors the next time you wish to pay a visit," Victoire said in a dry tone, not even bothering to turn her gaze to the intruder. "Skilled craftsmen are a luxury in this realm of dread and devastation, finding someone to do those repairs is going to be a rather difficult task. I'd appreciate if you refrain from damaging any more of my property, little miss thief."

"At any rate, excuse me for my ramblings. What do I owe the pleasure of this meeting to? Is stealing not enough, and now you must threaten the life of the Mistress of this Châteu to fulfill your perversion? Or is it something else that guides your actions?" Victoire concluded, finally turning her crimson gaze towards the intruder.


"How could any thief—erm... adventurer worth their salt resist the allures of an aging old castle like this?" Clair replied as she used her blade as a cane, leaning on it while shooting a knowing look at Garou.

"Hey, I hope you're planning on paying for the ride, y'know," Clair said when Rose suddenly decided to move from Thomas to her. She let Akiko do as she pleased. After all, in the event things went south, it was the spokesperson's job to take responsibility, right? Clair was more than glad to off-load this burden.

"So, now that we have settled this issue, where do we begin our search? I bet a thief would be trying to hide where they are likely to attract the least attention possible. Maybe a basement or the kitchen would be the best place to start? I know I would try to find an underground passage to slip away if I were in their place."

---

The dog launched at Kanbaru’s face would not go unheeded and may have even put some thorns into her eyes on the best of outcomes. Just because she was talking to Akiko didn’t mean the dog wasn’t in motion after all. Thankfully for her she had a second pair of eyes now. The thorned creature was split in two down the middle just moments from impacting Kanbaru’s face. A deep slice gashed itself in the ground in front of her and the two halves of the plant dog were sent skidding on either side of her. An invisible smack to the back of the head was her protector’s only response. Clearly her newfound “friend” preferred it when its host paid attention.

Dead dogs aside, the second one was tangled and caught up in the candy net Caprice made earlier. The guardian of the manor knew this because the girl was mocking him right there with a playful tongue stuck out. Garou twitched an eye, very, very tempted to chuck actual furniture at that smug face. Such desires were interrupted by the loud rumbling that shook the entire mansion, a sensation neither host nor guest could ignore for long. “What the hell is it now?” Garou growled, twitching an ear and wrinkling a nose as distant fire was caught by scent.

The sound of windows smashing and bodies moving was all the notice clear for the obvious; more intruders. Maybe one of them was the thief too. “If you’re going to stand around here doing nothing, you can make yourselves useful and go deal with that problem,” Garou said with crossed arms, flicking his tail in the direction of Victoire’s chambers. “Obviously if you’re no thieves, you’ll prove your innocence by finding the real culprit over there.”

In truth he just wanted to see Victoire sweat a little with so many guests to deal with. After all, she only ever told him to deal with people outside her chambers. He couldn’t very well do anything if people somehow just so happened to barge into her throne room past his guard now could he? Yes, he was already smirking at that idea to himself, wandering if he could even spin this as a free night off from duty. The thorned dogs though moved on instinct, treading back to the throne room in defense of their mistress.

---

Riku takes note of the gathered assortment before her, eyes mostly settling on Victorie. She had walked down from the roof into this lounge. For a supposed thief, she was not very subtle or stealthy in the slightest. The classy pale lady carried the most authority around here to Riku's perception. And her well groomed and presented attire matches the gloomy sophistication of the building around them.

"Stealing? I'm not here to steal. I'm here to help!"

She leads into a respectful bow of the regal lady, and her furred companion as well. She returns to standing upright with her special scythe drawn and ready.

"Sorry about the damage done to the mansion. The gargoyles pursuing me didn't seem to mind smearing my blood over your walls so I figured it was mutual."

"But that's in the past now. I'm offering to help find your thief and exorcising any unwanted spirits that might be residing. I am a professional exorcist, and I can detect things not of this world very close by."

Riku risks coming up to Victoire, sheathing her scythe into it's compact mode behind her back.

"Did you ever consider this thief was not exactly human or beast, but rather a ghost? I'm sure you've got some long dead old enemies. Think they might be coming back to haunt you? I doubt I would be detecting all this massive spiritual energy if that were not the case."

She talks smooth and has a nice smile, and seems eager to dissolve any associations of herself with the thief. She has been put in the spotlight by circumstance, and wants to transform that attention into something more fruitful for herself.

Thomas felt slightly unnerved at the close to casual tossing of the thorny dogs that had felt, to him at least, like daunting obstacles only minutes before. It wasn’t like the others had much trouble at all though, and when all was said and done things had settled, a bit least. Well, at least there was no more tossing of weird bracken monsters, but there was still a little snark being thrown around every now and then.

His cheek twitched from the pat that Rose gave it, Thomas having almost completely forgotten that she had still been perched on his shoulder this whole time. As she flew away to settle on Clair’s shoulder, he gave her a slight smile, one she probably didn’t notice, but at least it was a sign that the boy was becoming more comfortable now in the group.

He listened to Clair carefully as she conjectured about the whereabouts of the thief, trying to ignore the other shenanigans going on between the others ladies and Garou, before a definite rumble and subsequent shake of the mansion almost sent him off his balance. He turned to the wolfman, who seemed just as confused as he was, if not a little more angry, and the following smashing of windows and patter of movement nearby was enough to suggest that Clair probably had it wrong with the whole ‘attract the least attention possible’ thing.

The fact that the thorned hounds moved towards the room all the clatter came from almost on instinct suggested that it was probably important. Maybe even where the mistress of this place was. He advanced a few steps towards the chambers, before turning back to the rest of the group to make sure he wasn’t just going in alone.

Thomas looked to Garou as well, who suddenly seemed quite relaxed at the prospect of an intruder in the mansion. “Hey, uh… shouldn’t you come with us as well?” He questioned, something he realised just after might not have been such a great idea, given how prone to acting out this guy seemed.

It was sheer over confidence that had Kanbaru ignoring her surroundings to chat with the Akiko. Truthfully she'd have been overjoyed if boy-toy over yonder had deigned to attack her personally and given Kanbaru an excuse, but tossing a feral dog of thorn and bramble was far less spurious an offense. She turned in time to see it split down the middle, either half passing to the sides while she was left with only a few strands of bone white hair ruffled.

Then, soundlessly, a hand slapped her, driving her chin towards her collarbone. She yelped, staggered, and ultimately righted herself with a sheepish look cast towards her spectral partner. "Come on, it's not like I don't have you looking out for me. Cut me some slack, please~?"

She didn't expect a verbal answer, not did she mind if the others thought her crazy when there was still a slice of the floor missing. What did catch her interest was Garou directing them to the Castle Lady's chambers, no doubt offloading his work onto us while making their group someone else's responsibility to look after. How very typical of a canine, in Kanbaru's opinion. "Such a lazy creature. If he didn't have those abs I'd think he slept all day, every day."

Snorting in dismissal she trotted past him, a spark of excitement in her eye to find the source of this commotion and brew up some more interest then what creatures of vine could provide. And hey, a castle like this had to have a throne room, so if nothing else she'd steal a very comfy chair for her room at the inn. "Is it this door? I think it's this door. Hello door!"

Perhaps she didn't need to enter the door by smacking it with her plushie, but the novelty of a weaponized whale plushie was far from running its course for her.

"That's what every thief says," Victoire replied when Riku denied the charges against her. A thief who confessed to their skulduggery was hardly worth their stolen slat, after all. Nevertheless, she allowed the dark-haired girl to continue if only to entertain herself for an ephemeral moment.

"Never mind them. You don't seem to be much of an exorcist to me. You're terribly lacking in hallowed apparel," Victoire said as she scrutinized the thief-in-denial with her crimson gaze after dismissing the issue of the gargoyles.

"Oh, I assure you I got many more enemies among the living than the dead. Nevertheless, suppose I believe you for a moment. How do you intend to go about your proposed business?" The vampire lady said.


Clair was prepared to leave the scene and go look for this mysterious thief who beat her to the punch when she noticed that the others seemed to have changed their mind.

"I thought we were supposed to go look for a thief, not antagonize whoever owns this place," she said while letting out a grin that practically said 'At least not yet'. Not that she could, or wanted to, stop the others when they already made their mind, but she made sure to stay a few steps behind them just in case something happened.

"Don't you think we are a little too close to the ground for tha—" Before Clair could give her opinion about how the door in front of them couldn't be any sort of throne room when they were nowhere near the lofty heights the average megalomaniac likes to call home, Kanbaru had already smashed through it. Not to the thief's surprise, the room that laid itself before them was no seat of power but rather a theater, or better yet an opera house in all of its opulent decadency.

"Well, this is a fancy place if I ever saw one. No doubt a thief would want to grab some of these and make a hasty retreat," Clair said as she eyed an old candelabra whose wrought golden textures could still be seen gleaming even under the thick layer of dust that settled upon it after so many eons of disuse.

---

"Of course you're getting payed! You get to listen to my wit and repartee while I hang out!"

Perhaps Clair's shoulder was just that comfy, perhaps she was just bored, perhaps whatever god that decided her actions suddenly got very busy for a while, whatever the case may be, Rose kind of dozed off for a bit. But she jolted to life at the sound of something large hitting something heavy, or perhaps it was something heavy hitting something large. Whatever the case may be, they were now in some kind of opera house/theatre/whatever fancy word you wanna use. Rose let out a little "Oooh..." as she sat up on Clair's shoulder and looked around more properly at her surroundings. Place was dusty as hell, but most of this stuff looked pretty expensive. "Ok so, I know we said we weren't the thieves or whatever, buuuuuuuut... this stuff looks really stealable right? Like, totally valuable and worth snatching while we're here. Whoever owns this place barely even uses this room anyways, they probably won't notice it's missing."

And meanwhile with Ami and Akiko? She was busy dragging the weird chimera girl off towards the throne rooms where she had heard a bunch of noise happening, walking in through the open doors and staring at Riku and Victoire. And by dragging I do mean literally dragging, presuming Akiko is trying to fight whatever is happening. Hopefully not, Ami was trying to do their job after all. "Alright, what the fuck is going on around here. Some kind of wolf dude who wasn't wearing a shirt sent us over this way to look for a thief or whatever, so I'm gonna assume one of you is the thief and one of you is the owner of this dusty old shithole. Which is which, first to answer decides who I'm beating up."

Caprice decided not to head off towards Victoire's room, not yet at least, instead taking up position behind Thomas. This one seemed to at least mean well, and it'd be a shame if his head got chomped off by some irate candelabra or something. Who knows what they might face in this place?

So when Thomas decided to advance a few steps before turning around, Caprice was behind him, idly shuffling cards. Thomas and Garou were new faces, little more than their surface appearances yet upon them. Though Thomas' did have brighter lighting while Garou's was dim and of low contrast.

There was quite some debate by some over whether to steal stuff or not, but Caprice's distaste for petty theft was already clear from her behavior in the last level. Even when 'crime' was 'legal', she saw no need to weigh herself down with material treasures.