Stepping out of the shadows of the basement, Adryan quickly hid behind a box.
He concentrated and his senses spread throughout the basement.
The basement of Lacopa's house is quite large, with multiple boxes with unknown contents inside placed one on top of the other all over it, generating multiple rows of disorder.
It was completely dark in here and quite humid as well.
'At least ventilate a little you Animal! You don't want a weird fungus to grow here right?' the redhead mentally insulted the dead owner of this place.
There was no one in the basement, Adryan came out of hiding without lowering his guard or his senses.
He could hear the footsteps and muffled voices of the multiple guards above him.
Guided by this, he managed to locate multiple guards and where they were, guided by this, he moved away from these areas and looked for a suitable shadow to jump.
He found one away from the group of voices and footsteps.
Without hesitating he made a Shadow Leap at it, coming out of the shadows he saw that he was in a very small dark room, there were brooms and buckets on the floor, and there was also a smell of soap in the air.
This seemed to be a small store for cleaning products.
The door to this room was closed and he could see the light coming out of it.
Adryan ignored the door but instead, guiding himself by his senses, he now managed to locate the guards much easier.
He now knew exactly where each one was, the thick layer of cement and wood prevented him from locating them precisely before but now that he was in a room with thin walls and wood it was much easier for him to do so.
He didn't go out the door but found another shadow on the next floor he Shadow Leaped to it, he stepped out of the shadows, and found himself inside a dark bedroom.
The curtains were drawn, blocking out the crimson light of the moon.
Adryan saw how in the double bed there was a lying figure being covered by a thin sheet that left nothing to the imagination.
She was a beautiful woman with black hair, her pale skin seemed to glow by itself and her nudity was barely covered by the sheet, which did a lousy job of doing as Adryan could see a dangling breast.
"Pervert" Flora teased amused.
Adryan only had his gaze on the woman for two seconds and quickly looked away. He didn't move a single muscle or make any sudden movements.
He used his index finger and gave two quick taps to his left palm.
His vision changed but he didn't look directly at the woman but used his peripheral vision to see the woman's aura.
The aura was turbulent and transparent.
Adryan had to hold back the huge sigh of relief that wanted to leave his mouth.
'I almost had a fucking cardiac arrest' the redhead joked internally to calm down.
Apparently, his trauma with the witches was still strong.
The first beautiful woman he sees, he immediately assumes she is a witch.
'Lacopa never said that his lover was so beautiful'
He had asked the spirit if there was anyone other than his guards in his house.
The spirit had said that his lover was in their bedroom.
The redhead had never expected someone so beautiful and sensual.
'That guy had to kidnap her since I don't understand how he could pull something like that'
Taking a closer look at the woman he saw that she looked quite healthy, with full fleshy cheeks and no sign of abuse.
Her breathing was calm and quiet.
There was also no strange smell in the room, just the smell of a young woman.
'Apparently, the part that said he was very charismatic was not lying...'
Letting out a soundless sigh, Adryan headed to the side of the bedroom.
According to the spirit, his office was on the left side of his bedroom.
He leaned on the wall and focused, he didn't hear any sound from the other side of the wall.
He nodded and use another Shadow Leap to the office, he wouldn't go out the bedroom door because he could hear several guards passing by constantly.
He stepped out of the shadows and found himself inside Lacopa's office.
It was a large office with a wooden desk on a purple rug at the back of the room and several good-quality pieces of furniture to the sides.
Adryan went to the desk with silent steps, he moved the chair carefully and with a knife cut a square in the purple carpet.
He moved the piece he cut and revealed a trap door in the floor.
Seeing this, a big smile spreads across the redhead's face.
He grabbed the handle of the trap door and lifted it, there was no hidden space or secret hiding place.
Instead, what there was was a safe embedded in the floor.
Adryan touched the black metal of the box and rapped twice with his knuckles.
'It wouldn't be too hard to break it but it would make a lot of noise, luckily I don't need to do that'
Adryan grabbed the safe's dial and began to turn it.
51 on the left, 30 on the right, 4 on the left, 36 on the right, 3 on the left, and 5 on the right.
As the last number was entered, Adryan grabbed the safe's handle and yanked it to the side.
The safe was opened, Adryan lifted the lid and looked down with a big smile.
Well arranged in towers were thick wads of bills, jewelry, and various documents.
'I finally have money!' the redhead thought very happily, his days of poverty were over!
Even if it's only for now...
Adryan controlled his happiness and quickly checked the documents first.
They were all about properties under the names of various people.
'Either this is Lacopa's extortion or his properties under false names... Hopefully, it's the latter since I can get more money that way~'
If it was the first then he would hand these over to the police so they can hand them over to the owners.
He set the documents aside and quickly began emptying the safe of everything valuable...
The safe was now empty but just in case Adryan started touching the walls of the safe in case there was something hidden.
Unfortunately, that was not the case and the redhead could only close the safe in disappointment.
"Flora, are these documents Lacopa's properties or something he used for extortion?" Adryan whispered.
Flora took a few moments to answer.
"Some are their property and some are extortion material."
Adryan nodded quite pleased with this information, it meant that he could make a profit from this!
And he already had the right people in mind to sell the properties.
'Sorry Casper, Mr. Zombie, but I'm going to have to bother you again~"
He got up from the ground and pulling a silver knife from his jacket, he formed a wall of spirituality.
He quickly set up the red candles, red poppies, and the symbol.
He put all the money, jewelry, documents, the containers with the characteristics, and the goatskin patch with the formulas in place.
He put his hands together and prayed.
"The Scarlet Monarch that burns depravity;
You are the Calamity of the Old Days;
You are the Closest to the Oldest One..."
...
Adryan only took a few moments to remove the characteristics from the containers and set them a good distance apart from each other.
He did this to prevent the characteristics from merging with the containers thus creating a sealed artifact.
He also made sure that the Hunters' characteristics were well away from each other to avoid attraction.
After covering them in yellowish smoke, he quickly returned to his body.
Later he would have time to count the money now he had to leave this house and return to his room.
He prepared to do a Shadow Leap in the direction of the basement but stopped at the last moment.
He looked at the wall to his side, passing through it and looking at the sleeping figure of the naked woman.
He frowned.
'Once the news gets here what will happen to her? I don't know what her relationship is with the guards but it is most likely that without Lacopa's protection something bad will happen to her if I leave her here...'
'But should I help her? How do I know that she is not as rotten as Lacopa? But if she's innocent, will I really leave her here at the mercy of the guards?'
Questions and questions filled the mind of the redhead who sighed and then whispered.
"Flora make a divination if the woman we saw before is a good person"
"You're just looking for an excuse to help her right?" Flora said unimportantly but she quickly did what the redhead asked.
The corners of Adryan's lips twitched but he said nothing.
After a few moments, Flora spoke calmly.
"Although she knew what Lacopa was doing, and although she hated what her lover was doing, she could only tolerate it for fear of losing her home, hot food, and safety. She was afraid that she was going to get punished if she ever tried to do anything against Lacopa so she only lowered her head."
"Is that enough for you Tomato Princess?"
Adryan nodded.
That woman was still a human in his eyes so he would help her this time.
She wanted to keep her house, food, and safety there's nothing wrong with that, besides what she was supposed to do?
Report it to the police?
Who knows if they were already bought?
Report it to the churches?
That would be the best idea but it seems that the woman did not use this option.
It was certain that she would receive a handsome reward for turning in a human trafficker but Adryan assumes two things as to why she didn't do it.
1. That she didn't know about the reward.
2. That she did not trust that the church had the ability to deal with this.
Whatever the reason was, the woman was now in an ugly situation and didn't even know it.
Adryan Shadow Leaped into the bedroom.
His first code has always been that if he had the power to help someone, as long as it didn't put his life at risk, he would lend a hand.
When climbing the sequences it will be vital to adhere to his codes to survive, abandoning them would only put him at risk.
Stepping out of the shadows he saw the sleeping figure of the woman.