"Do you think he might be alive?" She then asked steering it towards another topic.

"Hmm... I don't know." Guru answered. For the first time since she knew him, he was truly uncertain about an issue.

"I didn't touch the body at all, the doctors said that they couldn't allow me or anyone to come near and check as the disease might be contagious."

"And did you believe them?" Eyisha asked curiously.

"I don't know what to believe anymore, this is a new world. With everything that's popping up it's quite difficult for an old man to keep up." He replied, "But I extended my senses, there was no heart beat, and the Tantra in his body was dissipating. If he isn't dead, he's quite the dedicated actor. Doing that would lower his strength by a whole level, not to mention if there were complications."

Eyisha pondered for a bit, "What if he used the fang?"

"Mmm..." Guru nodded, "I've thought of that too, but the process isn't selective, if he used it then it should've counteracted the disease as soon as it threatened his life, not wait until he was dead... Besides he had one wife and two concubines, through his life he's come close to death enough times to use the chances he got from them..."

"If he used that method? He..." Eyisha couldn't help her curiosity and continued to dig but stopped as soon as she saw the look Guru gave her.

"I would admit that if he used that method there would be a chance..." Guru agreed, but he continued to rebuke the statement, "but in the end even I don't believe he could be that heartless."

After a while, Eyisha finally decided to leave Guru's place.

Outside she met a few officers whose clothes were soaked with sweat.

"Did you find anything?" She asked them.

"No ma'am." They answered between heavy breaths. She was quite lucky to have these few capable men left. Most of hers had died and a majority of them definitely couldn't withstand the pressure Guru gave off, even if he was being kept there by her. Just not having to drag their bodies out was a blessing at this point.

"And kitsi? Did she reveal anything?" At mentioning her name a little pain was felt in her heart.

"No, and we've already used the methods to the limit you would allow us... maybe if we just went a little..." he was about to suggest using the full extent of their interrogation capabilities before being interrupted.

"No, we're not even sure if she knows anything about him, if there's a clue I will personally take her in to experience the full extent of our 'methods'. But until then she should just be put under surveillance. And get someone to replace her as the captain of my guard..." Eyisha stayed before turning away.

As they left they didn't notice the shadow of a nearby building s.h.i.+ft. If they'd look at it a little deeper they'd realize that the shadow was facing the wrong direction from the sun. But it didn't matter so much as night began to fall, in this moment, the shadow may as well be invisible.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

The princess's own courtyard was quite big and held in it many rooms with their own functionality. One in particular was isolated from the rest, it used to be a chamber used to isolate servants who made a mistake by the head servant, but it served equally well as a containment chamber.

Outside, two officers stood and guarded either side of the door while two others sat near a campfire around the corner, on it a small pot was cooking on the fire.. "Hey, did you see our a.s.signment, she wore a hood the whole time but her body was definitely top notch... what do you think a person like her could have done, she had all those fresh marks on her... even if she's a silver grade warrior I doubt she could do anything in that state.. do you think..."

"I don't know, but I suggest you don't think about touching her, even if we treat her like a prisoner, when have you seen a common criminal being imprisoned in the princess's residence?" His colleague replied. "Our only job is take care of her tonight and bring her back to the interrogators tomorrow."

"Cheh! You're no fun..." the lid began to rattle and steam came from inside the pot. "Guys, the foods almost done, you don't need to stand there the whole time anyway." As he opened the pot a steam cloud rose from within to reveal some vegetable soup with chunks of meat.

Without waiting for their friends the two poured themselves a bowl and begun wolfing down the meal, finis.h.i.+ng the bowl in seconds. When they were taking their second bowl one of them looked up, "Guys!! If you don't come quickly we're going to finish the whole thing... guys?"

"Hey!! They're not responding, what should we do?" He asked.

His colleague was busy finis.h.i.+ng his second bowl couldn't care less, "Well, go look for them then!!" He said thinking he could steal a few extra pieces while the guy was away.

"Fine! But you better not finish the whole thing!" He replied as he stood up to go to look. Just as he moved about half a meter the clack of a bowl was heard from behind him followed by the extinguis.h.i.+ng of the campfire.

"Did you drop your bowl on the..." he turned to reprimand his colleague but couldn't continue his sentence, there was no one there to receive it. The bowl was still spinning on the floor.

As he stepped backwards he felt a cold sharp object press against his neck and a voice like a whisper in his ear, "don't make a sound.."