"Master orders to take no risks. Strangers pose a risk." Shai spoke, but she lowered the crossbow, pointing the bolt at the ground. One of her gauntleted hands was placed onto the old ghoul's upper arm. Not tightly, almost gently, but it would tighten if he'd try to escape... Though, he was a strong one, that much was sure.
She led him towards the desolate mansion.
The doors, large wooden doors with black iron, twisting around their edges, were towering before them. They were worn, showing visible marks of damage - chipped, singed wood on the edges. Many windows were broken, and even more was nailed over. It did not look like the manse of a lord - it looked like a tomb.
Shai retrieved keys from her garb, and stuck one into the door, turning it around till it clicked, and one of the doors opened up. She stepped in together with the man, into a dark, wide corridor. The rushes were black as night, the tapestries mole-eaten and decayed, but it still had a sort of beauty to itself. A dark, despoiled sort.
"Wait in the hall on the other end of the corridor. Master will come." the ghoul girl spoke up once more, and turned on her heel, swiftly exiting, leaving him in the vast, dark corridor alone.
Nakahiro knew. He knew of her very well. He knew that she found someone in the gardens. As to who that someone was, he had no clue, but he would be awaiting his audience in the hall of the manor. Seated in a stone chair, with a cup of swirling red as the torches on both sides of the hall burned a venomous green, their light reflected off the beaten silver mirrors behind, making them twice as bright. There sat the high lord, all in black, in a garb as beautiful as any, two rows of silver buttons across his slender chest, a coat of embroidered velvet falling down to his feet, and tall, heeled riding boots resting on the floor of the dais above the room. His hair was almost the same blackness as his attire; in soft curls, it fell about his head, resting on his bony shoulders. Only his eyes were lively, a green as bright as the torches.
He was waiting.