Chapter 1684: Scare Tactics
Chapter 1684: Scare Tactics
The building's third floor was massive considering a single family that lived here. And from the looks of it, Umad didn't have that many maids or servants that were in the place as well.
Ning saw 2 maids in the kitchen and another one who seemed to be helping a 6-year-old child with reading something. Ning went around both of those rooms briefly, searching through them to see if there were any obvious signs of jewelry being kept there.
But there was not. The hairpin was not there, so Ning went around searching through more of the rooms. He took a longer time searching through the empty rooms, which were still filled with tons of furniture. He needed to get through each one to make sure he did not miss anything at all.
It took him over an hour to get through the first floor. By that time, he finally got to see the man Umad.
He was a shorter man with a balding head, wearing thick furred clothes. He was on the chubby side of things, but no more than any other noble Ning had seen in his lifetime.
For a man living a life as he was, this much was understandable. From how he looked, Ning guessed he was in his late 40s. The caravan he started must've been when he was still in his
20s.
His wife was much younger than him, in her late 20s. She was beautiful no doubt and maybe even a noblewoman herself even before marriage.
Ning couldn't tell just by looking if they even loved each other or not, but that was none of his business. Given that the two had come down, it was his turn to go up to the top floor and check there.
Ning and Shara left for the upper floors and began searching through the place. This was more annoying than anything they had done yet.
The upper floor seemed to be full of furniture of all sorts, so they had to check through everything. Not to mention, they did find jewelry in a few places that were locked with a key.
Shara simply had to reach inside and pull items out one after another for them to see. It was a tedious process of trying to find a hairpin.
They moved to another room and then another. Finally, they entered a massive room that was no doubt the bedroom of the nobleman.
Ning looked around for a closet and was surprised to find that the closet itself was a smaller room entirely. He walked in to find folded shirts, large fur-laced boots, hung coats, and a lot of different clothes in general.
There were also many boxes that Ning opened up to see where jewelry of all types. He opened a few but found nothing there precisely that could be the Spirit's hairpin.
They had to go back outside to search.
Ning walked out and suddenly stopped as he saw the old man walking into the room. He seemed tired after the meal, wanting to directly go to bed even though it was early still.
The woman wasn't here just yet.
Shara held her breath, making no noise at all, while Ning thought of something. Searching around for the hairpin was going to take way too long. The easier thing to do here was to ask the man before him.
Of course, he couldn't just ask him. The man wouldn't speak if so. He needed to ask him in a way the man would be compelled to answer him.
Ning looked around and found the nightstand with the lantern on top of it. He moved up to the lantern and slowly began shaking it. The nightstand rumbled, the light from the lantern flickering bright and dim.
It didn't take long for the man on the bed to take notice. He got up and looked to his right at the nightstand, confused as to why it was shaking. He froze for a moment to see if it was an earthquake, but it wasn't.
"Did the damn mouse come back again? I told those grain sellers to-"
Shara moved to the side and began shaking a table to the side, making the man pause again. "The hell?"
Ning moved silently, tipping a painting sideways as he did so, and began shaking another piece of furniture far away. Then he came right back to the bed and began shaking it.
The man was scared at this point.
"Guards! Guards!" he shouted, running to the door, but before he got to it, Ning reached it and slammed the door shut. People would have heard his screams downstairs but Ning didn't care at the moment.
"UMAD!" he spoke, but his voice was one he used when he talked to Spirits. It made it sound like the words he spoke came from underneath a pool of water, distorted the whole way through, but still understandable.
The man fled back to his bed, pulling a sword out from behind it, and pointing in all directions.
"W-w-who?" the man asked.
"UMAAAAD!" Ning shouted louder this time, the words coming from a different location. "Give me the hairpin."
"Who goes there? Show yourself!" the man shouted, not even listening to Ning.
Shara shook the bed this time around.
The man swung his sword all around, nearly even hitting Shara, but Shara simply turned intangible and the sword passed right through her. It couldn't touch her at all.
Ning walked close to the man and swiped his legs from under him, making him fall back on
the bed.
"GIVE IT TO ME!" he said.
"Wh-who is speaking?" Umad asked.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Ning heard footsteps rushing to the room, but they couldn't stop this anymore.
"MY MOTHER'S HAIRPIN, UMAD. GIVE IT TO ME!"
The guards came rushing in, calling out the man's name. They looked all around to see what was happening, but they could see nothing.
"It's right there," Umad pointed toward Ning's general direction. "It's around there. Kill it."
The guards looked confused.
"YOU CANNOT KILL ME, UMAD," Ning said. "I AM ALREADY DEAD."