“Hmm,” I thought to myself.

“Ow, my foot,” one of the burly dock workers hissed under their breath.

“My apologies dear,” the other one said in a surprisingly gruff voice as they gently touched the other one on the shoulder.

It had been seven days since I had lost the circlet to River, but I had managed to recuperate my losses quite easily.

A little too easily.

Five of the past seven days had involved a pair of people who had shown up, exchanged quite a few magic items in the hidden room, and then gambled for as many of the potions as they could get their hands on.

It wasn’t even the same faces and voices from one day to the next, but their cadence, body language, and the way they interacted with each other made it obvious that it was Alma and Hilda.

“Nice illusion, but your deception skill could use some work,” I muttered to myself as the two wizards disguised as dock workers stepped up to the fountain.

! Stray cat used Scan !

! Archmage Enchanter: Threat level assessment: Orange !

! Apprentice Enchanter: Threat level assessment Green !

! Combined threat level assessment Red !

My stray slipped into the lion’s mouth and unlocked the door for the two of them and they proceeded deeper into the hidden room.

The [scan] skill had been useful, but it was a little disconcerting to know that the kindly old lady was probably capable of solo-ing my defenses if she ever got serious about it.

Alma and Hilda stepped out into the main area of the hidden room and did their best to look inconspicuous as they got in the line for the exchange chest.

Word had apparently spread quite quickly among the other adventurers of the delver’s guild and now the hidden room had a decent number of people in it at any given time.

I had even expanded the variety of games to include a roulette wheel and a dice table, both of which were currently being used.

“Hey Selina, why do you think Hilda and Alma have shown up the past five days in disguise?” I asked.

“Probably because Hilda is an archmage and wants to keep a low profile,” Selina shrugged.

“Ah, that makes sense,” I said, “do you think we’re going to have to hold an intervention?”

Selina let out a surprised chuckle, “hopefully not. They’re probably just studying your potions or something like that.”

“You think I should ask them about it?” I wondered, “I don’t mind showing them if they want to buy or trade for the recipe.”

“Nah, they’re here in disguise, right? It’d probably be embarrassing if they got called out,” Selina replied.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I concluded and got back to operating the exchange chest.

***

Later that night, after I had closed down the casino, and politely shooed out the last of the stragglers, I decided to enact my plan to burgle the storehouse.

“Okay team Carmen, are you in position?” I asked.

“Team Carmen is ready and waiting to pounce,” Carmen replied.

“Team Midnight, are you in position?” I asked.

There was a deep sigh from my connection with Midnight.

“Do we have to talk like this, House? You already know where we all are,” Midnight moaned.

“Oh come now brother. Where's your sense of fun?” Carmen chided.

“I must have left it back at the casino,” Midnight deadpanned.

“Team Midnight, do you read me? I think I’m detecting large quantities of grumpiness in your area that's interfering with the connection. Over,” I continued as if I hadn't heard him.

“Team Midnight is in position. Over,” my scion said as if it hurt him to do so.

“Excellent, wait until I search the area and get ready to move on my signal,” I replied.

“Honestly brother, this is an important operation to Mr. House. We’re already compromising on the code names for you,” Carmen teased.

“I just don’t see the point in it,” Midnight said in an exacerbated tone, “it’s not like anyone else is going to hear us.”

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“All right, no signs of the enemy. All teams move in!” I exclaimed.

“Finally,” Midnight sighed as my scions lead a small army of [stray cats] up to the door.

“Allow me,” Carmen said before grabbing the enormous padlock with her telekinesis and snapping the shackle with a twist.

“All right, Carmen take fifteen of the [stray cats] and start working on the shelves. Midnight take the other five into the office and grab the ledger and anything else that’s not nailed down,” I said.

“With pleasure,” Midnight said with an unusual edge to his voice as he stalked up to the main office.

“Team Carmen preparing to assimilate cell 01-01-3,” Carmen called out.

“Roger that, team Carmen. I’m ready for transfer,” I said as I opened up the corresponding item box in my inventory.

A loud crunch echoed through the storehouse as Midnight ripped the door out of it’s frame and flung it to the side.

“Damn, Midnight!” I exclaimed, “I didn’t realize the codenames bothered you that much.”

“No House, your usual antics aren’t what’s bothering me. It’s that we’ve bothered to wait until everyone has left instead of getting payback,” he hissed.

“Don’t worry, there’s going to be plenty of chances for that,” I said somewhat solemnly.

“Oh?” Midnight paused.

“Yeah, things have been pretty quiet for a while now, but I’d be surprised if they gave up that quickly. Besides, they’re hurting everyone in this district. Just look around you,” I explained, “Rex is going to come back in force eventually and I don’t want to just wait around for him until he does.”

“Well I’m pleasantly surprised. Do you have any ideas on how to flush out that rat?” asked Midnight.

“Yeah I heard a few things while I was staking the place out and I have a few ideas on where to start,” I explained.

“I hope you don’t mind if I’m a little rough with a few things,” Midnight said as he continued over to the safe that was hidden in the floor before several strays filed in behind him.

“As long as you don’t make it obvious from the outside,” I conceded.

“I think I can manage that,” Midnight said as he ripped a large chunk of the floor out and wrenched the lid off of the safe without bothering with the key.

“Sending cell 01-01-02,” Carmen sighed as she watched Midnight from the storehouse floor.

“Ready,” I replied as the strays began to assimilate the contents of the cell.

The rest of the night went without incident. The ledger was successfully retrieved and all of the stolen goods were safely organized inside my inventory.

The tools, furniture, and even the shelves were also taken as a final “fuck you” before we were satisfied with our work.

“Ready to go, Mr. House?” asked Carmen.

“Just a second,” I said as I sent a small figure of a sleeping cat in the middle of the office next to where the safe had been, “okay, now let’s get out of here.”

***

“So Rex, how have the delvers been treating our dungeon friend?” the Don asked.

“Unfortunately Don, it appears that the delvers have taken to gambling at the casino,” Rex replied.

“Disappointing, but not an unforeseen consequence. We may have to take our time and frame-” the Don began before another goblin burst in through the door.

“DON! DON! It’s horrible!” the goblin exclaimed as he huffed and puffed.

“Settle down Punjo,” The Don said, “what is so important, my cousin, that you had to interrupt this meeting with Rex?”

“I- I-” gasped Punjo.

“Breathe, Punjo,” the Don said.

“It’s horrible!,” Punjo said, finally catching his breath, “someone raided the storehouse!”

“What!” exclaimed the Don.

“They took everything, all of the loot, the tools, the shelves, everything! The only thing that was left was this cat figurine,” Rambled Punjo holding out a small stone figure.

The Don got out of his chair and crossed the room to examine the figurine. He slowly reached out and took the cat statue from Punjo.

A tremble began in his hand that traveled across the Don’s body.

The Don grit his teeth and his expression contorted into one of pure rage.

“CURSE YOU MR. HOUSE!” he shrieked before throwing the cat statue against the far wall where it crashed into something fragile.

“I was willing to make your death a noble one, but this means war,” the Don hissed under his breath.

***

Later that night, I found myself waiting impatiently for everyone to fall asleep.

It was hard to pay attention to something without devoting your full attention to it.

From what I had gathered, focusing my full awareness on something was like having something giant looking down at you.

Needless to say, it probably made it harder to go to sleep while you felt like some giant creature was watching.

I decided to occupy my time with fiddling with a few things in my inventory until everyone was fast asleep.

After a while I finally heard it. A shuffling sound that told me one of my [cat-kin] was kicking in their sleep.

I looked over to the [cat-kin] and, like Mr. Serendipity said, Mittens was having a dream.

Fortunately it didn’t look like a nightmare. In fact it looked like Mittens was happily chasing something in his dreams.

“Aww,” I thought to myself before jumping into Mitten’s head.

The scene really was wonderful.

Mittens was in the middle of a feast with the other chefs working frantically to keep food on his plate.

I waved at Mittens, once again in my old human form.

“Hi Mr. House,” Mittens called to me before digging in to another plate full of food.

Chuckling, I began looking for something out of place before a familiar ringing drew my attention.

I walked over an picked up the Garfield phone that had been mounted on a wall this time.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Hi there Mr. House,” replied the familiar enchanting voice of Mr. Serendipity, “I’m guessing you’ve got a lot of questions. Don’t worry, I’ve got a lot more time tonight.”

“Yeah I do,” I confirmed.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Mr. Serendipity began, “ask away.”