[ The only answer back is silence. Noctis strains for a shuffle of footsteps or some other indication someone in the back room is ignoring them, but hears nothing.
He takes half a step forward, only for a gap in the vases on the counter to catch his eye. ]
Wait.
[ He places both hands on the counter and leans over the edge, and sure enough, there's the missing vase—scattered in shards of white porcelain across the floorboards, toward the back room, a dirty cleaning rag tossed to one side.
This time, he doesn't say anything—just glances up at Alucard and points into the gap behind the counter, then silently jerks his head toward the back room.
He phases across the space in an instant once more, cracking the door as carefully as he dares to peer into the room behind it. What he finds there roots him to the spot and raises the hairs on the back of his neck. ]
Shit.
[ There's the shopkeeper, alright—and with blood on the floor, blood on a stained bottle that rolled up against the door, blood on the balding head of the man laying face down on the floor behind it. ]
no subject
He takes half a step forward, only for a gap in the vases on the counter to catch his eye. ]
Wait.
[ He places both hands on the counter and leans over the edge, and sure enough, there's the missing vase—scattered in shards of white porcelain across the floorboards, toward the back room, a dirty cleaning rag tossed to one side.
This time, he doesn't say anything—just glances up at Alucard and points into the gap behind the counter, then silently jerks his head toward the back room.
He phases across the space in an instant once more, cracking the door as carefully as he dares to peer into the room behind it. What he finds there roots him to the spot and raises the hairs on the back of his neck. ]
Shit.
[ There's the shopkeeper, alright—and with blood on the floor, blood on a stained bottle that rolled up against the door, blood on the balding head of the man laying face down on the floor behind it. ]
This just got way more complicated.