[Salone]

"Well now. He's a bit uptight." He took a final puff from his ragged cigarette before snuffing it out. He raised his head to look up at Assassin, giving her a wry grin.

"You know I used to try to be edgy until I got opened up a couple of times. What the kid doesn't know is that we're pretty much all in over our heads. I'm no spring chicken, and I've got a quid that says the others aren't exactly paragons of combat ability. Hell, I suppose that's why we have servants, isn't it? Suppose it wouldn't be as exciting if it was a bunch of daft old tossers and flamboyant Westerners trying to slug each other."

He pulled out another cigarette and lit it. He breathed this one in deeply, holding the smoke and tar in his lungs. Something told him he would be free of several bouts of cancer and disease before the day was over.