#granted Rhea too if she believes a contract will make Barney quiet

[randomnameless]

didn't alois threaten shez in Hopes to follow him to garreg mach?

?

Are you talking about this line ?

So you see why we must ensure you are well-compensated. Also, there may be some papers for you to sign...perhaps in blood.

Blood oaths used to be a thing - it's basically a super binding contract, like a very solemn oath.

Aka Alois is basically asking Barney here to sign some non-disclosure agreement, and Barney interprets this - and the reward they will receive - as a bribe to, say, not reveal to the world how Flamey'n'Uncle staged an assassination attempt on the heirs of Leicester and Faerghus - I mean, how the CoS is so incompetent that it put in danger the lives of the future heirs of Fodlan's countries.

In the JP text the words used are this 誓約書 which roughly means a written oath/covenant?

Tl;Dr : It's not similar to Tellius's Blood pacts even if blood is mentionned in the localisation, it's a real life (old) concept!

I don't consider this as a threat, even if Larva - and we know who is Larva - always suggests it is, or how basically the CoS is forcing Barney's hand.