Chapter 103: Never Perform Unprepared

Chapter One Hundred ThreeNever Perform Unprepared

He really dares to name a price…

Hearing the vampire’s demand, Klein felt both annoyed and amused.

He glanced at Bishop Utravsky ahead of him, thought for a moment, and asked, “Father, may I borrow your candle? The one from last time. I’ve forgotten what it was called.”

Before Bishop Utravsky could answer, the vampire inside the basement blurted out in astonishment, “What are you trying to do? What are you trying to do?”

At that moment, Bishop Utravsky spoke gently.

“It is called the Nightmare Candle. What do you need it for?”

Father, how cooperative of you. You even know to ask about its purpose…

The corners of Klein’s mouth lifted as he said, “I plan to use it to directly enter the deepest part of our friend’s mind and ask him there.

“You know I have a few special talents in that area. I’m quite good at similar things…”

Before he could finish, the vampire in the basement shouted loudly, “Bastard! Give up that idea!

“Doing that to a noble Sanguine will bring down curses on you!

“Hey, hey—hey! I’ll speak! I’ll speak! I’ll tell you the source of the Master Key!”

Klein chuckled at once.

“Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Hmph! A filthy old man’s friend really isn’t a good person either! As a Sanguine, I merely went to the hospital to secretly take bottled blood and drink it. I was already showing tremendous restraint. Why should I be locked up here and forced every day to listen to that rambling fly-like Life Bible?” the vampire inside the basement complained angrily.

To be honest, if you are truly as you described yourself, and if you had met me, I would at most have warned you a little. Unfortunately, when you got lost and wandered into this church, what stood before you was a priest who once killed without blinking and loved battle, but who now devoutly repents and is fanatical in his faith. That can only mean your luck was rather poor… Still, Bishop Utravsky’s illness has already been healed. He probably won’t truly hurt you. At most, he’ll imprison you by his side…

Klein silently answered the complaint with a few remarks of his own.

After several seconds of silence, the vampire in the basement said, “More than a month ago, I went to the South Borough hospital to secretly take blood bottles and drink them. In the end, I ran into a thief.

“He had originally wanted to enter the hospital’s financial office. Who knew he would get lost and open the door to the blood storage room instead? I caught him on the spot.

“The thing he used was that Master Key. He told me he had found it earlier while sneaking into a certain house to steal. What he obtained along with it was a diamond-set pocket watch. Mm, in a basement.

“At first, he thought the key corresponded to a particular room or a safe. He tried them one by one, only to discover that it could open all of them. To a thief, that was simply an unimaginable surprise. After that, he succeeded again and again, until I caught him and confiscated the key.

“Damn it. I never thought at the time that the key would make people get lost!”

That fits very well with what I saw through divination… But is this Master Key cursed? Its previous owner was imprisoned after getting lost, and the owner before that was caught red-handed because he got lost as well… Perhaps I really should throw it above the gray fog and retrieve it only when needed. But that would be far more troublesome, and might delay matters…

Klein controlled the changes in his expression and asked unhurriedly, “Did the thief say where he stole it?”

The vampire in the basement muttered, “You are questioning my intelligence. How could I not ask about that?

“He said it was at 48 Riverbend Avenue, in the South Borough of the Bridge. I had originally planned to investigate it when I had free time, but then… damn it!

“All right. I’ve finished answering. Stop bothering me.”

Klein did not immediately leave. Instead, he slowly took out a half-penny copper coin and…