Chapter 152: A Vampire with Peculiar Tastes

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Two
A Vampire with Peculiar Tastes

The Cathedral of Serenity at night was particularly beautiful, complementing the red moon hanging high in the air and coldly illuminating the earth.

Leonard entered his own single room, removed the two red gloves, and threw them onto the wooden desk.

With a dark expression, he sat before the patterned glass window, his back to the outside, bathing in the moonlight.

After more than ten seconds of silence, he suddenly spoke in an extremely soft voice, nearly through clenched teeth.

“So you are a Parasite!”

Leonard’s voice faintly echoed beside his own ears, suppressing obvious anger, tension, confusion, and fear.

In the next instant, a slightly aged voice rang directly inside his mind.

“You could put it that way.”

“What exactly do you want to do? Parasitize my body and drain my life? Or wait until I grow stronger, then swallow my Beyonder characteristic directly, as though you are cultivating a bottle of humanoid potion?” Leonard kept his voice low, but his speech was not slow.

The slightly aged voice inside his mind chuckled.

“I am your fortuitous encounter, am I not? Haven’t you always thought that? That you are unique, one of the protagonists of this great era…

“In truth, you are not as arrogant and wild as you usually act. You have been on guard against me from the beginning. Heh. After I taught you the acting method, you did not explore it with any real care. You only made shallow, superficial attempts, spending a very long time before nearly digesting the potion. And you deliberately concealed it, refusing to pursue the Nightmare potion.

“Only after you encountered the True Creator’s spawn and suffered that blow did you become willing to advance to Sequence 7, regretting things until you nearly hallucinated.

“Leonard, think carefully. Would I truly not understand the Church of the Evernight Goddess? When I dealt with them, the so-called Chanis had not even been born.

“Would I not know that the Church of the Evernight Goddess has some understanding of Parasites? Would I not think that the Red Gloves would grasp certain secrets to guard against the infiltration of high-Sequence Beyonders?

“But did I stop you from joining the Red Gloves?”

Leonard’s expression changed several times in quick succession. In the end, he returned to silence and said nothing.

The voice inside his mind laughed again.

“Have you felt yourself becoming older than your true age? No, right? I can live at least another hundred years. I am in no hurry to occupy a host’s life.

“As for your Beyonder characteristic—hmph. We are not even in similar, interchangeable pathways. If I swallowed it, it would be no different from drinking poison. I would become half mad and increase the probability of losing control. Do you think I would do that?

“Evernight belongs to the same category as Giant and Death. The Beyonder pathway I belong to aims for Apprentice and Diviner.”

Leonard watched his own shadow outlined by the crimson moonlight and quietly thought for a while. Then he asked again, “What exactly do you want to do? What is your goal?”

The slightly aged voice in his mind sighed.

“Have I not already told you?

“I suffered serious injuries and must have a host to recover slowly. I also need to hide from a terrifying enemy… Nighthawks and the Church of the Evernight Goddess are a rather good choice.”

Leonard lifted his head and looked at the ceiling for several seconds. In a low voice, he asked, “Will you be discovered by archbishops, high-ranking deacons, or certain Sealed Artifacts?”

The slightly aged voice answered leisurely, “If a Parasite could be found so easily, that high-ranking deacon named Cesimir would not have merely given a warning today without taking you all to be examined.

“Of course, a Parasite does leave traces. The Church of the Evernight Goddess has methods to confirm this, but they are quite complicated and troublesome, and they cause a certain degree of loss and carry no small danger. They might even affect that goddess of theirs. Therefore, before you become a high-ranking deacon, qualified to participate in the Church’s highest-level meetings and come into contact with certain Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts, there is no need to worry about this.

“And by that time, I should already have recovered and set out upon my own journey.”

Leonard listened with a grave expression. After a while, he asked, “You have a terrifying enemy? Who is he?”

The slightly aged voice gave a heh.

“I do not know his name, but I know his surname…”

“What is it?” Leonard pressed.

The slightly aged voice suddenly became low and heavy.

“Amon.”

…

South Borough of the Bridge, 46 Riverbay Avenue.

The residents enjoying dinner heard the jingling ring of the doorbell.

The only maid came to the door and, through the peephole above the lock, saw a policeman in a black-and-white checkered uniform standing outside.

She opened the door and asked with some fear, “Sir, how may I help you?”

This policeman was Klein in disguise. In order to attempt an active performance, he was confirming whether the companions of the vampire Emlyn White—the people who had lived at 48 Riverbay Avenue and the clients behind Stuart’s commission—were law-abiding monsters.

Yes, law-abiding monsters! Although that sounds a little wrong, even somewhat ridiculous, it truly reflects what I think…

Klein emphasized that sentence inwardly.

The police uniform on him was not a tailor-made fake. It was the product of ordinary clothing enhanced by illusion.

A Magician must do what a Magician ought to do!

Klein had not gone to monitor 48 Riverbay Avenue because he believed Emlyn White’s companions must have moved away long ago.

As monsters, as a nonhuman race, relocating after a companion had been missing for several days was the most basic operation!

They had to guard against the possibility that Emlyn White had been captured by official Beyonder organizations such as the Nighthawks or the Mandated Punishers. They had to assume he might confess at any moment.

Therefore, what Klein intended to do was a “survey.”

Maintaining the arrogance of a low-ranking policeman facing ordinary civilians, he did not remove his hat. His chin lifted slightly.

“I have matters to ask your master.”

The maid hurried inside and soon returned with a man in his thirties wearing a thick house shirt.

“Officer, what would you like to ask?” the male owner asked, clearly tense.

Standing by the doorway, Klein glanced inside and said, “Do you know the residents of Number 48?”

“Yes.” The male owner froze briefly. “Did something happen to them?”

“They are involved in a case. You must honestly tell me everything you know,” Klein said with a stern face.

His face had also been partially disguised, with a small amount of illusion added, all for the purpose of distinguishing himself from the great detective Sherlock Moriarty.

The male owner immediately looked enlightened.

“No wonder they moved away in such a hurry more than a month ago… Most residents of Riverbay Avenue and the nearby blocks know Mr. and Mrs. White and their son. He is a handsome young man, but his personality is somewhat strange.

“Mr. White is an outstanding physician. He specializes in using various medicines and bloodletting therapy.”

“Bloodletting therapy?” Klein asked back.

“Yes. Although many newspapers and magazines believe that is an old medical practice without much effect, those treated by Mr. White were basically all cured. However, Mr. White once said that, aside from him, every other doctor’s bloodletting therapy was an act of fraud,” the male owner said, offering a lengthy opinion.

Bloodletting therapy is a way to store food for themselves, isn’t it? The only thing truly producing an effect is the medicine… This vampire family helps treat people while collecting “food” as payment through bloodletting therapy. If there are not enough patients, or if the blood is too unhealthy, then they consider going to farther hospitals and stealing blood from blood collection bottles? Relative to their identity as monsters, they truly are very law-abiding…

Klein nodded with dawning understanding.

The emotional colors he observed through spirit vision told him that the other party was not lying.

Seeing that the policeman did not refute him, the male owner continued, “Mr. White and his wife are both very good and kind people. Although they cannot cure those truly suffering from serious illnesses, to those of us living nearby, they are already quite fine physicians…

“Was their child, Emlyn, involved in the case? That young man is too quiet. He seems to look down on us and is always hiding at home. No one knows what he does… Officer, are you very hot? It is so cold outside.”

Perhaps he simply lives by night and sleeps by day…

Klein wiped sweat from his brow and said, “For this case, I have been walking around the area for a very long time!”

After that, following the “questionnaire” he had designed, he learned about Mr. and Mrs. White and their son from every angle.

He knocked on one door after another, asked questions, and summarized all the answers, reaching the conclusion that the White family was indeed kind, amiable, and law-abiding.

That truly does not sound like a description of vampires…

Klein lifted his head and glanced at the red moon piercing through the clouds, deciding to make one final confirmation.

He released the illusion effect on his body and began divination.

After confirming there was no danger, he circled to the side and climbed into the house at 48 Riverbay Avenue.

Because others did not know who had captured Emlyn White, they would always fear that official Beyonders might later come “visiting.” Klein, however, understood what was going on, so he was not worried at all about any trap.

After entering the second floor, with the help of moonlight, he saw that the contents of every room were scattered and messy. Many things had not been taken away. From this alone, one could imagine the haste with which the owners had left.

Inside the study, he even found several precious books on herbs, among them quite a few folk prescriptions popular in the countryside.

Walking and looking around, Klein entered a bedroom. One dark shape after another immediately entered his eyes.

He was startled, thinking he had encountered an ambush, and nearly snapped his fingers to ignite the matches he had thrown outside.

Thankfully, no attack came.

Crimson moonlight passed through the window, spilling across the entire room. Klein finally saw what those dark shapes were.

They had no spiritual glow. They were dolls of different sizes!

The largest was only slightly shorter than Klein, a young girl dressed in a gorgeous long gown, with lace, ribbons, and other decorations at the cuffs and collar.

That girl doll was clearly closer to a wax figure. Her facial features were lifelike; blond hair, red eyes, vivid and beautiful.

The smallest was only the size of a normal person’s palm. It was a woman in full silver armor, heroic, dignified, and beautiful.

Klein’s gaze swept across those dolls, and he suddenly remembered something.

Under Roselle’s influence, the development of doll art had split into two directions. One was cute and capable of changing clothes; the other was more realistic.

Klein looked around once and could not help clicking his tongue.

“These dolls are not cheap!

“Could Emlyn be a vampire obsessed with dolls?”