Orion immediately pulled Selene behind him.

  He was somewhat of an expert on suspiciously precocious children, and although this girl appeared only a year or two older than he, she did not have the eyes of a teenager.

  There was something ancient inside them that warned him they were in danger. “Who are you?” He asked in lieu of an answer.

  The girl tilted her head. She was pretty, he distantly realized, in the kind of way a Victorian woman dying of tuberculosis was—frail, tragic, and fleetingly beautiful all at once.

  And yet, he suspected this particular girl was not about to die anytime soon.

  Her eyes were a gentle amber, and her skin had just enough color to appear alive. Overall, she looked nothing like the abomination that had attacked the would-be bandit.

  He trusted none of it. [Verification Principle] could easily detect the presence of an illusion, and [Inspect] confirmed his suspicion was correct.

  [Esmeralda Ottingen - Lv. 102] [Vampire Baroness - B-Rank]

  “There is no need to be so on guard,” she chuckled, smiling kindly. “I am looking for the very same thing!”

  “Are you now?” Orion murmured, watching her very closely. At the first sign of hostility, he would unleash—

  “Oh, that’s enough,” Selene huffed, slapping his arm away. “She’s not going to attack us.”

  Not wanting to take his eyes off the tier three predator in front of them, one probably capable of killing them long before help could come, Orion growled, “She’s a vampire, she just has a glamour.”

  Esmeralda blinked, as if surprised she had been had so easily, but Selene didn’t seem deterred. Even without looking at her, Orion knew she was rolling her eyes at him. “Of course, she is a vampire. But she’s not the bad kind.”

  “Just because she doesn’t have wrinkles doesn't mean she’s not old, you know?” He shot back. Her level alone told him she couldn’t possibly be as young as she looked, and the glamour probably hid more evidence, though he figured, as a vampire, she didn’t necessarily have to look that old.

  “Ugh, please don’t compare me to a thrall. Just because my idiot cousin is going around spreading his venom everywhere doesn’t mean all vampires look like that, you know?”

  “See, it wasn’t her fault,” Selene said smugly.

  Orion was the one to roll his eyes this time. “She just admitted to being related to the one who turned the old woman into a monster.”

  Esmeralda sighed, leaning back on her heels. “This is why I hurried to come here. Let me tell you, it's not easy to fly under the notice of all the witches scattered throughout this province. I told the Duke we needed to intervene before things went wrong and we started getting too much heat, but he laughed in my face! Told me that this is not a matter to get so worked up over!”

  Orion kept his guard up, but he was beginning to realize that something wasn't quite right.

  The facts are clear. A vampiric cell is operating within Silverpeak, trying to weaken the local defenses. Whether this is to create tension between us and other factions, or because they have darker plans, doesn’t really matter.

  And now she was claiming she came here to stop her cousin. Whether it was true or false, he couldn’t be sure, so he had to proceed very carefully.

  He’d seen in the thrall attack that vampires could move extremely fast. Given her high level, he could safely assume Esmeralda could move even faster.

  The distance between them was only around thirty feet. I can probably get off only one laser. I will have to make it count.

  “Orion, you're doing it again. Stop it; she won’t attack us,” Selene murmured, bumping into his shoulder.

  For a moment, he was tempted to ignore her. Logic dictated that he treat the vampire as the threat she was. But he’d learned to trust Selene’s hunches. She didn’t always have enough details to be helpful, as had happened last time with the harpy matriarch, but when she was certain about something, it was usually wise to go along with her whims.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  Slowly, ever so slowly, he relaxed his stance. It was all a facade, of course. He didn’t need to be physically tense to cast, but it served as a peace offering, and the vampire accepted it as such.

  Esmeralda smiled, showing pearly white teeth that didn't appear overly elongated. Clearly, this was not her true appearance.

  “Thank you. It’s so nice to meet calm and rational people,” she said, and Orion growled.

  “Don’t push it.”

  If anything, that seemed to amuse her more. “Well, alright, I suppose I’ll get to the point, then. I watched you for a while and saw how you handled that thrall. That was well done, by the way. For the first few months, they are basically little more than animals, barely able to hide on their own. It is their sire’s duty to take care of them until they regain their reason. And when that doesn’t happen... Well, let’s just say that if you hadn’t done it, I would have had to.”

  “So you were there too!” Selene said excitedly. “See, I told you there was an actual vampire hanging around.”

  Orion sighed, “Yeah, I guess you were right.” He then looked at Esmeralda pointedly, urging her to go on.

  She crinkled her eyes, watching them like they were playful puppies. “You see, my cousin, Cassius, is not the kind of vampire you should send on this kind of mission. He was supposed to observe, maybe set up an information network, but he apparently saw a chance to do more and started putting down roots.”

  Orion sighed after hearing her openly admit that her faction had sent a spy to Silverpeak. It was strange that such deceit was so accepted in this world, but his mother’s calm attitude when she spoke of it was further proof that it was simply the way things were.

  “Now, while that was beyond his remit, it’s not enough to recall him on its own. He was always pretty good at dealing with the older vampires, and they found it amusing that he was bumbling around Silverpeak under the witches’ noses. No offense intended.” She tacked at the end, smiling guilelessly.

  Orion didn’t fall for it for an instant.

  “The problem is, he seems to have gotten a bit too arrogant. That, or he was influenced by another clan. I still haven’t figured out which one, and his punishment will depend on the answer. But no matter what, he’s started acting boldly, spreading his venom to all who would take it and leaving his business out in the open for everyone to see. That’s just uncouth, you know?”

  “What do you mean by 'to all who would take it’? I doubt anyone would want to become that," Orion sneered. The thrall that had assaulted them was not something he could ever think of as enviable.

  Esmeralda chuckled, glancing at him as if he were a naive little child. Perhaps, to her, he was, given her possible age. “Immortality is very alluring. A few months spent in a haze isn’t necessarily a drawback, if the right sire turns you.”

  The way she drew out her words, as if rolling them off her tongue, made him think she was trying to be seductive. Orion blinked at her, completely unmoved. “Hm, I guess someone will always take the easy way out.”

  Selene slapped his shoulder while muffling a chuckle, “That was unkind,” she said, smiling.

  Esmeralda looked more confused than anything before she shook it off. “Well, you are very young. You will realize what I’m saying one day. But this is not why I stopped you two.”

  “Yes, why did you stop us?” Orion asked, eager to get to the point.

  “My cousin, though not a particularly refined example of my species, is still a capable infiltrator. I believe I may have identified the location of one of his thralls who has enough sense to guide me to him, but to get there, I need to bypass a level of security that I can't handle on my own. Not with the limited time I have before he does something truly stupid,” she finally revealed.

  Orion hummed. Selene and he were easily recognizable as members of the Sanctum, and their youth made them less likely to be dangerous, so he could understand why she approached them specifically.

  But if this was a way to prevent damage to the relationship between the two factions, why not go straight to the leadership?

  “That is not all, is it? If it were, you would have asked for the help of a Magistra," he said shrewdly.

  Esmeralda inclined her head regally, as if a queen acknowledging a peasant’s voice. “I would like this to be kept off the books. And you two proved that you are capable and willing to do as much. Of course, I have a reward for you if you’ll help me.”

  Her smile wasn’t exactly what he’d call friendly. Even with the glamour masking her true features, the predatory gleam in her eyes remained unmistakable.

  Pulling a satchel from her cloak, Esmeralda opened it and tilted it so they could see inside. Several vials clinked as they shifted, all filled to the brim with iridescent liquid.

  Orion recognized it immediately. That was liquid mana.

  That is a valuable reward. In the open market, that much liquid mana would sell for at least fifty gold coins, maybe more. It’s enough to buy an apartment on Silverpeak’s outskirts or fund several years of travel.

  The resale value alone was compelling enough for Orion to seriously consider it, though he would have preferred it to be in coins or precious materials already.

  Technically, mages like he appeared to be should have preferred liquid mana over any other reward. But he was not exactly the average mage, and his spellcasting method required much less raw power than many others.

  Still, Esmeralda was not finished. Seeing that they were intrigued but not convinced, she tucked the pouch back inside her cloak and pulled out a much smaller satchel made of what appeared to be black velvet.

  From it, she pulled out a single crimson crystal prism. It was perfectly shaped, and the light reflected off it had a dark red tint that reminded Orion of—

  “Blood. That is a blood crystal,” Selene murmured.

  Esmeralda smiled, pleased with their reaction. “Indeed, you are right. Blood crystals are usually kept jealously within the Twilight lands and are only sold in limited batches. This beauty alone could fetch you a pretty penny, but I imagine you know it would be best kept as it is.”

  Selene nodded, not taking her eyes off the crystal. “Yes, it is said to have incredibly powerful regeneration properties, and any healing spell channeled through it will double in power.”

  “No matter what kind of mana is used?” Orion asked, now much more interested.

  Esmeralda’s smile widened, and this time, he could see very sharp canines peeking out. “Indeed.”

  Negotiations after that mostly focused on what exactly would be required of them. Selene was absolutely sure that Esmeralda didn’t mean to harm them, and Orion tentatively agreed that she could have taken many shots at them while they weren’t aware they were being watched.

  More importantly, he really wanted to get his hands on the blood crystal. It sounded just like the kind of thing he needed to study to develop his own focus.

  Its compatibility with all types of mana alone made it worth teaming up with a vampire, and its healing properties were a nice bonus. He hadn’t yet developed a spell for that, beyond the basic regeneration from Light mana, which wouldn’t be enough for anything but cuts and scrapes.

  Still, as he looked up at the tower at Silverpeak’s center, he realized that such a generous offer had to come with an equally complicated task.

  A vampire was hiding inside the Town Hall.

  enjoy the story and would like to read more, are available on my .