Lichtenstein Castle, third floor.
The three people and the vampire together stepped on the carpet that covered the corridor.
Lan Qi was leading Viscount Augustine toward the Art Paradise. Both sides were very happy, and the atmosphere was harmonious.
They passed through the cold corridor, the lamplight trembling and casting long and short shadows.
The black oak main bedroom door of the castle stood silently at the end of the darkness, towering and solemn, with the long passage of time leaving unique imprints upon it.
When they reached the door, Viscount Augustine’s eyes immediately burned hot in the dark. Though he did not wish to be impolite before the Count, he could no longer wait to go inside and enjoy those three humans.
“It really makes me wait with longing.”
Clearly, Count Palocas had already taken control of this castle, waiting for him.
“Wish you good luck in opening the door.”
Lan Qi also offered his blessing.Viscount Augustine laughed and lifted his hand, gently pushing open that great door. With a deep creak, a suffocating pressure that almost could be touched instantly surged out from within!
A strange, old potion smell rushed forth.
On the stone walls, the dim glow of oil lamps flickered, shining upon countless knives and test tubes. Strange green alchemical liquids glimmered faintly in jars and bottles, filling the whole bedroom with an eerie feeling.
At the center of the room, three priests wearing masks were gathered around an indescribable humanoid lying on the bed.
They had already coated Count Palocas with resin and tightly wrapped him with layers of linen strips.
The Count had completely become a mummy. His pale face beneath the bandages had long since lost vitality, leaving only a pair of hollow eye sockets, utterly devoid of life. Yet his hand still trembled and lifted unceasingly, as though to prove he was still alive.
When those three noticed the approaching Viscount Augustine, it was as if they had discovered fresh prey—their gazes instantly locked on him!
“!?!”
At the doorway, Viscount Augustine, seeing the scene before him, felt his spine turn ice-cold in an instant. His eyes shone with disbelief and alarm.
The Count was not here at all. This was not the master’s bedroom of the castle but a terrifying laboratory.
Viscount Augustine did not know who the pitiful one bound to the worktable was, but he was certain it was a weak clansman—for only vampires could possess such endless life!
His reaction was lightning-quick. Survival instinct turned his gaze behind him in an instant.
Yet at the same moment, his vision was filled with a flawless, pure white light!
It was a world under the sun’s rays, like endless flames burning, so scorching hot it nearly melted his eyes.
“Impossible—!!!”
With Augustine’s shrill cry echoing, Frey, who had been not far behind him, stepped forward in a single stride, seizing the Viscount’s wrist, pressing his shoulder, and pinning him heavily to the floor, producing a booming crack like shattering boards.
The originally sixth-rank vampire viscount, in the state of extreme hunger just after his seal had been released, was now exposed beneath the blazing sun. He was as fragile as a cockroach stripped of its shell.
“Be honest.”
Frey pressed the Viscount’s head hard against the floor with one hand, while with the other hand he accepted from Lan Qi—who was smiling—the Blood Pressure Resuscitator, and ruthlessly plunged its needle into the Viscount’s back, drawing forth his heart-blood.
That blood rose slowly in the chamber, like a crimson indicator revealing the fate of Viscount Augustine.
“Full of sorrow yet unable to shed tears, extreme fatigue yet unable to sleep, only able to day after day, then night after night, endless days and nights, forever trapped in the human world!”
The Great Poet of Love, summoned along with Lan Qi, casually took Lan Qi’s sunglasses, put them on his own face, and seeing the state of Count Palocas and Viscount Augustine, could not help but sing for them.
“……”
Because his sunglasses were snatched, Lan Qi could only keep his eyes closed.
The Great Poet of Love always liked stealing his spotlight, leaving him awkward now.
He himself also could not understand why the Great Poet of Love had such a strong personality.
“…Could it be that their inability to cry or sleep is not their own fault?”
Huperion, while speaking, placed her sunglasses upon Lan Qi at her side.
She felt that the less she looked at the scene before her eyes, the more merit she could accumulate.
“Thank you, Huperion.”
Lan Qi first expressed thanks to Huperion, then turned his gaze toward those three priests.
“Delivered another batch of goods for you.”
“You, what exactly are you people?!”
Viscount Augustine’s mournful voice carried terror and fury.
Yet these humans paid him no heed.
“How should we handle this new cargo?”
“No need to make him like that one. Of course, if he doesn’t cooperate, you can do as you like.”
“First take out all his organs.”
“I think that’s fine.”
Seeing Count Palocas lying lively upon the bed, Lan Qi was certain that it seemed lacking some organs did not affect a vampire’s normal life.
Anyway, they could grow back.
“You lot of Honing people know what you’re doing?! In the great age of Blood Moon, you will suffer endless pursuit and revenge from the vampires!”
Viscount Augustine’s voice trembled with wrath as he asked.
Even if he could not quite understand the humans’ dark jargon, he generally knew they were preparing to do something utterly insane.
“Viscount Augustine, not long ago I heard from a vampire that nowadays in the Honing Empire, vampires are the law itself. Human laws are just the game rules worms must follow among themselves. So it’s quite normal you vampires don’t really understand the current laws.”
Lan Qi, with the appearance of a seasoned lawyer, explained to Viscount Augustine the latest Honing Empire criminal code:
“In the Honing Empire laws, although it is forbidden for humans to traffic humans, it never says one cannot traffic vampires. So what we are doing is legitimate business.”
After arriving in the Shadow World, out of curiosity Lan Qi had read through the Honing Empire’s statutes. Sure enough, after the vampires revised them, that clause was indeed not included.
“…?!”
For a long while Viscount Augustine could not make a sound.
Wasn’t that inevitable?!
In this world, what creature would be crazy enough to dare traffick vampires! How could vampires possibly humiliate themselves by adding a specific clause of ‘cannot traffic vampires’!
“I am not that weak vampire lying on the bed. I am a Vampire Viscount! Do you know the fate of that witch? Did she not die by my hand? With fleeting beings like you humans, even if you wager your lives to seal vampires, it is meaningless!”
Viscount Augustine still resisted Frey with all his strength, roaring.
These humans perhaps had not yet understood the seriousness of dealing with a Vampire Viscount!