The tearoom was more or less what I expected. It was located a little deeper into the mansion, and there was a distinct lack of windows. The floor was made of tatami, and largely free of clutter.

So yeah. Japanese as fuck.

A woman in her early forties glared at me as I took a step in. “You must be Mr. Allard,” she said, slightly adjusting the braid in the back of her dark hair. Judging by the large curled horns on the sides of her head, she wasn’t a vampire.

“This is my mom,” Hadria said. “Isn’t she pretty? She’s really pretty. I get my hair from her. That’s what everyone says. Isn’t she pretty?” Oh my god. Her barrage of questions felt like I was being repeatedly punched in the face.

Violetta gasped. “Your mom is a Succubus?”

I looked at the woman. Her breasts were practically popping out of her robe. She might have been older, but her succubus, uh, ‘charm’ was still off the charts. Then I looked over at Count Throat Cancer. Something told me that money had played a role in them getting together. Just a hunch.

In any case, I guess this answered my question about cross-species mating. Now the question was… did that apply to slimes too? I would have to try asking Brad about it again later. For science, of course.

“I had no idea you were half, Hadria!” Violetta continued. “You don’t have any horns…”

“Yeah, I don’t have ‘em.” Hadria patted her head. “I guess there’s a nine in ten chance that horns are passed on, but I was one of the lucky ones.”

Violetta grabbed her horns. “L-Lucky ones?” Demon racism.

“Please excuse my daughter. She opens her mouth before she uses her brain,” Hadria’s mother said. “My name is Ceai. It’s always a pleasure to meet a fellow Succubus.” But not a pleasure to meet me, apparently. Demon racism.

“Oh no, the pleasure is all mine!” Violetta turned bright red. “Thank you for having us.”

Alright enough with the pleasantries. It was too late for this shit.

“So this is where it happened then?” I glanced around. “I don’t know if you understand how trials work, but I need to know everything that happened last night. No details withheld.” The wavy haired bodyguard gave me a dirty look, but my exhaustion was having a serious effect on me giving a single fuck.

“Yes, of course.” The Count let out heavy sigh. “We had a ceremony last night to commemorate four of my men’s five year anniversaries with the family.”

“It’s like a thank you,” Hadria cut in. “And a promise that they’ll spend their next five years working their asses off for us.”

“With us, Hadria,” the Count said.

“Oh yeah. With us. Right.”

Really? That’s what he took issue with? Not the ‘working their asses off’ part? I didn’t know how well vampire-mafia underlings were treated, but I doubted asking the brass would give me any real insights. After all, you didn’t talk to the owner of a fast food restaurant if you wanted to know how shitty it was to work there.

“So what’s the ceremony?” I asked.

“Ceai,” the Count grunted, motioning with his hand to the corner of the room. His wife quickly walked over, picked something up, and came back to us. She had a wooden bowl in the shape of a pentagon, just barely big enough that you had to hold it with both hands.

I brought my face a little closer to it. “What is this?”

“A cup,” the Count responded. “We pass it around during the ceremony, each taking a drink from a different side.”

There was still a red residue left inside. “Is this blood?”

“Ryley!” Violetta slapped my arm. “You can’t assume it was blood just because they’re vampires!”

“Yeah, it was daddy’s blood. They drink it for the ceremony.” Hadria slapped me on my other arm much harder than Violetta had. Fuck. I really needed to make a law against arm slapping. Also, ‘daddy’s blood’? Gross.

“I drank from it along with Nimeni and the other three men present last night,” the Count said. “Our blood pact.” It was hard to tell with his smoker’s voice and his rock hard expression, but I swore I could hear something like sadness in his words.

“So how did… uh, Nimeni die?” I asked.

The Count’s hawk-like eyes met with mine. “He was poisoned.”

“Poison!” Violetta threw her hands over her mouth. Not sure why that was so surprising, but I appreciated the enthusiasm.

I looked back down at the five-point cup. “How do you know it was poison?”

“Nimeni died just a few minutes after drinking,” the Count said.

“Wait a minute…” Violetta put her index finger over her lips and looked up at the ceiling. “If everyone drank from the same cup, why was he the only one who died from it?”

I figured I could probably answer this one myself. “The poison was on his side of the cup. Not in the blood itself.”

The Count nodded. “That’s correct.”

“My mom tried smelling it and said she could smell the poison too,” Hadria added. “Smell!” She grabbed her mother’s hands from below and forced the cup up toward me. Ah yes, nothing like having something with poison on it shoved in your face. My favorite.

I moved my nose down slightly, making sure not to touch the cup. I took a few whiffs and… I recognized the smell immediately. Was this seriously what I thought it was?

“This… smells like garlic.”

The vampires in the room all exchanges glances. “Then it’s really true…” the Count said.

I mean, I knew that stories said that garlic hurt vampires, but actually seeing it in real life was unexpectedly… dumb. I turned to Violetta, who of course, looked just as shocked as the rest of them. “Do you guys not use garlic in cooking here?”

“Of course we do, silly,” Violetta whispered. “But it’s really bad for Vampires to have!”

It seemed a little fucked up that other demons still used it, but I guess it wasn’t really all that different from having a deadly allergy. Still, something you put on bread to make it delicious wasn’t exactly the coolest murder weapon.

“Can I hold it?” I asked Ceai.

“By all means.” She placed the cup in my hands and withdrew hers. I sniffed around a little, but there really was only one side of the cup with ‘poison’ on it. As far as murdering went, this seemed like a convoluted way to do it.

“How many people were here in this room last night?”

“Seven,” the Count responded. “My wife, my daughter, Nimeni, three of my other men… And myself, of course.”

“Your wife and daughter were here too?”

“Yes, it’s my wife’s job to serve the blood.” The Count crossed his arms. “My daughter was there to help her in her duties. After all, she’ll take over the family someday.”

“Yeah, I gotta learn.” Hadria opened her one good eye up wide. Ugh. I shuddered at the thought of her being in charge of anything.

“And just to be clear,” Ceai spoke up, her voice low and hostile. “If either I or my daughter wanted someone dead, we wouldn’t need to hide it.” Noted. I suppose they wouldn’t have come to me for help if that was the case anyway.

Still… Something didn’t add up. Why did the killer carry out the murder like this?

“Is everything okay, Mr. Allard?” the Count asked.

I sighed, looking up at him. My eyes were heavy. I was out of energy. “I know you’re looking to have this solved as soon as possible,” I choked out. “But my assistant and I would work a lot better after some sleep. Is it possible we could continue this tomorrow?”

“That… would be nice.” Violetta rubbed her horns.

“Aww, lame…” Hadria hung her shoulders. Ugh, she would probably get along with Yaika well. I never wanted to see them in the same room together.

“Of course, please excuse my rudeness. You’ve already had a long day today.” The Count seemed like he was trying to be sympathetic, but he just sounded like a horribly out of tune violin. “Nair, please show them to the guest rooms.”

“Yes, sir.” Nair bowed his head slightly before turning to us. “Please follow me.”

I handed the cup back to Ceai. “Well… goodnight then,” I said.

“Goodnight,” the fucking demon mafia family echoed. Honestly, I was so tired that I didn’t even care about how ridiculous this was anymore.

Violetta and I followed Nair out of the room and down the hall to a flight of stairs. When we reached the second floor, he spoke. “Please feel free dial 0 on your room phone if you need to reach me. I must ask that you don’t wander the mansion on your own.” He sent a glare my way as we passed a door. “This room is the bath. I recommend that you use it.”

Hey, it wasn’t my fault that I stunk; I had been working almost nonstop since I got here. Whatever. A hot bath sounded absolutely amazing right now.

Nair stopped at the end of the hallway. “And these are your rooms.”

Violetta smiled. “Thank you.”

“Enjoy your rest.” With that, he left us, disappearing around a corner. I listened as his footsteps faded away.

Suddenly, Violetta piped up. “Did you notice anything?”

“Notice what?”

“About the cup!” She clenched her fists. “You were staring at it for a long time.”

I thought for a moment. “I mean… I guess? The whole thing doesn’t really make any sense.”

“It doesn’t?”

“I mean, think about it. If you wanted to poison someone and get away with it, when would you do it?”

“When? Hmm…” Violetta let her back rest against one of the guest room doors. “I guess… when there were a lot of people around?”

“And why’s that?”

“Because… then there would be a lot of suspects?” Violetta said before her eyes suddenly went wide. “Oh, I get it!”

“Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense, right?” I yawned. “All the members there last night probably saw each other a lot. In theory, they could have poisoned his food or drink anywhere. So why would the killer poison Nimeni in a room where he was one of the only suspects?”

Violetta frowned. “I don’t know…” Honestly, I didn’t either.

“Anyway, we can worry about that tomorrow,” I sighed. “I’m going to take a bath and get to sleep.”

“Okay! I’ll see you in the morning then.” Violetta opened the door behind her. “Goodnight, Ryley.”

“Goodnight.”

I walked over to the bathroom door and opened it. Inside, there was a small changing area stocked with fresh towels and another partially translucent door leading to the bath. I removed my suit in a hurry, thankful that I couldn’t smell myself. This bath was long overdue.

When I was naked, I opened the second door and stepped onto the tile floor. The bath was huge, taking up half of the room. I was surprised to find that the water was already drawn, and I could see the steam coming off it. I’m not sure who prepared it, but I wasn’t going to complain.

Assuming vampires did the same things Japanese people in my world did, I needed to wash off before getting inside. There was a showerhead next to the bath, small stool to sit on, and a large bar of soap. I quickly hosed myself down. Good enough. I stepped into the bath and sat down.

“Oh my god…” I moaned. The piping hot water felt like hands massaging me all over my body. If I wasn’t careful, I’d fall asleep.

A few minutes passed, and I had some time for my mind to wander. I was the head of the demon law squad. None of this should have felt real, but there was no denying it. This was my life now. This… was my life.

I needed to find a way out of this fucking world.

Then my heart dropped as I heard the sound of the changing room door opening. “O-Occupied!” My voice cracked, echoing through the room.

I sat silently for a moment. Maybe Nair came to collect my clothes or something? Whoever it was, they weren’t answering me. Did they leave?

No. I could see a shadow. Someone was there, standing just on the other side of the partially see-through door. I knew I should scream or something, but it was like my voice was caught in my throat. The doorknob turned, and then… it opened.

“V-Violetta?” I simultaneously breathed sigh of relief and frantically covered my private parts. “I told you I was taking a bath, you idiot! I’ll be out in a second.”

She didn’t answer. She just stood there, swaying slightly in the doorway.

I waited a moment. “Are you… okay?”

And that’s when I noticed the vacant look in her eyes… and butcher knife in her hand.