Late at night, after spending a considerable time in the library, Arthur returned to the inn once he was done with eating delicious skewers from a nearby stall.

He directly headed to his room and found Evelyn sitting on the bed, seemingly absent-minded.

Instead of talking to her, he walked to the window and casually opened it, his eyes sweeping across the night sky as if trying to find something.

The maid had already gotten used to his spontaneous and eccentric antics, nevertheless, she did not remark and, instead, said,

“I was recognized today, Master.”

Upon hearing this, Arthur wasn’t angry or surprised, he kept his eyes glued on the sky and maintained silence.

“However, it won’t be a problem. It was an old friend of mine.”

“...”

The parasite did not offer a reaction or a response, which caused a brief misunderstanding from Evelyn.

“If you’re that keen on not getting recognized, I can go deal with it right now.” She added as she stood up and walked to his side.

“No need to make a big deal out of it.” He responded, at last.

“It seems you’re more famous than Leonis. What a surprise.”

His attempt to lighten the maid’s mood did not work as she still had the ever-cold face and stood half a meter behind, motionless like a statue.

When she was about to say something, Arthur suddenly raised his hand and used Leonis’ unique magic: The rectangular-shaped yellow-ish barrier appeared out of thin air and, with an impressive speed, shot upwards.

A couple of seconds later, the barrier returned to its caster’s side with a lifeless body on top of it.

The corpse was that of a small and brown bird, a common type found in the Central part of the Human Continent.

Seeing the slight confusion on the woman’s face, Arthur shrugged,

“What? Now that you know, there’s no need for me to be subtle or secretive about it.”

With that said, he grabbed the corpse and inspected it with a satisfied grin.

“No one would suspect a bird, right?”

Before she could offer any comment, Leonis’ body limply fell on the ground and the lifeless brown bird came back to life.

Arthur’s new host convulsed and twitched before he got used to the sensation of possessing a non-humanoid body.

It had dawned on him that he had yet to possess any flying species, which was a huge waste considering how beneficial they would be.

Not only were there a decent quantity of them in Blackcrest, but they were also defenseless and easy to kill without causing too much harm to them, consequently rendering their bodies obsolete.

As he had expected, once Arthur possessed the bird, the ability to use Leonis’ Barrier Magic was temporarily stripped of him. Nonetheless, he gained three additional skills and was now able to move around Blackcrest and, hopefully, find the culprit or witness interesting things.

Evelyn, half-amazed and half-curious, saw the bird come back to life and flap its wings a couple of times before taking to the air.

It circled around her a couple of times then shot out of the window. Soon, the room regained its silence as Evelyn crouched near Leonis’ body and dragged it to the bed while muttering inaudibly to herself.

It has been less than a minute since he possessed the bird, called Little Bunting, yet flying felt natural and exhilarating, especially since it was his first time.

Moreover, with relatively high stats, Arthur was able to exert more speed than a normal bird.

He flew high-up in the sky and saw Blackcrest from a bird’s view, finally getting a good look at the whole region.

This way, he could in and out of the city without getting noticed and possibly hunt more possessable bodies that would not only empower him but also grant him more means to travel and, of course, more useful skills and stats.

No one would pay attention to a random bird flying in the sky or nestling atop a half-open window, and that fact facilitated Arthur’s exploration.

He enjoyed the feeling of absolute freedom for a couple of minutes then dove down. His first destination was the towering and glorious castle-like estate North-west of Blackcrest.

It was noticeable even from afar and, undoubtedly, it was where the Duke lived, thus making it the best place for Arthur to gather some information.

His main objective was to locate the killer, however, even with the use of Little Bunting, it would be impossible to check every secluded corner as some were-simply put-inaccessible. Therefore, Arthur sought to check the Duke’s household then spent the rest of the night visiting relatively suspicious areas.

…

“Greetings, Sir Sidus.”

Amare Na Xivia was welcomed into the Duke’s office and although she lacked an official noble status, she nonetheless followed the proper etiquette.

Despite her young age, Amare was an exceptional girl and even the Duke had to reciprocate with polite speech.

“Welcome, Amare. Take a seat.”

He gestured for her to sit and sit she did, though, as part of her habit, she kept looking around for no good reason.

“The shipment is ready for transfer.”

Said Terden Sidus as he stared at the inscrutable girl. He had yet to find a good reason for her arrival to Blackcrest and suspected that Marjory wanted to end their deal or force extra conditions on him.

“Or so I have been informed, Sir Sidus. However, we will delay the transfer for a couple of days.”

With a slight frown displaying a hint of surprise and confusion, Terden tapped his index on the desk and he pondered for a couple of breaths.

“Is there a reason? If you’ve got business in my city, I would be glad to help.”

“Nothing of the sort, Sir Sidus. Armen is busy with a personal affair and I will be waiting for him to finish before proceeding with the deal. It will only take three days, at mos-”

Amare did not even finish her words, her head abruptly turning to the side as she fixedly stared at the open window, or more accurately, the cute little brown bird relaxing at the edge.

Of course, Terden noticed her odd behavior and followed her gaze but, apart from the quiet bird, he found nothing of interest.

“Is something the matter, Amare?”

The girl’s purple eyes were glued onto the bird as if she was trying to figure out something. Eventually, however, she sighed and retracted her attention and answered the Duke by shaking her head once.

Their conversation was brief and neither of the two wanted to prolong it. Amare stood up thereafter and excused herself while Terden Sidus sat behind his desk while mumbling to himself.

…

When she retreated to her room, Amare found her colleague, Armen, sitting on the bed, engrossed in a book.

Unlike her, Armen had an average appearance; A clean-shaved face, a small pointy nose, a pair of hazy brown eyes, noticeable freckles on both cheeks, and short raven-black hair.

“The Duke wasn’t pleased to hear about the delay, Armen.”

The man did not respond, he kept looking at the book. However, when she approached him and snatched the book, he was forced to offer a proper response.

“It’s only a few days, what’s there to be unhappy about?”

Amare’s eyes narrowed as she piercingly glared at her colleague. “We don’t let personal affairs affect our tasks. I believe I don’t have to tell you that.”

The Vampire wasn’t scared by her dangerous stare, instead, he laughed as he retorted, “This could be big for both of us. If we succeed, it could reap many benefits.”

“Elaborate.”

“Do you know Miss Pretta Oro? Apparently, her lover has been murdered and she wants me to capture the perpetrator. She promised me a surprisingly good amount of Blood Crystals. Three hundred, to be precise.”

“...”

“Ah! I forgot to mention it’s high-quality Blood Crystals. If we bring those along with the shipment, I bet ‘Mother’ would be most pleased, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I agree that the payment is generous, but, as Vampires, we do not work for the nobles. It is below us.”

“Come on, Amare! There’s no need to hide it. All the children know of your failure to find Rodrick. If we get the Blood Crystals, they will be enough to make amends.”

“...”

The young girl did not object or comment, she stood there and dazedly looked at the front in a long and eerie silence. Finally, after an indeterminate amount of time had passed, she spoke,

“Three days. If, by then, we do not find the killer, we forget that it ever happened.”

“Yes, of course! Three days should be more than enough for people like us.”

Arman, who was grinning a second ago, was startled when Amare dashed toward the half-open window, going as far as using her Magic. Alas, she was too late and could only watch fly away, soon disappearing into a tiny speck that merged with the darkened sky.

“What’s gotten into you?”

Amare bit her lips, seemingly frustrated over something. In the end, she did not respond to her colleague and snappishly told him to leave her room.

...

‘Well, would you look at that? This spontaneous trip bore many unexpected results.’

Arthur landed on an empty roof and looked at the half-luminous half-dark city, delighted to hear many interesting things.

Even though the Vampire girl seemed to have somehow noticed him, she didn’t seem to be that certain. Moreover, she couldn’t catch him or do anything.

Just to be sure, he would use another type of bird next time and try to not seem as conspicuous.

Still, the fact that she sensed something was already alarming and surprising. While in possession of a corpse, no one should have noticed any difference. Then again, with the diversity of this world’s magic, there was bound to be a spell that would allow its user to detect odd and generally unnoticeable peculiarities.

‘Rodrick… Rodrick… it’s that Vampire I possessed back in Latif’s lab. It can’t be a coincidence that he was a Vampire and some of his kin were looking for him. Also, there’s the clearly illegal deal between Marjory Na Xivia and the Duke.’

The bird softly chirped as Arthur kept thinking about everything he had witnessed and heard. He was afforded many hidden cards but did not know how to play them, unfortunately.

Furthermore, it would be unnecessary to involve himself in such affairs, however, it was better for him to know these things if any mishaps were to occur.