“Her again! Damnit! Damnit!”

A hooded man was cursing and kicking anything close to his feet as he vented his frustration and rage. Although he knew that his ambush might fail, he did not think it would at the hands of the same woman.

What angered him the most, however, was his inability to directly confront her. Put simply, the man knew he would not win in a fair battle and, during their first clash, the wound she had inflicted upon him had yet to fully heal.

Were it not for his magic, he would have been killed or captured already.

Still cursing under his breath, the man exited the alley and was deep in thought, trying to find a safe way to get rid of the woman and Randy at the same time.

The hood covered his face and since he was looking down, he failed to notice the people coming right at him and ended up bumping into one of them.

“Watch where you’re fucking going, dumbass!”

The man spat vulgar words then continued walking, neither waiting for an ‘apology’ or a reaction.

Surprisingly, however, the person he had bumped into was none other than Armen Na Xivia, who was accompanied by Amare.

The Vampire stared at the hooded man for a bit then calmly continued his march, seemingly unperturbed by what happened.

“I’m only going to use it once, Armen.”

Amare harrumphed as she followed her colleague to place where Pretta’s lover had been murdered.

Thomas, which was the name of the victim, was killed in the Slums, precisely in the Slave Market.

Unlike the actual Slums, which were stricken with poverty and lacked security, the Slave Market had no small amount of patrolling City Guards as well as mercenaries and other parties hired by wealthy merchants that sought to protect their ‘goods’.

Even the Bloated Murderer knew better than to kill in such a bustling place, and it was one of the reasons Addy was certain Thomas’ killer was someone else.

Soon, Armen and Amare arrived at their destination; It was the end of a narrow road, a place that had a healthy amount of civilians passing by.

While Armen held her shoulders from behind so that she doesn’t fall, Amare used Memoria and, in an instant, the environment changed and the clear sky turned jet black.

Pretta Oro provided the date of the murder and that greatly facilitated Amare’s task. All she had to do was witness the crime unfold then capture the killer.

However, after minutes of silence, the young vampire saw two men appear from a small one-story building.

“I told you it’s enough ! We can’t get more!”

A man who fit Thomas’ description snapped at another man, someone Amare was familiar with but surprised to see.

“We’ve accomplished so much, Thomas!”

Randy Ronvorld, seemingly a bit drunk, yelled at Thomas while pushing him on the ground.

“Pretta is an idiot and she’s in love with you! Don’t be stupid…. continue the act!”

“No! I started this to get some money to leave this gods-damned city! I’ve saved enough and it’s time to stop!”

Thomas snarled at Randy and got back on his feet. He wasn’t threatened by Randy and did not wait for a response as he left.

However, as Amare remained close and spectated, she saw Randy follow Thomas and abruptly attack him dozens of meters away from the building they had initially left.

The private investigator first used a rock he picked up and bashed Thomas’ head, though that wasn’t enough to kill him. Half-panicking, Randy dragged his friend to a quieter place and suffocated him to death.

Once he was about to leave the crime scene, Randy was startled to see a domineering silhouette appear behind him.

It was Pretta Oro’s loyal knight, the tall and bronze-skinned man with a scary face and ever-present chilling eyes.

The knight glanced at the dead Thomas then at the shaking Randy.

“I was about to finish him myself.”

“I…I didn’t do anything!”

Although caught red-handed, the drunken Randy vainly tried to lie but did not flee or attack the knight, he just stood there, trembling and panicking.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to report you.” Reassuringly muttered the knight.

Then, after a brief silence, he retrieved a filled pouch from a hidden pocket in his armor and handed it to Randy,

“Consider this as a payment. You and I will act as if nothing happened and I’ll advise Lady Pretta to visit your office and pay you to investigate. All you have to do is find a scapegoat.”

Randy opened his mouth and mumbled stutteringly as his hands were tightly holding the pouch filled with Gold. Eventually, he nodded his head and scurried away like a rat.

As for the knight, he walked to the corpse and dragged it into the alleyway then stealthily left the scene.

With nothing else left to see, Amare exited Memoria and returned to reality. She took a couple of deep breaths and waited till the headache was gone before recounting the events to Armen.

“So it was that man’s doing all along? He and Thomas had a deal and the latter was tricking Pretta to get money out of her.”

“All we have to do is tell Miss Pretta Oro.”

Armen, with creased brows, shook his head and explained,

“Do you think she would believe us over her protector? It could escalate and we wouldn’t get paid.”

“Then what do you want us to do, Armen? I don’t want to go around looking for evidence that might not exist.”

“Actually… we don’t necessarily have to find the real killer, right? For example, we could go to Randy and get him on our side, then we lure the knight. Or… we do the opposite.”

“...”

“We really need those Blood Crystals, Amare.” Added Armen with a serious tone, “Our job is not to investigate crude murders like this, we just need to provide our ‘employer’ with a satisfying result. So… what’s it going to be?”

Amare Na Xivia absent-mindedly looked at the passing civilians as she contemplated her choices. After spending quite a bit of time thinking over the situation, she sighed and answered,

“It’s better to sacrifice Randy rather than the Knight. To begin with, he’s the killer and blaming him for a murder wouldn’t cause as much of an uproar. We’ll take him with us and force him to confess.”

“Alright. Let’s not waste any more time!”

****

“He’s getting more reckless. Is he that worried that you’ve seen his face?”

Addy was nervously pacing around the office as he talked with his partner, Randy Ronvorld.

The Bloated Murderer attempted to kill Randy in front of their office and in broad daylight, which was risky and unprecedented.

Unlike Addy, Arthur wasn’t particularly scared as he expected an ambush sooner or later.

“It’s better this way. He’ll keep trying and, eventually, we’ll catch him.”

“Hmm… I don’t know. We were lucky that Miss Anna was in the vicinity.”

“Actually, I told her to stay here and protect you in case of an attack.” Corrected Arthur while smiling and looking at the restless investigator.

“Oh? That’s very thoughtful of you but someone of her skills would be better elsewhere.”

“Let me handle the ‘fieldwork’, Addy. Speaking of which, don’t you have anything new to tell me about the Bloated Murderer? Anything at all?”

“I’m not a fortune-teller, Randy! I make use of proof and evidence to make logical deductions. You brought me nothing, so how am I supposed to find something worthy of mention? Furthermore, There haven't been any new victims. The investigation is literally going nowhere.”

Disappointed, Arthur let out a heavy sigh, stood up and left the office. He had hoped Addy, as a private investigator with many years of experience, would have something to show for it. However, the man was just holed in his office and doing absolutely nothing useful.

‘Not like all the detectives on Earth were good either… whatever.’

As he exited the office, Arthur looked at the inconspicuous place Evelyn was supposed to be hiding at and playfully winked, though he got only silence in response.

Things were slowly escalating but Arthur still sacrificed a bit of his time to visit the library. As is his wont, he stayed there for a few hours and left when the sky began to darken.

Even at night, the Commercial Street was bustling with activity and there was no shortage of fancy restaurants and interesting stores that sold all sorts of things.

Arthur’s interest was piqued by the fascinating and miscellaneous magical artifacts and expensive weapons, but he restrained the urges and contented himself with a delicious dinner.

Everything was peaceful, but he did notice that Amare and Armen were following him. Admittedly, the vampires weren’t doing a good job at hiding themselves, or they saw no need for that. Either way, their presence did alert Arthur and made him think of safety measures.

Whatever their intentions were, he didn’t want to get implicated. Still, after they rejected his offer earlier, it would be odd to see them stalk him.

‘Maybe they discovered something? That’s the only explanation. But, why would they go after Randy? Is he implicated in Thomas’ death?’

Arthur was more interested in the Bloated Murderer than Thomas’ killer, and though he did suspect the two crimes to be linked, it was but an non-confirmed baseless assumption.

While pondering and planning, Arthur, without alerting his followers, calmly and slowly walked along the main road and made his way to one of the quieter and smaller paths.

The vampires kept following him from a safe distance and saw him making random turns and going in circles. Just when they started suspecting that he was playing with them, Randy made another turn, but this one led to a dead back alley.

While signaling each other, the two quickened their steps and made the turn too only to see him at the far back, staring back at them with an inscrutable smile.

He was fidgeting in a strange way, his hands in his pockets and his back glued to the wall.

“Are you finally willing to work together?”

Instead of replying, the two vampires immediately sprung into action. Armen shot at Randy whereas Amare used her magic, which caused thread-like purple energy to wrap around Randy’s body.

However, before Armen could even reach him, Randy’s body went limp as if he was dead. Even Amare, who restrained him, was surprised.

She let go of the target and it immediately fell on the ground, motionless and seemingly lifeless.

“What the fuck?”

Armen crouched near the corpse and poked it, flabbergasted to see it dead.

“It wasn’t me.” Said Amare with a confused tone. Her unique purple eyes, glistening in the dark back alley, were scanning every inch of this place but found no trace of magic.

The perplexed Vampires, in silence, stared at Randy’s corpse, only snapping out of it when they heard a squeaking noise from under old and pungent clothes stacked on top of each other.

They saw a dirty rat crawl from underneath the clothes and dash towards small pieces of food, sniffing them and licking the mold before it circled around as if trying to find edible things.

“What do we do now? He’s dead.”

“Since the perpetrator is dead, we have no choice but to target his accomplice. Just because the pay is good doesn’t mean I’m willing to disclose Memoria to Pretta.”

“Well, it’s not like she’ll believe us. Damn! I’m starting to feel like we're being played and I don’t like it.”

The young vampire pinched her nose as the foul smell in this back alley was too strong. She looked at Randy one last time then left along with Armen.

A couple of minutes later, the rat approached Randy’s corpse and nestled in his pocket.

With the two vampires gone, Arthur returned to Randy’s corpse, pleased with himself and satisfied with the outcome.

As he stretched his limbs, he let out a chuckle,

“Well well, Randy Ronvorld… you’ve been quite the naughty boy.”

The parasite patted the dead rat in his pocket and walked out of the back alley.

He had to search for half an hour and make random turns to finally find an alley with a small and non-suspicious creature.

Before Amare and Armen made the turn, Arthur had already used his Barrier Magic to swiftly kill the rat. He even positioned him close so that the possession process would be fast and wouldn’t draw any attention.

Fortunately, everything had proceeded flawlessly and he even got to hear interesting facts, such as Randy’s direct involvement in Thomas’ death as well as the existence of an accomplice.

Additionally, Arthur learnt that Amare had something called ‘Memoria’, which-apparently- allowed her to find Thomas’ killer so quickly.

While the thought of possessing Amare did cross Arthur’s mind, he quickly gave up on it due to the large difference in prowess.

She restrained him from afar and in an instant. There was also Armen, who did not seem to be any weaker than her, and since the two were almost always together, it would be folly to try and target one of them.

…

“Wait, let me get this straight. Randy Ronvorld is being targeted by the Bloated Murderer, but he’s also the killer of Pretta Oro’s lover, Thomas. Also, Amare and Armen Na Xivia are here?”

Evelyn, looking troubled and slightly annoyed, pulled a chair and sat in front of the parasite. For safety, he returned to Leonis’ body as there was less chance to be recognized.

“That sums it up, yes.”

“Master, I understand that our objective is to catch the Bloated Murderer, but I think it safe to steer away from the Vampires, especially those like Amare and Armen.”

“Oh? It’s not like they pose any danger to us.”

The maid solemnly shook her head and clarified, “They are in a different league, Master. I can’t contend against either of them and Amare is said to have special eyes, so there is the chance of you getting discovered.”

Cheerful, Arthur shrugged his shoulders, “Well, she did not seem to suspect anything so far. Also, It’s not like I’m actively antagonizing them. They came after me, not the other way around.”

Seeing Evelyn brooding and eerily silent, Arthur stretched his arm and playfully pulled her cheek while saying

“Come on, my dear Evelyn, I told you to smile more. I admit that it’s getting a little dangerous, but there’s also the thrill. We will play it smart but let us not miss any opportunities that fall on our lap.”

She attempted to push his hand away but he was faster than her, retracting his arm and walking away while laughing.

“First, we will deal with the Bloated Murderer… yes, with his Magic, I can think of a few ways to get my hands on those highly sought-after Blood Crystals. I wonder if they can be the catalyst to an evolution?”

“If you smile like that and mumble to yourself, it becomes creepy, Master.”

“Hahaha! A man can always dream, my dear Evelyn!”

“What will become of your dreams when you die? They’ll be gone… like dust on the wind.”-Evelyn

“Die? You really don’t know how tenacious I can be!" Out of the blue, Arthur stomped on a disgusting insect that was passing near his feet and when he saw it kept thrashing and convulsing on the ground, he proudly said, "I’m like a cockroach!”