Laurus’s face turned grim with dismay. Todd shot him a warning glare and reminded him once more.
“This time, keep completely quiet.”
“…Won’t the vampire notice us? Vampires are extremely sensitive to human presence.”
Laurus whispered in the lowest voice he could manage. Todd nodded toward the door in response.
“I inscribed a magic circle earlier—it’s a concealment charm that disrupts vampire perception. It should be enough to fool a lower-class vampire.”
However, if their pursuer was a high-ranking vampire, they would quickly notice something was off.
Todd silently drew the dagger from his waist and crept toward the blind spot behind the door. Then, he bit down on his already-healed finger to draw blood once more.
The blood of a Van Drake is lethally toxic to vampires. Even against a high-ranking one—even if it were Menorah—as long as Todd could stab them properly with this blood-smeared dagger, they’d at least have a chance to escape.
He coated the blade with his blood, then gave Laurus a slight nod—signaling he was ready.
Laurus, understanding his role, nodded back. He was to distract the vampire who would soon enter the room.
At that very moment, their pursuer reached the door.
Would they pass by? Or enter…?
Both Todd and Laurus held their breath in tense silence.
Until—
Bang!
The door burst open.
“Huff… huff…”
The intruder slammed the door shut behind them and panted for breath. Their moss-colored hair was disheveled, and the elegant garments befitting a high noble were torn in several places.
After catching their breath for a moment, the intruder finally raised their head—only to lock eyes with Laurus standing awkwardly in the room.
Startled, they jumped.
“…Laurus?”
They had desperately searched for refuge, fleeing from the vampires for who knew how long, and had finally found this hidden storage room.
They had never expected someone else to be here—especially Laurus.
The one who had followed Laurus into this auction house in secret—was none other than the knight-in-training, Matteus.
***
The first to recover from the shock was Laurus, who had at least been mentally prepared for an intruder.
‘Wait… I’ve seen this face somewhere recently…’
But Laurus had been in seclusion at his villa for so long that he hardly knew the faces of young nobles.
The only people he’d interacted with lately were the auction organizer and—
Suddenly, Laurus realized the intruder’s identity.
“You are… Sir Matteus, the retainer of Lapis Ignarius, aren’t you?”
While investigating Bernardo, Laurus also received a report about his retainer, Matteus.
Laurus had only glanced at the portrait included in the report once, but that alone was enough for him to remember the face.
When Laurus immediately recognized him, Matteus bowed his head sheepishly.
“…It’s truly an honor that the Painter of Light knows someone as insignificant as me.”
Matteus also realized that Laurus had looked into them. This was troublesome. Matteus clicked his tongue.
‘If he knows who I am, he’s bound to be suspicious about why I’m at the auction house.’
And as expected, Laurus asked with a look of distrust in his eyes.
“Where is Lapis Ignarius, your master?”
“He is currently elsewhere.”
‘Breaking into your villa, actually… probably beating the daylight out of the vampire inside as we speak…’
Matteus smiled calmly, but cold sweat ran down his back.
Since the nature of Laurus’s relationship with the vampire lurking in his mansion was still unclear, he couldn’t just reveal the truth.
‘I was certain Laurus was a follower of the vampires…’
But the issue was, from every angle, it really seemed like Laurus’s heir—the boy—was Van Drake.
‘But why would a vampire follower be traveling around with Van Drake? Ugh, none of this makes sense…’
Matteus clicked his tongue again. The more he thought, the more tangled his thoughts became.
‘Well, I’d know for sure whether that kid is really Van Drake or not if I could get a good look at him—wait a minute, where is that kid?’
Matteus belatedly realized the boy wasn’t at Laurus’s side and quickly scanned the surroundings in alarm.
“By the way, didn’t you come to today’s auction with your grandson, Count? Your grandson… oh, there you are.”
Matteus sighed in relief upon spotting Todd crouched behind the door.
Todd had quickly sheathed his sword as soon as he realized the intruder wasn’t a vampire, and pretended he had been hiding the whole time.
It was an impressively fast shift in demeanor.
Unaware of the truth, Matteus looked at the terrified Todd with a conflicted expression.
‘Is that really Van Drake? He just seems like a regular scared kid.’
He had assumed the child would be cunning and sly, having evaded holy knights for so long. But seeing Todd trembling with fear made Matteus feel sorry for him.
If he could see the boy’s eyes, that would settle it—Van Drake’s golden eyes were unmistakable. But the kid had grown out his bangs and kept his head down, so it was impossible to confirm.
As Matteus continued inspecting him, Todd—hiding his sharp gaze behind an innocent façade—carefully asked.
“…Mister, you’re not a holy knight? Can’t you save us?”
“Well, technically, I am a holy knight…”
In truth, retainers were more like assistant clerics among holy knights—people who had been appointed but weren’t yet capable of handling missions on their own, so they were given temporary assignments.
In short, he was a half-baked holy knight—unable to be assigned a mission alone.
Naturally, Bernardo had been sent out on missions without ever serving as a retainer, while Matteus…
‘Damn it, stuck as a retainer for life!’
It had already been ten years since he joined the Church of Lamphas with Bernardo and shared in everything together. And yet, his divine power had barely improved.
‘Okay, I know my faith isn’t the strongest, but still—this is too much!’
Still, there was no need to explain all that and risk unsettling a scared child. Matteus gave a safe excuse instead.
“There are just too many vampires. But don’t worry. A much stronger holy knight is waiting outside.”
“Really?”
There was a trace of hope in Todd’s voice. His reaction left Matteus feeling slightly bewildered.
‘If he’s this comfortable with holy knights, maybe he really isn’t Van Drake…’
Sometimes Todd seemed like he was, and other times he didn’t. Matteus couldn’t say for sure what Todd’s true identity was.
He was glad he hadn’t rushed to tell his young master that the Renfield heir at the auction might be Van Drake.
If Todd wasn’t Van Drake, the young master would definitely scold him—reminding him, yet again, not to jump to conclusions without evidence.
‘And since I dropped the communication charm while fleeing, I couldn’t even correct the report…’
At any rate, if the one at the villa was just a low-ranking vampire, it should be taken care of by now. Estimating the time, Matteus replied.
“That’s right. I contacted them and explained the situation. They’ll come soon to defeat the vampire.”
‘That sounds fishy.’
Todd’s expression subtly twisted. It bothered him that Matteus wasn’t being clear about Bernardo’s exact whereabouts.
‘Don’t tell me something’s happened at the villa…’
Unease creeping in, Todd instinctively gripped the pendant Vasha had given him. The cold surface of the stone—the coolness, like Vasha’s palm—finally helped calm him.
‘Right. If something had happened to her, I would’ve been the first to notice. I’m her familiar, after all…’
Though he and Vasha hadn’t fully synchronized their souls yet, if she suffered a major blow, Todd would definitely feel it. If she died—there was no question about it. Todd would die too.
‘The surest way to check if she’s okay is to use the communication charm… but it only works one way, so only my voice will go through.’
On top of that, if Vasha received the message and assumed something had happened to Todd, she might rush here—which would be a huge problem.
