牛奶色隔壁有夫之妇

"Why are you here, if I may ask?" the ancient vampire said, analyzing Arthur from head to toe.

Harker, the leader in name, was not the rank four mage Arthur was more concerned about. Instead, the ancient vampire in front of him was the real problem. He was the ancestor of the Von Stein family, and although Harker was the leader, he was not the one in charge.

"I am only here to know you better and speak in a friendly tone. We, the dragons, are returning to the big shots of this continent, so it was normal for us to come to see the strongest," Arthur said, tapping his fingers on the table.

He was not necessarily lying, but he was there to find out where Sybille was, but the only way for him to do that was in the shadows, with the Blue Rose Order! So Malak was out doing his things, but Tessa, Leonard, and Mikael should be returning soon, and the werewolf army they had underneath the castle would be helpful if Arthur wanted to attack the Von Stein family from the back.

"Is that so? No interior motives or things you want from us? Speaking of which, something valuable that belongs to me is missing, and it is said to be a treasure of the dragons. May I know if you have it?"

Arthur quickly recalled talking about the treasure Malak gave him, which he did not have the key to open, but it was indeed something incredible as the Alliance was the one with the key.

"No, I don\'t have this treasure of yours, but what if I did? If it belongs to the dragons, then I should have it! If you find me, I will gladly accept it as a gift," he said, causing the ancient vampire to burn angrily.

"Haha, of course, I will do that. I can see you met my son, Harker. I am Alastair. And you?"

"You can call me Placidusax. Now, how is the plan for the central continent\'s invasion going? The dragons now are a part of it too."

"Oh?"

Alastair was surprised to see that Arthur knew about the invasion. The dragons had lived in seclusion from the rest of the continent, so most of them did not have the information as the other races had.

"It is doing pretty good. We, the Von Stein family, have a personal portal which we are using to send our army to start attacking some villages of the central continent, trying to get as much territory as we can," Alastair said, and the moment he did, Arthur\'s heartbeat increased.

It was not a surprise to him the topic of the portal, but he did not know they were using it already to send troops! What if the people he knew were in danger? That made his mind uneasy, and he wanted to return to the central continent as fast as he could, but Arthur could not, as there were still things he needed to do.

"Really? That I did not know about. Do you want me to send some of my dragons to help you?"

Arthur hoped to send someone trustworthy, like Valethar, to take care of the people he cared about the most in the central continent, not allowing them to get hurt, but then Alastair said, "there is no need for it, thank you." Which broke all of his plans.

Still, he did not get angry about it — at least not in front of the two vampires — and continued speaking with them as typically as possible.

"I see. I hoped to stay here for a few days to get to know you better and see the continent\'s current situation. Would that be a problem?"

The way Arthur spoke made the two vampires narrow their eyes, and it was not a request they could refuse. If they did, a war against the dragons could occur, which was not ideal in their current situation.

Dragons were still an unknown piece in the board, and the Von Stein family did not know the extent of their powers, so picking up a fight with them was not a good idea. What if they had more than one rank-four dragon? Then the Von Stein family would vanish from the map in a day!

"Of course. No problem at all. You can stay here as long as you like. Harker will guide you to your room," Alastair said.

Arthur smiled because he already knew they would accept his presence there, and now, it was only a matter of time before he found Sybille and the attack on the Von Stein family to happen.

~~~~

The first night inside, the elven tribe came, and with it, Arthur left his cabin during nighttime, looking for more information about what was happening inside the elven tribes and where Agatha and Jake were.

Before leaving his tree house, Arthur used his senses to look around, and sure enough, many elves were trying to act as normal as possible, but Arthur knew they were spies sent there to keep an eye on him!

One pretended to care for his garden while the other drank something at a table near Arthur\'s house. Only a stupid person would not notice their gazes directed at him from time to time.

The lights of his house were still up, and because of that, they knew he was inside, presumably doing something to pass the time. So, Arthur turned it off and appeared on the house window with something similar to a pajama. When the spies saw that, they understood he was going to bed but remained looking at his house, even if Arthur was asleep.

When Arthur first arrived in the tribe, and they instantly tossed him inside the Dark Forest, the elves did not have much contact with him. Thus they did not know he was a vampire! So it was only normal for someone to sleep during the night, and when Arthur did that, they did not see it as strange or unusual.

But that was only part of his plans! After closing all the windows, Arthur changed back to his plate armor and red mantle, but he also put on a long black hooded cloak to hide his armor and cape, as these would get too much attention.

Arthur used his stealth spells, making his body invisible, and after that, jumped through the back window of his house with agile movements, with no one noticing a single thing. He knew Jake was still nearby, and if he was there, then Agatha should be too, but where?

"Usually, they are inside underground dungeons, but I don\'t see any entrance around here," thought Arthur, jumping through the trees so high no one could see him, even if they could see through his invisibility spell.

It was a pain in the ass because Jake was locked in a place that made his mark useless, so they could not exchange messages. Arthur was feeling hopeless, but when he looked down from the tree top, he saw two elven children whispering to each other.

"Are you sure you heard that? Screams?"

"Yes, I did. What if the forest spirits took someone? We need to help them."

"But we are only kids. Can\'t we let this to the adults to handle?"

The kid who heard the screams had the face of someone who wanted to go on an adventure, so the other kid, his friend, decided to go along.

"Fine. Let\'s investigate these screams, but we must return before it gets too dark."