Vivian and Nolan followed the guard up a staircase built into the city wall. After reaching the top, the three of them emerged onto the wall’s walkway.
“Wow, you can see the forest we went to from here!”
“Maybe we can even see Edward’s hut.”
Vivian rushed excitedly to one of the embrasures and hopped up to peek through. She pointed toward a patch of dark green forest in the distance and shouted. The sight reminded her of the necromancer living in those woods. She wondered how he was doing lately.
Even though the walls of Maern City were only 3 meters tall, Vivian was as thrilled as a child at an amusement park. Such a unique experience was rare for her. In her past life, she had kicked the bucket before she even got to see the Great Wall she had always longed to visit…
Seeing this, Nolan quickly stepped forward and pulled Vivian down from the embrasure. It wasn’t that he was afraid she would fall and get hurt; he simply felt it was a bit embarrassing.
‘She’s a grown woman… yet she still acts like a child.’
“This is our guardroom. The entry and exit records you asked for are inside,” the guard said, gesturing toward a building in front of them.
The guardroom was built on an open space atop the wall, directly above the city gate. If an enemy attacked, the guards could quickly raise the drawbridge to block the offensive. The guardroom was constructed of grayish-black stone bricks, with a wooden sign hanging by the door. However, the writing on it had long since been blurred by years of wind and rain.
As they pushed the door open, a stuffy smell—a mix of sweat, rust, and candle oil—hit them. To the left was a simple long wooden table holding a wooden bow and a short sword. To the right were two wooden crates filled with sweat-stained clothes and armor, with a row of bucklers hanging on the wall beside them. This was the breakroom for the Maern City guards.
“The old man in charge of the paperwork didn’t show up today. He’s probably drunk and hasn’t woken up from some girl’s bed yet.”
“Let me see which corner he threw the logbook into.”
The guard rummaged through the crates and cabinets, circling the guardroom. Finally, he found the logbook tucked under a leg of the wooden table.
“My parents were farmers, and I’m illiterate, so I’ll let Miss Vivian handle the reading.”
Vivian took the logbook from the guard and patted off the dust.
“Hmm, let’s see… October 12, morning… Siro brought a basket of carrots.”
“October 20, Ethan brought a horned beast… and a cart of red berries.”
Since most of the entries were about insignificant people, Vivian only skimmed the pages. By the time she reached the last page, she hadn’t found a single person of interest.
Disappointed, Vivian tossed the logbook to Nolan. Nolan also did a quick scan and shook his head. He hadn’t found anything either.
Nolan returned the book to the guard.
“Let’s go. We’ll head back and see if Derek found the target,” he said, turning to Vivian.
After all that trouble, the two of them still hadn’t obtained any useful information and had to head back the way they came. However, the result wasn’t entirely unexpected. After all, their opponent had been able to kill so many people in a single night without being detected. He certainly wasn’t an amateur, and it wouldn’t be easy to catch him.
—
The two rushed back into the city, returning to the dirt road near the market. The corpses that had been laid out on the road had already been cleared away, and the onlookers had dispersed to their homes. The once bustling street now had only a few people left.
The few who remained looked tense and walked with hurried steps, as if a demon were chasing them. Every house along the street had its doors tightly shut, and some were even bound with thick iron chains. The entire Rust Hammer District was in a state of panic because of the attack.
Derek was leading two guards from house to house, conducting inspections in an attempt to find the culprit hiding in the city.
“Find anything, Priest Derek?” Nolan asked as he approached.
“I caught three widows sneaking men in and one bachelor trying to mate with a fish,” Derek said with a soft chuckle. “Other than that, nothing.”
“Then I’ll take a squad and expand the search area. If we still don’t find anything after checking everyone, we’ll start searching in the second direction.”
After Nolan spoke, he waved over a squad of soldiers patrolling the road.
“What about me?” Vivian pointed at herself, blinking.
“As for you, Vivian, just continue your daily work,” Nolan said after stroking his chin in thought.
“Ah, no way! I want to catch the criminal with you guys!”
“You’re isolating me!”
Vivian shook her head wildly in protest, accusing Nolan of bullying her.
“Everyone has their own area of expertise. Leave the inspections to Derek and me. Vivian, you’re better suited for providing combat support if a conflict breaks out. You can’t really help with this, so you might as well go do your own work. Who knows? Maybe you’ll catch the killer while you’re wandering around.”
Nolan walked closer to Vivian. As he spoke, he reached out his hand to pat her head, but Vivian slapped it away and covered her head with her hands.
‘I can’t let him pat me, or I won’t grow taller…’
“Fine, then I’ll look around the area.”
“Right. Report back to us if any unusual situation occurs.”
Vivian was finally convinced. She opened her umbrella and walked toward the street corner. She walked alone through the empty streets, occasionally feeling a pair of prying eyes watching her from the houses on either side.
After circling the market several times without success, Vivian lifted her umbrella and looked at the sun in the sky, sighing.
‘No one is coming out here. Maybe I should head to Black Rat Street.’
No sooner said than done; she turned on her heels and headed toward Black Rat Street.
—
Ten minutes later, Vivian returned to her familiar Black Rat Street.
Whether the news hadn’t reached them or the people here were simply fearless, Black Rat Street remained as lively as ever. The street was still filthy and chaotic. Human and animal waste were everywhere, and urine and blood mixed into the sewage flowing through the gutters.
Vivian passed through a fence and came to a wooden shed covered with burlap, which was built against a small wooden cabin. The lazy bug in her mind was already screaming at her to slack off.
Vivian looked around sneakily to see if Nolan was monitoring her work. Once she confirmed he wasn’t there, she flipped the wooden sign on her chest over. It revealed three crookedly written words: ‘OFF DUTY.’
‘Work? I already have so much money! Why would I work hard? If I do, won’t my earnings go to waste? Besides, that vampire won’t be caught any time soon anyway. I might as well enjoy myself.’
Vivian’s motivation came quickly and left just as fast. She had spent the entire morning running several laps around Maern City. Not only had she made no breakthrough, but she hadn’t earned a single coin either. Her enthusiasm had been drained away bit by bit. She had wanted to slack off for a long time; she had only been pretending to be a hardworking wife because Nolan was by her side.
“Give me a bowl of fresh chicken blood with a spoonful of Tallinn honey. Mix it well.”
She pulled five copper coins from her pocket and tossed them onto the table in the shed. Then, ignoring the dirty chair, she smoothed her skirt and sat down.
This was a unique shop that primarily dealt in various blood products. One could even buy human blood here! The shop’s customers were mainly shady dark mages, alchemists, and some eccentric nobles. Of course, it now had a vampire customer as well.
“Oh! If it isn’t our great saint, Miss Vivian?”
A shutter on the cabin wall was pushed open from the inside, revealing an old man with a large tumor on his face and wrinkled skin.
“I haven’t seen you in a long time. If it weren’t for the occasional legend about you reaching my ears, I would have thought you’d starved to death in some corner.”