Chapter 34: Collecting Some Interest
Only a fool would actually tell him their information.
Not only Jasmine thought so, but the other vampires did as well. They weren’t idiots. How could they possibly reveal their family information to these otherworldly beings? The otherworldly beings also realized this. They knew it was time to make an example. They had initially wanted to use Jasmine as the example, but the vampires’ indifference when she stepped forward told the werewolf that even if they killed Jasmine now, it would be pointless.
This was a miscalculation on the werewolf’s part. He had assumed that since this human was dining in the upper-level restaurant, she must be someone important. Like a key figure in the banking system, a farm administrator, or a researcher.
These frameworks that played crucial roles in vampire society were all built by humans. Therefore, even if they were human, they enjoyed good treatment in vampire society and were even protected by vampires. Earlier, during the day, he had seen this woman from below and thought she was someone remarkable.
But it turned out she was just an ordinary maid.
Such a person wasn’t even worth targeting.
The werewolf scanned the room, looking for a suitable target to make an example of. After thinking for a moment, he set his sights on the lady who had screamed about her child earlier.
The werewolf’s face showed a playful expression as he extended a hand towards the lady, “Well, madam, weren’t you very worried about your child just now? How about this, I’ll give you a chance. Come over here, and I’ll take you hostage. Then I’ll let your child go back.”
The lady was immediately tempted. She almost eagerly wanted to walk over but was held back by her husband, “Don’t be foolish. They won’t let our child go so easily. They might…”
But the lady pushed her husband’s arm away and walked towards the werewolf step by step. Jasmine heard the vampire lady’s footsteps. Just from the sound, she knew that this lady probably had no fighting ability, a weakling among nobles.
And somewhat naive.
Jasmine had no sympathy for vampires. Even if this vampire lady died in front of her, even if that vampire child died in front of her, her expression wouldn’t change. She also saw the werewolf’s cruel smile and knew that as soon as the lady approached, he would kill her.
The werewolf wouldn’t release the vampire child. He was the perfect hostage. Replacing him with the vampire lady wouldn’t have the same effect. The other vampires wouldn’t be threatened anymore. After all, the vampire lady had lived for so many years. It wouldn’t matter much if she died.
As the lady walked towards her child step by step, the werewolf raised his sword with a sinister smile. Jasmine truly wanted to sigh. Because she heard Adele’s footsteps. Adele was fast. She arrived before the werewolf could react, pulling the lady back and extending her claws to block the werewolf’s sword.
“You!”
The sword clashed against the claws, producing a clang. The werewolf widened his eyes, looking at Adele in disbelief. He hadn’t expected her to move so quickly. However, the rabbit-man, renowned for his speed among beastmen, quickly reacted. He shouted, “Medusa!”
The black-robed figure lowered their hood, revealing their head. “They” had the appearance of a human woman, but without any hair. Instead, there were numerous slippery, disgusting-looking emerald green snakes and snake heads.
Finally freed from the hood, the snakes were ecstatic, flicking their crimson tongues and hissing. At the same time, Medusa opened her eyes.
It was the first time Jasmine had encountered such an otherworldly being… but this creature, rather than being otherworldly, seemed more like a monster. Was this even reasonable?
Upon meeting her gaze, all the vampires froze, some even partially petrified. This made Jasmine, who was completely unaffected, stand out awkwardly.
—Seriously, are you kidding me? Bringing a petrifying otherworldly being here? How am I supposed to pretend to be affected?
Jasmine felt exhausted. Vampire mental magic was hypnosis, which was easy to fake. She just had to pretend to be dazed and follow the vampires’ instructions. But this was petrification! How was she supposed to act petrified?
She felt so tired that she even wanted to faint.
But fainting wasn’t petrification. Jasmine observed carefully. The petrified vampires were all grayish-white. She thought for a moment and decided to try her best to fake it. She slowly wrapped herself in black threads, trying to control the threads to change color.
With great effort, the threads, which were essentially hair, finally aged and turned grayish-white, making her look genuinely petrified. After a while, Jasmine used the remaining threads to dig a hole in the ground and, while everyone was distracted, slipped through the hole.
The only problem was that she had to leave the threads and clothes wrapped around her behind.
As she fell to the lower level, other threads wrapped around her, forming a makeshift garment. Because most of her threads were used above, the ones she had left to create clothes were pitifully few.
After landing on the lower level, Jasmine found herself in the staff storage room.
She grabbed a black tablecloth, wrapped it around herself, and used the few remaining threads to roughly sew it into a dress. Then she reattached her hair and put on her veil. After doing all this, Jasmine sat down at a table downstairs and perked up her ears to listen to the commotion above.
Medusa’s petrification ability had clearly caused a lot of trouble for the vampires. Many of them cried out in pain, “My hand!”
“My arm!”
“My leg!”
Cries of pain echoed, but Jasmine didn’t hear Adele’s voice. She thought the poor girl’s throat must have been petrified. Just as she was about to clean her ears, she heard a whimpering sound… To be precise, it was Adele’s voice. She called out shakily, “Jasmine?”
But Jasmine wouldn’t answer. Adele seemed to have used all her strength to break free from Medusa’s petrification. She ran a few steps and arrived right above Jasmine, where the fake petrified Jasmine was. Jasmine had no choice but to change the quality of her hair, making it as hard as stone.
The fake Jasmine she had created was quite realistic, even up close. She could imagine Adele carefully examining her, trying to confirm her condition. She heard Adele’s voice again, even more panicked this time, “Jasmine, Jasmine, what happened to you?!”
If it were her, she would probably be just as confused. After all, it was just a bundle of hair, not a real body. It had no heartbeat or pulse, looking as if it were dead.
The werewolf sneered, “You seem to have quite a strong bond with your maid.” He continued, “You must have realized by now that you can’t defeat us. Now, be good and follow our instructions. Contact your families.”
They had gone through so much trouble just to find out who the Blake family members were. They weren’t fools. They wouldn’t directly ask who was a Blake. No one would admit it. They could kill all the vampires, but they couldn’t tell who was a Blake, so they would have to take all the bodies back. They weren’t crazy enough to carry so many corpses around.
So they tried to extract information subtly and then identify the Blakes. Ideally, they could capture a Blake alive. A living member of the thirteen clans, what a glorious trophy! How much would their client pay for that? Just thinking about it made them happy.
What a brilliant plan.
Jasmine, downstairs, silently applauded their strategy.
—I’ll kill you soon.
Jasmine jumped off the table, ready to open the door and go upstairs, back to the dining hall, and slaughter them all. But just as she jumped down, she heard Adele’s voice. It was coming from right above her. Adele had put down the fake Jasmine and stood up, “You want money, right?”
“We just want to make a peaceful deal.” The werewolf smiled, his bristly face surely wearing a hypocritical, cunning, wolfish grin.
Adele couldn’t be that stupid… Just as this thought crossed Jasmine’s mind, she heard Adele say, “Then I should be your target.” Her voice didn’t tremble, and it didn’t have the cautious tone she had used when calling out “Jasmine.”
“I’m a member of the thirteen clans’ Blake family. My name is Adele Blake. All of you here combined aren’t worth as much as me.”
The werewolf’s eyes lit up: Found her! This was the most valuable lamb! The only question now was, should they take her back alive or kill her to prevent any further complications on the way? The werewolf’s eyes darted around, weighing the pros and cons.
But just as he started to think, he heard the dining hall door being kicked open again. The werewolf turned around in surprise, wondering who had managed to bypass the other members downstairs and enter directly. He saw a figure clad in black, dressed similarly to Medusa in their team, carrying a minotaur in each hand and throwing them inside.
The werewolf’s expression darkened as he looked at the newcomer.
“Who are you?!”
Could there be another powerful vampire on this airship? Damn it, their intel hadn’t mentioned this! After the werewolf asked the question, the figure across from him chuckled. The laughter revealed that the newcomer was a woman. Her voice was calm but not old. The werewolf estimated that if she were human, she would be around thirty years old. As for her vampire age, it was impossible to tell.
The figure slightly raised their head. Their black hood concealed their eyes, clearly not a vampire. The werewolf breathed a sigh of relief. As long as it wasn’t a vampire, it was fine. He was wary of this black-robed figure. His sharp nose couldn’t detect her scent, and his keen ears couldn’t hear her breathing. This alone was enough to make him cautious.
The werewolf’s question was answered. The woman in front of him said, “You’ve been impersonating the Human Resistance Army for so long. It’s time for me to collect some interest.” Her voice wasn’t particularly pleasant or unpleasant, but it was laced with mockery.
From her words, the werewolf realized that the person before him: was a human.
The thought of it made him want to laugh. A human?!
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