Chapter 14: The Hostel

　　Originally, it was only thought to be a common incident of a wild vampire attacking a citizen, but it was not expected that things would become serious as more and more clues were pulled in.

　　Baldwin is feeling the pressure.

　　Moreover, he vaguely felt that this matter was probably related to what happened more than ten years ago, when his own family was murdered.

　　That incident had been sort of resolved though, the vampire who had attacked his family had been handily killed by Baldwin. But as time passed and the pain and scars slowly faded, he began to think that things might not be so simple.

　　Especially in the last few days, after confirming that Collins had been turned into a vampire, it made him feel very uneasy.

　　"Let's just take these coded letters back to the guild and decipher them slowly for now, and burn Laci's body."

　　Baldwin thought for a moment and began to organize his next strategy.

　　"Since the owner of this townhouse is dead, doesn't it become the property of the lord? Can you discuss it with your brother and sell it to me cheaply?" The old knight said.

　　He seemed eager to be neighbors with the countess next door.

　　"No, the townhouse is to be left as it is, and I'll arrange for a couple more resourceful boys to keep an eye on the place."

　　"Trying to uncover this Lassie cohort?"

　　"Yes, since there are letters here, there must be 'messengers'."

　　Find the messenger and you can follow the trail to the B who sent the letter.

　　"Now here's the key question, what is this D that seems so powerful?"

　　There was a moment of silence and Edward said, "Could it be the baron?"

　　Baldwin nodded, "It's a possibility, and if that's the case, it's still good news."

　　Baron Collins has been taken out, sort of unfortunately.

　　"But also be prepared for the worst and be on guard for this awesome vampire at all times."

　　At that moment a young hunter snickered, "The worst? Could that be the evil god Lilith coming back to life? Or her son ...."

　　Before the words were out of his mouth, Baldwin glared at him, "If that's the case, it's a relief, any more resistance and Constantine will become the same as it was a hundred years ago, with everyone here reduced to domesticated animals anyway."

　　The young hunter spat out his tongue and didn't dare speak again.

　　After arranging for another secret post to remain around the townhouse, Baldwin said goodbye to the old knight and took the hunters back to the guild to recuperate.

　　Upon returning to the guild, Baldwin handed the small chest to Edward and said, "You will give this chest to Chief Hector for me, and tell him to get someone to decipher these coded letters. The money in the chest will be replenished into the guild funds."

　　"What about this dagger?" Edward asked.

　　Master Baldwin glanced at the ornately jeweled dagger, then said, "Take this dagger and use it."

　　"Uh, this dagger looks pretty valuable, would it be appropriate for me to take it?"

　　"You deserve the most credit for hunting down the vampire this time, and the dagger looks like it was made by an elven artisan, the gems on it are all to enhance the power of elemental magic, and you're the only one in the guild who can use elemental magic."

　　Upon hearing the Guildmaster's words, Edward nonchalantly accepts the dagger.

　　Now he'd followed the example of the other hunters and had a belt hanging from his body that stowed all sorts of little things, and the dagger was just enough to hang by the silver sword, which was kinda nice to look at.

　　Taking the small case, he went to Chief Hector's room and handed the item to the Chief and explained the Guildmaster's request.

　　"If we decipher the secret message, we'll have to go to those guys, it really hurts." Chief Hite looked somewhat reluctant.

　　"Those guys?"

　　"The Assassin's Guild guys, they're especially good at assassinations, ciphering, spying, and the like. It just so happens that you're there, so why don't you accompany me."

　　Chief Hector didn't know martial arts or magic, so it was natural for him to be a bit of a wimp when he was asked to enter that kind of murderer's den. Therefore, he wanted to drag Kayne, who was the "strongest hunter candidate in the guild", along with him.

　　"Okay." Edward had nothing to do left or right anyway.

　　Chief Hector weighed the bags of money in the small chest again and said, "That's almost enough money, and it's just as well it doesn't need to go into the treasury."

　　The two set out instantly and arrived in front of the Cathedral of Constantine.

　　"Is the Assassin's Guild hiding in the church?" Edward asked.

　　"Of course not." Hector laughed a little.

　　He took Edward to the back of the church where there was a group of beggars, and every day the church gave them some black bread or something, so there was always a large number of beggars gathered there.

　　The Chief Steward found a beggar sitting in the shade and said quietly, "Shadow Companion, I have a commission."

　　The beggar, hearing this, surveyed the chief steward and Edward, nodded and stood up.

　　At this time Edward found that the beggar's right hand and left foot are gone, and the man is stout and tall, obviously when the beggar before is a practitioner.

　　The two followed the beggar seven turns to a hut before the beggar three long and two short knocked on the door, the door to open a small window, the beggar said, "There is a commission." The door then opened.

　　After letting the two in, the beggar limped back in.

　　There were only two strong black men in the hut, and they both took out two black hoods and handed them to the Chief and Edward.

　　"Put them on, they can't reveal the guild's location." The Chief Steward said, putting a hood on his head.

　　Edward then complied and put on the hood, but the hood actually leaked light slightly, and his eyesight was exceptionally good, so he could still see things around him.

　　Then the man in black handed over two more ropes and told the two to pull on one end of the rope and follow.

　　Edward saw one of the black-clad men pull on the lampstand behind the door, and a dark door appeared inside the house.

　　"There are stairs, be careful." The black-robed man leading the way warned while pulling on the rope to lead the duo into the dark door.

　　Behind the door was a staircase leading down to the ground floor, and after descending to the bottom, a long tunnel.

　　Through the tunnel, there was another complex maze, and there were also organs. The man in black would remind the two of them to "turn", "back up", "three steps to the right" and so on.

　　After going around for what must have been about an hour, the man in black told the two of them that they could remove their hoods.

　　The destination was in the middle of a cave, lit up all around and set up like a small bar.

　　There were people of all colors sitting around, there were those with the same stout body as the man in black with an unpleasant face, there were also fat people with smiles on their faces dressed like businessmen, and there were also big sisters with hot bodies wearing sarongs that looked like they were engaged in a very serious business.

　　The races of the people were also varied, such as the big sisters who had long ears and were supposed to be elves. There were also orcs and lizardmen.

　　This is Constantine's Assassin's Guild, which has a nice name to the outside world - "The Wandering Inn".

　　Many of those entrusted with the service arranged here are relying on it to end a lifetime of wandering and be sent back to their old homes - of course, it's mostly the souls that get to go back to their old homes, the bodies don't get that treatment.

　　The head steward led Edward to the bar where a sweet looking dwarven girl greeted him with a smile, "Would you two like to order a drink or is there something else going on?"

　　The small and delicate girl smiled with a pretty dimple, and made a neck-wiping gesture with her hand when she said "something else".

　　The Chief Steward handed over the missives and said, "Please decipher these letters."

　　"Gee, this kind of thing can be much more expensive than killing someone, no problem?" The girl took the letter, still keeping her smile.

　　The chief steward then handed up the bag of gold coins and said, "Do you think this is enough money?"

　　The Dwarf girl took the money pouch, dumped the gold coins onto the counter, counted out some of them, and pushed the remaining ones in front of the Chief Steward, "These will be enough, the store can also help you kill a few people at a discount, is there a need for such a thing?"

　　The Chief Steward smiled awkwardly, took back the gold coins for change, and said, "No need, deciphering the letter will be fine."

　　"Gee, that's a shame, our store's methods are always clean and won't involve the client."

　　"It's not that I doubt your guild's expertise, it's just that there really isn't a need for it."

　　"Well, trust the store's credo - it's always easier to fix the person asking the question than the problem."

　　"Taught."

　　"So, it will take about two weeks to decipher the cipher letter, and longer if the cipher is complex, will you pick it up in person then or will we send someone to your door?"

　　"Please just send it directly to the 'Skin of the Stigmata' guild."

　　"I see, so you're half a peer."

　　"Uh, it's..."

　　"People and vampires, killing them is similar. .... Since we are peers, would you like to have another glass of wine, this store's cider is one of Constantine's best, you can't usually drink it."

　　"Alright, let's have two cups." The chief steward clearly had the look of being defeated by this eloquent little girl, and took out a gold coin to order two cups of cider.

　　The two didn't look for a seat either, so they leaned against the bar and drank.

　　"That's really good wine." Edward took a sip and marveled.

　　Indeed the cider here is very good, probably with special spices added, and has a very sweet and savory flavor.

　　"That's for sure." The girl at the bar smiled her sweet dimple again.

　　"Is there any news of note?" The Chief Steward asked as he sipped his wine.

　　The girl tilted her head, "News? On Britta Island, there is the death of the winged queen's mate, Prince Plifi, that should be considered big news, shouldn't it?"

　　Britta is an island located in the northern part of the Western Continent, a land of winged people.

　　"Ah, that Prince seemed to live a long time, didn't he? A long life?"

　　"News coming out of our store, what do you think?"

　　Listening to the girl, it seems that this old Prince was assassinated.

　　But this news, as powerful as it was, was only a million miles away, and after a few sighs of relief, Chief Hector digressed and asked, "Is there some local news?"

　　"Local? Let's see ..... By the way, it seems like there really is a message that has something to do with you guys, to say the least."

　　"What?"

　　The girl, however, did not continue, but compared two fingers.

　　Chief Hite understood the other party's meaning and immediately handed over two gold coins.

　　Satisfied, the girl came up and said quietly, "I heard, ah, that the Church has a heretical Inquisitor who is a vampire."

　　After hearing this, Edward smiled and said, "Chief Steward, you've spent these two gold coins a bit unjustly."

　　The Chief Steward also revealed a smug smile and said to the little girl, "You'd better return the gold coins, that heretical Inquisitor has already been dealt with by us, and the one who did it was the one next to me."