Another Page of the Chapter

Priest Ped became frantic. Sweat formed within the creases of her wrinkled face, and her hands became lubricated.

'Cold sweat? I can't believe it. I'm nervous because of their presence?'

There were only two beings that could deprive a person of their nourishment. One, a vampire that could suck the essence of a living person. The other, the practices of the radical cult that hides in the kingdom's shadows.

'This shall not stand. I have to check which of the two did this.'

Priest Ped confirmed that it was indeed the depravity of nourishment that Martin slowly starved to death. She was afraid that this would be the works of the cult and thought that a lone vampire would be easier to handle.

However, despite investigating Martin's dead body, she could not find any compelling evidence that could tell the perpetrator's identity.

'The distinct traces of a vampire's draining technique is absent.'

She did not see any bite marks that were a trademark of vampire attacks. However, she also couldn't find stitches that the cult inflicts to rid the people of their nourishment.

Martin's mouth was also left intact, indicating that it was not the doing of the radical group either.

'This is utterly confusing.'

Priest Ped could only scratch her head in bafflement. Despite studying the body for a few minutes, there was nothing worthy of note. The only way to further study this case would be to upon up Martin's stomach.

'I can't do that.'

Ped had morals. The mourning family was just right outside the chapel, she was a priest who would come in aid of such a family. She could not push herself to bring such heartache to them.

"Call the family inside. And I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you guys some questions."

Ped said to everyone. The acolyte moved towards the door and exited the premises immediately, Bob's party remained in their place and continued waiting.

The door opened once more and the group of people from earlier were called in. The aged-woman who had full makeup on, Nora, walked towards the table with hastened steps while Marissa held the hands of her 2 younger children.

"He's really gone. There's no need denying it anymore." Marissa grasped their hands tighter. She only had two hands to hold, and sadly, she couldn't grasp Martin's.

"My condolences." Priest Ped solemnly said as she bowed her head. She motioned towards the acolyte. The acolyte proceeded to remove everything that was covering Martin's body and gave Ped a hand towel.

Ped soaked the towel she just received into the bowl of water that was set under the table earlier and began wiping the dirt. After wiping Martin's entire body, including the junk, Ped put her hands together in prayer.

Whisper~

Priest Ped was whispering a prayer. The sound she made was illegible, everyone just went silent to give respect. After a few seconds, Ped finished the short prayer.

The door that led deeper to the chapel opened and the acolyte showed himself carrying a white sheet. Nobody saw him exit the scene yet now he made another entrance.

"Drape it over him." Priest Ped said.

After Priest Ped's command, the acolyte proceeded to cover Martin's body and the only part left exposed was the head.

"He looks so peaceful." Marissa said as she let go of the hands that were holding hers.

Marissa walked towards Martin. She observed his face keenly and she was hurt. She saw how deprived Martin's face was, it was only skin and bone.

Marissa lifted her hands to caress his face. It was rough. She didn't feel the plumpness of meat but the hardness of bone. It was an uncomfortable feeling but she continued nonetheless.

Nora held back her urge. She didn't want to intrude into her friend's time of reconnection with her son. That's right, Nora was a good friend of Marissa before she was Martin's glucose mother.

The younger siblings of Martin were wiping their snot with their sleeves, sobbing in silence as they didn't want to seem rude. However, there was one entity that didn't understand what was happening.

"Cluck!"

Lavanuk separated from Bob and flapped her wings. She reached the table and landed on Martin. She happily scratched her chicken feet on the white sheet that was covering the corpse.

"Cluck cluck!"

Bob moved right after realizing what just happened. He swiftly recovered Lavanuk and held her in his hands. He bowed his head towards Marissa and apologized.

"I am so sorry!" Bob was ready for some reprimanding.

But that was not what he got.

"Pffft. Ahahahahaha." Marissa laughed instead.

Her laughter was genuine. The comical event that just happened distracted her for a moment and made the situation a lot easier to take in.

However, her laughter slowly lost volume.

"Ah. Ahahaha. Haha."

The frequency of her laughs became fewer and fewer. It was like that until.

"Haaaaa."

Her laugh degraded into a sigh.

She remembered the loss.

'Is this loss? Why am I so unfamiliar with this?'

Marissa already lost someone before. Her husband died on his second to the last expedition. And now, she lost another member of her family, the first child that her husband has gifted her with.

"Thank you." Marissa uttered.

She did not look at anyone as she said it. She intended to direct those words towards Bob and his chicken because it made her cope easier. She also directed it to her son, who was an important part of her life.

"Thank you." She repeated. But this time, she began caressing Martin's face once more.

Fast forward to dozens of minutes later, Ped began asking the party questions which they politely answered.

"He's been a naughty boy!" Nora exclaimed.

She was furious because Annera told everyone what she heard within the Tattletale's meetings. Ligma and Martin were secretly doing public lovemaking within the shadows of the night.

"We still have to confirm it though." Annera said, implying that what she said were only allegations.

"No. It's true. My baby Martin has been sneaking out the past few days. Ooooh, he grew up so fast." Nora replied.

"What do we do now?" Bob interjected. He wanted to get this over with, he felt guilty of what just happened earlier and aimed to get justice for Martin.

"Our best bet is to ask that Ligma(Lol). She's fishy, I'm sure Martin himself smelled that, hehe." Minion suggested.

"I'm not sure. She seemed rich from Annera's story, can we really just barge right into her house?" Enma was skeptical.

"That could be true. However, we can already rule it out that that woman is suspicious." E confirmed. He thought for a while and finally got an idea on the top of his head.

"Let's go ask the guards. Remember what that guard said earlier? He said that it was surprising how Martin lost his weight in a single day." E continued.

"What about the woman?" Bob asked.

The high profiled yet suspicious person was not to be left by herself. She could make moves within the night and take in another victim.

"I'll observe the building." Blight volunteered.

Blight said those words and immediately moved towards the house that they somehow missed earlier.

The rest of the party moved towards the small detaining facility and woke up the guard who was on duty.

"Excuse me?" E greeted the guard by lightly tapping on the head.

"Nya? Oh. Sorry. What can I help you with?" The guard replied as he shook his head to remove his drowsiness.

"What did you do last night?" E asked, albeit without making himself clear.

"I mostly deal with petty thievery and drunken brawls, but last night was crazy just like tonight." The guard replied, still wiping his eyes.

"Crazy?"

"Yea. We found a guy who was undressed and was laughing to himself, just like how we caught Martin, the guy you tried to talk to earlier."

With the new information they received, there was only one course of action left for them.

"Hey there, fella. How'd you get in here?" Minion asked in a certain fashion. It was as if he had prison experience himself. In fact, he did have 2 hours of experience.

"Hehe. I'm here because I got caught. Hehe." The man replied cheerfully.

Unlike Martin's state when they found him, the guy on the floor still looked like he had meat on his bones. However, he did look skinny.

"Caught doing what exactly?" It was Annera's turn to speak.

"Yes. Yes. I was doing the sex. With the female. Everyday. Hehe."

The man replied but it was incoherent. He was still in euphoria. But this state was enough for the male members of the party to understand.

'It's just like Martin's situation but worse.'

Continuing the conversation would hold no meaning as the person could not keep his marbles. The party informed Priest Ped of this and there was only one thing that came to her mind upon hearing the details.

"They're here. What you just told me are symptoms of vampire seduction."

[World Message: A party has uncovered another piece of the story of the blood moon.]