Chapter 34: Among Us 2

"What have you found, Black?"

I glanced up from the vaults of the armory when Red showed up at the entrance. Poking at the tightly sealed vaults, which contained a few arcane artifacts and weapons, I shook my head and sighed.

"They have a lot of treasures, but they are sealed up tight. I can't get to them."

"Keep working on them." Red rubbed his neck. "It's the same in storage. They seem to have quite a bit of supplies in there, but it's heavily locked. I don't know what the previous owners were thinking. No wonder this place was abandoned. Nobody could get the stuff in here."

"You were in storage?" I asked. Red shrugged.

"I thought there might be something useful there."

"You are probably right." I rose to my feet and considered for a moment. "I'm going to electrical. I'll see if starting the generators and restoring power will help unlock the vaults somehow. In addition to mystical wards, the locks also seem to run on electricity. Maybe someone with lightning magic might be able to help."

"Good call I'll ask the others."

And so I made my way back to electrical. Brown's body was still there, untouched and undiscovered. Just the way I left it. Until now. This time, I raised the alarm, yelling for everyone to gather. The other vampire nobles showed up in electrical within the next ten minutes, and though our faces were all concealed behind the silver masks, I could imagine their shocked and horrified expressions.

"Who…who did this?" Yellow gasped.

"How can this be?" Green groaned.

Red might be looking pale, but I couldn't tell because he was wearing a mask. Even so, he kept his calm and gave us directions.

"Everybody, meet in the main hall. Immediately."

The five of us followed his instructions and filed into the main hall. Gathering around the table, we eyed each other warily.

"There's an imposter among us," I said immediately. "Someone who infiltrated our conclave and is determined to eliminate us."

"For what reason, though?" Green demanded. "Why would they want to kill us?"

"Isn't it obvious?" I replied dryly. "The same yet opposite reason why we've gathered here. If we want to eliminate the new Demonic Emperor, then it reasons that someone on his side will want to get rid of threats to the new Demonic Emperor."

"That's a good point," Cyan conceded.

"What do we do now?" Yellow asked, almost sounding hysterical.

"We need to find out who the imposter is," Red replied. "And eject him or her from the castle." Then a smile crept into his voice. "My Andromeda Blood Barrier will take care of the imposter. There wouldn't even be bones or a drop of blood left of him."

"Or her," I added, for the sake of gender equality.

"How do we find out who the imposter is?" Green asked, looking around warily. "How do we find the proof?"

"For starters, let's confirm where everyone was and if they have an alibi," I suggested. "I was in the armory all this time, before I found Brown's body in electrical."

"I can attest to that," Red said. "I was in storage before I dropped by the armory and saw Black working on the vaults there. That was when he proposed going to electrical to get the generator working, so as to unseal both the armory and storage."

"I was in the kitchen with Green," Yellow said. "We were both working on blood cocktails, as you can see."

She gestured toward the tray of wine glasses, all of whom were filled with blood.

"I can attest to that," Green agreed. "I was with Yellow the entire time. Neither of us left the kitchen."

"That leaves you, Cyan." Red turned to him.

"I was in the study," Cyan replied and raised a book. "Checking out records and archives."

"Fair enough," Red said with a nod.

"Then who could have done it?" Green growled irritably. This was getting good. Everyone was on the edge of paranoia and starting to suspect each other. I decided to ignite a spark.

"Cyan is kinda sus," I said.

"Excuse me?" Cyan blurted out, but immediately everyone's eyes were on him. Or so I thought. It was hard to tell with the silver masks.

"That's true," Yellow agreed. "You were raising doubts against the assassination of the new Demonic Emperor. You sounded unusually reluctant."

"I wasn't…reluctant! I was only sounding a word of caution!"

"Not only that, you're also the only one without an alibi," Red mused. "Did anyone actually see you in the study?"

"Not me," I replied.

"I didn't either," Green said.

"I'm with Green. We were in the kitchen the whole time."

"So who can confirm that you were in the study?" Red asked. Cyan raised his book.

"This came from the study!"

"How can we be sure?" Yellow retorted. "You could have easily have brought your own book and pass it off as one from the library."

"Besides," Red added. "You could have gone to electrical, killed Brown, and then headed to the study after that."

"What the?!" Cyan growled. "The same goes for the rest of you!"

Yellow and Green exchanged glances.

"Green and I can testify for each other," Yellow declared. "We were in the kitchen the entire time."

"Yeah. I didn't see Yellow leave at all. And I also didn't leave her sight either."

"That still leaves Black and Red!" Cyan turned on us. "How do we know you were in the armory or storage the entire time?"

"I saw Black in the armory," Red began.

"For only a moment, right? It's not like you were in the armory the entire time, just like how Green and Yellow were together in the kitchen during the whole period!"

"That is true." I tried not to sigh. "But this is getting nowhere. I have a proposal, though. How about we vote?"

"Vote?" Yellow repeated incredulously.

"Yeah." I nodded. "We vote who the imposter is, based on our own analysis of the situation and testimonies from the rest. The person who is voted to be the imposter by the majority will be ejected." I grinned, though the others couldn't see my expression behind my silver mask. "The gods shall speak through us in this way."

"That's a good idea," Red agreed.

"I'm all for it," Green said.

"You can't seriously be…!" Cyan protested, and I turned to him.

"Why, Cyan? You have something to hide? You think the gods will choose you?"

"That's not what I mean…!"

"In any case, I think most of us agree to the vote," Yellow spoke up. I nodded and moved toward the table.

"Cyan is acting kinda sus. I vote him."

"You…!"

"I vote Cyan too," Red said.

"Me too," Yellow agreed.

"I can't think of anyone else." Green nodded.

"You all!" Cyan howled, but before he could do anything, Red waved a hand. The doors flew open, exposing the vacuum of space…ahem, I mean the shimmering red veil of the Andromeda Blood Barrier. Before Cyan could object, he was ejected from the castle and into the barrier. The four of us watched as he disintegrated, his body reduced into nothing. Cyan howled for a few moments before he was mercifully erased from existence. Even his noble regenerative abilities weren't enough to save him from destruction.

And just like that, he was gone.

Cyan was not the imposter. One imposter remains.

Unfortunately, none of the other vampires was aware of that…

*

"All right, we should all return to our tasks." Red clapped his hands.

"I will return to electrical to try and get the power up and running, and then I'll head to the storage and find you. Then we'll have a look at the armory."

"You do that, Black." Red nodded. "I'll wait for you at storage."

"I'll go to the study," Yellow offered.

"Then I'll go to the master bedroom," Green said. Everyone stared at him.

"Why? What's in the master bedroom?" Red asked.

"A bed, and treasure," Green replied. "Don't you know? Nobles like us always hide our most precious treasure in our bedroom. We keep it closest to us almost all the time. Sure, the armory and storage probably have lots of valuable materials, but the singular most precious treasure will definitely be in the bedroom."

He then winked at Yellow. "Also, I don't mind if you join me in the bed later, my dear. After you're done with the study."

"You rascal," Yellow replied, though she sounded more amused than offended. "Earlier wasn't enough, huh?"

Red glanced at me, and I could tell he felt sort of awkward. I would have too, but I was too busily thinking of how to make use of this new development. Nonetheless, I immediately turned away.

"All right, I'll see you guys later."

Then I went straight to electrical. Unlike Brown, I didn't possess technical knowledge or lightning magic, but as a mage I recognized the wards and enchantments that covered the equipment. It didn't take me long to fix everything and run the generator. Under my attempts, the lights came on and the castle was illuminated.

Once I was done with that, I took the shawl off Nocturne and used it to melt into the shadows. Using the magic of my black sword, I instantaneously transported myself to the master bedroom.

"Ah, the lights have come on," Green was murmuring to himself as he worked on the safe inside the room. "I can finally open this damned thing."

There was a click, and the safe open. Green then rummaged the safe and retrieved something from within.

"Aha! So the Blood Diamond was really stored in here after all…"

He never got to finish his sentence. Nocturne swept out and beheaded him. I made sure to stab his disembodied head to destroy his brain, and then I melted back into the shadows. While I did so, I caught sight of the blood-colored diamond shining in the headless vampire noble's hands.

That was the last image I had of the master bedroom before I disappeared into the darkness.

Emerging from the shadows some distance away from storage, I then concealed Nocturne back in the shawl and proceeded toward the room. As expected, Red was waiting there. He was opening the vaults and revealing a cache of frozen blood.

"Black? Is that you?"

"Yeah," I confirmed and stepped inside, glancing around. "I've finally restored power."

"Oh, yeah. I saw. Thanks to that, I was finally able to open the vaults." Red stepped back to show me the countless vials of frozen blood. "Look at what we have! Enough blood to supply an entire garrison for at least two years! If we ever come under a siege from one of the major warlords, we'll be able to hold out for quite a while!"

"Impressive. I assume we'll divide this equally among the four of us?"

"That's right." Red nodded. "Since we're all partners in this, we'll split this among ourselves. Then we'll continue with our plan to assassinate the new Demonic Emperor. Perhaps we'll finally be able to reveal our real identities to each other after that."

"That sounds like a good plan. Shall we head to the armory then?"

The find in the armory wasn't as impressive. There were no legendary weapons like the ones I found in the previous Demonic Emperor's treasury when escaping his castle. However, what they lacked in quality, they made it up in quantity.

"There's enough weapons in here to equip an entire vampire knight regiment!" Red said excitedly. "And they are all high quality weapons too!"

High quality when compared to the usual kind of weapons that non-noble vampires wielded, of course. Clearly Red was from a lesser nobility if he was impressed by these kind of weapons. Then again, my perspective was skewed because I had like three or four legendary vampire weapons in my possession. Otherwise, I was actually worse than Red in terms of nobility – I couldn't even count as a noble if I didn't have the damned crest.

"This is great." I faked my enthusiasm. "We can divide them amongst our forces too. It's unfortunate, but my standing army doesn't even amount to one regiment, so I don't need as many of these weapons as you guys."

"Ah." Red sounded sympathetic and a little scornful at the same time, as if realizing that I was the lowest of nobility. "Of course. The rest of us will make great use of these weapons, rest assured."

"I'm sure you will," I said, a hint of irony in my voice. Red didn't detect it, of course. Even if he did, he didn't have the chance to comment on it, because Yellow sounded the alarm the next second.

Apparently, she had found Green's body.