“Since we have a guest, you should all leave now.”

The officials rose from their seats.

As if they weren’t discussing anything important, they each gave a brief greeting to the king and disappeared in an instant.

After they all left, the door closed behind them.

When the soft sound of “thump” echoed, Charlotte suddenly thought of the clock tower in the square.

The reason was unknown.

“Miss Berrett?”

Lyuen smiled, looking straight at Charlotte.

Charlotte, as she used to do when she was “Sherry,” slightly spread her skirt and curtsied in court style.

It was a reflexive action, momentarily forgetting that her status was not that of a noble.

Only after standing up did Charlotte make an “oops” expression, but King Lyuen merely nodded at her with an affectionate and pleased look.

Lyuen said,

“To think that Berrett’s daughter has grown up so much, time really flies.”

Charlotte’s eyes blinked quietly. A questioning look appeared in her gaze.

“Do you know my father, Your Majesty?”

“Wasn’t he the most skilled monster hunter in the Kingdom of Roynocke? It would be stranger not to know. Come, don’t just stand there, have a seat. Duke of Elinak too.”

Matiel was the first to move.

Charlotte hesitated whether to sit next to him, then sat down one seat away on the king’s left.

The three of them sat in a triangle around the round table with six chairs.

A servant brought refreshments.

The madeleine with the scent of quality butter stimulated the appetite, and the surface of seven types of jam in cute shell-shaped bowls sparkled like jewels.

Charlotte was staring at the tea water that looked like melted sunset when she suddenly looked up at King Lyuen’s words.

“What do you do, Miss Berrett?”

“I run an apothecary, Your Majesty.”

Then the king glanced at Matiel and smiled.

“According to the Duke of Elinak, you do other things as well.”

At that moment, Charlotte’s gaze flew sharply towards Matiel.

Even though he must have felt the lightning-like glare directed at him—or perhaps because he felt it—Matiel was elegantly and calmly drinking his tea.

‘What an irritatingly handsome man, really.’

“Miss Berrett?”

Startled by King Lyuen’s words, Charlotte whirled to face her.

Since Matiel seemed to have spilled everything anyway… she thought there was no way to hide it and no need to do so. Although identity forgery could be a problem.

“It’s alright, go ahead and tell me. From what I heard…”

Lyuen pretended to be lost in thought, tapping the table gently with his fingertips, then smiled, his eyes curving softly.

“You eliminate monsters, don’t you?”

Charlotte nodded as calmly as possible.

“That’s correct, Your Majesty.”

“Exactly how?”

After a moment’s consideration, Charlotte briefly explained that she was born with innate magical power, along with how she detects and captures monsters.

When talking about having an “informant,” she thought of Taemi’s face.

But she didn’t go into detail about him.

“…For that purpose, I sometimes use my… innate magical power, Your Majesty. In case of problems with nobles, I disguise my name and status… and do a kind of infiltration.”

Charlotte was very cautious in revealing this, but Lyuen seemed strangely uninterested in the topic.

He was listening, but his consciousness seemed to be elsewhere. Charlotte thought this was also because Matiel had already told him about it.

If so, she wondered why he had asked…

Lyuen said,

“I heard that Miss Berrett was with the Duke of Elinak at the Pelz Opera House.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. That’s correct.”

At Charlotte’s answer, Lyuen smiled mischievously, looking back and forth between Matiel and Charlotte.

“Are you two not in a romantic relationship?”

Charlotte was so taken aback by those words that she almost gaped.

Looking across, she saw that Matiel also had an indescribable expression on his face. However, he didn’t deny it by saying “that’s not the case.”

Therefore, Charlotte shook her head even more hurriedly and smiled awkwardly.

“Absolutely not, Your Majesty. I…”

Charlotte’s lips, about to say “how could I with the Duke,” closed into a straight line.

No matter how polite it was meant to be, she didn’t want to say such things in front of Matiel for some reason. Whether it was due to pride or not, she wasn’t sure.

King Lyuen laughed softly.

“I’m joking. I know you’re not in that kind of relationship.”

“I see…”

“Now, let’s get to the main point. You know I didn’t call Miss Berrett all the way here just to tell her a middle-aged woman’s bland jokes, right?”

Charlotte nodded.

Matiel also put down the teacup he had been holding all along—now that she noticed, he seemed to have only pretended to drink as the tea hadn’t decreased much—and adjusted his posture.

“I’d like to ask Miss Berrett first. Miss Berrett, you’re aware of the news of Viscountess Holmes’s death, aren’t you?”

“…Yes, Your Majesty. I am aware.”

“Was she really killed by a vampire?”

For a moment, Charlotte’s complexion turned slightly pale.

However, she nodded quite bravely, not anticipating the storm that was about to unfold.

“I believe there’s a high probability of that, Your Majesty.”

“A high probability.”

Lyuen, echoing her words exactly, turned his body slightly behind the table and opened a drawer attached under the side table.

The sound of the drawer handle rattling and then hitting the wood was heard, and Charlotte unconsciously turned her head towards the source of the sound.

It was a teardrop-shaped handle.

What came out of the drawer was Rachel Holmes’s medical record cum death certificate.

Lyuen handed it to Charlotte and blinked as if to say read it, but before she even picked up the paper, a few words caught Charlotte’s eye precisely.

Acute hypotension, blood oxygen 62, gastric bleeding, rapid onset of malignant tumor…

‘Blood oxygen 62, that’s impossible. Even at the time of death, it’s a completely… impossible figure. And rapid onset of malignant tumor.’

The Holmes viscounty had a skilled personal physician and received regular check-ups through him.

Although both husband and wife were frivolous in their social lives, they spared no effort in taking care of their bodies, and she, who loved to gossip, would boast to “Sherry” every time they met that her physical age was close to her 20s.

The “rapid onset” of a malignant tumor was essentially a phrase that couldn’t help but raise doubts, but Charlotte thought she knew why.

Unless the Holmes family’s physician had to lie for a long time, there was no way Rachel could have had such a serious illness.

That meant that some kind of disease must have developed in the process of being attacked by a vampire.

“What do you think now, Miss Berrett?”

Charlotte put down the death certificate full of questions and doubts and exhaled a trembling sigh.

“I think it’s true.”

Lyuen opened the drawer again.

Charlotte watched with a somewhat ominous feeling as the heavy teardrop-shaped handle made of brass swung back and forth.

Compared to the round and heavy-looking bottom part, the hanging part looked worryingly thin.

Suddenly, it seemed like it might fall off with a “thunk.” And the moment it hit the floor, it seemed like it would burst with blood…

“Of course, you’re also aware of the serial killings happening in Elliki. Have you seen this photo before, Miss Berrett?”

Charlotte could tell what kind of photo it was without looking at what Lyuen was pointing to.

As she expected, it was the same as the newspaper Matiel had brought once before.

The two black dots left on the man’s neck stared at Charlotte like eyeballs.

“And one more thing. There was an incident where a citizen living in the capital died horribly.”

A chilling phrase flashed through Charlotte’s mind.

weareherealreadyweareherealread

King Lyuen continued,

“According to the police investigation, that man was… apparently mauled by an animal. The Duke of Elinak said it looked like rats. You were there too, weren’t you, Miss Berrett?”

“…That’s correct, Your Majesty.”

“Can we say that this is also related to vampires?”

Charlotte, her lips trembling, slowly organized her thoughts before speaking.

She had never seen a vampire directly, nor did she know everything about their habits. But…

“…According to what I heard from my father, vampires can change their appearance by taking the ‘shell’ of their victims. They can also mimic various voices, and vampires that have lived for a very long time can even control people’s minds or perceptions. And they can freely command animals, especially rats, stray dogs, and crows.”

“Would the vampire that killed that man Treiker and the one that killed Viscountess Holmes be the same individual?”

“I’m not sure about that, Your Majesty.”

But in Charlotte’s mind, the answer ‘probably not’ was flashing.

Especially if you consider the phrase written on the basement wall of Blois Treiker.

King Lyuen let out a short sigh and put away the newspaper.

Then he asked a question Charlotte hadn’t expected at all.

“As the Duke of Elinak also said, Miss Berrett, you can use your innate magical power to blur people’s consciousness or perception, right? Would you like to try it on me once?”