After explaining that I was interested in renting one of the available living spaces of the building, the receptionist handed me several forms with several questions and other important details to fill out before pointing me to a nearby table and chair. I have to list my name, my profession and employer, my age, my average monthly income, and all sorts of other things that were apparently important when it came to renting a place for the long term. The only thing I didn’t fill out was the section about the bank accounts, instead I just left a mark in a square for the no option asking if I already had a bank account.

I returned to the receptionist with the form in hand, she took it and looked it over before asking me a question. “I see you don’t have a bank account at the moment, do you by any chance have the money on hand? If so, you can move in right away.”

With a smile I reached into my bag and pulled out a pouch of coins and reached inside for a single silver piece, I placed the piece in her hand and returned the pouch to my bag. The receptionist took the silver piece and exited from my view for a moment before returning with a document that she handed to me.

“This right here is the paperwork that is evidence of your residence here. You will receive an updated copy every month in the mail located just behind you on that back wall when you pay your rent every month.” I turned to look behind and saw around twenty metal mailboxes all around the size of a small wooden chest.

When I turned back to the receptionist she was handing me a thin and rather large ring of metal with two keys attached, one key was larger and thicker than the other with a number ten stamped onto the head. “These here are the keys for your living quarters and mailbox, the smaller key is for your mailbox while the other opens and locks your front door.” Taking the keys I found they were made of decent quality iron as well as the metal ring that kept them together.

The receptionist then handed me another piece of paper that had what appeared to be a list of rules. “This here is a list of the rules you will need to follow while you are living here. There are some obvious ones such as no loud noises after 10 o’clock at night, and a few others you might not have expected. Oh and do open an account with one of the banks soon would you, that way you can just have your rent paid automatically every month.”

I looked up and down the list and the first half of the rules were something to be expected, mostly consisting of no loud noises after ten o’clock and the like. However one rule that stood out right away was no bathing farm animals. I looked at the rule and reread it several times over to be certain that I was reading it correctly.

Instead of trying to figure out why that was a rule I looked at the number ten stamped onto the head of the key and went to the stairs. There were no living quarters on the ground floor, all of them were on the second or third floors and mine turned out to be the very last one on the first floor. Each floor consisted of the stairway which led to a hallway that was collected to each of the living quarters, each door had the room number painted with yellow paint that made it easy to determine which room was which.

I found mine at the very end across the small hallway from number nine, I inserted the key and unlocked it before stepping inside. As it turned out the room was a little larger than I thought it was, I thought it had been just a little larger than the room in the tavern I was renting, but I was mistaken as the place was easily fifty percent larger and it even had a nice window on the western side overlooking the street below.

It still wasn’t a very large space compared to the house I had bought in the past, but for just a single silver coin this was a very nice deal. “Alright, now I just need to inform the glassmakers about the change of my address and then buy some furniture to fill this place out with. To start with I am going to need a bed, a few chairs, a decent sized table, a closet, and a divider to separate the bed from everything else.’

Looking outside I saw it was around noon already, a little surprising considering I had woken up at nine in the morning. ‘I must have spent a lot of time filling out all that paperwork. I’ll need to rush over to the glassmakers before I do anything else.’ I thought to myself as I started rushing out the door and heading for the exit of the building.

*********

I managed to quickly inform the glassmakers of my recent address change before I started walking around looking for a store to buy some furniture, since I was already in the eastern distinct I decided that it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to just find a carpenter or two that are already in the area to buy everything from. They might even have been willing to help me transport everything with how large my purchase will be.

I ended up finding a decent sized carpentry store that had some nice looking furniture for a decent price just a few buildings down from the glassmakers. But as I was speaking with an employee regarding the prices of some of the furniture I was interested in, namely a set of chairs and a large table, we were interrupted by a group of four guardsmen and the detective I spoke with the night before.

“I am sorry to interrupt you sir but you need to come with us.” The detective said as he waved the employee away. I looked at the group of five confused and a little annoyed as I was definitely planning on buying that table and chair set.

“I was going to buy a few things.” I said not caring to hide my feelings. The detective didn’t really seem to care and just continued speaking as if I didn’t say anything.

“I would have done this last night, but I was rather occupied by the fact that a vampire had managed to operate within the city undetected for quite some time. I informed the king's advisor of the situation and just about everyone who was in the room with him about what happened and they ordered me to return to my post and inform my superiors as they would be contacting a group who specializes in vampires.”

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“And I assume your captain ordered you along with these fine gentlemen to come and find me and keep me safe in the event there are more vampires hiding somewhere.”

“Yes, though I don't think this is the proper place for such a conversation. So if you be so kind, come with us someplace where we will not be overheard.” The detective wasn’t asking any more, he was demanding. Though he wasn’t threatening me, instead it was more of a “for your own good” type of demand. I went with him of course as I expected more information on the situation given that I wasn't just a nobody this time.

*********

Several hours later the six of us were standing in a room with the captain of the western district city guard Lucia Dio. She looked exactly the same as I remember her with her armor and thin stabbing sword.

Since the vampire attack happened in the western district for the time being she had authority on the case and was leading the investigation. Since I was both the victim and survivor of the attack she wanted me to give her all the information I had on the subject as well as anything that I had been doing beforehand that might have led to the attack.

“So you attacked and killed some sort of criminal that was disposing of dead bodies on an unused plot of land a few days prior to the attack?”

“That is correct captain.” I answered back. I remember the last time I spoke with her was regarding another crime, but she was far nicer to me when it happened than she was now. She seemed very tense about something and it was affecting her emotions regarding the vampires. I just hoped that it wasn’t affecting her judgement as well.

“So there is a very real possibility that this vampire is involved with this group of red cloaked individuals. Then we must also consider the possibility of many more vampires as members of this group.” Captain Dio said as she took a seat at her desk.

“Do you think that is what all the corpses are from, feeding all those vampires?” I asked, already knowing the answer to that question. “I’ve read a bit about vampires and from what I understand they need to drink the blood of mortals in order to survive. Otherwise they shrivel up and become a sort of living statue until they are bathed in blood.”

I could feel the captain, the detective, and the four guardsmen in the room with me tense up at the statement. They knew if I was correct, and I was, then there were very likely many more shallow graves all over that plot of land where they were hiding.

“If there are more vampires then it is very likely that this group of red cloaks are servants of these vampires. It is likely they are finding and later disposing of victims that the vampires drink the blood of.” Captain Dio abrupted stood up as she finished speaking and headed for the door. She pushed it open and the detective followed after her.

“Captain, is something wrong?” He asked as he pushed the door open.

I looked to the two guards that were just as surprised as I was and asked “Is it alright if I follow them?” The guards looked a little surprised for a second before nodding.

Quickly I jogged after the duo through the building and down several flights of stairs. By the end of this chance we were in a basement area that was rather cold compared to the rest of the building with a large and presumably heavy metal door before us. Captain Dio reached for the key chain she had on her belt and inserted one into the lock before opening the door and pushing inside. Both the detective and I followed just seconds behind her.

When we stepped inside we found that we were inside some sort of cold storage section of the building. The room we were in wasn’t used for preserving corpses, but it was still very cold. We saw the captain speaking with somebody that was wearing strange clothing that somewhat reminded me of a butcher's outfit, only this man was wearing goggles over his eyes and a partial cloth mask over his mouth and nose.

“Ma’am, we haven gotten to the corpses from that case just yet. We have a few other important cases to deal with before we can worry about just a few old bodies.”

“Well consider this case of the highest priority right now, we have new evidence that suggests that this is something the entire city should be very concerned about. So I suggest that you get your priorities straight and take a look at the most recent corpses for the cause of death and bring me a report the moment you are done.” Captain Dio turned and walked back towards us without even giving the man a chance to say anything back.

“You two, follow me back to my office. We have several things to discuss going forward.” Captain Dio said as she grabbed each of us by an arm. As it turned out she was quite strong, far stronger than I thought she would be, I still could have likely gotten out of her grip but that wouldn’t have been very productive to our situation. The detective was likely thinking the same way as he didn’t try either.

The captain let us go when we were out of the room to lock the door behind her before leading us back up to her office. Once inside she ordered the guards who were still waiting inside out and locked the door behind them.

“Now that we have the room to ourselves we need to make a decision about what to do with you Mr. Arthur.” Both the detective and I looked at Captain Dio with a touch of confusion.

“And why exactly do we need to be alone for that captain?” The detective asked.

“Because I don’t want the information to get out if we plan for something that needs to remain a secret, detective Carius. However, that decision will rely mostly on our mage friend here and what he wants to do.” I looked at the captain rather confused by the statement.

“And why exactly would it matter what I want to do? From what I understand about the law you have the authority on this, I see no reason why you wouldn’t be able to make me follow whatever plan you want to use.”

“Quite simple really, you seem to have a good head of your shoulders and some knowledge when it comes to fighting vampires. You might have just killed your first vampire last night not knowing what it was until after, but you know enough about how to protect yourself and as a mage you have a decent arsenal of tools and spells to use at will. So if you have anything to add to the conversation I invite you to do so.”

I looked the captain in the eyes for several seconds trying to understand her reasoning before I gave up and gave my thoughts on the situation. “If we want a minimal amount of casualties and a group that has proper experience and a lot more knowledge than I do then we should get the circle of fire’s paladins involved and have them ready to fight the vampires and their servants.”