With his loyal subordinate walking up ahead, Arthur remained vigilant and always checked his rear in case of an ambush. Fortunately, by the time he had reached the end of the corridor, nothing happened, and when the creaking door was pushed open by the zombie, Arthur didn't notice anything abnormal, at least for the first couple of seconds.
Laying on the bloodied bed, in which his first victim had lifelessly laid before, was a silver-haired woman with chilling crimson pupils glaring right back at him. Before he could react, a pitifully small ball of flames shot toward him but ended up striking the zombie and barely did any damage.
The undead fell to the ground and tapped the bits of flames scorching his left arm then clumsily and slowly stood up, dumbly looking between the woman and his master.
After firing that surprise attack, the woman fell on the bed and struggled to sit up again, her hand still raised and pointed at Arthur. She was wearing a dirty white cloth stained with dried blood, which failed to hide the hideous wounds on her right thigh and left side of the abdomen.
Although the woman did not recognize the parasite, it wasn't the case for the latter. He had seen it recently when he was in his bat form. She was the same person being chased by those men that night, and from the looks of it, she was a demon.
Now that he had become more knowledgeable about Astria, its customs, and its races, it wasn't that hard to distinguish Demons from Humans, albeit the numerous similarities between the two, especially appearance-wise.
What gave away the woman's real identity was not only her eye-catching silver hair, but also her unusually pale skin and blood-red eyes. While it was true he did not feel any personal ill-will toward the demon, Arthur was still on-guard and refused to get closer to her. The fact that she could cast long-ranged magic made her incredibly dangerous as Arthur was not experienced in fighting magic users.
She seemed to be at death's door but Arthur did not want to bet on that to keep his life. While still keeping his focus on her, Arthur, with a low voice, instructed the zombie to go fetch the stacks of documents on the other side of the room.
The zombie showcased relative immunity to the demon's magic so it was safer to use him.
"Right away, master."
The undead, with his signature limping walk, made his way toward the documents while paying no heed whatsoever to the demon woman.
On the other hand, she was still struggling to get up and mustering her magic to attack the approaching zombie. Even after he bypassed her, she vehemently refused to tear her gaze away from him.
Arthur stayed behind, using the half-opened door to defend himself from her view and magic.
Time passed and the zombie finally reached the dusty documents, however, his intentions were misunderstood as he also stopped next to a pile of torture instruments. The silver-haired woman grew more panicked, so much that she forcefully twisted her body and fell off the bed.
With a loud thud, she crashed onto the ground letting out a groan of pain, but she didn't lose consciousness, or rather, she bore through the pain and was about to cast her magic again, not at the zombie but at the instruments, which were adjacent to the documents.
Unwilling to lose those papers, which could prove useful in uncovering the truth behind Latif's experiments, Arthur was left with no choice but to open his mouth, both to warn the demon and stop her.
"Demon Lady, there is no need to resort to violence."
Hearing Latif's croaky voice so suddenly startled her, she kept her hand raised and turned her head, looking at him with a piercing stare utterly devoid of emotion.
'Demon Lady?'
She was momentarily confused of the way she was called but she dared not drop her guard or trust his words. However, in such a dire situation in which she was totally defenseless, she couldn't speak, much less move. In fact, she was still channeling her magic and it may or may not work, so, stalling actually worked in her favor.
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"I believe there's a misunderstanding. I did not come here for you."
Arthur pointed at the documents and continued, "This is my home and I've come for those. You don't need to be so alarmed."
Arthur tried to calm the situation but his creepy voice along with his appearance did not help at all. The owner of such a bloody place was bound to be evil, and to make things worse, he had a zombie, which could only mean he was a Necromancer of some sort, at least that would be the logical assumption.
"But, if I were you, I'd leave this place as soon as possible."
After he finished saying his piece, Arthur signaled the zombie, which, in his turn, picked the documents and walked back, still ignoring the fallen and wounded demon.
After one last look at the gloomy and blood-drenched room, Arthur urged the zombie to go on ahead and directed his gaze at the silver-haired woman. She managed to sit up, more or less, her beck leaning against the slim legs of the metallic bed.
"There's no need for so much hostility when we just met each other, right?"
He ended with a truly creepy cackle, which involuntarily escaped his mouth. The demon's behavior and actions were normal for anyone in her position, or even for someone so distrustful of strangers, very much like Arthur.
Considering what he went through on Earth, Arthur would probably have been like that were the circumstances slightly different. But, instead of a direct approach, even to a fatal danger, Arthur was the type of person to remain calm and always assess the situation. A stranger could turn into an ally in the blink of an eye… all it took were common goals.
While it was true she had attacked him, that did not outright make them enemies. She thought she was defending herself from a possible assailant and there was nothing wrong with that, or so he thought. Also, in her current condition, he could have killed her easily, but he didn't and that was because he would gain nothing by doing that. There was simply no reason to kill her when they had just met.
Clearly, she was a victim of discrimination and although Arthur had neither the will nor the energy to help her, that doesn't mean he would act the same as those men who had been chasing her that night.
It was better and more practical to leave things as they were. He came here to retrieve the documents and he just did that, therefore, he would pretend nothing happened and return to Wilsden Town.
After retrieving the documents, Arthur did not linger in Latif's hideout longer than necessary. He soon made his way back to the town. He ordered a meal, swiftly ate it, then retreated to his inn room.
The rest of the day was spent reading and trying to decipher Latif's papers, which were in all shapes, colors, and forms. The old parchments were the hardest as they were written in the Arman Language, which Arthur had very little knowledge about.
When he had possessed Latif, he obtained the [Arman Language] passive skill, however, his understanding of it was less than 20%. Basically, he would understand a word out of ten or twenty and that didn't help at all.
Fortunately, not all of Latif's research papers were in Arman, some were readable though difficult to fully comprehend. The gist of the research was Vampirism, as expected, but the topics varied a lot, ranging from Vampiric Diseases to Vampiric Ascension.
Only late at night did Arthur leave his room and go downstairs, both to eat and, for the first time, try and mingle with the regulars. Adventures and the townsfolk loved gossip and though Arthur was possessing the body of Latif, who didn't have a likeable face, he was still able to form superficial friendly relationships with a couple of people.
Without a doubt, that night was the most fruitful for the parasite. He learnt a lot of things about Wilsden's Nobility, allowing him to finally pick a suitable target.
Lord Leonis Sanguis, a 51 year-old noble with no children and a decent amount of wealth. Arthur had picked Leonis out of all the nobles for many reasons; Not only did he not have children but he also had a nasty character, which meant, even amongst the nobles, he wasn't what one would call 'social'. He was a distant relative of Sancha Sanguis, who was part of the Aristocratic Consortium, however, their relationship was rock-bottom, so much that it was rumored he had cut ties with the main family and was living on his own.
Arthur's new 'friends' also talked about how Leonis was one of the close-minded nobles who believe they are above peasants and the rest. Admittedly, all nobles have the same chain of thoughts, but a small minority like to boast about it and enforce their authoritative rights whenever they could.
Except for such trivia regarding Leonis Sanguis, not very much was known about his personal life. He had a wife who died ten years ago and he was now living alone in his manor, rarely attending banquets and always at odds with another noble by the name of Edward Of Londax.
There was one more important piece of information Arthur had heard; The daughter of Baron Lernon was apparently sick, rumored to be bitten by a rogue vampire a couple of months ago. She had not been seen for a while and some go as far as claiming she had died or run away from home.
Arthur, on the other hand, had another theory, a more interesting one that ties directly with Latif. What if the Baron was making use of Latif to cure his daughter and impress the inspector at the same time? That would be like hitting two birds with one stone. Arthur didn't know which one took precedence for Lernon, but, either way, his outrage, and anger were warranted considering he desperately needed Latif's and his successful experiment.