Is it because Lion Lyon has been following me?
Is it because I have Lilith's 'blessing'?
Or is it because I previously disrupted Roselle's resurrection plan, and he learned something?
Even after the three "Machinery Hivemind" team members left, Ebner couldn't determine why Bonova was paying attention to him. After all, he was just an ordinary Sequence 5; why would an Angel pay him any mind?
Alright, I admit, I am a little bit special.
After a self-deprecating thought, Ebner didn't linger in the prison. After confirming there were no hidden observers in the cell, he used "Teleportation" to return directly to the "Golf Club."
He didn't plan to go to Mr. Wolff's house to look for clues. After the "Machinery Hivemind" got involved, that place would surely be monitored… And since even the prison cell's aura traces had been cleaned up, Mr. Wolff's house was probably tampered with too!
The "blood-sucking" incidents the "Machinery Hivemind" members mentioned earlier, however, were a better entry point. As long as he found Mr. Wolff himself, he should be able to get many clues about the "Witch King" Silvia… As long as there were enough clues, he could get a more accurate picture once his "prophecy" ability recovered tomorrow.
The location of the most recent "blood-sucking" incident happened to be on Carlot Street, not far from the "Golf Club," just one street away.
If Ebner hadn't been busy running to Bayam last night to bring Tracy back to "Ancient Vine Manor," perhaps he, remaining at the club, would have sensed the attack, and the tragedy wouldn't have occurred…
Of course, Ebner merely sighed briefly and didn't dwell on it. He had long since established his code of conduct: he would only consider helping when he encountered a situation and had the ability to help; if he didn't encounter it, and unless it was a friend's trouble, he wouldn't actively seek out involvement.
In other words, helping was a favor, not helping was his prerogative, and he only needed to have a clear conscience.
Leaving the club, Ebner changed his appearance, disguising himself as a reporter, and made his way to the house at 11 Carlot Street.
This was a detached house with a garden in the back, with an annual rent of around 250 Fels. In this area, it wasn't luxurious, but it also wasn't affordable for an average middle-class family.
It was precisely because the victim in this case was a prominent tobacco merchant that it attracted official attention, leading to a reverse investigation that uncovered several similar "blood-sucking" incidents in the East Slums.
Since the murder had occurred almost a day ago, the police had already finished their evidence collection, so they didn't stop reporters like Ebner, allowing them to interview and question the servants, only prohibiting photography.
After feigning a few uninspired questions to a distressed maid, Ebner went to the primary crime scene—the basement.
Honestly, this location confused Ebner greatly.
After all, it was strange enough for a tobacco merchant to be in the basement at night instead of sleeping. And the vampire let go of the more flavorful blood of the maids in the house to chase after a fat, big-headed merchant's blood in the basement… This was simply too bizarre!
Unless Mr. Wolff had some peculiar fetish.
As he muttered to himself, Ebner activated his Pure White Eye and began extracting auras from various spots in the basement.
Logically, a place like a basement shouldn't have too many visitors, so the auras should belong to only a few specific individuals. However, Ebner was astonished to find that the auras here were incredibly complex, with at least 100 or more people having stayed there!
Yet, it seemed that some Demigod-level power had tampered with the area, making the auras in the basement very difficult to extract. If not for the boost from Ebner's Pure White Eye, he probably wouldn't have discovered them on his own.
"Most of these auras… are from young girls…" After sifting through the auras one by one, Ebner had some unpleasant suspicions. He narrowed his eyes, mentally prepared himself, and began his "Recall."
What followed were scenes that filled him with anger.
It turned out that the owner of this house, whose identity as a "tobacco merchant" was merely a disguise, was actually a "blood slave" to vampires! He used the pretext of hiring female workers to trick young girls into his basement periodically, for his masters to feast upon and enjoy… And this had been going on for at least a year or two!
Among those masters, Ebner saw the well-dressed Mr. Wolff, the Witch King Silvia whose face was obscured, and an unfamiliar man wearing a hood.
But last night, the utterly wicked tobacco merchant encountered an accident while entertaining one of his "masters." That "vampire" seemed to have changed its taste, sparing the innocent girl and instead drinking the merchant's sinful blood, sucking him dry until he died!
Afterward, Mr. Wolff surprisingly let the unconscious girl go, sending her out of the house…
The "Recall" scene ended there.
Ebner frowned, a little surprised, as Mr. Wolff's transformation was beyond his expectations… He had thought that the other party was not being picky because of a "loss of control," even consuming his own "blood slave."
Is this… a lingering effect of the Primordial Moon's fall?
Quite possibly… Perhaps Mr. Wolff was a devout follower of the Primordial Moon, and as its Beauty Goddess characteristic merged with Lilith, his disposition even changed in order to get closer to the deity?
Is Lilith making all Primordial Moon followers drink only the blood of "sinful" people?
Hmm, I'll investigate the East Slums later to see if those who were previously sucked dry were also villains… However, this effect should only be limited to mid-to-low sequences, and only for vampires who originally held a pure faith in the Primordial Moon…
Having made a judgment, Ebner suddenly felt that finding Mr. Wolff might not be so troublesome. If he prayed to the Earth Mother, the other party might just come to him, just like "that… undying… idiot" who sought out Klein in the original novel.
Though he thought this, Ebner first used a secret art to collect the residual auras of Wolff, Silvia, and the hooded man, keeping them for backup, before leaving the tobacco merchant's house.
Next, he changed his appearance again, rented a room in a nearby hotel, set up a ritual, prepared the "Daniel Dew," and began to pray earnestly to the Earth Mother.
Two or three seconds later, the ritual ended, the dew vanished, and the other powdered materials moved on their own, forming word after word: "Try to use 'Wheel of Fortune' as little as possible before becoming a Demigod. The more fortunate and smooth things are now, the more terrifying the bad luck will be later."