"Hmm..." Surrounded by walls from both sides and the front Akatsuki stops walking. One door to the front and five more on each side. 11 doors total but none of the doors when opened gave a show of a shadow of the intruder. Was he wrong in where to search? No Akatsuki did indeed feel a disturbance around this part of the manor. His senses were far sharper than the average human and have almost never been wrong. In that case...
"Does it require a unique situation?" Did he maybe have to open all the doors in a specific order? Maybe something was amiss in all this.
"Hm?" A child was walking towards this way. She was familiar, the same nekomini maid with a white apron. But her movement appears so mechanical and her eyes were devoid of all emotions like she was sleepwalking. For the time being Akatsuki hid in one of the rooms and watched silently as the cat ear maid stops. She looks around as if scanning for any signs of someone else. If this was the intruder or mind controller's form of caution they have already failed... After making sure that no one (besides Akatsuki) was near the girl opened the far right door.
"!" When the door opened the appearance of a room wasn't present. A portal was there instead! If Doraemon's fourth dimensional pocket could be manifested would it look like this? Never minding that Akatsuki followed after the cat ear maid into the portal before it was too late.
"Hm?" The scenery shifts to a dark hallway. Immediately Akatsuki snatched the cat ear maid's shoulder.
"Eh?" The sudden action seems to have given back her the control over her body.
"Where...?" "Who knows?" The child maid turns around to the voice.
"Eh ah Akatsuki-sama." "Mind telling me what happened? You were being mind controlled and lead here." "It starts with the rumor flying around the manor at night." According to the maid the rumor was that children would get up in the middle of the night and walk out of their rooms as if being called upon by something. Their eyes would generally be devoid of all emotions as they move forward like puppets under a string master. The next day they would come back looking drained as if they had their life forces sucked out of them. They called this phenomenon "Spirit Away" amongst the older children. "That description name doesn't make much sense." To be spirited away, or Kamikakushi, that expression is meant to remove an individual without one's notice. So it cannot be called a true Kamikakushi if the other children would notice the event. Moreover the victims of such spiritual phenomenons generally don't ever return as they either died or disappeared altogether. However, these children that were taken away returns even if they look dead tired. As for what would cause one to be spirited away legends say it's due to the individual's own misdeeds of having angered a god. To incur a god's wrath, these children that had no one to rely on but each other? It doesn't seem possible as Akatsuki believes none of these children living here in the Nameless Circle's manor to be bad kids who would commit crimes. For the most part they are all well behaved children with good discipline and responsible as they took care of the manor chores without complaint.
"Hmm." Whatever it was that mind controls the children of the Nameless Circle to come up here lies up ahead at the end of this hallway. Was this a bonus stage before calling it a day? Interesting, is what Akatsuki thought as he put on a smile.
"Umm..." "Stick behind me at all times. Uh..." He didn't really know her name.
"Nora, my name." "Then Nora stick close and don't move away from me at all times." Nora kept a constant hand on Akatsuki's tank top bottom as they moved down the dark halls. The place isn't dusty so someone had to have lived here. Actually the hall gave off a rather regal feel to it. The pale moon shone its light into the open curtain windows as the curtains fluffed from the soft nightly breeze.
"Uuu..." "There's no need to be scared." "Umu since Akatsuki-sama is strong." "Heh." Being overestimated couldn't possibly be a good thing but Akatsuki had to put up with it seeing as the fidgeting maid with cat ears is relying on his abilities to get them out of this safely.
"Still hasn't Inaba ever looked into this?" "Inaba-onee is always a bit busy so we couldn't exactly ask her to look into it." That was understandable. Inaba before Akatsuki came to Eden was the sole player that supported this Circle as best as she can. Seeing how hard working their sole caretaker is the children couldn't possibly bring themselves into bothering her with trivial matters like this.
"Do me a favor and from now on tell someone about these things. It's bad enough to leave it alone but it also makes the manor unsafe to live in." Nora nods in reply to Akatsuki's words.
"Which ratio had higher victims? The boys or the girls? Also if possible explain what you mean by tired, did they just have bags under their eyes?" "I believe the numbers of female victims are higher. As for tired...they were a bit pale. Almost looked like they could faint at any moment. Someone said that one of the children felt especially cold to the touch after they came back." "...I see." As if it all met his expectations Akatsuki went silent. What did this has to have been "that." As expected of Eden even those things exist here. At this point he shouldn't be surprised anymore.
With these thoughts in mind they have reached the end of the hallway. The door was slightly opened and from inside the room lights pour out. Not from lamps it seems to be more like lights from a candle stick as some unique scent was mixed into the air. Most likely a scented candle of the sort is used to produce this smell of roses and lavender.
"..." As Akatsuki opened the door to the culprit's room Nora gulps. Scented candle sticks littered the room surrounding a single flat stone bed with gold trimmings. On the bed are pure white flowers along with pink roses. In the midst of the light colored flowers is a body of darkness. A black Victorian dress with pink lined frills. The girl who wore that dress looked like a doll with a pink flower ribbon attached to her head. Her black hair looked so smooth as if it is the very night skies.
"Uwah beautiful..." Nora was taken aback by the sight of such a beautiful work of art that was called the body.
"..." Akatsuki kept his mouth shut as he saw the girl in the Victorian dress open her mouth slightly.
White canines. Long and sharp, designed to pierce into the skin of humans and animals alike. A vampire awakes as her eyes twitched slightly. She fully opens her reflective golden eyes while rubbing her sleepy face. It was an adorable act befitting that of the regal vampire girl.
"A-Akatsuki-sama." "Heh." With a cruel smile on his face Akatsuki approaches the just awaken vampire.
"Yo this game is my win." "Eh?" "What?" Still half asleep the vampire girl stares stunned at the devil before her.
"This." From his pocket Akatsuki took out a golden parchment, a Contract. It was most likely given to him when he had entered the dark halls through the portal along with Nora.
[Game – The Vampire's Nightly Feed] [Host – Theia Alucard Vermilion Dracular] [Player(s) – Anyone from the Nameless Circle's manor] [Objective(s) – Find the host without being controlled] [Wager of the host – One request of the player(s)] [Wager of the player(s) – Blood ] The objective was very straight forward compared to the game hosted by Shirayukihime. In fact it was so overtly simplistic that it was just a joke. Most likely this host by the name of Theia Alucard Vermilion Dracular had no idea that there would be someone that could come into the portal with the mind controlled. She didn't check the puppet's surroundings enough.
"Eh...?" As if still stunned by her unexpected defeat the vampire could only look at Akatsuki blankly. It took a few minutes of awkward silence but she begins to sweat fiercely. What was going on? How was she defeated so easily? What will happen to me now? This man with the tinged red bangs before me looks like a beast that would not just stop at one request. I'm scared.
"Ah..." This was the first time in her life that Theia had known absolute dread. She cursed at her own carelessness that had led to this.
"Keeping up your end of the bargain is the trick to being a good host."