Jared's inn was very very big place. But now as so many people were living there, hiding there would be tricky, but not impossible. There was a way from which Fabian could hide there. But the only catch was that he had to live in the dirtiest place in the inn. And that was its basement.
The basement was the only place in that inn, that was not visited by those people very often. Based on the dust that had accumulated in his office, he could tell that it was only visited from time to time. His office space felt like that it had not been visited by any human in ages. For that reason, he could hide in the basement. And all he needs to do was make sure to take control over the people that regularly visit the basement.
He knew that Maria would be the one that would visit the basement from time to time. Another person would be Martha, Justin's wife. Martha was responsible for the restaurant of the inn. And if the guess was right then she would be responsible for all the food making in the inn. That means that she would also be coming down to the basement.
Now as he had decided what he needs to do, Fabian started enacting his grand plan…
That night Fabian sneaked into the inn again. He then locked himself in his office and stayed there. He knew that by the morning someone was bound to come in the basement. And when they would come, he would first observe how many people come down here. He knew that Martha and Maria would come here, but he just wanted to make sure that except them no one would come down to the basement.
….
The next morning the inn had a gloomy atmosphere. Everybody was sad because they lost Sherly and her child. The men had decided that they would go look for them early in the morning. But everyone knew that finding them was a pipe dream. Even though they had managed to survive the monster out in the woods, the cold would have killed them off.
That two unusual things happened that day. Martha the cook of the inn as well as the wife of Justin went to the basement as usual. She went there to bring up ingredients for breakfast. For half an hour she stayed in the basement. That day surprisingly no one noticed that she spent way more time there.
Soon Maria also went down to get some stuff from the basement. Like Martha, she also went to the basement and came late. Similarly, people that went down there came back pale and sweating beads….
…
"I FUCKING HATE MY LIFE." said a girl in the silver armor. The girl was wearing silver armor with a red color flying bird insignia.
If anyone from the Boonie village would have seen this girl then they would have realized that the girl is the same stranger that came to their village on a dark night. She and her colleagues set fire to the village while fighting the man from the inn.
Currently, the woman was walking in deep snow. She was wearing a heavy woolen coat to shield herself from the cold. With her, the middle-aged man with a red beard as well as the archer were also walking.
"Don't curse in front of the elder." The archer said in a calm voice while looking up. While these guys were walking an old man with a long white beard could be seen flying calmly above them. The old man had his face buried in a book while flying but he was aware of everything happening around him.
"Elder, could you tell me one more time why are we doing this?" the middle-aged burly man asked politely.
"Our mission was to recover the ring that the vampire that we hunted possessed. It was my mistake to assume that the ring in question was a spatial artifact. But we have to secure a red color ring that the vampire had." The old man said calmly. But while speaking his head was still buried in the book.
"But there was no red color ring on the body of that vampire." The archer said.
"Yes, there wasn't any ring. But I have to make sure that he had not hidden that ring elsewhere. That is why we are going back to the village." The elder said calmly.
"But why? What is so special about that ring?" The woman asked with an irritating voice.
"Don't know, Don't care." The elder said calmly.
"Finding that ring won't be easy." The archer said.
"Yes, that is indeed the truth. From what I have heard, that ring is not a magical artifact. So it does not emit mana. That is where you guys come in." the elder said.
"I am a Rank-1 warrior. I am one of the fiercest warriors of the Cassius church. Then why the hell am I going to a remote village to get a stupid ring. Why is that ring so important?" the woman said angrily.
"We are soldiers girl. We do what we are asked to do. And we are expected not to ask too many questions about the assignment." The elder said while turning the page of the book that he was reading.
"But how the hell are we supposed to find that ring? You said that it is not a magic artifact. That means that it would not emit any sort of mana. So then how the hell are we supposed to find such a thing?" the woman asked.
"We have to try. And remember this may seem like a regular job. But don't let your guard down even for a second." The old man said.
"Yes, elder." All three of them said in a unison.
….
"Are you sure that we are going in the right direction?" said a woman fully covered by a black cloth. Currently, this woman was standing in the forest with snow all around her. And with her, there was another hooded figure which was looking at the map and a had a compass in his hands.
"Yes. His last transmission clearly stated that he was currently staying in a small village called the Boonie village." Came the voice of a man.
"Then where the fuck is this village? I don't see anything here other than an old forest and a lot of snow." The woman said.
"I am trying my best to navigate. So if you would be kind enough, the just SHUT UP!" the man said and then started looking at the map again.
"Why are you getting cranky. I should be the one getting cranky. If it wasn't for you we would just take the simple route there and we would be there by now." The woman said angrily.
"WE ARE VAMPIRES IN THE TERRITORY OF THE CASSIUS CHURCH. I DID THAT SO THAT WE COULD SURVIVE AND NOT BE SEEN BY SOME MONGRELS MORTALS AND BE HUNTED LIKE A DOG." The man refuted back more angrily.
"So what now then? We are lost. What should we do now genius?" the woman asked.
"Please just shut up…" the man said softly.
Then that man started looking at the map once again trying to locate where exactly he was. As the winter season was upon them, so the whole sky was covered with clouds. That meant for navigation one only have to rely on compasses. That is why they were stuck.
After a while gave up as he didn't know what else should he do now. But it was then they both felt strong mana fluctuation coming from the north. This kind of mana fluctuations shouldn't be felt in a backward area like this. So both of them started running towards the north at full speed.