He still had that warm smile on his face.
"You managed to encounter both Wolfgang who is a Pack Leader and Black Calamity and still managed to survive. Just that speaks volume of your skills."
He knew about my encounters?
"I was just lucky."
He laughed.
"How humble. His behaviour is not that bad. I believe luck is also a skill."
He leaned back.
"But now we need to focus the problem front of us. You are the one that managed to capture Alice Bathory. You were also tasked with killing the ghoul she created. While you were successful with capturing her, you failed to kill ghoul. How will you explain your failure?"
Shit. Not Elizabeth but Council will berate or even punish me for my failure? Also, I just learned the name of vampire I captured. Funny, really.
"I managed to track down Alice Bathory and the ghoul she created. I incapacitated her and started fighting the ghoul. While I overpowered it, it kept healing, mutating and getting stronger."
"Cut your excuses!"
Beel spat out. I kept explaining myself without not caring about him. Of course he would tried to find my faults since I was Elizabeth's Turned.
"Just as I was about to use Greek Fire given to me by my mistress, Will Talbot who claimed to be an underling of Wolfgang attacked me."
Some of the members started to whisper to each other.
"I engaged and we had a brief scuffle. He must have thought I wasn't someone he could defeat without putting everything in the line and escaped with the ghoul."
Face Alucard was making turned sour. Whispers got louder.
"Why didn't you followed and killed him?"
Melana asked. This political bullshit was annoying.
"Because I didn't knew if he had any traps or reinforcements. I also didn't fully restrained Alice Bathory yet. I had to choose between securing her or chasing after Will Talbot. I chose the former."
I looked at the Alucard. I could see that gears shifting in his head.
"Will Talbot. Do you have any information on him, Salem?"
He asked as he turned his head to a woman with black hair. She was beatiful except black veins pulsing on her face. She touched her chin as if trying to remember.
"I am not sure. If he is really from Wolfgang's pack we should have some kind of information. More research is required."
He turned his head to me once again.
"Burak Sarı. You managed to capture a criminal and managed to chase a werewolf away. For your contributions I would like to reward you."
Just as he finished his sentence entire Council erupted into a frenzy.
"He is a coward who ran away from our race's archenemy! You should punish him!"
"He couldn't even kill a ghoul! He doesn't deserve any kind of rewards!"
The usual suspects, Beel and Melana were against it.
"So we have 2 that against rewarding him. Let's take a vote. Should we reward him?"
5 members raised their hands. Elizabeth wasn't one of them.
"Should we punish him?"
5 members raised their hands. Elizabeth wasn't one of them. There was also another member who haven't raised his hand at all.
"Hmm. This is difficult. 2 absented from voting and our votes are equal. I guess this is the problem with having even members."
He pulled his glasses from his face.
"What do you say, Burak? What should we do with you?"
I looked at Elizabeth, expecting some kind of hint about how I should answer. She just had a cold look on her face. I was alone for giving an answer.
"As some members of Council already said, I couldn't finish the mission given to me. Hovewer, I also secure Alice Bathory and chase away a werewolf. I do not want any rewards. Only thing I want is more strength so I don't fail other missions I will be given."
I take quick look at Elizabeth's face but it was still the same. It would be nice if she gave me any signs.
"How checky. Isn't what you said is same as expecting rewards?"
A muscular middle aged man spoke up.
"With all of my respect, no. Is filling your car with gas is rewarding the car? Of course no. You need it full to use it. My request is not different."
His looked at me more carefully. I felt like his sight was piercing through me. His face became serious.
"You. What is you relationship with Black Calamity?"
I gulped as I felt bloodlust directed to me. What he meant by that?
"Tigon. This is Council. Restrain your bloodlust."
Alucard's voice was stern. Bloodlust directed towards me became lessened but never went away. I felt my back became wet with cold sweat. I felt the members of Council looking at me. Yes, of course they saw me before. But they weren't seeing me in a real sense. I was an ant on the ground. Would you look at an ant you saw on the ground seriously. The answer was no.
"I met him once. He tried to kill me."
I spoke up.
"That wasn't what I asked. Why do you have the same skill as him?"
What? People had the same skills all the time. Hawkeye, Shooting and Throwing. I met people who had same skills as me before. Of course some skills was rarer than others but… That didn't meant anything. People from different countries could have the same skill. Yeah, there were some some theories about skills being genetic but nothing was proven.
"Enough."
Elizabeth finally spoke up.
"My servant doesn't need to asnwer your questions Tigon. Don't push you luck."
Tigon rose from his chair.
"I am trying to-"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP."
He fell down to his chair as fast as he rose up with Elizabeth's voice. He was covered with sweat and his face reddened. Alucard sighed.
"Please restrain from doing things that are unfit for a member of Council. Both of you. We are the highest of our proud race. If you behave like this, how do you expect young members of our race, like Burak here would behave?"