"Is that so? He's willing to join our side?"
"How can we be sure he won't betray us?"
"Same way I did. Patrick needs to make a vow."
Two sides that were just fighting each other are suddenly allying. Chifuyu and Ariel explained the situation to the others when they arrived. Sabeh is amused about the whole thing, Inyaki and Diego smirk at each other, and Chloe doesn't know what to make of it. Meanwhile, Iris is fighting to stay conscious. Shinatsu and Kagura accepted what's going on without questioning it, but the twin-tailed girl is still skeptical.
"A vow? With pleasure. I vow my loyalty to Chifuyu, swearing to never betray him."
"Should that do it?" asks Kagura.
"Not yet, the others have to do it too."
"Eh?"
"Sure."
"Go ahead you three."
"…. I vow loyalty to Chifuyu, swearing to never betray him." They speak in unison.
"They're only vowing loyalty to Chifuyu, not the Hunter Agency."
"Should be fine." Shoyo is not worried.
"If you say so. So we have more vampires joining the side of humanity, what're they going to do about blood?"
'More?' Diego questions in his head.
"We have loyal staff in my company who know what we are, blood will not be a problem. Now, you wish to know what my information is, right?"
"Let's hear it," states Ariel.
Patrick smiles before speaking, "They're vampires who were born here in Shioto. They took over an orphanage and used it as a means to raise countless vampires here. They succeeded in bringing up over 100 vampires in the past half a decade who've integrated themselves into human society. The four of us here aren't from the Alter World."
"Woah."
"Seriously?"
This news shocks the 4 young Hunters and Diego.
"We knew that was a possibility, now it's confirmed."
"Hmph. Vampires' DNA structure is completely identical to that of a human once they take on a human form. The cells that make up the properties of a vampire disappear once they appear human, and reappear when they revert back. I'm sure you're already aware of this too, which is what makes tracking us so difficult with the typical approaches."
"More stuff we figured."
"Keep your socks on, we're getting to the good part. The Slayers are currently run by the strongest 7 vampires here in Shioto. If I had to say, each one of us has the strength equivalent to or greater than a Special Rank Hunter. I'm unquestionably the weakest, I know 2 others were also born here. But the strongest one of us is the one who actually calls the shots. There are only a few who know her identity, she's undoubtedly also blended into human society. Up until a decade ago, the Slayers was an unorganized group comprised mostly of Ariel's old army who wanted to unseal her. When the current leader took the reigns, stronger vampires from the Alter World joined and the Slayers became a lot more methodical. Revealing themselves less and not getting killed close to as many times as before. Thus, the human's false sense of peace grew even more."
"Would you look at that, we're actually getting some good info. Can you tell us the names and abilities of the other 6?"
"Unfortunately I can't tell you anything about our leader, or much about the second in command who still looks like he hasn't hit puberty other than his name being Hanako."
"That's the runt that showed up."
"Yeah."
"He's also the one that kidnapped Chifuyu and Iris last year."
"As for the other 4, one is a 16-year-old girl with light blue hair and silver eyes when she's appearing as a human, her curse gives her the ability to turn anything she touches into ice. She goes by the name of Chisato. The other female is tall, over 6 feet with long dark blue hair and a noticeable figure. She can control the rain, prolonging its stay on top of using it as a weapon. Her name is Ame. Both of them were born in Shioto. The 6th is a brawny musclehead, named Kakuto. His curse gives him a ridiculous amount of strength, enough to topple a District by himself. Last but not least is Akutenshi, whom Shoyo fought not too long ago."
Ariel flinches at the name Akutenshi. "Wait, he's here on Shioto? Akutenshi?!"
"Oh, you know him?" asks Shoyo.
"Yeah, and that's who you fought? He was one of the top 5 strongest Vampire Lords."
"Really now?" Shoyo gets excited, putting a hand over his chin. "Is he stronger than you?"
"I was top 5 too." Ariel says this, but that was 200 years ago, today might be a different story.
"Patrick, I got a question."
"What is it, dear Chifuyu?"
"This Hanako, when we met he was spouting some nonsense about Iris being his sister and about how someone's gonna betray me. You know what he was talking about?"
"Sadly I haven't a clue."
'I totally forgot about that.' Apparently one of the biggest twists of the prologue slipped Iris's mind this whole time.
"I'll continue…"