"Captain, what's happened??"
The crew of the Unicorne rushed over following the rats, most of them disheveled, smelling of alcohol, with various shades of lipstick marks on their collars.
"Who knows where Deep went last night?" Charles asked them.
The skinny chef Frey immediately spoke up, "Captain, I know, last night the lad was taken away by the Second Officer. He said he wanted to find a more upscale place, to make him a real man. It's just ahead, not far from here."
"Grab your weapons, everyone follow me!"
Had they provoked the local gang? Charles immediately thought of this possibility, since normally that kind of industry is controlled by certain groups.
But that didn't make sense either; no gang would kidnap someone and then specifically send a resignation letter—that behavior clearly indicated they wanted to keep others from knowing about the disappearances.
Soon, an inn with red curtains appeared before everyone, and just by approaching the entrance, they could smell the scents that stirred men's desires.
"Bang!" Charles kicked in the front door and barged in; the men and women hugging and cuddling inside turned to look.
A hulking man nearly two meters tall with a grim face stood up, backed by dozens of his men.
"Bastard! Who dares make trouble on our turf!" A short man was shouting, but was slapped away by the hulking man.
The burly man with a face full of scars walked up to Charles, looking down at him from his height.
"Somebody said my crew are with you," Charles said, staring straight into his eyes without flinching.
Faced with Charles's challenging behavior, the burly man appeared somewhat calm. "Your two crew members aren't here with me. Perhaps they went somewhere else."
Charles's eyes narrowed slightly, his face cold. "Did I just say it was two crew members?"
The burly man's face immediately showed embarrassment, as he hadn't expected to be outmaneuvered. Seeing he could no longer hide it, he waved his hand.
The surrounding thugs began to drive out the guests, and before long, the place that had been bustling became somewhat quiet.
"I know you seafaring folk are not easy to mess with, but since you've all come here, you might as well stay," the burly man said as he stretched out his blood-red tongue to lick his lips.
"May the Lady bless me, I, Durand, am really in luck, having caught these humans."
Hearing these ominous words, Charles didn't hesitate. "Swoosh!" He drew his revolver, aiming it straight at Durand. The other crew members also pulled out their own weapons.
The next second, everyone present burst into raucous laughter as if Charles had just told a huge joke.
"Bang, bang, bang, bang!!" Bullets hit Durand, splattering blood everywhere.
To everyone's shock, the gruesome wounds on Durand's body healed rapidly, returning to normal within a few seconds.
"It seems you don't know what you've encountered, humans." Durand's mouth curled into a terrifying smile, his pale face splitting open.
"Clang" from beneath his upper lip, two sharp fangs sprang out, the whites of his eyes beginning to show a blood-red tint.
"So it's a vampire," Charles's pupils contracted.
"Your blood is mine!" Durand pushed off with his feet, instantly rushing towards Charles.
Charles was tackled to the ground in an instant; the sharp fangs forcefully pierced Charles's neck.
As he attacked, the others around them also moved, shedding their disguises and revealing sharp teeth as they pounced on the crew.
The vampire Durand suddenly felt something was off. The guy with the black eyes in front of him wasn't struggling at all, which was absolutely abnormal.
"Did I scare this guy witless?" Just as this thought emerged, a white mask of ecstasy covered Charles's face.
"Whoosh!" A flash of cold light passed by, and the Black Blade was fiercely thrust into the vampire's chest, pushing him backward.
"I thought it was something formidable, but it's just a vampire, what a disgraceful thing to show up!"
"Ah ah ah!!" Behind them, the nearly four-meter-tall Jamie roared as he grabbed a vampire and forcefully tore it in half.
The rats screeched as they swarmed over another vampire, covering it; the engulfed vampire emitted relentless screams.
The other crew began their assault. Although they were submissive in front of the giant butterflies, vampires couldn't scare those who had seen "God."
"You!" Durand angrily glared at the white mask in front of him; this was not what he had expected.
Durand's sharply clawed hands, trailing afterimages, furiously swiped towards Charles's face.
Charles's neck muscles tensed suddenly, his smooth mask narrowly missing the sharp claws.
"Like biting, do you? I'll give you something to bite!"
The bloody and sharp Black Blade rose quickly and then forcefully descended, piercing directly into Durand's mouth, with the blade emerging from the back of his head.
The furiously raging Durand tried to resist, but Charles, gripping the handle, pushed forward forcefully, precisely cleaving the fearsome face in two. The next second, he lifted the Black Blade and accurately stabbed it into the heart.
The once insolent figure twitched as he fell to the ground, motionless.
Focused on bringing the flesh and blood-muddled head together, Charles performed a backflip, joining the battle behind him.
Seeing Charles slaughter his kind like chopping vegetables, the remaining vampires couldn't take it any longer, smashing through the windows to escape.
"What is this? Just this little trouble, and I'm all fired up." Charles spoke with disdain in his tone as he watched them flee.
Charles's ears twitched as he led the crew through a hall in disarray and arrived at a wooden door.
As soon as he pushed the door open, Charles saw Deep and Krona hanging on an inverted cross, their wrists slashed open, dripping droplets of blood into a wooden bowl on the floor.
Both had a grayish complexion, and it looked like if Charles hadn't arrived when he did, they would have eventually bled to death.
Seeing Charles, the two on the racks twisted their bodies frantically.
Charles didn't immediately take them down but walked up to Deep, tapping his face with the Black Blade in his hand. "Hmm? How's the taste of a female vampire?"
The young man, with his mouth gagged, couldn't speak, but his eyes conveyed a desperate plea.
A flash of white light, and the chains binding the two snapped in two.
Ignoring the two tragic figures, Charles walked over to examine the various bloodletting instruments.
This seemed to be a place specially used by vampires for drawing blood; just by seeing the blood in the bottles as tall as two men, Charles knew the victims weren't just these two.
The other missing crew members weren't here, and there was a high chance that there were more vampires out there.
"Mr. Charles, what do we do now?" Lily asked curiously.
"What else? After killing so many vampires, of course, we call the police."