"With all due respect, I'm off to work out the details with the business in question. Have a good day, teacher~"
Melinda hummed happily, turning around and smacking the air with the papers in her hand. Then, politely, she left the faculty room with just the cheekiest smirk.
She knew that none of the staff members would actually leave her to her devices, but she also knew they wouldn't get in her way literally.
It was much more plausible that they would go straight to the business owner and pressure them to come up with an excuse that would allow them to turn her down.
Because, honestly, the upper hand Melinda would gain if she went through with the situation at hand was outrageous, to say the least.
Even an idea of that sort was only possible precisely because some people assumed that high on honor, Melinda would reject the option of completing the on-the-job training course in that particular business. Funnily enough, no one at the time seemed to realize how disadvantageous it would be for them if she just went along with it.
"That's what you get for thinking you are able to psychoanalyze me correctly ~"
The gold-haired girl hummed to herself as she walked out of the main Academy building with a pep in her step.
She made her way to a certain building that wasn't the one in the document she held on to and entered it with little to no hesitation.
One could say that the building was completely unguarded, but that was the important part—who in their right mind would put up guards for all to see in a place they wanted as a secret hideout?
Melinda used two secret passageways and finally opened a hatched hole in the ceiling, which led her to another building that, from the outside, didn't look connected to the one she entered originally at all. There, she ended up face-to-face with very confused thugs.
In the end, the area they were in should technically be impossible to find without prior knowledge of its existence or at least a decent tracking ability.
What this meant was that the two thugs were unsure whether to chase the girl, who looked as if she had nothing to do with their side of the world or not.
"Hello~ I will not accuse you of being able to read, but can you at least recognize your boss's signature? I'm here to see him."
Melinda was as far away from being intimidated as possible. She smiled brightly and showed off the documents in her hand, pointing at the signature in question with her index finger.
"O-oh…! I can read a bit… Umm… yes, it looks alright."
"The thing is, the boss is having a messenger, so you will have to wait until he's done, Miss."
One of the thugs blinked a few times in surprise before pointing out and squinting his eyes to examine the showcased papers. He then nodded and glanced at his companion, who nodded back while pointing at the door they were guarding.
"Oho~? When did that messenger show up? If he entered just a few minutes ago, he might be here about the same thing I am~"
Melinda raised her brows before calling out cheerfully, although the thugs didn't seem too convinced.
"Gentlemen, do you think I would know about this place if I wasn't being summoned? Besides, in the first place, what can a feeble girl like me even do to mess things up? I'm here about some really important business. You can go and call Molly over. She can confirm who I am."
Melinda rolled her eyes and asked, shaking the document in her hand to ensure that the literate thug would not be able to read into it and realize she was spouting bullshit.
"You know about Miss Molly? That changes everything."
"Could you not tell them that we were holding you back?"
Interestingly enough, a detail the gold-haired girl decided to mention to appear more believable worked out far better than she had hoped, as both thugs changed their approach in the blink of an eye.
They even opened the door for her and bowed as she passed.
"The boss and the messenger are in the office."
The literate thug pointed at the door on the opposite side of the new room—which was mostly empty except for two benches on the opposite sides of the door and a person standing in front of the same door—before closing the door behind Melinda.
"..."
The gold-haired girl furrowed her brows, looking at the other individual. The room's lighting was rather bad, with the only sunrays sipping through a large window mostly boarded up with half-rotten wood.
The person appeared to be a man.
Tall and skinny, kind of lanky.
His skin was pale and almost parchment-like, and it appeared bone-dust dry.
His hair was yellowish-white in a way that a poorly bleached stain looks on white fabric.
His eyes were more than just a bit bloodshot, and there were bloody sores in both corners of his mouth.
Judging by the fact that the thugs from before didn't call out to this individual, he wasn't one of them. But judging by his… haggard clothes, he shouldn't be a messenger—unless, of course, he ended up getting assaulted on the way because someone wanted to intercept him.
"Hello. I'm here to talk with Mister Victor."
Just in case, Melinda curtsied, showing the manners expected of her in case it was someone who could know people who knew her.
"...master talks there… no one is allowed inside…"
But she got no curtesy back and even got growled on by the pale man with what sounded like a severely sore throat.
"Is that so? You must be getting thirsty. How long do you reckon it will take your master to come out? My business is not with them."
Melinda leaned back and asked, motioning at the door behind the pale man with her chin.
"...!"
The man flinched and stared at her, his eyes got more bloodshot and his breath turned irregular.
…although thinking about it, it seemed that he only now started to breathe…
"Don't look at me like that, my thirsty friend. As long as your master isn't trying to harm me or isn't completing some direct orders from either of Bob's generals or Bob himself, I am not their enemy."
"...?"
Melinda scoffed, shaking her head at the pale man before dismissively shrugging her shoulders, making him tilt his head awkwardly with confusion visibly overpowering the hunger in his eyes.
"...Bob…?"
The man asked, licking the sores in the corners of his mouth.
"Beauregard of bloodloss. The monarch of all vampires. The great progenitor and so on. It seems that you must have become a thrall even more recently than I thought."
Melinda pointed out lightheartedly without a shred of hesitation and smiled benevolently at the pale man.