Adele looked at Lady Black without saying a word, seemingly accepting her accusations.
In truth, Adele was inwardly relieved: she had gambled correctly.
In this world, no vampire would ever suspect that one of their own could be working to create a new world where all races could coexist in peace, free from oppression. Even if Adele had slipped her true intentions into her words, Lady Black would dismiss them as mere lies to manipulate humans.
Lady Black was convinced that Adele was merely using a sweet façade to disguise her ambition, luring humans to further her own gain.
The House of Elders knew exactly how much money Adele was amassing, as all her transactions had to pass through the banks, which were all under the watchful eye of the House of Elders. The sheer amount of wealth Adele was accumulating had caught their attention and even made them envious. Her estates provided high-quality blood, exquisite textiles, and fine goods, swallowing wealth like a whale swallows water.
The House of Elders, seeing Adele's wealth, decided it was time to rein her in, to give her a stern warning.
What they didn't know was that while Adele was indeed earning a great deal, she was also spending just as much. However, the money she spent never appeared in public records, as it was funneled into more secretive endeavors.
Adele and Molly had long suspected that some vampires were secretly dealing with other races. The incident with the airship when Adele was home during her first-year break had confirmed this. With Molly's efforts within the Hunters' Association, they had uncovered a vampire traitor. When Adele first confronted him, the vampire was trembling, expecting to be executed by a noble of the Thirteen Clans. But instead, Adele offered him a business proposition.
He had contacts with other races, which meant he could acquire many things from them. He could also use his connections to smuggle in goods that Adele needed. Over the years, it was Adele's wealth and these secretive channels that allowed the Human Resistance to quietly grow to its current size.
This also highlighted the vampires' lack of integrity. The same vampire who had betrayed his kind was now happily acting as a middleman for Adele, lured by the wealth she offered.
Because Adele spent so little publicly, the House of Elders saw her as a money-hoarding beast, accumulating vast wealth without spending it. She even withdrew large sums from the banks, leaving only a fraction in her accounts as a pretense.
To the House of Elders, this made Adele seem like a greedy individual.
They had already formed a fixed image of her, believing they had her figured out. They saw themselves as ancient beings with the wisdom to see through others, convinced that they understood exactly what kind of vampire Adele was.
It might seem arrogant to judge her character before even meeting her, but this kind of reasoning was typical for vampires. After all, that's how vampires operated.
They would never fathom that someone could willingly sacrifice their own race's privileges and power to help humans achieve freedom. This was simply beyond their comprehension.
Only by chance had an outsider from another world, with incomprehensible abilities, met a naive young vampire girl and taught her the pain of oppression and the ugliness of using power to crush others.
Adele was different from all other vampires; she was a noble spirit, one who had transcended the base desires of her kind. Molly could say this without a hint of sarcasm. Molly herself could never be like that; she was a narrow-minded speciesist who only wanted to help humans overthrow the vampires. But Adele was a true idealist, longing for peace and equality.
Such people were rare even in Molly's world, where even among the same race, people divided themselves into classes and oppressed one another. A cross-species idealist like Adele was beyond belief. Because it seemed impossible, everyone naturally interpreted Adele's intentions in the worst possible light.
But Adele was grateful for the House of Elders' arrogance. She would never go to them and say, "Hey, you've got it all wrong. Take another look at me and see if I'm really the kind of person who only cares about profit." She would never do something so foolish.
After Lady Black's stern warning, she returned to the role of a young, elegant grandmother, inviting Adele to have another round of tea before letting her leave. Once Adele was gone, a vampire gentleman appeared in the garden. He spoke to Lady Black, "Sister, I think that girl was definitely lying."
Lady Black smiled as she poured herself another cup of tea, this time adding sugar cubes mixed with human blood instead of the artificial ones. She said to her brother, "She has a human maid with her, doesn't she? That maid is quite important to her; she takes her everywhere she goes. The maid is currently waiting outside. Since you're not busy, go see if you can get any useful information out of her."
Her brother agreed and quickly left.
Up above, in the outer ring, Molly, despite the thirteen layers separating them, had a way to sense where Adele was. She could feel the threads woven into Adele's bracelet, knowing that Adele was moving upward, and then stopped at one point.
Roughly fifty meters deep… Molly calculated that if each floor was about three meters, that would be around sixteen floors. But considering the wealth of the House of Elders, three meters seemed too low. Given how vampires loved the number thirteen, Molly guessed this underground bunker had thirteen floors as well.
Molly sensed that Adele was moving again after a long pause, indicating that the conversation was over and she was on her way back. Molly intended to meet Adele back at the second circle where she was staying. However, before she could follow, she felt a presence rapidly ascending and heading outside.
Molly thought about it. This person was moving quickly, close to dawn—something important must be happening. She decided to follow them to see what was going on. Since Adele was being escorted, Molly couldn't just rush over to her.
Instead, Molly sent a subtle signal by manipulating a single thread to brush against Adele's wrist. Adele responded by gently pressing on the thread. Molly took this as confirmation that Adele had received her signal, even if she didn't know what had happened. Adele would understand that something had come up and that Molly had been delayed. Although she might be concerned, she wouldn't give anything away.
With that, Molly followed the figure. She kept a reasonable distance, but as she followed, she realized that the figure was heading towards her inn. Molly quickly took a detour, arriving at her room first. She sat down at her table, turned on the lamp, and pretended to be sewing.
Molly wasn't skilled at sewing, but carrying a needle and thread was normal for a maid. Given that her primary weapon was thread, it made sense for her to have a sewing kit. While she might not be good at sewing, she could at least pretend. Molly bet that the vampire following her knew even less about sewing than she did.
As Molly pretended to sew, she heard the vampire land silently outside her window, watching her. After some time passed with no movement from the vampire, Molly decided to finish her "work" and act as if she was going to sleep.
Just as she stretched and reached to turn off the lamp, the vampire made his move. He entered the room, and Molly feigned the look of a startled and helpless maid. She turned to see a pair of glowing crimson eyes.
The vampire's eyes shone brighter than Adele's. He asked, "What is your name?"
Molly figured he was testing his hypnosis on her. She thought, "This guy must be pretty old—probably over a thousand years—but his hypnosis still doesn't work on me."
Feigning being hypnotized, Molly let her eyes lose focus and her expression go blank. She answered dully, "My name is Molly."
"What is your relationship with Adele Black?"
—We are lovers who would die for each other.
Molly wanted to throw this line back at the vampire, but instead, she said, "Miss Adele is my most respected mistress." She deliberately hesitated before saying "respected," though she was sure the vampire wouldn't catch her subtlety.
Molly: Clever as always.