At Molly's command, the vampire inside the room hesitated only for a moment before obediently walking to the door and opening it. What greeted him was a sight both familiar and strange: a human maid, dressed in a traditional maid outfit. Yes, Molly remained true to her character, showing up in her maid attire. Today, the one coming to take down the Elder Council was none other than Molly, the longtime human maid at Black Castle—not the infamous Dawn Lady of the human resistance.
Yes, she was also Adele's human maid, Molly.
At first glance, Molly's attire seemed unremarkable. After all, she was just a maid, and it wasn't unusual for a maid to deliver messages. But upon closer inspection, the vampire noticed something was off—she was human. A human maid here, on the thirteenth floor of the Elder Council's underground fortress? And why did she look so familiar?
The vampire felt a shiver run down his spine as cold sweat began to form on his back. He realized something was very wrong. But in this moment, he knew that staying calm was his best option. Forcing a smile, he asked, "Haven't we met somewhere before?"
Ah, the little trick—trying to lull her into a false sense of security and then subtly hypnotize her.
Molly immediately saw through the vampire's ploy, though she doubted his real target was herself. After all, Molly was just a human, which meant she was inherently weak. They likely had already received reports from Black's Patriarch about her being the Dawn Lady, so they knew she was an exceptionally strong human. But even so, they wouldn't believe she could defeat someone who had lived for two thousand years.
This was the arrogance of the powerful.
The vampire likely suspected there was another strong vampire backing her, perhaps even Adele herself lurking nearby. Even though she had managed to defeat Black's Patriarch, they wouldn't believe she was truly powerful. After all, even Black's Patriarch was like a child compared to them.
"Yes, sir, we have met before."
As Molly spoke, threads of silk shot out, binding the vampire's limbs tightly. With a swift pull, she yanked him back as she stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. Looking down at him with a cold expression, Molly asked the question that made the vampire's blood run cold, "Where is the entrance to the elders' chamber?"
Sweat began to drip down the vampire's forehead. It was only now that he fully grasped that the true power lay with Molly herself, not with some unseen ally. What he couldn't understand was how she knew the elders weren't in this chamber, or even that they weren't elders at all.
The vampire tried to maintain his ruse. "I don't know what you're talking about. I am a council elder..."
"Don't be ridiculous. You vampires are terrible at deception," Molly remarked, genuinely unimpressed. Their tricks seemed more like child's play. In a real court intrigue, they wouldn't last three episodes. Of course, this made sense. Vampires were all about power, believing that strength was the only thing that mattered. Some of them, particularly the pampered ladies and those who married into powerful families, were content to slack off, but the rest were the most competitive of the competitive.
They were obsessed with fighting power.
They believed that in the face of absolute power, cunning had no place.
In a way, they were right, but they lacked the power to back up this belief. If they were as strong as Molly, this might have been true. Occasionally, they would try to be clever, but it always came off as somewhat juvenile—like now.
The vampire realized that his lies wouldn't work on Molly, so he clammed up. Molly didn't have time to waste, so she opted for a more direct approach. "If you don't tell me, I'll kill you. On the other hand, if you cooperate, I might just let you live."
The older a vampire got, the more they feared death. Living in this sunless bunker, repeating the same monotonous routine day after day, was incomprehensible to Molly. However, she figured this threat would work well.
To Molly's surprise, the vampire showed unexpected courage, completely unfazed by the threat of death. Narrowing her eyes, Molly tightened the silk threads around him, digging into his flesh and drawing blood. Despite the pain, he remained silent, looking as though he was ready to face whatever she dished out.
Molly paused, then switched tactics. "If you don't tell me, I'll go kill Lady Black."
The vampire's composure shattered.
Molly thought, So even vampires can have pure love.
Once she had identified his weakness, the vampire was at her mercy. He was willing to sacrifice himself but not his beloved Lady Black.
Finally, the vampire agreed to lead Molly to the elders.
Molly retracted the threads. Out of curiosity, she asked, "Are you Adele's grandfather?"
"Adele Black?" The vampire repeated Adele's name and then shook his head. "No, I'm not her grandfather. I killed her grandfather." As they walked toward the elders' location, he began to ramble about his past, as if he hadn't had someone to confide in for a long time. Once he started, he couldn't stop. "I was once the heir of the White family, and I fell in love with my sister while we were in school. But since she was also the future head of the family, we could never be together..."
"Ah, I see."
Molly hadn't expected this vampire to be the former White Patriarch, but now that she looked closely, he did resemble Miss White. As he continued to prattle on about his tragic love story, Molly listened with a neutral expression, occasionally prodding him to move faster. "How much further?"
"You're in quite a hurry."
White continued recounting his and his sister's tragic love story, full of dramatic twists and turns like a prime-time soap opera. As he went on, Molly kept her expression impassive, occasionally throwing in a few perfunctory responses. She wasn't worried that White might lead her into a trap. After all, being strong meant being fearless.
When White finally got to the part where he and Lady Black had joined the Elder Council, he stopped and said, "We're here." Before them was a nondescript room, indistinguishable from any other, with no sign of life inside.
White pulled out a key, opened the door, and led Molly inside. To her surprise, the room was actually a garden, much like the one Adele had described as belonging to Lady Black. The only difference was that in the center of this garden lay a large, open space filled with magic stones.
Upon closer inspection, Molly noticed that the stones were arranged in a strange pattern.
"This is ancient technology, a teleportation magic circle. The council's chamber is located even further underground, but it's not connected to this bunker. You can only reach it through the teleportation circle."
As White explained, Molly understood how the teleportation circle worked. When he finished, White didn't move. Molly, puzzled, asked, "Aren't you going to run?" Black's Patriarch could transform into bats to escape—surely, this ancient vampire could do the same.
But White shook his head. "You're going to kill me anyway, but if you kill me, you won't go after my sister."
In other words: You can kill me, but don't you dare kill my sister.
Molly blinked, surprised by his devotion. White even managed a faint smile. "Besides, to activate the magic circle, you'll need the blood of one of the Thirteen Clans. Killing me will make sure you get through."
White's smile was strange, and Molly couldn't quite decipher it. But at that moment, she understood that his life in the vampire society had been anything but happy. A youthful love that was doomed from the start, only to find a bittersweet end after countless years.
It was a tragic love story, but Molly wasn't one to hold back out of sentimentality. Even if their love story was moving, it was built on the bones of countless others. Molly killed White without hesitation.
She acted quickly, and White fell to the ground in the center of the magic circle, his blood seeping into the stones as his body gradually turned to ash. Molly stepped into the circle, and the stones began to glow, causing her to feel a moment of dizziness.
When the feeling passed, she found herself in a dark room. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she realized that it was a vast, empty chamber. The room had a distinctly vampiric aesthetic, but what surprised Molly the most was that it was completely empty—no one was there.
For a moment, Molly wondered if White had tricked her, sending her somewhere else to buy his sister time to escape. But upon closer inspection, she noticed that the room wasn't entirely empty. Suspended from the high ceiling were thirteen coffins.
It was very much in the style of a medieval vampire—a coffin meant for eternal slumber. Molly guessed that the elders were likely inside. The only reason she hadn't noticed them before was that the coffins were hidden among the black magic stones embedded in the ceiling.
Having identified her targets, Molly cracked her knuckles. It was time to wake up these ancient ones.
Molly was a respectful child, after all. When you visited someone's home, you had to greet them first. And she was sure that these elders were awake. Stretching out her hand, black silk threads shot out like a spider's web, ensnaring all thirteen coffins in a tight net.
This was a sealed room with no exit, and only the elders knew how to leave. But Molly wasn't worried. White had mentioned that the elders' chamber was deep underground—once she was done, she'd just punch her way out.
This would be a fitting tomb for the elders.
Like a conductor directing an orchestra, Molly raised her arms. The faint glow from the magic stones reflected off the threads, giving them a ghostly shimmer. Her voice rang out clear in the vast chamber, echoing off the walls. "Time to wake up and party, ladies and gentlemen."
Molly looked every bit like a villain.