Hearing the footsteps from the hallway, Drac acted fast. He put the mistress down, took off his shirt, and wrapped it around the upper torso of the woman so that no one would be able to see the woman biting down a human arm. While he was at it, he took some blood from the mistress and smeared it over his face as well.
He then took the woman and started rushing towards the sounds of the footsteps. In no time, he was greeted by Greg, armed to the teeth along with 15-18 men following him.
Seeing him covered in blood, and with a woman in his hands, they all stopped. "What happened Drac?" Greg quickly asked.
"Bad thing," he just said with a little flare of fear, "A beast.. A magical beast is in the castle,"
They all got tensed. Greg then asked, "Are you sure there is a magical beast? They had been extinct in the kingdom for a long time," The knight was giving him a look, telling him that he didnt believe him.
"I just saw a fucking small white human-looking fucker tear up workers limb by limb. Mistress Mikaila in my hands also received an injury because of the fucker." he said while gesturing towards the woman in arms, "Do you really think that I am lying right now?" he asked in anger.
"That is Mistress Mikaila?" Greg asked, almost becoming pale, "Where is it? Where is the monster," Greg asked.
"Ran away. But could still be in the castle." He added quickly, "Greg, dont you dare to act on your own. You will not be able to do anything to that fucker. You will need me," he said.
"Let's go then," Greg said.
"No," he said, "Our priority is Mistress. Then we would survey the castle," And with that, he walked past them, and they followed him behind.
"Is she alright?" Greg asked, catching up to him.
"Yes, she is fine now. She had an elixir with her, she drank that and fell unconscious. Her room has a protective barrier erected around it, she would be fine there." He said.
The rest of the way, everyone was so tense that no one uttered a word. As they got to the master bedroom, he instructed them to stay behind. He took the woman inside and closed the door behind him. He put her on her bed and removed his shirt. Mikaila's eyes had turned into her normal shade of red, and she seemed to have gotten back her sanity.
"I will handle everything outside. Please do not come out, and create a scene. If you want to stay hidden, you cannot go on a killing spree again,"
She nodded, and let go of the hand, "Red," she said in a rather low tone, "Crystal. Drawer." She then gestured towards her wardrobe.
He went to her wardrobe and opened the drawer to find a ruby-red crystal. The crystal itself was not very big, around an inch tall in length. But there was something different about the crystal, he could feel power from the crystal, not mana, just some sort of power. This power felt rotten. It felt as if it was made via doing some bad things, he knew it.
Drac picked the crystal up and brought it to her. Like a meth addict, Mikaila practically snatched the crystal from his hands and ate it. After eating the whole thing, her demeanor changed, and like an addict enjoying a buzz, she laid down on her bed, closing her eyes and with a smile on her face.
"Now she would be alright," Drac looked to his right and saw that the shadowy figure had returned, "How will you handle everything outside?"
Thinking about his conversation with Jina that he had weeks ago, he said, "Well, I have something that I could blame.."
***
That night, he, Greg, and the rest of the soldiers spend most of the night looking for the magical beast. But found no trace of it. Most of the people believed his story, as none of them could explain what happened to all the workers and how their limbs were torn apart like that.
Greg had been a lot of help that night, because he was the stupid person who convinced everyone else, "This surely is the work of a magical beast," That man got convinced because of the destruction that was left via Mikaila.
When the sun finally came out of hiding, everyone was tired and scared at the same time. Drac knew that he needed to handle the situation, otherwise, it might go out of hand. So he suggested burning the bodies of the deceased. But Greg was not on board with that.
"Are you insane?" Greg said, "Hunting dogs could use the scent on the bodies to track the beast. You cannot just burn the victims,"
"So you mean to say, we should just stay here, waiting for the reinforcement to arrive?"
"I am saying, we should barricade ourselves. One of us should go to the capital to send the message to Lord Daniel. And bring the royal guards to investigate the matter. If there is a magical beast, the royal family should be informed quickly."
Drac groaned with frustration, "I am not staying in a castle, which smells like blood and gore for the sake of Itab. What would happen if the smell of the blood made the beast come back? Mistress Mikaila is out of commission, I am only accustomed to killing real people, with no experience of killing magical beasts."
"Hunting dogs would need a scent Drac," Greg put his foot down.
"Hunting dogs wouldn't be able to do shit. Do you know how much a body could deteriorate in just two days, the whole place would be smelling so bad that they won't be able to pick up any scent."
They butted heads for a minute or two, but he managed to put some valid points that people in the castle came to his aid. They didnt want to stay in a place, where there was a chance that the beast might be able to return. After a lot of discussion, it was established that they needed to burn the bodies that day itself.
He got a win.
In the end, it was decided that Greg would go to the capital, along with two soldiers to inform everyone of the issue here. For some reason the people in the castle didnt want him to go away, supposedly his show of power had left an impact on them. And they didnt want to part ways with him.
Henry's wife and daughter in the end insisted on going with Greg, but Drac strictly told him that would not be possible. A castle needs maids, for Mistress's services. And he would not let them go, no matter what. They screamed and cried, but he stayed resolute. Seeing how harshly he let them have both of them, the workers thinking about going away drop the idea. No one wanted to piss him off.
The cleaning process itself was very difficult. Mikaila in a withdrawal state killed the poor workers in such a brutal way that there were a lot of things to clean. There were pieces of brains and ribs that needed to be scraped from walls and floors. The worst part picking the stray parts. Somehow during the mayhem, some parts of the dead bodies had flown away all around the hallways and room. And these parts were stuck in the most random places.
Drac found a pinky finger lodged in the inner part of the chandelier. How that pinky finger got there, was beyond him.
The soldiers responsible for gathering the bodies and creating a pyre vomited more than a few times during the whole ordeal. None of them acutom to such a gruesome sight. Although it was a new sight for him as well, Drac didnt feel like vomitting.
He worked alongside the soldiers and made sure that the work was wrapped up the whole day. So that, by the end of the day they could create a huge pyre, and burn all the bodies at once. And they were successful at that as well.
The next day, he made sure that everything was thoroughly cleaned, and glad he did that. On the third day, a group of knights bearing the Soaring Eagle insignia were at their doorstep. They were the knights associated with the royal family, making them a real deal…
"My name is Rupert," the knight leading the group said, "We are here to investigate the attack of the magical beast,"
Drac, who was looking like shit because of working constantly for the past two days, bloomed a fake smile seeing them, he immediately opened the door and let the people in the castle. "It is a good thing that you came as soon as you could,"
As the knights came in, they immediately started observing the surroundings. One of the knights stared at him especially the cane that he was carrying, and the hatchet in his belt. Drac noticed the gaze, and shrugged, "I felt safer carrying these things around,"
"Why not a sword or a battle axe? Surely the castle would have some weapons," one of the knights asked.
"I dont know how to use a sword or axe. But I am well versed in hand-to-hand combat.." He said and then started escorting the men to Mistress. "Seeing the current trend, I am regretting not learning any weapon," he further added.
The knights started asking him questions about the night and recollected everything as it happened. The only difference in his story was that he spotted the beast that night. When he came to the destroyed section of the castle, he spotted the magical beast spitting a green liquid at the mistress's face. Because of this, his mistress's memory was a little hazy of the night.
As far as the beast was concerned, he described the beast as akin to a white chimpanzee. The bipedal beast that he described was the same as the local legends about white bloodsucker, the one that Jina told him about. He figured bringing the legend to life made more sense, rather than creating a new legend.
Drac had already talked to the arrogant Mikaila about her side of the story. Although that woman was very prideful and looked down on him, in front of the gaze of the shadowy figure, she behaved like a little girl in front of her father. She was obedient and listened carefully to every word that he uttered that day.
When they finally got to Mikaila's room, he gently knocked on her door and she said softly to enter. They made their way inside, to find decently dressed Mikaila sitting on the chair overlooking the window. She stood up and greeted the knights with such a warm and fake smile, which even impressed himself…