NOVPUBUrsula and Elsa nervously watched as the Mafia leader and Professor Landry nearly came to blows in the shadowy alley.
Thankfully, it seemed there was no intent to start a fight.
"Meow... Imperial authority is unparalleled, faith in the Empire, meow."
Cat Boss recited Lanci’s lines to embolden itself; it actually wanted to scramble back into Lanci’s shadow, but it couldn’t show any weakness since it had to protect the two young ladies.
After all, it was ranked higher than the Mafia leader, Barton Hall!
But from Barton’s words, he didn’t seem to have an aggressive intention.
The man named Barton was quite reasonable; he didn’t misunderstand their intentions because of the Mafia corpses strewn about and attack without a word.
Considering that Tata’s time to act was limited, it would not be advisable to fight with someone like Barton, a former seventh-order combat spike of the Imperial Army. At least it would be very dangerous for Ursula and Elsa.
It seemed Lanci’s ultimate trump card would have to be the King of Cats.
"Mr. Barton, I captured this member of the Blood Clan myself, and I regret to say I cannot hand him over to you."
Lanci replied politely.
He had already been especially discreet in his previous fight with Viscount Carmel, doing his best to suppress any noise.
The only time there might have been a noticeable Magic Fluctuation was when Talia, in order to prevent Viscount Carmel from escaping using his power, had broken his mechanism and forcefully dragged him back.
Surprisingly, the Mafia leader Barton Hall still noticed them.
"What can you offer to hand him over to me?"
Barton didn’t intend to steal, but instead asked Lanci.
His stance, however, was clear.
Today, the worst-case scenario would be to force a purchase, but he was determined to keep the Blood Clan member within his port district territory, not allowing anyone to take him away.
"I really can’t trade, but Mr. Barton, can you tell me what you need him for?"
Lanci felt that Barton was not someone with whom communication was impossible.
At least he was much easier to deal with than Red Falcon Nicola, a comrade from the Imperial Army.
Red Falcon Nicola would approach with suspicion first, while Barton seemed to exhibit a trust-first attitude—though this could be because Lanci’s attack on the Blood Clan convinced Barton that Lanci was not an ally of the vampires.
"..."
The Mafia leader Barton fell silent.
"Mr. Barton, if we start fighting here, it would undoubtedly be a lose-lose situation, so I hope that no matter what, we can solve this problem through communication rather than violence. Even though we’ve just met, trust is something that can be built gradually; if you’re unwilling to trust me, then let me be the one to trust you first."
Lanci said earnestly.
Viscount Carmel was not only the first Blood Clan member he had captured in the Cerryti Empire, having irreplaceable intelligence value, but what was more important was that the vampire had a seven-digit count of sins.
Lanci intended to reform this Blood Clan member and offer him to Hyperion; surely Hyperion would be delighted.
"Are you sure Hyperion would appreciate this gift?"
Talia, while not understanding much about human merits, was sure she wouldn’t want an automatic Merit Machine; she wasn’t certain whether the machine was for accruing merit or deducting it.
When she used to sleep with Hyperion, Talia often heard her mumbling in her sleep, "Lady Goddess, please don’t deduct my merits anymore...", "Lanci, be sparing...", "Wuwu, I really don’t have any merits left...", which made Talia feel sympathetic.
Hyperion, as a devout follower of the Goddess of Destiny, unwaveringly believed that merit and luck were correlated. As a child, whenever she did something bad, her luck would turn particularly bad, and whenever she did good deeds, her luck would improve.
Yet, Talia suspected that perhaps Duke Migaya was artificially controlling Hyperion’s "luck" during her childhood.
If Hyperion thought this gift was a deduction of her merits, she might cry, not out of superstition, but because she truly believed it, just like a child.
"No problem, Dual-blood, I still need to catch another one to replicate the automatic Merit Machine from the Sanctuary Evil Banquet in the Shadow World."
Lanci assured Talia with a solemn guarantee.
"If she cries, I’m holding you responsible and I’ll kick your ass."
Talia seemed to consent to the plan.
"Just relax, Tata. Hyperion will laugh it off. Back in the Lichtenstein Castle of the Shadow World, she started the automatic Merit Machine with great ceremony under the Clergy’s watchful eyes, and she couldn’t help but laugh then."
What Lanci regretted most was not being able to bring the automatic Merit Machine from the Shadow World. Now, with the opportunity to recreate the glory of the Merit Machine before him in this world, he had to consider whether this was his only chance in this lifetime, as Blood Clan members were exceedingly rare in this era. 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝒃.𝙘𝒐𝒎
After an internal dialogue with Talia for quite a while, Barton finally stirred.
"I have nothing to say, but I promise, if you hand him over to the Empire, he will soon vanish without a trace, and you will never have peace again."
He shook his head and declared firmly to Lanci.
Hearing the words of the Mafia leader Barton, both Ursula and Elsa exchanged confused glances.
Though Barton spoke cryptically, they could surprisingly decipher his meaning—
Handing Viscount Carmel over to the Cerryti Empire’s military would be no different than setting him free; it was likely that significant forces would work overnight to smoothly erase the accident involving Viscount Carmel and then proceed to silence the Landry siblings.
