Lovelace and I are having breakfast together in my quarters in the palace. It's the last day before the entrance exams at the Royal Academy.
"Any signs of the vampire, Lovelace?"
"No. He hasn't shown up since that day. He might have even gone away from the city altogether."
The vampire that had been feeding on the King for months before our arrival had his nest inside a new dungeon on the outskirts of the capital.
But he disappeared the day we spotted him in the throne room, and we haven't managed to find him ever since.
"Normally his mana would be noticeable from a distance, but…"
"There are no traces of his mana in the city, though there are some places that are shielded. Lovelace, do you think that the Church might be shielding him?"
The spaces inside the temples and, sometimes, even below them, are completely shielded from both magical perception and our deep listening.
"It's a possibility, though normally vampires would be repelled by any holy regalia."
