Although it may be a bit sudden, have you heard of Countach?

This is the beginning of Lamborghini's move towards a classic image, with a super sci-fi body design, gull-wing doors, and especially the 25th anniversary edition, which uses a 5.2-liter V12 engine and has a top speed of 295 kilometers per hour. It is a cool and speedy sports car.

To describe it in one word...

“Put me down ahhhhhhhhhh!!!”

With the screams of the Bonfire Mist Branches reaching into the sky, the red sports car sped past the road like a hurricane, and shuttled quickly across the winding mountain road like a red lightning.

"How shameful! You're a vampire and you're afraid of speeding?"

While holding the steering wheel in her hand, Shizuku curled her lips at Kaname no Kirie who was sitting next to her. The latter had a pale face and looked like a dead person.

"Is this a problem with speeding? Of course I'm not afraid of death, but I'm afraid of you driving, ahhhh, let me off, ahhhh!!!"

As for Kagami Kirie, she is certainly not afraid of speeding. After all, with her reaction and physical fitness as a vampire, even if a truck comes towards her, it will not be a problem for her.

But the problem is that Shizuku's driving skills are terrible!

To what extent, it can be said that it can even arouse the instinctive fear of a human being that Kaname Kirie, a vampire, has long forgotten. Just like humans used to feel extremely scared when looking down from a high altitude. Although Kaname Kirie even thought that she had forgotten the fear of being a human being in the three hundred years since she became a vampire, when she sat in the sports car driven by Shizuku and rushed through the mountain road at lightning speed, the fear of being weak and helpless as a human being in Kaname Kirie's body erupted again, so much so that she was now incoherent.

"That's really unacceptable. As a vampire, you are actually afraid of this..."

Only when the silhouette of the village appeared in front of them did Shizuku slow down the car, causing Kaname no Kirie to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Really? It's just a letter written by a child. You actually took it seriously?"

What Kagari no Kirie was talking about was the letter that had been sent to the Difficult Case Investigation Office before. The letter was written by a child named Tanaka Akira. According to him, since the beginning of summer this year, a series of deaths have occurred in his village, including his sister's good friend Shimizu Kei.

The adults all thought it might be some kind of epidemic, but Tanaka Akira said he suspected it was all related to the Kirishiki family who had just moved into the village, because he swore he had seen the older brother from the sawmill who had died sneak into the Kirishiki family's strange house.

But the adults didn't believe him, so he wrote this letter to the Difficult Case Investigation Office, and even attached the obituary and some related news from the local newspaper.

"Children are often more sensitive than adults when faced with such things."

Shizuku slowed down the car and glanced at Kagami no Kirie, who was leaning against the car window in an ungainly manner with a dead look on his face.

"And the news he sent is indeed true. No matter what, it won't go wrong to take a look."

"Ugh...actually I hate children."

Bonei no Mist branch complained helplessly.

"Like you said, they always discover things they shouldn't because of their curiosity... Anyway, doesn't this kid live in this remote village? How did he know the address of the office?"

"Because I paid for advertising in newspapers all over the country."

“…”

Faced with Shizuku's rich and willful answer, Kagami Kirie was completely speechless.

As they were talking, the vehicle was approaching Waichang Village, and at the same time, Kagami no Mist branch frowned.

“I smell the stench of a dead body.”

"Me too."

Listening to what Kagami no Kirie said, Shizuku nodded, then her expression became serious.

"It seems that the child is not talking nonsense."

Sotoba Village is a remote town surrounded by mountains, not much different from Yamiyama - or because Japan itself is mountainous, most villages and towns are located in the mountains. In such places, interpersonal relationships are close, so it is naturally much easier to find people. The car that Shizuku drives will attract attention even in the city, not to mention in the countryside. After saying hello to the old ladies chatting at the door of the store, Shizuku quickly learned the location of the Tanaka family, and then drove to the Tanaka family and met Tanaka Akira and his sister Tanaka Kaoru.

Tanaka Akira is a young man full of energy, currently in the first grade of junior high school, while his sister Tanaka Kaoru is 15 years old and in the third grade of junior high school. Both of them were quite surprised by Shizuku's arrival. Obviously, even Tanaka Akira didn't expect that he just wrote a letter with the idea of ​​giving it a try, and the other party would actually come to investigate...

"I'm so sorry. It's all my stupid brother's fault that you two are here..."

Facing Shizuku and Kaname no Kirie, Kaori Tanaka seemed quite uneasy and kept bowing her head to apologize to them. It was no wonder, after all, she was just an ordinary country girl who was born and raised in the village, and she had never seen such a posture. Not to mention Shizuku, the dress Kaname no Kirie was wearing was enough to prove that she was not an ordinary person, and the car parked in front of her house - even if Kaori Tanaka didn't know much about cars, she knew that it was definitely not comparable to the trucks and tractors in her village.

The fact that such a person came all the way here just because of his brother's nonsense was enough to make Tanaka Kaoru panic.

In contrast, Tanaka Akira was quite excited.

"Well, you see, sister, I was right, right? There are still people who believe me!"

"But……"

"Anyway, let's do a preliminary investigation first."

Shizuku interrupted the two of them and took out a notebook.

"Can I ask when did the series of deaths in this village begin?"

"this……"

Hearing Shizuku's question, the brother and sister looked at each other, and then the elder sister Kaoru Tanaka spoke.

"If I had to say, it would be at the beginning of summer. We also attended a few funerals at the beginning, but the deceased were all elderly people. Because the weather is hot, and many elderly people here are alone at home, they are very old, so we hold several funerals every year, which is nothing special. But..."

Having said this, Kaoru Tanaka lowered his head with a gloomy expression.

"Xiao Hui...is dead."

"Xiao Hui?"

"Shimizu Hui... She is my good friend. Although she always talks about leaving the village, she is a very good child..."

"Did she die of illness?"

"Well...I don't know."

"have no idea?"

"Yes."

When Tanaka Kaoru said this, his face looked much paler.

"I still remember that day when I was chatting with Xiaoxun. She seemed to be interested in the new family that moved into the village, and then she went up the mountain along the slope. I originally thought it was nothing serious, but in the evening, when her family called me, I learned that Xiaohui had not returned home. Later, everyone went to look for her together, and finally found Xiaohui unconscious in the mountains, brought her back, and then..."

Having said this, Kaoru Tanaka lowered his head and covered his face with his hands.

"I... I saw her once. At that time, Xiaohui's face was livid and she spoke weakly. She was completely different from her usual lively self. I didn't expect that after just one day..."

"What was the cause of death?"

"The doctor said it was due to anemia..."

"Doctor? Is this the doctor here?"

"Yes, Dr. Ozaki. He is the director of Ozaki Hospital and the only doctor in our village. Almost everyone goes to him for treatment when they are sick."

"…Then the cause of death of the others is the same as Shimizu Kei?"

"I don't know about that..."

"So, what do you think of the new family that moved into the village?"

“…”

In response to Shizuku's question, Tanaka Kaoru and Tanaka Akira looked at each other.

"Everyone thinks that family is weird."

"What's strange about that?"

"Because they moved in in the middle of the night, and the house they live in feels completely different from Waichang Village..."

Just as Tanaka Kaoru said, in fact, Shizuku and Kara no Kirie saw the Western-style building on the hillside when they entered the village - it was indeed out of place in the traditional Japanese village.

After some questioning, Shizuku and Kagari no Kirie said goodbye and left, planning to investigate elsewhere. Tanaka Akira also said enthusiastically that he would also ask some questions in the village and tell the two immediately if he found anything.

After leaving the Tanaka household, Shizuku looked towards the Kaname no Kirie beside her.

"What's wrong? Wuzhi? You keep looking so sullen. Is there something wrong?"

Ever since arriving in Gaiba Village, Kagami no Kirie has always had a gloomy face, and it looks like she's here to collect a debt. However, Shizuku knows very well that although Kagami no Kirie usually acts unkind in front of outsiders, she would never show her disgust so obviously.

"That's about right."

Hearing Shizuku's question, Kaname no Kirie frowned and showed a very unhappy expression.

"If my guess is correct, this might have been done by those blood slaves."

Then she answered.

According to Kagami no Mist, blood slaves are low-level vampires. As the legend goes, high-level vampires can give their blood to others to transform them into vampires. However, there is a certain chance that low-level vampires will appear - that is, blood slaves.

The characteristics of this type of vampire are basically the same as the vampires passed down by word of mouth. They are afraid of sunlight, crosses, garlic, and cannot cross rivers.

However, the most dangerous thing is their need and desire for blood.

For a high-level vampire like the Mist Branch of Bonfire, the blood sucked was not enough to kill him. But the blood slaves were different. Their greed for blood was like that of hungry beasts. Every time the Mist Branch of Bonfire preyed, at most it would make the opponent slightly anemic. However, the blood slaves would tirelessly crave blood until the opponent died.

Therefore, high-level vampires call these failures blood slaves - that is, slaves of blood.

Not only that, according to Kagami no Kirie, the vampire clan has always hunted blood slaves.

The reason is very simple. Blood slaves have no restraint in sucking blood, just like wild animals. In addition, they have a strong sense of kinship and often choose to create a large number of kin, which is tantamount to suicide for vampires. Vampires do not want their existence to be exposed to the eyes of humans, but the behavior of blood slaves is like jumping onto the stage to show their existence for humans to appreciate.

Therefore, many high-level vampires choose to hunt blood slaves, and the methods they use are also varied.

There are vampires who pretend to be scientists and use all kinds of nonsense to confuse the characteristics of blood slaves and their victims, trying their best to make the world believe that this is a rare disease rather than a real vampire.

Some vampires simply disguised themselves as priests or paladins, and led a group of people to personally eliminate the blood slaves. In the era when vampires were most rampant, many leaders of the Knights Templar were actually high-level vampires.

In modern times, due to the development of science and technology, the speed of information transmission has become faster, so vampires have become more and more severe in their crackdown on blood slaves.

But what Kagami Mist Branch didn't expect was that he would actually meet a group of blood slaves here.