10 minutes earlier,
Magnus and Mercy were standing by the bar corner, observing the couples dancing hand in hand on the ballroom floor with great interest.
Disguised as humans, they seamlessly blended in with the crowd, although one of them seemed more at ease than the other.
While Mercy sipped her drink calmly, Magnus grew increasingly restless, his patience waning.
Eventually, he asked, "So, who is it that you wanted me to meet here?"
Without missing a beat, Mercy pointed in the direction of a waiter carrying a tray full of drinks and walking toward them.
"There he is," she said.
As the waiter arrived at their spot, Mercy deftly lifted a glass from the tray he was carrying, and the waiter continued to walk on normally.
Perplexed, Magnus frowned and said, "What the hell was that? He didn't even say anything."
Mercy shrugged nonchalantly before whispering in a barely audible tone, "He's another spy, like me. Obviously, he won't stop and chat as if we're old friends."
"So, how is he supposed to tell us where Reina is?" Magnus asked, confused.
Mercy's smirk widened as she replied, "He already has."
Mercy slid a finger under the wine glass she had lifted from the waiter's tray and quickly extracted a small piece of paper that was glued underneath it.
"Here, take this," she said, handing the wine glass to Magnus.
The blond-haired vampire then sneakily unfolded the paper to read its contents.
After a brief moment, she crushed the paper, placed it in her mouth, took the wine glass back from Magnus, and gulped it down with big sips of wine.
"Uhh, what the fuck?" Magnus frowned in confusion and surprise.
"She's in the slums," Mercy revealed with a smug grin. "Come on, let's go."
"Wait," Magnus said as Mercy turned around to leave, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Since we're already here, let's have a 'drink,' shall we?"
Mercy spun around with a frown, looking at Magnus as if she was looking at a madman.
"Are you out of your mind?" she hissed in a hushed voice. "We're in the heart of enemy territory! If we get caught here, we'll be killed!"
Magnus waved his hand dismissively. "You worry too much. If something goes wrong, I'll just use my mind control abilities to get us out of here. And if it comes to a fight, I don't think anyone here can stop me."
"That might work for you since you'll just leave after killing your target in a day or two, but I still have to stay here for the next three years," Mercy tried to reason with the young vampire.
She was right. Magnus would cross the border and return back to the Vampire territory in just a few days after he had assassinated his target.
However, Mercy had a much more difficult task ahead of her.
She had to stay in this city in the Central Continent for the next three years and gather crucial intelligence on the United Military and Central Government.
If they slip up here and the Central Government or the Military Police catch wind of there being undercover vampires, it could mean disaster for Mercy and her entire mission.
However, despite her argument, Magnus remained nonchalant.
"Well, then I'll just have to be careful not to slip up," he said with a shrug, causing Mercy to pinch the bridge of her nose in frustration.
"Fine," Mercy replied, knowing that arguing further would be pointless.
"Good," Magnus flashed a grin. "Want to join me?"
"No thanks," Mercy waved her hand. "I'll wait for you here until the end of the third song. If you don't come back by then, I'm leaving."
"Sure, sure," Magnus nodded before turning and walking away. He already knew where his target was and didn't need Mercy's assistance anymore anyway.
With that in mind, Magnus headed toward the washroom.
"This guy," Mercy couldn't help but massage her forehead as she watched Magnus' back blur into the crowd.
It wasn't entirely his fault. Magnus was undoubtedly talented, but he was also young and inexperienced.
This was his first real mission outside of Vampire territory, and he had been spoiled by the patriarch's favoritism.
But Mercy knew that Magnus had the potential to become one of the strongest living vampires, and with that title, he would slowly gain experience and learn to take missions more seriously.
In time, he would mature and become a valuable asset to their cause.
Slam–
Suddenly, Mercy's attention was drawn to the center of the dance floor, where a disturbance had occurred.
A silver-haired boy had collided with the same waiter from earlier, causing the tray in his hand to topple over and spill a drink onto the beautiful blue-haired elven girl's dress.
Mercy quickly lost interest and looked away, ordering a drink.
While she would rather be drinking blood with Magnus, she had to make do with human alcohol for now. Surprisingly, it didn't taste so bad.
In her opinion, Dwarven alcohol was too strong and spicy, and Elven alcohol was too weak– to the point of tasting like water.
Human alcohol, on the other hand, was the perfect balance between light and hard. Not to mention, there were so many great varieties to choose from!
Despite her disdain for these creatures of low origin, even Mercy had to admit that humans weren't completely useless, unlike the dwarves.
Meanwhile, as Mercy was busy comparing alcohol brewed by different species, Magnus reached the restroom.
Click–
Without hesitation, he clicked open the door to the ladies' room and entered while closing the door behind him.
Just one quick sip, and he'll get out – that's what he told himself.
"Wh-Who are you?"
"Mister, I think you're in the wrong room!"
"Eeik! A guy!"
However, seeing a man enter their private space startled the group of girls who were already occupying the washroom.
Clearly flustered, unsettled, and annoyed, they freaked out and asked him to leave.
Magnus, however, stood there still as a creepy smile formed on his face.
A dark aura began to emanate from him, enveloping his entire being and casting an eerie pall over the room.
As he locked eyes with everyone present, a sense of dread washed over them.
"Submit!" he yelled, his voice carrying an ominous weight.
The girls stood there frozen, unable to look away from Magnus's piercing gaze.
They felt a sudden numbness wash over them. Their minds slowly lost connection to their bodies.
Their eyes lost focus as their pupils dilated, and the world around them slowly faded away.
In a matter of moments, they were completely under the spell of Magnus's mind control, and their consciousness was for him to dominate and toy with.
"Get on your knees and crawl to me," he commanded.
Without hesitation, the girls obeyed his every word, dropping to their knees and crawling toward him.
Magnus watched with a twisted sense of pleasure, savoring the sight of their submission.
He knew he should get this over with quickly and leave, but it had been over a week since he had a taste of fresh blood.
He wanted to savor this moment for as long as possible, even though he knew how it was dangerous to drag it out.
Finally, he decided to act.
He reached out and grabbed a redhead girl by the chin, pulling her up to her feet.
With a swift motion, he tilted her face a little and flipped her long locks to the side, revealing her bare neck.
"Heh," as a grin formed on Magnus' face, two long canines extended from under his upper lip.
He slowly leaned in and sank her fangs into the girl's bare neck.
"Angh!"
Instead of pain, a wave of pleasure assaulted the girl, causing her body to react and let a moan escape her lips.
"Mnghh!"
Well, she wasn't alone. As he tasted the fresh, warm blood, even Magnus couldn't help but let out a voice of satisfaction.
He couldn't understand how Mercy had been living without a single drop of fresh blood for well over a year now when he couldn't even go on for a week without it.
But putting those thoughts aside for now, Magnus soon lifted other girls one by one and sank his fangs deep into their necks too.
"You are sweet. You are thick. And you are very warm," he tasted them all side by side as if he was reviewing a bunch of different cold drinks.
Even though he said he would only take a sip, now that he was in the middle of it, he couldn't stop drinking.
Click—
But to his terror, suddenly, the door to the restroom clicked open. In excitement, he had forgotten to lock the door!
Creak—
As the door swung open, a blue-haired elven girl appeared. It was Aster.
She had come here to wash the wine stain off her dress.
But what she saw when she opened the washroom door was a black-haired man with striking red eyes, with blood smeared all over his lips, grabbing onto a girl by her shoulders with his face near her neck.
A few other girls also stood near him, but they looked as dazed as the one he had been grabbing on.
".....?!" as their eyes met, Aster stepped back in sheer horror and confusion.
Magnus was horrified too. Countless thoughts bombarded his head, and all of them told him not to let the girl escape!
If she screams or calls for help, it'll be all over!
As that thought settled in, Magnus decided to act. He pushed aside the redhead girl he was holding and willed mana into his legs.
In a swift motion, he squatted down and sprung up before lunging in the direction of the blue-haired elf.
Swish—!
In a flash, the vampire assassin's figure disappeared and appeared right before Aster as he swung his claw at her neck.
Thak—!!!
However, instead of tearing through the blue-haired elven girl's soft flesh, his claw collided with something else– something soft yet hard.
"Huh?!" Marcus' eyes widened as he discovered that his claw had struck a water shield that had materialized in front of Aster out of nowhere!
'Silent casting?!' he thought in his head but couldn't ponder over it for long as the girl he couldn't kill screamed.
"Aaaaaahhhh!!!"
"Tsk!" Magnus clicked his tongue.
He had failed to kill this girl because of the sudden water barrier spell that she had cast. And now, she had screamed.
He had slipped up, and now there was only one option remaining for him. He had to run.
Swish—
In a blink, Magnus jumped over Aster's head, who was blocking the sole exit of the restroom, and ran out of there at speed incomprehensible to the naked eye.
