Volume 8, Prologue: Vampire Assassin (2/2)

After flashing through the window in the furthest corner, I stood in the left corner in the very back. The inside of the church was very bright. There were not many shadows for me to stand in and advance through without attracting the attention of others.

The fair-haired pastor was currently standing at the altar, giving a sermon. Despite being busy with filming a movie, he still discussed with the production team to leave his Sundays open for him to preach. Consequently, the young master would also use this time to search for the whereabouts of the criminals.

The seats below were filled with believers, a stark contrast from the scattered little groups of “believers” in Sunset City. They were brimming with piety, almost to the point of being somewhat…zealous.

As I followed their line of sight, all I saw was the blond priest: Alex Simon.

He stood there giving his sermon, with his bright gold hair shining brilliantly, his voice gentle, and his expression extremely friendly. There was probably nobody that could ever hate such a person unless they were intentionally trying to stir up trouble.

“The Lord said, If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Alex adopted a tone of pity and distraught. This story was not unfamiliar, as it was related to the city of sin.

“Man asked, What if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? The Lord said, For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

His sermon was extremely agreeable and moving. Every pastor had their own preaching style. In my younger days, I had often been curious about the contents of sermons—Obviously, I did not personally attend a church, but would ask for other family members to go and record, or occasionally find a family member that was a believer to ask them questions. Although, the family members that were of the faith were always panicked and at a complete loss as to how to act in my presence.

Father Alex’s style of preaching was undoubtedly the warm and gentle type. He did not reject questions of validity, and even accepted the fact that due to difference in time periods, some contents of the Bible were meant to be symbolic as opposed to literal.

What a truly amazing pastor. If I was a believer, I would very likely have chosen this church, too. It’s no wonder that the believers here look so devout, to the point of near fanaticism, as if the God they believed in was standing right in front of them—Maybe that was not exactly incorrect either. They seemed as if they would do anything Father Alex said.

After listening to a portion of Father Alex’s sermon, I was able to confirm his skillfulness in his field. Regardless of his objective or his true identity, there was no doubt that he did his job as a pastor very well.

Based on the reactions of the believers, it appeared that Father Alex had likely preached for a while now. However, that did not signify much, since sermons were mostly only on Sundays, which meant that he had plenty of time to do “other things.”

I shifted my feet and leapt out from the window once more. Then, I circled around and walked in through the back of the church. The door was actually unlocked, which was truly unexpected. Was it that their public security was just extremely good, or that they believed the church did not have any items of significant worth?

After entering from the back of the church, I located the pastor’s room with great ease. This church had a similar layout to Father Yue’s church, just larger in size. Considering Father Alex’s fame, this church’s scale was actually smaller than I had expected; it was simply a typical community church.

I was stunned upon walking into the room. The walls were completely covered with crosses of various designs, and even from different time periods. By rough approximation, there were likely over fifty of them in total. At first glance, it was truly extremely shocking—especially to a vampire.

Father Alex had stated before that he enjoyed collecting antiques, and had even asked me in the past if I would give him my cross necklace. It seemed that his fondness for ancient crosses was a true fact.

Up to this point, there did not seem to be anything suspicious. Even I felt as if I was being overly paranoid. However, since the matter involved both X and the young master, I truly needed to be extremely careful.

The person that concerned me the most in this matter was actually Alex Simon.

The Sun Emperor, the young master, the Church, and even Lieder, were all seeking something from recent events. Only Father Alex had seemed not to have any wishes. However, he had still appeared and gotten deeply involved, which meant that he undoubtedly had an objective.

I searched all over the room, but did not spot anything questionable. There were not even weapons to be found. Even Father Yue at least had a few ancient firearms collected, but Father Alex did not have anything related to a weapon.

Finally, I found an extremely simple-looking notebook in the drawer. The corner of the cover had the words “Alex Simon” written on it, so I concluded that it was likely his diary.

There should be quite a bit of information inside. However, I truly feel indisposed at the thought of secretly going through a private diary. Must I really do so? I had not found any suspicious evidence no matter how I searched. Could Father Alex truly be innocent?

While hesitating, the sound of footsteps came from outside before I could even make a decision. I hurriedly returned the notebook to its original place and flashed over to a dark corner to hide in.

The person who entered was Father Alex; it appeared that he had already finished his sermon. I had acted too slowly. Do I have to leave before thinking of or finding out anything? Perhaps I should take a minor risk and attempt to search other rooms while he is in this one?

After a moment’s hesitation, I decided to first see what he would do. If he did not do anything suspicious, I would then go and look around other rooms; there would still be plenty of opportunity to do so.

Father Alex walked up to his desk and retrieved the notebook that I had just returned to the drawer. He then sat down before the desk and lifted the book. Is he going to write in the diary?

After watching for a period of time and confirming that he had no intention to go off and do anything else, I decided to leave and scout around the other rooms. However, the moment I shifted my feet, Father Alex shut his notebook. He raised his head to look up at the crosses on the wall. Originally, I thought he was admiring his collection, but he unexpectedly spoke instead.

“You have been watching me for half a day now. If possible, could you show yourself so that we could talk face-to-face?”

I was silent for a long time, checking that nobody else was speaking up. This place truly did not have any other people present, which meant he was undoubtedly referring to me.

Alex warmly said, “Do you have any doubts you would like to ask me about? It is fine if you just come out.”

“You can see me?” I could not help but ask. Perhaps I was not as skilled at concealing myself as the young master had said.

“I cannot. I am merely able to ‘sense’ you.”

Sense? As in, similar to a sixth sense? I could not comprehend it at all.

Alex asked with interest, “Are you curious about the Lord, or are you curious about me?”

“I am not a believer.”

Alex let out a soft sigh and said, “So you are here for ‘me’ then? Although that is not at all surprising.”

Doubtful once again, I could not restrain myself from cutting straight to the point and asking, “Are you ‘Sin?’”

He smiled and replied with another question. “Are you E.X.?”

For a moment, I was stunned, unsure of the reason behind this assumption. Finally, I intentionally answered, “And if I said I was?”

“Then, I would be very regretful to say that I must question that statement.”

Alex stood up. “You are not E.X., and I am not Sin. If my guess is correct, I believe that you are ‘Dark Sun,’ and I would like to chat with you under the recommendation of a mutual friend. I hope that you can come out and see me in person.”

A mutual friend? What kind of mutual friend would Dark Sun and Alex share? The young master never mentioned such a matter before.

Father Alex glanced over at the door, which was then slowly pushed open by someone!

I could not help but feel somewhat anxious. Alex’s abilities were unknown, and all I had to rely on was my speed. Originally, I was sure that regardless of his ability, I would be able to flee as long as I made full use of x-speed. However, now with one more person, it would unfortunately be quite dangerous. Should I take this chance to run first… Run?

It seemed that the effects of the tranquilizers had indeed faded, as my first thought was not to “fight,” but to “run away.”

I glanced down at the ring on my hand, and after mustering a great amount of resolve, barely restrained myself from injecting the painkillers into my body.

Now that the door was open, all I could do was prepare myself as thoroughly as possible. Perhaps fleeing would be unavoidable. However, if confrontation was possible, that would be best. Moreover, I would absolutely not use the tranquilizers until the final moment!

Even when the young master had just undergone surgery and was in such great pain that he could not be himself, he remained unwilling to use painkillers. In that case, how could I use painkillers for an excuse as shallow as “not escaping as usual?”

I placed the ring-bearing hand behind my back and stopped my thoughts from running wild, instead concentrating my full attention on the person walking in. The door opened, and the person who walked in also wore priest garbs. To my surprise, it was—

Father Yue!