Well, I find it annoying that I have to come back to the Jolly Tulip. Well, I don't know the reason for this. After all, I had no issue with coming to this place for the last week or so. Now I can't just wait to get this done.

  Well, last week was a part of the hunt. An act to lull my prey into carelessness. Now that I have gotten rid of the stalkers, there is nothing to keep me distracted. Boredom is not too much of an issue for me. If only it weren't for the sigil on my right palm. I wonder if I should speak about it. The problem is that if the people here were to know of the sigil, I would be hunted to the ends of the world.

  Well, maybe not till the end of the world. After all, this place barely has any divine presence. Still, things won't be pleasant anyway. It is still a massive risk after all. It is a risk that I will have to take, though. After all, this negotiation with the vampire is the most important thing that I can pull off. Right now, the sigil is the only way that I can be sure that this will happen.

  Right now, all of our plans are dependent on this negotiation with the lady. If I do not get the location of the enemy base from Esmerelda, then we will have to abandon this mission.

  All of the work that we are doing will become useless. (Except maybe the work of the sentinels.)

  I don't like to admit this, but we have no more options. Every trick that we can use against the creatures, we have already used. Everything that we know about the creatures just doesn't seem to apply to the vampires here.

  John has already lost confidence that we can track the creatures. I don't want to blame the man, though. We have always hunted grunts. Even though they don't have much experience with the vampire court.

  That is why he has shifted his focus back to the ship. He plans to make sure that whatever we do, we won't end up dead because some vampire decided to destroy our ship.

  Well, I won't complain about it. That ship is the only way that we will be escaping the town if something were to happen. The better protected it is, the more peacefully we can do our work. I have been reading the reports that Alfred has been sending.

  There are more enemies in the shipyard. As if that wasn't enough, they are also getting more confident with each passing day. Even now, they are parading outside the ship, hurling abuses and rocks at our ships. We cannot reply to any of this because attacking these people will offend the Navok family. That will lead to a fight that we can't afford. With how dicey things are getting, taking this bit of risk is reasonable.

  Thankfully we don't have anthony at the shipyard. Otherwise, the man would have already responded to such provocation. Then we would be forced to leave the place already.

  If this meeting fails, then we don't have any options. We will have to abandon the mission. After all, without a location for the necromancers, there is no way that we will be able to find them. The bone pits are a vast area, and we are strangers here. There is no way that we will be able to find the necromancers. The only leads to that are the vampires.

  I don't like to admit it, but the success of this mission is dependent on Lady Esmerelda. The only reason that I am comfortable doing this negotiation is that I am sure that the lady can be trusted. The only reason for this trust is that she seems as desperate as us to get her hands on the rock sword. That is why I can't explain why the lady is not already here. Until yesterday, I had assumed that the lady was not coming due to the stalkers.

  I have gotten rid of my stalkers now. She should already be here. If the lady still doesn't appear, then it means that it was a sham. That this was some kind of a trick to delay us. If that is the case, I will have to face the consequences of my actions.

  I was the person who had convinced the others to negotiate with the vampire. That means that I will be getting all of the responsibility for this decision. Since the other factions of the hexmountain are involved, I am not going to have a pretty fate.

  Most likely, I will be kicked out of the guard corps. I guess that leaving the guard corps can be considered to be one of my goals, but I don't want to be kicked out in this way. That would give my master the opportunity to hold it over my neck for the next few decades.

  "Lord Antonio, what exactly are you looking at?" A familiar voice echoes from the seat next to me.

  "Lady Esmerelda, you certainly tend to take your time." I reply, as I study the source of the voice.

  The lady is sitting next to me. Well, sitting next to me would be wrong. The lady is close enough to me that I can smell her breath. (Which smells like cherry, by the way.) She is clearly trying to catch me off guard.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  I can feel my heart in my throat right now. The lady is close enough that her claws can find my throat. At the same time, it will be very hard for me to strike her with my sword when she is so close to me.

  A glance around the inn and I know that everybody in the place is staring at me. I had become something of a celebrity in my time here. Everybody in the room is somewhat familiar with my story. Well, I wonder what rumours are going to spread out of here once the day ends.

  "Why have you taken so long to meet up with me?" I say. "We don't exactly have all the time in the world here."

  "Well, my superiors had been keeping me busy." The lady replies. As she speaks, she rolls the sleeves of her hands.

  Her entire hand looks like somebody has been soaking it in water. All of her veins are visible because they have taken green tinge.

  "Turns out, your escape from the trap was something that my superiors didn't like at all." The lady speaks. "They have been punishing me for my failure to kill you. Lord Avaron likes to play with his poisons. I could not leave our base until today."

  "The snake." I say as the lady nods her head in agreement.

  "Well. I guess then we can get down to business." I say. "I want the location of your base."

  "Well, we find ourselves in this argument again." The lady replies with a sigh. "Do you think that I do not know that you do not have my sword with you?"

  "Well, if I had brought the sword with me, I am sure that I would find myself in the middle of an ambush here." I reply. "The sword is safe in a hidden position. I have hidden it with runes that even an expert will not be able to detect. You will never find it unless we were to tell you where it is."

  "Well, don't you think that I know that? Why do you think I want to negotiate with you?" she replies. "That leaves us with our original conundrum. How will we be trusting each other?"

  Well, I was waiting for the lady to say exactly that. It is why I have taken such a big risk today.

  "I have a way for this negotiation of ours to succeed." I reply, as I show her the sigil on my right palm. "I think you know what this is supposed to be."

  "The sigil of furfur," the lady exclaims as she looks at me. "You folks are hypocrites, you know."

  "Well, we have no issues with demons, lady. Otherwise, they wouldn't be a part of the hexmountain treaty." I reply. "They are just too destructive to summon in our backyards. Anyway, I assume you know what this sigil means."

  "Naturally." The lady replies. "Any agreement made under the sigil of furfur must be fulfilled. If it is not done within the stipulated timeframe, the person will get a healthy dose of hellfire. I must say that you really love to gamble, human."

  "Good, so are you ready to make this agreement?" I speak. "Otherwise, we shall part ways here. I shall even give you a five-minute head start before I come to attack you."

  At the moment, I seriously hope the lady does not call my bluff. If she does, then our mission is screwed.

  "Fine, state your terms. The one bearing the sigils has to initiate the agreement." The lady replies. "I am sure you already knew that."

  Fuck, this lady is underestimating us. I have been grilled by Searcher Amelia for almost half a day on the exact procedure of using the sigil on my palm. Well, if I trigger it wrong, then I will take about a quarter of the town with me. Summoning demonic power is dangerous at the best of times. (Don't worry, the chance of that happening is very low. Otherwise, catching demon cultivators would not be so hard.)

  "Fine, the contract is simple. A location for a location. Tell us the location of your base, and we will tell you the location of the sword." I reply. (It is a bit embarrassing to admit, but I have been practicing that statement. What, even I am not comfortable dealing with demons.)

  "Well, the sword should be in a place that I can reach." The lady replies. "No storing the sword in a church."

  "Well, there are no churches in this place. At least one strong enough to hold back a vampire." I reply. "We shall put the sword in a place where even a demon can get it. In turn, the location of the enemy has to be precise. No trying to give me the name of the city."

  "Fine, the location shall be detailed enough that even a demon can locate it." The lady replies, throwing my words back at me.

  "We know how to read astral coordinates, lady. If you try to pull that off, I will provide you with the location of the sword in astral coordinates as well." I reply. "Can you do the same?"

  Well, I can't make heads or tails of astral coordinates. It is something of an expertise for the searchers.

  "Well, the words will be written in a manner that you humans will understand." The lady replies.

  "We want it in hexmountain common, lady." I reply as the lady looks at me. "No, trying to write in a tribal language or a dead language."

  "Fine, I will agree to it. My condition is the same as yours. The location of the sword has to be clear and understood. The sword has to be present there when I reach it." The lady replies. "If that is agreed, then we can shake on it."

  "Fine, I agree." I reply. I extend the arm with the sigil as we shake hands.

  As I do so, the sigil disappears from my hand. That means that the contract has been formed. Once the sigil disappears, my other hand disappears into my pocket as I remove two pieces of paper.

  "Note down the location then." I reply. "The other contains the location of the sword."

  As the lady takes the sheets of paper, I look at the tavern around me. All the people are staring at me. Well, the lady is very close to me. Too close for it to be considered platonic in any manner.

  Well, the rumours are going to spread like wildfire. I wonder if they will spread fast enough for the searcher to catch them. Well, if I can get a guess of her movements from rumours, she can do the same for me.

  As I am wondering this, the lady hands me the slip of paper.

  "Then we part ways here. The next time that we meet, we shall cross swords again." I say to the lady as we both begin to leave the tavern.

  "That is naturally going to be the case." The vampire replies as we part ways.