Ironically, the place that I have visited the most in this town is "Lady Abigail's laundry." It is a pretty ordinary building that I think must have been here since this town was an expedition town. That is the only way something that old could be here.

  This is supposed to be the best laundry in the town, something fit even for nobles. The only reason that I am being sent to this laundry is its location. I have to walk from the western end of the town to the eastern end of the town. I have to walk for a couple of hours just to reach the laundry.

  You see, right now, John is playing every trick that in his books to keep me away from the Whitestag Inn. Coming here has been wasting my time the most. So the man has been sending me to this laundry at least twice a day now. (I wonder where John is even getting so many clothes in the first place.)

  All of this is meant to keep me busy while the three factions in the inn scheme against each other. Right now, the Searchers, the Aegis and the Sentinels are pretty busy trying to screw each other over.

  Well, there is no way that the Aegis and the Sentinels will be working with each other. This is especially true with the way that the meeting ended. The two factions have been on the verge of blows ever since then. There is no way that the two factions will work together.

  That means both of these factions have been trying to woo the Searchers to their side. Now, if I could predict the actions of the Searchers, I still would be able to salvage the situation somewhat.

  The Searchers are trying to play the two factions against each other. This way, they can shift things in their favour. Now the problem is that I have no idea what the end goal is for the Searchers. That means I can't even predict if they are going to be helpful or not.

  I guess I shouldn't be complaining so much. After all, there is no use in airing our dirty laundry. The problem is that this has completely stopped any possible decision-making. It has been two weeks, and I still have not managed to get the factions to do anything. Every day that we delay is giving our enemy the time to adapt to this town. Every day makes an attack on us more likely.

  I would have expected indecision like this at the hands of the Aegis or the Searchers. I did not expect something like this from the Sentinels. We have faced plenty of vampires, you know. They are supposed to know the dangers of giving the vampires time to prepare.

  I have been trying to get the three factions to work with each other. I would say that I am the only person who has any chance of doing this. Mine is the only faction that can be considered neutral enough to do this. That is, if you don't consider the mayfires. At the moment, I can't leave this to the Mayfires, though. Right now, the Mayfires have kept themselves completely independent. I am thankful to them for that.

  After all, they are the only people who are defending my ship right now. Without them guarding the ship, I am sure that it would have been attacked already. (Well, if I am being honest. I don't think that they can hold against a full assault. They will still be able to warn us, though.)

  I was making a pretty decent headway as well. That was until John began sidelining me like this. Well, I can't complain about it. In a way, this can be considered to be self-inflicted. After all, I had been trying to get John and Anthony to reach an agreement. Those two idiots would rather fight each other to the death than work together.

  Well, I guess I should have thought about this when I had taken on the role of a servant. At that time, I thought that it would give me more freedom to move about. After all, servants are usually free to enter more places. I had just not expected Anthony to take advantage of it like this.

  I could ignore the man and his commands if he were giving them to me in private. The man has taken to giving his orders in public, where ignoring them would raise questions. Questions that we can't afford right now.

  That is why I find myself here at the laundry, with a sack of clothes on my back. Well, the laundry itself is a pretty little place.

  It has been constructed of the same rock as the town. The owner of this place has put quite an effort into making the place look pretty. I wonder if she is in there right now. Lady Abigail can be very interesting.

  As I am describing the place, I enter the place. I enter a little room that only has a single table. Sitting on it, we have Lady Abigail.

  She is the owner of this laundry. She is an ancient lady, looking like a skeleton with skin taped over her. I have wondered about her age, though I haven't yet built up the courage to ask her. Let's just say that she can be a personality.

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  "Well, my lady. Looks like you finally have a free day today.", I say, as I leave my sack on the table.

  "Well, we have pretty interesting customers today. It would be rude for me not to greet them personally." The lady replies. "Though I don't need to tell you about it. Before you report to them, I have to thank you, young lad. They would have only considered coming here if you had spoken highly of me."

  The lady looks at me with a little twinkle in her eyes. I just stand there with a blank expression. I have no idea what this lady is talking about. The most surprising thing is the warmth with which she is talking to me.

  I do agree that I have been visiting this place, but Abigail tends to meet with me only once every couple of days. I certainly can't say that I have struck up such a friendship with her.

  It is in this confusion that I follow the lady. She takes me into one of the storerooms at the back of the shop. As I enter the room, I finally begin to understand what is going on here.

  Right now, in this room, we have two people in the room. These people are John and Searcher Amelia.

  "So why exactly are you people here?" I ask as I look at the people in front of me. "I assume it has nothing to do with the clothes that you have been having me wash."

  "Well, we needed a place to speak away from Anthony." John replies. "This place is as safe as a place as any. We managed to convince the lady to let us use this room for our hidden get-together. She thinks we are using it for a romantic purpose, though."

  "Well, I assume that you have paid her well enough. Otherwise, that lady is going to Anthony the first thing tomorrow.", I reply.

  "Well, we have paid her pretty well. She is still going to Anthony first thing tomorrow." Searcher Amelia replies. "We are betting on it. Having a meeting without the man is one thing. Making the man think that we are scheming against him will be a declaration of war. He will find out about this eventually. He just doesn't need to know what we plan here."

  "Well, what exactly are we doing here then?" I ask.

  "Well, we have to figure out a plan of action quickly.", Searcher Amelia speaks. "Right now, Captain Anthony is not allowing that to happen. Thus, all of the other factions in this strikeforce will have to work without him. Right now, Captain John agrees with me. That is why he is here."

  "Well, it is a dangerous gamble you are playing." I reply. "Regardless, I don't think I will be able to do much now that we are here. I am sure Anthony will find out about this meeting soon enough. We might as well begin our work. So what exactly are you planning?"

  "Well, we plan to strike the vampires in a single strong strike." John replies. "For that, we will need to know the location of their base. Right now, there are two possible ways we can find their base. The first is that we think that the vampires are trying to woo somebody to their side."

  "I assume that the given person has not fallen for their charm already. So that means one of two things is happening right now." I reply as I make myself comfortable. "Either there is a strong divine presence in this town, or the vampires must be targeting somebody powerful."

  "Well, the former is pretty unlikely. We have confirmed that there are no churches present in this place. At least none of the type that would be able to hunt a vampire." Searcher Amelia replies. "Right now, we believe that the vampires are targeting somebody from the Navok family."

  "Well, that doesn't narrow down the list for us now, does it?" I reply.

  "Well, we are sure that the only goal of the vampires is to hunt us. That means that they should be focusing on attacking our ship." John replies. "Now, there is only one way that they will be sneaking in a force to attack the shipyard. That is by converting the person in charge of the place. The Navok consider the shipyard to be a very important place. They have defenses there that can hold back even the vampires."

  "Now, who would that be?" I ask.

  "Well, the person who is in charge of the place is Enrique Navok." The searcher confirms. "I have managed to confirm that in the last couple of weeks."

  "So, I assume you plan to follow the vampires back to their base. Do you realise just how monumentally stupid that is? They will find us the moment we show our faces." I reply. "What is the other plan?"

  "We are going to trick Anthony into being bait. After all, the man has been complaining about how he has not gotten the opportunity to prove his strength." John replies, a tone of irritation becoming clear in his voice. "Once the vampires retreat from the fight, we will follow them to their base."

  "Well, don't you think that the man would realise something is wrong?" I reply. "He might be one of the most volatile guards I have seen, but he is still not a fool."

  "Leave that to us searchers. We have had to deal with the guards for many years now. We know how to trick them." Searcher Amelia replies. "Right now, dealing with the vampires is a priority. We can deal with Anthony later as well."

  "Well, that doesn't answer the question of what you guys are planning to do. How exactly are we finding the enemy?" I ask. Well, I already know the answer, but I still hold a bit of hope.

  "Well, that is where you come in, Antonio," John says. "After all, you are the only person who has ever managed to figure out blood echolocation."

  "No, no, no. You of all people should know how risky what you are proposing is." I speak. I can't help but let irritation creep into my voice. The idiot knows just how useless blood echolocation is if the vampires know we are there. "You know that the vampires can feel blood echolocation. We have never managed to use it without being discovered. If mere grunts can detect it, do you think folk from the court will not discover it?"

  "I know that it is a bit risky but we don't have a lot of options here. We have already wasted too much time as it is." John replies. "Anyway, the Aegis will be the perfect distraction for the vampires."

  I think about this as I weigh the pros and cons of agreeing right now. The pros are quite a few. We will be able to attack the vampires with initiative. We will finally be doing something against them at the very least.

  The con is that this would completely make the Aegis my enemy. At the same time, I will be losing my autonomy. I will have to pick a side, you see. As I weigh things, it becomes very clear what I should do.

  "Fine, I agree to your plan. I have a few requirements from my side, though." I reply.