"Do the local Advanced Bloodkin directly drink human blood at the Charming Lady Club?"
Shade asked suspiciously. This was a very serious matter, but Mr. Bernhardt immediately shook his head.
"No, no, it hasn't gotten that serious yet. It's just that there are some rather..."
An indescribable expression appeared on the middle-aged Bloodkin's face.
"Rather exciting activities. Those activities make people bleed—you can probably imagine them. Whips, Torture Instruments, and the like. The blood is then collected afterward. Crazy, isn't it? Although most modern Advanced Bloodkin have given up the habit of drinking human blood, like the Bloodkin we met in Moon Bay, some still can't suppress their desire.
They don't dare drink human blood directly, but obtaining blood voluntarily shed by humans is quite easy."
He sighed and said no more. Shade asked instead:
"So the one behind that Club is a local Advanced Bloodkin?"
"No. Our Same Race is merely one of the participants, not the owner behind the scenes. All the members of our Same Race connected to that Club have vanished. Some are genuinely missing, while others are in hiding. They want to avoid both the enemy kidnapping Bloodkin locally and us from Wilundell.
I'll also be attending Friday's masked ball. I want to try to find some local members of our Same Race connected to the Club and obtain some information."
Mr. Finch's guess had been correct. Mr. Bernhardt truly did possess important intelligence.
"However, during our investigation, we never heard that the Club was related to a Skin Crafter or Skin Object."
As he spoke, Mr. Bernhardt took out the Invitation Letter he had obtained. The invitation Shade had found in the home of the dead opera troupe's Third Female Lead clearly stated that a Craftsman called the "Skin Crafter" would attend tomorrow night's