"Did you know? I heard—well, I really only heard this, mind you—that Archduke Constance was the sort of terrifying figure who pulled all the strings from behind the scenes on the vampires' homeworld. She was older than all the archdukes combined.
"She could even be called the vampires' true 'progenitor.'
"Vampire civilization had developed bit by bit under her watch. When that damned 'Great Extinction' first struck, it was her mysterious organization, the Blood Spirit Court, that first discovered something was wrong and warned the other clans.
"Supposedly, it was during the time of Lord Payn's generation that people first confirmed Lady Constance's existence from those ancient legends. Old Edward, of course, was an exception.
"He'd been carrying on an improper relationship with Lady Constance for a long time."
In the captain's cabin of the Plunderer, Pablo had several slips of paper stuck to his face. Holding a hand of playing cards, he tossed one onto the table and spoke to the people beside him in the tone of someone sharing an old piece of gossip:
"At least, judging by the details I found in Archduke Charlemagne's memories, even during the implementation of Project 27, he and the Blood Dread astral hunters mostly played the role of operatives.
"The one truly directing and driving it all forward was still that elusive Lady Constance.
"The two sides hardly ever met. Archduke Constance would just assign them missions periodically, sending them to various places in the astral realm to find or hunt specific targets. They'd store those targets in the laboratory and wait for Lady Constance to come and deal with them, then stay there until the results came in.
"Although the memories Archduke Charlemagne left behind aren't complete, I can say for certain that the lady treated Project 27 as her