Chapter 69: Letters, Preparations, and a Moral Quandary

Lovelenica woke up the next day and left the Crimson Family manor.

These were precious vacation days. Since she had already tasted the cake Elena brought last night, there was no need to remain at the Crimson Family manor today.

She intended to stay in her own small villa. While it lacked the care of maids, it also spared her the annoyance of the Crimson Family’s residents.

Soon, she arrived at the manor’s main gate. Beneath a towering ancient tree, a small mailbox stood, seemingly holding several letters.

‘Who would send me letters?’

Lovelenica could roughly guess the sender. After all, she had only shared her address with two people: Lucia and Imeline. The letters must have come from one of them.

Curiosity piqued, she carried the letters into her villa. She then tore open the envelopes, beginning to read their contents.

It turned out both Lucia and Imeline had sent letters to this address.

Lucia’s letter mentioned her departure from the Royal City to resolve an Unclean-level incident. She had even included the date of her journey, hoping Nikola would see her off.

‘Fool, I’ve already been working with you.’

Lovelenica mused inwardly, knowing Lucia’s wish had naturally gone unfulfilled. Lovelenica hadn’t visited the villa during those days, making it impossible for her to check the mail.

Even if Lovelenica had known Lucia’s wish, she wouldn’t have been able to grant it.

Lucia had only sent this one letter; the remaining two were from Imeline.

The first letter stated that Imeline had entered the Crimson Family manor but found no useful clues.

From this, it seemed Imeline had indeed intended to investigate the manor that day, only to be discovered and stopped by Elena.

The second letter contained Imeline’s invitation for Nikola to investigate the orphanage once more.

In her letter, she mentioned having set up a spatial magic node within her own family’s manor. This would allow them to investigate with confidence; should any danger arise, they could instantly teleport back to the royal manor via the spatial node, completely risk-free.

The agreed-upon time was three weeks from now. In reality, the three major organizations’ Anomaly Hunt exercise was scheduled for just ten days away. It seemed Imeline intended to resume her investigation of the Crimson Family immediately after the exercise concluded.

After reading the letter, Lovelenica let out a helpless sigh.

It was clear Imeline was incredibly impatient. Despite Lovelenica’s warnings to cease her investigation of the Crimson Family for the time being, Imeline had still been wandering around their manor. Now, she even planned to continue investigating the orphanage. It seemed Elena’s previous lesson hadn’t been enough.

Naturally, Lovelenica intended to accept Imeline’s invitation. After all, Lovelenica’s goal was to obstruct Imeline’s investigation, and she couldn’t effectively hinder Imeline without accompanying her.

However, Lovelenica suspected that whatever was in the Alpha Orphanage’s basement might have already been moved. The Crimson Family wasn’t foolish; even if the guards hadn’t caught the intruder that day, they had learned of an attempt to access the basement. After so many days, they would have either upgraded their security or completely relocated the blood bank from the basement.

Of course, even if they hadn’t taken it seriously and continued to guard the basement with a lax attitude, it wouldn’t matter. With Lovelenica present, she would find every possible way to prevent Imeline from investigating.

Beyond that, there seemed to be nothing else of note.

With these thoughts, Lovelenica realized she should begin preparing for the Anomaly Hunt exercise.

She recalled that in the original plot, an Unclean-level, possibly even a Blasphemous-level, Bloodkin had attacked Lucia’s three-person squad, leading to Attestor’s death.

The original host, in the story, had been utterly unhelpful, completely unmoved by Lucia’s pleas.

Had the original host agreed then, attempting to go with Lucia to support Attestor—even if it had been too late and Attestor couldn’t be saved—Lucia wouldn’t have harbored such intense hatred.

Lovelenica was actually considering whether or not to try and save Attestor.

If her only concern was to avoid Lucia’s hatred, then she didn’t necessarily need to ensure their safety. She could simply swap positions with someone else, take up a different post, and let Lucia seek help from another.

That way, whether Attestor sacrificed herself or not, it would have no bearing on Lovelenica.

After all, that Bloodkin had effortlessly defeated Lucia’s trio, even with a Guardian Nun nearing the Fifth Tier. Lovelenica, relying solely on her physical body, wasn’t certain she could secure a decisive victory against such an opponent.

While Attestor hadn’t reached the Fourth Tier, the original novel described her as a pure “stat monster.” Her vertical and horizontal slashes dealt immense damage, allowing her to hold her own against a Fifth-Tier opponent for a considerable time, despite being only Third-Tier.

Lucia, on the other hand, was a “mechanic monster,” capable of dealing true damage.

The Bloodkin had easily overcome the combined assault of a stat monster and a mechanic monster, suggesting that the Bloodkin possessed even greater stats and more intricate mechanics.

According to the original novel, this Bloodkin also wielded firearms. She used magic bullets with corrupting warheads. These corrupting warheads, when striking Lucia, would temporarily inhibit her regeneration, while the magic bullets provided a minor auto-aim function.

The Bloodkin’s physical prowess was suited for guerrilla warfare. Even with Attestor’s impressive stats, she was useless if she couldn’t land a hit. Thus, she would be slowly whittled down to a killing threshold before being instantly eliminated in close combat.

Overall, the impression was akin to ‘Made in Heaven’ combined with a heavy sniper, though not quite as monstrously potent.

Lovelenica herself would be troubled if she had to face such an opponent.

As a Bloodkin, the opponent’s speed would undoubtedly rival her own. Her thrown gun-swords couldn’t possibly match the speed of the Bloodkin’s gunfire. Lovelenica genuinely found her a difficult adversary to confront.

Truthfully, Lovelenica was tempted to flee to a different post, letting others handle this mess while she gracefully vanished.

However, now that Lovelenica knew such an event would occur, her conscience wouldn’t allow her to escape. She wasn’t so cruel as to simply watch others perish without intervention.

Moreover, Lovelenica still felt a degree of guilt over manipulating Lucia. Saving Attestor seemed a fitting way to offer Lucia some small compensation.

‘It’s just a gun-wielding Bloodkin, isn’t it? With proper preparation, a fight isn’t impossible.’

Lovelenica resolved to visit the Church, where she would exchange Seals of Purification for holy relics, ensuring thorough preparations for the upcoming battle.

However, her immediate priority was to acquire a set of more suitable undergarments. Otherwise, when she fought with all her might, things might not stay contained.