Dark Moon Era

‘Main Mission 1: After Tonnies leaves, break out of Morde Prison before dawn. Failure penalty: bear the consequences of not breaking out.

 ‘Main Mission 2: Investigate the Santos Demon case. Failure penalty: death.

 ‘Main Mission 3: Find out the identity of the Santos Demon. Failure penalty: half of your life force will be drained, unrecoverable.

 ‘Main Mission 4: ????’

 Tang Ling lowered his head as his expression went through multiple changes. His heart was cursing out loud and ceaselessly.

 What kind of mission notifications were these?

 The failure penalty for main mission 1 was to ‘bear the consequences of not breaking out’? Could it get any vaguer than that?

 Fine, it was not exactly a severe penalty since a quick analysis would allow Tang Ling to know what was coming his way.

 Main mission 2 was the most reasonable. The penalty of failing might be severe, but it was actually the easiest mission to complete.

 Even in his current situation, Tang Ling had a chance of completing main mission 2! He did not purposely get himself thrown into prison with his amazing acting just to grind his acting skills to become an actor.

 As for main mission 3, the failure penalty was the most severe as it directly affected the real world. Besides that, it seemed to be quite a challenge to clear as well.

 Tonnies had been on the case for so long, and judging from his tone, he was still not sure whether this Santos Demon was the killer. He only described the case as the punishment from the devil.

 His saying was, of course, limited by the era of this world, but this Santos Demon was obviously the shadow behind everything. Finding out his real identity would certainly be a challenge.

 Of course, Tang Ling was most frustrated about main mission 4 because it did not specify anything about the murder such as finding the killer or whatnot. It was just four question marks!

 Was the Dream Domain toying with him? What should he do with four question marks? Improvise?

 Nevertheless, four main missions had popped up and it seemed like the missions on this main street were not exactly that easy to clear. On second thought, Tang Ling started to believe that Liu He’s appearance was just to numb his senses and possibly mislead him.

 Despite the many thoughts running through his mind, he did not show any flaw on his face. He stayed quiet for a few seconds before looking into Tonnies’ eyes.

 “The Santos Demon? The devil’s revenge? Sir, I’m sorry but I have to know about this. Please, I have to.” Tang Ling feigned a determined look.

 Tonnies also sensed a faint line of hope from Tang Ling’s expression, so he asked, “Then, I’ll need a promise from you. I’ll only tell you what they are if you tell me what you know.”

 “I promise, b-but you must protect me,” Tang Ling stated his terms. It would be strange if he did not voice any terms and it might ruin his plans.

 “My duty is to protect the innocent. I’ll do my best to protect you.” Tonnies was a straight and honest man. His promise was unusually solemn.

 Tang Ling then nodded reluctantly.

 …

 Tonnies was not much of a talker. He only cared about acquiring important clues, but he also understood Tang Ling’s request for protection. Therefore, he decided to briefly summarize the case for Tang Ling in exchange for clues.

 After all, the death toll had been climbing recently and they could no longer hold the truth back from the public. All kinds of terrible and exaggerating rumors spread like wildfire and caused unnecessary panic among the people. Even the truth was not as bizarre as the rumors. There were people who started to learn about the truth and the starting of the whole incident.

 However, Tang Ling was just a common farm kid, so knowing too many details would not help him in any way either.

 To Tonnies’ surprise, starting from the first question, he started to lose control of the conversation. With Tang Ling’s lead and guide, be it intentional or not, he fell into the kid’s pace and revealed even more details.

 Tonnies did not suspect anything though because the farm kid was only asking about the points, and he knew that Tang Ling asked all those questions out of fear with a mix of curiosity.

 Moreover, Tang Ling’s eyes were clear and sincere, so Tonnies did not have the heart to simply brush him off.

 As Tonnies’ explanation continued, a slightly bizarre tale that spanned across a century unfolded. It might seem forced, but all the details were coincidentally connected together.

 The whole incident started 132 years ago.

 Back then, the lord of this land, Grand Duke Ferdinand, owned three major cities, 11 smaller towns, and a few hundred villages and farms.

 Compared to his other clansmen who were ambitious and loved to participate in the fight for power, Grand Duke Ferdinand was a rather strange one. He was not interested in power, money, or conflict, which was what a man in a high position of that era usually sought after. Instead, he was only interested in having an adventure throughout the world and research about the secrets of the land.

 No one in his family understood him and he could never resonate with anyone of his clansmen. Thankfully, he was not interested in conflict for profits and power, so his life was rather free and easy.

 If history had unfolded that way, the hereditary dukeship and the rule over the land would never have been passed down to Grand Duke Ferdinand, but if the world was predictable and followed the simplest course of the matter, it would have been a simpler place to live in.

 In the end, the dukeship was passed down to Ferdinand. The kingdom was at war when he went for a long adventurous trip.

 All the heirs of Ferdinand’s father, Duke Eugene Borton, died on the battlefield due to some strange accidental mistakes. Not even his daughters were spared from the ominous fate.

 The strange thing was that Duke Eugene was a playboy. Although he had many bastards out there, all of them died due to various coincidental reasons.

 Under such circumstances, the old Duke Eugene had no better choice than to pass his dukeship to Ferdinand. Following the matter, of course, Ferdinand inherited the dukeship from the Borton family and was officially crowned the fifth Grand Duke of the land.

 He seemed to be favored by Lady Luck. After he ascended to the position, the war in the kingdom stopped and the kingdom of Borchy did not fall into recession due to the war. Instead, it grew even stronger because of the victory.

 Not only did the war expand the land and increased the population, but a great number of resources were also seized from the loser of the war.

 As the family that had almost all of its clansmen sacrificed in the war, the Borton family received a bigger commendation for its great achievements on the battlefield. After the title of Grand Duke was conferred, the family was rewarded with even more land.

 Therefore, Ferdinand had another city under his rule: Antoine City and its eastern appendage land.

 The king was generous to the Borton family. The land that was rewarded to them was fertile and populous, so it generated a lot of tax income for the Borton family.

 However, Ferdinand was never an ambitious person and even less of a politician. His love for adventure and research never changed.

 He was barely in his own castle throughout the year as he continued his adventures around the world. He would always bring back people who were rumored to have outstanding talents or quirks. He took them under his wing and treated them generously.

 Contrary to expectations, these people that brought back were not useless at all. Some of them were really talented and helped Grand Duke Ferdinand rule over the land. On top of that, despite being a Grand Duke who cared nothing about politics, the talented men that he brought back were all loyal to him.

 Everything sounded normal and appeared perfect up until this point, except that the process of Ferdinand getting the title of Grand Duke seemed a little unusual.

 However, it did not matter much because he was on a long trip at that time and had done nothing to usurp or whatsoever.

 Things took a sharp turn in the 10th year after Ferdinand became the Grand Duke.

 “A disaster happened here in our city, Antoine City.” Tonnies showed fear in his gaze when he spoke of the disaster as if he himself had experienced a century worth of history and did not want to remember anything about it.

 “The disaster happened in a little village named Marco which is around 20 km from Antoine City.”

 The little village had nothing special at all. Even the so-called ‘vampire disaster’ was a common phenomenon in the medieval times of the Light Continent.

 Anyone who read the history of the Light Continent would notice that there were many ‘vampire disasters’ that happened all across the continent. Back then, because of the limited knowledge, people were mostly ignorant and would usually sum up the common phenomenon as a vampire appearing in the village.

 Usually, whenever such a disaster happened in a village, the people would dig open the grave of the person who they suspected had turned into a vampire. They would stab the body with a stake through the heart, pull the body out, and burn it into cinders.

 The process might vary depending on location or time, but they were generally the same.

 It was quite an interesting phenomenon. Tang Ling once thought of something when he read the history of the Light Continent.

 Back then, there was less communication among continents, probably next to none, so who was responsible for uniting all the sayings and rumors such as the only way to deal with a vampire or a jiangshi was to dig the grave up and burn the body? Why would the people believe that peach wood could repel evil?

 Maybe it was common knowledge between humans that was written in the genes.

 Of course, the history was out of topic, so Tang Ling did not interrupt Tonnies because of his trivial thoughts. He continued listening.

 With the least surprise, after the vampire disaster happened in Marco Village, the villagers did the same. They dug the body out and wanted to repel the evil, but they did not stop anything as even more villagers died after that.

 According to a detailed record, not all the evidence found on the dead bodies matched the modus operandi of a blood-sucking vampire. There were only one or two cases, but it was enough to raise suspicion.

“Then, how did the people die according to that detailed record? Is it like what we saw in the stable today?” Tang Ling showed fear in his eyes as if he would be killed in that manner in the next moment.

 Tonnies was stunned. He originally did not want to answer this question, but he could not hold it back when he saw Tang Ling’s expression. “Not exactly. It’s never the same, but every one of them was gory.

 “It’s definitely not caused by illness and it’s not a…natural death. The similarities are…” Tonnies hesitated before he stopped talking.

 Tang Ling did not press on the question either.

 Firstly, he already got a general idea of the case.

 Secondly, pressing the topic would be stepping out of his character. Moreover, he had just lost his mother, so he should look depressed at times and not be too curious.

 The question was brushed off, but Tonnies continued with other things.

 In summary, the disaster was far more severe than what Marco Village could handle. Ever since the first death was discovered, 20 more people in the village were killed in the next five days. This caused a destructive effect on the village.

 The people of Marco Village were panic-stricken. The people were forced to ask the church for exorcism help. They believed this was no longer a simple vampire problem. Their village might have welcomed a demon!