The Warden of the Witches Chapter 207

 Chapter 207: The Vampire That Feeds on Corpses

Aiden anticipated that after he had taken almost all the benefits, the Witch Gathering would never let it go.

On his way back, since they hadn't ambushed him halfway, they would most likely come to block him at the prison. When he went to the inquisition to handle the aftermath, Aiden suspected that qimora might have already sneaked into the prison to wait for him.

"Then you should know why I'm here, right?" Qimora squinted her eyes.

"To invite me to dinner? Sorry, you just heard it, I already have an appointment tonight." Aiden leaned back in his chair, completely at ease.

Unlike the first time he saw Qimora, when he was filled with doubt, after observing her battle with the Nun, Aiden had somewhat figured out qimora's divine word effects.

Besides erasing her presence, she seemed capable of making specific targets unable to interfere with or influence her. It seemed likely that she used this power to pass through the prison without any obstacles.

Aiden could see the limitations of this power. First, the number of targets it could select was limited, likely to three or fewer. Second, this nullification was probably bidirectional; otherwise, they could have killed or severely injured the Nun on the spot.

After all, this prison was still his home ground, and he currently had no intention of immediately clashing with the Witch Gathering.

"Please don't joke around and try to dodge the issue," Qimora said seriously.

"Don't worry, I intend to discuss this matter with you properly, but definitely not now," Aiden replied leisurely.

"What do you mean?"

"After Fighting against the bountiful Mother Cult, we haven't had a proper rest for two days. At least let me catch up on some sleep before we discuss this matter," Aiden said, even going so far as to put his feet on the table. " I will contact Abigail myself in the afternoon. Just wait patiently; I'm not going to sprout wings and fly away."

He had every reason and the qualifications to remain as composed as possible. The divinity and the remains of the Nun were all in his hands, giving him the upper hand in the negotiations.

Qimora stared at him for a long time before finally sighing, "Alright, since the Warden insists, we'll give you some face. I'll convey this to Abigail. I hope you're not playing us for fools."

"Of course not. Then I won't see you out." Aiden spread his hands toward the door.

Qimora stood up, smiled politely, bowed to Aiden, and then disappeared without a trace in the next second.

...

In the morning, the inquisition arrived at the abandoned mine in Northwind Town to conduct a post-operation investigation and to handle and recover the bodies.

True to the veteran's reputation, the cleanup was thorough and meticulous.

Senior Inquisitor Rebecca, who's in charge of the investigation, looked at the corpses scattered around the mine and couldn't help but feel impressed.

According to Aiden, most of the people here were killed by the Witch gathering. But in the end, it was Aiden himself who suggested using the Witch gathering—a tactic the inquisition would never usually employ.

Of course, the old Aiden would have never considered teaming up with the witches either. Who knows what kind of changes he went through after working in the prison for these few years.

"Captain..." A team member who had been searching below came forward to report.

"Did you find the target's body?" Rebecca asked immediately.

"We found them. There are only two bodies that haven't decomposed completely," the team member raised his hand to point in the distance, "One is a headless corpse, and the other has a severely damaged head. The fragments of clothing on it can be pieced together to form a black nun's robe."

"Yes, that should be it," Rebecca nodded.

Nawei Bales was identified by the inquisition as an accomplice in the "bountiful Mother Cult Case," who assisted Father Bales in forming the cult. Although she was already dead, the inquisition needed to recover her body for confirmation.

The team member's description matched what Aiden had previously told them. Aiden claimed that the prisoners with him saw the Nun fighting with the witches. During the battle, the nun used "strange life alchemy" to create a headless substitute to take the damage for her, but was then killed in a sneak attack by the grand witch Lamia.

As for the other bodies on site, they were mostly artificial humans created by the cult. The so-called corpses scattered everywhere were essentially the remains of these artificial humans, which hadn't fully decomposed. Only the nun's body was relatively intact.

"But Captain... there's something odd about that body," the reporting team member suddenly added.

"Odd?"

"You'll see when you come and take a look."

The team member led Rebecca to where the Nun body lay. By this time, the on-site collection work was nearly complete, and the body had been placed next to a special recovery bag, ready to be taken away.

Since the body had no clothing, the investigators had temporarily covered her with a white cloth.

The team member stepped forward and slowly lifted the cloth, exposing the deceased from the head to the shoulders, then pointed to a spot on the corpse's neck: "Look, Captain, right here."

Rebecca looked closely and was immediately stunned: "Bite marks?"

There were two puncture wounds on the nun's neck, resembling needle pricks. These marks were familiar to the inquisition investigators—they were "bite marks" left by vampires when they used their fangs to suck blood.

It appeared that the Nun had recently been fed on by a vampire—this so-called "recently" being within the past two days. Vampire bite wounds typically heal quickly unless the victim dies from blood loss.

A vampire... Aiden hadn't mentioned any involvement of vampires in his account, nor was there any intelligence suggesting that any of the witches participating in the battle were vampires.

"Any idea when these bites were made?" Rebecca asked offhandedly.

"Well..." The team member hesitated, "Based on the current investigation, it seems... the bite marks were made after death."

"What?" Rebecca frowned.

While it wasn't unheard of for vampires to drink blood from corpses, it was extremely rare. Most vampires preferred fresh blood taken from living victims, and only resorting to dead blood on a dire circumstances.

They regarded the blood of the dead the way ordinary people viewed moldy bread.

"There are traces of blood magic used on the body. Given the time that has passed, the blood in her body should have completely coagulated, but when we found the body, her blood was still fluid. Look here," the team member pointed out, "the black blood oozing from her wound is thick but still liquid."

"Moreover, the bite marks on her neck show no signs of healing, indicating she either bled to death from the bite before she died or was bitten after death. A preliminary examination shows the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head... so it's more likely the bite marks were made postmortem."


Rebecca was stunned. during the night after the battle and before they arrived at the abandoned mine this morning, a vampire had been here and had bitten the corpse to suck its blood.

Was this just a random wandering vampire, desperate enough to feed on a corpse? Or was there a vampire who had been keeping an eye on the bountiful Mother Cult all along, waiting until the cult was annihilated in the siege to make their move?