Gospel of Blood

“It was a good performance.”

In the slowly moving carriage, Charlotte crossed her legs casually, one hand resting on the windowsill, the other holding a crystal goblet filled with milk, looking quite relaxed.

In the corner at the diagonal end of the carriage, the black cat Nice curled up, its amber vertical pupils staring fixedly at the milk stains at the corner of the girl’s mouth, struggling to swallow a mouthful of saliva.

Noticing its brazen gaze, Charlotte’s expression turned cold, and she lightly wiped her mouth with a handkerchief.

Nice had a rather regretful expression and sarcastically said,

“I can’t compare to Your Excellency. You are a true genius actor. You could go straight to the theater and play the leading role!”

Charlotte:…

Charlotte took a sip of the rich milk and said,

“In the future, address me as Charlotte in public.”

“Afterwards, address me as master in private.”

Nice stared with widened cat eyes, immediately angered.

“Bah! You Evil God! Don’t think you can make me submit!”

“Oh?”

Charlotte glanced at it lightly.

The divine symbol on its forehead flashed, Nice’s expression changed, and finally gritted its teeth.

“Master!”

That resentful tone, as if it wanted to eat her flesh and drink her blood.

“Good.”

Charlotte smiled satisfactorily, her lips slightly curved.

She was feeling quite good now. Finally out of the church hospital, finally escaped the crisis, defeated the plot to kidnap her, and incidentally acquired a seemingly powerful cat prop. Everything was getting better.

And now, seeing this previously audacious black cat visibly angry but having to yield to her dominance, made Charlotte’s mood even more delightful.

This feeling of deriving happiness from others’ pain is quite nice. She felt as if some strange attribute within her had awakened.

“Tell me, how did you summon a monster just now?”

Charlotte leaned against the window and looked at the black cat with interest.

Nice face sneered sarcastically.

“Does it please you to use me for entertainment? As an Evil God, you should be familiar with this kind of specified evil summoning spell, right? There are many exiled bloodbornes in the dark dimension!”

“Summoning spell? In that case… you’re not just a priest, but also a mage?”

Charlotte raised an eyebrow.

Nice remained smirking, his resentful expression seeming to say: You’re pretending, aren’t you?

“Actually… you misunderstood. I am not an Evil God.”

Charlotte pondered for a moment.

Since she had become its master, she felt it necessary to clarify some things in advance, to be open and honest, and to avoid misunderstandings and trouble in the future.

“Of course, I’m not the original Charlotte. You can see me as a traveler who accidentally arrived in this world.”

Nice remained silent, just sneering in the corner. Its expression was full of disbelief, its hoarse voice as sarcastic as ever.

“Oh, yes, yes! Everything you say is true! Whatever you say, that’s what it is!”

Charlotte: …

She suddenly had the urge to grab the back of its neck and throw it out of the carriage window.

Taking a deep breath, Charlotte reminded herself not to stoop to the level of a fat cat. Then, she shook her head and said,

“Actually, you didn’t need to summon a blood thrall.”

“Just find a reason to say you banished it.”

Nice stared blankly for a moment. It widened its eyes as if having a sudden realization.

Damn! How didn’t I think of that?!

Charlotte secretly shook her head, feeling that this guy’s head wasn’t as sharp as she had thought.

She looked at the dress she was wearing and asked her final question.

“One last thing… why do you have the clothes I wore at the church hospital?”

Silence…

The angry expression on the black cat’s face instantly dissipated. Instead, there were evasive eyes and a dodging gaze.

It turned its head unnaturally, whistling as it looked out the window.

“Cough, cough, the moon tonight is really beautiful!”

Charlotte: …

Her expression gradually turned cold, her gaze deepening. That disdainful look, as if she were looking at trash, made the black cat’s heart pound.

Suddenly, the girl smiled. Her voice was sweet but devoid of any warmth.

“Roll down by yourself and run along with the carriage.”

Nice in a shocked state: …

…

“Huh? Lord Nice, why did you get off the carriage?”

Outside the carriage, the Demon Hunter Knight serving as the rearguard was puzzled to see the black cat suddenly roll out of the carriage and pant heavily as it followed the carriage.

“What are you looking at? This Lord wants to lose weight! Is it not okay to run along with the carriage?!”

Nice mumbled a few curses with his big fat cheeks drooping, but his four short legs were not idle.

Inside the carriage, Charlotte chuckled lightly and withdrew her gaze.

She could see that although her new servant seemed quite capable and had quite a background, it also had many annoying habits. To make it obedient, she would need to give it some proper discipline. Otherwise, this guy would definitely be a typical one who wouldn’t respect boundaries.

The grand procession moved forward smoothly, surrounded by seven or eight Demon Hunter Knights guarding around.

Charlotte felt like a rare protected animal.

Thinking about it, she could understand. She was kidnapped in front of everyone on the day she was discharged from the hospital, which was also a naked slap in the face to the church. At this time, they would definitely arrange for Demon Hunter Knights to escort her all the way.

However, Captain Kara had already returned early, supposedly performing other tasks. Similarly, the Duke’s son, Leno, hurriedly left as well, seeming to have encountered some urgent matter. Their early departure reduced a lot of pressure on Charlotte.

Both of them were genuine Second Tier Silver Moon extraordinaries.

They were powerful. As long as the several Third Tier old folks in the city didn’t come out, they would be able to act freely in Borde. Although both of them didn’t know her true identity, standing in front of such strong people, Charlotte still felt a little uneasy.

The carriage continued on its way. It wasn’t until it completely left the dilapidated block that the Demon Hunter Knights guarding around finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Mistress, we have left the abandoned area. Are you going back to the mansion or to the lodging point in the Eastern City?”

Casimodo, the carriage driver, stopped the horse and lowered the soundproof window to ask respectfully.

“The lodging point in the Eastern City?”

Charlotte’s heart moved.

“The family has a villa in the Eastern City that has been unoccupied for a long time. I’ve had it cleaned up. It’s smaller than the mansion, but it’s much cleaner and safer than the mansion.”

Casimodo said.

Perhaps it was because of the existence of extraordinary beings, the scale of the cities in this world was much larger than that of medieval eras on Earth.

Take Borde, the capital of the Borde Duchy, for example. The whole city could be divided into the outer city and the main city, with each district having a population of at least over a hundred and fifty thousand.

Among them, the outer city was the largest, with a population of over two hundred thousand, inhabited by commoners and the lower class, with slums and the abandoned city area where Charlotte was kidnapped also located here. The main city was smaller and less populated, but it was the core of Borde City, which could be further divided into the east and west city districts.

The Eastern City was built around the Duke’s mansion and the cathedral, serving as the political center, cultural, and religious center of the entire Borde Duchy. Almost all the Duchy’s nobles, priests, and merchants owned property here, and some big families even directly owned estates. Of course, these estates located in the city were much smaller than those in the countryside, more like villa groups with large gardens or vegetable gardens.

The Western City was the commercial and handicraft area, mainly inhabited by wealthy citizens, artisans, technicians, fallen nobles, and merchants, and was closest to the outer city where ordinary civilians lived. Because the land price was lower than that of the Eastern City, most of the noble families’ estates were also located here. Charlotte owned the Castell Mansion was located in this area.

It wasn’t that the Castell family couldn’t afford a mansion in the Eastern City. It was because as a branch family of the Borde family, the Castell family’s first-generation head of the family moved out of the Eastern City since the founding of the family.

Even though they had developed later, the focus of the family had long shifted to Castell County. Since then, the Castell family no longer purchased new mansion properties in the Eastern City.

Charlotte quickly understood Casimodo’s meaning. This old servant was probably worried that the Castell Mansion, where something had happened, would leave her with psychological shadows.

In addition, the Eastern City’s villa, being close to the Duke’s mansion and the cathedral, was indeed safer.

Seriously speaking, Charlotte did have some psychological shadows about the Castell Mansion. Anyone who thought that there had been hundreds of undead there for an unknown period of time would feel a chill.

“Has the mansion been cleaned?”

After a brief moment of thought, Charlotte asked.

Casimodo hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

“It has been cleaned.”

“Then let’s go back to the mansion.”

Charlotte said.

Although the Castell Mansion was, in a sense, a “haunted house,” considering her current status as a bloodborne, Charlotte felt that this place, which was far from the church, was more suitable for her. She also planned to study the abilities of bloodborne and the Gospel at home, and it was safer to try Blood Summoning in a more private place.

In addition, staying away from the Eastern City would reduce interactions with other nobles.

Charlotte could imagine how popular she would be in noble circles now. Not only was she beautiful and cute, but she also owned a large estate that she was about to inherit. A walking gold mine, or a buy-one-get-one-free type of deal.

With Charlotte’s order, Casimodo hesitated but ultimately bowed respectfully.

“As you command.”

Once the destination was confirmed, things proceeded quickly.

The Castell Mansion was not far from the outer city, and after about fifteen minutes of travel, the carriage arrived.

“Master, we’re here.”

Casimodo opened the door for Charlotte.

With the careful support of the other, Charlotte gracefully stepped out of the carriage and looked at the Castell Mansion under the night. This place, which was warm and beautiful in her memory, was now pitch black and looked somewhat eerie and desolate.

“Miss Charlotte, we’ve escorted you home, so we’ll take our leave now.”

The leading Demon Hunter Knight said.

Charlotte glanced at Casimodo, and he immediately understood, taking out a purse from his chest and handing it over with both hands.

“To the esteemed gentlemen, thank you for escorting us. Please accept this token of gratitude from Castell…”

After some refusal attempts, the Demon Hunter Knight accepted the purse, feeling its weight, and his face immediately broke into a smile. He tossed the purse to his companion, then placed his right hand over his chest and bowed.

“Lady Charlotte, you’re too kind. I’m Chatham, a First Tier Starry Sky Knight, and the captain of the Third Squad of Borde’s Demon Hunter Squad.”

“If you need anything in the future, come find me at the Borde Demon Hunter Headquarters.”

“Miss Charlotte, until we meet again!”

With that, the Demon Hunter Knights mounted their horses and were about to leave.

Only at this moment did Nice, the black cat, panting heavily, come running from afar. As soon as it reached the carriage, it collapsed directly to the ground, limbs sprawled out, belly up, panting heavily.

“Huff… Huff… Finally… Finally arrived…”

“It’s too damn far… It’s really too damn far! It’s worn this Lord out!”

Seeing its gasping appearance, the captain of the Demon Hunter Squad hesitated for a moment and was reminded seriously.

“Lord Nice, even if you’re trying to lose weight… you still need to do it in moderation!”

Nice: …