99: Tail

"Puppets? Or slaves?"

Seeing Locke Galahad lost in thought, Serena and the other two sitting around him held their breath, not daring to make a sound, fearing they might interrupt his train of thought.

However, upon hearing Locke Galahad's words, they also had a sudden realization.

Without a heart, it certainly couldn't be a living person.

And how could a dead person act alone, precisely find the hiding place of the key, and furthermore, perform a series of precise actions to awaken Marcus?

But if it were a puppet or an enslaved body, then it would make sense.

The reason Locke Galahad thought of this was mainly because he himself possessed an Extraordinary Ability that could control others, the "Star Slave Contract." Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have been able to figure out how the other party managed to do it in such a short amount of time.

This logic was actually not hard to understand. Since he could have such an ability, perhaps the person behind Kraven might also have the same or a similar ability.

Although the other party controlled the dead while he controlled the living, there wasn't much essential difference between the two; it was entirely possible to achieve.

In short, that corpse was not a living person before Marcus drained its blood; it was very likely just a puppet without a heart.

Thinking of this, Locke Galahad's eyes suddenly lit up: "Heh heh, caught you."

Although he couldn't find the person behind the scenes by following the clues from the corpse right now, since he knew that the opponent's puppets had no hearts, he could root out all of their minions within the Vampire Clan.

Having figured all this out, a smile couldn't help but appear on Locke Galahad's face, and he looked at the three women in front of him and said: "Serena, Emilia, Erica, the information you found from the corpse today is very important."

"Really?" Upon receiving the praise, although Serena's expression remained cold, her eyes widened involuntarily.

"Really." Locke Galahad smiled and nodded at her: "This information should be quite useful later on."

Erica appeared somewhat confused by this: "Really? Can just the news that the corpse had no heart really help you?"

"Erica, you're thinking about this a bit too simply."

Locke Galahad smiled and shook his head, then explained: "Now that we know the corpse is a puppet of the person behind the scenes, we can infer that there are likely similar moles hiding within the Vampire Clan."

"Then what? Even if we know there's a mole, so what? We can't find them."

Erica was still somewhat bewildered. It was clear that when it came to matters requiring thought, Erica's brain was still completely empty.

But Emilia and Serena beside her had already realized it: "Master, you mean we can use this information to dig out those puppets hiding in the shadows!"

"Locke Galahad, you are truly smart. Now we can use the point of checking who has no heartbeat to catch these puppets of the person behind the scenes!"

Serena and Emilia, one speaking after the other, articulated Locke Galahad's idea. Upon hearing their blunt words, Erica finally had a sudden realization and slapped her thighs hard: "Oh, so that's it. Without a heart, doesn't that mean they have no heartbeat? We can use this to catch those puppets!"

Emilia smiled and shook her head: "I think it's more than that. We can even quietly investigate the identities of the puppets, then leak some fake information to them, and use that to dig out the identity of the person behind the scenes."

After Emilia finished expressing her idea, she lifted her chin slightly, looked at Locke Galahad, and wore an expression waiting for praise.

Locke Galahad looked at Emilia's appearance and smiled, shaking his head: "Although we could use this information to set a trap, I'm afraid it would be very difficult. Given the other party's cowardly nature of hiding their head and showing their tail, as soon as they notice we are checking for heartbeats, they won't believe any information we say. I'm afraid at that point, they will simply abandon the puppets they have buried within the Vampire Clan."

His guess was not groundless; it was derived from the puppets abandoned in the secret room. Clearly, these puppets might not be very important to them. After all, even when someone like Kraven, who was at the half-step Extraordinary level, died at Locke Galahad's hands, the person behind the scenes didn't show any reaction.

Emilia thought about it for a moment and agreed with Locke Galahad's speculation. "Master, your considerations are always thorough. Then what should we do now? Should we stay put?"

"No, no, no." Locke Galahad looked at the moon outside the window, a smile involuntarily appearing on the corner of his mouth: "I need you to go and assemble all the Vampires in the Vampire Castle right now, and then execute everyone who has no heartbeat."

"Understood." Emilia's expression was serious, and she quickly knelt on one knee.

She didn't care what schemes the person behind the scenes was plotting; she only needed to pull out the nails the opponent had inserted into the Vampire Clan, so that the opponent wouldn't notice when he went to hunt down Marcus, thereby preventing him from completing his mission.

Although the main mission of "Underworld" was to maintain peace between the Vampire Clan and the Werewolf Clan, he had actually already received a system notification that it was completed when he just subdued the Werewolf Clan. Now, if he wanted to choose to settle the mission, he could immediately draw rewards from the system.

But Locke Galahad wasn't stupid. Unless he encountered some particularly critical situation later, he wouldn't give up the double rewards. After all, maintaining peace between the Vampire Clan and the Werewolf Clan was just the most basic completion condition, and the rewards were also ordinary. He couldn't possibly be satisfied with that.

He wanted everything. He was waiting to finish the two additional conditions so he could get the double mission rewards before settling the mission. After all, killing Marcus and killing William wasn't very difficult for him now, so naturally, he wouldn't settle the mission early just for the sake of instant gratification. That wouldn't be worth it no matter how he thought about it.

"Then Master, I will immediately go and order my subordinates to execute your command." Emilia clasped her hands and bowed to Locke Galahad: "I will not give these rats any time to react."

Having said that, she stood up immediately and walked out of the room, preparing to clear out the rats inside.

Locke Galahad waved his hand at her, and just as Emilia was about to leave, he reminded her: "After cleaning up all the puppets inside, if any other Vampires return to the castle in the future, everyone must be checked before entering the door, and only after confirming they are fine can they be let in."

"Not only that, after this, the entire Vampire Clan must undergo periodic screening every once in a while, so as not to give that guy behind the scenes any opportunity."