MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin



[???]

In what looked to a giant mansion in the far end of Los Angeles, women clad in old-looking maid attire were walking around the dining room while cleaning off the meal.

Once they left, there was only a bottle containing a beautiful red liquid.

The only persona seated was a beautiful young woman. She adjusted her long flowing bluish-silver hair and smiled with a hint of amusement and anticipation. She was wearing a short one-piece white dress that showed off her beautiful body and had a blue cardigan over the dress, covering her features.

Her dress seemed quite inappropriate for the current setting, but there was no one who would dare to point this out to her.

Her eyes seemed to be multilayered as her pupils had three different colors with blue at the edge and red like a crimson flame in the middle.

"So, this bottle really has some of the blood of Joan of Arc?"

"That is so your majesty."

"Ah…How beautiful. I never managed to become close to that stubborn woman up to the end. To think someone managed to keep her blood."

"This blood was taken by Lord Gilles de Montmorency-Lava [1]. He extends his salutation to your awakening in this era and would like to invite you to his castle."

The good mood of the woman noticeably dropped when she heard the words of her Butler.

It was a young man with a rather tanned complexion. His black hair swayed quietly and his eyes black eyes contained none of the awe all the other servants seemed to show.

Looking at him, the woman smiled, "Your name was Alberto, right?"

"That is so your majesty."

"Do you resent me? After all, because of me you were forced to cut contact with your friends."

"I would not dare."

"Heh. I like the way you play with words."

She leaned back on her chair and looked at the bottle with a thoughtful look.

"I don't remember much about Gilles. But I do remember that he was quite enamored with Joan. Didn't he become crazy after her death?"

"I was not born at that time."

"Hum…Look at me. I forgot your look actually matches your age. My memory is truly going from bad to worse. All because I woke up too soon."

She frowned a little, "Where is Gilles residing currently?"

"In Paris. He took over as a proxy and he is keeping control of a great part of the territory."

"Heh. A warlock who lost everything by trying to defy death. How amusing."

The woman chuckled, quickly losing interest in this matter. She did not care why such a man would want to invite her. She had no desire to enter Paris.

That place was a wolf den, even for her.

"Now then. Enough of this. Did you find what I asked?"

Alberto gave a bitter smile, "Your description was; A masked man with a dreamy atmosphere and a delicious odor."

"Indeed."

"Sadly, I do not think even werewolves would be able to find who you were searching for with such information."

Her expression was slowly changed into a frown,

"But…We did find some information."

He tapped the watch on his wrist and a holographic screen appeared in the air.

"Oh my. I always marvel at the ingenuity of humans. I only slept for a few hundred years. But so much changes."

Alberto ignored her mutter and showed a picture of a man walking with a hood and a mask, those pictures were taken from a massacre on the site belonging to the blue shark.

"Code name: Unknown. Skills: Unknown. Estimated rank: Gold. Affiliation: Wild Hunt."

"Yes! It's him. I could recognize his handsome face even in a crowd."

'What handsome face? He is wearing a freaking mask!'

"Haha…Either way. We know very little about him. We suspect that he is a guard sent by the Hanekawa or Feng family, as the Wild Hunt does not really have the condition to attract a Gold rank."

"Enough yammering~! I do not care. I want him. Find a way."

"But…"

"Find. A. Way. You have ten years. It should be more than enough for such a meager task."

For her, ten years was not even enough for a good nap. But she judged that it should be more than enough to find and convince someone to join her group.

"Ten years?"

"I know it's a small amount of time to accomplish my task but it should still be somewhat enough. Right? My patience is limited after all."

"I…"

He tried to say something. But then thought better about it and simply nodded with a serious expression.

"10 years might not be enough but I will do my best."

He made sure to control his heartbeat to hide exactly how excited he was. At the same time, he began to understand why, despite having such a long lifespan, most long lived races were inferior to humans in terms of technology.

The way they viewed time was simply too different.

Now, he only had one mission,

—Finding the identity of that masked man.

[1]: Also known as Gilles de Rais. The man was a Baron who lived during the Joan of Arc era and fought alongside her when France fought against England. I won't go into too much in detail but basically, the dude became kinda crazy after Joan of Arc's death. He first invested greatly in religion so that her name was remembered but after that dude became basically a monster. In 1440, he is judged for Heresy (Attempt of demon summoning and other occult things to become rich)

Then Sodomy, rape, and murder of 140 children and women (Estimation between 150 to 600). He was tried, hanged, and burned.

Though later his story became the basis for the legend of Blue Beard (not a pirate).

The most interesting thing is…He is considered History's first serial killer.

Obviously, there are others unknown. But he is the first RECORDED serial killer.

Many interesting parallels with Adam don't you think so?

(AN: I am really excited about the France arc. Need to work on it. There is still more about De Rais but I will write about this later. Anyways this is the last chapter of the Thanksgiving arc. Now time to enter a new arc.)