Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 226: Dead body

Even before the sunrise the next morning, the girl’s dead body was found in the woods by a hunter who had gone to check his trap to see if he’d caught good meat to sell in the market. She was so brutally disfigured and bloody on the forest ground that the man had screamed and run to get the authorities the moment he recovered from the shock of stumbling over a dead body.

Snow had stopped falling months ago in the land of Bimmerville, but the land was still cold, and the air was frigid enough to show in one’s breath, with a light mist hovering in the atmosphere.

By the time the authorities looked into the girl’s death, they immediately concluded it to have been caused by an animal—until the senior Councilman of Bimmerville, who was the head of the Civil Inquiry and Order, came to the scene to inspect her body himself.

Her identity was soon confirmed as Dayna Froster, and where she worked and stayed was also in the records they had taken from the magistrate’s office. All the records since her birth were there, which made them know she worked at the Cutter Manor, a house newly occupied by some noble people from Aragonia, who had kept to themselves since their arrival into this land.

Dayna’s body had been covered with a cloth, but when the Councilman arrived, the cloth was lifted to show him the damage done to her body by the so-called animal that had attacked her last night.

The Councilman was a lean, tall man. He had a mustache that covered his upper lip, where a tobacco stick sat in his mouth. He wore a knee-length coat and a wide brim black hat over his head. Bending down, he used his gloved hand to touch and trace a claw mark on the body’s ripped neck.

This was the first time something like this had ever happened in this land—an animal attack had never occurred, and he had not heard any reports of hunters encountering any wild animal that posed harm to the people.

"It’s strange that a hungry wild animal would only brutally kill the prey without eating at least half of it. Her limbs were only torn, ripped, but it did not look like any parts were eaten," he remarked to his assistant, who held the report book in hand beside him, while he looked down at the dead body that would make a man swoon and retch if they were made of a fragile will.

He had worked on overseeing and investigating mysterious deaths, so this wasn’t entirely new to him. Years ago, a vampire had entered their land and killed people by sucking them dry of blood. However, the vampire made sure to do it in a way his bite marks would not show on the dead body.

Many had concluded the deaths of those people to be caused by some unknown disease, but when he looked into it, he soon realized it was none other than an outcasted vampire who had been responsible—and they soon traced the creature and put him to death.

"She has claw marks. Only an animal could do that," said the assistant, who used his finger to push back the spectacles sliding down his nose bridge. "Do you think something else did this other than an animal, Sire Everett?" asked the assistant in curiosity when he noticed the councilman was deep in thought.

"I am just wondering what a girl like this was doing out late at night to fall prey to an animal. She..." His words trailed off when his eyes fell on something like a paper sticking out from her torn dress pocket. He reached out his hand and pulled out the parchment paper that was folded and covered in blood.

He unfolded it with a flip of a finger and read through the neatly written letter that made his eyes narrow. He then spoke, "It seems she was out to see a lover. Hmm, that makes sense." He put the paper away and then stood up. "We will close the way to these woods until our hunter teams find the animal responsible for this. Send word of the death to her family and the household she worked in."

"Yes, Sire." The assistant bowed and turned to carry out his order while the councilman walked to his other men at the side, who were standing back as they could not look at the body.

"What’s wrong, Everett?" asked one of the four men who watched the councilman approach them with a thoughtful frown on his face.

Everett looked up at his men and said, "Nothing, I just have a feeling that this was a setup. The hunter who found her body said that he had set a trap almost in every angle of the woods, as he was certain no man walked the woods at night. If she had walked through to reach here, she should have been caught by a trap. And worst of all, she held no lamp. Girls in Bimmerville are taught right from infancy not to leave the house at night for any reasons, not even to meet a lover."

"Are you trying to say someone did this to the girl and made it look like an animal attack?" asked one of the men.

The councilman shrugged his broad shoulders. "We will know that after the hunters hunt down the animal. If there is no animal, then it’s a man’s doing. And we will hunt down the man for this." He said with conviction, certain that this was no animal attack.

Soon the news of Dayna’s death reached the manor where the girl worked, and all the other servants heard about it as the news had been delivered to Rav, who answered the door, and the servants working outside the porch overheard the discussion between Rav and a man from the magistrate office.

Many could not believe the girl was found dead in the woods. Though yesterday afternoon she had gone missing, no one had worried about it until she did not sleep in the servants’ quarters the night before. Now the news about her death and the story that she had gone to meet a lover shocked many.

"A lover? Dayna is not a girl like that. She would never cheat on Ben. That’s absurd!" exclaimed Katie, whose eyes were filled with tears, as the deceased girl was their friend. The other girl who had delivered the news to Katie looked taken aback by her words.

"What do you mean by Dayna is not a girl like that?" scoffed the other maid as she eyed her friend. "Have you forgotten the day we caught her leaving the study with the master? I won’t be surprised if she had many more nights with men outside."

That day, Rav had compelled the maids, but he had missed one who had witnessed the scene, and that one was surprised to see that Katie, who had witnessed this juicy scene with her, could so easily forget it now just because the girl was pronounced dead.

Katie looked stunned at her friend’s words. "What do you mean? I have never seen Dayna with the master before. Stop making up things just because you and her had not been on talking terms for months now. She’s a good person." Saying this, the maid Katie walked away, crying over the loss of her friend, while the other one watched in astonishment.

She had not brought up the matter in the past months because she thought Katie did not want to talk about Dayna cheating on Ben as they had been warned against gossiping while working. But now she couldn’t believe that the girl was denying witnessing the scene. freewёbnoνel-com

Unable to stop herself, she walked out toward the stables to find Ben pacing the grounds, his fist tapping against his jaw as if he were deep in thought. But upon seeing the maid, he hurried to close the distance between them.

"Has word about Dayna’s whereabouts been known? She was supposed to come and see me last night, but she didn’t come. And I am not allowed to go inside the manor or risk losing my job. Damn that brown-eyed man!" he cursed, referring to Rav, who had warned him never to step into the house.

"You haven’t heard?" the girl asked, surprised as the news had spread around by now.

"Heard what?" Ben questioned, suspicion clouding his blue eyes as he glared at the maid—one of those he liked to share gossip with about the household they worked in whenever there was a chance for small talk, or whenever Dayna was too busy to entertain him in the stables.

"Your Dayna was found dead in the woods this morning," the girl said quietly, dropping the bomb with a look of pity in her eyes for Ben.

For a moment, Ben stopped, not blinking or breathing as he thought he must have heard wrong. He laughed awkwardly, eyeing the girl before him. "Don’t go jesting when I am already worried about her. Dayna would never go out to the woods, so tell me what is going on?" he demanded with a rising rage in his blue eyes that made the girl draw back from him, as she had never seen such look in his eyes.

When she hesitated to speak, he grabbed her shoulders and tightened his grip around her. "Tell me, where is my Dayna?" he gritted furiously.

"Sh-she was found dead in the woods, and the authorities found a letter in her pocket that was sent by a lover to meet. She was attacked by a wild animal."

Ben let go of her shoulders and staggered back. "That’s impossible..."

"It’s not impossible. Dayna had been cheating on you, Ben. Months ago, we found her coupling with the master in his study room. She’s a disloyal bitch who got swayed by the master. I should have told you this, but Katie, who was with me when we witnessed the scene, pretended like she had seen nothing. And when I confronted her about it now, she’s still acting like she has no memories of it.

"Not just once—there was a day I found the master holding Dayna’s hand to his mouth like he was kissing her wrist." She raised her hand as if to show him the part the master had been kissing, but Ben’s eyes caught sight of something, and he gripped her wrist.

"What happened to you here?" he asked, his gaze dropping to her wrist. Two small, perfectly round punctures sat side by side on her fair skin.

She pulled her hand back. "I don’t know. I was bitten by some insect. Many of us have the insect bite on our wrists. I think the house has been infested by some ants."

Ben’s blue eyes narrowed further. "Did you say Katie saw Dayna and the master and then she pretended not to see it when you confronted her now?"

She nodded her head. "She’s acting like she had no memory of it at all."

"Did Dayna have this ant bite as well on her wrist before?" Ben asked quietly.

"I told you, we all had it. The ant must have infested our quarters and bit us while we were sleeping."

"An ant bite, indeed," he spoke, as his eyes glimmered with a dark look and he released the girl’s hand.

No ant bites looked like that, and no way Dayna would cheat with the master of the house with the strict training she had from home not to ever sleep with a married man. Though she always threatened to run away with another man if he did not go and ask for her hand in marriage, she would never cheat like this.

The people who lived in this household had been suspicious to him since the day he had set his eyes on them. They carried an air around them that made one shiver down their spine—especially that dark-eyed master. He had seen the man a few times, and whenever he came close to him, it made him feel fear for no apparent reason.

"I will make them regret killing her. I will prove to the authorities that these people are not humans," he swore under his breath as he went back into the stable to continue his work and think of a solid plan to expose these people for what he suspected they were.

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