Chapter 2247: Mrs. Jude

Tifa took Xia De to the guest room of the manor to meet Miss Swift. The train from Midehillburg arrived at the station at 11:00 last night. Miss Swift and the other followers of Grandma Cassandra all spent the night at the Belindell Manor, which had many guest rooms.

When Xia De pushed open the door and walked in, the young girl with flaxen hair was writing a letter to Grandma Cassandra.

Seeing Xia De arrive, she put down her pen, seemingly wanting to hug Xia De, but seeing Tifa still there, she became reserved. The black-haired maid smiled at her, nodded, left the room temporarily, and closed the door.

As a famous big city in the Old Continent, the branch of the Cassandra Chain Auction House in Moon Bay was also the largest. However, Miss Swift and the others did not live in the auction house, but like Tifa and the maid troupe, would live here from now on.

The 【Witch Council】 arranged for the local great witch Bella Belindell to be the general commander of the Moon Bay incident this time, so Belindell Manor, as the base camp, indeed needed more manpower.

Now the Northern Maid Troupe was arranged to assist the local maids in reinforcing the manor, while the task of Miss Swift and her party was to assist the witches in interpreting the documents and materials of the Seven Great Families, which was not a simple job.

As for Xia De's plan to attend the high-end auction of the Cassandra Auction House with his friends today, the flaxen-haired girl told Xia De to just go:

"The badge and business card Grandma gave you before can allow you to freely enter and exit all auction houses everywhere. Oh, I'll write you another letter, take it with you, don't let the local auction house neglect you."

She quickly wrote the letter and handed it to Xia De. When she handed him the letter, she grabbed it and didn't want to let go. She looked up at him with pursed lips until Xia De realized and kissed her cheek lightly, only then did she smile and let go.

After leaving their teacher, the young witch apprentices all had their own little thoughts. From this point of view, this generation of apprentice girls had more... ancient spirit than the great witches of the previous generation.

The auction started at 10:00 in the morning. To avoid missing the time, Xia De quickly went to Spider Alley to meet Mr. Bernhardt, and then rushed to the Cassandra Auction House located in the north of the city.

The small auction that Mrs. Jude was going to attend was not something one could attend just by wanting to. This auction held on the top floor of the auction house could only be attended by special personnel who had received invitations. And these people, even in the "City of Wealth" Moon Bay, could be called the most prestigious and wealthy.

However, with Grandma Cassandra's badge and business card, plus the letter written by Miss Swift, Xia De could actually treat this auction house as his own home. The witch's followers stationed at the local auction house, upon hearing of Xia De's arrival, even rushed out to greet him personally.

Miss Swift was coming tomorrow to check the accounts, so the people at the auction house were already nervous. As for Xia De's request to attend the small auction, they would naturally give maximum support.

This auction was nominally a "charity auction," and the profits from the auction would be used to renovate the rural roads connecting to the northern part of Moon Bay City. Mrs. Jude liked to participate in such activities, and she was always generous, which was part of the reason for her good reputation locally.

Not many people attended this auction, and accordingly, the small hall used for the auction was not large. Before the auction officially started, all the auction items were displayed around the small hall, and the people attending the auction were holding wine glasses and admiring them.

Xia De and Mr. Bernhardt specially changed into formal wear, each holding a glass of champagne, standing in front of an abstract painting titled "Girl and Blue Sky" and expressing their respective comments.

Of course, in fact, neither of them could appreciate this style of oil painting.

Mrs. Jude had already arrived, but she was surrounded by three noblewomen and was talking, so they didn't go up immediately.

When pretending to be professional and commenting on the oil painting using lines, colors, and light and shadow contrast, they were actually quietly observing Mrs. Jude's every move. When those noblewomen who covered their mouths and giggled left together, and Mrs. Jude wanted to talk to the middle-aged man dressed as a painter beside her, Xia De and Mr. Bernhardt walked over first.

"Mrs. Jude, good morning."

"Oh, good morning, two gentlemen."

The vampire noblewoman looked at them curiously:

"May I ask what is the matter?"

Xia De glanced at Mr. Bernhardt, who nodded and handed out his business card. Mrs. Jude was a little surprised after reading it, but still said very politely:

"Viscount, good morning. So you are the distant relative from Willondale."

"Please forgive me for not seeing you right away. I don't really want to have any contact with my family in Willondale; I had some conflicts with them when I was young."

She said very politely, but what she actually wanted to express was a refusal to discuss anything with Mr. Bernhardt.

However, since Mr. Bernhardt had already found a way to appear in front of her, when Bernhardt reached out his hand, Mrs. Jude naturally reached out her hand wearing white lace gloves and shook it lightly.

Then Xia De saw Mr. Bernhardt cross his left index and middle fingers according to the code agreed upon before coming, which meant that this noblewoman in front of him was not the one who provided blood for the 【Dragon Feast Sect】.

Two of the five suspects were thus excluded, and the remaining three would all be contacted at the banquet tonight.

However, this trip to the auction was not over. Even if Mrs. Jude had nothing to do with the cultists, she might know something else. Therefore, Mr. Bernhardt was still talking there:

"Mrs. Jude, some things are not something you can avoid just because you don't want to participate. Please listen to me, this time..."

"Gentlemen, the first round of the auction is about to start. Can we talk later?"

The noblewoman said with a smile, so Xia De and the other had to find a place to sit down first.

In the first round of the auction, Mrs. Jude bought two collections. One was the abstract oil painting just now, and the other was an ancient grandfather clock, which was handmade and was not only an antique but also a work of art.

However, Xia De and Mr. Bernhardt bought nothing. Mr. Bernhardt looked a little restless. In the interval after the first round of the auction ended, seeing Mrs. Jude excuse herself to go to the washroom and dodge the two again, Mr. Bernhardt whispered to Xia De in the empty corridor:

"She has drunk human blood, and it was this morning."

He held a pocket watch in his hand, but inside the dial were blurred abstract patterns of red and blue, which were even harder to understand than the oil painting just now.

This was also a divine art item sent by the vampire sect in Willondale to support Mr. Bernhardt, specifically used to detect whether vampires had drunk human blood. The accuracy was quite high, so there was no need to doubt any errors.

"So, the news we heard from Captain Rudolf last night and the subsequent speculation are likely correct? Does she really have problems with adopting orphans and opening orphanages?"

Xia De asked, and Mr. Bernhardt nodded heavily:

"Yes... I'll handle this matter. She broke the rules. If discovered by the church, this will implicate all her kin."

Just at this moment, hurried footsteps came. The auction house maid walked quickly and whispered to Xia De:

"Mr. Watson, Mrs. Jude is going downstairs with her maid. They are preparing to leave from the back door of the auction house."

The Cassandra Auction House had more than just a front entrance. Some guests with sensitive identities always liked to enter and exit from hidden side doors or back doors.

Outside the back door of the auction house was an alley, but because the front and back of the alley were the auction house itself and the auction house's warehouse, the land of the alley also belonged to the auction house, and few pedestrians walked here on weekdays.

At this time, the carriage was parked in the alley. After the maid opened the carriage door, Mrs. Jude, who was in a hurry, immediately walked into it and told the coachman to leave immediately.

It was just that the wheels had just turned when they stopped again. The coachman's voice came from the front of the carriage:

"Madam, someone is blocking the way in front. What do you think..."

The noblewoman leaned out of the carriage window and saw Mr. Bernhardt standing in the middle of the alley. So the corners of her mouth twitched, and she closed the carriage window heavily. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said to the maid beside her:

"You get out of the carriage now and tell Viscount Bernhardt that I am not feeling very well right now. When I feel better, I will invite him to visit. He is our relative in Willondale, you don't have to be afraid of him."

"Yes, Madam."

The maid then got out of the carriage, and under the cover of her body, a small blood-red bat also flew out of the carriage at this time.

It flew almost close to the ground to avoid being detected. It was just that it hadn't flown far before it saw the handsome young man who had appeared with Mr. Bernhardt waiting in front.

The bat did not retreat, but accelerated toward Xia De, and ten meters in front of Xia De, it went *poof* and turned into dozens of bats, flying in different directions.

Mrs. Jude's true form was hidden among that group of bats. She was still flying close to the ground, trying to bypass Xia De from the right. But she didn't expect that Xia De didn't look at that pile of illusion bats at all. The bright yellow longsword that appeared in his hand stabbed directly into the mud beside him. If the bat hadn't flown fast enough, it might have hit the sword body.

The bat changed direction and retreated, only then finally recovering into Mrs. Jude's human form.

After she landed, her nostrils flared like a beast as she looked at the expressionless Xia De. Then her plump cheeks shriveled as if dehydrated until she recovered into the terrifying appearance of a vampire, and then her whole body turned into a mass of scarlet blood mist and pounced on Xia De.

Judging from the fact that her own level was not high, but she could use her racial talent so skillfully, her vampire bloodline was indeed very noble. ===== CHAPTER 2248 =====