Well, I have never been this happy in my life to be in a toilet. Things were a bit hit-and-miss there for a moment. Right now there is a burning sensation in my hand. I pass as much vital mana as I dare into my arms. The pain In my hand has disappeared for now but I know that it is going to be a bitch to deal with when it returns.

  Well, when Trevor had proposed the plan to me I had not expected it to hurt this much. I mean I could cycle more vital mana to reduce the pain in my hand, but that would risk discovery. I am not even thinking about using my sword. If there is a captain here then they will detect me. They might not have a mana sense as sensitive as mine but the bastards can track blood mana very well.

  Behind me, Trevor has also climbed into the room. The man looks about as miserable as me if I am honest. I at least have a weak cycle of vital mana to keep me going. The man has nothing like that,

  "Well, what is the plan now.", I ask the man, taking care to whisper as silently as I can.

  "You are going to be following me. While I have the maps to this place, they are not particularly precise.", he speaks. The man is not particularly bothering to keep silent. "And we need to worry about the patrols inside the place as well. For now, just follow my lead. You won't be able to help much here."

  As I go towards the door though.

  "Don't be so impatient, kid.", the man speaks. "We need to rest now. We also need to wash up. Do you think that they can't find us with how we are stinking?"

  (After five minutes.)

  Well, we have been resting for the last five minutes. We could have gone deeper into the guardhouse as soon as we entered the place but we had to clean up first. We might adjust to the stink that we must be emitting but the thing is that we have vampires on the other side. They have a sharp enough sense of smell that they can and will smell us. Thankfully, the toilets here are connected to their washrooms.

  A quick wipedown and we are about as clean as we can be. I am going to need at least a couple of hours in the bath to feel comfortable. Right now, we won't be announcing our presence to every person in the building without stench.

  "Well, it is time for us to leave.", Trevor speaks. "Keep quiet and just keep following me."

  The man has been sitting at the door to the room, poking out his head every few seconds as if he is waiting for something. Even now, he has opened up the door just a smidge, gesturing me to follow him.

  I do so, as quietly as possible. The door opens to reveal a long corridor with doors on either side. Well, the map is with Trevor but I think we are supposed to take a right from here. Trevor does exactly that as he opens one of the doors to our right. This door opens into another empty room as we keep walking through the guard house.

  (About fifteen minutes later.)

  Well, Trevor knows what he is doing at least. The man has been taking us through the fort, at a pretty decent pace. While his caution seems to be a bit much, I am sure that the man has saved us from being detected more than a few times.

  Right now I have no idea where exactly we are. Trevor has been making quite a few confusing turns. As I said the map is in that man's hand and I don't want to distract the man by talking to him. he has such a focused expression that disturbing him would not be wise. I have been kicked in the butt too many times to ever make that mistake again. (What, you don't want to disturb my master when he is working.)

  "We are here.", Trevor speaks suddenly. His voice is echoing in the silence of the halls.

  "Well, where exactly are we?", I ask.

  "We are in a servant's tunnel that leads to the treasury.", he speaks. "You see that door on the left."

  The door he speaks of is a wooden door, with a massive latch. Overall, it is a plain door. It is not something that I would expect to lead to a treasury.

  "It is a servant's route. It is not meant to attract attention. That would beat the entire purpose of such a place.", he speaks. "Vampires are pretty vain creatures, so they are not going to notice anything that is meant to fade into the background like this. I am sure that they would have blocked this door otherwise."

  "Blocked the door?", I asked.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "Well, open the door and see for yourself. Just make sure to not be seen.", he replies. "That would be the best way for you to understand what I mean."

  I do as he asks realising that while the door looks ordinary, it is also very sturdy. I don't think I would be able to break this door even if I were to kick it full force. Maybe if I were to cycle all of my mana. I open the door slowly. Almost as soon as I open the door I want to shut it. As I open the door, I can smell the familiar scent of blood. I don't even need to look to tell who the captain is among that bunch. I shouldn't have looked at him though.

  I can feel myself paralyzed in fear and awe as the man's face glances in our direction. For a second I am sure that I have been detected as the man looks in my direction. The man looks unreal like he is a sculpted statue rather than a real man. The man he is holding by the collar is not helping. The man is completely covered in blood as if somebody has cut his veins.

  Looking at the man though you wouldn't think that he was dying. He has an entranced expression that a man would have for his lover. I have seen this more than a few times and it means nothing good. The captain is feeding.

  Even though I know that I should have shut the door, I find myself staring at the vampire. (If you meet a higher vampire, whatever you do don't look at them.). If he had not returned to feeding, (it is a disgusting sight.) I would have just kept staring at him. I would just have stood there as he made me a blood bag. My back is slick with sweat as I close the door. Any second now I expect a hand to burst through the door right into my heart.

  "So I presume that the captain is just outside of that room.", Trevor speaks, his voice absurdly loud. We can't let the captain find us. He is busy feeding though.

  "Will you quiet down, the other side will hear you.", I whisper as loudly as I dare.

  "Calm down, kid.", he speaks, not reducing his voice one bit. "This is a servant's path. Even if you are dying inside here, the sound won't carry out."

  It takes me a few moments to calm down, which Trevor gives me before asking.

  "What did you see out there.", he asks. "I need every small detail."

  "It is a small corridor, with four doors. Two of them are boarded up. The captain is standing guard at one of those doors. There is another door next to it. I presume that is where we will find what we need to."

  "Yes, the accounting room.", he replies. "Other than that what else can you tell me? What about enemy numbers."

  "There are three people there. Two of them are ordinary soldiers with the vampire captain. We can't forget about the blood bag though.", I reply.

  "A blood bag?", he asks.

  "Oh right, it is slang for the victims of a vampire. People that the vampire feeds on.", I reply. "That is why we have yet to be detected. You are seriously underestimating how sensitive the senses of a vampire noble can be. They lose track of the world when they are feeding though."

  "How sure are you that it is a captain? You told me that there are other vampire grunts here.", he asks.

  "Well, he has a glamour on him. It is a magic that only vampire nobles can make use of. One glance at a vampire noble and you can't tear your eyes from him, they say.", I reply. "It is a strong glamour as well. I could not keep myself from tearing away from him once I laid eyes on him. This captain is going to be much harder to fight. At the legion, my troop was advised to stay away from these bastards as much as possible. We have lost entire troops to such beings."

  "Well, that is interesting.", Trevor continues. "Thankfully I expected something like this already. Just give me a minute."

  Saying that Trevor finally opens a package that he has. He has been holding it since the beginning of the mission. I expected it to be some kind of an explosive with how gently he was handling the thing. What he has is something that is even more surprising. It is an illusion formation and one of the rare active ones. (Illusion formations, especially the active ones are very rare. The main reason is because there is no demand for such formations. It takes too much skill to make an illusion believable. The formation only works to make the casting easy.)

  "Are you sure you can run that?", I ask.

  "I have my tricks, captain.", he replies. "Just be ready to react to anything. I don't know if the illusion will be enough to fool the vampire."

  Saying that the man goes back to his fiddling. Soon enough he has the thing running and in front of me are two men, perfect replicas of us. Looking at it from even this close, I can't tell the difference between us. They have a proper body language as well. (Granted, it is a bit robotic. It is not something that I would be able to pull off. It will be enough to fool the vampire, so I am not complaining.) The only thing is that the illusions do not have the mana presence of us. That doesn't matter much though. Which person would try to sneak into a place without having suppressed their mana?

  The two illusory men sneak their way into the room passing through the door like a ghost. I open the door into the corridor beyond. They reach the door of the accounting room in front of the four men. It is not that surprising, since the guards are staring at the vampire and the vampire is lost in his meal.

  It doesn't take long for them to be noticed though. First, it is the two soldiers, who look like a rabbit that have been caught in a trap when they turn to look at us. Their surprise is enough to attract the attention of the captain. The man managed to stop his meal. Well, this vampire is not going to be easy to deal with. Not many vampires can stop themselves during the process of feeding. All of them are strong.

  I finally get a look at the captain. He is a middle-aged man, but quite well-built. He gives me the vibe of a general. They begin to attack the illusory us, as the illusory us retreats and begins to run across one of the other corridors. Let's just hope nobody notices how these men do not need to open any doors. Thankfully there are quite a few abilities that allow you to achieve something like that.

  Within a few moments, the room is silent again. I wait a few seconds, as Trevor beside me is scrunched up in concentration. Controlling an illusion like that and keeping it believable must be quite the strain on the man's faculty.

  Grasping the man's arm I walk towards the accounting room. From now on this is my work.