As always happened whenever the army's name was brought up, people began to trust Dom without hesitation. It didn't matter how long he had served, whether he had won any victories, or if his superiors had considered him the worst soldier to ever set foot on the battlefield.

No, those details were irrelevant.

Wearing the militia's insignia was synonymous with having fought for the well-being of the citizens. Simply mentioning that one had been there was enough to earn the respect of each and every one of them. And that was precisely what Dom took advantage of that night. Once the topic of the vampire had died down, he spent a good two hours—until it was time to close—regaling Fredo, Marzio, and anyone willing to listen with anecdotes, most of them fabricated, about his time in the infantry regiment.

More wine was offered to him, and the patrons of the tavern were so impressed by his stories that, just as Dom had calculated, they refused to let him sleep in the stables. Instead, as a gesture of goodwill toward the man they had already taken as the stranger who would rid them of the bloodsucking monster, they offered him a bed for the night free of charge and a generous discount for every additional day he chose to stay.

This arrangement didn't seem to sit well with Luce, Marzio's wife and the first to attend to Dom when he arrived at their establishment. However, given the unanimous decision to let him stay, there was little she could do about it.

Regardless, Dom was determined to prove to her that he was worth granting certain privileges—at least for as long as he remained in San Cipriano. After that, he wouldn't care if they all cursed his name for the deception he had pulled off.

For now, though, he needed to maintain an air of normalcy. Before staging any kind of hunt, he had to make them believe his investigation was real—that he was genuinely invested in the cause. To that end, before even setting foot in the alleged vampire's home, he planned to speak with the primary witness of the incident the next morning.

Dom imagined that a boy of that age, having endured the trauma Fredo described, would still be terrified. However, that didn't seem to be the case with Renzo at all. In fact, when Dom approached him, the last thing he expected was for the boy to look at him in confusion, as if he had just asked the most absurd question in the world, before promptly replying:

"What vampire?"

"I was told that a few days ago, you and some friends were attacked..."

"I don't know if I'd call it an attack. I mean, it's true that our elders tend to get a little nervous when we don't finish our farm chores on time, and the other day, we even stole a few eggs fr—" Renzo abruptly cut himself off, his eyes widening as realization struck him. "Oh! But you mean the vampire! Yes, of course, we were totally attacked by such a creature. It was, uh... a complete injustice. We never did anything to hurt anyone."

Dom seriously doubted that was true, not just because of the theft Renzo had nearly confessed to, but also because he hadn't missed the way the boy's friends had bolted the moment they saw him approaching.

Despite the fact that morning was already well underway and the fields were close by, Dom had spotted the group half-hidden among some bushes, taking a break from their hard labor away from prying eyes.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Dom asked, getting straight to the point. He had no interest in side stories that wouldn't lead to easy money.

"Well, we'd been out in the fields all day, barely resting. And just when we were about to head home after gathering the livestock, the creature appeared!"

"There was no fog or...?"

"Oh, there was! How could I forget such an important detail? A mist appeared out of nowhere, and the sky turned red, like it was bleeding. And since we couldn't see very well because the sun disappeared, we didn't even notice the vampire approaching until it was practically upon us."

"Could you describe it? The vampire, I mean." Dom had heard enough of this eerie atmosphere, which, the more he pressed for details, the more fabricated it seemed.

"It was tall and imposing, with sharp fangs and a mouth stained with blood," Renzo declared with conviction, using a tone eerily similar to the one Fredo had when he first mentioned the vampire. "It was terrifying!"

"Wait, so you saw it bite someone?"

"What?" Renzo looked at him, bewildered, as if Dom had just pulled that conclusion out of thin air.

"You said its mouth was stained with blood. That would mean it had already attacked someone beforehand."

"And how would I know that? I don't go around spying on vampires to keep track of what they have for dinner."

"No, of course not," Dom sighed, deciding to ignore that remark. "Can you continue with your description? Tell me what the vampire was wearing, or if you recognized its face."

"Well... uh... What do you think it was wearing? It's a vampire! Of course, it had on a pristine suit, like the kind any of us would wear to church—but even better."

"Clothing like Count Sforza's, for example?"

"That's it! But without being the count. The vampire definitely has to be someone of high status, with plenty of money in his pockets and even more power."

"Understandable. If I had the gift of immortality and had lived for centuries, I'd be disappointed in myself if, in all that time, I hadn't managed to make a name for myself or at least acquire some wealth."

"Oh, also... The vampire has glowing red eyes, like a predator stalking in the dark. And claws as sharp as a wolf's! He also had black hair and was so pale it was as if someone had just dug him up from the nearest graveyard."

"A lot of description for something that was supposedly just a shadow," Dom thought as he listened. But then again, considering how reliable these witnesses seemed, could it be that Fredo had been mistaken about that part and that whatever these kids had seen was anything but a shadow?

"At the tavern, I heard it might have been someone named Raffaele..."

"And who's that?"

"The new neighbor? The one who lives in the abandoned castle in the woods."

"Oh, him! No, Don Raffaele couldn't be the one," Renzo pondered, with complete sincerity and not a hint of fear. "I know the adults like to spread rumors that he's the monster lurking in the shadows, but seriously, he's so..."

"Kind?" Dom ventured, thinking it would be a nice change of pace for someone to actually admit they liked the mysterious nobleman.

"Boring," Renzo finished. "He doesn't bother anyone, doesn't flaunt his wealth, doesn't stand out... He's a total bore! Honestly, he's the last person I'd ever imagine turning out to be a vampire."

"Well, we're lucky, then, that we don't need to imagine anything. Because the vampire is real."

There was an awkward pause before the boy nodded, without a shred of doubt.

"But it's not him. The adults are just jealous because Signore Raffaele lives in a fortress and gets along with everyone, no matter who they are. Besides, I wouldn't have thrown a rock at Don Raffaele like I did with the vampire."

"I thought you ran away with your friends?"

"I'm no coward," Renzo snapped, clearly offended. "I saw the monster, my friends ran, and I stood my ground. I told him to go back to hell where he came from, threw a rock at his forehead, and then, yes, I took off. He must've been stunned because he didn't even try to follow me."

"Just to be sure," Dom said, definitely not about to request a detailed report of this fantastical confrontation with a being that, theoretically, could have killed a child without much effort if it had wanted to, "the vampire isn't Raffaele or anyone from town that you recognized?"

"I couldn't say. It was pretty dark. The creature was more shadow than anything else."

"But you could still make out its eyes, mouth, and the clothes it was wearing."

"Exactly!"

"Sounds like a very selective fog, if I may say so."

"It is! But how do you know it wasn't controlling the weather? Maybe it even manipulated me and the others into seeing exactly what it wanted us to see. Maybe the vampire is actually some old man dressed like a vagrant (kind of like you), but he managed to hypnotize us into perceiving him as far more dangerous than he really is."

"Look, forget all of that; neither of us has the knowledge to unravel this," Dom said, deciding he didn't have the mental energy to make sense of what Renzo was saying now, on top of the drunken ramblings he'd heard the night before, spurred on by Fredo. "Just answer me one more thing—have you noticed anything strange around town lately that could be attributed to a supernatural presence?"

"Something around town... I don't know, but a lot of my friends have been threatened by the vampire too. Do you want me to call them? Ugo has this story about how the vampire sneaked into his house while he was sleeping and grabbed his legs... But he managed to escape thanks to a well-timed frying pan to the face. It's really epic when he tells it!"

"Another day, perhaps," Dom said quickly, already seeing Renzo about to run off to fetch Ugo and whoever else wanted to add to the tale.

Honestly, two strikes against a supernatural being wasn't much. But the way the kids told it, it almost sounded like the vampire was the victim here, not the other way around.

"I'm going to follow up on a few leads I already have," Dom decided. "And if I need more testimonies, I'll let you know."