Sergeant Faye and Shizuka watched as the six Vampires begrudgingly left the room.
As they walked past Sergeant Faye they all gave her looks, looking at the newborn Blood Knight with a variety of looks that ranged from mere dismissal to genuine disgust, or even all-out hostility.
"Well, it sure looks like you're real liked around here," Shizuka replied in a sarcastic, deadpan tone.
"Don't take it too personally," Edward replied, walking up behind the two Sergeants, causing them to turn around to look at him. "There's always been a certain level of disdain between naturally-born, or as they prefer to call themselves, 'pure', Vampires and Humans who have gone through the Blood Ritual process. While the animosity will fade over time, deep down, you will always be a 'Human' in their eyes."
Sergeant Faye pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance.
She felt like she was back during the time of her basic training in the military, when she was constantly harassed and belittled by the more "conservative" recruits and higher-up military officials who believed that a woman "had no place in the military".
The three then heard approaching footsteps from behind.
Looking back, they all saw Muka approaching them.
"Alright," she replied. "Let's be off."
Muka led the group out of the castle's throne room, and up a flight of stairs towards the second level.
After traveling a significant distance, they stopped in front of a certain door.
She pushed the door open, and an audible "creak" was heard.
As they walked through the doorway, the room's interior came into view.
The room was relatively empty, with the only thing of note being a large, long, rectangular table.
The table had six tables on either side, with an additional chair at both the front and the back, making 14 chairs in total.
Shizuka narrowed her eyes.
"Huh," she replied. "This looks…familiar."
Sergeant Faye nodded.
"Indeed," she agreed. "I feel as though I've been in a room just like this one at a quite frequent rate as of late."
Muka turned back to Edward and the two Sergeants.
"Each of the 13 castles in the Settlement has a room just like this one," she replied. "And while a majority of the individual Vampire Families tend not to get along, it is not unheard of for the Leaders of individual Vampire Families to meet up in one castle, both for legitimate…as well as much more dubious…means."
Sergeant Faye raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Wait, Leader Muka," she replied. "I thought you said that there was only 13 Vampire Families. Why is there 14 chairs here?"
Muka remained quiet for a second.
"A long time ago, there was a Fourteenth Family," she replied eventually.
Muka turned back to Sergeant Faye.
"I've told you of them before, if I recall correctly," she replied. "During one of our previous conversations when you were still on your 'military base' when you asked me if we were 'good people', did I not?"
Sergeant Faye's eyes widened in realization, as the conversation in question flashed through her mind.
***
"So you're saying that we're the 'cops' of the Vampire Settlement, then? You arrest and punish those who break the Settlement's rules."
"Well, 'yes' and 'no'. 'Yes' in that we arrest and detain the rule-breakers, but 'no' in the fact that we do not punish them. That was…the role of another Family. A Family that is…no longer with us."
***
Back in the real world, Edward let out a wear sigh, causing Shizuka and Sergeant Faye to turn to him.
"Ah, yes," he replied. "The Punishers. Sometimes I wonder if the Vampire Settlement would still be the sorry state that it currently finds itself in if HE was still here among us."
Shizuka and Sergeant Faye raised an eyebrow in confusion, as they both had the same thought running through their heads.
'The 'Punishers'?'
Muka sat in the seat at the far back of the table, which was customary for the Leader of the current castle while meetings were taking place in these rooms.
Edward sat to her immediate left, while both Sergeant Faye and Shizuka sat right next to each other on Muka's right, their minds instinctively defaulting to their seating arrangement from the meeting room back on Military Base 2.
Edward reached back into his pocket and retrieved the rounded cylinder once again.
As he placed it on the table, Muka picked it up, and handed it to Sergeant Faye.
Sergeant Faye began scanning the rounded cylinder for any sort of "connector slot".
Eventually, she what looked like a wide "tab" sticking out on the side.
Sliding it forward with her thumb, a hidden section on the cylinder was revealed, including a rectangular slot perfectly shaped to match the "connection point" on the thumb drive.
She reached into her breast pocket again, and retrieved the thumb drive.
But before she could plug it in, she heard Muka speak again.
"Before we begin watching this video feed, I have something that I want to say," she replied, causing the other three to turn to her.
"Anything that we see…or hear…in this room is to remain strictly confidential," she continued, as she reached up to her helmet.
Sergeant Faye's eyes widened, as she realized what Muka was about to do.
Muka pulled off her helmet, revealing her long, lustrous black hair that shone in the light, as well as her pristine, silky-smooth, pale skin that looked as though it was carved out of porcelain.
"To ensure that this doesn't reach any ears who would use this knowledge for nefarious purposes, it is imperative that we keep this all on a need-to-know basis."
With her helmet now off, her voice lost its resounding boom, and took on an almost melodic, alluring tone.
Shizuka and Edward looked at Muka with wide-eyed shock, with Edward having his mouth agape.
"You…You're a…girl?!" he asked in surprise.
Muka turned to look at him, and the second she did, the elderly man felt his heart race.
He genuinely believed that he had never seen a more beautiful girl in his life, and that was saying something, as in his youth, Edward had confessed his love to multiple girls and numerous, repeated occasions.
Seeing his reaction, a look of exhaustion appeared on Muka's face, and she turned to Sergeant Faye.
"You see, Faye Dallum?" she replied, a tone of weary annoyance on her face. "This is why I must always wear my armor around the others."
Sergeant Faye's mind flashed back to one of the first things Muka had ever told her, even before she had known Muka's name.
***
"This is exactly why I wear this armor. You couldn't possibly understand just how troublesome it is to have the strongest Charm Skill in the whole Vampire Settlement."
***
Sergeant Faye slowly shook her head.
"Yeah…" she replied slowly, turning to look back at Edward, who seemed to genuinely be struggling to physically rip his eyes away from Muka. "Yeah, I can see how this could get…annoying."
Shizuka let out a snort.
"So you're literally so beautiful that it became a hindrance, huh?" she asked, a tone of amusement in her voice. "Man, do you have any idea just how many women back on Earth would kill to have that kind of an appearance?"
Sergeant Faye rolled her eyes and shook her head.
She turned back to Muka.
"Fair warning, Lady Muka," she replied, dropping the "Leader" moniker now that everyone else in the room knew that Muka was female. "I didn't have time to edit this footage, and I was watching the 'Talen' boy's group for nearly six hours. I will likely have to fast-forward this recording quite frequently."
Muka nodded, and leaned back into her chair.
"Very well," she replied. "I guess that is the consequences of your discoveries coming to light so close to your regular weekly return to the Settlement. In hindsight, perhaps I should have set your return date to be every Saturday instead of every Friday."
Sergeant Faye remained still for a second, before she then plugged the thumb drive into the metal cylinder, and a light-blue, translucent, hard-light circle appeared, being projected above the center of the tube.
The hard-light projection emitted artificial blue light that illuminated Faye's whole face, as well as everything in a ten-foot radius around her.
The interior of the circle had a set of five symbols, all with an even lighter blue outline, as to make them visible on the projection.
In the very center, there was a right-facing triangle, which was the universal icon to "play" a video.
Both the far-left and the far-right side of the circle had a row of two left-facing triangles and right-facing triangles, representing the "rewind" and "fast-forward" icons, respectively.
Finally, both the top and bottom of the circle had a megaphone icon with either a "plus" or "minus" symbol, indicating that these were the "volume up" and "volume down" buttons respectively.