Vampire Hunter D: Pale Fallen Angel Parts Three and Four Read Free Book Online Page B

musicians halted their performance, but once they’d passed, they left no wake at all as the same jovial atmosphere returned.
    â€œStrange place, isn’t it?” the baron said to the Hunter. “On all the vast Frontier, this is the only place where villagers enjoy such a vibrant nightlife while their feudal lord remains in power. It’s been this way ever since I left.”
    â€œWhen was that?” asked D.
    â€œThere is no sense in our kind speaking of time,” the baron replied, but after saying this, he smiled wryly. “Pardon me. I can’t help but keep thinking of you as a Noble.”
    â€œThat’s a laugh!”
    Narrowing his gaze, the baron asked, “Did you say something?”
    D tightened his grip on the reins with his left hand and replied, “No.”
    Getting the feeling he’d heard a tiny cry of pain, the baron strained his ears, but he heard nothing further.



“Should you happen to be concerned about the two girls, there’s a hotel called the Rivers Inn if you turn right at the fourth intersection. Take a room there. I’ll give you more information as it becomes available.”
    This meant that their journey would end at that point.
    In less than two minutes they arrived. It was just an ordinary intersection.
    â€œI’m in your debt,” the baron said, handing D a heavy sack. “There’s what we agreed upon. See you.”
    D said nothing, but halted his horse, as if watching his employer’s back to the very end. The dark carriage passed by without a sound. After watching it melt into the darkness at the end of the road, D turned right at the street corner.
    The Rivers Inn was about ten minutes away. Many inns in Frontier villages were humble affairs, but as the communities grew larger, they were often divided into separate lodgings for merchants and general travelers. But the Rivers Inn was neither. To put it bluntly, it was for millionaires. The first floor boasted a restaurant, bar, and casino, while the parking lot was filled with the very latest gasoline-powered cars and steam-driven vehicles, all polished and gleaming in the moonlight. The standard carriages were all drawn by at least a half-dozen horses and were lavish, adorned with gold and other precious metals.
    Winding the reins of his horse around a hitching post that seemed to have seen no use at all, D then stepped into the foyer. The singing voices that soared to the accompaniment of the piano and violin dropped like dominoes as D moved toward the front desk. Even the bodyguards who kept a razor-sharp eye on the patrons in the hall and lounge couldn’t move in the least, as if they’d been struck dead. A grim reaper in black had intruded on this world of multicolored splendor—but what a gorgeous reaper he was. Although the people had been turned to statues in part by the ghastly aura that surrounded D, they were also lost in his handsome features.
    Tell anyone without the finest carriage and clothing that we’re full
—those were the orders the man at the front desk had been given, but the second he saw D step through the door, he forgot all about the fearsome manager’s mandate.
    â€œDo you have a room?”
    â€œIndeed we do. The very best suite. However, I hardly think it would be up to your standards, sir.”
    â€œA single will be fine. Kindly give my horse some synthesized protein later.”
    â€œYes, sir. And the payment for your stay will be—unnecessary.”
    As D stared at him, the clerk at the front desk returned to his senses and told the Hunter the correct charge. Paying for three days for the time being, D took the key and was headed over to the stairs when a coquettish voice and porcine laughter spilled from the bar off to the left.
    â€œMr. Balcon, you can’t be so cruel to a girl who just got here today,” said one of the women in a tickle of a voice as she writhed in a virulent tangle of