For Eternity II: Clandestine Preceding (Vampire! 2p! Italy x Reader)

Chapter Twenty-two - The Detectives

        Luciano had gotten in contact with a few people, all of which were human descendants of vampire's he knew, that could help figure out who had murdered his parents. At least, that was what he hoped. They had been summoned to the castle to have a meeting with the night following the preparations for building the mausoleum. Five men currently sat in a sitting room. Three of them didn't seem all too serious while the other two looked composed, the one actually looking quite pissed off with one of the three who were messing around with a few trinkets in the room as they waited for Luciano to appear.

        Two of the five men waiting were brothers. One was a tall, buff German with slicked back blond hair and blues eyes, and the other one was a tall, skinny yet muscular Prussian who was considered an albino with his platinum blond hair and reddish-purple eyes. Respectively, their names were Ludwig and Gilbert Beilschmidt. The other three men varied in their appearance somewhat. The one, Antonio Fernández Carriedo, a Spaniard, had tanned skin, short brown hair, and stunning green eyes. Another man, a Frenchman named Francis Bonnefoy, had shoulder length blond hair, stubble decorating his jawline, and blue eyes. The final man, Arthur Kirkland, was an Englishman with short blond hair, thick eyebrows, and green eyes.

        Francis, Antonio, and Gilbert were very close friends while Francis was scared of Ludwig and didn't get along with Arthur most of the time. Antonio was friends with all of them due to his amicable nature. Though, both Antonio and Arthur were hardened by the few years they spent on ships as deck hands and pirates for their home countries. Now the two had settled down and formed an agency of sorts with Ludwig, Gilbert, and Francis to solve crimes. They weren't police or military officials. They just took on cases to give people closure of some kind when something life changing happened. This time, they were hopefully going to give that closure to the royal family. That would only happen if they could figure out who the murderer was and present them to the king and queen in chains.

        Everyone was eventually seated in a chair or on a couch by the time Luciano entered the room. He was by himself, but Ludwig, despite only being human, could smell a small trace of perfume on his, signifying that he had come from the presence of a female, presumably his bride-to-be or grandmother. Luciano addressed each man individually and shook their hands before taking a seat in a chair in front of all five of them.

        "Gentlemen, thank you all for meeting with me. You all know why I invited you to the castle, or at least I hope so."

        He received a nod for each of them.

        "Bene." The young prince produced a medium sized cloth bag and handed it to Ludwig. "I'm putting you in charge of the evidence that Doctor Skeller procured from the crime scene and my parents' bodies. Do not lose this bag. Don't even let it out of your sight. Who knows where the murderer may be lurking, searching for any evidence that can be linked to him?"

        Ludwig gripped the bag tightly but not tight enough to crush whatever was inside of it. "Wie du möchtest. We also all realize that our lives may be in danger by taking up this case, but it is a risk we all mutually agreed to take."

        "Grazie. I'll leave you to your own devices. Feel free to stay as long as you'd like here. If you need anything that a maid or a butler could help you with, ring the bell on the bookshelf by the windows. One of the many here will attend to your needs so long as they are reasonable. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to prepare for my parents' funeral..."

        They all nodded again and said their goodbyes as Luciano left the room to change into more appropriate attire for the funeral. Gilbert got up and walked towards his brother.

        "What's in the bag, brohas?"

        "One, don't use that word... It will never catch on as a name for addressing someone. Two, you were literally sitting two feet away when the prince said what it was."

        "No. He said it was evidence. He never said what it was specifically." Gilbert was smirking. "And it will too catch on! I just have to say it enough!

        Ludwig pinched the bridge of his nose before leaning forward and setting the bag on the table. He opened as everyone else leaned in to take a look at what he would pull out. He reached his hand in and grabbed two bullets. He inspected them along with his brother. They both smelled one, then looked to each other.

        "Matchlock," they said in unison.

        Antonio, Francis, and Arthur all nodded as they bullets were passed to them. Everyone then agreed it came from a matchlock pistol based on the weight of the bullets. Arthur set the them on the table as Ludwig pulled a casting of sorts out of the bag, then a second, then a third one. It looked like shoe prints, but each one was a different size, depth, and pattern. There was a note attached from Karen stating that they were taken from the trees nearby and that everyone in the castle had already been ruled out as not guilty of the crime based on extensive foot print and shoe testing with more castings.

        "This may take awhile..." Arthur sighed. "They could be across the continent by now for all we know."

        "Arthur, don't think so negatively. They could still be hanging around, waiting to cause more chaos."

        "That's even worse, you frog!"

        "How? It would take less time to find them that way, bushy brows!"

        The two began to bicker even more until Ludwig yelled at them. They quieted down rather quickly. Antonio picked up the bag, finding nothing else but a small pouch of half empty gunpowder inside of it. The pouch had a bit of decoration to it with the letters "DEP" sewn into it. There was a small rose with two cutlasses crossing behind it below the letters. His eyebrows furrowed as the corners of his lips turned down into a frown.

        "I think I've found a set of initials... Maybe a family crest of sorts too..." he mumbled as he passed the pouch around.

        "It's probably a decoy, but it's worth a shot to check into. Good eye, Antonio!" Gilbert praised. "That's pretty small. I can't even see it all that well, but then again, I have poor eyesight."

        "Whatever the case, we have some leads to guide us. Let's get hunting," Ludwig said as they all stood up and went to carry out their research.

~Author's Note~

DreamsForDays here! As I said in the last chapter, I was going to do a bit of detective work in this chapter. Plus, I added some of the 1ps! Woo! Yes, they all are humans. They aren't half-bloods or anything of the sorts. I'm not sure of their relation to the guys yet, but I know they are relatives of some sort. Anyway, here are the translations!

Translations:

Bene. - Good.

Wie du möchtest. - As you wish.

Grazie. - Thank you.

That's all of them! Thank you for reading! Feedback in the comments is always appreciated! Until next time!