Chapter 864: Moving forward For a second, Quinn thought it was a shame that there weren’t more criminals in the cells, but that thought quickly left his mind, and he felt a little sick. Vampires seemed to be quite law-abiding, considering how many were in the cells. He understood why based on the strictness of some of their rules. It seemed like it was ingrained in their culture to follow their leader’s orders. Some not even having a choice with the bond. Still, just like with any society, there would be those that broke the rules. One of the agreements for Quinn’s vote was to hand over any criminals that hurt the tenth as well. Ever since then, there didn’t seem to be a single incident. At least that’s what the reports said. He didn’t know if they were listening to their leaders or they were keeping it a secret from him. He was hoping he could somehow utilize this as well, but there was no such luck. As he walked away, he could hear the screams of those behind him in their cells, crying out in pain, feeling like the sun was burning their skin. However, it soon stopped. He was unsure if Muka had decided to give them a quick end to their suffering, which was unlikely, or if they had taken their own lives. The fact that this was more likely was more upsetting. They already looked on the brink of death, but had hung on for some reason, yet the punishment Quinn had given pushed them over the edge. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶 ’They were criminals. They had already done bad things.’ Quinn repeated to himself. ’Sacrifice the few to save the many.’ Vincent said. ’It seems you are starting to understand the way the leaders on top have to start thinking. Yes, every person is important, but at some point, you really do just have to look at them as numbers.’ At the moment, Quinn had a total of 300 MC points to use his shadow ability, and that was just from ten criminals. Seeing this number, Quinn could only imagine how many MC points Arthur must have gathered. He had been doing this job for a long time, and it was clear he had used the shadow eater skill on a lot more than just ten vampires. He had even seen him use the skill on one of the leaders, and it probably wasn’t the first time either. ’Will I be able to get strong enough in time?’ Quinn questioned himself, but it was the only thing he could do. Heading back to his own castle, Quinn could tell that his mask was receiving a call. Now that he had told the others to keep in contact with him more, he no longer kept it in his dimensional space, and instead by his side. When someone was trying to contact him, similar to an old mobile phone, it vibrated. ’Speak.’ Quinn said bluntly, not in the best of moods after what he had just done. "Quinn, it’s Peter. I wanted to tell you something. I couldn’t find you, so I went looking for Logan, who contacted you. I was worried that she might have gotten to you already." Peter explained. "She?" "Yes, the second leader. I don’t really know the details of the deal you made with her, but it would be best if you didn’t work with her. When I stayed at her castle, I did a little snooping. She would meet with the other leaders frequently, and today, every single one of them she met with voted for her, but there was one leader she would always meet on her own and more so than the others." It wasn’t enough to go on, but at the moment, Quinn was looking for any leads, and after seeing how she had acted and how she was fighting over the position with Bryce. It would make sense if she attacked Kazz as well, although Fex was still a mystery. "Do you know who that leader is?" Quinn asked. Thinking maybe Cindy wasn’t behind it all, but this person who had switched sides, someone else who had a deciding vote other than Quinn could be. "Yeah, it was another female leader, the eighth leader," Peter said. "Be careful." ’The eighth leader Jill, but why would she attack the tenth family?’ Quinn thought. However, just like Muka, who could utilize the tunnels well for a surprise attack bypassing the other leaders, Jill was also one of those with an ability that would help her. She was in charge of all the communication between the leaders and important figures, so she would have had the best idea of what was going on. And while she could listen in on all the conversation happening, the same couldn’t be said for the other way round. ’Don’t forget there is also the possibility that there is more than one person behind this Quinn.’ Vincent stated. "We can’t be thinking so limited.’ ’But then why would Jill vote for Bryce? Unless Bryce and Jill are working together and he really did go against his own daughter.’ It was giving him a headache. There were two people involved that could probably give him an answer. One of them being Fex, but he had his memories removed, and the other being Kazz. Using the mask, Quinn went ahead and requested to contact the others, and eventually, Nate had answered. "Is this Quinn?" Nate asked. "Yeah, how are things going?" "Ham eventually found a way towards their base, and he thinks we’re heading in the right direction. He was right, it really is far, and we’re moving a bit slow since he’s the one that has to direct us. If anything comes up we can contact you." Listening about it, it didn’t seem like if Quinn joined them now, he would be any help, nor did they need him there. His time would have been better used elsewhere, and he knew just the thing. "Good, because I think I’m going to be a little busy on my end of things," Quinn replied, ending the call. Using his shadow travel, Quinn first stopped by at the royal guard contact he was to use to contact Dwight. He delivered the message giving the information that he had found out from Peter. Maybe with his own research, this clue would be something that would put the pieces together for him to have for a suspect. It was clear Dwight was keeping some things from him, he must have found out things on his own by now. After the information was given, Quinn headed back to the tenth castle, and the first thing he did was enter the reputation shop on his system. The front towers by the inner castle area were upgraded to level four. Then at the two other gates, that were connected to the other castle. Quinn placed two more towers and upgraded them by one level. Finally, in front of the castle, Quinn placed another gargoyle looking statue by the side of the door. At this point, all of his reputation points he had earned were spent. "Whoa, look at that, the tenth’s just gone and made more of those tower things form before." A vampire pointed out. "Are they preparing for something? Why would he build such things in his own castle area? It’s like he thinks a war is going to happen or something." "Well, they did get attacked not too long ago. Maybe he just wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I guess the leader really cares about his people." ’Quinn, are you preparing for something, I feel like you’re doing this now for a reason.’ Vincent asked. ’Leo, is away and he’s quite the strong force we have lost. I want to make sure while everyone is here, if I can’t get to them and something happens. Then at least this can delay them.’ ’You sound like you’ve already planned to do something?’ ’Of course.’ Quinn replied. ’I can’t just stand here and wait a week for them to do what they want and come to me. Hopefully, Leo and Silver can save Fex, but with his memories gone, that won’t help us at all, but there is one person that Bryce has been keeping away from the others, and it has to be for a reason. ’So, I’m going to sneak into the first leader’s castle, and ask Kazz, what happened that day.’ ******