Chapter 31

Vampire of the Castle (1) - The Mysterious Emissary (孤城の吸血鬼①―謎の使者― Kojou no Kyuuketsuki 1 -Nazo no Shisha-) is the thirty-first of the D.Gray-man manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino.

Synopsis
Lenalee and Bookman both Tell Lavi he needs to go back right away to find Allen once the team realizes he is missing, Lavi protests, saying he has a bad feeling but goes at their request, using his hammer's extend ability.

Back at the station Allen is pinned to the ground by the mysterious man who calls Allen a monk and says he has a request of him. The man begs Allen to save their village. The man explains he is the Mayor of the village and carries Allen into the village halls, exclaiming that a dark monk has arrived. the villagers gather in the hall all brandishing weapons which panics Allen, however the rest of the village has the same reaction to him, crying out that his arrival is a miracle. the villagers tie Allen to a chair and explain that they have problems with a vampire. they tell Allen that the vampire's name is Baron Krory and that screams emanate from his hilltop castle at night.Although Allen tries to argue that vampires don't exist the Mayors react makes him ask to continue the story. The Mayor goes on to say that if the villagers stayed away from the castle that the vampire would leave them in peace, however one night Krory struck down an old woman, sucking her bloody until it evaporated. the villagers then march in search of Krory.

At that moment Lavi appears out of a barrel next to Allen, amazed at the story, this greatly shocks the assembled party. the villagers prepare to attack while Allen asks Lavi why on earth he appeared like that until the they notice the crest on Lavi's uniform. The villagers then capture Lavi, tie him to a chair and place him next to Allen. They ask why the villagers call them dark monks and the Mayor explains that shortly before Krory began attacking the village a man calling himself a priest asked for directions to Krory castle, although the villagers tried to stop him he went up anyway. After three days the Priest came back down, and told the Mayor that if the castles master ever gave them any trouble that they should let someone who wears the same cross as him know and that and those people would resolve the situation. shortly after the priest left Krory began to attack the villagers, and to date 9 of them had been killed. the Mayor explains that they had been prepared to attack the castle tonight but that now god had delivered them the dark monks instead. Lavi tries to say that they only deal with Akuma however this seems to reinforce their faith in them.

Allen asks the Mayor what this "priest" looked like and he draws a picture resembling Cross Marian. Since it was a message left from Cross they decide to go along with the villagers and inform Lenalee and Bookman via Golem. Lenalee asks that they both be careful and to not become vampires to which the boys agree. They stand in front of the huge monolithic castle gate and the Mayor explains how to get to the castle from there. the exorcists hear screams coming from the castle and are urged on by the villagers. They walk through the gardens and both notice the other is already drawn their weapon although both don't admit to being scared.

Suddenly they notice something speeding towards them, the blur zooms past them without anybody catching a proper look. After a scream is heard they turn around to come face to face with Krory who has the body of a villager between his teeth.