[Alucard doesn't exactly try to shrink as the group goes past, but he feels exposed here in a way that he doesn't in the Free Cities. There are crowds. He's just one face among many, not an obvious stranger. Strange how that is what he misses most in the moment.]

Perhaps. Or maybe it was just getting enough people there to do what needed to be done, and a lumber shipment was an excuse so. This-- [Alucard reaches into his pocket, retrieving the wood sample from the Libertas work site. The maggots in the jar have since passed, but are still there all the same.] Was what we found in the Free Cities.