The Vampire’s Templar

“Right. So this is the hunting guild,” Camilla said. She looked up at the words painted onto a sign that hung above the door. “It looks so different in the day.”

When Lavitte brought them here the night before, it had been after dark. The hunting guild, like many other establishments here, stayed open during all hours of the day, including after dark. At night, the guild building had been well lit both inside and outside by bright white crystals, with other colors sprinkled here and there.

Now, under the sunlight, the building looked much plainer and like any other on the street, just a bit larger.

While not particularly tall at only three floors high from the windows, it was really wide. Compared to nighttime, the streets were a bit busier which took away from the atmosphere of mystique that it had before.

She looked at the others. “Let’s go in?” When they nodded, she stepped up the stairs and pulled open the heavy, polished wooden doors. The metal on the handle was strangely warm despite no one having touched it before her recently and it being out of direct sunlight, but she didn’t think much of it past the most basic of observations and her initial surprise.

So many things were strange and new in this place that she had become a little numb to it. Maybe it was a self-heating metal so peoples’ hands don’t get frozen to the handle during winter. She didn’t know and at this point it didn’t really matter.

The inside of the guild building was a large open area. The stone construction seemed polished and the same bright crystals that lit up the exterior were embedded in the ceiling, illuminating the interior through a gold tinged filter of some kind. Twin ridged pillars of marble supported the open area, preventing any sort of collapse.

The slightly golden light lent the lobby a prestigious atmosphere that Camilla never would have attributed to a hub that served glorified butchers and exterminators. Once more, she found her world view refreshed.

The others were still taking in their surroundings. The twins in particular held on to Lucienne’s hands and looked around in amazement, their eyes stretched wide like full moons. While Lucienne looked a lot more composed, Camilla heard her mutter little expressions of awe under her breath. Kagriss was unreadable as always.

They were far from being the only people in the lobby. People dressed in clothes practical for battle could be seen all over. Some were even clad in armor with their face hidden and no one batted a single eye. To Camilla, used to the orderly nature of a proper military organization, these ragtag bunches had no business carrying weapons.

Each time these heavily armed groups passed each other on their way in or out, she expected the atmosphere to grow tense and a fight to break out, but it never did.

Calm down. It’s just how things are here. Things are dangerous and the unrest is not as bad… Slowly, she brainwashed herself through repetition to free herself from worrying any more about this nightmare of a heavily armed population. It didn’t mean she liked it, but at least she accepted her current reality.

Besides, she was just like them, as she wasn’t part of the templars anymore. She was a mercenary and a glorified butcher just like the others in the room.

A few maps hung on the right wall of the lobby for public use, and there were several copies of each. With her enhanced vision, she could make them out even while standing near the door. Despite being unfamiliar with the area, Camilla still managed to identify one map as charting Dianene and its surroundings, and one of them as the Tuldor territory. A third showed the vampire territory at large, and one more was a vague rendition of an even greater stretch of land and sea.

The last one was noticeably less detailed than the first three and included the human territories on the peninsula, the vampire territory that bordered it and cut it off from the rest of the continent, and then the territories of many other races to the west both big and small.

Camilla was a little surprised to find that compared to some races, the humans actually had a pretty decent chunk of territory, even if it was lacking compared to major races like the vampires and elves.

For the second time in her life, she gained a little perspective about where humans stood in the grand scheme of things. Her whole life until she met Victoria, the only maps she had accessed were concerning the humans and a tiny bit of the vampires, not to mention large maps and detailed maps were considered low-grade strategic resources to city-states at war. To think that this information would be so readily available here… 

The number of people combined with all the information made everything a little disorienting.

“Maybe we should’ve taken Lavitte up on his guide,” Camilla said.

Kagriss didn’t answer. 

Camilla was about to keep on looking when an elf dressed in a casual suit with her hair tied back in a bun came up to them and bowed. The small jeweled clip on the side of her head glittered. “Hello, I haven’t seen you around before. You seem lost. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Oh! Yes please,” Camilla said, a little surprised. “But what do you mean lost?”

The woman had been looking at Kagriss, but when Camilla spoke, the woman offered a smile and gestured around her after turning her full attention on her. “Most people that come here have something in mind already. Your group is the only one that stood by the door and looked around.”

Camilla’s face reddened in embarrassment. 

Luckily, the woman didn’t laugh. “Don’t worry. You’re not the first person. We get a lot of newcomers here.”

That made sense. A worker like this elf here was probably used to spotting people like her. Camilla felt a bit better. 

“My name is Rosaea, by the way.”

“Rosaea.” Camilla shook her head. “I’m Camilla. This is Kagriss, Lucienne, Sariel and Ariel. It’s our first time here, so we’ll be in your care.”

“First time, right? No problem! Please follow me.” Rosaea turned and briskly headed toward the left side of the room, looking back now and then to make sure they were following. Camilla rushed after her, although she still wanted to look at the maps. 

By rushed, it meant she was keeping pace with Kagriss, who easily kept up with Rosaea with her long legs. For every two steps, Camilla had to take three. Lucienne and the twins under her care were in much the situation.

Camilla’s face and chest burned as she realized she had the same height and leg length problems as the much younger twins. Seemingly noticing her struggles, Rosaea slowed down, though the direction that they were headed in did not change. 

“Where are we going?”

“The first thing is to get you registered,” Rosaea replied, “since it’s your first time.” 

Soon, they reached a desk with a vampire sitting behind it. There was already one person, talking with the vampire about something. Camilla waited patiently and the man soon finished. 

Rosaea led them up front to the desk, pulling up a few seats for them to sit in, though Camilla didn’t forget her manners. Before she sat down, she greeted the vampire.

The vampire returned her greetings. “You can call me Erik. I’m the registrar and receptionist here. How may I help you?”

Rosaea cut in then. “They’re here to register for the first time.”

Erik’s professional, carefully friendly expression didn’t change as he took out a few forms after counting the number of people in Camilla’s group. Five total. “Do you have identification with you?” he asked. “Like a blood stamp.”

Camilla shook her head. “We just got here.”

“Oh. That’s fine. You’ll be provided with a card that serves as temporary identification, though you should still register with the Council.”

Camilla nodded, taking his words to heart, though she probably won’t. After all, she had already decided to not stay. She was only here for the experience, to broaden her horizons before they leave on their long journey to Celrantis.

“By the way, we have a sixth person. She’s a mana beast. Can we register her in her place?” Camilla asked.

“A mana beast? You don’t need to register here,” Erik said. “There’s the tamer’s guild for that.”

“Well, she’s not a pet or anything. She’s an equal to each of us.”

“Ah…You’re not the first to request this. There’s no rules against who can register as long as you’re not a criminal or blacklisted, so it’s fine.” He gave them another sheet of the form.

They quickly filled it in and handed it back to him. Lucienne filled out the ones for the twins. Even though each of them left the “residency” field blank, he didn’t bat an eye. Using what they filled in, he wrote them several notes on heavy, thick paper. 

That was probably the temporary identification that he had talked about.

Before he handed it to them, he paused and fished out another stack of paper from underneath the desk. He sighed. “Almost forgot about this. Please read it and sign your agreement at the bottom.”

“What is it?”

“Rule and regulations.”

Camilla took the paper and passed it out around the party before she scanned it. Most of the rules were pretty self explanatory and obvious. No fighting, no stealing, no poaching. Activity on a regular basis to retain membership. Punishment included fines, backed by the Council, and expulsion and blacklisting.

It was basically a contract. There wasn't anything wrong with it that she could find so she signed on the line at the bottom. Erik took it from her and passed her the identification card, doing the same for each of the others.

As time went, his smile faded more and more. It was obvious he wasn’t a natural smiler despite his excellent professional smile. That, or he didn’t like his job. Camilla contemplated telling him about his slipping, though she ultimately kept her mouth shut. 

With the process of registration over, a shadow of his smile finally came back. “Congratulations on becoming guildsmen of the hunting guild. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Camilla wanted to say yes just to mess with him, but she managed to hold herself back. She shook her head and Erik almost visibly sighed in relief.

How was he going to last through the rest of the day if he’s already in a bad mood now? Just as she thought that, a more rational part of her told her that she was neglecting something. Dianene didn’t operate on the same schedule as human cities did. Perhaps Erik had worked all through the night and was eager to get off.

Chalking Erik’s irritation to fatigue, Camilla shook his hand once again before she got up. When she turned back to Rosaea, she was looking at Erik in disapproval, though the elf quickly fixed her expression when she caught Camilla looking.

Rosaea seemed to be the straight laced type. Camilla knew a few of those in logistics back at the Order. She never got along with them. Kagriss might, though.

With temporary cards in hand, she joined Rosaea to continue their little tour of the guild. Continuing in a counter-clockwise fashion around the room, they came to a few booths big enough for a small party to gather in. When she peeked into an empty one, she found that they all led to the same circular counter manned by few other guild workers.

“That’s where you can accept jobs and commissions,” Rosaea said. 

“How does it work?” Camilla asked. 

“Each worker has a collection of commissions organized in different ways. If one collection doesn’t satisfy you, they can give you another commission to browse through. If you’re ready to accept a job, you can go in now if you’d like.”

Camilla looked at Kagriss and Lucienne. “Want to go in?”

“Why don’t we finish the tour first?” Kagriss said. Lucienne hesitated; she probably wanted to look at the jobs, but in the end she nodded in agreement to Kagriss’s words.

“Yeah.”

Lucienne didn’t look happy though. “If you’re curious, you can look for us. Narrow a few down for us when we finish, but if you find something you like, you can just accept the job,” Camilla suggested. 

The vampire’s eyes lit up. “Really? Then I’ll do that. Sari, Ari, let’s go in!”

“Okay!”

Before Camilla could say anything else, they were gone, slipped inside one of the booths and closed the door behind them for privacy. Camilla smiled and shrugged helplessly at her enthusiasm. It was good to be young with so much excitement.

Noting down the booth number, she nodded for Rosaea to continue. Again, it was just her with Kagriss again and she took Kagriss’s hand as they followed the guild worker to continue their tour.

The rest of the tour went by fast. 

The lobby wasn’t everything. At the back of the large hub, there was a hallway that led to other parts of the guild. “If you have services that you need from other guilds partnered with us, you can head there,” Rosaea said. 

“Got it.”

According to Rosaea, there were various services available to members of the guild thanks to the hunting guild’s influence: discounts at craftsmen to repair and replace equipment; connections to goods suppliers like medicine and traveling foods; a channel to buy and sell parts. Most important of all was the links to other guilds like the herbology guild and metallurgy guild that the guildsmen could call upon for their knowledge and services at a discount, though the guild also charged a convenience fee.

The sheer number of guilds was staggering.

One thing that Camilla noticed by the end of the tour was that there was a guild for practically any activity of any significance. For each trade or practice, the respective guild pooled expertise and provided service for a fee that made things very convenient.

They acted as mediators between the guildsman and the customer if necessary, and getting blacklisted by a guild usually meant being unable to continue practicing that trade in the city. For a consumer, getting jobs done became exponentially harder without a guild as a facilitator.

As a hunting organization, the hunting guild in particular dealt in the trade of beasts parts and the occasional live specimen. They handled the buying and selling of parts using their influence to make sure all parties played fair. Finally, they connected providers to consumers. 

Customers could order the extermination of a dangerous pest population, for example, or they could request the growth of one to be stopped to nip the trouble in the bed. They could also order material of a specific property; the request would be noted down as one of the possible requests for the commission collection books. If a hunter brought in a matching material without a commission, then the request could also be fulfilled that way.

For their services, the guild took a small cut of the proceeds.

Like a well-oiled machine, the guild ultimately made hunting a thriving industry of sorts. They made convenience their product. As a fan of efficiency, Camilla could respect that. She commended the guilds for carving such a niche out for themselves.

By comparison, there were no guilds in Moltrost or any of the surrounding city-states that she knew of. It was every man and business for themselves. A person that wanted to get things done had to facilitate everything by themselves, go through negotiations, and research pricing. It was a lot of work that having guilds saved.

Still, Camilla couldn’t help but wonder how much corruption there was in the guild. Being the middleman was a potentially lucrative business. They could easily shortchange hunters or upcharge buyers. Even for commissions, the hunters may never meet their commissioner and the guild may take more than their advertised cut with everyone involved none the wiser.

If that truly happened and became uncovered, the results could be disastrous to the industry. From her own experience, humans certainly didn’t have what it takes to resist the call of corruption and greed regardless.

Camilla couldn’t help but peek at Rosaea, as if she could pick out signs of corruption for looks alone. She couldn’t, of course, especially with how professional and inscrutable the guild worker was. Her poker face rivaled Kagriss.

Suddenly, Camilla felt nails digging into her palm. Though it didn’t hurt, she almost winced. Kagriss was glaring at her with a complete lack of amusement on her face.

“What’s wrong?” Rosaea asked, breaking from her explanation to look at Camilla with a perfect expression of concern.

Camilla shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Well, in that case, that marks the end of the tour. If you have questions, I’ll be glad to answer them.”

Camilla didn’t dare look at Rosaea anymore. Instead, she examined the ground as she shook her head again. Kagriss answered in her place. “No thank you. Thank you for your time. It was very informative.”

Her words sounded so stiff that Camilla smiled. So even Kagriss could get jealous. Even though the only thing she did was look at another woman’s face.

Rosaea’s expression didn’t change as she bowed again, her parting words were “happy to help” before she left.

Once she was sure that Rosaea was gone, Camilla looked up. “That was rude.”

“I know.”

“…” If Kagriss was going to go that far, then there really was nothing Camilla could say to change her mind. Instead, she pulled her toward the booths. “Come on. Let’s go back to Lucienne.”