The Vampire’s Templar

Right before dawn, when the skies were still a rich, inky dark, Camilla heard the door thump from someone’s knocking. The visitor wasn't alive, so she put down a book that she borrowed from the city library with a smile, as well as the new gold-rimmed monocles she bought earlier that night.

“Welcome back again, Kagriss,” she said, as she opened the door.

The lich in question grabbed both of her hands tightly. “Camilla. I have something to show you!” She sounded so uncharacteristically excited that Camilla was taken aback for a moment. But her curiosity was piqued, and she tilted her head in curiosity.

“What is it?”

“I can’t tell you yet. Come with me though.”

That was so suspicious, but Camilla couldn’t find a reason to refuse since she wasn’t that busy, and with her night vision, where she read her book didn’t matter. Or rather, there was no reason to refuse since the person asking her out was Kagriss, so she nodded. “Okay! Where are we going? Ah wait!” she said when Kagriss made to pull her out the door. “I’m not dressed yet!”

“Oh…”

Camilla laughed at how downcast Kagriss sounded, a far cry from how she usually was, even in front of her. Whatever Kagriss wanted to show it, it was something big. “Just wait a bit, will you? It won’t take long at all.”

She had her blood bonded clothes after all. A few seconds later after she finished choosing her outfit, the film of red that covered her body receded and she stood dressed in a suit-like attire, midnight black and with dull gold borders. It was neat and crisp without creases like it was freshly ironed.

It was the kind of clothes that noblemen often wore, only a bit more subdued since it lacked the frills and ruffles that made the clothes of nobility so showy. As someone who didn’t like flashy things all that much, she preferred it this way.

Slipping the monocles into a case and the case into a breast pocket, she held out her hand for Kagriss to hold.

“That’s…something different.” Kagriss looked her up and down, her expression unreadable.

However, her stoic face couldn’t hide the approval she radiated through their bond. Camilla blushed, even more satisfied in her choice. However, she decided to ask anyway, just to hear the answer from Kagriss’s own mouth. “It is! Do you like it?”

“Maybe. Are you ready? Come on and let’s go.” Kagriss laid her hand gently on Camilla’s and tugged slightly, the latter allowing herself to be led out of the room.

Although Camilla didn’t get the verbal answer she wanted, it was fine to some extent since she knew what Kagriss thought. However, it was still kind of disappointing that Kagriss never really commented on her appearance except during their night activities.

While Camilla didn’t consider herself the type to be obsessed with how she looked, perhaps owing to her past where she didn’t care unless she was going to appear in public, she still wanted the person she liked to acknowledge her efforts put into prettying herself up. Especially so since she was either scantily dressed in bed or covered in blood and armor the rest of the time.

Right before dawn was actually when the streets were emptiest. Everyone that stayed up at night returned home while those active during the day had not woken up yet. In a way, the calmness of this time of the day was refreshing. If Camilla ignored the other pedestrians still out, something done quite easily due to their few numbers, she could almost imagine that she and Kagriss was alone.

“So where are we going? Can you tell me now?” she asked, poking at Kagriss’s side with a pleading smile on her face.

“If I tell you now, it won’t be a surprise anymore. Even if I stay silent, you’ll figure it out anyway,” Kagriss replied, pushing her hand away. “Even if you beg me, it’s useless.”

“Tch.” Kagriss rarely changed her mind. Camilla gave up and just enjoyed the walk. The coolest part of the day was right before dawn as well, when all the dew formed on the grass. Although the city was no grassland, whoever designed the interior clearly put some thought into incorporating some greenery.

Camilla stopped by a bush to admire the late-blooming rose-like blossom, made all the more beautiful by the little droplets of water that scattered the colors they rested on with sparkling vibrancy.

“Do you like flowers?”

Camilla shrugged and got up, patting non-existent dirt from the knees of her pants. “Not particularly so, but I guess I developed a new appreciation for them. What about you?”

“Well, they’re pretty, and so varied. There are many I’ve never seen before.”

Coming from a place like Amaranthine Point, Kagriss wouldn’t have had many chances to see flowers anyway, especially if she never left the fortress. Actually, what exactly kept all those high undead inside anyway?

“You said you never left the fortress before you met me, right?”

“Mhm. The outside world is as vast as I expected. I’m so glad I decided to come with you.”

“Oh, there’s no point in saying something like that,” Camilla said, playfully shoving Kagriss in revenge for making her blush before she returned to her question. “Why didn’t any of you leave though? The walls can keep the lesser ones from escaping, but any high undead should easily be able to scale the walls and leave.”

“I wonder why. Nothing kept me inside. I guess I just never considered leaving?”

That sounded strange. For any other undead, Camilla would have accepted that answer, but Kagriss knew how to read and had long dreamed of seeing the outside world for herself. Camilla did not believe for one moment that the thought of actually leaving just never came to Kagriss.

However, she kept her thoughts to herself. For one, she didn’t think that Kagriss was lying, since Kagriss had no reason to. She had a guess, which was that something more insidious was at play. There may be a weak but nearly undetectable form of mind control active in the fortress that kept higher undead from leaving, even if they wanted to.

If Kagriss was anything to go back, the only way to leave was to do it in a mentally roundabout way. As far as Camilla knew, Kagriss never left of her own volition.

They met the first time because Kagriss was curious about her. Upon seeing her, Kagriss wished to know about her and so followed her out of the fortress. The thought of actually leaving the fortress was never relevant. The difference was slight but significant in its effects.

While Camilla had no proof of any of this, the more she thought about it, the more likely she felt her guess was to be true. In a way, it was similar to the way the oathstone of the templars decided whether or not a templar was faithful. Although the results may be the same in the end, the intention and the process mattered as well.

“Milla? You suddenly got quiet.”

Camilla glared at her. “What do you mean I suddenly got quiet. Are you calling me a chatterbox?” She shook her fist at Kagriss and the concern on Kagriss’s face disappeared.

As for Camilla’s guess, she wasn’t planning on telling Kagriss yet. There was no point. Even if she told Kagriss, they’ll get nowhere since the effect seemed to be undetectable. On the contrary, it might stress Kagriss out. Even if it didn’t, there was no way to verify any of her claims without going back, and that won’t happen for a while.

 From their previous talks, she already knew that Kagriss wasn’t privy to a lot of information in the fortress. Jack-class zombies were still considered part of the rank and file while jack-class skeletons were the lowest tiers of what could be considered officers. Kagriss knew so little that she wasn’t even sure how many lord-class undead there were in the fortress in total.

Basically, her guess was unfounded and worthless, and it wouldn’t be too late to tell Kagriss in the future when they returned to the human territories after gathering some more people.

While Camilla mulled over the strange discrepancy between reality and what she knew of Kagriss, she slowed down ever so slightly until Kagriss was a step ahead.

Kagriss paused. “Camilla?”

This time, Camilla jumped. “Hm? What is it?”

“You’re not getting away with a joke this time,” Kagriss said. “There’s obviously something on your mind. What is it? Are you thinking about Lucienne again?”

Her lover’s words reminded Camilla of her brief meeting with Lucienne where the meeting started out on a sour note, mellowed out, only to end with Lucienne more unhappy than before. She grimaced.

Even if she wasn’t thinking about Lucienne before, she was now. Again and again, she was reminded of her own inexperience, first from her lack of knowledge about the land of the vampires, and now by her inability to hold together a group  bound together by something other than a codified system of values and duty.

It wasn’t until Kagriss clued her in that she realized that there was a potential issue brewing within their party, and before she could do anything about it, the brew boiled over. Even now, she still didn’t understand what the trigger was that caused Lucienne to be so upset.

Her pained smile seemed to confirm Kagriss’s suspicions and Kagriss squeezed her hand. “Are you worried you handled her badly?”

Camilla nodded honestly. She did what she thought was best, but for such matters, she always had her doubts about her own judgement.

“I don’t think you need to worry too much, but just in case, what exactly did you do?”

In a few sentences, Camilla explained what transpired between her and Lucienne after Kagriss left. Kagriss listened without saying anything, nor did her face betray anything with Camilla searching for her for any reactions. Approval, disapproval… anything to tell her if what she did was right or wrong.

When she finished, she waited in eager, yet worried, silence for the verdict. But when the reply came, it wasn’t what Camilla expected.

“What you did… was it to drive her away?”

“H-how did you know?” Camilla wrung her hands together. “Yes… it was. Since it didn’t seem like she was happy here and the problem seemed to be with me…”

She trailed off when Kagriss raised her free hand to squeeze the bridge of her nose, muttering something to herself before speaking up. “It’s not that hard to tell, you know? From what you described, you acted rather rude and dismissive. Either that’s uncharacteristic of you or I don’t know you at all.”

“That’s not it…”

“So you acted that way on purpose, and the only reasons why you might do such a thing was if you were upset with Lucienne, because you wanted to appear as if you were, because you wanted her to be upset with you, or any combination of the above. It was the last one, isn’t it?”

Even if Camilla wanted to deny it, she couldn’t since Kagriss pretty much got everything right and she was a terrible liar. Without her noticing, Kagriss had grown so perceptive. Although outwardly she looked the same as when Camilla first met her, her thoughts were no longer simple and even Camilla found herself seeing so little of the truth compared to Kagriss.

Because Kagriss saw more than her, Camilla felt safe putting so many decisions in her hands, even if she was just running away from her responsibilities as she had longed to do since her early days as a commander.

“If you managed to guess much, then you probably know everything else as well. I… don’t know if I should have done that. Lucienne is a good girl. I don’t know why she’s upset at me… what expectations I didn’t meet, but if she doesn’t like me, I don’t want her to be pressured to stay around.”

“…have you tried just asking her why?”

“Huh?”

Kagriss sighed in exasperation, showing a rare burst of emotion. “I said, have you tried asking her why she’s upset? Since only bad people overly gossip about people behind their backs, I was being vague on purpose. That way you can find everything out from the person herself.”

After all that, Camilla could shake her head while listening with her head lowered like a scolded puppy. She really hadn’t considered things that far when she talked with Lucienne, since her mind had already been made up for various reasons.

But, perhaps, what she did was really the wrong thing.

Seeing her like that, Kagriss’s heart softened and her voice returned to its usual mellow tone. “That’s not all, is it? How Lucienne acted couldn’t be the only reason why you decided to drive her out.”

Camilla winced at the phrasing. “Driving her out is a bit…”

“That’s basically what it is.”

“… you’re right. I guess there’s no way about it. I feel like it’s best for her to leave because she found something important. It’s presumptuous of me to pretend to know what’s best for her, but ever since we picked up those twins, she’s been all over them like they’re her own children or younger siblings.”

“And whose fault is that? Sometimes your obliviousness can be startling.”

Camilla glared at her. “I know I was the one to push them onto her since neither of us are particularly good with children, but I didn’t expect them to grow so close. And why are you calling me oblivious?”

Frustratingly, Kagriss didn’t answer and just flashed her a smile that screamed that she knew something that Camilla didn’t, and she wasn’t going to reveal it. It was maddening, but Camilla probably couldn’t pry it out of her anyway, so there was no point in expending so much useless effort.

Pouting and pointedly looking away in protest to show her dissatisfaction, Camilla continued. “Anyways, I found that they’ve grown close together. At this point, I don’t think it’s good for the twins to always be on the move like we are. Stability is something important to anyone growing up and it will be a long time before we settle anywhere. It’s something I don’t think I can provide.” It was hard to put her thoughts into words when she mostly went off feeling, but thankfully, Kagriss seemed to understand.

“So you do care about them.”

“Well of course I do! What’s that supposed to mean?” Camilla demanded.

“That’s a question, isn’t it? So when did the thoughts of having Lucienne leave start?” Kagriss asked.

Camilla thought for a bit. “I guess I had hints of it when I saw how excited they were when we first entered this city and then the idea came when Lucienne came to me about Lavitte and his plans.”

Lavitte and his party was based in Dianane and they never moved. They didn’t live in inns like many hunters but rather owned their own house in a pleasant corner of the city under Eva’s name. There’s a school here where they can fill up the gaps in their knowledge and perhaps start working towards a trade that wasn’t peddling or hunting.

In other words, Lavitte’s party offered stability, something that Camilla lacked.

If Lavitte were looking to recruit the twins, they’d also need someone to continue teaching the twins about holy magic. That someone could be Lucienne who was already teaching them anyway. In that case, Lucienne and the twins joining them was the best outcome for all parties involved, especially since the twins were now the most important people to Lucienne.

Besides, as a hunter, Lucienne will rarely come into contact with humans and even if she did, it will be in petty squabbles over prey on the borders. She’d never have to do anything to oppose humanity as a whole, as Camilla might eventually need to in the future.

Just when Camilla finished explaining and had regained her confidence, Kagriss poured a bucket of cold water all over her. “I understand your reasoning, but how does Lucienne feel about all this?”

“Um… I haven’t told her yet.”

“So what makes you think that she’ll be happy about this arrangement of yours?”

Camilla didn’t know, but as she floundered about for a valid reason to salvage her argument, she stumbled upon a treasure. “Because if it’s Lucienne, then she’d be willing to do anything as long as it was for the good of those two little ones… is the kind of feeling I get from her now. After all, you’d do the same for me, right?” she stared up at Kagriss with anticipation.

“I don’t think those two are quite equivalent, but I guess you might be right. I still think you should ask her about it, though, both about why she’s upset and her opinion about this arrangement.”

“But why can’t you just tell me why she’s upset?”

“If you’re that curious, then you should ask her yourself.” Although Camilla even pleaded with her eyes upturned, Kagriss remained stalwart in her refusal. “And, even if you’re cute acting like that, it fits you better when you’re in a dress.”

Suddenly remembering that she was wearing a gentleman’s attire, Camilla blushed and averted her eyes. The rest of their walk was in silence.

Camilla began to recognize the buildings around them. While they were talking, they had gone from the residential area where all the inns were to the commercial district. Soon, the bank that Lavitte had taken them to came into sight.

To her surprise, Kagriss led her straight toward the bank.

“Why are we going there?” she asked.

“You still haven’t figured it out?” Kagriss smiled. She let go of Camilla’s hand, leaving Camilla feeling strangely lonely. “I suppose I can tell you now.”

Under Camilla’s curious gaze, she unfastened the handbag that had been looped around her shoulder. With a seductive, mischievous smile that made Camilla feel something inside, she opened it and showed Camilla the contents.

Camilla’s mouth fell open. “Huh? How did you get so much…?”

However, Kagriss held a finger to her mouth and uttered only a single word. “Secret.”