The Vampire’s Templar

“How arrogant of him. Who is he?” Camilla muttered, keeping her voice low. Although she was dissatisfied with the man’s attitude, she was at least observant enough to know that the man’s very presence garnered the attention and respect of the hunters around her. She’d traveled and interacted with them long enough to know that they had their pride as hunters as well.

“He appears to be a big shot,” Kagriss replied. They followed the hunter into the camp. The leaders from the B-rank parties followed after him while the rest stayed behind to carve out a section of the encampment for themselves, building a fire, shifting boulders to make seats. “Ismelda, do you know who he is?”

Different from most of the other hunters, Ismelda did not look impressed. She stayed near the back of the group with Camilla and Kagriss, gazing at the arrogant hunter with just a raised eyebrow to betray her surprise at seeing the man here.

She turned at Kagriss’s question. “Hm? Who is he? Well, he’s the captain of the Regalius Litha’s first division.”

“What’s the Regalius Litha?” Camilla asked without thinking. As soon as the question escaped from her  mouth, the answer appeared in her own mind, rising from her memories. “Oh, the A-rank party from Trista?”

Ismelda nodded. Camilla peeked at the man again. He was near the center of the camp. Most of the leaders orbited around him, while the ones that didn’t stayed with their own parties.

The color of his skin was gray even in the light of the campfire and it looked rough to the touch. There were several sharp edges on his face where a normal human, elf, orc, or any race of flesh and blood would be rounded. “He looks…quite chiseled,” she said—almost like a statue.

Because of her desire to familiarize with the hunters’ culture, Camilla studied up on the top parties of the region, and the Regalius Litha was one of them. One of the things she learned was who the important people than ran those parties were.

That chiseled look matched perfectly with the captain of the Regalius Litha’s first division, which was composed mostly of characters that specialized in defense and acting as a shield for the other divisions. “Beitra.”

“That’s correct,” Ismelda said.

“No wonder everyone is so impressed by him. Your average hunter will never reach the same height that he has. I mean, captain of an A-rank party?” She whistled quietly. “No wonder his claim that he’s in charge went uncontested.”

That probably meant that there weren’t any other people from other A-ranked parties present.

“That’s not true. I’m contesting it right now. I don’t think that we should listen to his orders if he decides to give any,” Kagriss said, making a humph. “I don’t think he deserves it. We should just work on our own. Besides, not everyone looks as captivated by him as the others, so we probably won’t be the only ones to break away.”

“I don’t like him either,” Camilla said, “but just because you don’t like him doesn’t mean he’s not the best candidate to lead. Not only does he have the respect of most people present, but he also has experience in leading as a candidate. He’s strong as well.”

Kagriss shook her head. “No, it’s not a matter of whether I like him or not—not completely. And it’s not just his attitude either. I just don’t want to work under someone who might not even be able to beat me in a fight. He should at least earn his right to be arrogant toward us.” Kagriss showed a thin smile, her lips pressed tightly together. “And, don’t we have someone else just as qualified?”

Camilla swept her senses over Beitra at that. She had briefly scanned him when she first saw him and came away with the tentative conclusion that his quantity of mana was above hers, but that she took a closer glance, it didn’t seem to be that much more.

As a lich, Kagriss naturally had more mana, so it wasn’t surprising at all that in terms of raw mana, she had the edge over Beitra. But…

“Raw mana isn’t everything.”

“I know that much. He’s an earth elemental, isn’t he? They’re extremely resistant to both magic and brute force, but they’re very slow as well. With an advantage in speed, I am confident that I won’t lose to him.”

Kagriss seemed to have made up her mind. Camilla had no idea how she might try and convince Kagriss otherwise. Truth be told, she didn’t like Beitra and his attitude either so she kind of agreed with Kagriss, but at the same time she knew that working alone in unknown territory was probably a bad idea.

“Just because you won’t lose doesn’t mean you’ll win,” Camilla said. “How well does death magic work on elementals anyway? They’re not of flesh and blood and even if they die, I doubt that you can turn them into undead…”

For once, Kagriss hesitated, falling silent. “I don’t know…”

“Oh well… Let’s just go along with the flow for now. When we’re in uncertain situations like this, it’s better to stick with the larger group.” Camilla grinned. “If something happens, a larger group means more targets for dangers to chase, right? We can just run faster than the people around us.”

“Pfft.” Kagriss laughed. “You’re right. But I think we have one more option. I did say that I think we have someone qualified as well.”

Ismelda was spacing out again. She always did that. Camilla suspected that she was thinking about Victoria, who was far, far away, again. However, Kagriss quickly brought her back with a light shove. “What about you, Ismelda? What are you planning to do? Did Victoria give you any instructions?”

If Ismelda was angry about being disturbed, she didn’t show it. The mention of Victoria caught her attention for sure, but she shook her head, a bit sullen. “She didn’t. I’m supposed to just act based on the situation.”

“Then do you want to lead us for now?” Camilla asked. “I’ve never been to any dungeons other than the undead-saturated ones back home, so you have the most experience out of all of us.”

“Are you sure you want me to lead?” Ismelda gave Kagriss a pointed glance, her unspoken words clear.

“Don’t worry. This was Kagriss’s idea in the first place, Right?”

“Her idea? Is that true?”

Kagriss nodded, reluctant and with so much less enthusiasm than before. “This time is an exception, and only because you’re more suitable for it than me or Camilla. You also have a vested interest in bringing us back alive, which is more than that Beitra can say.”

“So with that said, what are you planning on doing now?” Camilla asked.

After a moment of glee from having Kagriss who never saw eye to eye with her forced to ask her for help, Ismelda fired herself up. “I was going to just follow after the two of you and helped you with whatever needed to be done, but I changed my mind. I’ve never liked Beitra anyway. Way too arrogant.”

“And you’re not?” Camilla wanted to say, but she kept that to herself. At least Ismelda had the strength to back up her disdain toward Beitra.

“My idea is that we let them go first and test the waters. No reason to throw ourselves into danger after all,” Ismelda said. “Depending on what we meet, we can adapt to the situation, be it moving on ahead or staying back in safety. However, we should be more proactive the further we go in just in case the pendant is there.”

From her tone though, Ismelda doubted her own words.

Camilla didn’t have much confidence in being able to find what Victoria wanted either, since there was a total lack of mana in the collapsed mountain. However, that won’t stop her from trying since an agreement was an agreement after all.

“I hope nothing unexpected pops up,” Ismelda said.

“Are you expecting anything?” Kagriss asked.

“Well…no.”

“If you’re not, then everything is unexpected. That much is obvious.”

“Kagriss!” Camilla scolded, but Kagriss didn’t look sorry at all. “Ugh, whatever. Let’s get some rest. I overheard them saying that our group was the last one to get here, so after tonight’s rest, they’re going to start the moment the sun comes up. We don’t want to miss anything.”

“Overheard, huh? Are you sure you weren’t eavesdropping? From so far away too.”

“It’s not like Beitra is particularly quiet either,” Camilla shot back, before giving Kagriss a baleful glare. Kagriss didn’t like Ismelda and Ismelda didn’t like Kagriss either, so why was she being dragged into this. Actually, wasn’t the reason for Kagriss not liking Ismelda because of her?

Camilla stopped thinking about it and switched the topic. “By the way, we don’t have anything to prepare, right? I have everything I need bonded to me and Kagriss doesn’t need anything. Ismelda?”

The vampire lord was about to shake her head, but she suddenly froze, her face reddening in a blush. “Actually… I…”

“What is it?”

“I think I’m out of blood…”

“You’re what?” Camilla asked.

“I’m out of blood! I was bored the whole journey here, so I snacked on the blood I brought with me, so they ran out! I had a constant supply while working under Victoria, so I made a habit of it, okay?!” Ismelda looked so crushed at the realization, as if the whole world were collapsing around her.

“You drank everything? How long did you pack for?”

“…two weeks…” Ismelda sighed. “It was really good blood that Victoria specially selected and preserved for me, and once I started, I couldn’t stop…”

Camilla was speechless. She always drank Kagriss’s blood when she needed to, so she never had an issue with lacking blood, but Ismelda has it rough.

“Why don’t you just ask someone nearby? You’re a vampire lord serving under Victoria, and you’re a Tuldor too. Unlike me, you’re already a part of the ruling dynasty in these parts, so I’m sure that there will be people tripping over themselves trying to give their blood to you to get on your good side and butter you up.”

In Camilla’s view, it was a non-issue, but Ismelda still looked troubled.

“…I don’t like drinking the blood of someone I don’t know directly… Packed blood is fine, but doing it directly isn’t okay…”

Slowly, Camilla realized what Ismelda was getting at. Ismelda wanted to drink her blood. After all, the only person here that Ismelda had any degree of familiarity with was Camilla. She sighed and nodded. “Fine.”

Ismelda, who had been tense in anticipation for being rejected, relaxed.

There was no reason for Camilla to refuse. Kagriss might complain, but in the end Ismelda had to be fed, and like she said herself, it was better to be on the good side of Ismelda than bad. She just hoped that when the time came, Kagriss didn’t make too big of a deal out of it.