The Vampire’s Templar

True to his word, Beitra had his men rouse everyone that was still asleep. He used the most direct method of using magic to amplify his voice. His shout bounced around the boulders and valley walls, ringing in everyone’s ears. His men joined him, adding to the din, and they didn’t look like they were planning to stop until all two-hundred or so hunters were awake.

Camilla and Kagriss was never asleep anyway and they quickly covered their ears when the sound first reached them. Only Ismelda suffered, lurching up to a sitting position from her nap, looking around with bleary eyes. “What in the world is making that ruckus?”

“Beitra. It’s almost time to set out, I guess, and he wants everyone to be ready.”

After being awoken so rudely, Ismelda was in a bad mood. Unlike Victoria who tallied up the ways that people wronged or upset her, and then paid them back all at once with interest added, Ismelda never bothered hiding her dissatisfaction. Her face darkening with every second, she gritted her teeth and stood up. “Shut up!” she shouted.

Her voice joined the calls of Beitra’s men echoing around the valley, an echoing that was quickly replaced by silence as everyone looked at the person who dared to openly oppose a sub-commander of an A-ranked party.

The person in question paid no attention to all the eyes on her and stretched. Because there was no longer any noise, her mood improved enough that the annoyed expression disappeared.

Camilla unplugged her ears and mentally thanked Ismelda. Perhaps she should give Ismelda an extra-large helping of her blood when the time comes. She kept that to herself too.

Even Kagriss was impressed.

The silence was quickly broken, not by anyone from the Regalius Litha, but by someone who had been waiting for a chance to endear himself to Beitra. He immediately jumped out and pointed at Ismelda, his face red with anger.

“Who do you think you are, speaking to Beitra like that? Are you even worthy of offending him?” he asked. As soon as the question came out of his mouth, the hunter scanned Ismelda, trying to get a grasp on her strength as to have more ammunition, but the moment he felt Ismelda’s vast reserves of mana, his face quickly paled. “W-wait…who are you?”

He asked the question twice, but in different ways, and with different means each time, Camilla noted as she idly watched with interest. She wondered how this was going to go, after all, Ismelda didn’t like Beitra.

Their surroundings became filled with gossip as people began discussing Ismelda’s identity. Most of the hunters that had arrived first hadn’t noticed Ismelda the night before since she never spoke up or joined the party leaders’ meeting, so their faces turned as white as a sheet when they realized that they had never noticed such a huge threat sneaking into the camp.

“Who is she? When did she get here?”

“I don’t know. Did she come with the Celrantis team? How scary…”

“Do you think she’s stronger than Beitra?”

Beitra’s authority had been absolute precisely because he was so strong and because of his prestige in the hunters’ community, but now someone dared go against him. Naturally, the people will compare him and his challenger.

“Of course it’s Beitra! I’ve never even heard of that woman before,” a fan of Beitra declared, full of confidence.

But another person was not so sure. “Who knows? She told Beitra to shut up, so she’s obviously not scared of him. And Beitra doesn’t look happy…”

The person’s words reached Camilla’s ears and she followed his glance toward Beitra, but she did not see what that person saw. She rubbed her eyes and tried again, but nothing changed. Beitra’s face was as stony as ever, practically frozen in an emotionless expression, and there was not a single trace of dissatisfaction to be seen.

Was she missing something?

Just as there were people who had never seen Ismelda before, there were people who had—mostly those from Celrantis, and a few other hunters that were well-traveled. They quickly flaunted their knowledge, looking down on those that betrayed their own ignorance.

“You don’t know? She’s the blood daughter of Violet Scythe Elise!”

Camilla’s ears perked up at the new name and she quickly grabbed Kagriss’s hand and looked toward Ismelda, hoping for an explanation. However, Ismelda just sighed at the name, evidently not wanting to say anything. Fortunately, Camilla didn’t have to ask, because the next moment, the gossiper spilled all the beans.

One of the more ignorant hunter’s eyes bulged at the name. “Elise? Elise from Beltha?”

Beltha. Camilla furrowed her brows. She knew that name. Beltha was a vampire city that was located near the heart of vampire territory, but unlike Celrantis and Dianane, it was not ruled by the Tuldor family. Instead, the Islarn family ruled over the territory that Beltha was located in.”

“Your mother’s not a Tuldor?” she whispered to Ismelda.

Another sigh. “She is, but she ran off with an Islarn…and there, she…”

Ismelda was interrupted by the excited voice of another gossiper. “That’s the one. The co-leader of the Violet Blossoms! They’re A-rank as well!”

The hunters in earshot, which was most of the camp, gasped at the confirmation, before they all turned their gaze toward Beitra, trying to gauge his reaction.

Putting aside how strong Ismelda was as an individual, just her identity as the daughter of Elise made her dangerous to offend, even if it was for the sake of Beitra. After all, why potentially make an enemy of an A-rank party, even if said party is located in a whole other dukedom altogether?

All of a sudden, there were no more voices against Ismelda, and everyone waited to see how Beitra would react, watching from the sidelines like Camilla had been from the start.

However, instead of getting angry, Beitra just kept an expressionless face. With a start, Camilla realized that Beitra could show emotions, because the arrogant look that he had last night was nowhere to be seen.

How does a stone face show emotion and make expressions? Does the stone soften and become more malleable? What if someone punched a stone elemental while they were changing emotions; would it leave a mark? If it did, could the elemental fix it, and if so, what were the limits? Can they make themselves more handsome?

Suddenly, Beitra’s good looks became a lot less impressive.

The more Camilla thought about the possibilities, the more she wanted to test out her theories. However, she managed to restrain herself, reminding herself to be cautious and not reckless. Stone elementals were truly a great mystery.

Still…if Beitra made his face more like Kagriss’s, perhaps he would be more bearable. He…? Could Beitra change his gender? Could— “Stop!” Camilla covered her face, making Kagriss jump.

“What’s wrong, Milla?”

Camilla shook her head. “Nothing, Kagriss…” She looked up and froze, because in Kagriss’s place, she saw Beitra… but then she blinked and the person holding her shoulders was Kagriss again… She sighed in defeat, mentally burying her curiosity. “Nothing at all…”

Although Kagriss still looked concerned, she could tell that nothing was wrong thanks to their bond, and she nodded.

In the end, the issue of Ismelda telling Beitra to shut up was resolved without bloodshed, and thanks to the high tension and gossip, everyone was wide awake.

Half an hour later, the whole camp was ready to go. Three-quarters of the coalition under Beitra’s command prepared to head into danger while the other quarter stayed behind to guard the camp.

The parties not under Beitra stood to the side, giving the stage to Beitra, who stood at the bottom of a huge wall of rubble. With a flair unnatural to a body of stone, Beitra raised his arms and pressed his hands to the wall.

His mana surged and Camilla belatedly realized why the Regalius Litha sent Beitra. A stone elemental was naturally at home leading a mission that involved tunneling into the mountains. What followed proved Camilla right, as Beitra unleashed his gathered mana.

The mana spread into the wall, forcing the loose rubble to bond, stabilizing the rubble wall. In mere seconds, the wall that seemed to be in danger of falling onto the camp at the slightest earthquake became a formidable, durable structure that won’t collapse easily even if the hunters tunneled into the mountains.

“Ready?” Beitra shouted. Without waiting for a reply, he pressed against the wall ahead, causing the wall to give, sinking inwards. It was like the rock became liquid and flowed aside for him, the extra rock collapsing into itself and becoming a new, harder material that was many times denser than normal stone. “Advance!”

With Beitra in the lead, carving and reinforcing a tunnel three-man wide with his magic, the coalition hunters filed into the mountain.

Ismelda, Camilla, and Kagriss followed soon after, with the other unaffiliated hunters brought up the back.

Beitra dug fast. Really fast. He formed the tunnel as fast as he walked, and Camilla was sure that if he tried, he could go even faster. Before long, the meager light that the rising sun provided became a tiny dot in the distance, before being swallowed by the ever-so-slight curve in the tunnel that appeared despite Beitra’s best efforts in going in a straight line.

Light mages created little glowing orbs to provide lighting, but no one made the light too big to prevent anyone from adjusting to bright light and then not being able to fight in the darkness if anything changes for the worse.

The mana in the air around them grew denser. Camilla tentatively tried to absorb some of the trace undead mana hidden in the raw mana, finding it surprisingly abundant for some reason. It was calming, knowing that she’ll always have a way to replenish her reserves given time.

But that wasn’t all they found. Her dual affinity allowed her to sense the holy mana hidden in the raw mana around her as well and when she compared the amounts, she realized that the concentration of undead mana was overshadowed by the vast amount of holy mana present.

The quantity of holy mana was just small enough that people without affinity couldn’t detect it, yet high enough that anyone who could use holy mana could easily sense the abnormality. That was probably why there were no reports of holy mana. But to Camilla’s senses, it was like the world around her was filled with golden sparks.

“I think this is the right place,” she whispered into Ismelda’s ear, keeping her voice as low as she could. In the tunnels, the slightest sound became magnified dozens of times. “There’s not a lot, but I sense holy mana here.”

“Really?”

Camilla winced as Ismelda’s excited voice bounced through the tunnel, catching the attention of everyone present. Immediately, the excitement drained from Ismelda’s face as she feigned ignorance that anything happened. Although everyone was curious about what got Ismelda so worked up, they eventually lost interest when Ismelda revealed nothing.

“Keep your voice down,” Camilla hissed.

“Thanks for the late warning,” Ismelda shot back. “Is what you say true? I don’t sense anything. The only thing I can detect is the earth. Trace mana?”

“It’s a small enough amount that most people can’t tell, but it’s definitely there, and there’s much more of it than the only other kind of trace mana that I can feel. That has to mean something.”

A determined smile broke across Ismelda’s face. “Good work. If this is really where the fourth feather is, we have to get it. I’ll show Victoria that I can do what she can!”

Camilla nodded in agreement, trying to work up the same amount of enthusiasm as Ismelda, but failing when she realized the kind of danger that she and Kagriss were walking into. She couldn’t help but peek at Kagriss, who was walking alongside them, looking alert yet being so oblivious to the true danger. She hoped that Victoria guessed wrong and that this wasn’t the place where the fourth feather was located, but her hope turned out to be all for naught.

She swallowed and reached for Kagriss’s hand for a feeling of safety. “Kagriss… be careful later on, okay?”

Kagriss nodded. “You too. Now hush and keep an eye and ear out,” she said. “You never know what might be in those walls in a place like this.” She immediately went back on alert, glaring at the smooth, reinforced walls of the tunnels.

Camilla smiled at the oddly adorable side of Kagriss. She couldn’t help but mutter something to herself in her mind.

…If something happens, I’ll protect you…

She said nothing out loud. Such promises were best made to herself. If they ran into something with holy power and they had to fight, better someone with holy affinity face the enemy than Kagriss.