Chapter 65
I have a memory from not long ago.
-Carmilla.
A voice I sorely missed.
A particularly gentle resonance seemed to live and breathe beside my ears.
The hand that had settled warmly atop my head, and the moment I melted at its lukewarm heat.
-Our proud daughter.
My father always smiled like that.
His smile was gentle, unlike a vampire's, as though it might melt away at any moment.
If I were to name the season, it must have been early spring, when the last of the frost had begun to melt.
I liked that.
I wanted to resemble that gentleness.
I wanted to resemble a dignity that was neither vulgar nor servile.
-Remember this.
-That we vampires are superior to every other species on the continent.
-And that, as such, we must lead the way in fostering harmony and become an example for the lesser races to look up to.
My father was not one to throw his weight around.
Because he revered the words left behind by the ancient progenitor.
Kill, but do not become vulgar.
Live on, but do not become servile.
-At times, you may grow arrogant, waver, or want to give up in the face of temptation.
-No, you certainly will. That's what it means to live a finite life.
My father always admonished me.
If one merely lives as one is made to live, can that be called living?
What kind of life is it if one does not struggle desperately to live?
To make a single flower bloom even amid such struggling, gutters, fields of dirt, and bloodshed.
To give it meaning.
-Struggle as hard as you can.
-So that you do not become vulgar, and so that you do not become servile.
That was what he told me.
And so, I made it my dream.
-As a superior race, we must question and reflect upon ourselves.
-I, too, shall do my utmost to serve as an example.
A king who was neither vulgar nor servile.
A vampire worthy of being an example to everyone.
That father was executed exactly five years later.
By other vampires who had become vulgar and servile, and no longer possessed even a shred of pride.
-Carmilla.
Father.
At the hands of the trusted retainers you had believed in.
***
After dealing with what had happened in the alley.
We moved to the outskirts of the market street and hid ourselves.
Carmilla neatly cleaned up the bodies of the vampires and ghouls left at the scene, along with the blood and everything else, using her blood-claw technique.
Thanks to that, we were able to take the children into one of the tents without being spotted.
“Phew···.”
A moment to catch our breath.
As we quietly collected ourselves, I suddenly noticed the children trembling.
They were young siblings, both looking barely over ten years old.
The children were clutching tightly at Alice's sleeve.
“Are, are you all right···? Kids, are you hurt anywhere···?”
““······.””
Alice struggled to speak to the children.
It must have been a difficult task for someone so poor at communication, but there was no helping it.
Of all of us, she was the only one the children were unlikely to fear.
The Mask of the Evil God made me look intimidating, while Carmilla belonged to the same race as those who had caused this situation.
“Hang in there, Onion.”
In the end, all we could do was encourage her.
Alice fidgeted as she tried to soothe the children.
Still, perhaps her efforts reached them, because the children began opening their mouths between sniffles.
“Sniff··· I-I was scared.”
“We snuck out while we were supposed to be sleeping to play together, but then the sky suddenly turned red··· There were strange animals wandering around, too, and the villagers were being dragged off somewhere···.”
“Hic, sob···! I miss Mom and Dad···.”
“Strange people knocked them out and took them away.”
The children burst into tears.
Amid their sobbing, Alice awkwardly embraced their small backs.
By piecing together the words that emerged bit by bit, we were able to grasp the general situation.
‘We were lucky not to be dragged away.’
They had slipped out of their house at dawn and seemed to have escaped the vampires' notice.
Afterward, they had stayed hidden until the ghouls nearby discovered them.
Just before they were caught, we happened to show up and save them.
“Hic···.”
The little ones sobbed tearfully.
Even so, the boy still couldn't shake the unease from his eyes.
Hiding behind Alice, he kept sneaking wary glances in our direction.
“······Monster.”
More precisely, he was looking toward Carmilla.
She resembled the figures he had seen several times during the attack on the village.
Clear fear and hostility flickered in the boy's pupils.
“Th-that person over there···! She looks like those monsters from before!”
The distinctive coloring of a vampire.
Silver hair, red eyes shining through the gaps in her mask, and skin as pale as a sick person's.
As a pureblood, Carmilla's features were far more pronounced than those of ordinary vampires.
In a way, it was only natural that the children would be afraid of her.
“D-don't tell me··· Y-you're on the same side as those b-bad monsters?”
“Big brother, I-I’m scared···.”
Their already tiny shoulders shrank even further.
Now they had even moved away from Alice, reacting as though they were wary of everything around them.
“Monsters! Get out of our village···!”
“Give M-Mom and Dad back···!”
Driven to the brink, the children spat out the words.
Carmilla was, naturally, the target of the harshest glares.
Resentment, hatred, fear··· Their young eyes spoke of so much.
Before the fragile children who blamed her, the princess merely stood there.
“······.”
Her expression was hidden behind her mask.
I couldn't begin to imagine how many thoughts were crossing her mind, or how complicated her feelings were.
Carmilla listened to their reproaches for a while before slowly raising a hand toward the children.
The one word she finally uttered after a long silence was so pitiful it seemed liable to break.
“······I'm sorry.”
Srrrk-.
Carmilla's fingertips passed through the air.
Immediately afterward, the children's bodies wobbled and collapsed where they stood.
“Ah···!”
Alice hurriedly opened her arms and caught the bodies as they began to fall forward.
Thanks to her, the children were safely laid down on the floor.
Carmilla spoke as if to reassure us.
“I slowed their blood flow for a moment and rendered them unconscious. There shouldn't be anything wrong with them, so leave them as they are.”
Soft, steady breathing-.
Just as she said, the children breathed without any sign of distress.
They looked less like they had fainted than like they had fallen deeply asleep.
Carmilla stared at them for a moment before quietly lifting her head.
The atmosphere was far from her usual one, as though it had settled into a transparent, colorless stillness.
“······.”
I stood beside the girl.
Making a few casual remarks.
“You did well. It would be better to let the children sleep like this. If they leave the tent and are spotted by the ghouls, it could cause serious trouble.”
“······.”
“We'll leave one of Miss Alice's trump cards inside the tent. That way, it can protect the children in an emergency.”
“······.”
“The children should be safe as long as they stay inside.”
“······Victor.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
A faint voice slipped out.
It was the kind of sound that would scatter if one didn't listen closely.
Because it was such a fragile call, I answered clearly instead.
“We should set things right, shouldn't we?”
“Yes.”
“With my own hands.”
“It isn't Your Highness's fault.”
“Yes. But it is my responsibility.”
Leira de Leviaran.
Kill, but do not become vulgar.
De Roni Gibliadze.
Live on, but do not become servile.
They were the two sentences that ran through the girl's entire life.
Red seemed to ripple behind her lowered eyes.
“Traitors.”
Carmilla remained composed.
Though she was always an eccentric princess, she harbored something festering inside.
And so, I never rashly disparaged the depth of her heart.
I merely followed the path taken by her delicate feet.
“I will set everything right.”
“I shall prepare.”
I bowed my head with solemn decorum.
As expected, she was someone worthy of serving as my master.
***
Afterward.
The three of us hiding in the tent began a strategy meeting.
We fleshed out the plan based on the information the children had given us.
Naturally, Victor was the one giving the orders.
“For starters··· according to the children, the villagers who were kidnapped were taken to the cathedral.”
“Indeed. There should be around three hundred of them, and there can't be many places capable of accommodating that many people at once.”
“B-but what are they planning by herding everyone in there···? From what we heard, they didn't k-kill them or anything; they just locked them inside the cathedral···.”
“If it's their objective you're asking about, I know it. You need only follow my instructions.”
“I-I see···.”
“Understood.”
I knew what the vampires were plotting.
Neither of them even reacted much to such a statement anymore.
They might have asked how I knew, but they seemed content to let it pass.
Having gone through similar things with Victor several times, they had learned not to concern themselves with matters like this.
“Ahem.”
Victor continued issuing orders, apparently satisfied.
“This time, I intend to move separately from the two of you.”