Taming My Vampire Servant

The following day, Ivory and Lucius walked to the inventory office, which is the first building in front of the mining area's entrance. 

Lycus and Sigmund noticed that the two only greeted good morning, but had not uttered anything after that. They never saw them fight; it was the first time they seemed awkward with each other. 

In Ivory's mind, she was afraid that Lucius would ask her about her feelings for Sigmund once again. Although she told him that she and her Vampire Servant are impossible to be lovers, she knew that Lucius is an inquisitive one. He surely would not believe her.

On the other hand, Lucius was afraid that his sister might bring up what happened last night. He was afraid that he'd hate her even more, so he chose to stay quiet. After all, he did not know how long he could bear to see them develop their feelings more, and he might say something that she wouldn't really like. 

They saw a circular shaped wooden two-door entrance with paintings of oak tree branches on the surface next to the doorknobs. A professional, yet warm atmosphere could be felt when they stepped inside the inventory office which had a dome roof, and rounded windows and doorways. The interior, as well as the chairs and tables, had earthy colors. A rectangular table with four chairs was also placed near the window and across it was a fireplace.

Ivory and the others were briefed about Topazeon's ore inventory office. The office had two divisions: gemstone and coinage.

Mona is the current head of the Gemstone Division, and she has 10 personnels under her who sorts the excavated ores. Usually, when the ores are delivered in their office, they are already the size of a fist. 

She taught them how they do their job, like weighing ores using a table-top balance scale where they have to place the fist-size excavated ore on one plate and weigh stones with a standard weight on the other side to determine their weight. 

Aside from that, they were taught how to put price on the ores using some reference scrolls as guides. They were also taught how to identify the ores by seeking for their distinct characteristics.

At the end of the day, after they were trained for a while, Mona required them to take some reference scrolls to the inn. They were tasked to study all the gemstones that could be excavated from the mountains surrounding Topazeon. Ivory was given half of them, and Lucius took the other half. They formally decided to exchange scrolls after two weeks to read the other remaining scrolls.

Because Ivory noticed Lucius' silent treatment towards her, she decided to go directly to her room. She sat on the stone stool, and she started reading the reference scroll. Several sketches of cut gems were drawn, as well as their raw ore forms. Beside each sketch were descriptions of their colors, hardness, fracture, luster, and more. Pricing tips were also mentioned in it.

When she unrolled the next part, she was surprised to see that some of the descriptions were covered with blank ink. "Too bad, this one's been covered with ink," Ivory uttered. Still curious about it, she tried to read some of the words in the descriptions that were still visible.

Words like black, shiny, and sharp could be seen. But it was the last sentence that surprised her the most.

"Oh my goddess! Sigmund, look at this!" she eagerly called her Servant.

The Vampire, who was sitting in front of their small fireplace, immediately stood up and went behind his Master. He took a look at where Ivory pointed to.

"Here, this part. It says that this stone is found deep in the mountain, which is always facing the sunset," she continued reading, "And it shows its true form only to the people who are very desperate to find it."

"Hmm, interesting," Sigmund uttered. He then realized what the words might mean, "Hey, you think this is…?"

Ivory nodded before he could even continue his sentence. She told him in a confident response, "I think this is the special black gemstone that Principal Arthurdane talked about!"

Sigmund extended his arms and touched the surface of the old paper. He pointed his finger onto the sketch and rubbed it, "What the hell… Whoever did this might be hiding this gemstone from the public."

"If only we can remove the ink…" she muttered. The ink was too black and was already dried for quite a long time, so it would be impossible to separate the ink and paper even through an advanced water magic technique.

"We're still not sure if it is really the special black gemstone, but nothing will be lost if we go to the one mentioned in the description."

"Deep in the mountain, which is always facing the sunset, huh…" she muttered the words she had read a while ago. "If it is always facing the sunset, then maybe… it's in the westernmost mountain among those mountains."

Without further ado, Ivory took out a town map that was given by Fiora. She panned her sight towards the series of eight mountains where they excavate ores, and she pointed out to the southwesternmost mountain around the town, near the sea.

"Sigmund, I have a great idea," she told him, "How about I scout the mining area tomorrow-"

"Stupid woman, you'll be in danger!" Sigmund cupped her chin, making her look straight into his eyes, "You think I'll let you go there?"

"Come with me, then," Ivory said with a smile. "I'll also bring Lycus with us."

The Vampire creased his brows. Although Ivory expected him to retort, she was rather surprised to hear him agree.

"Lycus' heightened smell and my heightened hearing… That will be effective," he replied. 

"I know we'll be alright," she giggled. "Now, here's the plan…" 

…

The next day came, and as soon as their work in the inventory office was done, Ivory pulled Lycus and Sigmund with her to take a quick peek at the mines. Lucius, who thought that she's still avoiding him and still had not yet forgotten his meddling, went back to Precious Inn and busied himself in reading reference scrolls.

Ivory and her two Servants spent the whole late afternoon and night scouting around the mining area. They did this for a whole week, and they discovered that castle knights were the ones guarding the area. What's more, six Royal Knights were even seen roaming around!

She then asked Mona about it, and she said that it had always been like that ever since King Yama Dragonicus' reign. The town leader and the townspeople of Topazeon Town agreed to let people from the castle mine some gemstones during winter in exchange for construction of an ore processing and sorting center, and added town security.

It was weird to think that there was mining in such a dangerous season, and the King was letting his men into that very cold mining pit? It seemed like the special black gemstone, if it was really the one they're excavating, was so important that they could even risk the lives of the castlemen.

...

On the eight day that Ivory and her two loyal Servants went out to scout around the mining area, Lucius followed them secretly. Although she brought Sigmund and Lycus with her, he still couldn't help but worry about his reckless sister.

That whole week of lurking around the mining area was fruitful.  Aside from knowing the positioning of the knights, they also learned the patrolling time of the Royal Knights. Sigmund identified the key areas that had weakest security, while Lycus was the lookout when they built their secret pathway.

Even though snow was still surrounding the town, it did not stop the two Servants from commencing the plan. While giving subtle warmth to their Master through Fire magic, they secured a path for them so they could freely enter the mining area. It was located behind the first mountain, and because their hidden pathway faced the sea, there were times when there were no knights guarding it.

"In my estimation, an hour is what we need to reach the fourth mountain," Sigmund told Ivory and Lycus as they walked on the dim path. "The next time we come here, let's try using Air magic to move forward more quickly. That way we can know how much mana we'd consume, and think about how we'd use it wisely."

Ivory nodded and continued on inside the womb shaped cave. While walking in between her two Servants on the bedrock, she held Lycus' hand, who was leading the way, while Sigmund held her other hand while he walked behind her.

"We need to move fast, it'll be harder to breathe," Lycus said, pulling his Master. The three of them walked briskly towards the cramped opening and crawled out.

Ivory was shocked to see Lucius standing in front, looking at her with a frown. "What are you doing here-"

"Why should I not be here? I am your partner in our apprenticeship," he responded. "I demand an explanation."