The Vampire’s Templar

In record speed, Lucienne rushed back to the base, barely sparing a moment to greet the templar on guard. She just plucked off her helmet to let him see her face before running in as soon as he nodded his okay. 

How much time did she have if the two undead were lying? Actually, wasn’t it actually zero? They could’ve just left as soon as she did, so why was she assuming that they’d wait until they checked into the inn? Her head was so messed up right now she couldn’t even think properly.

If they were lying, it’s too late to go back even if she was in a rush.

If they weren’t, then they’ll wait for her even if she took her time.

So why was she even running? Lucienne slowed down to merely a brisk walk, feeling a bit foolish. Briefly returning the greetings directed at her, she walked over to the assignment center. Right now, she was the only one there except for the cleric manning the station.

The middle-aged robed man looked up from his book and adjusted his spectacles as she walked in. Squinting, he seemed to search his memories for Lucienne before finally finding her. “Sir Lucienne! What are you doing here?” he asked, checking the assignment book. “Don’t you have the day off today?” 

“No, I have a mission early this morning,” she grumbled. “I’ve come to report on where our two guests are staying tonight.”

The cleric’s face darkened, and after looking around to make sure that no one else was in, he pulled back his lips. “Ah yes, undeads in the city. Have you ever heard of something more ridiculous? What are we even here for if we tolerate this? Even inviting them to the Church!”

From his words, the cleric looked like he was someone in the know. However, although he looked at her as if indicating for her to agree or add something on, Lucienne didn’t feel in the mood right now. 

She just nodded. “Anyways, I found out they’re staying in the Cradle Gem tonight. They’re checking in for a day,” she said. That was the minimum amount of time, so even if the undeads decide to leave before their time is up, they still have to pay at least that much.

The cleric didn’t even blink when she said the name, showing no sign of recognizing the place. He just marked it down in the assignment book and nodded, accepting the mission pass from Lucienne and hanging it up on the wall behind him.

“Alright, you’re free to go.”

Lucienne didn’t know if she was imagining it or not, but the cleric seemed a bit colder to her than before. Was it because she slighted him by not continuing with his topic? Boring.

Nodding curtly in return, Lucienne left the assignment room and headed back to the equipment storage where all the common weapons and armor are stored. It was also where templars donned and doffed their armor. This late in the morning, all the templars that had tasks would have already gone out for the day, so the equipment storage was empty, just like the assignment room.

There were some acolytes and templar trainees hard at work inside. Most of them were performing maintenance on the equipment, polishing swords, scraping away rust, putting things that need more sophisticated repairs beyond their capabilities in a separate pile. 

They looked at her in surprise when she came in, pausing at whatever they were doing.

“Hello! Do you need something?” one of them asked.

“Yes. Help me take this off. I’m done for the day,” Lucienne said, already itching to feel air directly against her skin instead of being filtered through all this armor and padding.

At that, several people jumped up and ran over, surrounding her and getting to work removing each piece of armor. Each of them were used to doing this, each able to get a templar completely suited up inside ten minutes and less taking off the armor. 

In just a few minutes, Lucienne was stepping out of the last piece of armor, feeling the air of the surprisingly well ventilated room flow over her skin. The acolytes and trainees cleaned her armor on the spot before assembling each piece on an armor rack.

“Thanks for your hard work,” she said, waving as she left, satisfied that everything was as it should be and well taken care of. And from there, it was just a short walk to a room, a trip she made with a spring in her steps.

Although she still technically had to go back to the Cradle Gem and meet up with Kagriss and Camilla, at least she could do it in comfortable clothes now.

Her roommate wasn’t in today since she had patrols, so Lucienne had the whole room to herself.

After shutting the door, she took off her clothes and stepped into a small bathroom attached to her room as well as the one next door. Refreshing herself with a cold shower, she dried her hair as best as she could with a towel before she finally changed into her leisure clothes with pants instead of a skirt.

“Finally!”

With fresh clothes on, she finally felt like she was having a proper day off. Now if only she didn’t have to go meet up with Camilla again, her day would have been salvaged. 

Still, Lucienne did admit that even if the undead girl was ruining her day, she kind of made up for it by making it not as bad as it could have been. For that, she should be grateful… 

 “I hope I’m not keeping them waiting for too long,” she said, flopping down on her bed and rolling around for a bit before she sprang back up and headed out. Nodding once again to the templar on guard duty, she headed toward the inn on top of the hill.

As Lucienne neared her destination, she couldn’t help but feel apprehensive.

What if they weren’t there? Her mistake would be unforgivable.

Luckily, when she came out of an alley nearby and looked toward the inn, she found the two undead girls waiting near the door. 

Although Camilla was still carrying a full sack, Kagriss was no longer burdened by her bag.

Camilla had also changed from her previous purple dress with armor plates into a plain black and white dress. The new dress’s simple design further accentuated her small stature and innocent looks, fitting her more, but at the same time further concealed her true nature, which Lucienne thought was sneaky.

 Breathing a sigh of relief that she hadn’t been tricked, Lucienne ran to join them, waving to catch their attention. “I’m back! You actually stayed…”

“Of course we did,” Camilla said.

“Camilla keeps her promises!”

The way they dogpiled on her words hadn’t changed at all. Lucienne sighed before remembering that a hammer no longer hid her face. Fighting to keep her expression under control, she looked around. “So where are you going now? And how long will it until you finish finding a place to stay?”

With a start, Lucienne realized that they were right back to where they started. The only change, a welcome one, was that she was in her leisure wear. Tying her shoulder-length hair up in a ponytail, she finally stopped looking around to focus on the short decision maker.

However, like before, the little zombie girl didn’t answer. She simply beckoned to them, saying “this way” before taking off.

Winding through the streets, sometimes even cutting through alleyways and passing by places that Lucienne hadn’t even known existed, Lucienne decided that either this undead was lost, or she was more familiar with the city than Lucienne.

When they first met, Lucienne’s judgement was clouded by her anger and frustration that made her see the little zombie girl in a negative and demeaning light, so she had thought that the girl was just meandering.

Now, she knew that the zombie girl wasn’t so simple. It was undeniable that Camilla knew things that Lucienne knew she shouldn’t. Her personality was also serious and mature with the exception of certain moments where she acted child-like, forcing Lucienne to see Camilla as something more than just a little zombie girl despite her appearance.

Although Lucienne didn’t know how Camilla knew the things she did, she still needed to be on guard for anything that Camilla might pull.

After crossing a pretty significant portion of the city, moving toward the outskirts, Lucienne began to worry. 

Despite being a wealthy city with a significant Church presence and all the social work and charities the Church brought with them, slums still existed in Moltrost. It was quite sizable too, and concentrated in a corner of the city. The problem was so bad that even the Church no longer tried to penetrate into the slums, instead limiting its efforts on the outer edges of the slums.

What was Camilla doing here?

If anything happened in the slums, it took almost at minimum a day for news to get out, since the place was so isolated. Had Camilla and kagriss finally showed their true faces by luring her in here…?

Although she studied them from behind, neither of them showed any hint of hostility. In fact, the only hostility came from the slum residents that poked their heads out of the windows of the surrounding houses, or watched them from shadows.

Their gazes made Lucienne’s skin prickle. If she still had her armor, she wouldn’t give these people a second glance, but without those thick layers of metal covering her, she felt naked.

But there’s no way these slum residents will do anything, right? They can’t be that desperate. Lucienne couldn’t think of a worse target for a robbery right now. However, she had to concede that without knowing anything, Camilla and especially Kagriss look like really easy targets for a shakedown, and worse.