The Vampire’s Templar

This is the worst day ever. Out of all the bad days that Lucienne has had so far, this might be one of the worst, far surpassing the grueling days of training at the stronghold of the Cloud Order.

First, she got up on the wrong side of bed, having the rare morning where she woke up in a bad mood. It was all thanks to the drinking game she played last night with some of her friends, since today was supposed to be a day off, and she got a hangover as a result of it.

Of course, that made her rather testy, so as she went to get a drink, she accidentally snapped at the commander when he greeted her. Now, the commander is a real piece of work and she didn’t like him, but usually she kept her dislike in check. It was different that morning while she had a headache and was still groggy from sleep, so her temper got the better of her.

Because of that, as punishment, she was assigned last minute to this short task on her day off. Well, it was supposed to be a short task…after all, how long would it take escorting someone from the gates of the city to the Church, right? Right?

Wrong.

She looked down at the person walking next to her, an innocent-looking girl that was anything but. The little girl that looked like she would still be a trainee if she was in the Cloud Order, barely coming up to Lucienne’s shoulders. Admittedly, Lucienne was tall for a woman, but that girl still looked too small to be so unloveable.

Instead of being able to enjoy her day off, she had to follow this little girl around.

She didn’t understand how this girl could be so annoying when she acted so sweet toward the taller undead—Kagriss. They talked and laughed, with the little one pointing things out and introducing things that should be basic knowledge to the tall one. It was like a mother and daughter pair, but with the roles reversed.

Kagriss seemed to be much nicer, but she also only obeyed or listened to Camilla, which meant that Lucienne had to deal with the little zombie instead.

Lucienne sighed. Why did this have to happen to her? She just wanted a day off. What were the Church thinking anyway, letting these undeads into the city unharassed… 

They’ve already been walking for about ten minutes already, and Lucienne was already feeling sick of everything. 

It wasn’t because of the actual walking, since she was fine with it. While she was wearing a suit of full plate, the enchanted gems embedded in her armor made sure that she didn’t overheat, and she had enough mana to sustain her for a whole day of marching.

But at least for marching there was a clear goal. A target to aim for. Unlike now, where they seemingly wandered aimlessly through the streets. As someone who thought herself to be a driven person, this sort of meandering was torture for her.

Finally, the fuse that had been burning finally reached the end of the line as Lucienne ran ahead and stood in the little zombie’s way, causing the two to stop short and look at her curiously.

The little zombie tilted her head, an adorable expression on anyone except her. On Camilla, the movement just seemed mocking. “Yes?” she asked in that innocent, thin voice of hers.

“I can’t do this anymore. Where are you going?” Lucienne asked. “Do you even know where you’re going?”

The girl blinked. “Of course I do. However, I decided to go on a little detour so I could show Kagriss around. Is there something wrong with that?”

Of course there is! Lucienne wanted to shout. 

But thinking about it, there really wasn’t a reason for Camilla to be in a rush. Lucienne was the only one hurrying. She shook her reluctantly. “But I thought you wanted me to come with you to show us where you’re going to stay…so we can find you later?”

 “I haven’t decided yet. Deciding where to stay is something you decide on at dusk, right? The day’s just begun right now, and it's not like we have a lot of luggage we don’t want to carry…”

Lucienne didn’t hear the rest of Camilla’s words. She felt like her mind and sanity was slipping away. A whole day with this evil little girl?

A whole day of work on what was supposed to be a day off?

No way.

But she was a templar, and the commander’s orders were absolute and inviolable unless it violated laws. No known law protected her and banned her current actions.

Taking advantage of how the girl couldn’t see her face through her helmet, Lucienne closed her eyes, opened her mouth and silently screamed her frustration before she took a deep breath and stepped aside, allowing the two undead to continue their way.

But they didn’t. Well, the pretty and mature one went on ahead, but stopped when she realized that the little one wasn’t following. Instead, Camilla continued to look at Lucienne, and Lucienne felt a hole was being burnt through her helmet from Camilla’s gaze.

“Wh—what is it?” she demanded, turning away slightly in an attempt to avoid the little zombie’s intense eyes. “Even if you look at me like that, I’m still going to follow you for the entire day. If I don’t, you might be up to no good after all.”

“Oh, I wasn’t wondering about that,” Camilla said, waving a hand. “It’s just that it’s kind of stuffy watching you move around in that suit of armor. Isn’t it difficult?”

That’s what the zombie’s staring at her for? Well, it made sense that they wouldn’t— 

“I mean, sure you won’t be hot thanks to the ice quartz, but doesn’t it feel suffocating? It can’t feel very nice being in there.”

—know about the… 

Eh? Huh? How did she know about the ice quartz? Actually, why did she even know it’s called the ice quartz? As far as Lucienne knew, only the templars called the blue gem they mined ice quartz. Almost everyone, including the merchants they use to supply the stone, calls it the freezing aquamarine shard, or the aqua shard for short, which makes no sense.

Now that Camilla mentioned it, it was getting kind of stuffy in the armor, It felt like she couldn’t breathe, despite being able to do so fine earlier. Her scalp prickled where her hair brushed against the helmet, and despite the comfortable, soothingly cool feel that permeated her entire armor, her back felt itchy because of the padding.

And now that she started feeling it, she couldn’t stop thinking about how uncomfortable the armor felt on her. Shifting awkwardly, trying to shift the armor around so it fit better, only to find that nothing helped, Lucienne thought she might go insane if she had to go the entire day like this.

Forget the worst day of her life so far—today might turn out to be the worst day of her life both in the past and in the future if what she feared really happened. Sadly, it was looking like she might, based on Camilla’s faint smile.

Lucienne clenched her fists. No, she was a templar. Something like this won’t beat her. She’ll just fight through the discomfort like she had everything else!

Suddenly, the little zombie girl’s smile turned into something half confused and half concerned. At this point, all Lucienne could think about was what trick the girl had up her sleeve this time to torment her.

The girl looked around. However, there were so many people wandering the streets now that the sun was completely up, her view around was constantly blocked by the other pedestrians that shared the street with her. A frown came on a face and Lucienne tensed, worried that the girl might do something drastic in her frustration.

However, instead of lashing out like Lucienne thought she might, the zombie girl just turned to Kagriss and, with a deep blush on her face, reached up toward her. “Can you please lift me up?”

“Of course,” Kagriss said, her voice as serene and pretty as ever, although a faint blush spread across her delighted face that made her even more mesmerizing than before. 

Looking at how human they acted and the lack of undead aura around the pair, Lucienne could scarcely believe that they were undead.

What if someone snuck in and swapped out the people she was supposed to keep an eye on? Although she knew of the reputation that knight-class zombies had, Lucienne couldn’t help but doubt herself.

As Kagriss picked Camilla up, sitting the girl on her arm so that the smaller zombie’s eyes were a bit higher, Lucienne once again had the illusion that she was looking at a pair of mother and daughter.

After a quick look around, Camilla nodded. “You can let me down now!”

“Are you sure? I can keep carrying you,” Kagriss said. The reluctance was obvious in her voice, but Camilla shook her head. When Kagriss frowned a little as she let Camilla down, Camilla leaned up and kissed Kagriss’s forehead right as Kagriss was straightening.

Kagriss touched her forehead, her frown turning into a smile.

Meanwhile, Lucienne sighed to herself as she watched the two display their affections for each other yet again. It was like they wanted the whole world to know of their love for each other. However, it was possible that they were actually oblivious to everything around them when they were in their own world like that.

Luckily, Camilla quickly started off in a seemingly random direction, but her steps were full of purpose. Perhaps she had seen something interesting from her higher vantage point?

The zombie girl was such an anomaly that Lucienne was having more than a bit of trouble trying to predict her actions. Part of it was no doubt thanks to the discrepancy between Camilla’s appearance and her actions, made worse by how Camilla did sometimes act in accordance with her apparent age.

When Lucienne thought about going a whole day with someone like that, she heaved another silent sigh before she chased after the undead duo, trying to keep them in sight.