Mistaken for a Masked Munchkin

Lunar Eclipse (3)

A memory, not so far away, surfaced.

-Carmilla.

A voice she longed for.

At her ear, an unusually gentle echo still seemed alive.

The hand that used to rest warmly on her head, and the moments when even that mild warmth melted her so quickly.

-Our proud daughter.

Father had always smiled that way.

Gentle in a way that hardly seemed like a vampire, with a smile that looked ready to soften even more.

She liked that.

She wanted to resemble that softness.

She wanted to resemble a dignity that was neither vulgar nor craven.

-Remember this.

-Our... vampire kind is superior to any other race on this continent.

-That is why we must lead harmony from the front and become an example that even lesser races look up to.

Father was never one to throw his authority around.

He was someone who revered the words left behind by the ancient Progenitor.

Slaughter, but be not vile.

Survive, but be not cowardly.

-At times, you may grow arrogant, you may waver, and before temptation, you may want to give up.

-No, you certainly will. That is the life of all finite beings.

Father always told her that.

If life simply carried you along, could that be called life?

If you did not struggle desperately to live, how could that be life?

To make even a single blossom bloom through all that flailing, through gutters, dirt, and blood.

To hold meaning.

-Struggle as hard as you can.

-So that you do not become vulgar, so that you do not become craven.

That was what he told her.

So she made it her dream.

-As a superior race, we must question ourselves and reflect on ourselves.

-This father, too, will do his best to be an example.

A king who was not vulgar, not craven.

A vampire worthy of being an example to all.

Exactly five years later, that father was executed.

By other vampires who had turned vulgar and craven, and no longer held even pride.

-Carmilla.

Father.

By the very aides you trusted.

***

After dealing with what happened in the alley,

we moved to the edge of the market street and hid ourselves.

The vampire and ghoul corpses left at the scene, along with the blood, were cleaned up neatly by Carmilla with Blood Manipulation.

Thanks to that, we were not discovered, and we managed to move the children all the way into a tent.

"Hoo..."

A brief breath.

As I quietly sorted out the situation, I noticed the children trembling.

A young brother and sister. They both looked about ten, maybe a little older, maybe not.

Both children clutched Alice's sleeve tightly.

"A-are you okay...? Kids, are you hurt anywhere...?"

"..."

Alice forced herself to speak to them.

For someone as clumsy at communication as she was, it had to be a heavy task, but there was no choice.

Out of everyone here, she was the only one the children were least likely to fear.

I looked threatening because of the Evil God's Mask, and Carmilla was the same race as the ones who had caused this disaster.

"Hang in there, Sir Unnion."

In the end, all we could do was cheer her on.

Alice fidgeted, but still tried her best to comfort them.

Maybe that effort got through, because the children started speaking through their sniffles.

"Sniff... I-I was scared."

"I woke up and snuck out with my little sister to play, then suddenly the sky turned red... a-and weird animals were wandering around, and the village people were all getting dragged somewhere..."

"Hic, sob...! I want to see Mom and Dad..."

"Some weird people were knocking people out and taking them away."

The children burst into tears.

Through their sobbing, Alice awkwardly held their small backs.

By piecing together their scattered words, we got a rough picture of what had happened.

They got lucky and were not taken.

They had snuck out at dawn and seemed to stay out of the vampires' sight.

After hiding for a while, nearby ghouls apparently found them.

Right before they were caught, we showed up and saved them.

"Hic..."

The little kids kept crying.

Even then, the older brother still had not lost his anxious gaze.

He hid behind Alice's back and kept glancing at us.

"...Monster."

More precisely, he was looking at Carmilla.

During the village assault, he had seen that kind of appearance several times.

Clear fear and hostility flickered in his pupils.

"T-that person over there...! She looks like those monsters from earlier!"

The distinct vampire coloring.

Silver hair, red light leaking through the mask, and skin pale like the sick.

Carmilla was a pureblood, so those features stood out even more than with ordinary vampires.

In a way, it was natural that the children feared her.

"N-no way... are y-you on the same side as those bad monsters?"

"B-big brother, I-I'm scared..."

Their already tiny shoulders shrank even more.

Now they even pulled away from Alice and reacted as if guarding against us from all sides.

"Monsters! Get out of our village...!"

"Give us b-back Mom and Dad...!"

Backed into a corner, the children forced the words out.

The sharpest stares were aimed at Carmilla, of course.

Resentment, hatred, fear... because they were children, their eyes said even more.

Before those fragile little ones who blamed her, the princess simply stood still.

"..."

Her face was hidden by the mask.

How many thoughts were passing through her, how tangled her feelings were, I could not measure it.

After listening to their blame for a long while, Carmilla slowly raised her hand toward them.

In that long silence, the single line she spoke sounded so faint it could break.

"...I am sorry."

Srrrk.

Carmilla's fingertips brushed through the air.

Right after that, the children swayed and collapsed.

"Ah...!"

Alice quickly spread her arms and caught them before they hit the ground.

Thanks to that, she laid them down safely.

Carmilla spoke as if telling us not to worry.

"I slowed their blood flow for a moment and made them faint. Their bodies will not be harmed, so leave them as they are."

Soft, even breaths.

Just like she said, the children showed no signs of pain.

They looked less like they had fainted and more like they had fallen into deep sleep.

Carmilla stared at them quietly, then slowly lifted her head.

Her mood was far from her usual one, as if she had sunk into a transparent, colorless stillness.

"..."

I stood beside that girl.

Then I spoke calmly.

"You did the right thing. It is better to let the children sleep like this. If they leave the tent for no reason and get spotted by ghouls, it will be a disaster."

"..."

"We will leave one of Miss Alice's Trump Cards inside the tent, so it can protect the children in an emergency."

"..."

"If they stay in here, they will be safe."

"...Viktor."

"Yes, Princess-nim."

Her voice leaked out faintly.

It sounded like it would scatter away if I did not listen carefully.

That was why I answered even more clearly.

"It has to be set right."

"Yes."

"With my own hands."

"This is not your fault, Princess-nim."

"True. But it is my responsibility."

Reira de Reviaran.

Slaughter, but be not vile.

De Roni Gibliaje.

Survive, but be not cowardly.

Those two lines ran through the girl's entire life.

Beyond those sunken pupils, red seemed to ripple.

"Traitors."

Carmilla was calm.

Princess-nim was always eccentric on the surface, but she carried something festering inside.

That was why I never looked down on her depth.

I only followed the path her fragile feet walked.

"I will set everything right."

"I will prepare."

I bowed my head politely.

As expected, she was someone worthy of serving as my master.

***

After that,

the three people hidden in the tent went into an operation meeting.

Using the information the children gave us, we made the plan concrete.

Naturally, the one giving orders in that process was Viktor.

"First... according to the children, the kidnapped villagers were dragged to the Cathedral."

"That makes sense. There should be at least 300 of them, and there are not many places that can hold that many people at once."

"B-but what are they trying to do by gathering them like that...? From what I heard, they d-did not kill them or anything, it sounds like they just locked them inside the Cathedral..."

"I know what they are after. You only need to move according to my instructions."

"I-I see..."

"Understood."

Even after hearing that he knew what the vampires were planning, those two barely reacted now.

Anyone else would ask how he knew, but they simply let it pass.

They had gone through similar things with Viktor many times, so they had reached the point where this no longer bothered them much.

"Ahem."

Viktor looked satisfied and continued his orders.

"This time, I plan to move separately from the two of you."

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