Chapter 105

  After the third team returned to Borderton, Alma once again sent a letter out requesting an audience and offering peace. And once again, the response was less than receptive.

  “Another rejection. This one was less eloquently put than the last.”

  I finished reading the response while I was spread out on Alma’s office couch.

  “Not terribly surprising. I think I’ll address the next one specifically to this Alexandru fellow.”

  She wore a wicked smirk as she immediately set to writing what she had in mind.

  “You think he’ll be more willing to come to terms?”

  “Don’t be absurd. Even if he were, he doesn’t have the authority to accept any deals. I’m doing this for you.”

  “Hm? Me?”

  I stopped to consider what that could mean.

  “Ah, I see. Very clever. You’re really committing to my plan wholeheartedly, aren’t you?”

  I chuckled.

  The biggest weakness of Farrowgate was the fact that there were two factions in control: the vampires and the humans. Of course, their relationship was mostly positive, and from what I understood, they typically kept to different managerial positions to avoid causing friction.

  And so, the crux of my scheme revolved around driving a wedge between them. I had two pieces in play already, toiling away at this goal, whether they knew it or not. If Alma started focusing communications on only one side, it would no doubt raise suspicions from the other side. This was our strategy of eroding relations before breaking them completely.

  But all this only amounted to a portion of what I had in store for Soleo.

  “I’ve had time to consider the pros and cons, and I believe it would be best to proceed with Operation Mimic immediately before Operation Kobold. Can you make that happen?”

  Alma moved to the next topic. I sat upright to see her face, hoping she would be wearing a joking smirk.

  But she was dead serious.

  “My original design was to leave at least a two-day gap. Is it really necessary to do one after the other?”

  I asked.

  Operation Kobold had already been relayed to the leaders and would involve most of the army using the tunnel that Seraphina and I built to assault Lion’s Maw. But Operation Mimic was my responsibility. It was meant as a drastic measure to isolate Farrowgate from the war completely and was known to only three people.

  Alma, Skrake, and I.

  “You aren't technically required for Operation Kobold to begin with. If you can't make it work, we will simply proceed without you. Just think about the mental state Farrowgate will be subjected to if both operations succeed just one night apart, you know I’m right on this one.”

  I fell back down.

  “I get it, odds of success go up if we don't let the pressure die down, right?”

  I sighed in frustration.

  “Fine. It’s not impossible for me to rejoin you after I finish my mission.”

  “Glad you agree. Oh, by the way…”

  Alma opened her drawer and tossed a small velvet box to me.

  “Happy birthday.”

  She said dryly.

  “Thanks, but there’s still another week to go for that.”

  “I know, but what if you die before then? Better that I give it when I can.”

  I looked up again. This time, she was looking at me with an annoying smirk.

  “Heh, fair enough.”

  Opening the box to reveal the contents, I found a ring.

  “A proposal? Does this make me royalty?”

  “Not quite, you’d be more like a mistress.”

  It appeared that Alma had adapted well to my jokes, as she delivered her comeback with straight-faced wit.

  “Seriously, though, what is it? An emerald?”

  I placed it on my middle finger and inspected the impeccable gem set in the black-and-silver ring. I couldn’t claim to know much about the value of such things, but it was probably more expensive than a simple birthday present should be.

  “It’s an artifact I crafted myself. You can store up to three spells inside at a time to use without the need for mana. Of course, you need someone to cast said spells to refill it each time.”

  “Wow… This will be very useful, thank you.”

  I took a moment to appreciate the thought put into such a present.

  “The components cost ten platinum coins.”

  Alma’s casual words nearly sent me rolling off the couch.

  A single platinum piece was the equivalent of 100 gold coins. This single piece of fingerwear could easily purchase replacement weapons for the entire Borderton army.

  “Are you insane? I can’t accept this!”

  “It’s a gift. It would be rude to return it.”

  Alma seemed to take pleasure in my loss of composure.

  “Think of it as an investment if you like. With that, there should be no more incidents like what happened with Harkon, correct?”

  “I can’t argue with that, I suppose. Just to be clear, I’m accepting this as a gift, okay?”

  “Of course.”

  “So I’m not in your debt or anything.”

  “Naturally.”

  “And you aren’t going to bring this up at some point to get something out of me?”

  “Hmm… Happy birthday.”

  She winked.

  “Hey. You avoided the question.”

  “By the way, here are the profiles you requested.”

  She lazily changed the subject by pulling out a stack of student profiles, taken from Professor Kuhn’s personal files.

  I wanted to push her on the previous issue, but this was much more important. Besides, Alma wasn’t likely to give me an answer anyway. I would just have to accept that I owed her one.

  “Is this everyone?”

  I approached the desk and began skimming each file.

  “Everyone. Except for you, of course.”

  She patted the solitary file she had been perusing yet again.

  “You want to see what it says? Master Kuhn’s perception is unmatched, you know?”

  “No point. His Gift doesn’t account for potential gained via fusion. I bet it says I’m somewhere around a silver rank in all areas, right?”

  Alma laughed loudly.

  “Yes, indeed it does. But it also contains master Kuhn's personal notes. He outlines various paths you can take to increase your power even further. Doesn’t that intrigue you?”

  I couldn’t deny my interest, but taking it would only put me further into her debt. Besides, I didn’t have the time to pursue anything that might be recorded inside. Maybe once the war was over, I would reconsider.

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  “Keep it.”

  I turned away from her and began going through the other files in depth.

  There were four that took priority: Oliver of Bradbrooke, Guy Vespertille, Zachariah Sol Proudmane, and Lloyd of Redwater.

  Although the last two were not in the chamite class, Professor Kuhn had definitely been eyeing them early on and had recorded his assessment of them as well.

  With this information in hand, I hoped to find anything that may be helpful should I need to confront any of these former peers.

  As for the files on the other chamite members, those were just an insurance in case of future divisions among us, though I didn’t expect to need them any time soon. Although one other file did stand out.

  Isolde Langenberg. The contents of this file held more than one surprise.

  “Unbelievable, isn’t it?”

  Alma had taken note of which file I had picked up and spoke to me from across the room.

  “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, of all people, but it would be best if the contents of that file weren’t made public. While I trust my master implicitly, most would see his writings as both heretical and merely speculative.”

  I nodded.

  Even I found it hard to trust what had been written about the supposed saintess.

  Concerning Langenberg’s superb connection to the divine powers of Faelora, I have noticed a subtle difference in how her power is channelled. Her magic indeed manifests through conventional methods for divine casters, but there is a distinct lack of belief underlying it. Furthermore, for just a brief moment before her magic forms, both holy and unholy sources can be detected at the same time. I hypothesise that this may be a result of her paradoxical nature as a magic-using therian, but as these cases are almost unheard of, I am unable to verify at this stage.

  Another point of doubt was added towards her in my mind. Still, she had already left for the capital, and she never did anything bad that I was aware of.

  I mentally filed this information away for later, though one aspect lingered in the back of my mind even as I reviewed the more important documents.

  Isolde was a therian?

  ***

  Felicia, Axel, and I finished our daily workout routine. Leon put up a solid effort, but had to drop out around the time when Axel asked a battlemage to triple the density—and weight—of our already ridiculously heavy backpacks.

  Bubblin probably could have kept up, but he got bored after 20 minutes and ran off to duel Klaus. He lost, but seeing the bewildered look on the therian’s face when the goblin kept going for another 12 rounds was priceless.

  “Alright, we’ll call it quits for the day, good hustle you two.”

  Axel jogged off, glistening with sweat and short of breath.

  Which, compared to us, was still impressive.

  “Felicia… I can’t… feel my limbs.”

  I gasped like a fish out of water. I thought Inner Forge could be used to prevent this kind of exhaustion, but it turns out that the more my mind deteriorated beneath the pressure of Axel's hellish routine, the harder it became to operate things at the usual efficiency.

  “Me… Too… Tell my father… I was proud to be of use…”

  Felicia and I were left sprawled on the grassy field of the campus, our fingers barely touching as we attempted to assist one another.

  “I warned you two, didn’t I?”

  Leon stood over us with a tray of tantalising, icy cold lemon water.

  “Only a monster like Axel can do this every day. Rex may be an exception, but Felicia, you’re doing more harm than good to your body.”

  “If they can do it, so can I!”

  Felicia stubbornly yelled back, though she wasn’t very convincing, given Leon had to help us both up.

  “Thanks, Leon… Damn, I’m regretting not recruiting you when I had the chance.”

  I accepted his assistance and greedily consumed the offered drink.

  “I appreciate that. If you get promoted, maybe I’ll request a transfer. Although with Lily on some secret mission, I suppose I could always temp for her?”

  He responded jokingly, but I seriously intended to snatch him up at the first opportunity. Leon Goldklinge was my oasis in a desert filled with insane whack jobs, myself included. Seeing how he managed to wrangle Axel and Felicia made me want him for my own team.

  And that’s not even touching on how fast he was improving his skills in real combat. Leon was the perfect example of a practical learner, to the point where I could see him breaking through to diamond any day now.

  “Yeah, yeah, thanks for the water.”

  Felicia, still salty about being looked down on, joined us.

  “Did you just come to be our butler, noble boy?”

  “All self-respecting nobles learn from maids and butlers at some point. I take no offence at your insult.”

  Leon shrugged her off effortlessly.

  “But no, I come with news that I think you will be interested in.”

  We finished our drinks before waiting expectantly.

  “It seems Farrowgate has a traitor in their midst.”

  “Huh? Did we have someone on the inside?”

  Felicia asked.

  “No, this came as a surprise to us as well. Apparently, a body was found drained of its blood, with two pairs of puncture marks on the neck and upper thigh.”

  “Seriously? So there's a rogue vampire killing people? Who was the dead guy?”

  Felicia leaned forward, now fully invested.

  “Nobody knows. The head was removed. There might have been some identifying marks on the body, but patches of the skin had been torn off.”

  “How do you know all this?”

  Leon responded by holding up a letter.

  “This was found in the aviary, delivered by a Solean carrier bird.”

  “Really? Do we know who sent it?”

  I asked, fully aware of the sender's identity.

  “No. It's all very strange, made all the more so by the fact that it wasn't addressed to anyone in particular.”

  “Could be a trick.”

  Felicia suggested.

  “Yes, but to what end? How does this information lead us to do anything differently? What if it wasn't me who found it? What if it was never found at all?”

  “So it's legitimate then?”

  “Well, there's no way to know for sure at the moment. But I think it is most likely true. It's not unthinkable that someone in Farrowgate would leak info after our recent attacks. The only part that confuses me is why the vampires would kill someone. The blood tax already provides them with what they need.”

  That would be because they didn't do anything.

  “Have you shown this to the boss lady?”

  Felicia continued.

  “Yeah, though she didn't react much. She just read it once, then returned it to me.”

  And that would be because I had informed her beforehand that such a body would pop up soon.

  “Crazy. Do you think it could be that boy from your class?”

  Felicia looked at me.

  “Guy? No, he's a good kid. This will probably shock him more than anyone else.”

  I responded, showing no sign whatsoever of my own involvement.

  “This is good for us, though, right? Can't we just wait and let them kill each other?”

  Leon shook his head in response to Felicia's question.

  “This is a one-off incident, and for all we know, there could be some kind of reasonable explanation. Besides, given the timing, it would be easy to think the empire was behind the whole thing.”

  Again, he was correct. But soon these bodies would pile up, and how would the people react then? Especially when it is happening after our forces have already retreated.

  “Anyway, I thought I should share it. I don’t really know what to make of it just yet.”

  Leon shrugged, returning the letter to his pocket.

  “Did you know Bubblin started a whole tournament while you three were killing yourselves out here? Draven is about to fight Soot if you want to come watch.”

  “Soot is his own contestant?”

  “Yeah, he’s already won three rounds in a row.”

  “Hell yeah, let’s go!”

  Felicia, suddenly reinvigorated, grabbed my hand and started running.

  ***

  [Guy’s POV]

  I never knew just how fast things could change in such a short amount of time. Ever since that gruesome incident with the headless body, things only continued to get worse for us.

  At first, it was just one body, and while the murder made us all deeply uncomfortable, most were in agreement that the enemy likely planted it to sow unease.

  But then came the second body. And the third. And then the tenth.

  Each was poorly hidden in alleyways or dumped from the pier, only for the waves to bring their bloated remains back in. Some were unidentifiable, some were Imperial, and some were Solean.

  Besides the first body, which was headless and naked, the rest all wore their armour, identifying them as soldiers on either side. The fact that there were imperial troops mixed in caused a wave of unease. Some argued the imperials were wicked enough to kill their own, and clung to the belief that this was all a scare tactic.

  Others, however, turned their eyes on me and my brethren. After all, each and every body had been completely drained of their blood. We defended ourselves from the inevitable accusations, but as we were also unable to explain how else the victims could have ended up as they had, the doubt and fear had only grown.

  It had gotten to the point where it was no longer safe for me or Dinu to walk around town alone, and three of our blood knights had to leave the mayor’s estate to make sure there were no incidents.

  Still, I had been sneaking out of my assigned house at night to investigate on my own.

  “This is where I found them…”

  Well, not entirely alone. Emily had been the one who found the first body and alerted the townspeople, but thankfully, she still trusted that we had nothing to do with it. She had been joining regularly in an attempt to search for clues.

  “There was no blood on the walls or ground?”

  I asked, though I already knew the answer as I sniffed the air.

  “No. You think they were killed somewhere else, then dumped here afterwards?”

  “Yeah. That would also explain why nobody has ever heard any screaming.”

  We spent some time looking around, but I already knew there was nothing of value. This was really just a desperate attempt at settling my own doubts.

  What if one of my own really had done all this? It wouldn’t be the first time one of us had succumbed to their darker nature after all. I didn’t want to believe it, but I also didn’t want to believe that my nation would betray its own values, yet I had seen with my own eyes how the nobility refused to engage in diplomacy.

  And the official reason for Leonidas’ attack on Borderton had still not been made public. What if we really were the bad guys in all this?

  “Hey, can’t you inspect the bodies?”

  Emily asked, pulling me from my thoughts

  “No… They’ve all been buried already.”

  “Huh? All of them? Has someone autopsied them?”

  “Uh, no… We aren’t doctors or anything.”

  “Well, okay, but I know some people among the townsfolk who could probably find something. You know, determine the cause of death, whether there was a struggle, all that stuff.”

  She looked at me somewhat sceptically. It hurt a little to see her doubting me, especially when the answer she was looking for did me no favours.

  “Sir Radu decided it would be better not to let the humans look too closely…”

  “Oh.”

  A tense silence followed.

  “I-its not like we’re hiding anything. It’s just that we don’t want to panic the people any more than they already are.”

  My excuse sounded weak even to my ears.

  “It’s ok, I believe in you, Guy.”

  She smiled at me warmly.

  “Guy?”

  Suddenly, Dinu appeared at the entrance to the alleyway. He looked concerned at first, but his expression soon turned to anger as he saw Emily.

  “Get away from her!”

  He stormed over and pulled me away roughly. Confused and offended, I threw his hand off me.

  “What’s wrong with you? She’s a friend.”

  “A friend? All the more reason not to drag her into our problems! Guy, look around you. We can’t be seen alone with a human skulking in dark corners. We’re dealing with enough scrutiny as it is.”

  He kept his voice low, but the way he almost hissed his words conveyed how serious the issue was.

  “But—”

  “I’m sorry, sir!”

  Emily rushed past us and into the main street before bowing back towards us.

  “It was my fault! I just wanted to help Guy clear his name, he tried to tell me it was risky but I insisted! Honest!”

  Her voice echoed out in the dark streets. It wasn’t subtle, but at least it conveyed her sincerity.

  “Ugh… I understand. Just go home, girl. And keep clear of one another, at least until things settle down.”

  Dinu shook his head and waved her off.

  “Yes, sir!”

  Emily quickly fled from sight.

  “Seriously, kids these days.”

  Dinu was clearly dealing with a lot of stress, but he still managed a wry smile.

  “Come on, that priest has started a nightwatch, and I doubt they will wait to ask questions if they catch you out here like this again.”

  “Sorry… I’ll head back right away.”

  Ashamed at my own thoughtlessness, I left on my own.

  The following morning, a large, scorched wheel had been erected in the courtyard.

  And Dinu had failed to report in.