Chapter 153: (11/30): Poaching and Strain

“Lucy, Lucy! Can we go get something to eat? I’m starving.” Ariel tugged pitifully on Lucienne’s sleeve as they walked down a busy street. She was so bold that it was hard to believe that she was the same girl that liked to hide behind her sister when they first met.

Lucienne touched the pouch of bloodstones that Miss Camilla gave her to spend. There was still plenty left, and she got a larger share of it in the first place. 

A snack right now wouldn’t hurt. She looked around, trying to see if there were any nearby restaurants around. She wasn’t very familiar with the city, after all, so she was just wandering around with the two little lassies like a trio of headless chickens.

All was well, or not, because Sariel stuck her head out and glared at Ariel. Lucienne felt a headache incoming as once again an argument seemed to be stewing between them. 

Why did vampires get headaches? She’d been getting more headaches recently compared to even the most grueling training she underwent as a templar. At least for those times the only things that hurt were her muscles.

“How shameless.” The elder twin sucked in a deep breath, launching into her tirade. “Again, Ari? You’re eating so much. We just ate an hour ago and I even gave you some of my food. Don’t you know it’s—”

“Alright, stop!” Lucienne shook her hand free from Sariel’s grasp and clamped it over the girl’s mouth to stop any more sounds from coming out. A few muffle words slipped past before Sariel stopped. “Don’t be so mean to your sister. It’s okay for her to eat if she wants to, as long as she keeps moving. Right, Ariel?”

Ariel was glaring at her sister, looking upset. She even had the signs of a few drops of tears glistening in her eyes and her lips pressed together in a pout.

Her face flushed red with embarrassment like a tomato, but catching Lucienne’s warning gaze, she wisely didn’t quibble back. Instead, she huffed and looked away, not meeting her sister’s eyes.

Lucienne sighed. These girls were such a handful. Most of the time, they got along very well, but recently, they’d start snapping at each other out of nowhere and Lucienne had no idea what to do.

She’d never raised kids before, and she never had to train any trainees. Despite being the twins’ nominal teacher in holy magic, she didn’t treat them like the templar recruits. It didn’t seem right. The instructors always seemed way too harsh for her, but she had chosen her own path to become a templar. The twins didn’t.

What caused this recent argument though? Lucienne didn’t know, nor did she want to know, so she just tossed the matter into the back of her mind and resumed looking for an appropriate place to eat. Where should they go?

They had a few options. Unexpected, the quiet Ariel was a carnivore. Although the twins looked similar, they had many differences too, like their preferences in food. Ariel liked meat—it tasted good to her and it kept her full. On the other hand, Sariel ate mostly vegetables when it could be helped. 

According to Sariel, meat made her sick and weighed down her belly, so she stuck to vegetables.

Since Ariel was the hungry one, a place that served meat would be good. Keeping the twins separated from each other, one on either side of her, she managed to stop the bickering long enough to put her newly-gain olfactory senses to good use and find a place that smelled like fresh meat—the blood of the slaughtered animal, specifically. 

It didn’t take her long to find one, and carried on top of that bloody metallic smell was the scrumptious tinge of heavy spice of pepper and herbs, as well as the slightly burnt smell of charred wood.

“What do you think about having a grilled snack?” she asked.

Ariel perked up immediately at the suggestion, her head nodding faster than she could speak. “Yes please! How much can I get?”

“Not too much. It’s still pretty late after all, and we probably won’t be out for long. Remember, you still have to sleep.”

“But sleeping is boring. It’s so fun here. There’s so many people and so many things that we’ve never seen before!” Ariel said, and Sariel nodded in agreement, the twins united once more in solidarity against sleep. Lucienne suspected that these girls probably rarely experienced times when they wanted to sleep but couldn’t, or they wouldn’t be so opposed to resting, of all things.

“That’s too bad. While you’re with me, you have to listen to what I tell you to do. Sleeping will help you grow taller, or you’ll end up like Lady Camilla.”

The girls gasped and Lucienne made a shushing gesture with her finger to her lips, grinning. Then, a chill ran down her spine and she looked around cautiously. A chill, a warning… unfortunately, or fortunately, she saw nothing that might have triggered that chill that ran down her spine. “Don’t tell her I said that, okay?”

Ariel giggled. “Okay. But, I get another serving.”

“And I want nothing too. Even though I’m not hungry, I don’t want to be left out.”

“Am I being blackmailed?”

The twins shook their heads as one. As expected, they were both united when it came to bullying her. Lucienne wanted to complain, but she just let the corner of her mouth twitch once in mock displeasure. “In the end, I’m going to be the only one left out, huh?”

As they made their way toward the street vendor with the grill, Ariel tugged on her again with yet another question. “What’s being a vampire like?”

That gave Lucienne pause. She didn’t really know how to answer. It would be a bit like asking a human, “what is it like to be human?” and the reply would be a couple of rather dumb or obvious or both answers. At least, if the person being asked had never been anything but human. Fortunately, Lucienne experienced both races.

She rubbed her chin. “I guess it’s more convenient in a way. Or maybe not? For example, I can’t really eat things like you can or I get stomach aches and have to throw it up. Pain in return for but a brief moment of pleasure…” she looked into the distance amidst sympathetic glances from the twins. “But on the other hand, I feel a bit stronger physically, and I heal faster too. Plus, I get an extra mana affinity.” 

A small orb of blood appeared over her raised index finger when she snapped her fingers. “Pretty cool, right?”

When Lucienne turned to see the girls’ reactions, she found herself a bit lost at the sight of them, staring. Although she quickly shook herself and recomposed herself, she couldn’t deny that she felt something when she looked at them. Something deep in her stomach, in fact. While Elyss had been graciously donating her blood when they traveled together, it’s been a while since her last meal.

The blood she created is unsuitable for consumption, as it’s false blood, just like how any rocks that Elyss creates from scratch and not manipulated from the earth will eventually disappear. As a vampire, she instinctively knew the difference…

All that thinking about blood was making her a bit hungry.

Ah, she’d gotten distracted again.

“So what do you think? About being a vampire.”

“It sounds like a huge pain. I never want to give up eating, so I wouldn’t want to be a vampire ever, right, Sari?”

Ariel’s sister nodded seriously and they shared a look of pity. Honestly, they were so in tune with each other that it’s a wonder that they got into fights so often. They were unexpectedly problem children that hid their true nature, only to reveal it bit by bit as people got to know them better. Especially Ariel.

“Ah, we’re here. It looks like they roast corn here as well, straight on the cob. Are you fine with that for your snack, Sariel?”

The girls nodded.

“Right. In that case, two pork skewers and one cob of roast corn please,” she said to the stallowner, who cheerfully agreed and got to work. Soon they were on their way again, this time with the delicious scent of grilled chicken and toasted corn coming from the food the twins held in their hands.

With her purse-strings loosened, Lucienne suddenly had the urge to buy. It was like some kind of floodgates opened, and she found herself searching for a clothing shop. It wouldn’t do to always wear the same thing, after all, even if she cleaned her clothes regularly when they passed by a small stream or river. She wasn’t someone like Camilla and Kagriss who didn’t sweat and so kept reasonably clean.

Not to mention, her own blood bond was empty compared to the wealth of clothing that Camilla claimed she had.

She wasn’t the only one that needed clothes too. The twins lost everything in the undead attack that killed their father, including their spare change of clothes, and as a result was left with just what they currently had on.

Neither of the twins looked bad, so it would be a waste if they didn’t keep up with maintaining their appearances. Humming to herself, she led the twins into a fabric shop. Despite dealing mostly in cuts of cloth, these kinds of places usually did needlework on commission as well.

The shopkeeper flashed her a bright smile when she came in. 

The twins politely greeted her back, their expressions turning serious and cautious. Should she say “as expected of a peddler’s daughters” since they were surprisingly well versed in dealing with rival tradesmen. 

Lucienne wasn’t here for that, though, so she patted them on their backs to loosen them up. 

“Is there any way I can help you?” the shopkeeper said.

“Do you do needlework?”

The shopkeeper nodded like it was a totally normal and common question. “Of course, as long as it’s not too fancy. I’m quite good at it, if I may say so myself.”

“I see. In that case, can you take my measurements and make a blouse for me from a fabric of my choice?”

Seeing business arrive at her footsteps, the shopkeeper beamed. “Of course. Would that be all?”

“Ah, no.” Lucienne pushed forward the twins. “I want something for them too. Two dresses of different color but matching designs would be nice.”

Matching designs were obviously because the girls were twins, and different colors were because even for twins, wearing the exact same thing is a bit…

Because of the stipulation that the designs had to be the same, it took a while to choose something that both of them liked, and then to pick out colors. In the end, they went with dresses that went just below the knees to wear during leisure time like now. Ariel chose a soft shade of blue while Sariel picked a vibrant yellow that seemed a bit too bright and eye-catching.

They didn’t stop there and went on to pick out some more clothes. Lucienne paid the shopkeeper half of the money up front and received a claiming plate in return with her name and a vague description of the order on it.

As they turned to leave, someone else came in. 

“And the person that came in was Celaen?” Camilla asked.

“Yeah.”

“It’s certainly a small world. While I wouldn’t consider this lucky, I’d imagine the chances of us each meeting someone from Lavitte’s party is pretty low. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out that Elyss was messing around outside with that fire mage from their party as well.”

“Duura? Celaen did say that she left the city quiet early in the morning.”

“...?”

“What did you talk about anyways?” Lucienne leaned in conspiratorially, as if they were talking about something shady. But really, it was because the twins were getting a bit loud in the background.

After her, Kagriss might be their second favorite person, and they showed it, sticking onto her the moment they came in. Now Kagriss was trying to entertain them by making various shapes out of her magic. Although it wasn’t healthy for the living to be exposed to things like undead mana, even for short periods of time, both of the twins were properly protecting themselves with a thin film of holy mana that covered their body like a barrier.

Fruits of her teachings, of course.

After a while, the twins got bored, and now Kagriss…took out a few cups and some wooden marked cubes. Dice? Lucienne suddenly felt that she was seeing something that she shouldn’t so she quickly stopped looking and focused back on Camilla.

“Nothing much. He told me about the commission they’ve accepted. It’s about investigating some kind of mine collapse, but he didn’t go into too much detail. What did you want to talk about, specifically?”

“Well…after we ran into Celaen…”

Celaen looked surprised to see them there, but she quickly recovered. “This is one of my favorite places, you see.”

The shopkeeper nodded. “Yes, Celaen is a frequent customer of mine. She comes quite frequently. Celaen, are they friends of yours?”

“Yeah. We got into some trouble but her party helped us out.” Celaen beamed. “Fancy catching you guys here. Are you on your way out? I could show you around the store if you like.”

“No, we just ordered something and we’ll pick it up after our commission.” 

Lucienne didn’t really peg Celaen as someone particularly fashionable, but now that she took a closer look, that green attire that was seemingly plain on the surface turned out to have a lot of intricacies, mostly in the form of flowing, leafy embroidery. But there is also a clever mixing of colors and fabrics to achieve a harmonious whole that didn’t stand out much when looked at casually, but the more she looks, the more she finds. All that changed the shopkeeper’s evaluation in Lucienne’s mind.

“Aw, that’s a shame.”

Lucienne thought that they’d part here, but Celaen looked like she had something else to say. She fidgeted at the door, sending strange looks toward Lucienne as well as the twins.

Although Lucienne didn’t know what the elf was playing at, she invited her for a chat nonetheless. Celaen released a breath that she had been holding in relief. 

“Yes please. Um, want to go for tea? My treat.” Then her eyes widened in sudden epiphany. “Ah, Lucienne is a vampire, right? There are places around that serve blood as well, although it might not be as good as you’re used to if you’ve been drinking it fresh.”

Lucienne’s stomach growled in response and her gaze drifted over to Celaen’s neck. Even now, she still had no idea where a vampire needed to go to get blood. Her appetite was ruined by the warning that the taste might not be as good, but only slightly.

“I’d like that. Are you two fine with it too?” she asked the twins.

They nodded. Celaen’s eyes darted between them, narrowing thoughtfully. 

It wasn’t long before Celaen took them to a tea house that was still open. The first employee they saw was an elf who greeted them warmly as they came in. The inside of the teahouse was warm too, smelling of herbs and wet earth after the rain. 

“This is a nice place.”

“Right?” Celaen smiled. She took a stack of menus from the waitress and passed them out. “You can get anything you want. Don’t hold back. Oh, and I’ll have the usual,” she said to the waitress.

The waitress nodded and wrote down her order.

Compared to Ariel, Sariel was much happier to be here. If she was younger, she might’ve already started drooling as she looked at the menu. The pictures were few and far between, but there were beautiful depictions of the menu items rendered in gorgeous colors. 

Tea of different sorts. Some kind of cake. There were also cold salads made from greens that Lucienne had never heard of. However, she managed to hold back. She didn’t want to have stomach aches for the rest of the night, after all. The only other alternative was to throw up everything later.

Sariel had no such restraints as she flipped back and forth, scanning the pages for something that caught her eye. She kept a finger next to each item she was interested in, and by the end of the menu, she didn’t have enough fingers to mark them all.

Before she could order, Lucienne knocked her on the head. “Pick one!”

“Okay…”

“It’s fine. Things aren’t too expensive here,” Celaen said, watching their antics, but Lucienne shook her head adamantly. The elf shrugged.

They placed their orders. Celaen had the waitress bring Lucienne a cup of blood. 

Then they waited for the orders to arrive. Silence stretched out between them if not for the little things the twins were doing to keep themselves entertained, like practicing their magic control. Sariel began by making a ball of holy mana on the tip of her finger and Ariel did the same. 

Then, they pressed the little golden spheres together as hard as they could, and the person whose sphere broke first lost the game. It was a simple but competitive game that doubled as training. The twins came up with it themselves.

Lucienne found Celaen watching them with interest again. Lowering her voice so that only Celaen’s sharp ears could make out her words, she leaned across the table toward the elf. “So what’s your goal? I don’t think you treated us just to be friendly.”

The elf hesitated, but not for long. She’d been seen through. “You’re right,” she said with a sigh. “Actually, our party has been looking for a holy mage for a while now. The problem is, it’s hard to find one since they’re so rare.”

“Is that why you’ve been looking at our little ones?” Lucienne asked, a bit taken aback. So that was the reason…

“Yeah. But we’re not planning anything bad! Us meeting was really a coincidence. But ever since I saw your group, I couldn’t get them off my mind. While experience is good, training a mage from a young age makes the party mesh together that much better.” 

Lucienne stared at her doubtfully. Celaen blushed under her gaze. “Isn’t this…poaching?” 

“We weren’t planning on anything of the sort! Well, kind of. The truth is…” Celaen looked around, “Lavitte’s been thinking about approaching your leader and asking if she wants to work together for a while. You know, build up some rapport, maybe merge.”

Merge. Celaen dropped quite a bombshell of a gossip. Talking about this kind of feels like she was going behind Camilla’s back. Lucienne couldn’t shake the feeling.

“Is it really okay to be telling me this?” 

“Well, it’s not a big deal. Everyone in our party knows and if Lavitte goes through with it, he’ll bring a proposal soon enough. Together, I’m pretty sure our party can reach the upper C-ranks in strength, even with just us. We’d be able to do more things then, take on stronger targets.”

The talk started off on the wrong footing, but Celaen wasn’t wrong about the benefits. On the other hand, Lucienne didn’t really think Celaen and Lavitte had any chance in getting what they wanted, since Camilla was leaving quite soon after a few commissions.

A few partnerships might not be out of the question, but something like a merge is impossible.

After all, Camilla bowed her head to no one. Well, probably. Having two leaders in a party long term was a recipe for disaster.

Seeing her incredulous expression, Celaen gave a wan smile. “I know it sounds stupid, but like I said, it’s just something we’re considering, so give us a break.”

“You know I have to tell my leader about this, right?”

“It would be understandable if you did.”

Celaen didn’t seem that happy about it, but it couldn’t be helped. On the other hand, the elf wasn’t at all concerned, so it probably wasn’t a big deal if she told Camilla anyway. 

Still, to think that Lavitte’s party was aiming for Ariel and Sariel…

Without realizing it, she’d grown quite attached to them. Slowly, they are growing up, and one day, they will become adults and leave as well. Lucienne didn’t want that day to come.

Even if they could still see each other now and then, it wouldn’t be the same.

The thought made her a bit depressed, so she changed the topic. 

“Do parties merge often?”

“Yeah, all the time. If a partnership works out and all the members like each other, it’s not strange to simply establish a long term relationship that turns into a merge later in time. Almost all of the high-ranking parties are from the result of mergers.”

“High ranking parties?” All Lucienne knew about parties was that they were split into grades based on their strength. Camilla’s party was on the upper end of D-ranks and Lavitte was somewhere in C-rank on the middle to upper end.

However, increases in rank weren't linear. 

“There’s only two B-rank parties in Dianene, you know? Parties that powerful tend to be conglomerations of smaller parties, but united under one major party or individual. They usually split up into smaller groups that take on lower ranked commissions, but if needed they can mobilize the whole group and take on B-rank commissions.”

“That sounds complicated.”

“It is. We didn’t bother joining because it’s complicated. However, the holy mages…I think there are like five or six? They all joined one of those two, leaving none for us.”

It sounds like Lavitte’s party have their fair share of troubles and Lucienne found herself feeling a bit of sympathy.

“By the way, how big are B-rank parties? A-rank?” 

“That’s a difficult question. There’s really no public criterion and seems to be rather arbitrary. Ranks are kind of fuzzy, you see. Both of the B-rank parties are well above the threshold though. One of them, Carmine Blossoms, has almost a hundred members the last time I checked. Dread Imps definitely has over a hundred.”

“A h-hundred?” Lucienne’s mouth fell open. 

Celaen grinned. “It’s not like you’ll ever see all of them together at once anyway. Besides, it’s not like all of them are strong or something. While they don’t accept the chaff, the wheat they get isn't perfect either. Most of them are probably weaker than even myself. They have quantity, we have quality to make up for it.” She lifted her chin proudly, with a hint of defiance.

That made Lucienne feel a lot better. 

The entire Cloud Order had less than a hundred templars. There used to be more, but the failed expedition cost the Order a large portion of their number. Although new recruits boosted the numbers somewhat, the Order was still nowhere near its prime.

Fortunately, each templar stood at the top of humanity.

Actually, if she put it that way, then didn’t that make humanity weak? If the cream of the crop led an army against the vampires and lost so badly, then…

Lucienne didn’t dare think further.

“So A-rank parties have a thousand people?”

“Who knows? Maybe total, but when it comes to A-rank parties, everyone becomes nameless except for the elite few that lead. But those elite few are doubtlessly the best of the best when it comes to hunters.”

The scale was almost unimaginable. Saying that the differences between ranks were linear might be understating things a bit.

However, Lucienne doubted that the average A-rank party, if something of that scale could still be called a party, is much stronger than an entire Templar Order, even if they are numerous. At least, that’s what she hoped. Though physically a vampire, her heart remained human to some extent.

It was a lot to digest.

Fortunately, the waitress came at just the right time, bringing their orders shortly after. In the rest of the time she spent together with Celaen, neither of them brought up poaching members or merging parties. Instead, Lucienne asked Celaen what she knew of mole-like earth silencer beasts.

As it turned out, a lot.

“Is that so… Actually, I didn’t expect them to have holy mages at all, but I suppose there are exceptions everywhere. If we have fire mages, light mages, or even undeath mages, albeit in small numbers, then it makes sense for them to have a few as well.”

Camilla didn’t seem that concerned.

“So what are you going to do?” Lucienne asked. 

“Nothing. If Lavitte wants to work together with us, then I’m not opposed to it if the conditions are favorable. If they want to recruit the little ones, then I won’t stop them as long as they do it the right way. What they want comes first, after all. I won’t keep the twins if they want to leave.”

“Is that so…”

Even though that was the fairest way to handle things, Lucienne still wished that Camilla took things a bit more seriously. Even if she didn’t want to keep the twins against their will, shouldn’t Camilla be a bit more invested in the girls they saved and taken in?

However, Camilla seemed to have made up her mind about not cutting in and Lucienne could only call up the twins to leave. They still didn’t know what Lavitte’s party was planning, but from how things stand, they will, sooner or later.

Should she tell them first? 

The twins parted with Kagriss reluctantly. When she left the room, she closed the door behind her just a bit harder than normal.