Chaos.

  Evidently, everyone was scattering in a rather unsafe and disorganized manner, away from the murderous shadows, away from the large and powerful Golem. And they should watch and learn. We've done enough for just being students.

  Vincent got to his feet. His legs were still trembling, but he managed it. More or less.

  "Let's get out of here."

  He turned away from the princess without feeling the slightest guilt or fear. He had done what he had to do; no one could deny that. The rest wasn't his job; they didn't have to risk themselves. That made a lot of sense, even though at the same time he knew the quest hadn't been updated, marked as complete. He knew he was simply turning his back on it.

  [Quest Updated: A Royal Escort]

  Objective: Ensure the safety of Princess Cecilia.

  Status: Incomplete. You have chosen to abandon the primary objective.

  Warning: Abandoning the quest may have severe consequences.

  However...

  "The kid is right," said one of the members of the Royal Guard, repelling a shadow with his spear. "Get out of here."

  "If Her Royal Highness is killed," Ayame said, "we'll die in a war anyway. Which means, I'm not leaving for anything in the world."

  So stubborn. He couldn't say she was wrong. But so stubborn. Vincent deflated. He wouldn't be able to convince her, no matter what he tried. So he had no choice but to fight. He had known that from the beginning. He had just been trying to fool himself, wasting time.

  [New Objective: Survive]

  "Ayame," Vincent said, "please, be..."

  One of the dark claws sank into her shoulder. Ayame staggered back, gritting her teeth. Blood immediately flowed under the torn clothing. Ayame gritted her teeth and her hand around the chain. The shadow didn't pull on it. Quite the opposite. Ayame far surpassed it in strength. She lifted it over her head and swung it around several times before throwing it against a wall, to be exact.

  That thing, whatever the hell it was, exploded as soon as it made contact with the wall. There was no red blood. The shower of gore was stained black like everything else.

  Now that she had taken care of that, Ayame tore the chain out without so much as a blink. Blood fell to the ground, joining that which was falling from the hole in her hand. Ayame manipulated it, molding it into twin swords.

  "A vampire," there were several murmurs of the sort.

  Vincent almost laughed. Such a crisis situation, unprecedented, and there were still people acting as if that mattered a damn bit. And this was while she was saving the royal family they supposedly adored so much. Maybe they don't deserve to be saved, he thought. Maybe. But if they did nothing, and they failed, the consequences wouldn't just be paid by the idiots. Everyone would. It wasn't an option, unfortunately.

  Another attack, this time from the Golem. Vincent had to roll on the ground to dodge it, and he also dragged the princess with him, just in case. Otherwise, this would have been for nothing.

  "Get the royal family out of here! The rest of us will hold them off."

  The Royal Guard finally got moving to do something useful, other than die quickly and buy some time. Well, it wasn't a big deal either, he knew that. But, dammit.

  "Where are you going?" Cecilia asked. "You saved my life, didn't you? Come with me. You should be honored to protect me."

  What a princess. She had a huge ego. But of course, having been born in her situation, having everything she wanted within reach, how could she not have an ego? Life had never shown her that she couldn't have everything she wanted, everything she desired. They had never put up barriers for her. Until today, perhaps.

  "Princess, be reasonable. We have to get you out of here."

  But she was resisting. He supposed she felt safer with him. So what? Was he not going to let others fight for him twice in the same day? Was he not going to slip away from danger, doing the easiest possible task: getting the brat out of the way? He could fight. And he would fight.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  He turned his back on the princess and took a step forward. He was overwhelmed, outmatched. So he just had to forget everything else and concentrate on one problem, on the problems, one by one. Therefore, he lunged at one of the shadows, acting as if there were no other opponents, as if there were no risk of being crushed by the damn golem.

  Ayame had been fighting with said shadow, slashing at it with her blood swords and, of course, winning. But the two of them together crushed it in the blink of an eye. And that was even though the city guard hadn't been so lucky. Ha. But, to be fair, the element of surprise had had a lot to do with it. Now everyone was handling themselves better, despite the shadow of the golem looming over all of them, despite its steps making the ground tremble, kicking up dust and dirt.

  "You ungrateful..." he heard Cecilia's voice moving away, no matter how much she protested.

  The king and queen must not be far behind. The king, after all, was the most important person, politically speaking. But, still, the target had been the princess. Curious, it still bothered him.

  A distant shadow tried to skewer him with the rope of darkness. It would have succeeded if not for Tara shooting and the arrow piercing its hand, making it drop the chain. Then, Elizabeth finished it off, smashing it against the ground until it burst. We're savages, Vincent thought, both sides. Of course, it didn't make sense, there was no place for cleanliness in a fight to the death. The only thing that mattered was the result.

  They were making good progress, them fighting alongside the Royal Guard. He never thought that would happen, but well, it's not like they had time to push them aside. If they wanted to risk their lives, it was their business, and why not. What did it matter if they were just students? They were studying precisely for this: to kill monsters and save people.

  But there was a small, in fact, a rather big problem: no matter how many shadows they killed, more came out of nowhere. They seemed inexhaustible. And this organization, whatever it was, was risking too much. So of course, they were willing to give it their all. Or rather, they had no other choice. The reason didn't matter, the point is that if they failed now, they wouldn't get another good opportunity, at least not for a public execution. The defenses would be considerably raised, perhaps to the point where they should have been in the first place.

  He knew he should be looking for the Golem's core, since killing the shadows didn't seem to be doing anything. But he didn't stop swinging his sword and blocking as many attacks as he could with his shield, instead of rolling, dodging. What was he thinking? Someone else will do it.

  Then, as if to remind him of what really mattered, what would make the difference, the big son of a bitch took a leap, as if diving into a pool. He almost crushed all of them. Only almost.

  "Son of a bitch," Vincent said. It had been too close. Once again, the very well-made shield had prevented him from ending up as mush. Okay, he got it. He looked around. The core, the core. Where the hell could it be? There were too many people, even though they had been fleeing for a while now, still too many people, too many colors, noises, buildings, everything. It wasn't as easy as just looking in the next room.

  Then, Ayame was pierced. Swords and spears were plunged into her, from the front, from behind, from the sides, from everywhere. The vampiress staggered, though she didn't let go of her blood swords. His mind went blank with fear. She can't..., he thought, she can't...

  "Shit," said one of the royal guard bastards. "Even if she is a vampire, I don't want to see a kid die."

  He ran to help her. Vincent too, but neither of them made it in time, because she didn't need any help. Ayame's blood, naturally, had been scattered, painting the ground, painting the shadows red, giving them a bit of color. So she threw her head back and screamed. The resulting explosion knocked all the bastards off her. None died, but they didn't remain standing, nor intact. They looked as seriously injured as some without features, without distinguishing features, apart from height and weapon, could look.

  Ayame took a staggering step forward, onto a puddle of her own blood. But she was fine. She was fine. The wounds were already healing and the bleeding was stopping.

  "However, if she keeps losing so much blood..." Elizabeth said, "she could lose control."

  "What did you say?" Vincent said.

  "Come on, she's a vampiress after all. I'm talking about her bloodlust, of course."

  He understood. If she lost control and, say, made a mistake, they would execute her even if she got out of this, even if she deserved most of the credit for having ensured the survival of the princess and the queen at the very least. The sooner he put an end to this madness, the better. The sooner he put an end to this madness, the better.

  "Don't worry." Ayame leaped and let a torrent of blood fall on the golem, both foreign and her own. This shook it, made it fall backward and almost crush a building. Vincent winced. Almost, but nothing had happened. That's what mattered. Besides, if they had ended up crushed while running for their lives, well, it wouldn't have been Ayame's fault. Upon landing, with the speed and elegance of a panther and her coat fluttering like the wings of a bat, she declared: "I won't lose control so easily. I'm no animal."

  Even the shadows seemed stunned by her display of power. Ayame finally looked at him, though out of the corner of her eye, throwing her head back. Her lips, red and gleaming as if they had been painted, a hint of a smile.

  "And if I were to lose control, I wouldn't go for just anyone. A girl doesn't forget her first time, after all." She wiped a bit of blood from her cheek with a hand and licked her lips.

  The message was clear. The message was clear. If she lost her temper, and it seemed she was close, she would come for him. Her first taste of human blood. That was comforting, in the end.

  "Vincent." Ayame extended her arms. The circle of blood transformed into dozens of weapons, fluttering around her. "Come here. Let's finish these imbeciles. Us against the world, right?"

  Vincent smiled, savage.

  "Right."