Lilianna sat in her office, having just ended a call with the Count of Kranes, who rather frantically explained the state of the town to her before the call abruptly cut off. It seemed that the “Whispers” had already destroyed the majority of the critical infrastructure that led to the collapse in the first place.

  According to the Count, they were “frenzied,” as though something had agitated them and drawn them toward the city, though he had no idea what could possibly have cause them to move in their direction specifically.

  Setting aside whether or not he was being truthful, Count Eltash described it as a large enough force to breach the dawn walls before the guards could even mobilize a response. At least the populace suffered fewer casualties than Lilianna had initially assumed, as they were already being shepherded indoors due to a “malfunction” with the town’s cloud generator.

  Most of the casualties were either those slow in getting back to their homes, looters, or soldiers tasked with fighting back impossible odds.

  There was a singular, obvious connecting dot in all of this, but Lilianna couldn’t fathom how the dregs of that thorn’s party could possibly have slipped into Count’s home undetected. Verndil Eltash was a man who avoided playing games below the table to begin with, given how much of a headache managing Kranes County already was. As a Drimus, Lilianna knew quite well how taxing the management of the Empire's borders was. He wasn’t her first suspect, but she couldn't completely rule out the possibility that he might have been involved with the Wizard. Though, even the mere notion that any noble family would be dumb enough to risk conspiring with a Hero and their ilk was…

  “Not even the Idra would stoop so low. Those old bats would sooner take a stake to their own chests than ever speak to a human, much less humor one’s wishes. But, there is no other way, meaning there must be somebody out there… but who? Someone with eyes bigger than their stomach. Someone with power, but not enough for their tastes. Someone who would be willing to gamble on the risk, or is otherwise dumb enough to believe they could mitigate the aftermath, perhaps…”

  “Mama! It’s an emergency!”

  As the Exaltare mused to herself, her darling little flower burst into her office, a frazzled Athena following after her a few moments later. If a vampire could be out of breath, the maid probably would have been.

  The little vampire seemed anxious. Lilianna’s pupils sharpened as she set down the register of nobles she’d been pouring over and focused on her child instead.

  “What’s the matter, dearest?”

  “W-We—I mean Seraphi… I— E-Emma’s gone… missing. We can’t get into contact with her!”

  “Oh?”

  Lilianna raised an eyebrow. She didn’t recognize the name, but her daughter wouldn’t have brought an emergency to her attention—knowing the present state of things—without good reason.

  ＊　＊　＊

  Several minutes earlier…

  “Seraphine? Seraphine… please pick up!”

  Lycoris held her phone anxiously, fidgeting with Mizar in her other hand.

  It was astounding how helpless she felt, unable to do anything with the tension filling her body. If she’d still been in Dauwen—and employed as a knight—she would’ve been in the midst of leading the soldiers out toward the village being razed by whatever monthly nightmare the vampires threw their way this time.

  Instead, she was stuck pacing back and forth in her room, waiting on a ringing phone.

  ‘Hey hey, Sera here—’

  “Seraphine! Have you heard anything from Emma today?”

  ‘Hm? No, why?’

  “Kranes is under attack!”

  ‘What!? How? Who even—’

  “It’s…”

  Lycoris cut her off, raising her voice louder than she intended. But she immediately hesitated, worried how much to reveal.

  If she were still in Human society, the nature of their foe would technically be redacted information—the populace was better off not knowing of the horrors that threatened them, spreading information like that would only cause unnecessary panic.

  “Just… try to get into contact with her. I’m sorry, I don’t know if I can share what happened.”

  ‘I… see. Right, okay.’

  Seraphine sounded momentarily stunned, before immediately hardening her resolve and hanging up.

  The way she immediately got her emotions under control reminded Lycoris that she’d been part of the military before as well. Though Seraphine had made it sound like service was compulsory for all vampires, she definitely acted with as much sincerity as any career soldier. Somehow, it left Lycoris feeling emasculated… well, she was a girl now, though…

  Reminded that panic would achieve nothing, Lycoris forced herself to calm her trembling hands, focusing her thoughts on how to proceed.

  “I wonder, what can I even do to help…?”

  “Is it truly necessary for you to do anything, Your Highness?” Athena spoke up, looking over from the table she was idly wiping down.

  “Huh?”

  “Her Majesty is already putting her full attention toward the situation. The soldiers are mobilizing in response. It’s their job to clean up after whatever blunder caused such a catastrophic failure in the first place.”

  “But Emma could be in danger for all we know! I can’t just… sit around. Do you know how worried I was when you were missing?”

  “Y-Your Highness… was worried over me?”

  Athena’s eyes widened in shock. The maid was so stupefied by the notion that she completely forgot to prostrate herself as she normally would whenever Lycoris rendered such an “accolade” upon her.

  “Of course! I barely even know how a princess is supposed to take care of her own morning routines! And most of what I do know is from watching you work. I still don’t really know how to coordinate an outfit as well as you or Mother…” Lycoris added in a slight huff.

  “Technically, I handled Her Majesty’s outfits as well, before being assigned as your personal maidservant, Princess. N-Not because she required the assistance, of course! She’s simply far, far too important of a person to waste effort dressing herself and the like.”

  “Really…? Then, what does she do now?”

  “If I had to guess, she just uses magic instead.”

  “… …Your job was outsourced by magic?”

  “D-Do you see how worthless my services are now!?”

  Lycoris rolled her eyes and looked back down at her phone, hoping that the silence meant Seraphine was talking with Emma, and not anything else.

  “It isn’t about your services. …And even if it was, like I said, I can’t handle it on my own… It’s because you’re you. You’re my maidservant, and… sort of like a friend, in a way. At least, you’re someone I can talk to about things I can’t with anyone else.”

  “Your Highness…”

  Lycoris scrunched up her face as Athena collapsed upon her, hugging her leg. It seemed like an overreaction to something that was just a simple, shy little admission, but Lycoris did feel her cheeks warm up as she spoke the truth. And a touch of confusion, as well. The idea that her first real friends were vampires was…

  She didn’t have a chance to finish the thought, or shake Athena off, as her phone began to ring again.

  “Yes!? I… mean, Princess Lycoris, speaking.”

  ‘Lyco! I couldn’t get in touch with her. She wasn’t picking up, and none of the hospital lines I tried connected either. It’s like the town completely fell off the grid somehow.’

  “Hospital? Is that the Church’s House of Healing?”

  ‘Healing…? No, Emma’s a nurse, not a nun—anyway, I couldn’t get an answer from the town, but when I got in touch with someone in Condore, they said there were apparently several people caught in a subway accident. And moreover, it sounds like they’re getting swamped with calls like mine. Supposedly Kranes’ anti-sun measures all failed at once, and their transit network went haywire as well.’

  Seraphine was clearly trying to maintain as level of a tone as possible, but Lycoris could hear the anxiety creeping into the edge of her words.

  There had to be something Lycoris could do. She was Princess of the entire Vampire Empire! The rulers of the world! If they were even half as imposing and terrifying as humanity thought—which in some ways they were, but others… not at all—then finding a single person should be a trivial task.

  “…Athena?”

  “Yes, Your Highness?”

  “Do you know if there’s… any sort of… I dunno, ‘Exaltare Super-Scrying Orb?’”

  “An—”

  ‘—Exaltare Super-Scrying—’

  “—Orb?”

  Both Athena and Seraphine stared at her—or at least she imagined Seraphine staring at her through the phone.

  “Geh… Listen! I just think, you know… There has to be something I can do with my position! Aren’t I the second most powerful person in the world!? …Sort of…”

  As soon as she said it out loud, she realized how ridiculous it sounded.

  Even if it was the truth, Lycoris didn’t feel like she held all that much power or sway. She certainly hadn’t done anything in particular to earn it, wasn’t sure she felt like she deserved it, and… was a little afraid of the very concept.

  ‘Princess, are you… sure? I-I mean, I’m honored but… is it really worth spending that much effort on this? We’re just—’

  “Yes! Did we not just spend an entire night talking!? What kind of friend wouldn’t do everything she could for someone she cared about!”

  “We can… ask Her Majesty for access to secure documents and records, and possibly advice as well… but… I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Athena half-heartedly mumbled, “She’ll undoubtedly be busy enough as is…”

  “I’ll handle it then! This is my idea, after all! I’ll take responsibility.”

  Lycoris puffed out her chest and thumped her hand against it.

  Before Athena could even respond, she darted out of the door and began running down the hall.

  ＊　＊　＊

  “Hmm, records… what sort would you be looking for? And what would you do upon finding what you seek, dear flower?”

  Lilianna inclined her head, her eyes glimmering as she stared straight through Lycoris.

  The girl refused to let herself be cowed by the gesture, even though the maid behind her was trembling on hands and knees. She knew exactly why her mother was so wary, it was her fault after all.

  If Lycoris hadn’t rushed off on her own after Athena, the Exaltare probably wouldn’t have been quite so guarded. But Lycoris had no intention of repeating such a reckless stunt. Even if she felt right at home on a battlefield—or used to, at least—it wasn’t where she belonged at the moment.

  Lycoris had come to accept that, awkward as it felt, she had become too important to directly involve herself in a catastrophe.

  ‘Is… that Her Majesty The Exaltare’s voice? Lyc—Princess, shouldn’t we hang up first? For the sake of national security!?’

  “Of course not, you’re the one who knows what I should be looking for! Or how to track down Emma, potentially.”

  Lilianna’s pointed ears twitched. One of her eyebrows raised slightly.

  “Darling, if you are to have a serious conversation with me, it would behoove you to first finish your business with anyone else. …Though, at least whoever that individual is, they seem to have a decent head on their shoulders, for now.”

  ‘Eep! I-I’m going to hang up now! T-Take care Lyco, maybe ask about any records of teleportation circle usage!?’

  With a rapidfire reply, Seraphine hung up on her end, leaving Lycoris stranded in front of the ultimate tyrant.

  A curled corner of the lip joined Lilianna’s eyebrow on her expression of vague ire.

  “‘Lyco’ hmm?”

  “I don’t want my friends calling me things like ‘Princess’ or ‘Your Highness’ in private company. It’s awkward enough thinking about myself like that already. Anyways, is there any way we can look into where Emma went?”

  “You still haven’t answered our second question. And, once we have time off from this incident, we’ll be having a conversation about how to properly associate with friends. Especially given… future prospects.”

  Her irritated expression gave way to a somewhat somber one as she flicked her finger across the screen of her tablet.

  Lycoris swallowed, reflexively gripping Mizar as she stepped closer to her mother’s raised desk. She was short enough now that she could only just peer over the edge at the documents laid out on it.

  There were printouts of… different goods listed out, if she was reading them right.

  “When I find out what happened to her, I’m going to tell Seraphine, obviously. I want to help however I can, but I realize that it isn’t the sort of place I should blindly rush into. I dunno what’s… I am unsure what the exact state of things is, but the timing all feels… far too convenient.”

  “Hmm…”

  Her mother stared down at her, the continued piercing gaze of the Exaltare causing the girl’s knees to buckle and shake. Fortunately she was able to prop herself up with the desk.

  It wasn’t the first time that Lilianna drilled into her like this, but that hardly made it any easier to endure. Lycoris had nothing to hide, though; she didn’t have any reason to shy away from her mom’s scrutiny.

  After what felt like an eternity of silence, a notification sound on Lilianna’s tablet finally brought the flow of time back to the tepid office.

  Lilianna reached down and opened a drawer, withdrawing another tablet and slowly slid it across the desk toward her daughter.

  When she spoke, it was with the confident and formal tone that she addressed her subjects with.

  “…Very well then. We shall permit thee to do thine own investigation. But before thou contact and share any information thou uncover with that… friend, thou must impart thy findings upon us.” She leaned forward, a deathly serious glint in her crimson eyes. “Dost thou understand, Daughter?”

  “I do. Thank you, Mother. I offer my sincerest apologies for interrupting what is no doubt a busy and chaotic day for… thee…?”

  Lycoris nodded slowly without breaking eye contact, sliding a hand forward and timidly grasping the plasticky feeling tablet.

  Lilianna’s expression suddenly softened, reaching her arm past Lycoris’ and gently stroking her head as she pushed her seat back to stand up.

  “My, such a precocious little child~ Do not forget that this is the third of your birthdays, even if our plans for Moonsend Fading fell through. You are ever our first priority. Now then…”

  She sat back down, leaving a rather poignant amount of space between her and her desk.

  Though Lycoris couldn’t see it, she knew the woman was patting her thigh.

  “Come, sit. Let us handle our business alongside each other. It will be a delight to oversee our precious flower as she diligently works, hmhmhm~”

  ＊　＊　＊

  “I found something! I think?”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Lycoris cried out from atop her mother’s lap, squinting down at the endless stream of access logs for the entire capital’s teleport transit records. All it took was entering Emma’s name into the search field and filtering it by date, but it’d still taken her a few minutes to wrap her head around it all.

  She squirmed about as her mother wrapped an arm around her waist, leaning down and softly pressing her cheek against Lycoris’ ear as she gazed over her shoulder.

  “Emma Gansley, departed from the Intranational Teleport on Darkswallow Avenue at 5:53 am. Good work, little flower. Do you remember how to proceed from there?”

  Lilianna had taken a moment to cease staring at maps of Kranes and the overall Empire to teach Lycoris how to navigate the logs for the Empire’s transportation network. They apparently tracked every ticket purchased and train taken, every opening of a city’s dawn walls, and obviously, every usage of a teleportation circle.

  Lycoris wasn’t sure what exactly a train was, but it certainly sounded like quite an invasion of privacy… Though, at the same time she could see how it’d be useful, given the exact situation she’d found herself in.

  And presumably, the only reason she had access to it was because she was the Exaltare’s daughter. It didn’t seem like the sort of thing just anyone could look up, at any rate. Hopefully, at least.

  “Yeah. I just push on this entry to bring up a list of connecting trips, and that’ll show where she ended up.”

  “But we already know where she went, don’t we dear?”

  “…O-Oh, right.”

  Lycoris deflated a little, looking away at the corner of the room where Athena had been relegated to waiting anxiously. In actuality, neither Lycoris nor Lilianna had given her any sort of order to standby, they’d simply forgotten about her as they worked together.

  “Instead, it’d be best to look at the payment information for her trips, or her banking information. That is where you will find your paper trail, dear.”

  “Huh? Oh, umm… Then, I want to tap on this instead right?”

  “Correct. As expected of our daughter, you are quite swift on the uptake.”

  Lycoris fidgeted as her mother heaped praise on her and squeezed her with the arm already wrapped around her side.

  Lilianna’s lap was a remarkably dangerous place for someone so completely defenseless, but she couldn’t deny the bubbly and ticklish warmth that came with allowing herself to be vulnerable toward her mother.

  Even if she’d prefer not to be quite so infantilized.

  “Mrgh, you don’t need to hug me over every little thing…”

  “But you’ve come so far from being incapable of even read—” Lilianna cut herself off, shooting a brief look at the maid. “Well, your progress is quite astounding. Athena, pour me a drink. Anything is fine.”

  Lycoris still couldn’t help but think that was just an excuse to shower affection upon her though.

  Not-so-wearily resigning herself to her mother’s love, she resumed her investigation into Emma’s fate. Whether it was good or bad, she found immediate luck as she look at the account that paid for her fare. The string of numbers tied to the routing number was meaningless, but when she traced back who that account belonged to, her blood ran cold.

  Bartholomew Vanas.

  Even though she’d barely spoken three sentences to the man, she immediately envisioned the portly and somewhat timid figure who’d approached her. And of course, how she snubbed him to hang out with the people she actually invited to the party.

  There was no chance that could simply be a coincidence. Lycoris didn’t think much of him at the time, the name Vanas barely even registered to her, but that was still one of the Seven Families. Could it have been possible he was trying to get even with her? Because she snubbed him? Would nobles really be so petty? The Seven were undeniably prideful, but it was hard to imagine they would drag a single person into such a terrible incident just to spite Lilianna… But Lycoris wasn’t Lilianna. Perhaps he was counting on her just being a foolish child, unconcerned with the life of a single commoner. Maybe he just wanted to punish Emma for catching Lycoris’ eye instead.

  Lycoris couldn’t decide what was more infuriating, the fact that he had pulled strings to put Emma in danger, or the idea that he’d done so out of spite for her. It felt as though he was trampling over Lycoris’ pride. It felt like… an unpleasant itch she couldn’t scratch.

  What’s more, there was something strange about the sequence of events, too. They had only met the night before last, and Emma was called to Kranes in response to an emergency yesterday… except…

  Her attention snapped back into reality when the chilled, blood-filled glass clinked atop Lilianna’s desk, and she raised her head.

  “Ah?”

  “Are you thirsty as well, dear? Athena, fetch her a glass as well.”

  “I’m fine. N-No wait, I mean, it’s not that!”

  “Hm? Would you like a sip from our—”

  “No! …Besides, isn’t that alcohol? I swore off liquor. M-More importantly, when did the situation in Kranes start?”

  Her eyes wandered from the glittering tumbler filled with red liquid up to her mother’s face. She pouted slightly, watching Lilianna take a slow sip of her drink.

  The woman’s eyes wandered from Lycoris down to her tablet, and she tilted her head thoughtfully. Then, she set her glass down and scooped up the register of noble names she’d neglected in favor of her daughter, rolling her eyes across the list for a moment.

  “Last night, at around midnight.”

  “And there wasn’t anything else wrong in town the day before, right?”

  “It seems you have caught the beast by its tail at last.”

  “…If you already knew then why didn’t you say anything!?”

  Lycoris wrinkled her brow in irritation. She could’ve saved hours of time if Lilianna had simply told her that. Or looked it up herself—she wouldn’t have had to explain how to navigate any of the software to Lycoris in that case, even.

  Before her frustration could spill out from her mouth, her mother set the paper down and put a finger to Lycoris’s lips, her other arm still wrapped around her daughter.

  “Because we believed it to be more beneficial for you to go through the process yourself. ‘Doing’ is a better teacher than ‘watching.’ Moreover, your investigation revealed something even we had been troubled by before your arrival.”

  “It… did?”

  “Indeed. This… Bartholomew. Second cousin twice removed of Margrave Alobadene ‘Nolunty’ Vanas. He appears to be the missing link we were looking for.”

  Lycoris blinked. “How so? …I met him at the party, but I… I, erm, brushed him off to see to my guests instead.”

  Her mother’s lips curled into a wry grin. “Our daughter has grown better at couching her language. At any rate, he is insignificant enough to slip beneath our notice, and appears to be just the sort who would do something stupid… like cavort with a Hero’s party.”

  “What!?”

  Lycoris jumped out of her mother’s lap and turned to stare up at her, her hands crushing the corners of her tablet.

  Her pulse quickened as she immediately thought of the only person that could imply. If Tatyana was somehow behind this catastrophe as well, and had gotten another one of her friends wrapped up in it…

  Her mother reached forward and gently pulled the poor tablet out of her hands, brushing her fingers across the cracked screen as she set it back on her desk.

  “Ah… sorry.”

  “And he clearly knew of this in advance, given the timing. We aren’t sure if he was the one making contact with the Wizard.”

  “Witch.”

  “The title itself is unimportant. What matters is if he has been compromised or not. There’s any number of things he could have been tempted with,” Lilianna sighed.

  “She has the temperament of a traitor, so I’m sure there’s probably not much point in trying to figure out what lie she told him…”

  “Indeed, those are wise words, Lycoris. Unfortunately, it appears as though he has also gone to Kranes. Perhaps this Witch means to rendezvous with him using the chaos as cover.”

  The young girl felt her muscles tense, her legs urging her to rush out of the office right this second. If Tatyana really was in Kranes… She could deal with three birds in a single strike. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

  And yet… she didn’t act on that impulse. She knew better.

  “Mama—”

  “No.” Her mother turned from the beveled glass cup in her hand to glare at her. “You are thinking with your heart, not your mind. The city is dangerous. Far too dangerous to allow you to travel to, even if it wasn’t on the edge of the Empire. We will allow no such thing. As both the Exaltare and your mother, your safety is our top priority.”

  “But—”

  “Lycoris.”

  “Can I TALK!?” she shouted back, her little arms trembling as she endured the vortex of unpleasant emotion swirling within her. “I never said anything about going there myself… I know Tatyana. Maybe not well, but I’m certain she wouldn’t stick around to watch her handiwork. It’s probably just a diversion, anyways. Why would she even kick a bunch of monsters toward a border town? What does she stand to gain from doing that? Where is she pulling our attention away from?”

  Lycoris forced herself to breathe, shelving the hatred for the woman as best she could and instead contemplating what her ulterior motive might be. She wasn’t particularly aware of what the current political landscape was like—especially after her recent debut undoubtedly shook things up.

  The only thing she could remember her mother and Athena bringing up was…

  “The Geolle Resistance,” Lilianna quietly muttered.

  “She’s probably already gone back underground. I doubt we’d catch her just by looking.”

  “We won’t have to.”

  Lycoris glanced into her mother’s eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “We already have a lead, remember? We can trace this Vanas louse back to her, and close the net around them both. That may prove difficult though, given their—”

  “But what about Emma!? We can’t just… sacrifice her! She’s my friend! And Seraphine’s beloved!”

  Lilianna’s lip curled ever so slightly, her stern demeanor fading for just a moment for some reason.

  She didn’t quite know how to properly appeal to her mother’s nobility, but Lycoris decided to capitalize on that chance and followed that itch nagging at the back of her neck.

  “A-Also, I don’t want that idiot to get away with whatever he’s plotting! If he thinks that he can slight a member of the Aphtangloa just because I didn’t say hi and dance with him… isn’t that reason to go forth and punish him immediately!? Plus I… I don’t want Emma to be hurt because of what I did.”

  “Be that as it may, Lycoris, remember that they are common—”

  “Stop acting like civilians are less than human! You know I was no different myself!”

  “But you were, you are.”

  “Yeah… That’s right.” Lycoris’ lips curled in derision. “You said I was special. That I could ‘lead our people to a brighter future!’ So why are you forcing me to make the same choice you would!? We know who did this, where a lead is. Let me make a difference somehow! I… admit that I want to go there, but I know that being a princess comes with all sorts of risks and responsibility. I’m not just going to run off on my own this time… Didn’t you want me to try my hardest to convince you, when I thought it mattered!?”

  “We—”

  “I’ll stay here, if that’s really what the situation calls for. But I won’t stand for the idea that those ‘commoners’ are worth less than myself. They’re my friends, not some toys to be tossed aside. They helped me when they had no reason to. Even when they realized I was potentially hazardous to even associate with, they didn’t abandon me! And… At the end of the day, aren’t we all just… just people?”

  “‘People,’ is it…?”

  “…That’s why I think it’s revolting that vampires drink Human blood. Nevermind the Goddess’ teachings or anything like that! You wouldn’t drain a random noble dry just because Vampire blood tasted better, would you!?”

  Her mother looked just as startled as when Lycoris had managed to actually land that very first blow against her during their initial training session. She opened and closed her mouth several times, as though she were actually at a loss for words. Like she didn’t know where to even begin trying to refute Lycoris’ argument.

  Eventually, she set down the glass and nodded at Athena, who quietly crept out of the room.

  The hairs on Lycoris’ neck stood on end as the atmosphere in the room gradually changed, the shadows growing longer and the warmth of the firepit fading; but, rather than angry, her mother looked… tired.

  “Not a single soul would ever be so far gone,” she muttered to herself with a sigh, before clearing her throat. “There are so many things we… I wish to say. Too many for one conversation. Some are things I cannot say, even. But, there is a reason why it is taught that drinking the blood of other vampires causes mutation and disease. The very knowledge that such a thing is possible is itself dangerous, as it leads down an inevitable train of thought. And at the end, is the act of diablerie… a taboo that must never leave this room. To ghoul a Human is to err, but to diablerize a vampire… is to threaten the world.”

  There was a gravity to her words that caused Lycoris’ knees to buckle, as though her mother’s speech was exposing some primal fear inside of her as she fell to her hands and knees.

  “There… will come a time when we explain more. But not here. Not now.”

  “…”

  Lycoris’ head spun as she suddenly felt strangely ill, her heart throbbed painfully in her chest, she choked and gasped for air. And then…

  Her mother gently picked her up under the arms, and held her gently against her chest, calmingly rubbing her back. She had stood up at some point, but Lycoris wasn’t sure when.

  “There, there. We know that you didn’t understand the weight of what you suggested. We— I’m curious to hear more of these ‘teachings’ those humans poisoned your mind with. Perhaps that is the source of our quarrels… Could I trouble you to share with me? So that I might learn why my child is so wounded by what is only a natural course of evolution.”

  “Mm… Mnn…”

  It was the last thing she wanted.

  If she told her mom about the Goddess, about the Church, she’d undoubtedly find some way to tear her faith apart. It was the only thing keeping her going. It was the unassailable final bastion of Humanity. The only thing helping her remember which way was up as she sank into the mud.

  Lycoris shook her head.

  Not here. Not now.

  Just as her mother had said.

  Lilianna sighed and sat back down, holding her daughter as she cast her gaze toward the ceiling.

  “Very well. We won’t put our darling flower in harm’s way, but… Perhaps you can accompany the Security Contractor as far as the neighboring city.”

  Lycoris looked up at her mother speechlessly, her eyes widening in genuine shock and awe.

  “The Imperial Army is to gather there, you may serve as a figurehead to spur the relief efforts of Kranes. And… ensure that blundering oaf doesn't get away with besmirching our family name, Lycoris. We can assure you that he won’t bring any harm to this Emma immediately. He is Vanas, and they… prefer to repurpose dissidents and captives, rather than erase them. No doubt he intends to show her off to you after having done so.”

  “—!?”

  The girl gasped, a deep disgust writhing in her gut. She didn’t know what her mother meant, but the way she spoke made it obvious that it was nothing she wanted to hear any details of.

  And she especially didn’t want Emma to suffer such a fate. The fact Lilianna had been willing to allow such a thing in the first place was already worth rebuking, but Lycoris had neither the capacity nor drive to do so when she’d already won a concession out of her.

  “You will also have to take care to drink in private on your sojourn. We wouldn’t wish for anyone to see our daughter force down untreated animal blood, after all.”

  “I…”

  Lycoris tripped over herself as she recalled something from the day prior. A silver thread that she desperately wished to grasp, hoping it could pull her up into the light, out of the mire she was trapped in.

  “Hm? It’s okay, take your time, dearest.”

  “… …Athena said… there’s processed animal blood that tastes better. That’s used in, um, commoner fare.”

  “Speaking of the Vanas…” Lilianna muttered to herself. “Indeed, there are many additives poor for one’s health mixed in, to help the sweetener properly blend into the mixture. It’s a cost-saving measure to deal with the demand for blood… We presume she didn’t share what that ‘sweetener’ is.”

  Lycoris let out a forlorn whimper, “It’s not… It can’t be…”

  “There is no point in impacting your health by giving you treated animal blood, when it would still mean feeding you Human blood, albeit diluted. After all, at that point, you may as well do what is best for your health and palate.”

  “Then…”

  “That said, animal blood obviously isn’t a sustainable solution, either… We worry it might stunt your growth. …Though you certainly seemed fine while indulging in your birthday cake… but that is another matter to handle at a later time. For now, collect yourself. We shall arrange transport for you and your friend. And of course, Athena shall accompany you as well.”

  Lycoris let out a deep, drawn out sigh. Her earlier outburst had sapped her energy, and Lilianna’s explanation just now had been the finishing blow. She curled up against her mother, a gloomy pall hanging over her.

  No sooner did she clutch at that ray of hope than it vanished. The light had only been an illusion, blinding her before she was plunged back into the darkness once more.

  But at least… it was warm.