Before the military investigation unit arrived, Stella, Lindley and I hurried left Riaju City. Under the direction of the innkeeper, we procured a carriage and two horses, and set off. I stuck the coffin in the carriage, once again reminding myself of a certain white-haired coffin princess with a huge sniper rifle, but I decided to just roll with it.
"Are you sure you guys want to go this early?" Chris asked, looking a little forlorn. "You should at least rest for a few more days!"
"The investigation unit wouldn't be here until tomorrow," Wilson agreed. "What's the rush?"
"We'll miss you!" Rose said and held Stella's hands. The red-haired knight looked uncomfortable, but she indulged the green-haired wood mage for now. They had become quite good friends, by virtue of being the only girls in our group. Rose hugged Stella. "No matter who you are, or where you come from, we'll always trust you. So…please come back once you're done. We'll definitely welcome you."
"I'm sure we'll see each other again," Stella assured her. She was taken aback by Rose's impassioned words. "We'll be returning to Royales once every few months or so. We'll contact you again then."
"You had better!" Lance growled. "It's a promise!"
"Yeah. But for now we have our own mission to carry out. I'm sorry." I bowed my head slightly. "As much as I want to stick around, there are matters back home that demand my attention. So I have to return as soon as possible."
It had been a few weeks since I had left Tyranvania, and I didn't know how the situation was like at the moment. I needed to return to help Claude Lyon and his wife, Valerie. Not to mention Valencia as well. The warlords might be attacking their territories any time now, and even with the reinforcements I brought to them after eliminating one of the anti-new Demonic Emperor conclave, they might have trouble fending off the assault.
After returning to Bravia, I intended to drop by Silvia's province and then bring her legion back with me. With Lindley's legion of the undead to back us up, we could finally begin with cleansing the vampire province of Tyranvania of usurpers to the throne.
Or so I hoped.
"Don't worry. We'll definitely see each other again. And that time, I'll be asking you for help."
"Heh." Chris chuckled at my words and he placed a hand on my shoulder. "After all you've done for us, we'll definitely help you out. No matter what identities you carry, the fact remains that we owe you our lives."
"You saved us," Wilson agreed. "You not only saved us, you even helped us bring justice to that corrupted chairwoman. We might have only known each other for a very short time, but I know we can trust you more than our fellow hu…mages."
"And you helped us avenged our fallen comrades of the mage corps…as well as the innocent villagers." Rose seemed like she was shedding a tear.
"Speaking of which, you did something to that bitch and the bastard Mikhail, didn't you?" Lance raised an eyebrow. I merely smiled mysteriously.
"They are dead." Actually, they were undead, but my mage friends didn't need to know that. "They will never commit those atrocities on anyone ever again."
"Good riddance," Lindley said with a snort. "Those terrible experiments are an affront to magical research and alchemy. Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to carry out chimeric surgeries? Grafting foreign biological appendages to a human body would only increase the chance of rejection, and using magic to force the melding of two wholly different organic matter would only shorten the lifespan of the subject. They would only expire…"
"We also destroyed whatever blasphemous research Miranda was conducting, and took the true alchemical tomes that she plundered." I cut Lindley off before he could go off on a rant. "We'll make sure the precious alchemical knowledge will not be perverted for heinous agendas ever again."
"Oh, I'll make sure they contribute to more efficient and better alchemical processes," Lindley promised. "None of those stupid monstrous specimens that seem more from a desire to inflate one's ego rather than for any true vision of magical progress."
"Yeah, I'll be holding you to that," I told him. Stella also nodded, watching the disguised lich lord suspiciously. We were both on the same wavelength. I then turned back to the four mages and plastered a smile. "I'll be seeing you guys then."
"Till we meet again," Stella said solemnly, doing some sort of knight salute. Rose shook her hands, and the two girls parted.
We then got onto the carriage and had the horses pull us away. As we moved north, I turned around and watched as the waving figures of my friends disappeared into the distance.
"You said we'll meet them again, Klein?" Stella asked from the front. She was holding onto the reins of the horses and steering them.
"Yeah. If we are to coexist peacefully with humans, we'll need to have friends here. People we can trust." This sounded strange, coming from me – especially since I had been betrayed my party, which comprised of people I thought were comrades. Yeah, they were pretty horrible people, but I never thought they would go as far as killing me.
However, I had also fought alongside many people who willingly sacrificed themselves for humanity. The common soldier, though without magic or blessings that the Heroes received, did not hesitate to put his life on the line. In a way, they were far more heroic than the Heroes, who were protected by a ton of blessings (and plot armor and Deus ex Machina). Despite being an everyman, armed with nothing more than a sword and shield, and equipped with armor as thin as parchment, they had balls of titanium, charging at monsters, demons and behemoths. While the heroes were lauded for their courage, it was the faith and fury of the common soldiers – of the masses – who truly served a shield for humanity.
And these were the people I could trust to watch my back and pull me out of the fire whenever I was in trouble. I had seen them do it for each other, entire squads rushing forward to save a single knight. Leave no man behind.
In contrast, I doubted I had ever seen Herman and the others ever risk their own lives to protect each other. Come to think of it, I was the only one who did that.
What a fool I had been. I would have been happier serving in the mage corps (as long as it wasn't alongside people like Mikhail and those who chose to follow Miranda) or with the knights or common soldiery than receiving the so-called honor of being in the Hero's party.
"Huh?" Lindley frowned in bewilderment. "Coexistence? But if that's your goal, shouldn't you have told those humans that you're a vampire? If they know we are demons, wouldn't they turn on us? They were hostile when they found out I am a master of necromancy. Can you imagine their reaction if they learn that I'm actually a lich?"
"Yeah. They will be shocked. But…they already know Stella and I are vampires."
"Since when?" Stella sounded surprised and subconsciously tightened her grip on the reins. The horses grunted, but they continued striding forward.
"…they saw how fast you healed back during the battle against Mikhail. They saw me feed you blood. And they witnessed me using blood magic. They aren't blind. There's no way they would mistake my Night of Armageddon Blood Barrier for anything else. And only vampires can use blood magic."
"But they didn't say anything about it…?"
"Exactly." I nodded. "Chris and the others…they know better than to ask. They chose not to question us…they chose to trust us."
"…I see." Stella nodded. She stared at her hands. "So that's it. So that was what Rose meant. And the others. They were also…behaving strangely."
She was probably recalling Wilson's slip. And Chris's talk about identity.
We spent another two days traveling, and stopped by another city up north. This time, it was a city called North Riaju City…because it was situated north of the actual Riaju City. Apparently someone got lazy with the names. Well, actually, they were one gigantic city in the past, but there was some sort of history where the two sons of the Marquis of Riaju province contested each other over who should succeed their father. They split the capital city of Riaju province apart, and the younger son took over what was now known as North Riaju City.
Unlike the actual Riaju City down south, North Riaju was still pretty populated. There were a few merchants traveling through the city, as well as visitors and refugees from the city down south. If this was several decades ago, the older son would probably be pissed off at how his younger brother was profiting off his misfortune, but the bloodlines had been reunited many years ago.
"We'll stop here for the day," I suggested. Lindley nodded and put down the grimoire that he had been reading throughout the journey. He had been absorbed in the alchemical tome on homunculus.
"Ah, good. I was hoping I could get some materials for experiments. If you don't mind me purchasing them, of course, my lord."
"Not at all. Get whatever you need."
"Thank you. It'll have to be tomorrow, though. It's getting late, so I believe the stores are all closed by now."
"Good point."
"We'll rest at this inn then." Stella pulled the horses to a stop and stopped by an inn at the center of the city. "We'll stay here for the night."
"Sounds good." I had been leaving these little things to Stella. She was my aide, after all. It was her job.
The next morning, we left the inn. Lindley wanted to visit a few stores to get research materials. The usual herbs, ores, chemicals and whatever. Even if he told me, I wouldn't understand because I wasn't an alchemist.
That left me and Stella waiting for him. So my knight had a suggestion.
"Klein, if you don���t mind, let's visit Riaju Park."
"Huh? Riaju Park?"
"That's right." Stella nodded. "North Riaju City is famous for its huge, verdant park. It's a great place for a picnic. It's also their brightest tourist attraction. Many visitors travel from all over the kingdom to take a look. Since we're already here, why don't we visit it as well? Lindley wouldn't be back for a while, anyway. Now that you've more than halfway done with your goal, I believe it's an opportune time to relax."
"Huh, okay. Let's go then."
"Great!" For a rare moment, Stella looked girlish while expressing her delight. "Let's go!"
Riaju Park turned out to be an impressive place. Its paths were paved by white marble, with neatly mowed grass on both sides. Exquisitely carved statues and fountains were placed in strategic locations, so as not to obstruct the greenery. Across the grass, trees towered over the place, providing shades to families and visitors.
"Over here!"
Stella gestured to an empty tree. I followed her and she spread out a mat. She brought out a couple of glasses.
"Since we are…what we are, we can't have a picnic, but I'm sure we can have the next best thing." She brought out a bottle that was filled with blood. Not that anyone could tell because she had used a wine bottle, with the labels and everything. She filled up the glasses and handed one to me. "Cheers."
"Cheers." I clinked her glass with mine and sipped. The both of us sat on the mat and watched the greenery, enjoying the peaceful moment.
After all the death and violence that we had been through, this was a nice change of pace.
Unfortunately, it didn't last long.
"Those people who possess an aura of evil…we have come to defeat you!"
To our surprise, a group of people popped up out of nowhere, surrounding us. There was a swordsman, a spearman, an archer, a mage and a priestess. Five people in total. Stella and I could only gape at them, not comprehending.
They certainly didn't look friendly. They were pointing their weapons at us.
"There's unmistakably the power of darkness around you two. A demonic aura."
"If that's the case, then this is a job for the Hero, Harold!"
"We'll show you all that Herman's Hero party isn't the only Hero party that exists!"
There was a buildup of mana as they began casting their spells and getting ready to attack us. I raised my eyebrow.
"You guys are…"
Surprisingly enough, I saw several familiar faces among them. About a year ago, when I was still a member of a Hero party, I had met several of these people before.
They were another Hero party, one that didn't belong to Herman.