Needless to say, the treatment Vermeil was receiving was... less than hospitable.
The rumor that the heroine had decided to abandon the races of light had spread throughout Vance's camp and no one could believe it.
"Did you hear about the saintess?"
"Don't even mention that blasphemous whore!"
"For her to turn against us who are the chosen ones of the gods, is she not afraid of their divine punishment?!"
Vance knew that these rumors were spreading around his camp like wildfire but there was nothing he could do to stop them.
Vermeil had indeed betrayed them, but he was tired of hearing about it.
With that in mind, he elected to focus on getting his troupe back to the kingdom as soon as possible.
When the group travelled, the four female prisoners walked all the way in the back with their hands tied up and no way to escape.
Vermeil was in the lead, followed by Keran and Kohaku and Kuro.
Even though the three fallen were supposedly the enemy, Vermeil was definitely getting the worst treatment.
Every so often, a soldier would shuffle towards the back to hurl foul insults at the white haired saintess or even spit on her.
Throughout all of it, Vermeil did not utter a single word of wrath other than a hate filled glare.
The three women behind her could only stare in awe as they wondered how this human woman could stomach all of this treatment without so much as a complaint or tear.
Their mindless march forward continued on for several hours before Vance finally gave the order to set up camp for the night.
The women stood around absentmindedly for almost thirty minutes before their tent was hastily set up and they were literally kicked inside.
Vermeil hit the ground first and the other beast kin women piled on top of her shortly after.
"Ugh... Fucking bastards... You girls aren't hurt, are you?"
Unfortunately, the mouths of all of the girls were still gagged so they could not voice their state of being.
"Right... forgot about those. I can try to help you get them off if you want?"
Without waiting for their answer, Vermeil scrambled up and brought her bound hands to the mouths of the three girls.
After so much time spent observing her actions, the wariness the group felt had long disappeared, leaving behind something unknown in it's place.
Even Kuro had come to believe this human girl would not harm them, though her motives were still unclear.
"There! It's a travesty to keep such beautiful faces covered up."
Once again, Keran and Kohaku blushed while Kuro scrutinized her even harder.
With the girls taken care of, Vermeil leaned back onto the ground and placed her bound hands on her stomach. "Geez, I don't think I've ever walked so much in my life...I really miss cars and air conditioning."
The three beastkin had no idea what Vermeil was talking about, but she just continued to talk without really expecting them to.
"Would I have had an easier time in my last life if I worked out more? All I really did was, eat, work and write fanfiction..."
Her golden eyes immediately went as wide as saucers when she realized she had accidentally let precious information slip without even meaning to.
'Well I guess it's fine, it's not like they know what it is...'
"...What is fanfiction?" A voice suddenly asked.
'SHIT!'
Vermeil turned in horror to see that it was the werewolf princess who had asked and she seemed to be genuinely waiting for an answer.
"I-It's like a short story written by fans like me based on an existing story that was written by someone else." Vermeil tried to make it sound as professional as possible so that the girls did not think she was some kind of weirdo.
Well she was but she could not allow her new friends to know that!
She would take the egregious amount of smut she wrote all the way to her grave!
"You were a writer? What did you write about?"
Now even Kohaku was curious and Vermeil felt like she was going to die at any moment.
Why is it that when the girls finally start talking to her, it has to be about something as embarrassing as this?!
She couldn't just clam up and refuse to answer now that the girls were finally talking to her!
"W-Well there was this book series I really liked about this super hot vampire and this boring girl and-"
"Did you say vampire?!" Keran practically leapt on top of the human girl and was now giving her a look of pure interest.
"KYAA! Y-Yes?"
"Tell me everything about it right now!"
"O-Okay!"
For the next twenty minutes, Vermeil proceeded to tell Keran the harrowing story of Edmonton and Becky, who formed an unlikely but compelling relationship that burrowed itself into the hearts of teen girls everywhere.
Kohaku and Kuro had no idea what was going on anymore.
They had never seen their lady so interested in a story before, least of all about one that was clearly as cheesy as this one.
When Vermeil finished telling her story, Keran sat back with a satisfied yet disproving look on her face.
"Vampires in your world... They are rather weak, no?"
"Hm? Vampires aren't real."
"Ah... I suppose to you they wouldn't be."
In that moment, no words could have excited the human girl more.
"Are there vampires here?! Real ones!? Hot ones?!"
Could it be?
Was her prepubescent dream of losing her virginity to some 1,000 year old hot guy finally going to come to fruition?
If she had to break out of these chains to find him, she would gladly do so 1,000 times over!
Unfortunately, Vermeil's fantasy was short lived when Keran's face suddenly took on a faraway expression. "No... not anymore."
Seeing the look on Keran's face, Vermeil wondered if she'd somehow struck a nerve.
"Hey... are you-"
Before Vermeil could check on the depressed werewolf girl, the sound of footsteps made all of the women turn towards the entrance to the tent.
Three men threw open the flaps to the tent, each of them wearing sinister grins on their faces.
"Alright you bitches. It's dinnertime."