At that moment, three soft, well-moderated knocks created the perfect sound for whoever was inside the room to open the door.
Valery, who was not prepared to receive visitors, quickly got up and dressed.
She pushed aside the pieces of metal so that when she opened the door they would not be visible.
As she was about to open the door, she stopped.
Her voice was loud and clear.
"Who is it?" she asked.
Valery did not receive an immediate answer, she was getting nervous with every millisecond she felt her blood seem to freeze for a moment as she waited for an answer. Her non-existent breath for the first time in a long time appeared.
'Did they discover it?' thought Valery before shaking his head quickly, there was no way they would discover it either.
Her head began to ache and so did her eyes, Valery was clenching her jaw with all her might.
"Valery?"
"Valery!"
Valkery hearing her name being repeated several times was finally able to recognize whose voice it was, her unfocused and deep-set eyes finally returned to normal.
"Katerin?" she asked doubtful of his ears, at the same time she opened the door.
"Valery are you all right?" Katerin seeing Valery in her current state felt nervous and fearful for her friend.
"That's a relief," Valery sighed with a soft but deep sigh.
"Have you been attacked or something?" Katerin wasted no time and looked at Valery's body for any wounds, but found nothing. That was a relief to Katerin's mind.
"Why are you so nervous? Did something happen?"
"No, nothing happened..." Valery opened the door wider for Katerin to enter her room.
Katerin at her gentle invitation accepted and took two steps into the room, where her gaze then focused on Victor. It wasn't the first time she had looked at him, but it was the first time she had seen him without something going on around him.
"What's his name?" asked Katerin.
"Victor."
"So you have a pet human now?" there was a slight displeasure on Katerin's part.
"More than a pet, it's like a companion thing."
"Isn't that just a pet?"
"A companion friend, too."
Katerin looked at Victor for a while longer, she saw that there was no reaction from him to her arrival. Besides he was so calm and indifferent only occasionally you noticed his blinks, but even those blinks were slow and unsteady, his breathing was slow as if he was barely skimming the limbo between a living and a corpse.
"Strange..."
"Yeah it's a little weird... he doesn't talk, he doesn't move either he barely breathes. It's like a plant..."
"I see..." Katerin immediately realized why it couldn't be called a pet either.
Still Katerin was curious and kept asking, she noticed that Victor was very clean so Valery should have taken care of that.
Oddly enough, Valery didn't take care of any of that.
Then they came to an important topic, the food.
"I really wanted to ask you about that, I don't know how to cook but I remember that you do. Could you help me?" Katerin was not a great cook but she wasn't bad either, after all she had to take care of a human child, her little daughter.
Valery focused her gaze on her friend, she could only sigh. Maybe she didn't admit it but in time she was grieving the loss of Lissandra.
"If I can help you, but instead I came to share information with you" Katerin stressed the reason why she came here in the first place.
"Then we can share what we know."
After that they chatted until it was only an hour before classes started.
They talked about what they could, who was hanging out with whom. Who seems to have taken sides, who has not. Who to watch out for. Not least of all who to recruit. Mostly prominent commoners who don't know the situation in the high command.
"Then I'll recruit them, just keep bringing me information," Valery said.
Katerin decided, as they agreed that each of them would play a role. The best role for Katerin was to get information.
"Yes, you'd better hurry, Anna is a good choice she is smart and has good physical abilities; Marc is another good choice he is good with a sword and is trained to be a knight."
"Still there are not many options" Valery said as he bit his fingernail, thinking about what to do.
"If you're going to take priorities get Marc, we don't have anyone who knows about nearby militaries besides the knights in neutral territories. But as long as we are here we need that combat help."
"I'll go between classes to recruit him."
"then we're done" Katerin said as she got up from her seat and stretched before heading for the door. Cunadio saw the lock he could only sigh at Valery's security measures.
"Wait I'll get it" Valery opened the door, with the lock moving pattern.
"It's complicated Valery... "Katerin admitted that she really couldn't get out of the room if she tried.
Valery and Katerin walked together to the flight class.
Before leaving the female dormitory area, three students stopped in front of them.
One of these people was someone Valery had recently seen.
Baron Icerain.
But one person stood out from the three, his hair was a light color with red highlights. His body was trained and strong. His muscles were larger than usual, and his face looked as if his hair had been arranged to look handsome, but it was relamete horrifying.
Viscount Flamewood.
A distant cousin of Archduke Flamewood, this is a clear example of why nobles do not have relationships or children with other nobles not of their own status. Even so it is contradictory, but the nobles usually have children with the common vampires of their territory.
His jaw drew a smile, but it looked so false in the face of his extremely marked and unnatural type of face.
"Ladies, I've been looking for you for a while," his voice was low and controlled. Elegant more than anything else.
"Sir Albert, what business do you have with us?"