“Eh?”
“That hair color….You’re a vampire- Hey!”
In an attempt to break free from Belisari, the white hair girl tries to rotate her pistol on her hand toward Belisari. But the prince quickly realizes it and grabs her wrist with his left hand and holds it tightly-”Do not do anything stupid. I just want to negotiate."
“What are you talking about?”
Mumble*Mumble*
More and more people flock around them and start talking, creating a huge crowd surrounding two people. Normally, Belisari would not mind it. However, he fully knows Klein and the Royal Servicemen who are searching for him. It's not a good time to drag so much attention to himself, Belisari needs to find somewhere else.
“Come on, let’s go”-Belisari said to the girl, before dragging her to a less crowded, dark, dead-end corner. A stinky smell came from several boxes scattered all around, probably rotten fruit or fish. Whatever, that doesn’t matter, Belisari picked up a few larger boxes to block the road between the alley and the street, all in one hand, with the other still holding the “vampire”. Just in time, a few seconds before the mounted police came and disbanded the sea of people right where they had just stood.
“Phew, we’re safe, for now”-Belisari said as he peaked out through the gap of the boxes to survey the polices’ movement, which are away from where they’re standing-”Now, may you answer my question?”
“Please release me first."
“Not until I receive your answer”
“Please”-the “vampire” said with both of her hands making a sign of begging at Belisari
“Okay fine”-Belisari sighs and eases his hand-”Just don’t think about escaping, I will not refrain from using my sword to stop you from running away from me. And do not think about screaming for help either”
That said, if she attempts to attack Belisari, he won’t stand a chance. Not many humans with melee weapons could solo a vampire, at least not him. But maybe if he fights here and makes loud noises, the mounted cavalry will arrive and help to restrain her again.
Being released from the hand of the prince, the white hair girl slowly retrieves her right hand back. Then, she reaches out for something in her bag.Belisari also takes a step back and raises his sword, preparing as if she was about to attack.
But then it turns out that she just takes out a bottle of some strange liquid that he doesn’t know in the slightest. The girl poured out a dozen into her palm, then drank the whole. The liquid looks strikingly familiar to alcohol to be honest:
“What is that?”-Belisari lowers his guard for a moment while approaching her. It looks like she has no intention of attacking him anyway:
“Just some minor treatment, no need to worry. By the way, should you not do that while trying to negotiate?”
“Fine, it was my fault. Sorry for being aggressive.”
At the same time, the white hair girl was done with her treatment. Putting back the bottle back to the bag, she walks toward the crate where Belisari’s is sitting, brushes off the dust and sits down right next to the prince. She said:
“Okay Mr.Aristocrat. Would you be so kind as to tell me your name, my good sir?”
“Belisari Flarius Latila, yours?”
“Umm…”-She thought.
“Hey, don’t tell me that you forgot your own name-”
“You could refer to me as Aurora Borealis.”
She says, winking her right eye as if she has just revealed her secret identity to someone.
“That is for certain is not your name.”
“Please refer to me as such, please.”
Aurora said, and smile, a smile that made Belisari can’t reject, he surrendered:
“Fine, fine, Aurora Borealis, right? I’ve generously called you Aurora Borealis, so now please answer my question: please tell me that you are an elite vampire aristocrat?”
“Huh? What vampire?”
“I know you are one, so don’t-"
Suddenly, Belisari realizes something that he couldn’t recognize earlier due to their distance.
Vampire has another unique trait, that can’t be disappeared, not important whether or not that individual is pure blood. Along with their silver hair, that’s also a trait to see if a person has any vampire blood flowing within their veins.
Their red, bloody eye color from the lack of pigment, instead of any color, their eyes have the color of the blood flowing in their veins.
Yet, the girl who’s sitting in front of him, looking directly into his eyes, has dark brown eye color, nothing related to a vampire. Aurora, as much as Belisari wants to say that she's a vampire, is just an ordinary human.
"You...are not a vampire, right?”
Aurora shakes her head.
Believer's voice suddenly became smaller:
“Hah…”
The prince stretched his entire body along the length of the box, followed by a long sigh of exhaustion and disappointment. For a split second, Belisari was filled with hope of being able to recruit a vampire ambassador to his country. Now that plan lay in ruin, the white hair woman that he was looking for isn’t a vampire at the slightest, but a human just like him.
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"Why do you need a vampire anyway?”-Aurora asked with pure innocence. She doesn’t realize how much trouble she has caused for Belisari.
Belisari looked at Aurora through a small open gap between his fingers, said:
“Nothing…it’s just…I want to…well, you don’t know who I am,right?”
“An aristocrat? I guess so. And a military officer as well…Oh! Maybe you want to draft vampires into your army? Their stamina and raw strength are better than humans. Am I guessing that correctly?”
“Well, at least I could say I found a smart one instead. Yeah,that’s kinda the point. Now thinking back, why would a vampire come to Latila in the first place?”
Latila is a city of multi species, mostly human, but also two out of three other creatures on the continent: Elves and Fliers. Their arrival is the result of Elestovakian expansion toward the north, forcing the Duchy of O’well and the Aeropostale Republic to evacuate their people to either the further northern forest, or seek refuge in Latila and Vlenna.
However, there is a single creature, whose original homeland was too far from both friendly cities: Vampire of the Nosfeturan Empire. Thus, after losing ground to Elestovakian, they began a mass scale retreat to a mountain range named Alpsles, where they established several small scale colonies to fend off the Empire.
But also because of that, they have absolutely no method to escape the continent to the sea, where they could flee to any country that was friendly to them. So despite being open for any vampire to come, among twenty thousand non-human that came here since the Elestovakian Northern Campaign, none of the arrivals were vampires.
And so, there is no reason, or any way for one to visit this nation. Belisari had wasted his time chasing not the person he needed:
“I thought you guys- sorry, I meant the vampire kind has finally escaped. It’s just disappointing to see I wasted too much time finding a random person.”
“Hey, at least you found a smart person, as you’ve said earlier.”
“That doesn’t really help anything. I don't really need intelligence now. Can you fight in the military-”
Wait, then what the heck she used to blow up those raiders?-a realization crosses his mind-Muskets does not create such mass havoc. The cannon of the field artillery unit and garrisons certainly did not create an explosion,and it was too big for one to carry.
And for the Milishilian’s newest invention, the hand grenade, the special equipment for the Fliers, for as imitating as its name is, their explosions are not that big, mostly it would just be flame and fragments:
“Aurora”-He decided to ask her directly-”What did you use to injure the raiders?”
Without a word saying, Aurora reaches back to her bag and pulls out a long metallic tube, which emptied inside, and shows it to Belisari.
“Huh? A large caliber gun?”-Belisari said surprised-”That does not explain the explosion site.”
“It has an explosive tip, it is explosive.”
“Explosive shells!?"
Belisari says in surprise, because the technique of using explosives for artillery shells was just introduced by the Empire of Milishila less than a year ago, during the naval campaign in the Milishilian-Estovakian War. Their armed rigged-ships superior firepower is unrivaled, they shredded through the wooden frigates of the Elestovakian like a hot knife against butter and destroyed those ships from the inside, causing much more devastating damage for each engagement. Those armed ships sank the entire Elestovakian navy within four battles, before the Milishilian landed on the continent's soil.
And on a small campaign to support their troops on the Elestovakia mainland, those ships equipped with explosive shells have bombarded and decimated four brigades worth of personnel, in just one day. If only they got some of those shells in their arsenal, things would be at least twenty times easier. And, unexpectedly, the girl in front of him told him that she had brought it with herself, with a straight face, showing no lie underneath:
“Explosive shell? For real? May I see how it works?"
“Umm…no.”
“Fifty Denariis.”-Belisari takes out a bunch of coins out of his bag.
He does not know whether it's an illusion or not, but Belisari thinks that he saw Aurora’s eyes suddenly sparkle when he brought out the coins.
“Now we’re talking.”-Aurora claps her hands together-”Let me find a less crowded place first.”
Taking the silver coins from Belisari, Aurora then shoves her hand into the bag, and pulls out a cone shaped object, to which Belisari can’t recognise it, because as he remembers, the Milishilian shells were round cannon balls. Is Aurora lying to him? He doesn’t know, but if she’s lying, then Belisari would know it by the second she shoots that gun in her hand.
Meanwhile, Aurora is taking her time loading the shell into its launcher. She stands up,looking for the seaside, and when she sees it, Aurora raises her gun toward the blank ocean, all while Belisari is still in disbelief.
Over the sky, the dark clouds are coming to the city. It’s going to be raining soon, so Belisari told her:
“Hurry up Aurora.”
”Don’t tell me to hurry up, this weapon is dangerous, I have to wait until there’s no more people out there first. Now”
As the last person gets out of her vision, Aurora pulls the trigger.
Out of the handcannon, a thunderous loud noise came as the shell was being released from its chamber, the same noise that Belisari heard back when he was about to return to the palace.
BAM!
“Holy!”
The shell contacts the surface of the ocean, sinking into a few meters, before detonating beneath the waves and lifting a massive column of water into the air, creating a small tsunami following it.
No doubt, it’s really an explosive shell that Belisari has been looking for.
The explosion has dragged the attention of the people at the port and the naval patrol ships, and they are coming to the explosion site. The navy is looking for the culprit behind that blast. Therefore, Aurora quickly hides away so that she won’t be detected if someone looks over there:
“Come on,let’s get out of here.”-Aurora said to Belisari.
But Belisari was stunned, speechless, he didn't even move an inch.
"That's ....what I need…”
“What you need- Hey!”
Suddenly, Belisari turns around, at Aurora, and grabs on both of her shoulders, caught her by total surprise:
“Aurora”-he said,trying to calm himself down-”Do you have any more of this? I shall buy it at your given price.”
“Eh? But I don’t have that much, I only have four left.”
“Damn it!”
Belisari releases Aurora from his hands, walking left to right, his face is in anger, but deep down, that’s a calculating face, and Aurora knows that. However, what she does not know is what Belisari is having in his head right now, but when she’s about to ask:
“Belisari-”
“Aurora.”-Belisari stopped walking, turning to her. With their eyes locked on each other, he said-”Do you know how to manufacture them in mass numbers?”
He speaks, while maintaining a straight look at her, the look when a person is staring at what they desire, and for Belisari, that’s Aurora’s knowledge. Aurora, like that she knows exactly what Belisari needs, and wants to say, she honestly replies:
“Sure, if every resource is given, I am an engineer after all. Hey, you want to hire me, right?”
“You’re really a smart one, I must say. Please, Aurora”
Belisari stands in front of her, hand raises. It’s now or never, probably the only chance to hire this mysterious person that he thought was a vampire, but it turned out to be even better, into his nation’s army. Two hours of searching has not been in vain, but absolutely worth it, the only mission left is persuading this prize to be his. Throwing off every dignity of a crown prince, Belisari knees down, head lowered:
“Aurora Borealis, or whatever you want me to call you. I want you to be in my army.”