A little over an hour later, in the Redwing Palace, in the royal bedchamber…

「What happened?」

Cycelia says in a shocked tone, blinking her emerald eyes at Will in disbelief from a chair at Straf's bedside.

「…It is as I said, your highness. We will get to the bottom of this, but I thought you would want to know right away.」

With his hands behind his back, standing by the bed's foot end, Will returns a small nod while speaking in a serious tone.

Cycelia continues blinking at him for a few seconds more, then turns her eyes to Straf's sleeping face. Lying on the enormous bed he remains peacefully asleep, breathing slowly in a steady rhythm. Cycelia's brows furrow, and she lowers her chestnut head with a troubled expression on her face. After a few moments, she stands up.

「…Thank you, Will.」

She nods as she walks past Will in a rushed step.

「Er… Your highness, where are you going?…」

He asks, jogging after her. She reaches the large oaken doors, and pulls one of them open a little.

「…To handle some diplomatic matters. Please find out what happened, Will.」

She pauses briefly to think, then replies with a soft, pained smile on her face. She departs, leaving the door open.

「Yes, your highness…」

With his brows furrowed, Will nods a little too late towards the empty doorway. Heavily confused, he shrugs and exits as well, shutting the door behind himself, leaving Straf to sleep alone…

…

A little over fifteen minutes later, in Cycelia's room…

Cycelia pushes her room's door open, then lazily throws it shut.

Thud.

She hurries to her wardrobe, and opens its doors. There are many fancy shirts, dresses, and skirts hanging inside, all equally extravagant and competing with each other, aside from the few that visibly attempt to mimic the commoner fashion. In the wardrobe filled with girly, feminine clothing for all types of seasons and weathers, Cycelia's dainty hands reach for the obvious alien interloping there. She pulls Straf's stylish coat off the coat hanger, and looks at it with sullen emerald eyes.

After a very brief moment, she lets out a wistful sigh and throws the coat onto herself, slipping her arms into its sleeves. Cycelia then heads for the door, and exits in haste…

…

Roughly another fifteen minutes later, outside the palace gate…

Shivering a little from the cold as soon as she exits the warm, hearthfire-heated palace, Cycelia places her hands into her pockets, making herself small. She proceeds onward towards the gate, wrapped by Straf's trench coat given to her. When she passes the two plumed guards they double-take at her.

「Minis- Eh? Your highness?」

One of the guards nods his helmeted head in a greeting, only for it to perk up in surprise. Cycelia stops and looks at him over her shoulder.

「Your highness, you're leaving? Please wait, we'll send someone to guard you-」

Pat.

「There's no need…」

The other guard says, but Cycelia cuts him off, shaking her chestnut head with her hand on her coat's side. The two men look at her hand at her hip, where a rigid shape under her buttoned coat prevents the coat from snugly enveloping her. She looks back at them, briefly glancing at the two with a serious face and sullen eyes.

「…I won't be going far, or anywhere shady. Just guard the palace well.」

She assures, then commands them with a soft voice, before walking off in the direction of the Main Street.

With her hands in her pockets, Cycelia watches her busy subjects swarming up and down the streets to go about their day. Her eyes turn to one of the advertisements, now mostly ignored by the public, as it continues tirelessly shilling Strafdrakes over and over. She averts her gaze when she feels a twinge of pain in her heart and simply ignores it just like all the rest, but for a different reason. She takes a turn and carries on, also disregarding the golden dragon flying overhead.

The people have mostly gotten used to the dragon, with only some citizens flinching on a reflex as it shoots past.

「Ah…」

Cycelia utters out with a cloud of vapor escaping her lips, stopping in her tracks. In a city now filled with so many lights and illusions, there is a dark, grim red patch of reality thoughtlessly spilled on the cobblestones ahead. Due to its predictable nature, the citizenry find the golden dragon quite easy to ignore, unlike the small, shattered chips of bloodied bone scattered on the ground, and the dried blood that managed to soak down to the stones before it could be shoveled away.

Some people simply don't care and walk over the dried blood splatter. Cycelia moves on, and joins the conscientious crowd walking the narrow strip of the ground that remained blood-free. She passes by an establishment branded as a club for gentlemen. She tilts her head, furrowing her brows in slight confusion.

《Gentlemen's Club? Are ladies not allowed in?…》

Looking over her shoulder, she blinks her emerald eyes at the door.

《…Doesn't seem like it. What's the point of that place? For frustrated men to get away from their wives?… Can't they do that at an inn?》

She ponders while staring down ahead of her feet. Cycelia then shrugs, giving it no further thought.

Nothing remarkable happens for another fifteen minutes or so while Cycelia navigates the city and weaves through the crowd while heading towards the bell tower. Some people turn their eyes to her, either to look at her stylish coat, or because they recognize her. Some go as far as peeking over their shoulders after passing by, to have another glance. Cycelia ignores the stares, already used to a lifetime of them.

She enters the slums, or rather, the slums are becoming more and more apparent the longer she continues onward. There is no distinct line, demarcation, or any solid indication of where the slums really begin. Rather, one can notice the distinct decay and disrepair of the buildings, which intensifies both in magnitude and frequency the further the observer is from the good parts of the city. Even then, the citizens don't appear particularly unnerved or cautious. Despite stretching into the slums, the Main Street is still the Main Street, after all.

The base of the bell tower comes into plain view. Cycelia walks out into a relatively open, empty plaza, which serves as a form of a crossing between many roads. Two roads lead back to the palace, one of which Cycelia arrived here from, and the other leads back in a very roundabout manner towards the rear of the palace. The rest of the roads simply branch into different parts of the slums, with some of the narrow and trash-filled streets giving her an instinctual sense of unease.

Cycelia turns her sullen emerald eyes to the bell tower, and approaches the door.

Knock knock knock.

She knocks her dainty hand softly against its wood, and waits.

Cla-cluckrrreaak…

「…Yes?」

A nervous man peeks his face out from beyond the crack of the door, then opens it a little further when he notices a woman looking at him.

「Is Lily here? I'd like to talk to her.」

She asks, and leans a little, trying to get a look inside. Another man within the bell tower's base is sitting at a table, eating, and the two briefly gain eye contact.

「And you are?…」

The man at the door asks.

「Cycelia. She'll know.」

Cycelia nods, assuring the man. He looks at her, blinking his eyes at her emerald ones. His brows furrow slightly, then quickly rise.

「Ah! Your highness!?-」

His head perks up in surprise when he recognizes her eyes and chestnut hair. He moves his hand to swing the door wide open, and even slightly pulls at it, but then abruptly changes his mind.

「…Err… Uh… Please wait.」

The man apologetically bows his head over and over as he gently pushes the door shut. Cycelia nods back, and waits patiently outside.

She waits, and waits, and waits. After a prolonged moment of idly pacing about, the door opens again.

Cla-cluckrrrrreak…

「…Redwing girl. What do you want?」

Lily asks, glaring at Cycelia with a disdainful gaze full of suspicion.

「Ah. Lily… Are you alright? I've heard what happened.」

Cycelia smiles when she sees the little vampire girl standing in the door, despite her frigidly cold expression.

「…I asked, what do you want? As you can see, the assassin has failed miserably. His only victims were innocent vampires that happened to be standing there.」

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Lily asks again, crossing her arms as her mouth scrunches to the side.

「Well… I wanted to ask if you're alright, and… And to let you know that we're already investigating the incident…」

Cycelia replies while awkwardly tapping her fingertips together with her brows furrowing.

「Hmpf. You can spare yourself, nobody will dare to try that again for the next century… And I'm used to it, anyway.」

A scornful scoff escapes Lily's small nose. She continues glaring up at Cycelia.

「Used to it?… This has happened before?」

Cycelia's head retracts out of her awkward slouch, straightening out as she blinks at Lily with eyes full of concern and surprise.

「Of course. Not to me, personally. It doesn't matter how courteous, generous, kind, forgiving, or good you are to humans… It's only a matter of time until they try to kill you…」

Lily shrugs, growing increasingly exasperated.

「…And we vampires have plenty of time. I'm done talking.」

She adds, and moves her pale, clawed hand towards the door to swing it shut.

「Lily, wait!-」

Cycelia exclaims, trying to halt Lily with her palm, but she simply ignores her.

Thud!

Without giving it much thought, Cycelia shoves her foot in the way.

「Ow!… Owowow…」

Cycelia lets out a pained yelp when the door slams into the side of her foot, skipping on one foot and leaning onto the doorframe with her arm while dealing with the sharp pain.

「Idiot! What are you doing!?」

Lily's eyes widen when she she turns around and realizes that she just slammed the door into Cycelia's foot, then shouts angrily at her.

「…Tss… Ahhh… Don't you want to see Straf, Lily?」

Cycelia takes a second to manage the pain, sucking air in through her teeth. She turns her tear-filled emerald eyes to Lily, smiling softly at her.

「…What?」

Lily's glare softens, turning into an expression of deep confusion instead.

「I mean… I know you're really close, but you haven't visited him even once. I know you're probably busy with vampire affairs… But wouldn't you want to come and visit him now?…」

With a slight grunt, Cycelia straightens out, though she's visibly placing most of her weight on her other foot while leaning onto the doorframe.

「…What's the point? He's still unconscious, isn't he?」

Lily asks, crossing her arms and turning her gaze away. Her expression quickly turns apologetic, and a little embarrassed. Perhaps even ashamed.

「Yes, he is, but… I like to think that he can still hear me, and he just can't respond. If he can't respond, he must be pretty bored, right?… I think he'd appreciate if you'd stop by.」

Cycelia nods her chestnut head, then shrugs with a light smile.

「And if he can't?… Then it's a waste of time.」

Lily briefly glances at Cycelia, then scoffs as she turns her gaze away again.

「I don't think so. Even if that's the case… Don't you just want to see him, Lily? Just for yourself. He's not dead. He's there. Are you avoiding him for some reason? Don't be.」

Cycelia shakes her chestnut head in response, then shrugs, smiling as she asks.

…Taptaptaptaptaptaptap…

Lily remains silent, but begins tapping her foot on the floor, grimacing heavily with her pale face turned away.

After a prolonged moment of though, she turns her scarlet eyes up to Cycelia.

「…Fine. Just for a moment.」

Lily declares and steps out of the bell tower, pulling the door shut behind herself.

「That's great. Let's go, then…」

A warm smile appears on Cycelia's face, and she turns around back the way she came.

「Ow… Ow…」

She limps, taking slow steps and wincing each time, however. Lily stops and turns around.

「…Is your foot okay?」

Lily asks with a pout, and turns her gaze away.

「Ahhh, don't worry… It's not broken, at least… Ow… Ow… It's a good thing I heal things like these fairly quickly… Ow…」

Cycelia shrugs with a smile on her face, and not a shred of vengeful tone in her voice. She resumes limping and trying her best to catch up to Lily.

…Taptaptaptaptaptap…

With her loose fists on her hips, Lily begins tapping her foot and grimacing heavily again, this time on the cobblestones.

「…Apologies.」

Lily utters out, and scrunches her mouth to the side.

「Ah, it's okay, Lily… It actually helped a lot, he he…」

「With what?…」

Cycelia replies, and lets out a little pained chuckle. Lily tilts her golden head, furrowing her brows. Cycelia finally passes her, and takes a few steps ahead.

「…Ow… Ow…」

She limps onward, and Lily simply takes a step forward. Now Lily is ahead again. She lets out a large, frustrated, and troubled sigh.

「…Ow… Ow… Oweh!?」「Enough. It'll be dark by the time we get there like this.」

Cycelia tries her best to catch up, but then Lily simply scoops her up off her feet and into her arms. She blinks her emerald eyes up at her pale face.

「Is he in his room?」

Lily asks, gently tilting her golden head.

「Ah, no… He's in my parents' room. It's the safest place in the palace, aside from the regalia storage… It has no windows, Lily.」

Cycelia replies, shaking her head a little as she explains. Lily lets out another frustrated sigh.

「…I see. Very well, I'll just carry you there, then.」「Wah!」

FWOOP!

She shrugs, then leaps to a nearby rooftop. When her boots deftly land on top, she leaps forward, soaring above the city streets with Cycelia in her arms…