「…Are you really going to be okay, Straf?」

Cycelia asks, looking at Straf as she walks behind him. He is unbothered by the shower of droplets coming from the overcast sky.

「Hm? Yeah, after the heat of the last few days, I'm glad I finally get to cool off. How do you like the ad-hoc umbrella?」

Straf shrugs, looking up at the sky as water drips off his forehead. He glances at Cycelia, then his gaze drifts up at his [Portable Storage] open above her. Droplets splash onto the boundary of the purple vortex, as if it were a solid wall.

「It's nice, but… Are you sure it isn't going to suck me in, Straf?」

Cycelia asks, looking at the whirling void above her with nervous eyes.

「It shouldn't.」

「Shouldn't!? You mean there is a chance!?」

Her head snaps to Straf, bearing a tight-lipped concerned grimace on her face.

「It shouldn't, because I can't put living beings in there. I also have never seen it suck anything in. Honestly, I'd be more concerned about something falling out.」

Straf shrugs, unbothered by the rain as he walks with his hands in his pockets, staring at the purple whirl floating besides him and above Cycelia's chestnut head as they walk.

「You mean something can fall out!? Like what!?」

Cycelia's eyes grow even bigger as she points towards the rip in reality with a shaky hand.

「I did put a tree in there the other day…」

「A tree!? A tree can come out right on top of me!?」

「Relax, Lia. I haven't actually seen anything pop out unintentionally. It's probably perfectly safe.」

「You mean the difference between me getting wet and a tree to the head is a probably!?」

She shouts, grimacing heavily at Straf while pointing at the vortex.

「Lia, I said I haven't seen anything pop out. Calm down. You think I would let you get hurt?」

Straf asks, and they lock gazes as Cycelia's brows rise.

Ba-dump.

「I- Well… No…」

Cycelia immediately calms down, stammering a little as she breaks eye contact with a little pout, tapping her fingers together.

「How are you getting along with Lily, by the way? I haven't had the creepy feeling on my back yet, so I imagine she's sleeping in. Guess she's just one of those people that get knocked out by the rain.」

Straf asks, taking his eyes off Cycelia and her [Portable Storage] umbrella to look at the castle on the distant mountain.

「She's… I don't think she likes me.」

Cycelia says as she fiddles with her medallion, watching the dirt road beneath her.

「Hm? Why?」

Straf's brows rise, and his head snaps to Cycelia out of mild surprise.

「I mean… She's a vampire, Straf. They hate humans. They see us as nothing but prey.」

Cycelia tries looking into Straf's eyes, but breaks eye contact nearly the same moment she makes it.

「Hmmm… So you're saying she has an attitude? I'll talk to her when she's back, I won't take catty attitude when she's just a honorary member-」

「Nonononono Straf, don't!」

Cycelia waves her hands in front of her face, violently shaking her head.

「Relax, I'll be nice about it, Lia. I know how to handle misbehaving kids.」

Straf smirks confidently at Cycelia. The panic in her eyes dies down, and her shoulders slump.

「I hope you do, Straf…」

She replies meekly, fidgeting with her silver medallion as they continue onward down the road.

「…But, won't you get sick? You'll be soaked by the time we get to Ossen-」

「Lia, do you think I'll get a little cold after surviving a spear through my chest? I'm not a little twerp with 5 endurance.」

Straf smirks, incredulously shaking his head.

「…Huh?」

Cycelia furrows her brows as Straf throws out another assortment of random words. She sighs, and resigns from trying to decipher it, instead, she listens to the calming rustle of the rain…

…

「Achoo!」

Will sneezes and sniffles, holding his soaked robe on his arm.

「Aaand there it is, Will is sick again.」

Greaves exclaims, rolling his eyes.

「No I'm not! It's just my nose aah- Aah! Achoo!」

Will protests, but his protests are cut short by another sneeze. He sniffles again, and Lian turns her head to him over her shoulder.

「…You don't sound like you're in good health to me, Will.」

Though lightly smirking, Lian's brows are minutely raised in concern.

「I'm fine, don't worry about me.」

Will says, sniffling again.

「…Can't you cure him?」

Lian turns her gaze to Alicia, who shakes her head in reply.

「I can only heal injures, I can't cure disease. I could treat his symptoms, at best.」

Alicia sighs, frowning slightly as she glances at Will.

「I see. That's too bad. We should stop at the next town in that case, and let Will rest a moment.」

Lian nods, and turns her head forward again. Her ponytail wiggles behind her head with each step.

「No, I'm fine! I'm feeling alright! It's just a little- Kof!」

Will protests once again, but coughs in middle of his sentence.

「And there it is. How do you manage to get sick from rain, Will? I think you'd die if someone would sneeze on you.」

Greaves snickers, shaking his damp orange head. Will clicks his tongue.

「I'm not sick- Koff! Kofff!」

Will gets a sudden coughing fit, and he covers his mouth with a fist.

「Do you want me to treat your cough, Will?」

Alicia softly asks.

「No- Koff! Koff koff koff!」

Will shakes his head, and gets another, stronger coughing fit. Alicia sighs, points her silver wand at him, and starts uttering a quiet incantation. Will's coughing fit gets even stronger as he begins shaking his head in response, adding a wave of his staff in a futile protest…

…

As Straf and Cycelia draw near the walls of Ossen, the rain dies down, then stops. Cycelia exhales with relief when the purple whirl above her disappears. A few minutes later, Lily seamlessly joins Straf's side.

「Ah, there you are. Were you waiting the rain out?」

Straf asks and looks down at Lily's parasol beside him.

「…I overslept.」

Lily admits, abashed.

Chapter illustration [https://files.catbox.moe/0loobw.png]

「Hmmm… I guess you're a high level NEET after all. I want to take a look around the next town, you don't mind, right?」

Straf shrugs with a slight tilt of his head, then asks Lily as he looks towards the town in front of them.

「I will keep you company, naturally… But from a distance.」

Lily peeks her red eyes from beneath the parasol up at Straf.

「From a distance? Why? Sudden social anxiety?」

「The accursed vampire lamps…」

Lily snarls, clenching her teeth as she squints with hatred at the city's walls ahead of them.

「The what now?」

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Straf furrows his brows, tilting his head as he asks.

「Vampire lamps, Straf. Every old city has them. Kreisfeld, Murusburg, Draconis… Those that didn't were simply destroyed. They were reduced to rubble, and had to be rebuilt from scratch.」

Cycelia chimes in, glancing at Lily with nervous eyes, and Lily returns a cold glare.

「Yeah, but why are they called vampire lamps?」

Straf shrugs with his hands in exasperation.

「The Redwing girl is right, our kind laid waste to every human city without them. Standing under a lit lamp for only a few seconds would badly scorch even someone like me. Fortunately, these worms forgot how to make them.」

Lily glares at Cycelia with disdain on her face, but veils her distate and explains the lamps to Straf.

「Forgot? How do you forget how to make these things? Isn't that something you would want everywhere in that case?」

Straf shakes his head in confusion, shrugging with his hands again.

「It's because they were no longer needed. After the hero cleared the skies of the ashes, the vampire population plummeted. The records how to make them were mostly destroyed, and the remaining information is sparse, and every craftsman that made them is long dead.」

Cycelia takes over the rest of the explanation. Lily lets out a frustrated sigh with a slanted frown.

「That's kind of metal, actually… Wait! Does that mean- Were the lamps I fucked up back then the vampire lamps then!?」

Straf's eyes widen and snap to Cycelia.

「Huh!? You mean in Murusburg? Yes, those were irreplaceable antiques… But that's okay, Straf! You did it to protect me and spare the manhunters!」

「Fuck!」

「Huh!?」

Straf shouts out, clenching his teeth. Cycelia is heavily confused and can only blink at Straf while he shakes his fist in anger. Even Lily is a little surprised by his reaction, and her brows rise.

《I can't believe those stupid lamps were actually a fucking metal part of vampire lore! What the fuck!? You see those fucking eyesores literally everywhere all the time, why is it that here they have an actual cool purpose!?》

Slap.

Straf gnashes his teeth as he places his palm on his face with a loud slap.

《That city had a river with those stupid bridges running through it! Why would those lamps serve an actual purpose there out of all places!?》

Straf's hand drops, he scowls at nothing in particular, then sighs with slumped shoulders. His posture springs back to his usual one as he returns his hands to his pockets.

「Well… Lily, I want you to tell me about really metal and fucked up shit vampires did back in the day later, alright?」

He peeks at Lily's parasol with a side-glance.

「Really!? I'd love to, Straf! There's so many things-」

Lily's scarlet eyes widen and brighten like spotlights when she hears Straf request a history lesson. She replies with pure glee in her voice, but Straf interrupts her.

「But! I've also heard you're not getting along with Lia well…」

Straf says, looking at the slowly clearing gray clouds up on the sky.

「Gah!」

Cycelia's jaw drops, and she looks down at Lily to gauge her reaction. She glares murder at Cycelia in return, before scoffing.

「Hmpf. It can't be helped, she doesn't know her place, so I-」

Lily explains herself, looking away while pouting.

「No, Lily. You don't know your place. Lia is my sec- Fir- Sec- A very important member of my harem. More importantly, you are an honorary member, and not even for a full week.」

Straf chides Lily with a serious expression. She hides her face beneath her parasol and pouts. Cycelia's lips disappear into her mouth as she nervously grimaces with large eyes.

「Between you and Lia, if you two do not get along, I'll revoke your harem membership. You'll have to find someone else to stalk.」

「Wha-!?」

Lily's ruby eyes snap open, and her horizontal pupils widen in shock. Her jaw slowly drops lower and lower in disbelief, showing her elongated fangs. If there were any color on her face, it would surely drain by now.

「Y- You can't…」

Lily blinks and meekly protests, her hands begin to tremble gently as she grabs her parasol to hide that fact.

「I can and I will, unless you get your act together, Lily. Treat Lia like an older sister. Or younger. Whichever it is, we're like a one big family, alright?」

Straf sighs, and grimaces as he looks dead center into Lily's frightened, scarlet eyes.

「F- Family?…」

Cycelia mumbles out, without anyone hearing it. Her gaze and mind drifts off as she plays with her medallion.

「Now apologize to her, she felt hurt by your cold attitude. You might be a vampire, but that isn't an excuse to not get along with my harem. Take your feelings about humans out on some background characters instead.」

「Ah- Ah…」

Lily sighs in defeat and fidgets in silence, looking away and pouting. She glances up at Straf and Cycelia momentarily, before looking away again.

「I'm… I'm… Krkkkkkk… What a disgrace…」

Lily tries to get some words out, but they have a hard time squeezing past her throat. She clenches her teeth in frustration and looks down at her feet.

「…I'm sorry.」

She hides her head under her parasol, looking straight down with an embarrassed pout as she apologizes. Cycelia snaps out of her mind's wandering, and blinks in disbelief at the little vampire, before nodding her head and replying to her apology.

「Huh? It's… It's fine, don't worry about it, Lily-」

「Tsk.」

Lily immediately clicks her tongue and scowls in disdain as she turns her head away.

「Eh?」

Cycelia tilts her head when Lily's attitude does a complete 180 degrees turn back to unpleasant in an instant.

「There. Now be nice to each other. If I have to go through this conversation with each new harem member, it'll become a complicated mathematical equation that I really do not have the patience to deal with.」

Straf shrugs with his hands and sighs, before returning them back to their place in his pockets. Lily walks ahead of them both as they draw near the walls.

「…I will be close by, out of the reach of the lamps. Call me if you need me, I will hear it.」

「Doing your stalker routine again?- Ah, there she goes…」

Straf asks, but Lily disappears into a black blur towards the top of the city's walls, then down beyond them without replying. He glances at Cycelia, then shrugs.

「See, I told you I'd solve it.」

Straf smugly grins, taking a quick peek at Cycelia as they walk past the gate.

「…Are you sure she won't plan a retribution?」

「If she's anything but friendly to you, she can start looking for a different juice box.」

「…Huh?」

Cycelia tilts her head, and they stop in middle of a crossroads within the city.

「…Do you want to go to the sewers, Lia?」

Straf asks with his fists on his hips, looking around at the many barred gates everywhere leading downwards, almost like metro entrances.

「What!? No!」

Cycelia vehemently refuses, shaking her head.

「I see. That's too bad. I'll go alone then, go find an inn-」

Straf shrugs and nods. Cycelia interrupts him before he can finish his sentence.

「Fine! I'll go with you, Straf. But I really don't want to go to the sewers!」

She pouts with huge puppy eyes, clenching her fists in front of her.

「Come on, they can't be that bad. Let's go. Just a quick in and out.」

Straf says, and walks towards one of the iron bar doors. He gently tugs at it, then pushes. Cycelia skittishly walks up behind his shoulder.

「…See? It's locked, let's just not- Gah!?」

Cycelia's jaw drops when Straf simply pushes the door in by walking towards it, and the metal lock shatters.

「I unlocked it. Come.」

Straf says, and puts his hands back in his pockets. Cycelia follows, taking cautious steps down the wide stairs while fidgeting nervously with her medallion.

「Oh, cool. Look at these lamps, Lia. More of this stupid shit. Do these burn vampires too?」

Straf says, pointing at a wall lamp emanating blue glow. The lamps line the walls and disappear behind one of them as it curves away. Water runs in the center of the large, wide sewer, and everything is brightly lit by a dark blue lamplight glow.

「N- No… These are just regular lamps- Aaa! Rat! Rat! Rat rat rat rat!」

Cycelia jumps back, pointing her shaky hand at a small, skittering dark shape on the floor in front of them.

「Of course there is a rat, Lia. This is a sewer. What else are you going to find here? Sewage? Look at the water! It's crystal clear! What's the point of a sewer if it has no sewage? Just breeding rats and training adventurers!?」

Straf exclaims, pointing at the clean water running down below. The rat skitters away, scared by Straf's shouts. Cycelia sighs with relief.

「Straf, couldn't we just leave-」

「And miss an entire exciting arc? Come on, Lia. We ought to do this. This time the pacing will be snappy and crisp. Let's go.」

Straf smirks, and walks deeper into the sewer.

「Unnngh…」

Cycelia groans in dismayed frustration, but jogs up to Straf to catch up as they head further in…