「…Now she's going to kill us…」

A terrified voice said quietly from within the crowd. Lilia kept looking around, desperately seeking her master, and expected the baron to show himself any second now.

「…Why have you done this!? We told you not to!」

A different voice exclaimed in outrage, directed at another human.

「W- Where did my master go?…」

Lilia asked them, approaching closer. She politely smiled at them, just as her master told her to when interacting with humans, but her eyes were wide-open and full of worry.

Her smile came out wrong. The humans whimpered and recoiled in fear, some have tripped over their feet while backing away, and fell into the mud. Their reactions unnerved her further.

「…We killed one, we can kill another.」

A man courageously declared, despite the obvious fear in his trembling voice, as he left the crowd for one of the nearby huts.

「Huh? K-?」

《Killed?…》

She thought, almost certain she had misheard the man, but the pile of ashes could not be explained away so easily.

「Did… Was this Baron Roskiel's minion? Did he attack someone?…」

Lilia asked while pointing at the ashes, and looked the serfs. Faces of pure dread stared back at her, with eyes of sheer terror. Her worried, scarlet eyes glanced down at the burning stake again.

She was already worried, but the peasants' silence was now frightening her. She turned to them again, and looked at each of them with her brows anxiously furrowed.

「…We have no choice. What's done is done!」

Another man exclaimed, and rushed to grab a pitchfork resting against a hut's wall. His cry stirred the crowd, and they dispersed. They picked up various farming implements, while Lilia watched.

「…What did you do?」

She meekly asked. Her black-red dress slipped out of her clawed fingertips, as she was too distracted to keep holding it. The beautiful white frills trimming her dress dipped into the dark mud beneath.

「The hero liberated us! We are not your fucking cattle anymore!」

The man from before exclaimed, emerging from the house with a torch in one hand, and a firewood axe in the other.

「C- Cattle?…」

She uttered out, as the flame danced on the burning torch. An epithet her master used only in the presence of other vampires, and never her alone.

Her master never called the humans cattle when speaking to them. She never caught him do it, at least. He called them ladies and gentlemen, even if they were not. Always polite, always respectful, he never imposed on a human that refused to feed him. He would often bear his hunger for days, before someone would take pity on him. Or he'd offer the human a deal too good to refuse. Briefly, her master's gentle smile flashed before her eyes.

「Listen Lilia, it's just a little dream, but… I hope we can live in parallel to each other one day, alongside the humans. With no fear, or compulsion driving them. With the demon lord, or without.」

Baron Hemaluna said, calmly lecturing her after a terrified woman dared not refuse Lilia her blood. He apologized profusely for Lilia, bowing his sandy blond head low before a mere peasant.

Once, her master's dream appeared close enough to touch, almost taking on a physical form. When the armed crowd hesitantly surrounded her, the dream seemed like ramblings of a madman.

She looked at the pitchforks closing in, and the flaming torch. She swiveled her head, wildly confused. There were terrified humans all around, circling her.

Lilia kept looking with her huge, crimson eyes. Her golden twin tails whipped about while she searched everywhere for her master. Despite her gaze consciously avoiding the ashes, she kept involuntarily glancing at them.

While the crowd was closing in, she turned her eyes to the huts. She had hoped her master would emerge from one of the door, laugh softly again, instruct the humans to work the fields, and another day would leisurely go by.

「…Where is my master?」

She meekly asked, staring in the eyes of the man holding the torch out towards her. Her heartbroken gaze made him freeze for a brief moment, but he soon took a gingerly step forth.

Lilia knew. The vampires were ageless beings, but their immortality was merely a human invention. No vampire was truly immortal. She knew, since her master defended his cattle from one, once.

She knew what happened, but not how, or why. The serfs' terrified eyes were telling. Lilia knew, but it had to be a delusional scenario that her mind conjured up. It was not possible that a man she had spent the last few centuries with with, has abruptly disappeared. It was not possible, that a man as kind and gentle as her master, was a pile of soggy ashes. In her mind, the answer was obvious. Self-explanatory, even. It must have been simply a bad dream, and she'd wake up soon. She would wake up, run to her master to tell him about it, and he would gently laugh and ruffle her golden hair again, and they would carry on as they have had every day.

But vampires do not dream.

She knew. The sharp points of the pitchforks, and the nervous hands clutching at ad-hoc weapons were an answer in, and of themselves. Lilia could sustain her suspension of disbelief no longer. Though her heart was still for a very long time now, fear stirred within it. Her fearful eyes meant nothing to the humans edging closer. Her fear quickly grew into outright terror, and soon outmatched the terror in the humans surrounding her. Then, another emotion appeared within.

《After all he had done for you?… After sheltering you? Keeping you safe? After risking a war with another baron? With the demon lord? How dare you?》

「…How dare you?…」

She whispered out, with her scarlet eyes turned downwards to her muddied boots.

「How dare you?…」

Lilia asked as she looked at the man with the torch, with the whites of her eyes entirely surrounding her scarlet iris. His face grew pale, he froze in his track, and began visibly trembling.

「How dare you?」

She turned her gaze the other way, staring into the serfs' terrified eyes. She waited for an explanation, and waited, and waited.

「How dare you!?」

Lilia cried out, looking at another random man in the crowd.

「How dare you!?」

She screamed with her fangs bared at the serfs. A man took a step back, and her furious eyes snapped to his.

「How dare you!?!」

The little, twin-tailed girl roared with hateful scowl. A fire in her chest burned her in a different, but reminiscent way. Her clawed hand tensed up involuntarily, while she glared at his terrified face.

She abruptly disappeared from the center of the crowd, only to reappear right in front of the man's face. He let out a terrified yelp, and quickly raised his sickle. Enraged, Lilia swiped her clawed hand across his throat.

「How dare you!?」

Though it happened far too quick for any of the humans to see, a steady stream of red trailed behind the man's head as it took of into the air. With his face still twisted into an expression of terror, his eyes looked down at her.

Splash!… Splat!

Scowling, and like a raging ox, she let a furious snort out of her small nose. His body fell backwards and landed with a loud splash of mud, followed by a splat from his head outside the circled crowd.

The humans screamed in abject terror. In the panic, a man ran up and swung his blacksmith's hammer at her golden head from behind. Her twisting, scowling face snapped to his over her shoulder.

「How dare you!?!」

Before the hammer even had a chance to get near her, Lilia swiped her claws down the man's face, and into his chest. He was a badly mangled corpse before he could catch a glimpse of what killed him.

And before the previous man's body had a chance to drop to the mud, Lilia lunged towards another man. He was preemptively shielding himself with his arms, but that mattered none to her claws.

「How dare you!?!」

She tore through the man, turning him into a grisly pile of flesh. The serfs realized they were about to be slaughtered, and a stampede began. Lilia's furious red eyes turned to a hesitating man.

「How dare you!?!」

She screamed, as she cleaved him in two with ease.

「How dare you!?!」

A frightened woman was unarmed, but that did not that matter. Lilia shot towards her, reaching for her heart with her clawed hand.

「How dare you!?!」

The man holding her hand was wielding a pitchfork. He dropped dead to the mud, still gripping onto her dismembered arm.

Lilia briefly paused when she felt a pleasant warmth spread on her hands, as if she was alive again. But the sight of a man's back drew her attention, and she ripped him apart the next instant.

「How dare you?」

She asked, as his back spewed a gout of gore. Her eyes then turned to the man holding a torch, standing frozen in panic. The same man who boldly denounced the idea that they are cattle.

「It was you.」

Lilia growled out, staring into the man's jittery eyes full of abject terror. He unfroze, and swung his torch at her face with the last scraps of his bravery.

Ssssshhiiiiiiishhhhhhhhhh…

Without breaking the eye contact with him, she intercepted the torch. Her flesh sizzled loudly as her hand was set ablaze by the fire.

The flame that engulfed her clawed hand was the worst pain she had ever experienced, but her crimson eyes remained locked on his. Lilia felt nothing but unending hatred for the panicking man.

Fwoop!

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Her grip on the torch tightened, and she yanked it out of his hand. She cast it aside, sending it on one of the huts' thatch roof. The fire took quickly, and has spread across the entire roofing.

「How dare you?…」

Lilia seethed through her clenched, bared teeth.

「Hurk!-」

Sssshhhhhhhh…

He let out a pained gasp, when she drove her burning, charred hand into his stomach. His blood and viscera loudly extinguished it.

Still inside of him, her hand snapped upward. The man was practically vertically bisected, and a better part of his face was torn off. His brain was ejected upward, and disintegrated from the acceleration.

Splat!

「How dare you!? How dare you!? How dare you, how dare you, how dare you!?…」

She screamed and screamed, violently tearing apart the fleeing crowd, mixing blood and mud all over the village. A strong wind spread the flames to neighboring buildings while she was rampaging.

Lilia lunged at two young children, a brother and a sister, by their appearance. Holding the girl's hand, the wide-eyed boy took a panicked step away from the young vampire, while she glared at them.

Copious amounts of blood dripped down her clawed hands down onto the mud. She stared silently at them, with no discernible emotion on her young face. Her scarlet eyes were devoid of any energy.

A choking smell of charcoal spread throughout the village, much like the ever-present odor of the Ash Nights. The boy whimpered and took off running, practically dragging the girl behind him.

Lilia turned around, and shambled back to the village center. Looking down at her feet with a listless, blank expression, she hopped over an unidentifiable mass of bloody flesh. Her pale cheek itched.

The golden-haired girl walked past a severed arm, right into a wall of tar-black smoke. She kept going, however. After a few seconds, Lilia emerged on the other side. The source of the smoke was a house entirely consumed by the fire.

She continued onward, and her cheek itched again. A charred piece of detritus was stuck to it. Lilia rubbed her bloodied hand on her cheek, and looked at it. Her clawed fingers were stained with black soot, and red blood.

Lilia dropped her hand limp, and kept her golden head hanging low. Her eyes remained fixed on the muddy dirt road below, as she left the burning village behind. A few minutes later, the young girl stopped.

She had realized she had nowhere to go. Lilia raised her dispirited scarlet eyes to the sky, and let out a large, slow sigh.

She knew all of it was pointless. She knew her rage was impotent, and nothing would result from it. Lilia stared at the gray, ash-filled sky. Many minutes passed while she kept blankly staring up, perhaps even hours.

In her heart, she felt nothing. No more hatred. No anger, no relief, or satisfaction. Not even sorrow. But rather than not feeling in any way, she knew that she was feeling nothing. She felt empty.

Lilia viciously butchered an entire village, and only a handful survived. There would be no one to praise her for it, no one to berate her for it, and no one to punish her for it. She knew.

She lowered her golden head down to the muddy road, and let out another large sigh. She had decided to collect her belongings from the manor, and continued onward.

Though she wanted to feel something, anything at all, her heart was still. Lilia wanted to cry, but couldn't feel sadness. She wanted to kill more, but ran out of hatred. She wanted to feel glee, but there was nothing to celebrate.

Coated in blood and soot, Lilia shambled torpidly towards the manor hill, staring blankly at the ground, feeling nothing but a large void inside…

…

「…And then I wandered, and wandered, and wandered… Until I came across that abandoned castle up on the mountain. I returned to the mansion a few more times to collect the books…」

Lily somberly says, staring at the ground.

「…And that very same brush.」

She adds, looking over her shoulder at Straf, who is silently listening with his lips tightly pressed together.

「Ah- It's done?」

Lily asks, looking at her master's brush in Straf's idle hand.

「…Yeah? How long do you think I can brush your hair for? It's pretty neat as-is, anyhow.」

He asks, raising his brows a little as he looks at her sullen crimson eyes with his bored ones. She turns her face away, pouting a little.

「W- Well, I keep it well groomed…」

She explains, and looks at the brush again. Lily then gently plucks it out of Straf's hand, and stands up from the bed. She disappears behind the dressing screen, and re-emerges after a few seconds.

「…Could I ask you to help me with these, as well? It's such a bother to do it by myself.」

Lily says, holding two black ribbons in her palm. She sits back down next to Straf.

「…Yeah. Sunken cost, and all.」

Straf shrugs, and takes them. Lily turns her back towards him again, and waits patiently as Straf fiddles with one of the ribbons, trying to tie her hair into one of her twin tails.

「So, summing up… You have daddy issues because his peasants killed him?」

He asks, with his eyes focused on the ribbon.

「It was the betrayal, Straf. I would not nearly be as upset, if a stronger vampire killed him. But it was mere humans, and by foul, treacherous means. They conspired against him, when he had done so much for them. Unforgivable.」

Lily explains, and Straf tightens the ribbon on her hair.

「There, one done… So why'd you let the kids go?」

He asks, and Lily briefly turns her scarlet eyes to him, before facing forward again.

「…I don't know.」

「You don't know!? Wow!」

She quietly replies, and Straf exclaims, chuckling while he fiddles with the second ribbon, and her hair.

「I thought you'd say something like, 「The children are innocent…」 or something like that!」

He adds as he imitates Lily, and shakes his head with a grin on his face.

「The truth of the matter is… I don't know why. Perhaps I thought they weren't a part of the foul murder. Perhaps I thought they are just children. Perhaps I simply had mercy on them. I don't know, Straf.」

Lily bluntly replies, and shrugs her puffy dress shoulders.

「Does it matter? They are long dead, anyway.」

She adds, briefly glancing at Straf over her shoulder.

「Stop wigglin'…」

「Sorry…」

Straf clicks his tongue, and his mouth goes aslant in annoyance.

「Your daddy killed my daddy is humanity's favorite excuse to kill someone, Lily, but maybe you should let bygones be bygones?」

He asks, and tugs at the ribbon, tightening it.

「…I have thought of letting my hatred go, multiple times.」

She somberly replies.

「…And?」

He asks, placing his fists on his hips.

「I refuse.」

Lily decisively says, looking at Straf over her shoulder with a lightly tilted head.

「Ah! I walked right into that one! Nice, Lily!」

He snaps his fingers and points at Lily's face, grinning.

「…Huh?」

She utters out, staring at him with her brows furrowed as he gets up. He looks at her silky golden hair, then her black ribbons tying it. His eyes narrow with suspicion.

《Wait… Is she grooming me?》

Straf thinks, looking aside as he intensely rubs his chin.

「…In any case, that's why I'm afraid of being alone, Straf. And that's why I want you to become a vampire.」

She says, and turns towards him, looking into his eyes from the bed.

「You are strong, Straf. No one could possibly harm you as a vampire. You would never disappear on me like my master. But…」

Lily adds, and lowers her gaze with a guilty look about it.

「…Despite the long time I have spent with my master… I don't remember his face. I remember his long hair, kind eyes, and his gentle smile… But not his face. Perhaps I just never took a good look at it.」

She confesses, and looks back up into Straf's bored eyes with a serious expression.

「…I don't want you to become a vague shape in my memory, Straf. As things stand, you will disappear one day.」

Lily adds, as her sad crimson eyes dart over his face. Straf lets out a large sigh.

《…There's that face again.》

He thinks, looking at Lily's dejected expression with a slanted mouth.

「Lily, I…」

Straf says, as he stretches his palm out towards her, facing upward.

「…Am not your father.」

He adds, and dramatically closes his hand into a fist, crushing the air within it.

「…Pop culture reference!」

He scoffs as he snaps his fingers, and points at her confused face.

「…What?」

She asks, furrowing her brows.

「Lily, what I'm trying to say is… I said 350. I'm not going to be your vampire daddy, and I'm not sure I can take another girl calling me master. It would be the maids, not the peasants doing the murdering, Lily.」

Straf shrugs, spreading his hands, before placing them in his pockets.

「…Huh? Another girl?」

Lily stares straight into his eyes, furrowing her brows.

「Just go to sleep, Lily. The night is almost over, anyway.」

Straf remarks, glancing outside the window at the red moon low in the sky, before turning to the floor hatch.

「Wait!…」

Lily desperately cries out, causing him to look over his shoulder at her.

「…Can you hold my hand while I try to sleep?」

She asks, looking at Straf with her brows furrowed.

「What, are you afraid of nightmares?」

He lets out an amused exhale, grinning slightly. Lily does not reply, and continues silently staring at him with the same expression.

「…Fiiine. I guess I can work on my willpower until morning…」

He shrugs, and rolls his eyes as he returns to her bed. Lily lays down on her back, and sticks her hand out towards Straf as he approaches. He sits down on the edge of the bed, and takes her tiny hand into his.

「…It was pretty useful tonight.」

He shrugs again, grimacing a little as he rests his back against the wall. Lily momentarily furrows her brows at his face, then closes her eyes…