The young spiky-haired kid balls up the red muffler, and throws it up into the tree. It unwinds out of its loose ball shape in the air, and wraps itself around a branch up high. Heat of anger sparks into life in Will's heart when he sees his smug grin, and Alicia's troubled pout while she stares at the muffler above.

Will stomps towards him with wide, heavy steps.

「What's wrong with you!?」

Will grabs onto the muffler thief's shirt and shouts at him, still trying to catch his breath after chasing him and Alicia.

「Huuuuh? What's the problem? Just climb up and get it if you want it back!」

The orange-haired muffler thief grins at Will, and effortlessly breaks Will's grip on his shirt with a swipe of his hands. Will clicks his tongue with a sour expression at the pest kid, and looks up at the muffler.

It flaps in the wind amidst the golden-amber leaves, momentarily hanging down when the wind dies down. Though high, Will gauges it not to be any higher than the average roof in the village.

「It's okay Will, I'll just wait until the wind blows it down…」

Alicia meekly says with her brows furrowed while she intently stares at the muffler.

「It's too wrapped up to fall on its own.」

Will adjusts his glasses as he steps up next to Alicia, and looks at it with her.

「What's the matter? Are you chickening out? Bwak-bwak! If you ask me nic-」

The cocky thieving kid mocks Will, flapping his elbows to mimic wings.

「I'll get it for you…」

Will shakes his head in annoyance at the spiky-haired pest and cuts him off as he approaches the tree.

「No, it's okay, it's high up and it's just a muffler. I don't want you-」

Alicia insistently shakes her head, but Will cuts her off as well.

「It's not just a muffler, Alicia. I'll get it.」

Will adjusts his glasses, then grunts as he lifts himself up by a crack in the bark.

「Let's see what you've got! You'll chicken out before you get halfway there!」

Stepping up to Alicia's side with a giant cocky grin, the kid mocks Will again with his fists on his hips as he watches him climb. Despite his frustrated grimace, Will ignores him and continues upwards. The crack ends prematurely, and Will has to rely on the abysmal strength of his grip against the hard, rugged bark.

After much grunting and straining, he manages to grab onto the lowest branch, already hanging twice his height up. He wraps his legs up around the branch and just barely flips himself on its upper side, then cautiously stands up while hugging the tree. With more branches around him, the climb becomes easier.

Will looks down. Alicia and the annoying kid are expectantly staring at him, though Alicia has her brows furrowed while the thief grins. The height is already dangerous for a child as small as Will, but he presses on.

Eventually he covers half the distance to the muffler, and looks down again. He can barely make out Alicia and the muffler thief below. Something seems off, but Will grabs onto another branch. His legs become weak, and his palms are coated in sweat. Breathing heavily from fatigue and nervousness, he continues upward.

「Oh. He's going higher.」

Will hears the thief's voice coming from below, in a somewhat surprised tone. He makes it almost within an arm's reach of the muffler, and looks down below. Alicia and the kid are just black dots. Will's heart begins to beat faster and he gulps nervously before grabbing onto another branch.

「Be careful Will!」

Alicia's voice full of concern calls out. Will grabs onto the muffler, sighing with some relief as he feels its soft fabric in his sweaty palm. He unwraps it from the branch and loosely wraps it around his arm. Realizing he has to climb all the way back, he gulps nervously and lowers his foot to a branch below.

With his teeth clenched and breathing heavily, he lowers himself further in an attempt to place his other foot lower. He slips. Clouds race upward past Will as he plummets towards the ground.

「Hngrrgr…」

Will softly groans as he opens his eyes, ever-so-slightly moving his head, arms and legs. Alicia is hanging her head low and looking at her hands in her lap, while Lian is looking directly at him. Both sit in chairs by his bedside.

「Will. How are you feeling?」

Lian asks, with both her arms and legs crossed.

「Lian?… Alicia?」

Will groggily asks, and rubs his face with his sweaty palm. After getting his eyes with his fingers too, he looks around the room.

《Dream?… No, more like memories… Or maybe a nightmare. Where am I?》

His robe lays folded on top of a small dresser and his glasses within his arm's reach right next to them, and being in a bed in a relatively small room, he ascertains it to be an inn.

《The one thing that is consistent about Greaves, is that he's dumber than a bag of rocks…》

Will thinks as he looks for a spiky mass of orange hair. His naked eyes snap open wide, and he shoots up to sitting.

「Where's Greaves?!」

Will asks, almost shouting, while his eyes dart from Alicia to Lian and back again. A darkness creeps into the corners of his vision, and takes his sight away with an accompanying feeling of lightheadedness. Somewhat surprised by his reaction, Alicia lifts her dainty hands out of her lap and tries to reach out for Will.

「Stay in bed. Calm down.」

Lian commands, shoving Will back into his large pillow. Alicia covertly puts her hands back down in her lap when she sees Lian act much faster than her.

「…What happened? How is he?」

Will asks, looking at both of them with wide-open eyes as the darkness fades and his vision slowly returns.

「Will, calm down. Everyone is fine. Mostly.」

Alicia leans over the bed, replacing Lian as she retracts her hands and crosses her arms again. Will sighs in relief.

「So where is he?」

Will asks in his usual, nonchalant tone.

「He's resting off his injuries. I didn't heal him fully, but he wasn't that badly wounded to begin with. In fact, you're the one worst off, Will…」

Alicia leans in further with a concerned face and tone.

「…What? But Lian- He only clawed my arm-」

Will furrows his brows and squints in confusion, glancing at Lian for a moment.

「I'm fine, Will. Alicia healed me. At this point, I've had worse during training…」

Lian cuts off Will's stammering, then taps her finger on her arm as she thinks.

「…What was it again?」

Lian asks as she and Alicia glance at each other.

「I healed your arm a little after Lian, but that's not the problem, Will.」

Alicia says as she turns back to Will.

「You seriously overcasted. I can't heal you of that, you could have died! What were you thinking?」

Alicia leans in closer and closer, pouting at Will.

「I was thinking that if I don't win, you'll be defenseless- You're too close- Alicia…」

Will turns his face away from Alicia as she continues leaning in while pouting heavily. Lian intervenes with her brows raised high, and lightly pulls Alicia away by her shoulder. Alicia abashedly sits up straight and starts twiddling her thumbs in her lap.

「Well… I'm glad you're okay, at least. But you're banned from magic, Will! Not a single spell! You could seriously die now!」

Alicia points at Will's face, pouting again with a more serious expression.

「Alicia, I'm a mage, I can't not cast magic-」

Will sighs, furrowing his brows at Alicia.

「Will, I think it's a good idea you get some rest. We should probably return and report this to begin with…」

Lian chimes in, shrugging her shoulders as she sighs.

「Report?… Right… What happened? My memory is patchy. I only remember bits and pieces. Did I kill him? What about that mage? I don't remember much more after he clawed me…」

Will rubs his brows with his thumb and finger, thinking heavily and fruitlessly.

「You drove him off, Will. Adventurers and vampire hunters came after you passed out, they bandaged you and helped me carry everyone to the guild.」

Alicia explains, and shrugs her shoulders as well.

「The guild? So this isn't an inn room?」

Will looks at Lian and Alicia in surprise with furrowed brows.

「No. After I told them what happened, we brought you to the guild. They let us have free rooms until we recover…」

Alicia shakes her head, then starts tapping her fingers together with a tight-lipped grimace.

「But, um… Let me explain fully before you panic or anything, okay?」

「Huh?」

Alicia ominously requests, and Will squints in confusion.

「…The owner of that building you burned down was really angry, and he demanded 60 gold coins for the damages-」

「Hrrrrrk!」

Will's jaw drops and he clutches at his chest with a gasp, staring at Alicia with his eyes wide open.

「…But I told you to let me explain fully…」

Alicia sighs in exasperation.

「…He demanded 60 gold, but when I told him what happened, he said he'll settle for 30. And the guild awarded us- Well, you with 40 gold coins for discovering and driving the vampire off. That leaves us- you, with 10 coins to spare.」

Alicia continues, and Will's shoulders slump as he sighs in a grand relief.

「So he got away, huh…」

Will looks down at his blanket with a dissatisfied, slanted mouth.

「You should be proud, Will.」

Lian says with a serious face.

「Why? I failed. He got away, and he'll do it again. I gave it everything I had, and it wasn't good enough.」

Will bitterly shakes his hanging head and clenches his fists on the blanket in frustration.

「I gave everything I had too, Will.」

Lian replies with a serious tone. Though Will can barely make out her blurry face, her black eyes stare directly into his.

「That's different, I-」

Will shakes his head, and Lian cuts into his explanation.

「You're right, it's different. If it was all up to me, he would have killed us.」

Lian nods her head, and quickly returns to staring intensely at Will.

「That's not…」

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

Will meekly responds with his head hanging, but doesn't finish.

「That's not true, is it? But the reality is what it is, Will. It's true, you may have not killed him. But it's not a failure. It's a victory. Should you have killed him, it would have been an utter and complete victory.」

Lian spreads her hands and shrugs, then crosses them again.

「At this point I'm not even sure if I could beat you in a serious fight, Will.」

She says with a dead-serious expression and tone, pausing for a moment.

「Good grief, mages are sure the most terrifying of beasts…」

Lian jokingly says, smirking with her head lowered.

「Don't be ridiculous, Lian. There's no way I would win-」

Will scoffs, partially amused and partially in disbelief at her claim.

「There's no guarantee, of course. But you fought a beast that I couldn't, and won.」

Lian says once again with a serious face and tone. Alicia continues quietly listening, idly occupying herself with her fingers in her lap.

「Let me tell you how a vampire hunt looks like back home, Will… Should a scouting party find a vampire, one of them must return to the clan to report it. If it was a lone scout, he is obliged to return and report it. Under no circumstances he may fight it alone…」

Lian says, keeping her expression. Though she is glaring daggers at Will, there is no hostility in her almond-shaped eyes.

「…If the rest of the scouting party does not return, there is an unwritten rule on our islands, Will. One that is never broken and always followed. We have no kings, and nearly all clans are almost always at war with all others, but if we know there is a vampire on the island that can't be beaten by a handful of clan members…」

She lowers her head momentarily, then returns her eyes back to Will, who is attentively listening.

「…We send a messenger to other clans. The ones we are at perpetual war with. We tell them that there is a vampire, and they have to help us hunt it. And they oblige. Always. Do you remember what I told you about my home, Will? About trust?」

Lian asks, and her brow gently rises.

「…How would anyone know it's not a lie?」

Will asks in return, and his brows lightly furrow.

「Exactly… That is a great premise for an ambush, isn't it? Draw out a clan's best warriors, and then kill them in a pitched battle on a prepared battlefield.」

「So why-」

「It would be a suicide, of course.」

Lian adds, speaking as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.

「Huh?」

Will shakes his head a little in confusion.

「A clan that would exploit the threat of a vampire, real or not, would be committing a delayed suicide. Not only that, you would sentence the entire island to death. Perhaps all of them, even. There is a limit to deceit, Will. A vampire would kill everyone sooner or later. What good would be temporarily empowering your clan, if a vampire will slaughter it soon after?」

She asks a rhetorical question with a smirk, and shrugs in silence.

「…But I still don't see how I would win in a fight against you. It just sounds like a joke.」

「It takes the best warriors of multiple clans to kill a strong vampire, Will. And the one you fought is strong. Very strong. And you drove him off alone. Which leads me to a simple conclusion…」

Lian grunts softly as she stands up, pulls the chair away a little, and heads towards the door.

「…Unlike my dear idiot brother, I am not a beast, Will. I am just a very good warrior, and I'm proud of that… But even I couldn't do anything. Simply put, I doubt I would win while outnumbered against other clans' best warriors. And yet, you managed to send him running all by yourself…」

Lian explains as she opens the door and walks out of the room.

「…There is a good reason we kill vampires and mages on sight, Will. Recover quick.」

She ominously says through the crack in the door she left open, smirking smugly at Will.

Clack.

The door's latch lets itself be known as Lian closes the door behind her. Both Alicia and Will are left staring at the door, and Alicia quickly turns her face back to Will.

「…And you were really cool, too! We're not afraid of the night anymore!」

Alicia excitedly praises Will with her fists up, doing her best impression of his quote.

「…What?」

Will blinks at Alicia in utter confusion. They stare at each other, unsure what the other is trying to say…

…

In the meantime, in the palace halls…

While heading towards the throne room from his bedroom, Straf passes by two maids in the hallway.

「Good morning, Minister Vindict…」

They glance at each other with troubled faces, and politely bow low towards him until he passes.

「Tsk…」

Straf clicks his tongue in response, openly sneering in contempt at them, but continues onward without otherwise saying a word. Only a few minutes later, he enters the throne room.

「Ah, Straf! Good morning…」

The queen greets Straf, covering her mouth with her hand as she yawns.

「I have good news and bad news for you, Lia. Which one do you want first?」

Straf asks as he walks up to the throne.

「Ah. It just so happens I have some good news too… And bad news, but…」

Cycelia says, tapping her fingers together in her lap as she looks aside.

「…But? Come on, spit it out. What are you waiting for? The credits? The last page? The last episode cliffhanger and the next season hook? The end of the arc? Say it.」

Straf spreads his hands, and Cycelia gently shakes her head in confusion at the barrage of random words.

「Well… You see… It has come to my attention that you've hired children to do some dangerous work for you…」

Cycelia explains, twiddling with her thumbs as she looks down at Straf from the throne with a tight-lipped grimace.

「Tsk… Ungrateful little shits… Okay, which one of them complained?」

Straf asks with a slanted mouth.

「No no no, it's not like that. They were… Bragging, actually… They were mocking the citizens and adventurers and telling everyone how much money they earned in a single day.」

The queen shakes her head and hands, then taps her fingers as she explains further.

「Tsk… Stop flaunting your wealth around, you nouveau riche assholes…」

Straf quietly grumbles to himself while looking aside.

「…And as such, since I have moral qualms regarding allowing children to do dangerous work, it will be illegal to hire anyone under the age of 16 to do any work. S- So…」

Cycelia shrugs her hands, and continues tapping her fingers together with a troubled expression on her face.

「But Lia, you can't! Our economy will collapse! Think of the rural population! All the real countries are built off child labor!」

Straf almost shouts, pointing somewhere beyond the window, somewhere distant.

「Not my kingdom, Straf! It's effective by tomorrow, so… So don't hire children, or else you'll be a criminal!… And you're not above the law… So…」

Cycelia shrinks, and her gaze escapes sideways as she taps her fingers together some more.

「…And you'll arrest me?」

Straf shrugs and spreads his hands as he asks.

「…If I have to. So don't do it!」

She says, pursing her lips a little.

「Fine. I'll have to find another source of cheap labor. Maybe animal girl slaves…」

Straf thinks out loud, rubbing his chin.

「What was that?」

Cycelia tilts her head, almost making out what Straf is mumbling to himself.

「Nothing. What's the other bad news?」

He shrugs, and asks with a slanted mouth and bored eyes.

「Well… It doesn't matter. It was a misunderstanding.」

「Come on, what was it? I'll die of curiosity. Do you want me to die, Lia? Is that it? Just tell me.」

Straf rolls his eyes and spreads his hands again. Cycelia sighs as she gives up.

「Well, it was… It was brought to my attention that… Well…」

Cycelia shrinks again, tapping her fingers together once more while abashedly looking aside.

「Well?」

「The maids have been saying that you may be doing something inappropriate with Lily-」

「Son of a fuckin' bitch! The next maid I see is going to get slugged in the face for these constant lies and slander!」

Straf clicks his tongue and shouts, clenching his unbroken fist. A sound of ceramic clattering on metal begins right behind Straf.

「Hm?」

Straf looks over his shoulder and finds a maid staring at him with her eyes wide open in panic, a cup of coffee shakes on the silver tray in her hands.

「S- So- S-」

The maid stammers as Straf glares at her.

「No no nono! They said it was a misunderstanding! They are really sorry about the situation!」

Cycelia exclaims, desperately trying to save the maids' face.

「Huuuuh? Yeah, they better be sorry.」

Straf says, leaning in towards the maid's face as he scowls at her. She whimpers and looks down at the tray, trying to make herself small.

「…Can I have that coffee now, please?」

Cycelia attempts a masterful distraction, addressing the maid behind Straf.

「Y- Yes your highness! Apologies!」

The maid swerves around Straf, and delivers the cup of coffee within Cycelia's reach.

「Ouch ow ow ow…」

She rapidly takes a sip in an attempt to appear nonchalant, and burns her tongue.

「…And the good news?」

Straf asks and the maid remains by the throne side, not daring to go near him.

「The good news are, the troops have returned from Millie's land. They faced no resistance and the people there welcomed them with open arms. The mines are already preparing deliveries, but it won't be enough, though…」

「What else?」

「And since everything is now under my control, we can start organizing the voting process. I will give the candidates a week longer to make their case in the newly liberated region, then we will begin implementing my idea.」

「…I think that belongs in the bad news category.」

Straf says with a slanted mouth and bored eyes, causing Cycelia to tilt her head in confusion…