WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 65: Lunar Eclipse (3)

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A memory from not long ago.

"Carmilla."

A voice she missed.

Its especially gentle resonance still seemed alive beside her ear.

A hand settling softly atop her head, and the moment she melted at its lukewarm touch.

"Our proud daughter."

Father had always smiled like that.

A smile so gentle it hardly seemed vampire-like, as though it might melt away at any moment.

If it had to be named after a season, it would have been early spring, when the frost first began to thaw.

She liked that.

She wanted to resemble that softness.

She wanted to resemble that dignity, neither vulgar nor servile.

"Remember this."

"We vampires are superior to every other race on the continent."

"That is why we must lead the way toward harmony and become an example lesser races can look up to."

Father was not one to throw his authority around.

He revered the teachings left behind by the ancient True Ancestor.

Slay, but do not be vulgar.

Survive, but do not be servile.

"There may be times when you become arrogant, lose your footing, or want to give in to temptation."

"No, there certainly will be. That is what it means to live a finite life."

Father always told her that.

If life simply went on as it pleased, could it truly be called life?

What kind of life never thrashed in its struggle to survive?

To make even a single blossom bloom through all that struggle, through gutters, dirt, and blood.

To live with meaning.

"Struggle as hard as you can."

"So that you do not become vulgar, so that you do not become servile."

That was what he said.

And so, she made it her dream.

"Because we are the superior race, we must question and reflect on ourselves."

"This father will also do his utmost to become an example to others."

A king who had been neither vulgar nor servile.

A vampire everyone could look to as an example.

Exactly five years later, that father was executed.

By other vampires who had become vulgar and servile, vampires who no longer even possessed pride.

"Carmilla."

Father.

At the hands of the trusted aides you believed in.

* * *

After dealing with what had happened in the alley, we moved to the outskirts of the market street and hid ourselves.

Carmilla used Bloodcraft to neatly clean up the bodies of the vampires and Ghouls, along with the blood left at the scene.

Thanks to that, we were able to bring the children into a tent without being discovered.

"Whew..."

We took a moment to catch our breath.

As I quietly assessed the situation, I noticed the children trembling.

A young brother and sister. Neither looked much older than ten.

They were clutching Alice's sleeves tightly.

"A-are you okay...? Are either of you hurt...?"

"......"

Alice awkwardly tried to speak to them.

It must have been a difficult task for someone as poor at communication as she was, but there was no other choice.

She was the only one here the children might not be afraid of.

I looked threatening because of the Mask of the Evil God, and Carmilla belonged to the same race as the ones responsible for this disaster.

"Keep at it, Lady Unnieon."

In the end, all we could do was encourage her.

Alice fidgeted, but still did her best to comfort the children.

Perhaps her efforts got through to them. Sniffling, they finally began to speak.

"Sniff... I-I was scared."

"My little sister and I snuck out to play after we woke up, then the sky suddenly turned red... Strange animals were wandering around, and the villagers were being dragged off somewhere..."

"Ugh, sniff...! I want to see Mom and Dad..."

"Strange people knocked them out and took them away."

The children burst into tears.

Amid their sobs, Alice awkwardly wrapped her arms around their small backs.

By piecing together the words that came out between their cries, we managed to get a rough picture of what had happened.

'They were lucky not to get taken.'

They had slipped out of their home before dawn and apparently avoided the vampires' notice.

After hiding for a while, the nearby Ghouls had found them.

Then, just before they were caught, we happened to show up and save them.

"Sniff..."

The little ones were still crying.

Even so, the older brother's anxious gaze never left us.

He hid behind Alice's back and kept glancing our way.

"...Monster."

More specifically, he was looking at Carmilla.

She resembled the figures he had seen several times while the village was under attack.

His eyes clearly held fear and hostility.

"T-that person over there! She looks like those monsters from before!"

The distinctive coloring of vampires.

Silver hair, red eyes shining through the gaps in her mask, and skin pale as a sick person's.

As a pureblood, Carmilla displayed those traits far more strongly than ordinary vampires.

In a way, it was only natural that the children feared her.

"D-don't tell me... Y-you're on the same side as those bad monsters?"

"Big brother, I-I'm scared..."

Their already small shoulders shrank further.

They even stepped away from Alice, watching every direction as if expecting danger from all sides.

"Monsters! Get out of our village!"

"G-give us back Mom and Dad..."

Backed into a corner, the children cried out.

Naturally, Carmilla received the sharpest looks.

Resentment, hatred, fear... Young eyes said so much more.

Before those fragile children who resented her, the princess could only stand there in silence.

"......"

Her expression was hidden behind her mask.

I couldn't begin to guess how many thoughts ran through her head, or how tangled her feelings must have been.

Carmilla listened to their resentment for a while, then slowly raised a hand toward them.

When she finally spoke after that long silence, her voice was so faint it seemed ready to break.

"...I'm sorry."

Swoosh.

Carmilla's fingertips passed through the air.

The children swayed, then collapsed.

"Ah...!"

Alice hurriedly caught their falling bodies in her arms.

Thanks to her, they could be laid safely on the ground.

Carmilla spoke as if to reassure us.

"I slowed their blood flow for a moment and rendered them unconscious. There should be nothing wrong with them, so leave them as they are."

Soft, steady breaths.

Just as she said, they were breathing without any sign of pain.

Rather than unconscious, they looked as though they had simply fallen into a deep sleep.

Carmilla stared at them for a moment before quietly lifting her head.

Her usual air was nowhere to be found. She seemed to have sunk into a clear, colorless stillness.

"......"

I stood beside her.

Keeping my voice casual, I spoke a few words.

"You did well. It's better to let the children sleep for now. If they leave the tent and are discovered by Ghouls, we'll have a serious problem."

"......"

"We'll leave one of Miss Alice's playing cards in the tent so it can protect them in an emergency."

"......"

"If they stay in here, they'll be safe."

"......Viktor."

"Yes, Princess."

Her voice barely escaped.

It sounded as though it would scatter away if I didn't listen closely.

That was why I answered all the more clearly.

"It has to be set right."

"Yes."

"By my own hand."

"This is not your fault, Princess."

"True. But it is my responsibility."

Leira de Levian.

Slay, but do not be vulgar.

De Roni Gibliase.

Survive, but do not be servile.

Those were the two sentences that ran through the girl's life.

Beyond her sunken eyes, red seemed to ripple.

"Traitors."

Carmilla was calm.

The princess was always eccentric, but she carried something festering inside her.

So I did not lightly dismiss the depth of her feelings.

I only followed the path her delicate feet chose.

"I will set everything right."

"I'll prepare."

I politely lowered my head.

As expected, she was someone worth serving as my master.

* * *

After that, the three people hiding in the tent began discussing their plan.

Using the information the children had given them, they worked out the details.

Naturally, Viktor was the one giving orders.

"First... according to the children, the kidnapped villagers were taken to the cathedral."

"That makes sense. There must be around three hundred people. There can't be many places large enough to hold that many at once."

"B-but what are they planning to do by gathering them all there...? From what the children said, it sounds like they didn't kill them. They just locked them inside the cathedral..."

"I know what the vampires are after. You only need to move as I direct you."

"I-I see..."

"Understood."

Even after he said he knew what the vampires were after, neither reacted much anymore.

They might have asked how he knew, but they simply accepted it and moved on.

Having been through similar things with Viktor so many times, they no longer felt the need to worry over something like this.

"Ahem."

Viktor continued giving orders, seemingly pleased.

"This time, I plan to move separately from the two of you."

Footnotes:

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