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For the first few seconds, I was too shocked to respond to the word the hellspawn woman had uttered.
Mistress?
She had clearly reacted to my [Vampire Sense], as soon as I focused it on her. The only possible explanation for her use of the term was that she had correlated it somehow to some woman in authority over her.
Again she called out, sounding desperate, “It’s the Mistress, right?”
Just like before, she was speaking Ostish, with a Northern accent like those in Bray or Hamagaar. That probably meant she was the daughter of a captured Northerner girl who was forcibly bred by some demon. Knowing that fact softened my usual automatic aversion to demons. A hellspawn is as much a victim as an enemy.
Since the image was coming to me through my focused [Vampire Sense], it was far clearer than the dim view through my eyes from [Vampire Sight] or even the light-enhancing night vision nature of my natural eyes. Frankly, it was identical to seeing her in daylight.
Pale, yellow-green skin and miniature ram’s horns rising from just above her hairline, curling backward. I know I was unflattering when I described her out loud to her face, but her skin and her brown hair were not unattractive. Her eyes were unnerving, though. Not a hint of whites, just all golden iris surrounding her pupils. She had an attractive, sensuous, nicely sculpted body with a medium build and, quite frankly, without her magic veil and her nue, she seemed more fragile than threatening. I had to forcefully remind myself that this was still an A-class threat.
“You are my Mistress, aren’t you? The half-vampire that Trisiagga feared?”
The apprehension that I was already feeling grew tenfold with those words.
I carefully focused my spiritual voice on her alone, and did my best not to let it be too strong. Because she looked too defenseless at the moment, I didn’t have the heart to intimidate her.
[Why do you call me mistress?]
“Mistress!” she burst out, instead of explaining herself. “What do I do? I don’t know what to do!”
[Answer my question.]
“I… I don’t know,” she practically sobbed. “I know this is all wrong. I have a Lord to serve, and you are no demon, yet I no longer serve him in my heart. You are my Mistress!”
I had been denying it since she spoke the word the first time, but I could no longer deny the very perplexing reality.
Of course, my [Vampire Charm] worked on her because of her human side, so it naturally followed that it could be taken to its logical conclusion.
I had just acquired my fifth Servant.
Gentling my tone slightly, I asked, [What is your name, Demonkin?]
I said ‘Demonkin’, Diurhimath’s term for her kind, rather than ‘Hellspawn’ because it seemed somehow less antagonistic. I was trying to get information from her, so I needed to be diplomatic.
“I…” She trembled for a moment, then admitted, “My name is Shindzha, Mistress.”
Despite her Northerner accent, it was a Regaritan name. She must have been named by her father, the demon half.
[You invade my territory, Shindzha. Will you continue to fight me?]
She threw herself into a posture reminiscent of a dogeza. “I beg your forgiveness, Mistress! It was an act in accordance with my Lord’s command!”
[Who is your lord, and what exactly was his command?]
She trembled, perhaps wrestling internally with conflicting loyalties.
I twisted my lip with frustration upon sensing a certain Stregione winging his way toward my balcony in my [Fairy Sense], proof that one person who could sense my [Vampire Sense] while it was spread out was not inside the castle that I had deliberately avoided. I was going to have to juggle conversations with him and the hellspawn.
Shindzha had not answered, so I repeated, [Who is your lord, and what exactly was his command, Shindzha?]
Raising her head but staying in that position, she sobbed, “My lord is Lord Durash, Mistress, and… his command was to intercept the fleeing princess and follow her to you. He predicted she would lead me to your location.”
Durash was the same archdemon, or demon lord, that Trisiagga worked for. It might seem like a wild coincidence, but the Royal Knights believed that fewer than a dozen archdemons existed in the entire world. Zagolig and Durash were both working on infiltrating the countries east of the Dragonsbacks, but it was unlikely that all demon lords were doing so. The rest were likely to be involved with attacking countries to the west of the Demon Plains, with most still busy consolidating their power over the Regaritan Empire. With Zagolig now dead, chances were very good that Durash was now the only archdemon making trouble in my kingdom.
[Once you found me, what were you to do next?]
She bit her lower lip, looking highly distressed, but she couldn’t disobey. She admitted, “His orders once I found you were to alert him the next time you left the castle and follow you. He is determined to kill you, Mistress, but I was never meant to attack you. He warned me not to try to fight you directly. I was a fool to face you and not run away immediately.”
Diurhimath came in for a landing, settling onto my balcony wearing a deep scowl. “What are you doing, Commander? You should be resting and nothing else.”
“What are you doing? I’m standing here in nothing but a yukata, and a man not my fiancé has just joined me on my balcony! This could be quite scandalous, you know!”
He folded his arms and tipped his head, a clear gesture that he wanted an answer. My reverse card had clearly failed.
I made a ‘wait’ gesture while saying, “I’m talking to someone. Wait your turn.”
Turns out he could scowl even deeper if he narrowed his eyes.
I asked, [Shindzha, will you go back to Durash?]
“I cannot, Mistress! I am having difficulty using my magic. It’s too difficult to draw! My lord will know I am corrupted, the moment he senses me. Perhaps he already does know! I don’t know what to do!”
So much for my idea about sending her back into the demon ranks as a spy.
[If I am your Mistress, you are not permitted to call Durash ‘lord’.]
Her eyes grew. I was probably rubbing salt in the wound of her current loyalty conflict, but I had to know how she would resolve that conflict.
With her brow twisted and her voice trembling harder, as if she was about to cry, she answered, “I hear and obey, Mistress. No longer shall I call him ‘lord’.”
I pursed my lips for a couple seconds, thinking things over. Finally, I asked, [What will you do if I permit you to come to my castle?]
“The mortals will surely kill me! I cannot defend myself without my magic!”
That answer caused me to grimace in frustration. This girl could be a huge intelligence coup. The last thing I wanted was for my people to kill her. Then I glanced at Diur and a plan came to mind.
[What if you had safe passage, and a safe place to hide? Would you be willing to peaceably come to my castle? You will be a prisoner for now, but I can guarantee your life. In turn, you must give your parole. You are not to attack me or my people, and to make no attempt to contact Durash.]
She closed her eyes with a pained expression. This was an awful proposition for her, but she was in no position to refuse. As things stood, the first time she was sighted by the mortals, or discovered by our fairy warrior patrol, she would be hunted down and killed. Or perhaps, as she said, Durash already knew. He might be sending someone to kill her.
“I… I will agree, Mistress,” she answered, with a tone of defeat.
[Wait patiently for now. I will work out a plan to bring you here.]
I withdrew my [Vampire Sense] and looked at Diur.
“Would you be willing to pick somebody up for me? Actually, could you and Pasrue use her craft to pick them up? It might not be healthy for you to do it by yourself.”
Honestly? I have no idea whether it would be safe or not for Diur to carry her in his arms for any distance, but my money was on ‘not safe’.
His eyes narrowed again. “Define ‘someone’, Commander.”
Damn, he’s sharp. Had he already checked to see who I was communicating with somehow?
Feeling oddly guilty about it, I admitted, “I’ve somehow made a Servant out of a hellspawn.”
“A… that’s your term for a ‘demonkin’, correct?”
“Well… yeah, if ‘demonkin’ means a half-demon born from a mortal mother.”
He lowered his face and rubbed his eyes with thumb and fingers. “Commander, you are the most singularly perplexing woman I have ever met.”
I grinned. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“I didn’t mean it as one!”
“I’m still waiting for an answer.”
He looked me in the eyes and heaved a deep sigh.
“I wonder if having a demonkin Servant is even safe. Especially for a juvenile. How did you even manage it?”
“[Purification] on the incoming blood as I fed on her, and probably way too much [Vampire Charm].”
He gave me a blank stare. “That’s it? Nothing else?”
“Well… I’ve been thinking this for a while, but my mana pathways, especially for purification, may be exceptionally high capacity. And my [Vampire Charm] may be a tad too strong.”
“Someday, I will need to conduct a training session with you,” he stated after staring at me a little longer. “It’s been an exceedingly long time, but I helped my younger sister train. I can probably resurrect the knowledge on how to do it, if I have to.”
That could be really useful, although Diur was apparently pretty low-ranked, and therefore not that old as Elders go, back during the Elder Age when he must have done this training. I didn’t have any way to form an expectation of how much he could teach me.
“And my answer?” I prompted again.
He raised an eyebrow and contemplated me.
“Are you looking to do this tonight?”
It was already midnight, judging by the setting of the first quarter moon. This was a somewhat unreasonable request, but I made it.
“Can you?”
When he hesitated, I asked a different. “Do you think Pasrue would do it?”
After a moment to consider it, he answered, “I’m sure she would do it if I asked. She and her crew are sleeping on her ship right now, due to the alert. But why are we not waiting until the morning?”
It was a reasonable question, but I had a reasonable answer to it.
“Diur, I have a member of the enemy forces willing to surrender peacefully and likely to answer any questions I personally ask her. She represents a massive intelligence gain. But she seems to be wounded, or hampered by the bond, or something similar. She says she can’t use demonic magic. If anyone finds her before we pick her up, she will be dead in short order. We need to take her into protective custody as soon as we possibly can.”
He thought for a moment, then nodded. “How do we find her?”
I held out my hand, expanded my vessel just enough to do it, and formed a lotus blossom in my palm. He frowned with disapproval at it as I handed it to him.
“Once you are airborne, toss this off the bow and have Pasrue follow it.”
“Commander, you should stop using magic until you recover.”
“I promise I will rest, once we have her in custody.”
He gave me a bitter look, then nodded.
“It would be better if we have a few more forces,” he said. “The fairy warriors, and perhaps you have a healer capable of [Purification] to loan us?”
Before I had a chance to say it, he said, with a dark tone, “Other than you.”
I laughed wearily, since I had indeed been about to volunteer, then nodded.
“Fine. Other than me. I have a candidate.”
He went to wake Pasrue while I went back inside. I contacted Falerè, the fairy warrior captain, by spiritual voice, then shook Melione awake gently, so as not to wake Ceria as well. It wasn’t easy since Melione was hugging her back.
“My Lady?” she asked with a curious tone as she rolled onto her back.
I did my best to keep my eyes off her pretty bosom as I answered, “I’m sending Pasrue on a short mission and she needs a strong healer along. Please get dressed and go down to the launch. You’ll only make a short flight out and back to pick someone up, so you only need your healing gear. You don’t need to pack.”
She rubbed her eyes and sat up. “What time is it?”
“Midnight,” I said with a wry, apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. It’s sort of an emergency.”
“An emergency?”
“The hellspawn wants to surrender,” I said, making Melione’s eyes turn into circles. She nodded, got out of bed and quietly found her adventuring garb, the clothing she had worn when she arrived.
Once she had left the room, I decided to go ahead and rest, to make it easier to recover my pneuma. I couldn’t sleep, obviously, since I still needed to guide the lotus blossom, being as I was the only one who knew where Shindzha was waiting. But lying in the bed was a tactical error, since a certain catgirl immediately latched on to me.
“Hehe. Lady’s still awake…” she purred into my ear.
