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Chapter 230: (5/28): Growth Spurt

“How is it going?” Camilla asked.

Kagriss had her eyes closed in concentration as she combed through the city looking from Lucienne’s mana signature. It wasn’t hard, and she found Lucienne in less than a minute. Since all the large signatures were gathered in one spot thanks to the ongoing battle, it lowered the area that she had to search significantly, and soon the familiar mana signature entered her senses. “Found her.”

“Where?”

Kagriss opened her eyes and pointed in the direction of Dianene’s northern gate. 

“North? Ah, since the undead army is coming from the north. That makes sense,” Camilla said. “Still, I can’t believe that they’re already so far south. It seems like just yesterday that Victoria told us of the undead attacks on human cities, and now they’re already attacking vampires.”

Kagriss poked her in the ribs, making Camilla flinch. “Hmph. It’s not strange to think that considering you spend most of your time in a daze! Although, I guess you’re better now, so that’s good.”

“Hmph!” Camilla shot back. Satisfied that she got the last word in, she looked into the distance again. “Still, it’s so surprising that the undead had the guts to attack the vampires. Shouldn’t they be continuing their rampage in human territory?”

“That’s strange. Why not build up their army in human territory first? No way they’ve wiped everyone out.”

If even Kagriss agreed, then Camilla knew that she wasn’t hallucinating. The undeads’ decisions really were weird. The only answer was that the undead wanted to destroy the tower. Perhaps they knew that the tower contained the final key to their defeat.

“But that can’t be it. Victoria said that only the three of us know the truth. There has to be another reason…”

“Maybe that beacon of holy power just annoyed them so much they wanted to destroy it just to get rid of it?” Kagriss suggested.

Camilla opened her mouth, ready to object, but nothing came out. She couldn’t find a way to disprove Kagriss’s words. “Y—you might be right. If they really do destroy that tower and for such a stupid reason, then perhaps we deserve to lose. At least, I certainly won’t complain if the tower is destroyed through no fault of my own.”

She looked away as Kagriss’s eyes burned into her, piercing through her lies, both the ones she told out loud and the ones she tried to convince herself was true. She could not hide anything from Kagriss.

 After what seemed like an eternity, Kagriss finally blinked and continued to lead the way toward Lucienne. “The undead trying to destroy the tower would certainly explain why Victoria was in such a hurry to come here.”

“I suppose…”

Their route took them along the main street of Dianene where their dress attracted eyes, if only because they were the only people that were dressed for combat. All the other people in armor, hunters, were near the gate.

As they neared the place that Lucienne was staying, armor and weapons became more common and the gazes disappeared. The proper stores were replaced with street stalls selling delicious food, capitalizing on the concentration of hunters and militiamen.

As Camlla walked past those stalls, she did her best to ignore the smells and instead moved straight for the familiar mana signature that she had locked onto in one of the houses. 

The door quickly opened when she knocked and the man that answered gasped upon seeing them.

“H—hello…” he stuttered. He swallowed. “How may I help you…?”

Camilla touched her face, still unused to the way that people now looked at her. Before her evolution, Kagriss had been the one to turn heads, but now, she also attracted a lot of attention. Thankfully, she won’t have to deal with it for long. Camilla smiled at her grim thought, which made the man blush a little.

“Excuse me, is Lucienne in?”

When the man stared at her blankly, Camilla realized that despite staying in the same house, all the occupants had no idea who they were living with. With a sigh, she described Lucienne as best as she could.

Thanks to all the elves marrying vampires, golden hair with pointy teeth wasn’t exactly a rarity in Dianene, so it took a while for the man to finally get it. “Ohhh, her! The holy magic user?”

“Yes, her…”

“Yeah, she’s in. I’ll go get her,” he said. As he turned and walked into the house, Camilla heard him sigh and shake his head. “…what does she want with her?”

As soon as the man was out of earshot, Kagriss nudged her in the ribs with a devilish smile. “Things really changed, hasn’t it, my beauty? Too bad you’re already mine.”

Camilla covered her face. “Stop it with the teasing already…” and Kagriss laughed at that.

It wasn’t long before she saw movement in the house and the man came down the stairs with Lucienne in tow, and there was one other figure following close behind that Camilla recognized. Beside her, Kagriss perked up, and she waved. “Eva!”

“Kagriss, is that you? I had a feeling that it’d be you when someone asked for Lucy, so I came along~!”

Not content to follow behind the man and Lucienne, Eva jumped over the railing on the stairs and bounded over to them, jumping onto Kagriss with a hug. “It’s been a while, and we still haven’t thanked you yet!”

“You don’t have to. We’re friends so it’s only natural that we help each other.” Although she was smiling, Kagriss peeled Eva off of her with an awkward glance at Camilla. Camilla offered the same frozen smile back and then glared at Eva, who got the message and backed off with her hands held up innocently.

“Greetings to you too, Camilla. You’re here for Lucienne?” she asked. At that moment, Lucienne finally arrived, and Eva pushed Lucienne in front of her.

The former templar’s eyes widened as she saw that she wasn’t hallucinating.

“Camilla, Kagriss… it’s good to see you both again.” She bowed deep. “Thank you so much for helping me start, and putting a word in to Lavitte for me…”

“We would’ve agreed even if she didn’t ask,” Eva muttered, half to herself and half for everyone else to hear. 

“And thank you for that too.”

Although there was a lot they wanted to say to each other, Lucienne was fidgeting too much, as if she had something on her mind. After a few times of Lucienne starting and stopping, Camilla reached the end of her patience and put her arms on her hips. “Lucienne, there’s something you want to say, don’t you? What’s on your mind?”

Like an animal caught off guard and blinded by a sudden light spell, Lucienne froze, proving yet again how distracted she was, but then she nodded. “Actually, there’s a few people I want to show you.”

“A few people?”

Camilla tilted her head, unsure who Lucienne could be talked about, but it only took a little bit of thinking for a few times to pop up in her head. “Could it be…?!”

Before she could say anything, Lucienne held a finger up to her lips with a huge smile that showed her teeth. “Shh! Just keep it in!” 

It was obvious that she knew Camilla guessed, and to keep the surprise as much as she could, Camilla kept quiet and nodded. “Can you take me now?” she couldn’t resist asking.

“I think so. Can I, Eva?” Lucienne turned to the vampire next to her.

Each party was free to do what they wanted and the militia and guild had no authority over them except to require that they help should the need arise. The finer details were left to the parties themselves, and when Lavitte was not present thanks to being up on the walls, Eva was left in charge of the close-ranged fighters.

Here in this make-shift barracks, Eva was Lucienne’s direct superior, and now Lucienne looked at Eva expectantly, even though the answer was already clear. Eva made a little show of drawing out the decision, but at least she nodded. “Hurry back though. We have no idea what will happen since it’s likely that the undead have spies that managed to sneak in close. They probably know that we got reinforcements.” At that, she turned toward Camilla for confirmation, and Camilla nodded.

“It won’t be long!” Lucienne promised. “Come on, Camilla!”

Without waiting, she rushed out the door and Camilla followed with Kagriss close behind her.

“Where do you live now? Surely not in the same inn room?” 

“Of course not. We live with Lavitte and Eva now. You’ll see.”

They quickly arrived in front of the house where Lucienne lived, and when Camilla was finally unable to resist closing her eyes and stretching out her senses, she could feel the presence of the people that she had been searching for just inside. 

Her heart swelled with happiness and anticipation that she’d be able to finally meet her little Fleur again after so long. To keep the surprise intact, however, she acted ignorant of the truth, even if she was already dying to burst into the house and scoop Fleur up into a hug.

The keys jingled as Lucienne unlocked the front door.

When the door opened, Camilla saw two… no, four… little figures standing at the door. One of the two in front, the shorter one, had her hands on her hips as she looked up at the figure in the back. 

“Lucy!” she said, and Camilla’s heart thumped at the familiar voice. “Why can’t we fight too? Surely we’ll be better than nothing.”

Lucienne sighed. “This again? I told you that your magic can’t even reach that far. Even if you’re really going to fight, you have to wait until they get in close.”

“…Fine… wait, who’s behind you?” Fleur asked. She squinted against the sunlight streaming in from behind the people at the door, reducing their faces to mere dark shadows. “Huh… is that…?”

There was a hint of familiarity in her voice, but much of it was still clouded by uncertainty. However, she was looking at Kagriss and not Camilla, which was slightly insulting.

Unable to wait anymore, Camilla pushed Lucienne aside and stepped in closer, stooping down as she stopped in front of Fleur and Anne to be level with their faces. Finally she didn’t have to look up to even Anne. It filled her with a strange sense of accomplishment and smugness.

“Hey, Fleur, do you still recognize me?” Camilla asked.

Fleur squinted. “I don’t… no, wait… Camilla?! How’d you get so tall?!”

“…”