◈ Mistaken for a Masked Monster
──────
A Bug, Maybe?
Carmilla's cheeks had been burning for quite some time.
Eventually, after a long pause, her voice came out trembling.
"This one... I-I shall never be able to marry now..."
"......"
Genuinely sorry about that.
She knew, at bottom, that it had all been medical care. Probably why she didn't actually complain.
'She's just embarrassed, that's all.'Vampires. Purebloods especially, the kind who believed themselves a noble, exalted lineage, were by all accounts extraordinarily private about the body. An arm, a calf, a wrist, all kept carefully covered throughout her entire life. And then the very first man she'd ever laid eyes on had gone and washed her. Small wonder she was flustered.
"Ugh, mmm..."
The girl buried her face in her palms and groaned.
It was quite some time before Carmilla pulled herself together.
"Hmm, ahem... I-I apologize. You witnessed something unseemly."
"Please don't apologize. It was an emergency. I wasn't as careful as I should have been, given the circumstances."
"No! You were trying to save this one, were you not. It is my own failing, that I troubled my life's savior. I let myself be swept up in personal feelings for a moment..."
She spoke as though composure had returned, but her complexion remained faintly flushed.
He let it go. As far as she was concerned, she was doing her best.
He lowered his head first and resumed the introduction he hadn't gotten to finish earlier.
"Allow me to greet you properly. My name is Viktor. By the order of the late king, I have been tasked with serving as your escort, Your Highness."
"Someone Father arranged..."
"It seems you were already told to expect someone."
"Yes... He told me on the day he passed. That among the humans, there were retainers of his in hiding, and that I should seek them out."
She blinked slowly, eyes drifting somewhere far off.
Her breathing had grown quiet. Whether she was reliving that terrible day or simply sitting inside it, he couldn't tell.
"So you... were the retainer Father spoke of."
"Yes."
He answered without hesitation.
A lie, of course. But.
'The late king wasn't wrong. There really were retainers of his hidden throughout human society.'
The king just hadn't known the rest of it.
That those retainers were already dead.
'Every last one of them killed.'
Eliminated by the New Kingdom before they could ever carry out their duties. Which meant there was nowhere left for Carmilla to go. No one waiting for her.
So Viktor had decided to fill that role himself.
"What did Father say, exactly?"
"That if the dynasty fell, you were to conceal yourself among humans and build up your strength."
"And what else?"
"That I should take good care of you, Your Highness..."
"...... I see. So Father said that."
A quiet, heavy breath.
Her eyes had gone damp, but she was fighting it. Desperately. Whatever was knotted up inside her pressed against the seam of her bitten lip, just barely held back.
"Are you alright?"
"Huu... Yes. This one is fine. There is no reason for me not to be. I survived. I survived, and I have found the retainer Father spoke of, who shall serve me. I was not killed helplessly, and so I may yet plan for the future."
"......"
"So this one is fine."
She was trying to hide it, and it showed. The harder she pushed the words out, the more they gave her away. The effort was plain. Not letting a single tear fall from those brimming eyes, that was the most she had.
"......"
He said nothing.
Some wounds you couldn't comfort, and some you shouldn't. Silence was the most he had to give.
He waited. After a moment, Carmilla spoke. She'd steadied herself, more or less.
"Th, then... you there."
"Please, call me Viktor."
"Right! Viktor... so, Viktor will be this one's escort knight going forward?"
"That's correct. I intend to stay by your side until Your Highness has built up her strength."
"How reassuring! To think there exists a human who blocks a silver crossbow and a stake with his bare hands, without so much as a speck of dust on his clothes. Father truly kept remarkable company in his lifetime."
"Thank you."
A smooth lie, returned without breaking stride.
Something like guilt flickered at those guileless eyes. He pushed past it.
It's fine.
Even if the words were a lie, the promise to protect her, that much he'd keep.
He gave the tightness in his chest a couple of taps and shook it off.
"Your Highness."
"Yes, Viktor."
"As I understand it, purebloods are able to transform into bats."
"That is so. This one is capable of that as well."
"Good. Starting tomorrow, you'll be attending the academy with me."
"The academy? That place that educates young humans?"
"Yes. The finest on the continent, at that. It's full of talented people, so making connections here may serve you well someday. Rebuilding a dynasty will require gathering every scrap of strength available."
"I see... cultivating a power base."
Carmilla nodded, satisfied.
"But... would this one's enrollment not cause a stir? There may be humans who recognize my face. With the execution having failed, my uncle's side will not stop their pursuit..."
"That's exactly why I asked."
"Hmm?"
"I was thinking Your Highness could accompany me in bat form. As you say, if your presence were exposed, attention would immediately follow. You'd become the New Kingdom's target again before long."
"Of course...! Even experienced vampires have difficulty distinguishing a bat in that form. At a glance, it's nearly impossible to tell whether it's a spirit creature or a pureblood transformation. The risk of discovery would be much lower that way."
"I'll report to the academy that it's a spirit creature in my care."
"Understood. I'll match whatever story you give."
He turned it over quietly.
In bat form, Carmilla's size would be roughly that of an adult woman's fist.
"Buying a separate cage seems unnecessarily troublesome. You'd find it stifling, too. The pockets on the uniform coat are fairly wide, so you could settle in there."
"True, being shut in a cage does not appeal."
"But... can you hold a conversation while in bat form?"
Could she? The oral structure would be completely different from her human form.
He was still puzzling it over when Carmilla answered with full confidence.
"Do not worry about that!"
She sprang to her feet.
Without another word of explanation, she leapt straight into the air.
Flare!
A red aura shimmered around her.
In the next instant, her form changed. Colour bled through her streaming silver hair.
"Oh."
Carmilla had, in an instant, become a silver bat.
Even shrunken down, those red eyes kept the same eerie, otherworldly glint.
She flapped her wings and landed on his shoulder.
He was watching that strangely endearing little flutter when a voice rang through his head.
[Viktor!]
"......?"
Oh.
What was that.
[This is possible too!]
"Your Highness?"
[Yes, it is I!]
"This... it's not a real voice. It's more like you're transmitting the resonance directly into my head..."
[Hehe, you noticed! In the mortal world, they call it mind-speech, don't they?]
"Remarkable. I didn't expect that either."
[Feel free to be more impressed! This one is pleased you recognize her talents!]
He hadn't known about this ability.
A few more words passed between them, mostly out of curiosity.
'Come to think of it... this was in the original too.'
There'd been plenty of scenes where Carmilla in bat form held conversations with Ranne. He'd assumed it was just a narrative convenience, but apparently mind-speech was an established ability in this world.
Well. That worked out nicely.
Communication wasn't going to be a problem, then. He could take her to the academy without any trouble.
'You might wonder why I'd bother keeping Carmilla close at all times...'
Insurance. That's all it was.
Insurance for a person whose every stat was fixed at E, fragile in every possible sense.
'Carmilla is strong.'
She'd been shot with a silver crossbow and ganged up on by assassins, which had made her look pretty pitiful, but in pure combat ability she was on par with this year's top graduate. Pureblood wasn't just a title.
Even before fully awakening, she could brush aside a typical academy freshman without breaking a sweat.
'Need someone to keep my body in one piece.'
The Evil God's Mask was there, yes, but it had limited charges. Given how overpowered the ability was, burning it carelessly wasn't an option. It was a hand worth saving.
If he didn't want to die in some meaningless corner of the world, expanding his survival options was non-negotiable.
'With Carmilla around, I should be able to handle a fair amount of danger just fine.'
He'd said he was her escort knight. In practice, he was the one being protected.
Something about that nagged at him.
'Eh.'
The ends justify the means. What mattered was keeping the promise he'd made to Carmilla. Save her life, help her build power, gather people worth having, help her get her revenge, and in the end help her reclaim the throne.
'That's a forgivable level of deception, isn't it?'
Right now there were lies mixed in, but all he had to do was make those lies into truth. He had his own reasons to help Carmilla anyway. Stopping the world from ending wasn't optional. A future where vampires went to war and the whole continent burned, that wasn't something he'd accept.
So a little deception, in service of something greater. Unavoidable.
'Carmilla gets to fulfill her ambitions, I get to avoid the end of the world.'
Two birds, one stone. Good for all parties. Good for the Tyrannosaurus, good for the Micropachycephalosaurus, right?
He satisfied himself with that, and reached up to straighten the mask.
"Hehe..."
[......]
"Hmm? What is it, Your Highness? The mind-speech wavered just now..."
[N-nothing at all.]
"Please, tell me. Am I not the person you should trust most going forward?"
It had wavered, like a signal glitching somewhere in his skull.
Carmilla hesitated a long moment before answering.
[Th, that is...]
"That is?"
[Could you... not smile like that? Nothing else, it's just that the murderous air is... a little frightening... N-no! I don't mean Viktor himself is frightening...]
"......"
A small pang.
Getting told his smile was scary.
Behind the mask, his mouth went into a pout. Not that she could see it.
'Anyway.'
Academy life was about to begin.
***
Another day passed. The enrollment ceremony arrived.
He made his way to the auditorium as instructed.
A massive crowd. Tens of thousands had been filtered out through the exams, but nearly a thousand students remained. The goal, for all of them, was to claw through the competition, advance to Class A-and eventually graduate. The ultimate ambition, shared by every cadet here.
[Quite a cutthroat place.]
"It does seem that way. These are children raised on elite education."
In the breast pocket of his uniform coat, the princess watched the room, just her head peeking out. Apparently she'd taken quite a liking to the warm, roomy space.
"We made it in time, at least."
[People keep glancing over at us.]
"Well, it's not every day you see someone walking around in a mask. I'd say they're just curious."
[Mm, perhaps. Though I suspect there's another reason as well...]
"Pardon? What was that?"
[O-oh, never mind...!]
The princess, muttering to herself.
By then, they'd arrived at the auditorium.
The ceremony opened with considerable grandeur.
[How magnificent. They're even putting up a welcoming message with magic.]
"It is the top academy on the continent, after all."
[Humans do have a reasonably high level of magic.]
"Nothing compared to vampires, though."
[Obviously!]
A murmured back-and-forth.
After the dazzling welcome display, a few congratulatory speeches followed.
<We extend our congratulations to all those present in this auditorium.>
<Grandia Academy recognizes your talent and your potential...>
A white-haired old man stood at the podium. A kind smile, a voice that seemed genuinely glad to welcome them.
'So that's the famous headmaster.'
The former Slaughterer of Cultists. The man who had killed dark mages well into triple digits. Revered as a living legend in inquisition circles, or so it was said.
'Right, you really can't judge a person by their face.'
That warm, grandfatherly expression had sent countless people to their graves. A chill went down his spine.
'And next to him... that must be Chief Investigator Javert.'
A woman with cold eyes.
The headmaster's adopted daughter, accomplished in her own right. A cult extermination specialist, and the only investigator who came close to the headmaster himself.
He let his gaze settle on her.
'She looks exactly like her illustration.'
Striking curves, blood-red hair, green eyes. Beautiful, clearly and unambiguously so, though a different sort from Carmilla. Carmilla was alluring. This was something closer to dangerous.
She was a main character in the original story, and her design was, to put it plainly, exceptional.
He was still looking when those deep green eyes met his.
"......?"
[Viktor? What's wrong?]
"Nothing. I thought our eyes met just now."
[Surely an accident, with this many people around.]
"You're probably right."
Right?
Or maybe not.
Of all the faculty, those two were the ones he really didn't want getting involved with him. Please, please let nothing go wrong.
<The next segment will be the welcome speech from the incoming student representative.>
<The speaker is the second-ranked student of this year's cohort, Ranne Kihano.>
Golden hair, climbing the podium with spirit.
Violet eyes, glimmering bright.
The protagonist herself, arrived.
"Getting close to her would be good for you," he murmured.
[Hmm? That child has a strange aura. Light seems to radiate from her in every direction...]
"You noticed. She's one of the most gifted among this year's cohort."
[Hm... do you know her?]
"We crossed paths briefly before."
Mid-conversation, their eyes met from across the hall.
She'd apparently been looking for him too, blinking when their gazes connected.
Delight, written plainly on her face.
He gave a small wave.
That alone made her eyes light up.
'Cute kid.'
He watched, quietly fond.
He'd need to help Ranne grow, too, but with them sorted into different classes it wasn't going to be simple.
'I'll have to find a separate opportunity later...'
He was still turning it over when time drifted on.
The ceremony drew to a close.
For an event like this, it hadn't been dull. Seeing in person the scenes he'd only ever watched through a screen, there was something quietly strange about that.
<This concludes the enrollment ceremony.>
<All incoming students are to exit the auditorium and make their way to their designated classes.>
It was starting, then.
The prologue was over. The real thing was finally kicking into gear.
He was headed, naturally, to the lowest class, Class E.
From the front pocket of his uniform, Carmilla asked a question.
[Class E is strange...!]
[How can someone with that kind of strength be placed in the lowest class?]
[Are all humans at this level...?]
[A terrifying species...!]
[There really was a reason Father always said to stay on good terms with humans...]
The little bat, drawing her own conclusions and trembling over them.
He suppressed a smile.
"No. I simply had reasons for coming to Class E on purpose."
Not every ordinary student could block a silver crossbow with their bare hands. If they could, every species outside of humans would have gone extinct long ago.
'Besides, I really am weak...'
Weak not just by academy standards, across the entire continent. The kind of person who might actually lose to Carmilla's bat form. That was the honest truth.
He shook his head and kept walking.
[Reasons? There must be something in Class E worth coming for.]
"Yes. There's someone I need to meet."
A seed of disaster.
A girl who had enrolled alongside him at dead last, or close enough. He needed to find her, and cut that danger out at the root.
"Here we are."
A large building, set well apart from the main hall. At least twice the size of a university campus by a rough estimate. All of it dedicated to Class E.
At the front gate, a board listed the students' rankings.
'I should be dead last.'
He'd sat the entrance exam calibrated precisely for that result. Even in the lowest class, drawing attention was undesirable. That was why he'd gone for last place on purpose.
The best approach, in the end, was to live quietly, keep his head down, and take only what was needed.
'Still, I should check.'
He drew closer to the board.
The Class E rankings were listed inside.
And then.
"...... Huh?"
It slipped out before he could stop it.
[Class E Rankings]
1. Viktor
2. Luyan Jestar
3. Austin Vectorhan
4. Gerke Tu Ravan
.
.
.
27. Yeshua Holden
28. Alice
"Oh."
Class E, top rank.
His own name, sitting right at the top without a shred of shame.
A complete and total defiance of expectation.
He could only stare and mutter blankly.
"What."
A bug, maybe?