Chapter 71: Chapter 71

TRISTAN:

After that fatal incident at Lagros, I just couldn’t trust Samalah to be solely in charge of the rogue attacks we were organizing against the nearby vampire villages.

I had already told her time and again that the only purpose of the attacks was to frame Count Jeteris as the mastermind. We weren’t there to kill anyone… if we could. We just have to make it seem very threatening, and that’s it.

Unfortunately, Samalah’s wrath sometimes had no bounds…

I wasn’t part of the council tasked to investigate Count Jeteris’ crimes, but word has gotten out that several vampires had already been killed due to continued attacks under the group calling themselves as the ‘Falcon Wing.’

We weren’t the Falcon Wings, of course, but if this is what will cause his downfall, we’ll gladly pin it down on that blasted group he had formed years ago…

Samalah and I certainly did not agree to kill any vampires deliberately for this though.

I could still remember how the vampires had cared for the Shadow Runes when I was young. Up to this day, they continued to honor their pledge to never harm any wolf for food…

Before going to where Samalah and the rogues would launch their terror attack, I visited a place that only Livia and I know of.

“Brother, why are you here,” Livia asked in surprise. I patted the top of her head when I saw her.

Livia and her nanny had converted their small hut into a hideout for some of the vampires who were caught in the skirmish that Samalah and I had caused.

When we first told Livia about this plan, she was against it. She didn’t want to partake in any massacre concerning vampires, even if our original plan was just to ruffle the vampire villages just a bit.

“How about those innocents who will get caught in the middle of this? Do you think losing your house and family members is a joke?”

Now, I can see she was right. She took in a handful of vampires who were injured and nursed them until they were strong enough to leave on their own.

Of course, some of them cannot leave even if they wanted to… One of them was the little kid whose parents had died, the one who was entrusted to me by his father as a final act of love…

I was just right on time to see Livia feed soup made of oxen blood to little Cara. Thank the Goddess, she had become much better compared to a few weeks ago after the shock of losing her mom and dad had hit her.

“You must get stronger now. Soon, you’re going to go back to another village and play with the other kids,” I told the little girl, who smiled weakly towards me.

“Okay, uncle…”

I helped feed and send her to sleep afterwards; then, I turned to Livia.

“So what did Sir Casior say,” I inquired to Livia as soon as she finished up with her task. “Did he ask you where you found all those wounded vampires?”

Livia’s usually unreadable eyes looked a bit lost. She recovered her composure soon though.

“Brother… Sir Casior knew about your plans from the very beginning… He said he knew of it the moment he had laid eyes on you during the peace talk.”

I could not believe what I had just heard! I knew that Sir Casior Willfrey, the vampire who kept eyeing me, looked very familiar when I saw him at the council meeting. That was why when Livia mentioned that he had seen me, I was not surprised…

I was only a mere boy of five or four while he was already a knight serving at the inner courts of the Apricus Kingdom twenty years ago. Who knew he’d recognize me back from then?

Worse, Sir Casior knew Livia from a few years back. He had been her closest friend…

I suspected that their relationship was more than mere acquaintances, but Livia vehemently denied this, although she couldn’t do so without turning red.

“Anyway, he promised he’d never reveal your actions to anyone, but he’s concerned about the casualties… Is there really no way to avoid this chaos?”

I shook my head. “Count Jeteris isn’t even in jail yet. We must pressure the palace enough to have him be sentenced to death for this.”

“How about the kids like Cara? Or those whose lives get uprooted because of what you and Samalah are doing? Don’t you see that this is turning you more and more into murderers?...”

I did not say anything back to my sister. She was fortunate enough not be have been born yet on the day our whole pack was slain… If she had seen it, she wouldn’t be this forgiving…

“I’ll do my best to lessen the casualties… Until then, please say thank you to Sir Casior. Help him as much as you can to get the victims settled to a new village.”

As soon as I left this message, I turned back into a wolf and traversed the woods again, this time going to my rendezvous point with Samalah and the hired rogues.

It took me only a few minutes in my wolf form to come to the village of Payn, which was located in a valley near the borders of Crohmwall District.

For tonight’s target, I especially reminded Samalah never to use vineroot again and to slay only when it was to defend herself… Hopefully, it wouldn’t be as bloody as that in Lagros.

When I had gotten into the place we promised to meet, it was empty, and I could hear the distant sound of fighting in the heart of the village.

Damn it! Why did things never go as planned today?!

I quickly descended into the village and saw for myself what had happened…

There was less bloodshed on the side of the vampires alright, for instead of vampires, the rogues were fighting someone else...

I looked at the banner bearing the official seal of the Talandor throne, and in the midst of the fight, I saw the wolf of the prince who coaxed my Dahlly into coming away with him earlier…

There would be only one reason why he’d come here. Somehow, they had discovered we will be attacking this village, and they set up an ambush.

F*ck. My luck just couldn’t get any worse than this!