“I see!” said Kanata. “Thanks, Zaggy! You’re so smart!”
“Hah. That is the difference between us and a mongrel whose only talent is for running fast. It is our tactical acumen that earned us the title of Demon King!”
“Gh! Kh...” This time, it was Fenrir’s turn to sputter and grind his teeth.
“We won’t know what is happening until we see the castle for ourselves,” said Zag’giel, “but proceed with caution. Discretion is the better part of valor, Kanata.”
“Okey dokey artichokey!”
“Excellent! A spirited response!”
They rode like the wind until, in no time at all, they had reached their destination. They could see the old castle, which rumors said was haunted by a ghost. But what they saw made them stare in dumbfounded surprise.
“It’s on fire!”
“It’s aflame!”
“It’s burning up!”
Indeed, the old castle was consumed by a great inferno. It must have been doused in something like oil, otherwise there was no way the stone walls of the castle would have caught fire to such a degree. A conflagration like that could have never happened on its own.
The burning castle looked like it might crumble any second.
“Did the knights from the Holy Church set this fire?” Fenrir wondered, lowering his head to let Kanata down off his back.
“Ah!” Kanata gasped quietly.
A second later, the building did what it had been threatening to do, and it collapsed with such an intensity that it looked like a bomb had gone off. A ball of fire came flying from the wreckage, trailing black smoke as it sailed up and then down in a long arc, and then thudded to the ground a short distance from the party.
“Lady Kanata! Stand back!”
“Hsss! What is this?!”
Fenrir stepped in front of Kanata, protecting her, as Zag’giel puffed out his tail menacingly from his perch atop Kanata’s head.
The ball of fire filled the air with the sound of sizzling flesh as the flames gradually went out, revealing a woman’s body, badly charred. Her once-beautiful blonde hair was frizzled and singed, and her luxuriant dress had been reduced to scant rags, barely covering her body. She was injured badly enough that it should have been impossible for her to be alive.
“Nghhh...”
And yet, alive she was. The woman roused herself, propping her arms on the ground and managing to lift her upper body. As she lifted her head, her eyes met Kanata’s. She balked, reeling back with somewhat excessive shock.
“A-A human girl?!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing here?!” Her throat had been burned as well, making her voice sound like an old woman’s. “Run if you want to live!”
“There she is!” came a voice from behind her, as a squadron of knights in armor came clattering up from the direction of the castle. “We have you now, bloodsucking fiend!”
These must have been the men who’d set the castle on fire and attacked the woman.
“Tch!” The woman clicked her tongue in anger and stood up, turning to face the knights. “How dare you! Not only do you fools set fire to my castle, but you would ruin my beautiful skin! I hope you are prepared—the punishment for disturbing my slumber is steep indeed!”
She was speaking in a rather exaggerated manner. It almost seemed that she was trying to draw the knights’ attention to herself and away from Kanata.
“Silence, vampire! Why should we leave you to your rest when we could turn you to ash here and now?!”
The knights readied their spears, pointing them toward the woman.
“Wait!” said a knight. “There are others here!”
They had finally noticed Kanata—or rather, Fenrir.
“A-A magic beast! Some kind of wolf! And it’s huge! Take caution!”
“So, you had companions after all! But the Temple Knights will not yield so easily! You will die alongside her!” The knights were regarding not just the woman, but also Kanata’s party as the enemy.
“W-Wait!” the woman protested. “You have it wrong! These aren’t my companions!”
“I said, silence!” repeated the first knight.
It seemed like the knights were unusually worked up. Setting the fire must have gotten their blood pumping. It didn’t look like they were about to listen to anything Kanata had to say.
“No! This child has nothing to do with me!” said the woman, rushing to interpose herself between Kanata and the knights’ spears.
“Lady Kanata!” shouted Fenrir.
“Kanata!” echoed Zag’giel.
But Kanata, in the midst of all the excitement, was simply standing there pressing a finger to her cheek in thought. This woman was clearly not human. The fact that she was still alive with her body in such a state testified to as much, even if the knights hadn’t called her a vampire. Most people would be happy to classify the vampire as evil, and the knights coming to exterminate her as good. However, the woman had tried to get Kanata to flee even though she had never met her before in her life, and was even now doing her best to protect her from the knights’ spears.
And most importantly of all...
Kanata turned her gaze to the woman’s tragically burnt hair.
“That frizzy hair looks like it had a pretty good fluff score before it got burned...” she said to herself. “My sensors are telling me that her latent fluff score is off the charts! Maybe even a thousand!”
Even in situations like these, Kanata’s priorities remained unchanged.
The woman stood with her arms held wide, shielding Kanata from the spears. Kanata stepped up and hugged her from behind.
“I’ve decided to believe in your fluff!”