The Fallen Vampire

The night seemed to come more quickly that day for some reason. For everyone except Vermeil that is.

Lots of people wanted to come up and talk to her about her earlier grand performance and ask her enough questions to fill up a web browser.

They wanted to know how she studied, what kind of flame she was using, how she had such knowledge at her 'young' age, and if she were interested in selling pills.

She barely remembered the answers she gave. She was sure that she tried to be polite when ending conversations though.

That wasn't necessarily the difficult part. Trying to pretend to be normal around her family was though.

Fox spirits are practically emotional bloodhounds.

Inadu was just really observant.

Lucia's eyes processed things tens of times faster than normal because she was a dragon.

Enyo would know something was wrong if her appetite shifted even a little bit.

If her voice was even slightly off-pitch, then Aveena would hear it and question her about it.

Vermeil couldn't so much as breathe wrong at home, or she would be fucked. And not in the fun way.

Ordinarily, she prides herself on her honesty in her relationship. She tells them every single intrusive thought that she has with no shame.

But not this time. She couldn't share this because she knew her loved ones well enough to be absolutely certain that they would hate her reasoning behind doing what she did.

So she kept it to herself for now. She stuffed all of her feelings down and ran off to play with Yukiko shortly after her competition was over.

So now, even though she wanted nothing more than to be embraced by her family, she wouldn't allow herself to go near them just yet. At least not until she was sure she could keep herself together.

"Mommy..?"

Vermeil looked up from her seat at a picnic table.

Yukiko was walking up to her with a sufficient amount of dirt on her clothes and rubbing her eyes.

"Sleepy...hungry." She complained.

Vermeil; uncaring of getting herself dirty, lifted her daughter into her arms as she stood up.

"You really seem to leave it all out on the field, don't you, kiddo?" She chuckled. "Alright, what do you think you want to eat?"

"Curry... Omurice... Pork katsu-"

"L-Let's just go home and see if Yem will put something together for us, yea?"

Yukiko shook her head hard. "No, want mommy cooking."

"Oh? But then I can't help you bathe and you would have to eat diner dirty."

"Stay dirty fine." Yukiko shrugged.

Somehow, Vermeil felt like she was getting to experience what it would be like to have a son as well as a daughter.

"I don't know if I can swing that one, Little Blossom. Being a demihuman means you sweat now."

Yukiko lifted her arm and sniffed herself. "...Is fine."

"Is not fine." Vermeil rolled her eyes.

The starlight saintess started to walk back to the valley and their temporary residence, but someone on a flying sword appeared in front of her first.

"Ah... I finally found you." Dan Master Hideyoshi huffed. "I must have been looking for forever."

Vermeil immediately tensed up and took a step back on instinct.

Yukiko chose that moment to remind everyone that she was still a child based on her complete lack of ability to read the room.

"Woah... loser man." she pointed.

"Y-Yuki! That's not nice!" Vermeil sputtered.

"It's fine, the words of the child do not bother me. I have certainly been called worse." Dan Master Hideyoshi dismissed. "If I happen to be displeased with something, I will take it up with you, as I am now."

Vermeil felt her heart sink even further.

"Don't tell me... Is this about the-"

"Yes, it is. Did you think that your underhanded methods would escape my notice??" His eyes narrowed.

Vermeil felt her anxiety beginning to pick up. Somehow, this result was playing out exactly like she thought it would.

"In all my years alive, never has someone trampled upon my pride as a pill maker in such a manner. How dare you try to throw the competition!"

...Or, maybe it wasn't?

"I-I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean-"

"Save it!" Hideyoshi grabbed something out of his pocket and tossed it towards her.

She knew what she was before she even caught it. A rank one pill that was bright red like a jewel and had small star-like bits of glitter inside of it.

This was hers.

"I have never seen a blood cleansing pill with that much... anything! It's quality is roughly 60% higher than mine by my rough estimate. It is a modern miracle of pill making."

"...So what?"

"So what!? So how can you produce something like that, and the rest of the pills you make are either on the same level, or just slightly better than mine?? It's like you gave up after making your first batch!"

Vermeil looked around uncomfortably. Yukiko still had no idea what was going on, but was staring to get annoyed by the feeling of dirt on her skin.

Hideyoshi stepped forward with an extremely serious look behind his glasses.

"If I simply look at your first batch of pills, then it is easy for me to understand how you might've concocted Primeval Spirit Pills, or maybe even created a recipe.

But if I look only at your remaining six, it is flagrantly impossible without some kind of divine help from the Upper Realm itself."

Vermeil wasn't expecting this short old man to be so much sharper than he looked.

"I want to know why you started out taking our match seriously, but abandoned your drive in the midst of it. And I won't be leaving your side until I obtain a satisfactory answer."

"If I tell my husband or Aveena you're following me, they will crush your head like a grape." Continue your adventure at empire

"I will not be leaving from in front of your palace until I obtain a satisfactory answer."

Vermeil sighed in exasperation. Finally her frustration caused her to spit out a half-hearted answer.

"I... Just felt it wasn't necessary. I didn't want to trounce on your stupid pride over some silly contest that we never should have been in to begin with."

Hideyoshi seemed to like that answer even less. "My pride?? Why would you care about maintaining my pride?!"

"Because what good will it do me to humiliate you in front of all of those people like that??

The only thing that it would lead to is a buildup of resentment that you, or those who look up to you would start directing towards my family, my people, my daughter.

I don't have the time for that. This is the first time that the people of our cult have been able to congregate peacefully with the races of light en masse.

They don't have to worry here. They don't have to fight or be paranoid if an elf comes up to them to chat.

My people are fallen.

They will not get this experience everywhere they go. And I am not self-serving enough to let petty, insignificant rivalries take this chance away from them."

"You're being dramatic. Nothing like that would-"

"Your entire sect laughed at me when all Lucia did was ask me about my rank. Because at only seventy years old, I could not possibly know more than you.

They revere you.

What do you possibly think would happen if I, a stranger from nowhere surrounded by fallen, suddenly crushed you completely in a contest using techniques you have likely never even thought of??"

Vermeil toed the perfect line.

She defeated Grandmaster Hideyoshi in a way that left room for debate.

They could say that he was just having an off day. That with just a modicum more effort, he probably could have beaten Vermeil.

They still saw him as their god, and Vermeil was just the minor character who, while talented in her own right, had just gotten lucky.

They still knew who the 'real' winner would be if they ever clashed again.

"My own father made my life a living hell for years when he found out I was better than him at something.

I have seen personally what people are capable of when their longtime belief is flipped on it's head in a single afternoon.

So you'll have to excuse me if I'm just a little bit lacking in the area of faith as it pertains to good sportsmanship. I'm sorry that I didn't help you lose the way you wanted."

Vermeil stormed past the Dan Master.

He didn't even look back as she left. How could he?

He felt like he was frozen in place- only able to hear the echoes of the words shared here with nothing else to say in response.

Hideyoshi had come here with fire in his blood and an axe to grind.

But now, he was left feeling like his initial reaction was apart of what Vermeil was talking about in the first place.

-

Vermeil flew back home at a low altitude so as not to scare Yukiko.

She kept her daughter's head cradled on the side of her neck so that she didn't have to look down as she flew. She really did have a fear of heights it seemed.

However, Yukiko suddenly moved her head when she felt drops of water land on the back of her neck.

"Mommy, why are you crying..? Is it because of what that short man said..?"

Vermeil quickly wiped her eyes as she offered her daughter a remarkably beautiful smile.

"No, baby. Your mommy just got a little something in her eyes is all. Believe me, your mommy is way too tough to cry."

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