After Camilla accepted the box, Victoria and Ismelda left without a word and Camilla did nothing to stop them. If there was nothing else to say, then there was no reason to stay for any longer, and once again, the solarium returned to being the quiet place it had been when Camilla and Kagriss just arrived.

Camilla stared at the open box in front of her, or rather she was staring at nothing—her eyes were unfocused. The fingers that were gripping the box so tightly were now slackened.

“What are you thinking about?” Kagriss asked, giving Camilla a tap on the shoulder.

The tap made Camilla blink and she came to life as if the touch was the gate between whatever world Camilla was lost in with this one. However, being in this world was not necessarily a good thing as Camilla went back to gripping the box as if she wanted to crush it.

In fact… “Are you thinking about breaking it?” Kagriss asked as she realized what was on Camilla’s mind. Her hand darted over and pried Camilla’s fingers off the box and took it away, putting it on her side of the table, safe from Camilla.

Although Camilla put up a little resistance at first, she eventually gave in and allowed Kagriss to take the box. “Maybe… It's all because of this box and the keys inside. If they were broken… then…” She shook her head.

“You won’t break it.” Kagriss’s voice was firm. 

“Yeah, I won’t,” Camilla agreed.

“You know, whether or not she told you the truth from the beginning doesn’t really matter, so there’s no need to be so upset at her,” Kagriss said after a moment.

Camilla looked up, her eyes wide. “What do you mean ‘no need!’ How can I not be angry?”

“Wait, let me finish. I’m saying that it’s not worth it to spend so much energy on her with your anger. Since nothing changed, why even dwell on it?” Kagriss said, rubbing Camilla’s back to calm her down. “From the beginning, you never stopped thinking about your old ties, even when you claimed to abandon them. For them, you’d be willing to give up your own life in a heartbeat, which was why she decided to stick with you despite the fact that you didn’t make it through the vampire conversion. I’d be willing to bet that Victoria was going to tell you after she’s had her fun teasing you, but… something changed.”

Her voice dropped low and Camilla shivered. She knew where Kagriss was going. “I met you.”

“Yes. I think that was something that she had not foreseen, and she probably never thought that we’d grow so close. As a result, she could no longer tell you outright, and could only guide you from the shadows for her end.”

“In the end, I still dragged you into this,” Camilla muttered with a sigh, but Kagriss knocked her on the head.

“Don’t be silly. Putting aside the fact that I was the one that approached you first, aren’t you forgetting something important? Whether or not we met, I was already an undead and the return of the flugels will wipe me out all the same. That’s why I’m happy we met, because otherwise I’d have been purified while trapped in that cage, unaware of anything. Because I met you, I realized what it was like to be alive again.”

Kagriss’s smile widened as she hugged Camilla, pulling Camilla down to her chest so that Camilla could hear her heartbeat, as if proving her words. “You’ve grown so tall,” she muttered to herself before continuing. “What would you have done if Victoria told you the truth right after you met me?”

The answer was as obvious to Camilla as it was to Kagriss but she chose to not answer. She didn’t want to think about the answer. A part of her wished that Kagriss would be quiet and let her stew in her anger toward Victoria for allowing her to gain something so precious, only to take it all away, but regardless of what she thought, Kagriss was not going to allow her to escape.

“If you know that we were both going to die, you’ll let me tag along, but what then? You’d never have given in to my advances, and you’d never have allowed yourself to get so close to me,” she said, “because in the end, you’ll let the pointlessness of it all act as a barrier between us! It would have deprived us of everything we’ve experienced!”

Camilla still did not say anything, but her body was shuddering. Her mood must have affected Kagriss too, because Kagriss felt her own eyes stinging as they watered. However, she pushed back the lump in her throat and tightened her grip on Camilla.

“Don’t hate Victoria for what she’s taking away. Think about what she allowed to happen and see that maybe it all cancels out. Don’t torture yourself in order to hate her for my sake.”

At last, the tears could not be held back. Kagriss felt her chest get wet from Camilla burying her face in it and with a sigh, she let herself go too. This was the first time she cried, and it will probably be her last time too.

 

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

 

Taking care of kids that were too young to be independent came with its own flaws. For starters, Lucienne was limited in the missions she could take because in order to act as a proper guardian, she did not want to leave the twins alone for too long—no more than a day. 

As a result, most of the commissions she accepted didn’t take her too far from Dianene. Most of them were pretty minor and menial too, and paid very little. The only saving grace was the sheer volume of it and the fact that most hunters joined teams and took on more difficult commissions, leaving the bottom of the barrel ripe for the picking with very little competition.

Some days, she could even do three or four commissions, and with the money she earned, she ensured that Ariel and Sariel had their tuitions paid, school supplies brought, their meals nutritionally balanced for healthy growth, and that they weren’t kicked out of the inn room they’d rented out for an extended period of time.

It was tiring at times, but at the same time, watching Ariel and Sariel grow made it worth it.

That lifestyle changed, mostly for the better, when a group of hunters that had been missing for months returned with very little fanfare. 

It wasn’t until several days after the hunters’ return, when Lucienne was out buying what would be the twins’ dinner that she ran into a familiar face on the streets; that was, someone suddenly grabbed her and she spun around to confront the person that accosted her, only to freeze in surprise when she recognized her.

“Eva?” “Lucienne!” They both said at the same time.

“I finally found you!” Eva said before Lucienne could get another word in. 

Lucienne froze as Eva hugged her, unused to such intimacy from people that weren’t already close to her. Eva was…really touchy. “Y—you’re back. When’d you come back? And what do you mean that you finally found me?” Leaving aside how surprised she was seeing a familiar face again after so long, she had a bunch of questions she wanted answers to, but Eva just patted her.

“There’s so much to tell you, but for now, just know that the only reason that I’m still here is because of Camilla, and that we’re here to fulfill our promise to you and her.”

“...what?”

 

The explanation itself didn’t actually take all that long, and a few hours later, Lucienne, Sariel, and Ariel were standing in front of a house with their meager belongings, having checked out of the inn. The house was easily as big as the whole inn that they’d been staying at, at three stories tall and with a wide base floor. 

Eva, who had led them here, stood proudly before the house. “So what do you think about your new home?” she asked the speechless trio.

“New home…” Lucienne could scarcely believe her eyes and ears. One day she was spending the majority of her earnings on renting out the inn room, and the next she could stay for free in such a big house with Sariel and Ariel free of charge.

The only price she had to pay was to join the Fleeting Leaves, which was something that she already wanted to do, and to train the twins in holy magic, which was something she was already doing. 

In essence, no price at all.

“I don’t know what to say…”

“Then what about you two?” Eva asked the two little girls standing on either side of Lucienne.

Having seen plenty of strangers during their time with their father, let alone someone that they were already familiar with, the twins did not hold back at all. 

“It’s so big! I like it!”

“It’s so far from the school though.”

Despite Sariel’s complaints, her eyes still shined as she stared at the house.

“Well, that can’t be helped. The school is on the other side of the city near the civilians; this side is more hunters and industrial,” Eva said as she shrugged. “Come on in; let’s get you guys settled and then we can go change your registration with the guild to reflect you joining our party.”

The last bit was aimed at Lucienne and she nodded. There was just one question she had… 

“But if I leave with you on commissions, what about Sariel and Ariel? I don’t want them to be alone for too long, and commissions taken by whole parties tend to take a long time, do they not?”

“That won’t be a problem,” Eva said. “Although you’ll be part of our party, you haven’t been with us for as long so it’ll be a while before you fully integrate into our fighting style. Besides, one of our members wants some time off…” 

Here, she trailed off and a look of pain crossed her face, although she quickly pushed it away and continued. 

“Well, she wants some time off, so even if you come with us, these little brats will have someone to watch them.”

“We’re not brats!” Sariel and Ariel protested, but Eva just laughed and ignored them.

Lucienne sighed in relief that she hadn’t been happy over nothing. But she was still curious about that pause that Eva had. “Who and why needed that time off?”

Eva frowned at the questioning, but after mulling over her choices for a bit, she decided to answer. “Well, it’s no secret and since you’ll be joining us anyway, there’s nothing to hide. Although Camilla and Kagriss got us out of that dungeon in the end, Alayna didn’t make it.”

Although she didn’t remember Alayna as well as she remembered Eva, the elf’s image still crossed Lucienne’s mind and she could not help but feel her heart be squeezed by pity that someone like Alayna should die.

“...How?”

Eva’s hand shook, causing the key that she had been about to unlock the door to stray. Taking a deep breath, she tried again and managed to succeed. “She died protecting my brother. Naturally, the person that wanted a break is my brother. I think being around the little brats will be helpful, so… Anyways, come on in.”

She stepped aside to clear the now-opened front door.

Lucienne nodded in understanding about Eva’s intentions in arranging for Marion to watch the twins. Being around Sariel and Ariel washed away her stress too, especially since they were both responsible despite their age. Pranking each other seemed to be the extent of their troublemaking.

“Leave it to me!” Sariel promised, with Ariel nodding next to her. 

Eva laughed again and rubbed their heads as they passed by her. “I see. Thank you two then.”