Nobody is following me, right? Just for a moment, a young-looking vampire lady dressed in a maid uniform looked from behind a tree towards the city. With her eyes closed, she calmed her breath, focusing on any living presence she was able to detect.

But other than herself and a few small animals, there was nothing. Relieved, she started walking again towards the lake, just as she was instructed.

"Ah, you’re here; want some?"

At the lake, she was welcomed by a naked, wolf-eared woman happily eating raw fish.

"No, but thank you, lady ZERO."

"You guys are way too soft. None of you would survive Oprichnina’s training."

as the woman refused the offered fish, with disgust on her face. ZERO merely took another bite of the fish as she voiced her comment, pointing out the clothes the maid was wearing.

"Well, that isn’t the reason I called you here, Diri."

As ZERO finished her sentence, black-clad women surrounded a confused Diri. As she started at the blades aimed at her, she looked at ZERO who turned her back to Diri.

"Is my loyalty in question?"

"Oh, no. I do believe you are loyal; the question is where your loyalty lies."

Isn’t that the same thing? Diri thought, but seeing all those blades around her, she thought better of voicing it out loud.

"Hmm, are you loyal to the old power-hungry traitorous silenens in the council? That rat and her sister in the army, or maybe your race? You do seem to enjoy serving the usurpers."

"Her majesty. My loyalty lies with her majesty, and with her alone."

For Diri, this was a no-brainer. Just like the ZERO in front of her, she too chose to serve the imperatrix personally rather than listen to the council or the elders from Oprichnina.

Diri wouldn’t be surprised if ZERO didn't trust her declaration. After all, the council and oprichnina claim to serve her majesty faithfully, but as ZERO has shown her, they are just power-hungry silenens using her majesty’s name for personal gain.

"I know, after all, that if you truly were a traitor, you would have exposed us already. Or more precisely, I would have you killed already."

ZERO smiled, but the others kept pointing their blades at Diri.

"But it is rather hard to believe a spy is loyal when she hides information in favor of her majesty’s enemies."

ZERO closed the distance between them, grabbing Diri by the neck. ZERO’s expression was dark and emotionless as she held her dagger against Diri’s cheek. Blood dripped from the place where the dagger touched her.

But even so, Diri didn’t even flinch; she just stood there at attention. Not because she didn’t fear death, but because she knew she had not betrayed her oath of loyalty. Any accusation against her is most definitely fake. ZERO knew this for sure.

And just as Diri thought, ZERO began laughing and put the dagger away.

"As a fellow hound of her Majesty, do you know what this is?"

ZERO showed a tattoo on her wrist; the tattoo depicted the head of a wolf with strange symbols as well as the word oprichnina beneath it. Diri would have to be stupid to not know what it was.

"It is a seal of oprichnina; what about it?"

As Diri answered ZERO nodded with a smile. She then pointed at the series of symbols surrounding the wolf’s head.

"Did you ever hear what these mean?"

Diri studied the tattoo on ZERO’s wrist. But no matter how much she thought about it, she just could not figure it out. The only thing she was certain of was that it wasn’t related to magic.

"The wolves lurk in the shadows for homeland and imperatrix."

Seeing that Diri had no clue, ZERO ran her finger along the symbols on her wrist as she translated their meaning. smiling as she did.

Diri listened carefully, not understanding the point of it. But ZERO didn’t seem to want to add.

"I always wondered what those symbols meant. But hearing their meaning from Lady Miyako, even as a child, I wondered. Who even was her Majesty? Was she even from this world?"

ZERO looked into the distance across the lake, her black hair fluttering in the cold wind. Diri observed her superior talking. ZERO seemed to wait for Diri’s reaction.

"That isn’t something the likes of us should concern ourselves with."

"Yes, because we are just a pack of her majesty’s loyal lap dogs."

ZERO smiled as she procured a small package from the pile of her clothes and gave it to Diri.

"I need to visit a certain human and give this to him. After all, it is thanks to him that we found out about the traitors."

"As you wish. Ave Imperatrix."

"Ave."

Diri saluted and left, planning how to accomplish this task as she went.

"Is it really okay to let her go? I mean…"

One of the women asked reluctantly. Diri was accused by their commander, and this mere fact could prove fatal for their plans. Yet, ZERO just kept smiling.

"It’s fine, as long as she isn’t in contact with the traitors. More importantly, how is her highness?"

"Everything is as usual; her highness doesn’t show any sign of waking up. And according to my man, I have to guard her, only lady Miyako approached her highness in the last week."

ZERO nodded. once again staring into the distance.

"Make sure that traitors do not get anywhere near her highness, we can’t allow her to be used as a hostage."

"Understood, Ave Imperatrix."

The woman saluted and disappeared leaving ZERO standing by the lakeside.

"… if only we had at least one Valkyrie. Then it would be much easier with our numbers."

ZERO mumbled as she stared at the dark rain clouds forming in the distance.

…

The gentle sound of rain on the window, combined with the soft, comfortable bed and warm blanket, created a relaxing environment in which Julia remained wrapped in the blanket despite having been awake for some time. She regretted not placing any book on the nightstand, thanks to which she could only use her imagination for entertainment or get off the comfy bed to get something to read.

Making her choice, Julia stared at the window from between Lily’s ears. A wolf girl in front of her and a certain vampire known as Loriam or alternatively also called mother. Julia found it amusing that, only two months ago, she would kick Loriam off the bed, but now she appreciated having her close by. though she would not say it aloud.

Strangely, Julia didn’t feel Loriam hugging her. Normally Julia would be tightly embraced by Loriam, to the point that she would have to wake her up otherwise she felt like she would die.

Turning around, she wanted to see if Loriam was sleeping; if yes, then Julia would just make it so Loriam would hug her. And if she is awake, then she will just be Julia on her own. At least Julia hoped so.

But when she turned around, instead of Loriam, there was a black-haired, dark-eyed girl staring back at her.

Julia sat up and distanced herself from this unknown girl. Julia wasn’t able to prepare her new sword as the girl was lying where Julia put the sword.

The girl just blankly stared back at her with no emotions on her face.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Why every time I wake up there is some girl in my bed? Julia wondered, as the girl just silently stared at her. The girl slowly sat up, revealing her naked body. The only article of clothing she had on was a pair of black stockings.

"Have master forgotten me…?"

Multiple magic circles shone on the girl’s neck as she spoke in a monotone. tilting her head slightly.

"I am a spirit bound to the sword by my master… the name given to me by my master is Kana."

A spirit? Julia looked over the body of the girl, who introduced herself as Kana. Most of her body was covered with barely visible magic circles interconnected in an elaborate net.

"Why are you in my bed, though?"

Julia did her best to keep looking at Kana’s face. Kana, not noticing or not caring about Julia’s struggle to keep focus. Tilted her head slightly, circles lighting on her neck again.

"…you put me next to you…?"

So, this girl is... the personification of that sword Loriam gave me? Julia stared at Kana for a bit. Never before had she heard anything like this. But remembering what Loriam told her yesterday about the sword.

"But if you are the sword of the royal family, then why did you never show yourself before?"

Yes, Loriam described this sword as supposedly enchanted, yet no one in the family could ever use it as such. Kana only tilted her head.

"I am not a sword of the royal family. I only belong to my master."

"Then what were you created for? Why are you passed down in the royal family."

Now it made sense why Loriam wasn’t aware of Kana’s spirit form. But why would Kana be seen as the property of a vampiric royal family? A sword this unique could only belong to royalty.

"Master created me to behead the queen of vampires."

A hint of pride could be detected in Kana’s emotionless voice.

Hiyuuki

Sorry for the delay. I lost track of time while playing Fallout: New Vegas yesterday.