As all those gazes converged on me, I couldn’t help shivering. Was this what guilt felt like? There was no doubt that I was a vampire—a True Ancestor—and in this disaster caused by vampires, I seemed to bear some responsibility.

“Elsa,” Rosen asked, “were those glowing arrows you fired just now?”

Obviously. Who else could it have been—Faenda?

“Yes.” I took out half a bottle of Holy Elixir. “Things got desperate, so I poured this potion over my quiver and made some holy-light arrows on the spot. I didn’t expect them to work so well against ghouls. Praise the Holy Light.”

Uncle Rayne would probably have smiled and nodded if he’d heard me say that, but the hunters all looked incredulous.

“Where’d you get that bottle?” Faenda asked. “It looks pretty expensive…”

I’m not asking you to pay for it, thanks!

“This?” I slipped the potion into my pocket. “When I was treating Mr. Rand that night, Mr. Rayne, the priest in the duke’s service, gave it to me. There’s only a little left now, so I have to use it sparingly.”

“Elsa,” one of the hunters raised a hand. “Could I have some? My hand doesn’t feel right.”

The speaker was Bart, one of the two hunters who’d gone to check the cellar. I jumped down from the sled and hurried over. The sleeve over his left shoulder had been torn, and three deep gashes were swollen and purplish, oozing black blood. I copied Rayne and gently dripped a drop of Holy Elixir onto the wounds. Holy light flared at once, and the swollen, purple gashes quickly returned to normal before my eyes. Then I poured a bottle of basic healing potion over them, and in the blink of an eye, I’d completely healed the guy’s shoulder.

“Ha, I’m all better!” Bart said happily, patting his shoulder. “Elsa, how much is this? Any chance you could give me a discount…haha.”

“The Holy Elixir was a gift, so I won’t charge you for that.” I shook the empty bottle. “But the basic healing potion costs five copper coins. Remember to pay me when we get back.”

At my hearty smile, Bart let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Good thing Elsa isn’t a ruthless merchant. If it were Wolf, he’d charge you triple. No, ten times as much.”

“Don’t compare me to that bastard who ran off without paying his debts.”

To avoid causing a panic, Ward and the others had managed the story about Wolf, telling people he’d fled to escape his debts. The truth was that Wolf had become a lesser vampire, and Ward and Catherine had killed him.

“Anyway,” I said, gazing up at the star-filled sky, “I don’t think spending the night here is a good idea. We’d better head back and report what happened as soon as possible.”

At that, the hunters all looked troubled.

“Elsa,” Rosen said, “to be honest, we’d give anything to grow wings and fly back right now. But the winter forest is full of dangers. One wrong move, and we could end up as food for wild beasts. And there’s a blizzard coming. If we get trapped in the snow, none of us will make it to morning.”

A blizzard? I glanced at the clear, starry sky. I couldn’t see a trace of snow. An hour later, though, the howling storm had me convinced of the hunters’ weather-predicting skills. If weather forecasters had superpowers like yours, those of us in the frontline mech units wouldn’t have to curse them every day for getting the forecast wrong.

We spent an hour working in the storm, hauling all the supplies into the village hall. We unharnessed the sled dogs and brought them inside to the warmth, leaving the sled beside a wooden wall sheltered from the wind. As the wind grew stronger, the thick, swirling snow blurred everything just a few feet away. We finally finished reinforcing the wooden windows, and two of the hunters struggled to shut the door, sealing the raging blizzard outside.

A blazing fire burned in the stone hearth, its orange-red glow lighting up the wrecked village hall. The cellar door hung open listlessly, like an entrance to hell. The hunting dogs huddled in a corner, gnawing on tough jerky and yawning with boredom, while the hunters rested quietly along the walls. I sat beside a heap of supplies, wrapped in a blanket until I looked like a bundle of cotton. Luka came over and handed me a cup of hot tea. I gulped it down, and warmth spread through my whole body.

“Thank you, Elsa,” Luka said, sitting down beside me. “You saved us again.”

As I looked at her gentle profile, guilt filled me. I was a vampire too, and my own kind were the ones who’d slaughtered this village.

“Don’t mention it.” I swirled the hot tea around in my cup. “We were just lucky this time. If Uncle Rayne hadn’t given me that bottle of Holy Elixir, we’d probably be ghoul food by now. So if you want to thank anyone, thank Uncle Rayne. He’s a priest in the count’s service. We’ll see him again someday.”

“Mm. I’ll be sure to thank him properly when we meet.” Luka looked up at the darkness overhead. “I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to become a knight.”

“Huh?” That caught me off guard. “I think you’d be better suited to being an archer or a scout.”

“Don’t let appearances fool you. I’ve studied swordsmanship too.”

“I just can’t picture you as a lady knight, Luka.”

“Hehe. Just wait and see.”

With that, Luka set down her cup. She seemed tired; her emerald-green eyes were heavy with sleep. Then she leaned against my shoulder and drifted off. Having a beautiful girl from another world lean on you was the dream of countless anime fans. Too bad I was a beautiful girl too, so there went that dream. I covered Luka with a blanket and sat beside her, gazing at the flickering fire as my thoughts wandered. Luka was a strong girl. Even though she’d been born in this bitterly cold frontier, she still hadn’t given up on her dream.

In truth, every one of us has a dream. But how many people actually manage to make theirs come true? Most just go with the flow, scraping by however they can. Their old dreams become nothing but a beautiful illusion. Come to think of it, what was my dream? To become a scientist? Unfortunately, when the war between humanity and the rebellious AI began, I was conscripted because of my high adaptability and became a mech pilot. For the next fifteen years, I fought. I fought without end. One by one, my comrades fell. One batch of superiors after another came and went. Only I stood alone on a battlefield beneath a blood-red sunset, surrounded by the wreckage of enemies and friends alike. Through one bloody battle after another, I went from fear, to fervor, and finally to numbness. My dream… I must have lost it somewhere along the way. Now I can’t even remember what it looked like. Whenever I think about the past, all I see is a blood-soaked battlefield.

At least I got a second chance, one most people never get. I crossed over into this unfamiliar world. The only thing missing was that this time, I couldn’t even be human. I’d become a vampire.

Can vampires have dreams? I really don’t know.

As time passed, all that remained beyond the tightly shut wooden windows was the wind howling. Whether from sheer exhaustion or the sudden release of tension after the battle, the hunters began to snore one by one. But nightfall had left me more alert than I’d been during the day. Once everyone was asleep, I gazed up at the ceiling shrouded in darkness—and met a pair of blood-red eyes.

You think I wouldn’t find you just because you’d masked your presence and hidden on the dark ceiling?

The smell of blood on you gave away your position ages ago.

Vampire!