Surveillance

-----Kaede's POV

With everyone now on the move, my only concern is what Fabian said to me. If he really thinks that Yui's mom is planning some sort of war against the nobles, then I'm sure that it won't be as simple as leaving through the western gate.

Kaede: "Anything?"

Mai: "Nothing yet."

I have Mai flying around above us, acting as our eyes in the sky as we communicate through our thoughts. I'm also stretching out my mana to sense any kind of threat, but so far things seem to be going okay for now. That said, we only just left Iris' territory. I must say though, I never expected this many people to be joining us. Not a single person that was in Iris' territory stayed behind, they all followed her without a second thought. Honestly, from the way I see it, Iris looks to be a queen herself.

Looking outside of the caravan, I see many people watching on in awe at the sight of all these caravans riding through the roads.

Yui: "Wait!"

The sudden yell from Yui was quite abrupt as it startled everyone in our caravan.

Natalie: "Y-you almost gave me a heart attack-"

Yui: "What about your family, Natalie?"

Natalie: "Pfft! Was that it?"

Iris: "Her family is already with us, hehe."

Yui: "Phew~"

Natalie: "Were you that worried about me?"

Yui: "Of course..."

It's cute seeing Yui like this. She probably has a lot on her mind that she totally forgot.

Natalie: "Thank you."

Alice: "It's strange though. I would've expected some resistance by now."

Yui: "You don't think father told the king?"

Alice: "If he did, then there would be soldiers right outside the territory. But we're now riding through the city as if it's a normal day."

Yeah... Something doesn't feel right. We're even going quite slow since we're moving quite a huge amount of people. It'd be quite easy to just stop us.

Kaede: "Still nothing?"

Mai: "Nope."

Kaede: "Any soldiers at all?"

Mai: "Now that you mention it, I don't see any around."

Yeah, something really doesn't feel right. Not that I'm too worried if we do get stopped. I'm confident in my abilities, and Yui is a genius mage that can counter mages, I'm not all that concerned. And as a last resort we have Mai who isn't even from this world. The only person who I feel could be quite a threat would be Headmaster Lucien.

Alice: "Good call doing this before dawn."

Iris: "Yeah. But there will be guards at the gate. The real battle starts after we pass through."

Kaede: "What do you mean?"

Iris: "If you were a guard, seeing all these caravans exiting the city, you'd want to inform somebody, yes?"

Kaede: "Ah~ I see."

Yeah, even if the king doesn't know about this, he'll most certainly pick up what's happening the moment we leave the city. And if that's the case, then I feel like I should've been at the furthest caravan just in case they do catch up to us.

Kaede: "Mai."

Mai: "Yes?"

Kaede: "Watch from the rear. I'll take care of the front."

Mai: "On it."

From our little adventure in the mountains, I did realize my mana-sense is a little bit more powerful than Mai's, so I'm not worried in the slightest. Although Mai might beat me at distinguishing between aura's. Like for me, I can only figure out how powerful someone's aura is and where their location is. Mai might be able to tell if they have ill-intent behind it or something, I'm not sure.

Right now, I can sense hundreds if not thousands of aura's but it just seems like they're all just random citizens.

Alice: "What is it that you're doing, Kaede?"

Kaede: "Huh? Oh, just sensing mana."

Alice: "Oh? You can do that as well? How many are you picking up?"

Kaede: "I don't know. There's too many to count, but I'd say maybe between 500 to maybe a thousand?"

Alice: "Woah~ You're pretty skilled. I've been doing the same, but I can only pick up maybe like 50, not including people in the caravans."

Iris: "Look's like I was correct to invite you to join our family, hehe."

I smile at Yui's mom somewhat bashfully, but it's good to know that we have other people that can sense mana. I doubt that Yui could learn this skill since it does require your own mana in order to do it.

It took us quite some time, but we finally arrived at the western gate. And as expected, there were guards stationed here, but that's just like any normal day.

Guard: "Are all those caravans with you?"

Iris: "Yes."

Guard: "L-lady Iris?!"

Iris: "Yes."

Seems as though he didn't notice it the first time, but his attitude perked up a bit once he realized exactly who he was talking to.

Guard: "I'm sorry, but I've been ordered not let you through."

Yup, I was half expecting this to happen. But from the looks of it, and how he reacted, he almost seemed like he didn't expect Iris to be here. Makes me feel like we're moving faster than what the king had planned.

Iris: "Sorry, but we will."

Iris looks to Alice for a brief moment as Alice jumped out from the caravan, drawing her sword to the guards which immediately prompted the guards to draw their own. I don't sense any guards coming from behind and Mai hasn't alerted me, so as it stands, it's just 6 guards in front of us.

Alice: "Step aside."

I would've jumped out with Alice, but a part of me actually wants to see how this fight goes. Also she seems to be quite confident whereas the guards almost seem to be hesitant once Alice made her stand.

Yui: "Alice?!"

Alice: "Just sit back and watch, hehe."

And with that, the guards all charged Alice in unison, but she expertly dodged with such elegance as if she danced around their strikes, before making attacks of her own, slicing into the gaps in their armor with such pin-point accuracy, causing blood to fly off from her sword. Even with my heightened senses, I could still tell that Alice was moving much faster than her opponents, almost as if they're moving at half speed compared to her. Another guard ends up making quite an open swing, which Alice immediately takes advantage off as he slices under his arm, slicing his arm cleanly off as his arm drops to the ground. It's my first seeing something like this. Usually I'm the one that preys on humans, but right now, Alice looks to be doing the same thing; of course not to drink blood that is.

Screams from the guards could be heard as Alice continues to swiftly dodge every strike, slicing more between the gaps in their armor as more and more guards drop to the ground. The more guards that drop, the more intense the smell of blood became, causing my body to tremble as I try to suppress my hunger.

Alice: "Go!"

And with a crack of the whip, the caravans begin to move once more as Alice catches the back of the caravan before pulling herself inside. I really would've liked it if we could've stayed back as all that blood has my body body feeling crazy.

Kaede: "...I-I can't take it!"

Having enough of the intense craving, I move to the back of the caravan as I concentrate on the dead bodies behind us. I extract as much blood as I could into a ball before bringing it back to us.

Iris: "W-what the-"

Yui: "Kaede?"

I know Yui's concerned, but doesn't everyone here know about me now? I should be able to drink this without any implications. Not wasting anytime to think it over, I bring the ball of blood to my mouth before I begin to drink. This is just too good to pass up. Wine is a nice and all, but nothing beats the taste of human blood. With every gulp I take, the ball of blood becomes smaller as the pain in my body replaces with pleasure.

Natalie: "Y-you did say that Kaede was a vampire... But-"

Iris: "To see it in person is-"

Alice: "Scary."

Yes yes, I know I'm a monster I know. However I don't say that and instead continue to drink more and more of the blood ball.

Yui: "She can't help it. And she didn't ask to be this way. And... I don't think it's scary at all."

Thank you for sticking up for me Yui, but I know full well that that's not what everyone else thinks. When I was extracting the blood just before, I could see the look on the driver of the caravan behind us. He was frightened...

Natalie: "Wait. But isn't it rare for vampires to use that magic?"

Iris: "Now that you mention it... Yeah. I remember learning about it in my academy days. Vampires generally don't have much magic. Only members of the oldest vampire family could use magic like that"

I finally finish drinking the entirely of the blood ball, leaving not a single trace left as I exhale deeply. I actually didn't know about that. But I do remember that Oboris guy mentioning something about my father, even going so far to call me a "princess." So... could I be a part of that family?

Alice: "Do you know who you're father is, Kaede?"

Kaede: "Yes... But I never met him."

Iris: "Do you know his name?"

Kaede: "It was like, Lord Valdemar or something."

Iris: "Ah! Yes! So you ARE from that family."

Seems like Iris knows her history.

Iris: "I thought he died. I didn't think he'd make a child."

Kaede: "No. You're right. He is dead."

Iris: "Huh?"

Kaede: "I fought this person. His name was Oboris. He told me that he killed my father for- I forgot the reason. Something about stepping over their boundaries?"

Natalie: "So... You're the last member of that family?"

Kaede: "I guess?"

I honestly didn't expect to explain my history, but thankfully everyone here doesn't seem to care. I look to Yui for some guidance but she just smiles away as if this was all planned out. It makes me relax a bit as I begin to smile once more.

Alice: "It does make you think though, right? We thought vampires were extinct, but to think Valdemar was hidden away and even making a child. Makes you think that maybe other vampires are hiding somewhere as well."

That does pique my interest. I remember being called an abomination from other monsters, so I'm curious how I'd do against another vampires.

Kaede: "What do you mean when you said that vampires generally couldn't use THAT magic?"

Iris: "We don't have much knowledge of vampire royalty, but what we do know is that they have the ability to control blood. Which is, what you just shown us."

Natalie: "Y-yeah... It was definitely a shock seeing that in person."

Kaede: "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you guys."

Iris/Alice/Natalie: "It's okay."

I'm sure if it wasn't for my reunion with Yui, I wouldn't be getting treated like this. I can still feel some lingering fear from them, but for the most part, they do seem to accept me which is relieving.