The Fallen Vampire

Once the shy lamia had gotten dressed, she and Indra moved to the floor of the inn and began their lesson.

Lucia provided Indra with a similar explanation as the one Vance provided Vermeil. He was instructed to use his inner element as a combustible element to produce a magical reaction.

After everything else she'd seen Indra do, she did not expect him to have much difficulty with this and thought that he would be done learning by the end of the night.

Imagine her surprise when only a mere hour after being instructed, Indra held up his hand and showed off a bright current of purple lightning.

"You did it!" Enyo excitedly flew out of Indra's ring and stared at his hand mesmerizingly. "It is so pretty..."

In truth, what Indra had done was no more than a materialization of his own inner element. He would still require a sufficient amount of practice before he would be able to create his own spells.

Despite that, it was nice to have this small victory. Now that he could cultivate and use arcane, the chances of his survival were now much higher.

It would have been an enjoyable moment, had Lucia not slunk into the corner and began tracing shapes on the ground.

"You're such a cheat, Indra..."

"Hm? What are you talking about?"

Lucia whirled around and revealed an unbearably adorable pouting face.

"I-It took me a week before I could materialize my wind element and yet you can do it after only an hour!"

Indra didn't think he was doing anything special or noteworthy, and he wasn't the type of person to develop a big head over her words either.

Unsure of what to say, he finally decided to just ask a very simple question.

"How did a crybaby like you end up in Keran's army?"

The lamia flinched at the mention of the woman who she idolized and hung her head in shame.

"The princess is used to give speeches on the streets back home. She said that just because we were on the verge of defeat, didn't mean we should give up and that even the weakest among us might be the reason for our future victory.

Even though my talent with arcane was subpar at best, I still wanted to join and fight for her." Lucia said with a sad smile. "She was so inspiring that even I who had never seen a moment of war immediately joined her."

The sound of droplets of tears hitting the ground could be heard echoing throughout the silent room. "But when we fought against the heroes, not only could I not do anything, but I had to watch everyone else die as well..."

As Lucia continued to cry silently, she was surprised when she suddenly felt a small shock on her forehead.

"Ow! Why?!"

"I was trying to give you something else to focus on." Indra replied with a shrug.

"W-Why can't you be nice to me?!"

"I thought I already was."

Indra sat cross legged on the ground directly in front of the teary-eyed young woman.

Surprisingly, he reached out and wiped the tears that had slid down her porcelain cheeks.

"You're not wrong for lacking talent, nor are you wrong for wanting to change the circumstances of an entire war."

"Indra- OWW!!"

The vampire suddenly began to pull and tug at the cheeks of the lamia like they were made out of taffy.

"You're wrong because your hope outweighed your willingness to improve. Thinking that you could turn the tides of an entire war as a mere one star mage was nothing short of silly."

While Lucia had expected Indra's words to be harsh, she could hear in his tone that he was actually going to great lengths to speak to her as gently as possible while not losing the overall point of his words.

"If you want to bring about such a drastic change, you should work harder than even the heroes."

"B-But the heroes are-"

"I didn't say you had to be more talented than them, just work harder." He reminded.

"Is it difficult? Sure. But if you can hold such a high hope as ending a war on your own, surely you must be willing to do at least that much, no?"

Lucia fell into deep silence as she contemplated the truth of his words.

It was as if Indra had suddenly revealed to her the error of the path she'd been following all of this time.

Right from the beginning, the approach she'd taken had been wrong. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝑒𝒷𝓃𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝑚

Keran's words were meant to inspire the masses and push them to be at their very best, meanwhile Lucia had taken them to mean she could stay the way she was and the future she sought would simply fall into her lap.

The lamia's eyes suddenly took on a look of understanding and determination, causing Indra to smile in front of her for the first time.

"Oh? You look much prettier like this."

Almost immediately, all of the confidence that was welling inside of Lucia disappeared into thin air as she became incredibly shy.

"I-I get it so... can you let my face go now?"

"I'll think about it."

-

In the morning, Keran was the first to emerge from her room followed by her two bodyguards and the human Vermeil.

"Good morning girls!" The human cried cheerfully.

"Yes... good morning to you as well."

"..."

"Good morning, Vermeil."

Seeing that the responses to the girls were about as she'd expected, Vermeil nodded in satisfaction before remembering that one member of their party whom she so desperately wanted to see was still not present.

Immediately, she made her way over to his door and began knocking lightly.

"Mister handsome vampireee~ Are you still sleeping? Should I come in and wake you up? Fufufu~"

In the past, Keran would have been bothered by Vermeil's shamelessness but now, she was simply happy that her love was alive and well.

Everything else was simply of no real concern to her at this moment.

The door between them suddenly opened with an audible creak and Indra emerged, followed by a slightly blushing Lucia.

Almost immediately, all of Keran's passive ideals went out the window as she saw the man she loved emerge from another woman's room.

The werewolf girls face curled into a smile that was not a smile as her body began to release a dark and ominous pressure.

"Beloved, why were you in Lucia's room?"