“Hiyaaaaaa!!”

I wince and quickly drop to the floor and kick myself away from the sofa like a spring.

I didn’t think I could let out such a loud and high pitched scream. But they say you learn new things every day, I guess. By the seven gods, if I had a beating heart it’d have stopped!

After sliding a good distance away from the sofa I turn around to see who the voice belongs to with my daggers drawn.

It’s a skeleton.

Another skeleton. With the two I had brought with me watching me, standing still somewhere to the left between us. But this one has brightly flaming red orbs in its eye sockets and it’s wearing a thick but worn cape without any armor. It’s also holding a staff even more impressive than mine.

After a moment of us staring at each other with tense atmosphere in silence, it bursts out laughing.

I just stare dumbly at the cackling undead, who is now grabbing the back of the sofa to support itself. Just… what?

“What is it!? What!? What’s so funny?” I shout in frustration, feeling like I’m being made fun of.

“…ahahahah! Sorry, sorry. Hah..! Ahem! My apologies, your reaction was just too amusing, I could not help it.” It points its arm towards the ceiling and the magic lamps on a chandelier light up.

With more lighting, it’s now easier to see the colors. My eyes land on backside of the embroidery on the blue cape, showing partly through his ribs.

“What ar-, no, who are you? A lich..?”

“Good conclusion, I suppose you could call me as such.”

“What do you want? You set up that shadow magic, right?” I point at the doors. ”Why?”

I don’t think he’s hostile since he didn’t straight up attack me. And where have I seen that crest before? It’s bothering me, it’s so familiar. Silver shield… black staff… blue background, the color of Cresta.

“Curious, aren’t you? Indeed, it is my magic. As for why, I –“

“No, wait a minute. That cape… and crest… the royal family! Are you… King Jonathan?”

Its eyes flash brightly. Bingo?

“Oho..? Now that is something I haven’t heard in a long time. Not to mention meeting someone who recognizes this crest,” it, no, he, starts walking to the left while stroking his bony jaw. “And where has a young lady such as yourself heard that name from and how do you know of this long forgotten crest?” he turns to look at me again after stopping to pick up a book and point at its cover. It has the same crest: a black staff standing in front of a silver shield.

“So you are the king?”

“I do not believe I was being too vague. It is indeed true I once held the title of King of Cresta, Jonathan the First. But I am a king no more. I have no kingdom to rule or citizens to protect. However, it is bad manners to answer a question with another question, miss vampire.”

Startled, I touch my ears only to confirm their tips are still covered by my hair.

“How do you – “

*Ahem*

“…sorry,” I mumble and finally stand up, slightly embarrassed.

It seems he means no harm for now, so I sheathe my daggers and dust myself, while trying to gather myself together. The attempt falls short as I notice and remember my sorry state of clothing. I’m only wearing short thigh leather armor and a somewhat bloodied makeshift chestwrap. I lost the breastplate. I stiffen and my embarrassment grows to new heights.

“Ah, this, um, I’m sor–“ I try to mumble an apology while probably blushing heavily and get interrupted as the king bursts out laughing again. Someone, please make me disappear.

“I do not mind, there must be… circumstances, involved. I did not miss the pool of blood and the message you had left. The sight is in fact quite pleasing to the eye, after seeing rotting corpses and skeletons for most of the time for so long.”

Just stop it already! My face must be as red as my hair by now.

“It is amusing to see an undead show such vibrant emotions. You really do resemble humans, how nostalgic. You vampires really are something else,” the king chuckles and clears his non-existing throat again. “Anyway! My questions, if you would.”

How rude! Is he just playing with me!? But the mention of vampires and the king’s now serious tone does cool my head down somewhat. How does he know my race?

”Since you somehow seem to know I’m a vampire, it makes explaining easy. You should know how pure vampires are born, correct?” I explain to him when and where I woke up and how I have some memories and knowledge from around the time when Wave of Death was cast.

“Hmm, interesting…” the king’s eyes simmer down as starts walking back to the sofa, seemingly thinking about something. “Such a young vampire with so vast knowledge. Your power must be quite immense as well. This place has the largest concentration of Moon mana on the entire continent. You must be the reason why the amount of mana has decreased in the region so much in the past weeks and months.”

“Weeks and even months!? What do you mean, I said it was just three days ago?”

“The creation of a pure vampire is a long process. Even if the undead, especially your kind, are blessed by the Moon Goddess, it does not happen in the blink of an eye. Over the past months the amount of corrupted creatures has decreased, undead do not rise as often and normal monsters are more common. Magisus has become more aggressive as well,” the king talks in a calm tone and stops in front of the sofa, looking at the floor somewhere between us with dim eyes.

After a short silence the flames brighten up and he looks up at me, continuing in a slightly uneven voice:

“Miss, you said that you have memories from the sorcerers who were at the Tower. Did you see their last moments? If you did, you are the only surviving witness to what happened at the epicenter during the Day of Moon Drop.”

“Day of… Moon Drop? You mean the Wave of Death? Yes, it’s the last memory I saw.”

The king nods after hearing my confirmation and thinks about something for a moment, before continuing:

“Did you see my… did you see Princess Cristina? Do you also have memories from her? If possible… I would like to know how her final moments were, at the very least.”

“Yes and yes. I couldn’t see the events all the way until the end, but I believe everyone on the scene died very quickly after the spell was cast, and seemingly without pain.”

“I see…” the king sighs. “I apologize again for startling you earlier. You are obviously not a dog of the Magisus kingdom or of anyone else. Let’s have a seat, no point in being so serious here, isn’t that so?” the king switches to a more casual tone, almost startling me with the sudden change.

He snaps his bony fingers at the two skeletons, which I had completely forgotten about, and they carry one of the desks in front of the sofa along with a chair to the opposite side. The king sits down on the sofa and gestures for me to sit down on the chair. The two skeletons walk behind the sofa and stand on his both sides, like guards.

So he can control lesser undead. Well, no surprises there I guess, he’s a lich. And a king. Or an ex-king. Technically the skeletons used to be his subjects in the past too. I wonder if that has anything to do with his control. Hopefully he can’t do that with me. He shouldn’t be able to. That would be too bad even for a joke.

Damn, this is so confusing and unreal. Am I actually talking with that king? And he wants to casually have a chat with a mysterious half-naked girl? I guess he doesn’t see me as a threat. Well I’m not, so he’s not wrong. I mean sure, I wasn’t certain if I should believe him earlier but now, with that sudden attitude change, he actually reminds me of the king I know much more.

I let myself relax a little. While still being somewhat tense, I walk over to the desk and sit down.

“I would prefer to offer a less… dark and shabby place to a lady guest, but I believe a vampire such as you would prefer to stay here during the day. As a host I am ashamed to admit I can’t offer you a meal right now, either,” the king jests in a tone which contrasts the deep and raspy voice. His voice is completely unrecognizable from how it was during the time he was alive.

“I appreciate your concern. And don’t worry, I had a satisfying feast some hours ago,” I chuckle.

The king nods, leans on the desk with his elbows and points towards the doors.

“That shadow wall acts as a warning system. I always keep it connected to myself by a thin line of shadow when I leave, so I can detect when someone touches or goes through it. Since you didn’t know about it, I assume you have not had much practice yet. No surprise, seeing that you only rose such a short time ago. It is high tier shadow magic, but you vampires have natural talent for it. With my help you can learn it in no time.

I didn’t know who had barged in here, so I hid at first. I have had no visitors ever since I woke up, looking like this, 20 years ago. I am glad it was someone like you. I want to thank you. I have had no way of finding out what happened exactly and whether my daughter suffered during her death.”

“I only know what the people saw and heard, so I can only tell you so much. Nobody at the Tower seemed to suffer pain, at the very least.”

“I am full of regrets, possibly for all eternity because of this form, but my deepest regret all these years has been whether my daughter resented me for what I made her do.”

I could feel something crack inside my mind. Something I’ve been trying to hold back. I frown and look down at the smooth surface of the desk.

“I can’t tell you about her feelings of resentment, since I had no connection to her personal feelings,” I say. “…but if it was me, I would probably resent you,” I mumble, before flinching as I realize I had let my last thoughts leak through.

“Hoo? Is that so?” the king’s tone changes to and I look up. The fires in the king’s eyes flicker. “You would resent me? It appears you know more than I expected. From which of the sorcerers did you receive memories and knowledge from?”

Frowning deeper, I look to the side dodging the king’s gaze.

Ahh, this is annoying. What should I say here? I was trying to avoid telling everything voluntarily, since my knowledge is quite sensitive. But do I have anything to gain from lying? He’s not hostile, but I can’t call him friendly either, not yet.

I’m not sure how he would react to finding out that someone who is technically an outsider knows their kingdom’s most tightly kept secret. The topic is something I don’t want to think about at all to begin with. It disgusts me.

“What’s the matter?”

“Ah, no, I was just thinking,” I take a quick glance at his eyes and continue: “I got memories and knowledge from all of them. All 56 of them.”

“All of them?” his eyes burn more intense than ever. ”How surprising… but the circumstances of the spell and this region are quite unique. It is within the possibilities,“ the fires in his eyes turn into tiny flickering orbs, as his fingers cross. ”Exactly, how much do you know about Cresta?”

‘Ahh... I messed up, didn’t I?’ My inner self screams in frustration while I try to keep a straight face. I can feel the cracks holding me back get worse. There’s no way around it, is there? Now that I can’t just push the thought to the back of my mind, I’m actually getting pretty ticked. Just because he seemed like a fun guy, doesn’t mean I can accept just anything.

I take a deep breath preparing myself and meet the lich’s flaming eyes with figurative flames of my own.

“Alright, let’s stop beating around the bush. I know enough. About why Cresta was such closed-off major power, about how you became such a major power, about why your people were so good at Moon magic and about why you were so desperate to keep the secret. Your entire family line is solely responsible for the destruction of the kingdom. Well? Do you think it was worth it? Look at what’s left!” my anger just keeps fueling itself further the more I talk.

“How insolent, don’t talk as if you know everything just because you know a little of the background story! You don’t have any clue about what it takes to rule a country and protect its citizens. There was nothing else we could have done better after all those centuries,” the lich growls at me.

“There was nothing else you could’ve done to protect your citizens, other than destroy the country and kill everyone? Don’t make me laugh! Where’s your kingdom and people now, ‘king’?” I jeer at him and stand up, sending the chair clattering to the floor. The two skeletons behind the lich start moving but he stops them with an arm movement and stands up.

“The kingdom would have been ruined regardless and the citizens would have suffered even worse fates, had we let Theocracy or Morgia get their hands on the truth! A quick death is better than being hunted and persecuted for an entire lifetime. At least we had a chance to succeed with the spell!” the lich roars and waves his arm at me defensively, only to suddenly calm down and sit down again a moment after. He continues in a quiet voice while staring at the floor: “That is what I thought at the time anyway…”

Any last restraints that had kept my feelings at bay shatter.

“Hah, I can see how you thought the spell was needed now! You and your family decided that you knew what’s best for everyone, without caring about their own opinions. I can’t say I particularly care about humans, but I’m honestly disgusted by what your family and your ancestors kept doing for centuries. Just to keep your status as a feared major power. Maybe you mistook the fear for respect,“ I scoff at him and mocking at him:

“What a happy little utopia you had here for half a millennium! Out of nowhere everyone became good at magic and foreign nations started respecting you, just at the small price of closing yourselves off from the outside world.”

The lich looks up at me, clearly about to interrupt me, but I increase my volume to keep him quiet.

“I wonder what your respectful citizens would’ve thought, if they knew that the magic and lifestyle they were so proud of was artificial, a result of mind control and memory manipulation magic! If they knew that their entire seemingly happy lives were controlled by the state without their knowledge since childhood. Just to protect that questionable Moon magic your ancestors gained from visitors from, I don’t know, somewhere? Hah, ignorance sure is bliss!

No wonder the secret never got out, since few were allowed to leave and foreigners were taught nothing. Even if the innocent people got captured, interrogated or tortured, they probably knew or remembered nothing, isn’t that right, ‘king’?”

Mentally exhausted by my outburst, I just stare down at the lich spitefully, who just quietly stares at me and after a moment just sighs (it’s weird to hear a skeleton sigh) and shakes his head.

“You have thought about this quite much, haven’t you? Did you get all your pent up feelings out now? Have you calmed down?” after waiting for a moment, he gestures for me to sit back down without a word.

Having exhausted myself and let the flood of thoughts out, I’ve indeed calmed down a bit. I pick up the chair and sit down with a scowl. Some of my irritation still remains.

Before I have time to say anything, the king starts talking:

“Time cannot be turned back. I said I am riddled with regrets, possibly for all eternity because of this form. A fitting punishment, don’t you think?” he chuckles sadly. “The mistake that was started by my ancestors about 600 years ago was beyond my abilities to fix. This might sound like an excuse to you, but for all my life I was just doing what I had been entrusted with by my predecessors. If I had stopped, the kingdom would have collapsed. At the end of the war I made the decision I thought was the best choice at the time, and I was catastrophically wrong,” the king shakes his head and the flames in his eye sockets almost extinguish. “The result was against my expectations, we were doing something mere mortals were never supposed attempt.”

Now having calmed down from listening to the king’s speech, something about what he said strikes me as odd.

“What do you mean, ‘against your expectations’? The spell failed because of multiple casters, right? Surely you knew about something so basic? You even had books lying around on the subject.”

“Wrong. It seems like you don’t know everything about the circumstances after all. The sorcerers practiced together for a month. Their thoughts and intentions were aligned. We even made sure of it… with mind control magic,” he hesitates mentioning the mind control but I try to ignore it. “I can only reason that the failure was a result of divine intervention from the Goddess of Moon herself. We were doing something that the gods would not allow and were punished for it.”

“Are you joking? Aren’t the gods completely indifferent about the mortal world? They have shown practically no interest in meddling with the happenings of our world even during great wars.”

The king’s eyes flutter as he snickers at my words:

“How amusing, that you of all people should say that. You are a being who directly gained knowledge from the Goddess herself.”

I open my eyes wide at his statement. After a moment of silence I chuckle back weakly:

“… Good point… you got me there. I had assured myself about the reason, so a punishment from the Goddess didn’t even cross my mind.”

“That spell borders the realm of gods. With the way we were planning to use it, I can only assume that the Goddess thought we were trying to reach too high,” the king shrugs matter-of-factly.

“The kingdom got destroyed by the same Moon magic that made it grow 600 years ago...” I mumble.

If that really is true, the level of irony here is just too much, with me also being the eventual result of the Goddess’s intervention.

Neither of us says anything for a moment, creating an awkward silence between us.

I start fidgeting as I try to come up with how to say what’s in my mind.

“Umm… look, I’m sorry about my earlier outburst. I don’t even know why all this bothers me this much and it’s been driving me crazy. It’s all in the past and I wasn’t even involved in it. I’m just an outsider with no connection to Cresta or its people, so why do I care so much?”

“That is where you are wrong, miss. You might not be a Crestan, but you have a deep connection to many people who were. While it might not be quite the same, you have been colored with their memories, not much unlike how a hatchling imprints to the first being they see. You are not a complete outsider.”

“But I don’t feel a speck of hesitation when I think about feeding on a human?”

“You haven’t actually seen a living human before, have you? What are you picturing when you think of a human as food? I would assume you naturally imagine them with characteristics, clothes or armors of foreigners?”

Ah..! He’s right. I never paid attention to it, but they always wear the colors of the three enemy nations from the war.

The king seems to notice my surprise. He nods and leans back on the sofa.

“I am so glad there is still someone who cares so deeply for Crestans. Your anger from earlier is justified and I deserve it. While your circumstances are unusual, I can think of you as trustworthy. I am certain you don’t want to stay here for too long. There is not much to see in this gloomy city, so I will not hold you back. Just know that I will always welcome you back.”

“Thanks. Yeah, I’ll probably leave soon,” I manage to mumble back while feeling oddly giddy.

“Certainly you must have plenty of questions, I will answer them the best I can. I would like to ask a bit more about your memories as well,“ I frown after hearing this and he hurriedly adds: “It’s nothing bad, I swear! I am just curious about what you saw, especially on the Day of Moon Drop,” after a short pause he continues. “I know it might sound unreasonable, but if you can find it in yourself to fulfill this wish of mine, I have one request.”

I look at him curiously. “What is it?”

“While the kingdom is in ruins, you might still be able to salvage what little there is left of Crestan heritage. I have not been able to leave far, as I want to keep the region from getting occupied, but I have managed to confirm that not everyone died during the Day of Moon Drop. I believe there might still be Crestans out there in the world. If you meet any of them during your journeys, could you please protect them or at least make sure they are okay? While I understand that they might resent their homeland after what happened, I would even gladly take care of them here, if they are willing.”

I smile at him. “Sure, I can do that much if the opportunity comes.” Though I won't send them anywhere near you. My smirk grows wider as I continue: “And while I think what you, your family and the nobles did was unforgivable, I won’t show any mercy on the scumbags who started the war.”