Chapter 230 First Day of School?

Van woke up and gently pushed Luna off him. The bed was a bit cramped for the both of them, but they were able to make it work out in the end. Anna was sleeping with herself in the other bed that would have been Luna’s, and Arkina allowed the final Anna to sleep with her.

He stretched out his body groggily, for some reason he woke up at first light. Something that was a bit uncommon for him since he enjoyed sleeping in when he felt like it. Perhaps he was just nervous? Or maybe he just had too much on his mind…

Since he had some time on his hand, he scooted over to the edge of the bed so as to not bother his sleeping beauty, and took out the book on blood and shadow summoning. The grimoire had piqued his interest when he first saw it. And for good reason! It turned out it was by the same person who created the blood and shadow weaving arts that is taught to most vampires today. Reading through the first few pages was already quite the eye-opener and he found himself enjoying the book far more than he realized as the hour passed him by.

“Hmm… interesting…” flipping through another page in deep thought. “Very interesting… It seems to be a method to store familiers into one's own shadow… putting them in suspended animation… of sorts… something like what I do with my shadow wolves… but with living beings… I see… It makes some sense. It’s similar to how necromancers actually don’t just summon skeletons out of the blue. You still have to create the skeleton afterall, but you can store them similar to that of a summoner, and bring them out of a subspace of sorts.”

He read even further. “The blood summoning is even more interesting… and insane! Blood bounded familiers can be absorbed into the body, also known as Kin… When attacked, the vampire can choose whether the damage goes to himself or to the familiar! he/she can even break down their bodies into their individual familiars that they have absorbed! That’s where stories of vampires bursting into bats come from! Fascinating! But should enough of the familiers be destroyed, the damage can reflect on the vampire themselves… there is even a way to turn drops of blood into creatures, and use them for scouting or more!”

Thoughts then began to whirl in his mind about how he could store his troops into his shadow, or even absorb a few familiers into his body…

“Wait a second…” he reread one of the pages real quick. “This… hmm… art of transformation? I need to read another book for this, it says… but… hmm… I could maybe change forms into… huh…” An image of himself turning into a black cat like Azra entered his mind, and he wondered how convenient that could be for himself. As well as a novel experience.

“Definitely should take my time to search this out and learn it. Always wanted to know what it would feel like to be a cat for a day.” He mused.

As he focused on his book, Kira began to stir from her sleep. Getting up, she changed out of her sleepwear and into her school uniform right across from where he was. Not that Van noticed, and Kira herself seemed a bit sleep deprived to realize what she was doing, or that Van was awake and right across from her as she stripped down. A part of her knew she was at school, and sharing a dorm with a bunch of other people, and that there was practically no privacy between anyone here. But her mind was a bit too fogged up for her to put two and two together at that moment.

It was only when she was done changing that she looked around and noticed Van. but still not realizing what happened, she approached him wondering what he was reading, and upon gaining a closer look commented on it.

“That old book? I can’t believe they still recommend it to beginners.” Kira said with only mild sleepy interest.

“Hm?” Van asked, somewhat aware of Kira in the periphery of his vision since she woke up, but too focused on his book to pay too much attention. “What do you mean? Is it a bad book?” he instead asked, curious now that perhaps it was out of date or not worth the time to read.

Kira walked over the short distance between them and joined him in looking over the book, leaning forward a bit. “It’s not that it’s bad per say… it’s just that it’s too difficult. Not every vampire has the talent or affinity for this kind of magic anymore. Only someone like a… gold rank vampire knight could probably learn something like this.”

“Really?” turning his head to look at Kira properly, a slightly incredulous but interested look on his face.

She nodded. “It’s one of those old styles of vampire magic that was in vogue back during the time of Alcraz himself. Back when vampires actually leaned into the more sinister image that people portrayed our kind as. Think about it, blood and shadow weaving, and then blood and shadow summoning. Together you practically become a living embodiment of blood and shadow, a being whose blood creates monsters and whose elusive as a shadow. A being that even if you stab through the heart, seems to regenerate right in front of you, while in truth, using one of the familiers you have absorbed. A being that seems everywhere at once, making shadows that trick your eyes or blood that can puppeteer you into doing their bidding. It was a whole thing back then.”

“Wow, that actually sounds pretty cool! Why did it fall out of style?” Van asked, actually impressed by these new facts and interested in what Kira would say next.

“Because like I said before. It’s just too much of a hassle to learn. Not to mention vampire arts have evolved drastically over the centuries. And we have changed our ways greatly to become… more family-friendly…” her voice sounded derisive at that last part.

“It was also the issue that one couldn’t quite learn everything from the books themselves. One needed a teacher, and since so many that knew the arts died in the war for light so long ago. Those who can teach it properly are few in number. Instead, you will find that each major house has a unique and signature vampire art.”

She puffed out her chest. “For example. My house has the iron shadow and iron blood technique, as well as the blood fire and shadow fire technique. It might seem like simple techniques, but my family has perfected them over the centuries, and together they become the signature art of our household! The signature technique is called… the blazing iron shadow technique!”

She then waited as if expecting to be praised, her nose a little in the air with pride.

“Umm… wow… that sounds so cool.” Van said, though while his voice sounded subdued, he was genuinely interested in what kind of technique it could be.

Kira pouted as if his reaction was a bit underwhelming for her. “Come on! It was the technique that helped turn the tide at the twelfth battle of Kirav! Where I got my name sake from! The day where a huge horde of monsters attacked the walls and almost overan the east!”

“Sorry… I don’t know much about that…” Van honestly replied. “I've learned more about the stuff that happens in the west…”

Kira looked somewhat offended, then sighed in defeat. She then gave him a determined look. “Let me show you then, the power of the blazing iron shadow!” She took a few power poses for dramatic effect and then activated her magic.

Soon shadows began to form over her body, creating an obscuring layer of darkness over her that seemed to make her grow a few inches and fill her out a bit more. Her eyes began to blaze as her sclera went black and her body began to look more and more shadowy, like darkness on fire. It was as if she was becoming an elemental of pure fiery shadow. But she was only able to maintain her form for just a few seconds before going back to how she was.

“Well, what do you think?” She asked, a little out of breath, but holding her head high as if she did something amazing to take pride in.

“Whoa! Very amazing!” Van couldn’t help but say. Even if it was just for a moment. He felt the amount of power on display. “But should you really be showing me your family’s special technique?”

She shrugged. “It’s not like people wouldn’t be finding out about it eventually. Nor is it really that much of a secret. Most famous houses have their technique already well known by the populace. But if we're talking about secrets… What about yours?”

“Mine?”

“Yes!” She leaned in excitedly, her eyes sparkling. “Every house must have a secret or two, right? A special technique says so much about how a house, or even a person, thinks and acts! And I've always wondered what special techniques say about people the world over! Surely you must have one technique to call your own, right?”

Van thought about it. And if he had to be honest. He couldn’t really say he had a special technique… perhaps the sevenfold slash he learned from his father? But that was just a regular sword technique learned from abroad… His mind went back to the family vault, wondering if there was anything about his family's specialty in there…

“Sorry Kira, I’m afraid I haven't yet learned my family’s special technique…” He began to apologize. “honestly, I don’t even know if-” and then it dawned on him that he indeed did have a special technique to call his own! It was the one where he forced his body into overdrive by using his own blood to create enchantment ruins on his body. He just never came up with a name for it.

“Actually… I think I do have something…” He slowly began to admit. Wondering if he should be sharing what was effectively his ace in the sleeve. But such a decision was taken away when a loud knocking came at the door.

“Your troops are here! Come pick them up!” A gruff voice yelled through the door.

Van and Kira turned their heads to the door. They had almost forgotten that today was the day that the soldiers they brought would be arriving. They certainly weren’t expecting them to come so early.

Kira sighed. “Ugh… I hope we don’t have too many troops… that would suck…” looking worriedly at the door. “Let’s save this conversation for later and check out what mess we have out front. Hopefully there won’t be too many troops outside.”

Van looked at her oddly and a little worriedly himself now. “Is… it bad to bring a lot of people?” having always figured that bringing more would be better. Right?

She shrugged. “I wouldn’t say it is a completely bad thing… but…” She gave him a serious look. “Many newbie students think that they have to bring as many expandable soldiers as they can, not realizing how much work and money that would cost. Not to mention the more you bring, the more likely you are to be forced to work the walls for extra training. It’s an unnecessary expense for the first few years if you're just here to learn and train and or taking the more scholarly pursuits this school has to offer.”

“It makes far more sense to just bring a select few soldiers that you can watch over and train personally. Training them up to be the core of your bodyguards or knights in the future. And soldiering isn’t the only thing they can do. If you have the money, they can even join in certain classes, allowing you to train up craftsmen or mages. Which can be far more useful than a bunch of soldiers once you leave back to your territory. Everyone needs a good bureaucrat or adviser to help push paperwork off onto.”

“There are also the complications when there are many troops and too few leaders with their own soldiers to lead. The school forces you to share or join in with other students that may or may not have a lot of soldiers to spare, meaning that you may have to share control over your troops to a person who doesn’t care if your people live or die. A lot of fights can break out because of that…”

“But the worst of it is when the school sees you have a lot of soldiers to spare and they decide to conscript a few of them to help manage the walls during a particularly bad fogstorm or monster wave. Then you top that off with nobles fighting over who gets the best equipment or rations for their soldiers… because of that, most try to only settle for a select few, about no more than a dozen or so. Rather than the school recommended number of over seventy to a hundred. Since that’s just them trying to get free labor.” She finished. Having crossed her arms during her explanation and taking on a mentoring tone. “Not to mention, there are many classes on necromancy and golemancy that they will teach, as well as shadow and blood shaping to create truly expandable soldiers. And that’s just to name a few…”

During this time, the other students slowly began to wake up and put on their uniforms, having been awoken by the banging and the sound from outside. They got ready to go out and pick up their troops.

“Oh…” Van could only reply. Realizing he might have just made a mistake in bringing so many people with him. “Is that why you girls don’t have maids with you as well? Because there might be issues with their treatment?”

Kira shook her head. “No, that’s something else entirely. For us, we don’t really distinguish between our maids and our soldiers. They are after all there to serve and protect us. She’s just outside with the other girls I brought. Thought for the most part, those like us in the east don’t particularly enjoy having maids fawn over us. We prefer to do things with our own two hands.”

“I see…” Van said, wondering what bringing three maids said about him. His eyes sliding to his Anna’s who were getting up and helping his wife and Arkina wake up as well as they changed and tried to make the beds.

Kira saw this and tried to soothe his worries. “Oh, don’t worry about you bringing the maids. It makes far more sense since you are a male. I’m sure no one would judge you for that.” trying to be helpful.

“Umm… thanks…” Van said awkwardly.

“Err… right… Let’s go check out the troops. Hopefully it will be a good batch that will be useful in team battles.” Kira said, trying to change the subject.

“Team battles?” Van asked.

Kira just blinked at him. “...You have a lot to learn… Come, follow me, I’ll explain everything later. We should hurry before your troops are poached by other nobles. I wouldn’t put it past a few of the other dorms to try and snag a few worthwhile troops while we are distracted.”

“They can do that!?” Van’s eyes widened as he got up to follow Kira who was leading him to the door.

She nodded her head sagely as she pulled him along by the hand. “It wouldn’t be the first time that something like that has happened. Though it is rare…”

As they moved closer to the door, arguing could be heard from the other side. Van and Kira paused right before it and shared a worried look. Kira was the first to act, and opened the door wide to show a scene of Tabitha and Cerina going at it first thing in the morning.

Van wasn’t even aware that Cerina had been missing from the dorm. She must have gotten up before he had and waited for the troops to arrive, which showed some extreme dedication on her part.

Though instead of arguing about the troops, who he noticed were trying to stay far away from the two arguing nobles. Seral was somehow there and seemed to be the center of the conflict.

Looking around, Van noticed Karmine, who looked his way. He sent her a silent question, but she simply shook her head and shrugged, just as clueless as he was about what was happening. The entire crowd of about a thousand soldiers were awkwardly standing around, a few already with their noble charges, trying to figure out what to do next. A small faction decided to be the first to sneak their troops into the barracks before the others did, while everyone else stayed to watch what would happen next.

Kira and Van shared a look. But with determination, Van straightened out his back and began walking to the two bickering nobles to see what was going on. And hopefully, save his friend from whatever was going on…