Night on the island is considered a blessing for those who want their agenda hidden. The crashing waves dancing at the sea hit the rock formation is the only sound it will produce. Along with its deep forest, it may be known as uninhabited to the naked eye.
A cacophony of noises can be heard across the beach; the sound of anchor dropping off the dark waters, boots stomping on the wet sand, and shouts of men commanding to row a small boat onward the shore. On the side of the shore, a small group of soldiers waited for the arrival of the group, standing upward in a firm position.
A man with long blond hair wearing a black coat with dark purple accents has stepped out of the small boat. He had an unamused look on his face and grumbled something about the cold. Several soldiers are accompanying him behind.
The small group on the other side salutes when they see the man. "Salutations, Great Aldebaran of the Dark Stars!"
The General gave them a halt. "At ease." They did what he told them. His voice is cold as ice. "I thought the Great Elgafar would greet me here."
"The Great Elgafar has other appointments in the camp." One of the soldiers replied. "He said that we need to accompany you to the concentration camp should you have arrived."
"Aww, does he just drop everything that he is doing and show his ugly face here?" A dark-haired girl in her late teens wearing the same coat as the first one approached the soldiers. "He dares to send us, his fellow generals here on this boring island and yet he was not here to greet us?"
"Salutations, Great Spica of the Dark Stars! Apologies that we didn't see you!"
"Great Spica, this is the order of His Lordship to assist Great Elgafar in running the labour camp." The blond man irritably said as he looked at his equally irate companion.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Spica only replied. "By the way, you read the letter Great Elgafar has to send to His Lordship three weeks ago, right?"
"His Lordship wanted to confirm if the letter was true or not. Unless he lied to us, we must verify it to Great Elgafar first." Then he turned to the soldiers. "Lead the way."
As the group walked towards the camp, the two generals remembered the conversation between them and the Vampire God before setting off to the island:
['My Lordship, now and forevermore,
I'm here to report to you that the concentration camp is going smoothly without any interruptions from the scum rebels. The vampires you sent are behaving well and are ordered to do whatever they want to those who defy your will. We will be monitoring the progress of extracting the minerals that we are needed to build our magnum opus.
My Lordship, this is not the only reason that I wrote to you this report. There is something important I want to relay to you. This will be a piece of crucial information that will lead your search for that man to an end.
A week ago, my men crossed paths with an unknown group of people. We didn't know that people were living here on this 'uninhabited island'. One of these people is the man whom you'll seek. Alas, I failed in my mission to capture him, My Lordship, as reinforcements from the other group arrived to back them up.
Thus, my humble request to you is to send two Dark Stars, as well as additional troops to reinforce me in searching for their hideout so that we may weed them out, as well as the safety capture of the man you seek.
May this report be of urgent importance before those rebels have the time to regroup.
Your humble servant,
Elgafar of the Dark Stars.'
"Aldebaran, Spica." The Vampire God ordered the two generals who were kneeling before him. He was done reading the letter from Piers. "I want you to assist Elgafar in the labour camp and stomp those outside rebels out."
"Yes, My Lordship!" Both generals replied.
"Also, capture him should you find him among the rebels. I want him alive this time." His tone has a hint of elation. "Understand?"]
"And we didn't know if that 'man' would show up," Spica spoke out. "But what if he wasn't in that group the time, we meet them."
"Then we go for our old method: capture one and spill all the information they have," Aldebaran replied.
They arrived at the concentration camp after a post guard greeted them in salutations. The miners are still working digging in makeshift caves guarded by each warden; the sound of the pickaxes hitting rocks can be heard in the surroundings, and the bonfire at the centre of the camp and small lamps become their source of light.
The two generals can hear the warden shouting in the background, ordering the slaves to move faster while the slaves working at the mines only cowered in fear after one of the wardens whipped a slave multiple times. They could smell the sweet scent of blood in the air, which made the warden whip the poor slave even further so that he could feast on them later.
The group arrives at one of the tents guarded by two guards, who salute them upon arriving. Spica's twitched her face in disgust as they heard some moans inside the tent.
"Did we just interrupt a session here?" Aldebaran ignored her, instead, he opened the tent and saw Piers sitting in one of the cushions, feeding on a human female. He was wearing a loose shirt and black pants and the human he killed wears nothing. The human's eyes only widened, and her body did not respond.
"Sorry to interrupt your feeding session, Piers," Spica said as Piers realized that he was not alone. Upon seeing the two generals, he throws the dead woman off the ground. The now-dead woman leaves with huge bite marks on her neck, blood oozing out like two small waterfalls flowing on the floor.
"Oh, I never thought that you were here." Piers wiped the blood on his mouth using the sleeve of his shirt.
"We recently arrived here, Piers," Aldebaran said. "Have you found their location yet?"
"That's you're greeting to me, Nicol? I'm flattered."
"We're not here to have a pleasant conversation and spare your drama. His Lordship wanted us to weed out the rebels living here on this island and capture that man alive as swiftly as possible."
"Okay, okay." Piers stood up and headed to the table. He waved his hand to his fellow generals in a motion to come closer, but they didn't budge. "So far, I ordered my men to locate their hiding spot but to no avail."
"They are good at playing hide and seek, huh?" Spica commented as she sat on one of the golden cushions lying on the ground.
"They are now aware that there are vampires here on this island and they are moving with extreme caution. Since we don't know the geophysical area of this place, it will be harder for us to find their hideout."
"And they're also good for covering tracks too, which is taxing on poor me," Piers complained. "So, Nichol, and Beatrice, what will be your suggestion on this situation?"
"I suggest letting themselves come out into their hiding and ambush them. It will be easier that way."
"That is a stupid idea that you've suggested, Beanny."
"I agree with Beatrice." Nichol looks at him. "We need to ambush them once they show up. That way, we will put their group in disarray and capture that man while we're at it."
"But how do we know that they will show up, huh?" Piers asked this question in a flirty tone.
Nichol only ignored him and looked at the map of the island that was lying on the table. "We will send some scouts to look at the entire forest surrounding the camp. If they see some suspicious group around the area, they will send a messenger and tell the soldiers on standby to get ready. Also, let's disperse some troops into smaller groups to cover the entire area. That way," he looks at both. "We will corner them like rats."
"So, what if they decide to attack during the day?" Piers asked.
"Don't worry about that. We have human soldiers accompanying us. They won't see these soldiers coming to them, shocking that there are humans serve allegiance to His Lordship." Beatrice replied.
Piers smiled and laughed wickedly as he turned his back on them and outstretched his hand in glee. "This is awesome! We will never let them win the next time we run into them. Man with the mark of the lilies, your day of freedom is now numbered and once we get our hands on you, you'll belong to His Lordship forever."
*
"Wow, never thought those guys were giving me the creeps."
"Did you record their entire conversation, Hermione?"
"Of course, big sis Erisia. Don't underestimate the realistic robot mosquito from SECTA's engineering department."
As of cue, a small mosquito suddenly appeared in the middle of the forest. It landed on one of the ladies' fingers. "Good job, MV-001."
"Wait, that's the name of the robot?" The two girls looked at the camp from afar which they cannot be seen. They decided to stand up and about to leave.
The one named Erisia is a woman in her early twenties with long, braided dark hair wearing a black blazer with a white shirt, black slacks and heel shoes while her weapon was sheathed on her back waist, supported by a belt.
Her companion, Hermione on the other hand, is a girl in her late teens with curly blond hair tied to pigtails, wearing a pink Lolita dress with red accents, knee-high white socks and high-heeled shoes. Her twin rapiers are sheathed on both sides of her waist, supported by a cute heart-shaped belt.
The finger that the mosquito landed on was Hermione's, and the robot stopped functioning after it landed. Hermione pocketed the robot afterwards.
"Hate to tell this, but judging by their conversation, this smells trouble."
"We need to head back to our hideout before they find us. I can't believe they behaved the same way as the vampires we have killed before."
*
("We're not here to have a pleasant conversation and spare your drama. His Lordship wanted us to weed out the rebels living here on this island and capture that man alive as swiftly as possible.")
"Stop it right there." The white-haired vampire ordered his retainer to stop the recording. They were inside their camper that serves as their hideout. The four people are gathered at the dining table; a laptop shows the conversation between the three generals being recorded by the MV-001.
Carl did as he was told.
"What's wrong, Vladdy?" Erisia asked the white-haired vampire out of curiosity. "Something got your attention?"
"It's just that, the way this 'lordship' they are talking about wanted to get rid of humans as soon as possible. And not only that. They want to capture this 'man' they are talking about?" The vampire, Vladimir replied with a curious look on his face. "This reminds me of..."
"Having Deja Vu?" Erisia cut him off. Vladimir glared at her. "Once upon a time, you were like that at big brother Ryosuke."
"But the differences are that I have known him since he was young, and I never ordered any of my subordinates to track him down." Vladimir retorted. "Did I order you or the others to capture him alive back then?" He asked Carl.
"None, milord," Carl answered.
Vladimir looked at the screen again. "Let's continue."
Carl resumed the recording. Most of the records consist of the plans to ambush the other group. When the part that Piers declared that the man with the mark of the lilies, Vladimir felt a disturbance with it.
"Carl," he said to Carl, clutching his forehead like he was getting a headache. "Stop on that part."
Carl stops the recording. "What happened?" Hermione asked.
Vladimir sighs. "I'm fine." He looks at Erisia and Hermione. "Get some rest. I know that the two of you are tired from the whole day of spying on everything. We will discuss the rest by tomorrow."
*
The sound of a boiling kettle can be heard across the dining table as Vladimir nearly finishes his report to his uncle, the Vampire God of their world. Carl descends from the camper's second floor as Vladimir closes his laptop and tiredly sighs.
"How's the two? Did they hit the hay right after?"
"They fell asleep, milord. They have the entire day assessing the entire area." Carl responds while opening the cupboard and gets two ceramic cups. "Is there something wrong with the recordings earlier?"
"Quite," Vladimir said as Carl put the two ceramic cups on the table and then proceeded to turn off the stove. He returns with the kettle and pours out the rich chocolate liquid on each cup. The smell of the chocolate lingers in the air. "The mark of the lilies. There is only one clan that has that mark."
"Is that the flower symbol of the Lilitus Clan?" Carl asked as he put the kettle back on the stove.
"Yes. The Fleur-de-lis, specifically. It's a subspecies of Lily flowers. A long time ago, one of the heads of the clan was fond of that flower so much that he decided to use it as their clan symbol."
Carl sat down at the opposite of his liege. "But the Fleur-de-lis has another symbol, right?" he asked as he drank his cup.
"You're correct. That symbol became the current definition of Fleur-de-lis, and the clan began to use said symbol 300 years ago. But my concern is about the man they are talking about. If my theory is correct, either Albert or one of his descendants, if possible, has some connection to this 'Lord'."
"But what if this is the same situation as Mr. Igarashi?"
Vladimir clutched at his warm cup, not caring if he was scalded or not. He only shook his head mentally at the possibility of Albert being reincarnated and being chased down by some obsessed maniac.
"For now, it's just my speculation. We don't know a lot about this world yet, so this recorded conversation will be a start for us."