Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire Chapter 573: Relative Haven

"My Lord?" Kyre looked to Caius for instruction.

"Stop the Carriage," Caius said.

Kyre obeyed, and the carriage screeched to a halt with a violent lurch that threw its back wheels completely off the ground, then landed back down hard.

Nadine held on despite the carriage’s hard stop and didn’t fall off. The two attackers were not so capable and toppled off the carriage, hitting the ground with fairly heavy thuds.

The Northern-Star Guard carriages pulled up barely a second later and formed around the Leopold Carriage to essentially stop any attempts to run off after.

"What now?" Meline asked Caius within the Carriage.

"Now, we surrender," Caius said with a shrug as he pulled on his mask and hood.

Meline, Roxanne, and Kyre shared looks but did not attempt to object as they pulled on their masks and hoods and exited the Carriage with Caius.

Nadine remained on top of the Carriage. She was crouched low, the tip of her sword pressed onto the top of the carriage while her eyes remained on the two attackers who had been knocked off the carriage and had thus, survived death by her hands.

The doors of the Northern-Star Guard Carriages opened and pairs of feet stepped out. The guards were of two groups: one group garbed in armor and armed with weapons, and the other dressed in Mage Robes, magical energy twirling around their fingers in readiness to attack.

The Guards were all women, and while Caius had seen a lot of beautiful women—he even had three with him right now in the person of Roxanne, Meline, and Nadine—there was no way he would knock the looks of these women who could easily have been on their way to a runway show. Hell, the armor/robes they had on could very well be what they were modeling with how good it looked on them.

Still, Caius wasn’t at all carried away. Besides the fact that he had too much experience with beautiful women to be caught scrambling for common sense, there was also a serious and intolerant air about the Guards that inspired lucid thinking.

A woman stepped out from the bulk of guards and there was an air about her that set her apart even among her beautiful colleagues; Her eyes were a piercing icy blue, her hair was a familiar shade of grey-white along with an overall unattainable kind of beauty about her.

"You are guilty of destruction of property, and the injury of Northern-Star denizens..."

"Unproven accusations," Caius said lightly.

"We have witnesses," said the Lead Guard, "We know what you did."

"Innocent till proven guilty," Caius said, "There needs to be a trial before you can ascertain guilt."

The woman laughed now. It was a cold sound lacking any actual mirth.

"This is your trial," she said, "And I declare you guilty of all charges. Lay down your weapons so we may take you into custody. Try to keep hold of your weapons and we will fight you, beat you, maim you, and still take you into custody for a public execution at a later date.

On that front, you at least have a choice."

"What about them?" Caius gestured at the attackers who were still on the ground watching the events.

"They are as guilty as you are of wreaking havoc in Northern-Star and will be punished accordingly," the woman said.

"We acted for noble reasons," one of the attackers said and stood on his feet before pointing at Caius and the Leopolds,

"Those are Vampires!"

He announced this with the air of one making a great reveal but none of the Northern-Star Guards reacted.

"Yes, yes, we can tell by their red eyes," the lead Guard said almost lazily,

"All the more reason to take them in."

"Take them in?" Exclaimed the attacker, "They should be executed on the spot!"

The lead Guard turned to nail him with her blue eyes.

"And what gives you the idea that your opinion is considered here," she asked and her icy blue eyes flared so dangerously that the Attacker flinched and then he sneered as he pulled himself into a prouder height.

"You have heard of the events happening at the Capital, have you not?" He asked, "You have heard of the cleansing Capital City is undergoing to rid itself of vampiric filth, have you not?"

Caius frowned at that.

’Leonce Duval!’ he thought in realization of who they had to thank for this high-speed chase they just endured.

He looked to the side at the others and saw the realization dawn in their eyes as well. He also saw that they were readying themselves for a fight despite Caius having not given any indication that they were to try and fight their way out of this;

Kyre had his sword in hand, Meline had a dark cloud around her hands, and Roxanne was holding a Formation scroll.

Caius didn’t tell them to stand down but he didn’t feel any inclination to actually fight here. If he preferred they fight their way out of here, he would have just told Kyre to keep driving while they attacked the Northern-Star Guard Carriages so they’d stop chasing them.

No, he had hope that this could be resolved with dialogue.

"Yes, we’ve heard of your ill-conceived attempts to battle vampires," the Lead Guard said with a scoff, "We’ve also heard of how those schemes have killed more humans than vampires."

There was a pause in the Leopolds at that; They hadn’t expected the Guard to have such open disdain for Leonce’s methods.

Neither had the attacker because he recoiled for a second and then quickly rallied.

"At least they’re doing something at the Capital!" He flared, "The North is instead known as a place for comfort for monsters. Bah, of course, you’ll be sympathetic to these bloodsuckers!"

As he spoke, the Attacker seemed so taken by emotion that he spat on the ground at the Lead Guard’s feet.

Instantly, the other Guards stepped forward. Spell circles were formed, weapons were drawn but the Lead Guard raised a hand to stop them— or at least that was what it looked like she raised her hand for before she brought her hand down, slamming the back of the attacker’s head with a spell that was so fast it was unseen, sending him face-first into the ground and bashing his nose into his face. The freckle of snow on the back of the attacker’s head was all that betrayed the use of Ice Magic.

The second Attacker flinched but held his tongue. The numbers were not at all to his advantage here and he hoped there’d be a chance to make his case later.

"Alright, that’s enough," the Lead Guard said like nothing of note had happened and began to turn away as she ordered,

"Take them in!"

"Wait!" Caius said then and the Lead Guard turned around with a brow raised.

The piercing blue eyes made Caius feel a chill creeping all over his body but he held his ground and kept his tone normal and his pitch level as he said.

"We will come with you if..."

"If?" The Lead Guard’s eyes narrowed.

"Yes, if we are not to be tried like criminals," Caius said.

"You are criminals," the Lead Guard said.

"If you do have witnesses, then you must know we drove through Northern-Star peacefully at first. We only drove recklessly as we did later on because we were being chased and attacked," Caius said.

Caius was relieved to see a little bit of understanding flick across the woman’s eyes but her countenance remained the same overall.

"Even then, you have much to answer for," the Lead Guard said.

"Yes, we will pay to fix all property damage and also to heal whoever was injured during the ordeal. We truly meant no harm," Caius said.

"You’ll pay?" the woman said skeptically.

"We will," Caius answered firmly, "So we will come with you if you understand the situation we are in and not punish us for trying to survive a terrible attempt on our lives."

"Hmm," the Lead Guard said.

"You can’t seriously be considering this, can you?" Yelled the second Attacker whose fear-induced silence had broken in his outrage,

"You can’t negotiate with vampires. They’re— they’re not human!"

The lead Guard looked at the Attacker and he flinched and cowered.

Caius just smiled.

Since his relationship with Aylin began, Caius had been learning more about the Khione Duchy and recollecting what had been mentioned about the region in [To Kill A Demon Lord...];

The Khione Duchy acquired the identity of being a relative haven for vampires compared to anywhere else in the Empire because of its favorable cold and hardly sunny weather as well as the considerable tolerance of the Duchy’s Leadership.

Over the centuries, Vampires have resided in the Khione Duchy, at times to the knowledge of Duchy leadership, as long as they refrain from excessive killings. Especially if they keep to attacking criminal groups, bandits, and the like.

This laxity in vampire-preventing measures by the Khione Duchy had drawn criticism and it wasn’t a perfect system. Still, the Khione Duchy—especially the capital, Northen-Star—had flourished greatly beyond anywhere else in the Empire so they might be doing something right, after all.