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Four days have passed since we fought Vlad III, and we’re finally allowed to see Ruri, who hadn’t been allowed any visitors before while she recovered.

I’m led through the mansion together with Olivia after dark, when a waning gibbous moon is shining in the sky. Eventually, we arrive at a room, where we find Ruri sitting on a bed, with Ryuka next to her.

“Hey, welcome both of you.” Ruri smiles as we enter, and I notice two fangs poking out.

“Are you feeling alright?”
“What can I say, it’s a long process. I can’t even go out properly for now.”
“Ruri’s time as a vampire is still in its infancy. She has virtually no resistance to sunlight, and her vampiristic urges might rise at any moment.”

I often see Ryuka walking around so I forgot about it, but sunlight can be dangerous for vampires. I’ve often heard stories about vampires turning to ashes the moment the sun shines on them too.

Those urges also sound tricky to control. Even Ryuka would fall to them whenever there was a full moon back at the Magic Academy, and Ruri had to offer her own blood to calm her down.

“That reminds me, have you been able to control those urges better now, Ryuka?”
“Yes, they aren’t an issue for me anymore. They’re usually the worst in the first ten years of life of a vampire, and go away after they reach twenty years old. Obviously, that’s just in general and there’s some variance between individuals, so in my case I got over them faster.”

I don’t know when Ryuka’s birthday is, but I’d guess she’s between sixteen and seventeen, which is a few years short of twenty.

“Does that mean that Ruri will be like that for the next twenty years too?” After being silent until now, Olivia finally speaks up. That’s a question I also have, so we both listen attentively to Ryuka’s reply.

“Luckily, she won’t have to go through that. It’s not often that someone joins our species in this way, but taking an average from previous cases, I’d say it’ll take only around a decade.”

A decade, that’s half as much as natural vampires, but still feels like a long time.

“She should gain resistance to sunlight much faster than that, so by then, she’ll be able to resume her life mostly as usual.”
“Either way, we have to be patient for now.”
“I see. At least it looks like there’s no need to stress out then.”
“Ah, well…I mean, there are things, but…”

Ruri’s face clouds over all of a sudden.

“Huh? If there’s anything bothering you, just tell us, maybe we can help out.”
“I don’t think that’s really possible.”

Ruri slouches down, looking like she’s resigned herself to something. I’ve never seen her like that, so I start to worry that something worse than a few days ago is about to start.

“The thing is… Lady Kotohime, Lady Ryuka’s mother, has officially decided to take me into the Urado family.”
“You’re being adopted then?”
“No, as my spouse.”

Ryuka replies to Olivia’s question…wait what?

“The power to turn someone else into a vampire is something that had been reserved for marriage in the past. We vampires have long lifespans, only third to elves and dragonborn, so it’s the only way to make an interspecies marriage last for life.”

Ah…I see, that makes sense.
Yup, I get it now.
Wait, no, that doesn’t explain anything.

It might have been used for those means in the past, but the situation here is different. Ryuka did that to save Ruri’s life, not to get married. It doesn’t make sense to force them to be together because of that.

“Are you okay with that, Ryuka?”
“…”

Ryuka averts her gaze and tries to cover her reddening cheeks.
Huhh…that’s not the reaction I was expecting.

“I see. Congratulations, Ryuka.”
“Thank you very much.”

Olivia congratulates them, and Ryuka accepts it. But so far, I can’t really tell what Ruri is thinking. At the very least, I know that she’s into girls, and she’s also a pervert who would sniff Ryuka’s underwear back in the Magic Academy. I’m sure that Ryuka is aware of Ruri’s behavior, considering how long they’ve been together.

“It’s not like you’re opposed to it, right? I guess it’s just a bit difficult to make that switch after being her servant for so long?”
“I mean, there’s that too…”
“Ruri, I’m willing to overlook everything you’ve done in the past, just make sure you’ve properly cut ties before the official ceremony.”
“…I know.”

So that’s it.

Ryuka said that with a smile, but the intimidating air I feel coming off her can’t be just my imagination.

“Aww… I guess it’s time I let go of Misaki, Kosode, and Mayu from the dorms, Osae from the dango store, Kinue from the other dango store, Osumashi from that restaurant, and Ohare from the flower nursery, Ohama from the fish market, and the ronin Kume… And I didn’t even get to sleep with half of them…”

That’s a lot more names she’s listing off this time. I can’t believe she hasn’t caused any conflicts amongst them yet.

“You also should speak with Wakana while you have time. She keeps talking about you all the time, so I hope you won’t just ignore her, okay?” I decide it’s best if I tell her now.

Wakana is still really young, but it’s probably better to deal with that now rather than to keep her dreaming for no reason.

“Oh? That’s a name I’m hearing for the first time. Who is it?”
“N-Natalia! You’ll be going back to Seperion soon, right?!”

Ryuka moves closer to Ruri, still smiling in an intimidating way, and Ruri decides it’s best to forcefully switch topics. She really brought this upon herself, but I feel like there’s no point in making her suffer for longer.

“We’ll be leaving in two days.”
“I see. I feel like these days went by in the blink of an eye. Are you sure you don’t want to stay for longer?”
“I’d really like to, but Amy’s business here has wrapped up, and we also don’t want to keep Marize away for too long.”

I would’ve liked to have some time to search for Akane myself too, but that’s largely because I still refuse to acknowledge reality. The Urado family has way better resources to search for her, and they couldn’t find anything.

And Olivia is right. Marize is on leave from school so that she can transport us back to Seperion, so we can’t afford to make any change of plans.

“That’s a shame, but I guess such is life. Olivia, Natalia, please visit us again sometime.”
“Mhm! And you should come visit us in Seperion too!”

After that we continued talking about random things until Olivia began falling asleep.

Two days later, we head to Sashimi Harbor, to return to Seperion as originally planned.

The one thing we didn’t plan was the group seeing us off, Urado Tatsumasa, his wife Kotohime, Ryuka’s brother Tatutoshi, and their respective guards.

Olivia felt like that was too excessive and tried to get them to stay back, but they insisted on coming, since they felt indebted to us for everything that had happened, and not seeing us off would’ve marred their honor.

Ruri couldn’t come since sunlight is still too dangerous for her, and Ryuka stayed with her in case Ruri’s vampiristic urges were triggered. But we still said goodbye properly before coming here.

The revived dragon had been so large that many people in the city had seen it too, causing some panic, so the Urado Family had to make an announcement saying that the old dragon defeated by Urado Tsuebe in the past had revived, but that Tatsumasa, Ryuka, and Ryuka’s friends had defeated it once and for all. It wasn’t exactly a lie, but it omitted a lot of what actually happened.

That was a catalyst for Olivia’s name to become recognized in the Land of Kanon, though she was slightly bothered by it, since she felt she had done nothing in the fight.

“My deepest apologies for everything that happened. I promise we’ll eventually build a memorial, and carve your Servant’s name for all posterity.”
“Thank you. I’m sure Akane would feel proud.”

Tatsumasa and Olivia exchange a few words. Usually, a Servant’s master would receive all the recognition in a situation like that, so they were making a special exception for Akane.

Eventually, all of the luggage is loaded into the Beluga, and we set sail while the Urado family sees us off.

The wind is blowing favorably on our sail and the Beluga moves forward swiftly. We only stayed in Reibana for a week, but it really feels like a lot happened. Everyone knows that I used to be a guy in my previous life, and now I’m together with Olivia.

“I really thought you’d interrogate me to commercialize my knowledge from my previous life when you heard about this…” I mention that, and Amy glares intently at me.

“Natalia, did you really think I’d exploit anything for a quick buck?”

Sorry, but yes, I did.

“Now that I think about it, I guess I already did that with the books, assuming you styled it the way books were written in your past life. But I really feel like asking for more information right away would be too insensitive. Also, it wouldn’t be the best time considering your servant just passed away. But if you want to tell me something, I’m all ears.”

I see, I guess Amy was trying to be considerate of us.

“I’m guessing that Olivia hasn’t asked you a lot about it either?”
“Not really. I’ve told her a few things on my own, but she hardly asks me about it herself.”
“Well, knowing her she’s probably more interested in the present you than the past anyway.”

I really feel like I’ve been blessed here. I almost feel like Olivia is too good for me.

“That’s what best friends do.” Almost like she read my mind, Amy adds that. “And I’ll kill you if you make her cry.”

“I’ll be mindful of that.”

I don’t want to make Olivia sad because I was weak. And I need to stop coming up with excuses to not be myself like I used to in the past.

“Ah! What are you two whispering about here!” Then Olivia gets here and quickly grabs my arm and holds it tightly. “Natalia is my lover now¹, so don’t think of stealing her away!”

“I’m not stealing anything.”

Olivia pouts as she continues holding onto my arm, and Amy just sighs. Olivia is just playing around, and Amy knows that, so they don’t really argue about it.

“You should still try to be a bit more careful from now on though.” OIivia says that and kisses my cheek.

Honestly, this is a bit embarrassing in a place with sailors everywhere.

“Wha…”

I turn in the direction of that voice and see Marize standing in puzzlement. I guess she just saw that.

Maybe I’ll keep my previous life a secret from her, but I probably should explain my relationship with Olivia at the very least.

1. Robinxen: This is… a thing I guess…