8 Chapter 8

Despite what most people may believe, planning a rescue mission is actually super easy, barely an inconvenience when your enemies are arguably committing self-sabotage merely by breathing. Sneaking into the castle built by a species that has a thing for gothic architecture with deep religious motifs that are literally harmful to them isn't all that hard for a group of honorable cultivators capable of sensing others' life force.

That said, they still have a few cultivators in the Aureus Core Realm withing their ranks that we should take into consideration when coming up with a plan. Direct confrontation of any kind is ill advised, so the best course of action would be to make use of one of the several secret passageways used by the vampire hunters for generations that connect the inner castle to the churches across the region, passageways that my Junior Brother took advantage of in order to escape in the first place.

Once we find the girl, Kuroka would open a portal connected to the mansion. It is a shame that my Dao Companion needs to be familiar with a location in order to reach it through her portals, but the heavens had always had a thing for balancing abilities whenever the ones using them weren't their favored children, but at least the passageways would make things easier.

To be fair, I'm not even surprised to know those passageways are a thing. The more I hear about the vampires, the more I am convinced that Darwin was full of shit when he wrote that book about the principles of natural selection. It is almost like they are too stupid to die.

"Is it true what they say about traps or is it just a stereotype?" Kuroka asks with a hint of mirth in her almost singing voice. "I understand that some rumors are mostly nonsense, just like the one that states that all nekomata love to eat fish."

"I'm pretty sure that you ate your weight worth in salmon last week. Out of curiosity, are we paying you with food instead of money?"

Hopefully not, that would be slavery with some extra steps. That kind of things never end well for Young Masters even though MCs buy slaves all the time without anyone calling them scum.

"Nya ~ just because I love eating fish doesn't mean that all nekomata are the same ~ nya nya. Thinking like that is racist... nya."

"I give it a four out of ten." And that's me being generous, but I still show my support by offering her a thumbs up. "The joke made sense, but it felt a bit forced. Good attempt though."

"Try to come up with good material while lacking some sleep. The soft beds and big pillows at your mansion ruined me for sleeping outdoors." She snorts, but soon regains her playful smirk. "Besides, had I wanted to tell a joke I would have asked him something about the vampires."

"Eight out of ten, that one was much better."

"Excuse me, what's a trap?"

Kuroka and I share a look for a very long second.

"Would telling him make this more or less hilarious?'' I shrug at her admittedly profound question. "Anyways, I'll scout the area around the castle now, see you in twenty minutes or so."

With those words she disappears within the forest's almost gray foliage without producing a single sound that could reveal her location.

It's very thoughtful of her to tell me exactly how much time I have for this, especially since I know for sure that she only needs five minutes at most to scout the whole area using her Senjutsu Arts, but I guess that is just one of her charming points.

"Junior Brother."

In all honesty, it isn't like I need to have this private conversation since it wouldn't change our course of action. Alas, it is my duty as a proper Young Master to take care of my subordinates. Since I'm willing to use them as meatshields the moment a dangerous situation arises, then I should also make sure to look after them in the meanwhile. That and I feel like doing it because this is my first Junior Brother.

''About the scars... would you like to talk about them?'' I softly ask him, making sure to out some distance between us to not intimidate him by accident.

One of the only noteworthy abilities that vampires possess is their regeneration. Although it is a lesser version of my own divine recovery, it should still be enough to heal most injuries without leaving scars. And yet, I saw the old scars running across Gasper's back with my own eyes. The only way for such a thing to be possible would be if they were the result of someone repeatedly causing them with holy weapons.... or garlic on almost daily basis.

"Do you mean the ones in my back?" His voice was oddly monotonous, almost as if he didn't understand that this is supposed to be a heavy subject. "Valerie said that we should get some big scars so the vampires at the castle wouldn't get weird ideas when they see our bodies. Everyday at high noon, when most vampires were sleeping, we would steal some crosses from the vault and carve our backs with them."

I sneer; this shouldn't have been a surprise. Both the vampires and a significant part of the devils are morons who can't understand that the chase is more than half of the fun when it comes to bedding someone.

"They don't really hurt, so there is no need to worry about them." Gasper quickly adds upon seeing my scowl, which leads me to scowl even harder.

"Junior, you dare?" The galls of this kid. "Are you really implying that this benevolent, gentle, handsome, rich and humble Young Master would allow his subordinates to sport such scars when a few drops of Phoenix Tears should be more than enough to treat them?"

"Sorry!"

"Sorry your ancestors; you should be saying thank you instead." That gives him a pause.

Pink pale eyes filled with uneasiness meet my severe blue ones. "…Senior Brother, could we heal Valerie's scars before treating mine?"

Right, I almost forgot that Gasper is supposed to be that kind of MC. He is a good person.

Although I'm above good and evil, I don't particularly enjoy dealing with good people, mostly because I often end up liking them and that makes manipulating them for the sake of my own survival a bit harder. Then again, the fact he is a good person means that I wouldn't need to go out of my way to earn his loyalty. Just not being an absolute asshole should be enough.

"Oh, are you trying to gainsay this Young Master?" There is some mirth in my voice that I fail to hide, but it still manages to give the kid a decent scare.

"Yes? I mean no! It's just that.... Whenever we got ourselves into troubles and lost our food privileges, Valerie would say it didn't matter since she wanted to play at rat hunters anyways, and then she would give me the healthiest ones to eat."

"She sounds as a great mistress." Just a bit worse than a Phenex, and that is one the greatest compliments that I can give to someone.

"She's the best." He confirms with a confident nod before faltering.. "Of course, you are also the best since you are helping me to save her, and we should hurry before something bad happens and endupinhorriblesituationandGodsheishurtandyouare-"

I slap him again.

Damn, I'm great at dealing with panic attacks.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The secret passageway was not like I imagined it to be. Rather than a dark corridor with mold covering its walls, the damn place was actually an expensive looking hall adorned with some beautiful cathedral windows holy crosses that gave us a bad headache when we laid our eyes upon them. Because of that, the infiltration itself ended up being a pretty easy affair. Kuroka was forced to use her poison to put a guard to sleep, but we didn't have any problematic encounters beyond that.

"She must be here." Gasper faintly whispers when we reach an old wooden door at the top of an old tower..

I wasn't expecting anything from the vampires, yet I find myself disappointed. They locked a young mistress with some Dao Bones related to the Dao of light in a random barely guarded tower instead sealing her in nice-looking cave like any respectable evil sect would do. The door isn't even fire-proof or resistent to magic, so melting the rusty metal lock with my powerful and hellish fire is child's play.

Junior Brother doesn't wait for further instructions before opening the door in a single and hasty motion. In most circumstances not letting your Senior Brother be the one to open a possible beauty's room deserved a good beating, but this is his childhood friend so it's fine.

"VALERIE!" He calls the only person inside the cold and humid room, a short girl sitting on a bed (if one could call a mattress on the floor a bed) that is too small for her, playing with some red flowers that I have never seen before.

The first word that comes to my mind is lovely. Her appearance alone would melt the heart of anyone with eyes.

The second word is fragile.

Similar to Gasper, she is small for her age, too thin to be able to fight, too pale to be under the sun. Even though that she should be around fifteen according to Gasper, the girl in front of me is only slightly taller than Ravel. Her figure is too thin to be called slender (I would rather not imagine how her ribs looks like under her dress); her skin is paler than white, it reminds me of the finest porcelain that would break under the slightest touch; her long platinum blond hair that reached her hips can be said to have been kissed by the moon, it is more beautiful than silk.

Truly, the only thing about her that doesn't scream fragile are those red eyes of her; those two orbs with an almost ghostly glow that feel cold to look at despite their warm color. Despite their beauty, they aren't focused on anything, almost as if the world weren't worth their time.

The girl was by all means beautiful, one would have to be blind to deny it, but there is something about her that feels off.

Said feeling disappears the very exact instant she realizes that Gasper's there.

"VALERIE, VALERIE!" Junior Brother embraces the thin girl in a hug as he starts crying. "IAMSORRY!"

The girl's crimson eyes go from boredom to surprise, and finally settle inwarm happiness, which contrasts with her almost lugubrious appearance.

"GASPER!" She hugs him back in joy.

They're now in their own world, utterly ignoring Kuroka and I, but I can hardly blame them for that. This is their touching moment, not mine.

After ten minutes filled with a lot of hugging and crying, Junior Brother finally remembers that I am here.

"Valerie, Valerie. These are Riser and Kuroka, they were the ones that saved me. We are here to rescue you." I cough into my fist. "Right… he is also my Senior Brother."

Kuroka coughs into her fist.

"And I am a devil now."

Valerie just stares at me with those alluring red eyes of hers before offering me a smile as sweet as a summer peach. In a delicate and refined fashion, she slightly bows to me with a natural grace that would put most devils to shame. She bowed low enough to show respect while avoiding appearing submissive at the same time.

"Thou art truly brave knights from distant lands and even the blind can see thy heart filled with the justice forgotten by those afraid of the glorious light that bless us every morrow. Tis shameful, but I have to beseech for a minute to speak with my lost kin without any eyes but ours. Please, forgive this crownless princess and enjoy this tea made with my unskilled hands meanwhile."

My Dao Companion silently groans at my side for some reason. She must be really tired.

"This young master understands your need for privacy, but I still need to remind you that we are short of time. A divine tribulation is getting closer, so we need to leave this cursed land before the curse of the heavens notices our presence here."

Kuroka's eyes start to twitch again so I gently pat her back as the half-vampires left the room in a hurry, leaving two teacups on the table for us to enjoy in the meanwhile.

After performing some breathing exercises to circulate her Qi, Kuroka grabs a cup and sniffs it.

"This is poison….and rainwater."

It seems like the vampires haven't given her actual food or water after her escape attempt.

With a shrug I take a sip of the tea. It tastes like strawberries.

"It's just a little of paralysis poison, nothing dangerous." The Nekoshou nods at my words and puts the cup aside. It isn't like we expected Valerie to trust two random devils that came from nowhere and recruited her childhood friend into their ranks.

I take another sip of the tea. I like strawberries.