26 Balancing Act

It's been a few hours since I established myself as Captain using fear and intimidation. Fear and intimidation aren't suitable for long term cooperation, but this isn't a long term situation. It should only take two and a half days to arrive at Anchorage, and the sooner I can get off this boat, the better.

Anyways, I've gone around and destroyed anything I could find that looks like it could be used to contact the outside world. Things like cell phones, walkie-talkies, the console they use to contact a meteorologist onshore, and one person even had a pager I smashed it all without hesitation.

I take a deep breath and exhale, 'I'm exhausted. System, can you give me a basic display of my status.'

Name: Eira Callista

Gender: Female

Race: Vampire {Pseudo True God}

Level: 3 (0/50)

Health: 287/330

Mana: 9/150

Essence: -286

'I didn't want you to include the essence; it just reminds me of how poor I am.'

[The system interpreted essence to be a basic display of the Host's status.]

'...Whatever.'

I look over the display, 'My health and mana have both dropped due to all the blood magic I've been using.'

I glance around the room at the crew, who is watching me from the corner of their eyes.

'It's good they don't know without my mana those collars are pretty much just decoration. Anyways come nightfall they'll realize just how bad of a spot they are in.'

I throw my head back and lean against the reinforced door of the bridge. On the other side of the door, I can hear the sounds of the Crawlers screeching as their claws scrape against the metal of the door, but this door is strong enough to take a blast from a high-grade bomb, so those Crawlers aren't getting in here anytime soon.

Speaking of the door, I was actually pretty lucky it requires a keycode to enter, and luckily Captain Hitchcock had taped the code to the inside of his hat. I guess the guy had a hard time remembering or something; it saved me the trouble of finding another way in.

I glance to my right and notice Eden is still somewhat out of it. She hasn't talked at all since the incident with Hitchcock earlier. Of course, she's not much of a talker anyway.

'Hmmm, maybe I was too hard on her? I'm not exactly experienced when it comes to this kind of stuff.'

**Sigh**

"Eden, I'm sorry."

Eden turns to me with her usual expression and blinks a few times, "For the embarrassing pirate display?"

I smirk, "No, that was a gift; you should be thanking me. I'm talking about earlier."

"Yeah...Uhm, Eira, can I ask you something?"

"Sure?"

"...Do you hate humans?"

"No, I wouldn't say I hate humans. I hold a grudge against them, and I'm not the biggest fan of the human race, but it's not like I wish for their extinction or anything. In fact, I've never killed a human just for the sake of killing a human."

"But earlier...with Hitchcock, you said..."

"I know what I said. I was a tad heated, which is why I'm apologizing, but if what you got out of it is I hate humans, you missed the point I was trying to make. I wouldn't be doing anything different then what I'm doing now if you replaced humans with dwarves, orcs, elves, giants, or whatever else."

"Then what about that girl? You said she was a banshee or something earlier why did you kill her?"

"Kanna? It was because I needed food and a test subject for my ability. She was a bit rude to me at the time, but that's not why I killed her; that's just why I chose her. If it wasn't her, it would have just been someone else."

"Oh, but is that really a good enough reason?"

"I'm sure many people would say no, but right now, humans are the only reasonable and readily available resource for me to exploit, so it's all the reason I needed."

I turn away and look down at my body that is soaked red in blood, "Anyways, if you have any more questions nows the time to ask, I'm pretty uncomfortable in this dress, and I want to go change."

"Yeah...Uhm, actually, I have one more...Eria, did you turn everyone onboard into monsters?"

"Yes, I did. Well, technically, not everyone is a monster just yet."

Eden gives me a complicated look, "Why, was it really necessary?"

I look into Edens's azure eye, "Because if someone pulls out a stick, I'll pull out a gun. If someone pulls out a gun, I'll drive over them in a tank. If someone drives up in a tank, I'll drop a nuke. Why? Because otherwise, it's an uncertainty, and we can only afford guarantees; there's only you and me. This isn't a fairy tale; this is reality, and this story has no heroes, just monsters."

Worried, I might say too much I walk away, leaving Eden to her thoughts. I know she'll find her own conclusion soon enough, just the fact she was able to ask me those questions shows how different she is from most girls her age. If you want to see a more typical reaction, you can look to the corner of the room where Audrey is lying there like a mummy staring at the ceiling.

I face the people in the room, "Listen up you scallywags, I'm going to change in this closet over here if anyone tries anything your collars will sense it and explode leaving you a headless corpse, so don't get any funny ideas."

They don't actually do that, but they don't know that. I make my way to the closet and open the door. Finding stacks of papers and other useless junk, I toss it all to the floor.

From the corner of the room, I can hear one of the crew members, "...It took me six months to sort all those documents."

I shoot him a look, and he quickly goes back to work. Stepping into the closet, I shut the door and begin to peel off my dress and underwear that have dried to my skin. I store everything away in my ring and will probably dispose of this set in the near future.

I've tried to remove the blood from the fabric before, but it's difficult to manipulate blood that's been absorbed by the fabric, and it's even worse if it has begun to dry naturally on its own. Once my control gets better in the future, I hope I can get to the point where this won't be a problem anymore.

Moving on, I wipe my body down with a hot towel I've had stored in my ring since back in Japan. When it comes to my body, I've noticed I've developed a few vain tendencies, which is strange because neither Robert nor Callista was this way. Honestly, although most people would consider this a negative trait, it makes me happy this is a characteristic I developed all on my own, negative or not, it belongs to me.

I take out one of the new dresses Eden bought me. It has a light blue collar, blue suspenders that run to a blue belt, and a light blue skirt. Then there's a shirt that looks similar to a dress shirt with little buttons and long sleeves. On the skirt, and collar, there are pictures of constellations like Orion and the big dipper. The shoes are small blue and white flats.

I do a little twirl in my new outfit, "Hehe, I'm so cute. The cutest that's me!" I pat my chest with a big smile.

I put on the slightly oversized captain's cap and exit the closet. As soon as I walk out, everyone stares at me.

I tilt my head in confusion, "What are you all looking at?"

"Nothing!" they all yell in unison.

I frown and look toward the mummy in the corner, "Audrey!"

"EEK" Audrey recoils in surprise.

"Audrey, tell me why is everyone staring at me?"

"...uhm...well...it's because...instead of terrifying you look...adorable."

Eden chimes in abruptly, "Also, we could all hear you in the closet."

My face turns burning hot, "Don't play with me! I'll take you all out right here right now! It won't be quick either you'll all wish you were one of those monsters!"

The crew's faces turn white, but I ignore them and take a seat. The front of the bridge is mostly windows that look out over the deck and ocean. On the deck, I can see a few hundred passengers who escaped the horrors of the inner ship. They stare up at the bridge as if begging for help. Some of them scream in anger, others cry for help, and some simply stare at the ground like the walking dead.

I look into their desperate eyes and can't help but frown. Glancing at the sun setting over the ocean, I murmur, "I truly am sorry, but don't be scared. It'll be over quickly, and the void has plenty of room for all of you."

Continuing to look over the deck, I notice something a bit off. Two little girls, one in a wheelchair and one with a walker, are gazing at me intensely. They both look at each other and then again look back at me.

I tilt my head, 'What are they looking at? Are they staring at me, or... wait, is it something above me?'

I look above my head to find Eden holding a piece of paper. I turn around and read the writing, "The Goddess of Blood is merciful. Leave on the lifeboats before night if you wish to live."

**Sigh**

'Angels think everything is because of god's plan...well actually, in this case, she's sorta not wrong.'

"Eden, hand me the paper right now."

She hesitates and gives me a look like I just kicked a puppy. We stare at each other for a few more seconds before she finally relents and hands it to me. I take a sharpie and mark out the first sentence, so it's unreadable and hand the message back to her.

"It's far to early to openly reveal the Goddess's return. Please be more careful in the future."

Ignoring Edens's reaction, I lean back and stare off into the distance. From the inner ship, I can hear the stirring of the Crawlers.