Chapter 24: Chapter 23: Unnatural Warmth

The Hero Became a Mousegirl
Chapter 23: Unnatural Warmth

Laying in my bed, I gazed out the window at stars glittering in the sky. It’d been hard to convince everyone to let Cesarina stay once I told them she was a vampire, but I didn’t want to hide it from everyone. I knew that if I did, and they found out, Kaphis would have killed her before I could smooth things over. 

Thankfully, Myra being a goblin helped a ton. She was proof that not all demons were evil and I used that to my advantage. That and revealing my holy magic to Syene was all it took for me to secure Cesarina’s place in our home. 

That left me with only one lingering problem, Eyrina. I’d heard her voice as Cesarina and I were talking but not since. It was as if she only had enough energy to speak a few words before being dragged back down into hibernation. It bothered me that I didn’t know what was happening, if only I could tell that she just needed a few more days and she’d be fine, my heart could rest easy. The uncertainty of her condition was the focal point of my concern. 

“Eyrina… if you can hear me, get well soon okay? We haven’t been together long, but I miss you.” 

A knock at the door pulled my attention away from the window, “come in.” 

“Lady Caelan,” Cesarina whispered, slipping into my room. “I was hoping you’d still be awake.” 

“Can’t sleep?” 

“Yes, vampires don’t sleep. Normally I read at night so as to not disturb others, but I didn’t want to enter your library alone.” 

“Why not?” 

“Because it is rude to touch someone else’s books without permission.” 

“Really? Well then we have quite the problem. The books are Syene’s, not mine.”

“She is your mother isn’t she? I am willing to accept your approval as if it is hers.”

“Ah, well then, I approve. I hope we have something here you haven’t seen before.” 

Cesarina frowned and rocked back and forth on her heels. “Will you not come with me?” 

“I unfortunately do have to sleep.” 

“Hmm,” Cesarina drew close to my bed. “May I… watch you?” 

“If you’re planning to consume my blood, do it while I’m awake. I can’t heal myself in my sleep.” 

“I have no such urge,” Cesarina grumbled, sitting on the edge of my bed. “I just… you’re the hero I’ve been praying for, I feel calmer when you’re near. When I’m away from you, I get antsy and worried, I fear that I’ve imagined you, that tomorrow when everyone wakes up nobody will know your name, and this was all a delusion.” 

“It is unhealthy to get attached to people so quickly,” I smiled. “After all, I am mortal, I will die someday. As a vampire you’ll outlive me by many centuries, or even millennia if you’re lucky. If you get addicted to blood, you’ll have to hope that my children and grandchildren have inherited my ability to use holy magic, assuming I have any.” 

“You have at least two centuries of life ahead of you,” Cesarina pouted. “Don’t act like your death is near.” 

“A life can be cut short at anytime. One minute you’re riding high thinking that the answer to your prayers is now in the palm of your hand, the next, you’re dead.” 

Cesarina looked down at her hands as tears began to fall from her eyes. “I know that. I know that death is a specter looming just around the corner and all we have to do is take the wrong path to run into it. But, Caelan, you’re not being very fair. You’re all I have left, even if you and I just met, I’ve placed all my hopes and dreams on you. Please don’t speak of your own death so casually. Please promise me… no matter what happens, that you’ll keep fighting with everything you have, no matter how hopeless things become.” 

“I have no intention of dying. Myra and I just started dating, I don’t want to die before we make many more happy memories.” 

“She’s a lucky girl.” 

“When you’ve gotten to know me better, I’ll let you be jealous. For now, I’m gonna have to beg that you stop idolizing me, it’s worse than teasing.”

“You’re one of only two people in the known world who can use holy magic, how can I not idolize you?” 

“You’re the Grand Sorcerer of a guild, pretend like your title comes with some gravitas and act like you’re above me. I’m not even a full spellcaster, I’m a spellsword.” 

“Your attempts at self-deprecation won’t work on me Lady Caelan. Spellsword is an extremely rare class, and you can use holy magic to augment you body beyond what a regular warrior could dream of doing. You’re a once-in-a-lifetime sort of person, anyone you decide to give your time to should consider themselves blessed.” 

“Then consider yourself blessed and stop attaching ‘lady’ to my name. Just treat me casually, like a friend, or something.” 

“But you’re my Mistress,” Cesarina giggled. “I should treat you more formally than your friends do.” 

“If you want to play the servant act, then do as I command and speak more casually with me.” 

“As you wish, Caelan.” 

I rolled over on my side, turning away from Cesarina. Exhaustion’s grip was growing tighter on me and I felt as if I simply couldn’t stay awake any longer. To my surprise, Cesarina laid down beside me, wrapping her arm around my midsection. 

“I hope your girlfriend won’t get jealous,” Cesarina whispered as the unnatural warmth of her lulled me further into sleep’s clutches. 

“Caelan!” Myra shouted as she sat on my stomach gazing angrily down at me. “Why was Cesarina laying in your bed this morning?” 

“She’s really dedicated to being a good servant?” I mumbled rubbing the sleep from my eyes. “If she’s here, you should interrogate her, I didn’t ask her to sleep with me.” 

“She’s gone to the library to read.” 

“Ah, she betrayed me.” 

Leaning forward Myra huffed before placing a gentle kiss on my lips, “you’re supposed to get my permission before you let other women into your bed.” 

“Sorry. Whatever magic she uses to warm herself was too cozy for me to overcome.”

“You’re going to sleep with me tonight, got it?” 

“Yes ma’am.” 

Myra chuckled before hopping off of me. “Come on, breakfast is ready. Then we’re going to drag our new recruit into the hot spring for a little bonding exercise.” 

“New recruit? Are you talking about Aurii or Cesarina?” 

“Both.” 

After breakfast Myra made good on her threat to drag Cesarina and Auriel into the hot springs. Surprisingly Cesarina who’s hair was on the brunette side of blond turned into a platinum blond beauty once she was properly cleaned. Apparently despite having the title of Grand Sorcerer, and a plethora of magic at her command, she didn’t place much importance on her personal appearance. Something I intended change if she was going to continue making her way into my bed. 

“Seriously,” Myra glared at Cesarina. “I wasn’t that agitated when I saw you in Caelan’s bed this morning, but now that I’ve got a good look at you naked, I’m pissed. Where do you get off having such large breasts? How did you hide them so well?” 

“I consumed a lot of milk as a child,” Cesarina chuckled. “Is Caelan the sort of woman who prefers bigger breasts? If so I’d happily take your position miss girlfriend.” 

“I’ve never had much of a preference,” I noted. “But if I had to choose between the three of you, I’d choose Myra every time.”

“Caelan,” Myra wrapped her arms around me, resting her head against my shoulder. 

“That said, I’d love to cuddle with Aurii sometime. I’ve always wanted to play with a Catkin’s tail. It looks so much thicker and fluffier than mine.” 

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“Pervert,” Myra pinched my side. “Don’t go touching Aurii, she’s part of my future harem you know.” 

“I though you said she’d give me kisses if I asked?” 

“Tail petting is more intimate than kisses!” 

“Oh? I’d have never known, you never pet my tail.” 

“You’re going to regret saying that,” Myra huffed. “I’m going to pet your tail so much you melt.” 

“If tails are what you’re after,” Cesarina grinned. “I found notes in my mother’s library about a ritual to alter someone’s race. I have no record of it being successful, but I’d be willing to try. Perhaps I could grow myself a fluffy wolf’s tail for your petting pleasure?” 

“Bad girl,” Myra grabbed one of my ears and pulled hard enough on it to make me squeal. “Don’t even think about it.” 

“I didn’t say anything!” 

“Would a ritual like that work on a vampire?” Auriel asked, turning to Cesarina.

“Its chance of success is probably higher on me than someone living. Altering the structure of one’s body is a harrowing ordeal, even regrowing limbs with alchemy is extremely painful. There have been stories of the infirm and elderly dying from the pain they experience in the process. As a vampire my tolerance to pain is extremely high, and even if it did hurt me, there’s no chance of it killing me.”

“Would you change yourself, if given the option Aurii?” I asked. 

“Never,” Auriel replied quickly, hesitating for a moment before she continued. “What about you Caelan?” 

“Hmm, I’d like to be a little taller than I am now, looking up to human children is disheartening. Still I don’t think I have any real problems with myself, I wouldn’t be willing to undergo something painful and experimental just to grow a few centimeters.”  

“What if I created a ritual to elongate your life?” Cesarina asked. “There are written records of people who’ve lived far longer than their lifespans should’ve allowed, it should be possible.” 

“I’m young enough to not have to think about it. According to Kaphis, if I lived among other mousekin they wouldn’t even see me as an adult yet.”

“Ah, that’s right twenty-five is the age of adulthood in beastkin society. How old are you Caelan?” 

“I’m nineteen.” 

“Wow, you are younger than I imagined you to be. At least you’re a mousekin and not a tiger or foxkin.” 

“Why’s that?” 

“The tigerkin and foxkin people don’t consider their children to be adults until they turn thirty, a full five years older than adulthood in other beastkin races. I’m not quite sure why they have such a custom as they don’t seem to live any longer than other beastkin peoples. The only exception being the white fox of the Glyphwoods, she’s said to have reached almost five hundred years old by now.” 

“Five hundred? And she’s still alive?” 

“Impressive isn’t it? My mother met with her once actually, to barter for a rare spell book in her possession.” 

“Did she get it?” 

“She did. That was the book I used when I was learning how to become a vampire.”

“You don’t think the white fox is a vampire as well do you?” 

“It’s possible. I can think of few other ways to explain her longevity.”

“Vampires are one of the most powerful demons one can encounter,” Myra said gazing at Cesarina. “Even young ones are dangerous, just imagining the strength of one that has lived that long is a little scary.” 

“All stories of her talk of her being a wise woman who treats everyone with kindness. Even if she is a vampire, I’m sure she’s just like me. Someone who can use magic to suppress the cravings, who doesn’t wish to bring any harm to others.” 

“How exactly do you keep your hunger at bay?” I asked. 

“It’s all basic mana circulation really. The problem with vampire bodies is that they don’t absorb mana from the surrounding environment like living bodies do, so they get their mana from people’s blood. I’d already mastered circulating and controlling mana before becoming a vampire so I’ve been using my skill with it to make my body as mana efficient as possible. If I use a lot of magic I feel hungry but a week or two of meditation and pulling mana from the air is enough to fix it.” 

“A week or two? Normally it only takes a few days of rest to recover from excessive magic use.” 

“It is a much slower process to actually will the mana surrounding you into your body. As skilled as I am with it, even I couldn’t get over this drawback. But don’t worry I can use a lot of magic before I get to that state, I can fight when you need me.” 

“Glad to know. Say, Cesarina, are you registered with the adventurer’s guild? I know that Auriel still needs to register but I was thinking we could go traveling together. I need to get stronger, a lot stronger than I am now.” 

“I thought you were going to help me free people from their bands?”

“I am going to do that, I’m just not going to have you teleport me all over the kingdom while I do it. Instead I want to travel on foot, taking quests at every guild hall we find.”

“Caelan,” Myra sighed. “You really don’t have to go that far. There is no unified demon army, there are no demon lords or fell dragons, your present strength is enough.” 

“I know you said that there is more to life than just battle and death. I get it, the time I spent here with everyone has been some of the happiest days I’ve ever experienced. I’m sure things would only get better if I stayed here, but I need this. I need to be stronger so that I can truly relax. I need to have at least as much strength as Kaphis, so that I can stand shoulder to shoulder with them and not be a liability.” 

“You’re too short to ever stand shoulder to shoulder with Kaphis, Caelan.” 

“You know what I meant!” 

“I’m in,” Myra smiled somberly. “You know I’d follow you to the ends of the world if you asked.” 

“I’ll follow you anywhere you go Caelan,” Cesarina grinned. “Not that you’d give me much choice.”  

“Why was I included,” Auriel huffed. “I told you I want to stay here and be lazy, I’m not planning on going on any adventure.” 

“Ah,” I smiled wryly. “Sorry, Aurii, I forgot.” 

“Come on Aurii,” Myra said. “You know you wanna, it’s okay if your level is lower than ours, we can help you raise it.” 

“I really do just wanna be lazy!”

“Then be lazy while you travel with us! You can tag along and help with making camp, cooking food, and all the lazy stuff.” 

“None of that sounds like lazy stuff.” 

“It’s lazier than fighting demons.” 

“I’ll think about it,” Auriel grumbled as she got out of the hot springs and ran away from the conversation. 

 

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