Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

***

-Two Days Later-

The trio of Kaya, Eloise, and Delia sat at their usual table in the Cafeteria. Breakfast was well underway and they expected Caius to have arrived and joined them already.

"Do you think something happened to him?" Eloise asked.

"I sure hope so," Delia said with a snort as she cut a piece of meat with her cutlery and raised it to her mouth to chew on.

"No, you don't," Kaya told her mostly offhandedly.

Delia shrugged but said nothing to that.

Of course, Kaya was right and Delia didn't want Caius to have been hurt. If he had been, how would she learn those Von Helsing ways and beat him up in the future? It certainly wouldn't be a worthy feat if he were handicapped before their duel.

She refused to think of the other things she'd be missing out on with him injured. She didn't want her face to turn red right now and signal to the other two at the table about where her mind was.

She might have done a lot of accepting in the two days since the 'flood' she had caused in the Mage-Knight Classroom, but she still wasn't ready to be very… showy with her acceptance.

"Well, I'm sure he's fine," Kaya eventually said and did a few hand waves like she was actually waving worry away, and then became serious,

"Eloise, I did some research…"

Eloise threw her head back with her cheeks puffy with good and let out a long groan.

"Come on," she said, hinting that whatever Kaya was about to talk about was a continuation of an ongoing debate,

"It's always research with you."

"You refuse to listen so now I have to back things up with facts," Kaya said.

"It's not facts though. It's still just an opinion," Eloise said after she swallowed.

"No, there are statistics to prove…" Kaya said.

"Rubbish statistics," Eloise said dismissively in a low voice.

"Don't disrespect statistics…!" Kaya said, her voice raised one octave.

"Hold on, Hold on," Delia said and thrust her hand forward, confused about an argument whose start she didn't even know of,

"What's happening here?"

Kaya looked like she was about to slam her palm against her forehead.

"Oh that's right, you can be the tie-breaker and maybe together we can get some sense into Eloise's pretty head," she said.

"Don't bring her into this. She'll just take your side. Look at her arms, she'll definitely want to swing the larger thing around," Eloise said.

Delia glanced at her arms but they were of course covered by the sleeves of her uniform shirt and jacket. Still, she knew they weren't any more muscular than those of any other girl in their class. Okay, maybe a little more toned but certainly not enough to warrant the exaggerated tone Eloise just used to talk about them.

"I still have no idea what either of you is talking about," Delia said.

"Staff or Wand?" Kaya asked, "Which is better?"

Delia blinked. She wasn't sure what she had expected but this did not match up to it.

"What?" She asked, not because she hadn't heard but rather because she just couldn't process such a reason for the argument.

"Which is better between a Staff and a Wand?" Kaya asked again and the little smile playing at her lips and the eagerness with which she repeated the question, it was clear that Eloise had been right about the reason she pulled Delia into the conversation;

She indeed saw Delia as a potential ally to support her side of the argument.

"I really don't know," Delia said after a few seconds to think it over.

Kaya's blossoming smile slipped.

"You don't know?" She asked in disbelief.

Delia shrugged.

"No, I don't."

"Ha!" Eloise laughed, looking delighted she wasn't about to be in the minority just yet.

"How could you not know?" Kaya pressed.

"I just don't care about Arcane Tools really. Now, if we were talking about weapons, I could help you there. A battle-ax certainly has all those 'Tools' beat."

"Haha!" Eloise laughed again.

Kaya paused for a few seconds but then recovered.

"But you don't have to care about them to have a preference. I mean, a Staff is the Arcane Tool equivalent to that Battle-ax you just mentioned. It packs more power than a Wand and if one were to deal in some bouts of unruly Mage-Knight fighting, it works well for clobbering too.

Seriously, even someone as apathetic as you can't deny its merits."

Eloise frowned. She could tell Kaya was trying to herd an uninterested Delia to join her side.

"Kaya…" she called in caution.

"Oh, hush you," Kaya said with a sweet smile, "We 'big power lovers' are having a little chat."

Delia looked between the two girls and then she sighed as she shook her head.

"I'm afraid I can't fully agree with that comparison. Seems unfair to judge Arcane tools with my preference with Mage-Knight Weapons.

That said, my preference for heavy weapons doesn't make the other types terrible. They all have their various uses. Even a dagger can be useful in a fight so, at the end of it all, I don't think any weapon is 'better' than the other. It's how they're used that matters.

Maybe you can apply that to your debate"

Eloise and Kaya went silent for a minute.

They shared a look and it was so clear they had both decided to exclude the Kragsten girl from their debate going forward. Neither of the two was looking for an amicable 'everything is good' end. They both wanted to prove their stance was the one true choice and that drive remained.

Kaya had just opened her mouth to resume the conversation when a sweet scent blew over them. A perfumed scent that carried a familiar chill. She didn't have to look toward the cafeteria door to know who had just arrived.

Aylin Khione was with her gal-pals as usual. She walked gracefully at the head of the group but then, when she arrived close to Kaya and the others' table, rather than stick her nose up and walk past paying them no mind in continuation of the amicability she and Kaya had agreed to earlier this week, she stopped.

What's more, her gal-pals shared worried, slightly uncomfortable looks before glancing at the ladies at the table. Their attention was mostly on Kaya who was the most volatile element to a potential blow-up should Aylin do as she had told them she would.

"Come on, girls," Marianne, Aylin's 'best friend' of the group of gal-pals, said as she assumed the role of leader in Aylin's stead.

She led the gals away from behind Aylin and they went over to their regular table, sat down, and began to eat breakfast, trying not to look back and watch a potential chaos ensue.

Aylin had no idea why she was feeling so much tension from her friends. She had no plans to cause trouble. Her goal to be in Caius's good graces was still well on the way and she wasn't going to jeopardize that.

"Morning, Ladies," she said with quite a smile on her perfect face.

Before Delia, Eloise, and especially Kaya could even think of a response to the most friendly greeting the Ice Witch had ever granted them (even though it definitely looked fake as it looked too… perfect?), Aylin sat down at the table by Eloise's side. She was now almost directly opposite Kaya who was frowning.

"What are you doing?" Kaya asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Aylin asked, "I'm sitting."

She grabbed a plate and began to place pieces of food onto it. Only a small portion to maintain a dignified look as the future Duchess that she was.

"And now I'm serving myself some breakfast," Aylin said to Kaya with a small smile, "Since you don't seem to believe your own eyes."

Kaya took that as an insinuation that she was blind not to have been able to see and understand what was happening right in front of her but she was still so incredulous that she didn't even mind the insinuated insult. Not yet anyway.

"Why are you here?" She asked.

"What? Am I not allowed?" Aylin asked as she gracefully cut a piece of meat and raised it to her mouth to chew on. She placed a hand over her mouth for privacy.

Kaya frowned. There were no actual assigned seats in the cafeteria. But the students really just sat with friends and Aylin definitely did not have one here.

"Your table is over there," Kaya said with a head gesture at the backs of the gal-pals who were still keeping their eyes turned away.

"Yeah, but I want to sit here today. I consider this to be my table now," she said and she sounded quite sweet. Like poison. Or at least that was what Kaya thought.

"You should leave," Kaya said.

Aylin ignored her.

"It seems there was an ongoing discussion here before I arrived," she said to the table at large, "I'd like to weigh in."

"Not any of your concern…" Kaya started to say when Eloise interrupted.

"Staff or Wand, which is better?" She said.

Kaya frowned at her with slightly wide eyes and Eloise's expression became apologetically sheepish.

Aylin didn't seem to notice the interaction.

"Oh, that's easy," she said,

"A Wand is definitely better."