The Crimson Tale of Conquest

Later that day, after Lucilla and Sara's talk that morning, the young girl got to witness her teacher running back and forth between her and Yuki, who had woken up the day before. The reason Lucilla was next to Sara that morning was because the green-eyed girl was in her room, and unlike Yuki she hadn't awoken. Now that both of them was awake Lucilla couldn't stop fussing over both of them.

"I say fussing, but Teacher is acting much the same as before." Sara muttered to herself.

Lucilla was still relatively stone faced, with her permanent glare. Whenever Sara needed something, she would roll her eyes. Yet she still did whatever it was without complaint, and she did it quickly and carefully. Sometimes she would even do something for Sara without her asking for it. Yet she would still give Sara that signature glare that she has grown familiar with while they were training together.

According to Yuki and Morella though, Lucilla was being unusually accommodating to Sara. Not that Sara cared about that. She was still hesitant to trust her teacher, and the two of them have yet to discuss what she had done to her. The young girl couldn't help but notice that the Silver haired woman keeps trying to avoid that topic in particular.

The only reassurance she had was the fact she didn't feel any type of ill will directed in her direction from her teacher or the others. Other than Yuki that is, but Yuki has always directed such threatening intent to everyone around her except those in this house, so Sara decided to just ignore her. Plus, the danger she felt from Yuki was significantly less than their first meeting, so Sara had a feeling she was slowly being accepted by the pink Demon.

At some point during the day Yuki had approached Sara and with an amused smile then started speaking to her saying, "Thanks to you I get to witness a new side to Lucy. Other than me and Morella she hasn't really shown care to another person, so seeing her acting tough is really funny." She gave a light giggle before she continued with a more serious look, "Still, I'm not happy she risked herself for you. You better make sure you make up for that."

She walked off after that exchange, her smile never leaving her face. The dissidence between Yuki's cheerful, friendly and approachable demeanor and the bloodlust that rolled off of her in waves made Sara extremely uncomfortable. She was just happy Yuki has slowly started taking a liking to her. She also noticed that Yuki left out Judieth when she mentioned the people Lucilla cared for and felt bad for the red-haired woman.

"Does she even care for me though?" Sara wondered out loud.

Lucilla on her part was still sorting out her emotions. She's only known this girl for only a little over a month, only counting the time they actually spent together. It made no sense as to why she would feel any sort of attachment towards the girl. She hadn't even realized she had grown attached till she gone missing.

Lucilla glanced in Sara direction; she was sitting down on the couch facing the fireplace located in the living room. Lucilla stood in the corner leaning against the wall arms crossed and a deep scowl on her face. Even when she looked displeased, she was still carefully watching over Sara, and Yuki who was sitting on the carpeted floor playing with her magic.

Morella was sitting down on the armchair that surrounded the fireplace and low table. A sketchbook sat in her lap, with a pencil in hand she was solely focused on the visual she had in mind as she reproduced it on the paper in front of her. She occasionally brushed her oxford blue hair behind her ear as it fell in front of her vision. She had a cup of tea sitting atop low table, steam still raising from the porcelain cup. Lucilla couldn't help but give a small smile seeing this scene. Morella seldomly got many opportunities to draw, so seeing her indulge in her hobbies was a refreshing sight to see.

Judieth was nowhere to be found. 'Honestly, she's been hanging back more than usual lately. She hardly speaks up.' Lucilla thought. Maisy was also missing thanks to Judieth saying she needed her for something the moment they returned to the house with Sara. After that she dragged the poor slime to the basement where her workshop was located.

"I got my hands on some new stuff from a friend so I'm going to be taking Maisy for a while." Was the last thing she said. The two of them haven't emerged from down there since.

"Sigh." With a heavy heart and enough on her mind to weigh even a Dragon down Lucilla left her spot in the corner of the room.

"What's wrong teacher?" Sara asked as Lucilla approached.

"Have you decided if you're going to the forest or not." Lucilla asked the girl. "We don't have a lot of time to decide, tomorrow you're Dad and Brother are going to attack that place."

"I- I think I'll go." Sara said. 'I still don't know how involved my father was, and I don't want my brother to get ahold of me before I can even see him.' She thought to herself.

She figured she could put that stuff of for now. No, she wanted to put it off. She was terrified to discover if her Father knew what her Brother has done, not just to her, but to the other people that were kidnapped. If it turned out he was aware of everything since the biggening then that would shatter her heart. It was already bad enough that her Brother betrayed her directly, so adding her Father in the mix would be too much.

As much as she disliked the prospect and hated to admit, Lucilla was probably the most trustworthy person to her right now. If Shizuka was here then she would be the person she trusted the most, but she wasn't. So, she begrudgingly decided to use her teacher since she seemed inclined to help for some reason.

"Great, we'll leave this evening so rest up." Lucilla said to her. "I'll head over to the Guild to let them know we'll be gone for a while." It was a common curtesy to inform the Guild when one was going to be away for a while.

Hunters tend to die often out in the field, so if the Guild doesn't hear from you for a while, they will declare you dead. To avoid people declared dead showing back up out of the blue and causing problems within the eternal workings of the Guild, it was important to inform them of your absence, so they won't declare you deceased when you don't appear for a while.

Not this doesn't apply when taking escort jobs, it's automatically assumed you won't be heard from for a while. If you aren't with the client by time they reach the next town, you are then marked dead unless told otherwise.

Alright, later." Lucilla called out as she left the house.

________________________

"I... I might be slightly lost." Lucilla said to herself as she passed the same dilapidated fountain for the third time. "Judieth had a map made for me and everything too."

Despite being able to memorize any path she's taken once before, Lucilla was unfortunately still unable to navigate by herself, even with a map. She's never had to walk to the Hunter's Guild from the house before, normally they would teleport to the Inn they pretended to be staying at then make their way to the Guild from there. Without Maisy Lucilla had to make do on her own.

"I should've taken someone with me huh?" She muttered. "Well, I know how to get back to the house from here at the very least."

With one good piece of news the Silver haired woman - who now had Raven black hair - Sat down on the defunct fountain. She was still located in the rougher part of the city, it was a small area that was located between the slums, and the main city where most well of folk lived. It was also where the house was located. Not as bad as the slums, and out of the way enough for her and the others to stay incognito.

With this in mind Lucilla relaxed a little and looked at the map again. As she looked at it, she felt someone behind her. Turning her head she spotted a Fox woman in a maid uniform. The mostly black outfit consisting of a long-sleeved shirt and skirt, with a white apron draped over it, was familiar to Lucilla. This was Sara's maid, Shizuka Saki.

Lucilla froze in surprise; she wasn't expecting to see the maid. Going by how wide Shizuka's eyes were, she wasn't expecting to find Lucilla in this area either. The two of them stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, it was no more than a few seconds.

"... Hello." Lucilla eventually said with a small, if not a little stiff, nod.

"Yes, greetings, how unexpected to find you in a place such as this." Shizuka greeted her back with a curtsy."

"...."

"...."

Shizuka, unable to stand the silence, walked over to Lucilla and stood in front of her. Lucilla for her part followed the woman's movements, getting ready just in case she tried anything. Eventually the two of them were directly in front of each other, appraising the other, seeing what they would do. As they did Shizuka's nose twitched.

"You...." A dark look overcame the Fox womans face. Her black eyes glaring in Lucilla's direction as she bared her fangs in anger. "Why do you smell like the young miss?" She asked in a hushed tone."

"... Okay, listen it not wh-" Lucilla didn't get to finish before the Fox woman threw a fist at her face.

Lucilla easily dodged the blow and retreated away from her assailant. Her eye's narrowed as she glared in her direction. She was stronger than this woman, that much she knew. Shizuka seem to have a base level of combat skill, but that was about it, only enough to defend herself from the average person. Up against a real fighter, such as herself, she didn't stand a chance.

More than a little annoyed, the Monster woman took a step forward. Her anger evident Shizuka pulled a knife out and position herself in what looked to be a defensive stance. Cold sweat ran down her back as she stared down the woman in front of her. Her intuition told her that she was in real danger and Lucilla's form seem to loom over her.

Before Lucilla got close enough to do anything she stopped and looked around. Satisfied she looked back at the Fox and smirked. "Now I can't really go around doing stuff like this as Ruby." She said, then her skin slowly started growing pale, and starting from the roots her black hair turned Silver. Finally, those Golden-Brown eyes turned into a beautiful Crimson.

"Y-you..." Shizuka was so shocked her brain could hardly keep up. Infront of her the woman that she has met multiple times was the Human monster everyone was looking for.

Stealing her resolve the maid stood her ground. When Lucilla started to approach again, she waited until she was in range before attacking. Swinging her knife she aimed for her chest. She was hoping to injure, not kill. So, she opted out of plunging the knife into the Silver haired woman in front of her. She still needed to figure out where Sara was after all.

Her long black hair fluttered behind her as she attacked, with a voice filled with conviction she yelled, "What did you do with Sara!" Unfortunately for her Lucilla simply side stepped the knife before counter attacking her in the side with a powerful body blow to her side, causing her to fall to the ground groaning in pain.

Lucilla looked on with pity, as she witnessed how easily she dispatched the Fox. So much so that it dissipated the little anger she felt when she was initially attacked. This caused her to even hesitate as she thought about how this woman was Sara's maid. If she remembered correctly Sara was quite fond of her. With a frown she looked down on the maid.

She could understand that anger she was feeling. If anything happened to Morella or Yuki, she too would attack the first person she suspected of causing them harm. Matter of fact that did happen recently with J. She was blinded by her anger to realize the real culprit that caused the most harm was not J but Davis.

Yes, J may have carried out the acts, but Davis was the reason any of it happen in the first place. Her own anger and hatred to J had let Davis to escape, now he was out there somewhere. Lucilla swore the next time she saw that man she would execute him without question. With that said she looked back at the maid and sighed.

'Once again, my anger blinded me, and now I revealed who I am.' Lucilla thought. She had planned to kill her at first, but with a clear head she realizes that killing her might cause more problems than what was worth. 'Plus, Sara would hate me even more if I killed her.' Lucilla crossed her arms as she contemplated the situation, with Shizuka struggling to get herself together at her feet.

"Guess I should restrain you for now." Lucilla said, at the same time water tendrils wrapped themselves around the Fox. 'I guess I can just bring her back with me.' she thought looking down. She was also able to sympathizes with the woman's plight, plus sara would probably be happy to have her around. 'And if she's more trouble than she's worth I can simply kill her.'

"Alright Saki." Lucilla said remembering that she had to use her last name. "You seem to have had a misunderstanding. Just so you know Sara is fine, and completely safe."

"...." The only response she got was a glare.

"Well, you don't have to take my word for it." Lucilla said. "I'll take you to her." The she snapped her fingers as she realized something. "I'll have to knock you out though, can't really show you how to get to where I'm staying.

With those parting words, at least from Shizuka's perspective, Lucilla hit her in the head, knocking her unconscious.

"... Judieth can heal that later... probably."