Not this village

“Ori… what is this?” she asked flatly, holding up a book.

Orivaneia peeked from behind another shelf, arms already full of texts. “Mm? That one? Oh, that’s just a race guide. Lists all the different species in this world, their quirks, stuff like that, I believe. Also you should stop calling me Vane! People may get the wrong idea.”

“Right… Vane?”

Vane nods. “Yup that’s right. I’m Vane, your big sister now ok?”

Suzuha narrowed her eyes at the squiggly letters. “Then sis… Can you read this for me? I can’t read ancient hieroglyphs.”

Vane nearly dropped her stack. “That’s the normal font this world use everyday, you know. It’s not ancient at all.”

Suzuha kept staring, dead serious. “…To me, it looks like a chicken talon. Read it.”

Vane sighed, feathers puffing, but shuffled over anyway. “Fine, fine. You can sit down over there, little tyrant. Wait as your goddess get other books.”

Suzuha obeyed, settling stiffly into a wooden chair and hugging the book against her chest. Then her gaze flicked to another binding, black leather, crimson runes, “…And that one. The red-and-black book. What’s that?”

Vane blinked. “Hm? Ohhh… That’s, uh… ‘How to Defeat a Vampire.’”

Suzuha stared at her blankly. “You’re joking.”

“Nope.” Vane plucked it off the shelf and set it beside the race encyclopedia. “Quite popular in certain regions like this. Very practical if you don’t like being bitten. One every four people here is a vampire you know.”

Suzuha leaned forward, eyes glittering faintly despite her exhaustion. “…Read that too ok?”

Vane’s eyes bugged. “I mean ok... But Suzuha, I’m trying to find a cure for your mana problem! You’ve got—what—two days left before poof! dead sage, You sure you want me to read you this?”

Suzuha tilted her head, expression calm as a still pond. “If I’m dying anyway, at least let me die as someone who can read.”

“What kind of backwards thinking is that?!”

“It’s sound,” Suzuha replied coolly. “Dying illiterate in a fantasy world just sounds embarrassing.”

“Embarrassing?” Vane shakes her head before looking at Suzuha.

“Search any bedtime story also, I wanna know what children in this world live up to.”

“SUZUHA, you’re treating your imminent death like it’s nothing, this isn’t the way...”

Suzuha’s lips curved ever so slightly. “We already tried everything, at least I want some entertainment. I want to be happy now, and try later, so I can say I lived happily then died fighting for my own life.”

Vane slapped her own forehead. “…I hate how that almost makes sense.”

But in the end, she sank down beside Suzuha, opening the race guide with a resigned sigh. “Alright, fine. We’ll do your weird bucket list. One race manual, one vampire survival guide, and one bedtime stories. Any bedtime story is fine, right?”

“Yes. Anything is fine.” Suzuha murmured, eyes softening as she leaned closer. “But start with the vampire book. It sounds funnier.”

“Funny?”

“Oh, and please explain each alphabet and how it is read. I wanna learn.”

Vane groaned, pinching her nose, “Alright-alright, one by one ok? I will also write it down so you can learn them by yourself.”

Hours later, by the time it was high noon, the library smelled faintly of ink, wax, and the faint bread rolls Orivaneia had smuggled back in earlier.

The two girls had practically made the place their den.

Suzuha, pale-haired and ethereal even under the dull lamplight, sat curled up with her books, while Orivaneia with her brown hair and brown eyes disguise looked more and more at ease chatting with the kindly librarian.

Their conversation stretched as the hours slipped past, little nothings about the town, about the odd rainy seasons and the stubborn mountain goats that kept climbing onto roofs. Orivaneia laughed easily.

But Orivaneia still care towards Suzuha, she even went out in the late afternoon to fetch food for Suzuha again, returning to find the pale girl exactly where she’d left her with chin in hand and scowling at the pages.

When the owner finally arrived, a stooped man with ink stains on his fingers, “Ah, a visitor until the night? We rarely have one…”

The librarian chuckles, “That’s right, Mr Goodwill, this two sisters are really hardworking, they read many books about magic, surely they wanna be a good magic user someday.”

“Hardworking huh? Well then, what do you want to know about magic? I used to be working as an arch wizard on Noston.”

Vane looks at him, “Arch Wizard?!”

Goodwill nods, “Yes. So, pray tell, what would you like to know?”

“Then…” the conversation drifted to quieter, weightier things. Vane leaned forward, her voice cautious. “Say… you wouldn’t happen to know anything about… mana siphoning, would you? My sister… her spells have gone dry. She can’t siphon mana anymore, not the way she used to.”

The librarian and the owner paused, eyes flickering between them. Her mouth opened slowly—

And then, thwack.

Suzuha shut her book with a snap, her blue eyes cutting through the dim light. “…We’re leaving, Vane.”

Vane blinked, caught mid-sentence. “…What?”

Suzuha stood, the skirts of her borrowed village clothes whispering against the wooden floor. “Now.”

The librarian blinked as the taller girl swept past. Vane scrambled to her feet, forcing a sheepish smile at the two bewildered caretakers. “Thank you for your kindness today. Truly. We’ll… ah, return the books later.”

Then she hurried after her sister, catching up just outside under the flickering lanterns. “Suzuha-chan,” she hissed, tugging at her sleeve. “Why so sudden? I was this close to getting something useful! That’s an arch wizard!”

Suzuha didn’t look at her, eyes sharp as winter sky. She shook her head once.

“Something felt wrong.”

“The room,” Suzuha murmured, her tone flat, but her grip on the book was white-knuckled. “Like someone else was listening. I couldn’t quite catch it… but I felt bad intentions from him.”

Her words heavy and choking her.

No… not just wrong. That stare… cold, hungry. The same as before. Like he wasn’t seeing me at all — only what he could take.

Her throat tightened. Breath snagged. Her chest ached, chains rattling from a place she never wanted to return.

I can’t...

Vane’s smile flickered, “I see…” she said gently, cutting in before the trembling in Suzuha’s voice could break loose.

Suzuha flinched, looking at her, “Oh yeah… you can hear my thoughts… sorry about that. I just had bad memories with a certain kind of people... that’s all… Don’t mind me, maybe it’s just my paranoia…”

Vane hugged the books closer to her chest, unease crawling up her spine. She thought back to the librarian’s pause, the half-formed answer, the man. She bit her lip.

“…You’re terrifying when you do that, you know. But you’re not wrong. That man is a vampire. You may lack the survival skills, but your senses and instinct to survive is far better than most human.”

Suzuha only walked on, pale hair catching in the lamplight, not bothering to deny it.

The streets were quiet by the time they left the library, lanterns flickering against the cobblestones. Vane stretched her arms, already searching the nearby signboards.

“But you know Suzu-chan?” She tried to lighten up the mood.

“Hmm?”

“We can finally get a bed,” she sighed dreamily.

“A bed?”

“Suzu, do you know what this means? Our first real mattress in three weeks! Sheets! We can sleep in something that don’t smell like damp leaves!” She turned to her with a triumphant grin. “I sold our plants and fruit earlier. Enough coin for one night at least. So—tonight, we’re living like queens.”

Suzuha’s expression was unreadable, her pale eyes watching the distant tree line rather than the glow of the inn.

“…We’re going to the forest again,” she said flatly.

Vane froze mid-step. “Excuse me?”

“The forest feels safer, especially with you...” Suzuha murmured, already turning towards the path leading out of town.

Vane stared after her, mouth opening and closing like a fish. She clutched the small pouch of coins in her hand as if it could somehow convince her stubborn sister. “…Safe? Safe?? Suzuha, I just fought with a beetle the size of my fist last week and nearly lost. Do you call that safe?!”

No reply. Only Suzuha’s white hair catching the lamplight as she walked.

Vane dragged a hand down her face, groaning into her palm. “Ughh… fine. Fine! Let’s go back to our leafy nightmare, then. Beds are overrated anyway. Who even wants feathers and comfort when you can have twigs in your spine?”

Suzuha tilted her head slightly, almost as if she was listening, then simply said, “Exactly.”

Vane looked up at the stars, muttering to herself. “That’s what you call sarcasm... You should feel bad...”

“I know. But I rather sleep in leaves again than being eaten by a vampire.”

“Your logic scares me sometimes..."