Chapter 10 ~ A Lullaby of Shadows

I stopped to look up at the night sky for a moment. It had been many years since the day my sister and I died. We truly were reincarnated to another world and born into the Vernimières family, a noble house of vampires. Like the fictional stories that my sister read, I retained my memories of my previous life – my sister did as well – which helped in some aspects. Of course there was one thing my sister did not forget when we entered the new world.

“My sister remembered the agreement that I would have to dress in girly outfits in this world.”

Lily’s silent suddenly made me realise that she had fallen asleep during my tale of life in Japan. Allowing her to rest, I continued onward to the shop to find Ryina resting against the counter, her head practically buried into the wood. Emily was moving with the grace of a dancer, fluid like water. She twirled on the ball of her foot and stopped as she saw me standing in the doorway.

“Welcome back, Nyizel.”

“Should I ask why you’re holding Ryina’s shoe in your hands?”

“Well, you see, what had happened was—”

“I’m charging you for what you took, you know that right?”

I made my over to the stairs as I heard Emily giggle.

“Put it on my tab. Anyway, I’ll be leaving now. Have a great night.”

Without another word, Emily exited the shop and silence fall upon the room. I made my way up to the second floor and into the bedroom. After placing Lily down on the bed and tucking her in, I headed back downstairs to see Ryina was still resting. Shaking her shoulder gently she opened one eye and yawned.

“Did I fall asleep?”

“I’d say more like someone put you to sleep.”

“Oh, master! When did you get back?”

“Just a few minutes ago. Em left.”

Ryina took a second to process everything. I decided to see how long it would take her to realise what Emily had done.

“Wait, where are my shoes?” Ryina asked as she looked down at her stockings.

Took her about six seconds, at least she was not a complete airhead like some people I knew.

“Looks like Em took them with her. I’ll be charging her for that. Don’t worry, I can get you a new pair tomorrow.”

Ryina blushed as she averted her gaze for a moment.

“Actually, master, would it be okay to stay like this? After all, I’m more in-tune with my surroundings this way.”

“Right, I’m okay with it.”

“Thank you, master.”

For moment, the two of us were silent. I decided to take the time to read through one of the books on my shelf. Ryina cleaned and dusted the various tables throughout the shop. After she was finished, she returned to the counter before finally breaking the silence between us.

“I got a question for you, master.”

“Hmm?”

“Exactly, who are you and Lily? It’s obvious that you and her aren’t regular shop-owners.”

I could not help but chuckle at her comment as I closed my book.

“If I told you the truth, you likely would not believe me.”

“Try me, master,” Ryina said as she leaned against the counter.

I closed my eyes for a moment as I thought about how to tell the story.

“Do you know what a red rose symbolises?”

Looking over to the small table against the wall, I made my way over to it. There was a single vase on the table that held a vase with a lone rose.

“Love and beauty, right?”

“It is said that if you are given a red rose that your life is over. Mostly, people believe it to be nonsense but there is truth to it. Lurking in the shadows is a guild of shadows known as the Shadow Roses. Their modus operandi is in service to the empire and only the reigning king or queen of the empire.”

As I picked up the rose from the vase, I could hear the sound of rain starting to beat against the roof. Ryina seemed a bit bored just from my words. She stared out the window as if uninterested about anything else I had to say. It was not surprising.

“Let me guess, you’re going to say you were apart of this league of assassins?”

I remained silent. She turned back to me and seemed a bit shocked for a second.

“W-Wait… you are serious?”

“I was apart of them at one point. The Shadow Roses are a small group of vampires that carry out any orders given. When we would carry out an assassination a red rose is given to our target.”

I twirled the rose between my fingers. It was our signature calling card.

“Why? Doesn’t that just let them know and prepare?” Ryina asked with a puzzled expression.

“Fear. People that receive a single red rose become paranoid. They know their life is forfeit but they do not know when.”

With precision, I threw the rose like a throwing dagger. It stuck into the wooden counter and made a sound that had sent a chill up Ryina’s spine. Ryina’s expression was still frozen by what she was seeing. The rose was only a few millimetres from stabbing into her hand.

“Once you receive the rose. There are six assassination attempts. If the target can survive all six attempts, they are free from their mark. That being said, no one as ever managed to survive all six attempts, save for one person.”

Pulling the stem from the wood, I could see Ryina’s body finally relax. While I was not trying to scare her or create anxiety within her mind, I did want her to understand that the Shadow Roses did exist and they were deadly. Being in service to the empire meant we were unable to just kill random people. If the reigning monarch did not deem someone to be killed, we could not kill them. There were many myths surrounding the Shadow Roses. Most people believed we did not exist; others believed us to be a group of terrorists. Some thought we killed nobility or destroyed commoner’s crops. Whatever myths people had about the Shadow Roses, they were most likely only half true.

There were only a few things that were true about the shadow guild. We were in service to the empire and by extension the queen of shadows who we reported to. When we received our orders, we carried them out without regard to moral or emotional reasoning. Even if a target was innocent, if the order was given, it was executed. Our jobs were more than just simply assassination. Alongside taking lives, we dealt in espionage and information gathering – getting information by any means necessary. It was our job to protect the kingdom from the shadows. So, in one way, we were not a bad guild, rather we upheld a common goal for the sake of the empire which resorted in the use of shadow methodologies.

“And who was it that lived to tell the tale?”

Ryina seemed interested to know who it was that managed to survive the onslaught of six assassins. Placing the rose back into the vase, I made my way back over to her. I kind of figured it would be obvious to her who lived.

“I’ll leave that to your imagination,” I said with a smile.

“No fair, master. You have to tell me.”

A soft yawn escaped Ryina’s mouth.

“It sounds like you should head to bed.”

Ryina pouted as she crossed her arms, glaring into my eyes as if she could threaten me. It was rather cute and charming to think that she could intimidate me, an assassin who dealt in death, with an icy gaze. Stepping closer to her, I smiled as I brushed back her bangs. In that moment, I could tell she was caught off guard by my actions.

“Sweet Ryina, you should sleep so you can be well and healthy for tomorrow.”

I watched as her cheek lit up the room to a soft shade of red, like a rose. She was flustered and unsure of what to do or say.

“W-Well… uh… I… You… M-Master…”

“Shh. Just go to sleep.”

Watching Ryina go from serious to a daze was cute. She made her way up the stairs, nearly falling as she reached the top. I had learned the art of seduction in the guild along with various other methods of persuasion – years of living life ensured my charisma was able to make the hearts of maidens dance and go weak at the knees. There was nothing I did not learn to add to my toolkit as an assassin. Even cross-dressing in order to sneak into highly guarded areas or masquerading as a young girl to gain favour of corrupt nobles. It was truly amazing how loose-lipped a man was when they had too much to drink. During some infiltration operations, my feminine qualities even worked in my favour as a male. Many nobles actually seemed to favour me as a boy dressed in girls clothes for their luscious desires. Luckily, thanks to my training in the guild, I learned to fake my pleasure and moans which got nobles to spill not just the condensed milk but all their dark secrets as well. Information was indeed power and having a vast network paved the way to eliminating the illnesses and infections throughout the empire.

After closing up the shop, I took the time to take stock of everything we had on display. Ever since Ryina had started working here, it had lighten the load for both me and Lily. She was a hard worker and I was glad to have her onboard at my shop. As I made my way down to my room, I could not help but wonder if I would get the chance to hire more employees and grow my shop into something a little bigger. It was an amusing idea to hire on various others such as a faerie or cat-girl. For now, I could only retreat to the dark isolation of my coffin and dream.