Chapter 18: Campfire Stories (1)

Deep inside the cave unnoticed from the outside, the sound of crackling filled the otherwise sombre, windy air. And from that crackling was a fire the lit up the otherwise dark, damp cave and gave off a smokey, succulent, meaty smell that nearly reached the outside forest.

On that lit flame were two pieces of meat completely lacking blood, one much larger than the other, suspended from wooden, rotating sticks. Around the lit fire, holding these branches of wood were two figures, calmly sitting down on opposite sides waiting for their food to finish, an armoured pale man with white hair, bloody fangs, and deep-red piercing eyes and, a little flying naked fairy with purple hair and wings.

Slightly off to the side of them were two dried bodies completely devoid of any blood, bite marks on the neck. One was of a small, lime-green bear and the other one looked almost the same, only much larger and more ferocious. Parts of their fur were skinned off and chunks of their meat were removed, which was now probably on the fire.

"Should be about done now… Have a taste…" Alucard spoke, calmly removing his massive slab of meat from the fire.

"Oh! Don't mind if I do!" With a smile, Luck lifted his own much smaller slab of meat off the flames and dug in.

"Hmmmmmmmmm! My lord! This is delicious!"

What was in front of Alucard did not look at all appetizing, however, Luck's reaction seemed to have slightly elevated his expectations.

However, as he bit into the meat, it was exactly as he expected.

'Disgusting…' He thought at the back of his mind, yet he still chewed down and ate it with no visible complaints.

It seemed like his taste buds were still used to high-class, at least seasoned human food and not wild bear— yet, he was certain he would get used to such things in due time.

"My lord! What you did out there was amazing! I couldn't even move against those two ladies but you scared them off with your stare! And you're far from full power!"

"Don't think about it too much, I did what I had to to survive…" Alucard took another bite of his meat before the sudden realization hit him about Luck's words.

"Far from full power you say… How do you know that? Do you know what my full power is?"

Luck stood still, deep in thought, not taking another bite of his meat.

"..."

"I don't know… I just had some sort of feeling… Like you were much stronger before we came to these strange lands… Me too actually now that I think about it..."

Alucard sighed at the response he was expecting. It seemed like the amnesia was truly affecting him yet not to a full degree. In many ways, Luck was Alucard's saviour. Yet, that did not stop him from questioning and doubting him despite all that he had done so far being good.

"Let me ask you a different question… Why are you so loyal to me? So far I've done nothing to warrant your respect."

"..."

There, just like before, there was another long pause of silence, the wind crackling the fire slightly more before he finally spoke.

"I… I really don't know… Like I told you, I almost don't remember anything… It's hazy... I don't know who I am or where I came from… All I know is that I am Luck, a fairy and you are, or were, Balls, my vampire master… It's hard to explain… Ummmm… It's like we've gone through thousands of adventures over and over again, a lot of repeats, yet I can't remember exactly what they are… I just feel like I have a deep-rooted connection with you…"

Now, it was Alucard's turn to sit and ponder. But, the more he thought the more his mind came back to the same conclusion that only served to give him more hints yet confuse him even more. This Luck seemed to truly be the NPC he always knew. And, he seemed to possess some recollection of their adventure within the game.

It seemed like his characteristics, flavour text, along with his loyalty had transferred along with him and come to life. What was truly worrisome was if he had ever done anything bad to Luck back when he was an NPC and if so, would he remember and begin to hate him if the amnesia were not there? Had the amnesia saved him...

"Hey Luck, you did great back in the village. It almost seemed like you had everything planned… What did you really do and why did you come to save me?"

That was when the confused, gloomy look on Luck's face turned bright as he smiled and puffed his chest out in pride and a hint of embarrassment.

"I saved you because we were a team of course! But… It was my fault you were in that situation in the first place..."

Alucard really had the urge to lift his eyebrow up in confusion yet he decided to stay quiet to listen to what Luck had to say.

"If it weren't for me stupidly getting injured, you wouldn't have been forced to go to that village to get me healing in the first place… I truly apologize,"

"Oh, it's really no big deal," Alucard waved it off.

"Thanks a lot, my lord!"

Alucard didn't know what to say other than to just roll with what Luck claimed. He was unsure if he simply thought that he could have dodged the fireball or he was burnt so badly that he had forgotten what happened…

"I'm sure you already knew that we fairy's regenerate fairly quickly. After I was unconscious, I suddenly woke up in a shaky world, and, the next thing I knew I was in your bouncing pockets."

"I chose not to scream and panic as I heard the voices of guards outside and quickly assessed the situation, realizing what had happened. So, I escaped from your pocket when the voices were distant and I felt that there was no one watching and flew up to see where I was at. There I saw your unconscious body at the foot of a barracks and in the middle of a village. And, from that moment forward, I knew I had to get you out…"

"So, I came up with a plan. From the ways the guards were treating you, it was clear that they hated you yet didn't want to kill you, and, I used that to my advantage. So, the first thing I did was swoop down and cast my sleep powder on you to keep you sleeping and not immediately killed or tortured as soon as you woke up,"

"I explored the entire village and took note of everything I saw until a sudden plan hit me. So, I explored the area around where our previous cave was and I managed to locate those same bandits or soldiers that we saw earlier that day. And, from the looks of it, it seemed like they were headed towards that same village you were in!"

"So, using my amazing estimation skills, I managed to predict when they would arrive. And, in those days, I snuck inside the prison, which was much harder than you would expect, and cast my sleep powder on you, even more to keep you sleeping until the time was exactly right! That was also when I spent time to think of the best escape route and plan for when I get you out still, you still had to be the one to save us both."

Luck took a small pause to chuckle at his comment before continuing.

"However… In the end, when the time came, my calculations were slightly off, so I had to insight something in those bandits to make them speed up a bit. It was really risky and I barely managed to make it out alive… That was why I was a little late to help you… And you know the rest since we lived through it..."

Alucard, who was really impressed and thankful suddenly raised an eyebrow, interrupting him.

"What exactly did you do to them…"

"Oh! It's really nothing my lord!" He laughed in an upbeat tone.

Alucard could not help but take notice of Luck's attitude. Unlike him, Luck seemed to have been accustomed to life such as this and was tougher than he expected. However, he also did notice how he always liked to stay positive yet not naive when the time came to it. It was a breath of fresh air in his otherwise gloomy perspective on life.

Luck really went that far just to help him, he could not help but feel warm on the inside hearing how deeply he planned and endured for his sake. There was no reason for Luck to save him yet he did it anyway. It seemed like he truly did care about him and felt some sort of trust. It was definitely more than anyone would have done for him in real life for an incentive other than money.

"Hey Luck, thanks for all of that… It must have been tough, it really means a lot," Alucard casually spoke with a smile, eating a large chunk of his bear meet with his eyes closed.

"Oh! But, you were only in trouble and suffered because of me… It was the least I could do… There is no need to thank me, my lord!"

"..."

"Call me Alucard…"

Luck's eyes suddenly grew wide, almost like he wasn't able to believe his ears.

"Lord Alucard?" He asked, only leading to the man in front of him to smile and finally open his eyes.

"No… Just Alucard… I'm getting tired of hearing 'My lord this and my lord that,' It really does get annoying… So, just call me Alucard…"

Luck looked completely stunned with a hint of nervousness on his face as he looked down with slightly rosy cheeks.

"Ummm… Okay… Alucard…"

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