My eyes fluttered open slowly, with a groggy headache passing over me. I rubbed my eyes and sat up while Senna continued to prod my shoulder lightly. My hand instinctively patted her head as I wondered why it was so dark.

“S-Sorry, I know you haven’t been asleep that long, but I need to talk with you about something.”

“What is it?”

She took a few steps back towards the door, but stopped short and grabbed the dagger from the bedside table. With it hidden in one of the pouches of her matron dress, she opened the door again. Simon stepped into the room and looked about with a squint in his eyes. I immediately stood up and went to approach him, but he held up a hand of warning.

“Don’t, it’s too dangerous right now. Either way I’d probably get my head torn off by Senna. Good to see you’re still alive, Leo.” He answered, folding his arms across his chest. “I think you’ll want to sit down for this, both of you are going to need prepare.”

The second I took my seat on the bed, Senna joined me and clung to my side. Simon went back to the entrance of the room and looked both sides of the hallway. Satisfied, he closed the door and sat down on the floor with his back against it. Even through the dark lighting, I could tell he was far paler than before. His skin was also gaunt and looked as though it was stretched over his bones.

“I’m sure you remember what happened a few days ago, with my grandfather at the Ainz estate. While you both ran away, I was forcefully turned into a vampire. While I had always known it was a possibility to do something like that I had assumed I might be able to at least kill myself when it happened, tragic as that end might’ve been. Unfortunately the process was so sudden that I blacked out right after it happened. They had me restrained for the past few days, and I was unable to get anything that could really harm me.” He told us before taking a long pause. “Which is why I need your help in murdering me. I can’t just make a fuss in town to get killed because I don’t want to panic everyone and possibly get them hurt.”

“But... is death really the only option? Senna was an amazing help during our fighting with them, surely an enhanced version of yourself would—"

“No. I’m already in a weakened state because I haven’t fed, and I refuse to do so. Maybe it’s just a lie to comfort those unfortunate enough to share my situation, but most church hunters will say your soul is not truly lost until you have fed. Even if I can do it off of raw meat, I don’t want to risk it.”

We both went quiet, but Senna was clinging tighter than before. I looked down and saw she was staring at the ground. Even though I couldn’t see her face I could tell that all of this was upsetting her.

Hearing that her soul is at risk, or that she’s an inhuman monster? None of this has to be easy for her to hear. I don’t want to diminish Simon’s resolve, but at the same time I don’t agree with it. Senna is an incredible person, even if she is a vampire. The lengths she’s gone and time she’s suffered, all to avoid harming innocent people, is incredible. I thought to myself, putting a hand on her head.

“Listen, I understand that’s how you feel about it, but me and Senna are still struggling to get by where we are. Not sure if you know or not, but Edward burned down my cabin when he attacked.”

“I... I did not. All I knew was that you were here, I had no idea that he did something so terrible to you. To be fair, I can remember how unhinged he looked when he last left the estate. Things are a bit foggy in my memory from that point, it was when my hunger was first starting to take over my body.” He shook his head and finally stood up. “Listen, I understand that you’re stressed about your living situation and all of this is a bit sudden, but I need you to kill me. Preferably right now, if possible.”

“We can’t kill you right now! Not like we’d be able to explain how a stranger came to visit us and we have to decapitate him. Why don’t you just stay here until the morning and stick your head out of the window?”

“There’s going to be vampire hunters arriving here soon, but I’ve only told them about the Godwin family. I’m confident that my grandfather and uncle are going to come after me before they can arrive. If they get here before then, there’s no telling what they’ll do to—"

“Then fight them here!” Senna interjected. “You’re supposed to be a vampire hunter, idiot, you should be able to handle those two. Even if they are incredibly strong, you’ve trained your whole life for this. As a vampire, you’re even more dangerous towards them!”

“What about the people at this inn? This whole town? How many of their lives are you willing to risk, or even worse sacrifice, just to kill those two? You’ve seen the twisted occult methods he has. It’s entirely possible that he’ll slaughter everyone here if he gets desperate enough.”

The three of us fell silent once again, but not inactive. Senna rose to her feet and drew out the silver sword from under the bed it was hiding. As she lifted the blade to attack him, I rose to my feet and held a hand out.

“Wait! What’re you doing?!”

“I’ve had to bottle it up for a few minutes now, but I’m sick of this. He’s already made me wake you up, and worry about all of this. Now he’s one and brought his family here with no intention of keeping them from hurting you. I’d prefer we could throw him into that pit of vapors like Anna, to be honest...”

She’s got a point about bringing them here, but I have a feeling she is more concerned with my safety than the townspeople. I thought to myself. It definitely was wrong of Simon to come here just to get murdered, but at the same time I can understand where he’s coming from. His determination is the only thing that led to the Ainz family getting killed in the first place. If we didn’t do it then, who knows if their grandfather might have done if he’d had enough time to work on whatever magic he had.

Moving between Senna and Simon, I grabbed the blade between two of my fingers and turned it away. She glared at me the whole time, but didn’t resist what I was doing. With the sword no longer pointed at his neck, I turned back around.

“Listen, we’re not going to kill you right now. But if you dying is what you want... I suppose we can go out into the woods and do it. Don’t want to have anyone running into us and thinking we’re killers all of a sudden.”

“But what if they—!" He started to interject.

A loud knocking on the door made all of us flinch. I rubbed the bridge of my nose and moved towards the door before crouching door and looking at the shadows from the light on the other side. When I saw only one pair of feet, I opened it up. Lily was standing with her arms folded and with a concerned look staring back at me.

“You two are awfully popular tonight... some more people are here to see you. Is something going on? I don’t want the inn caught in the middle of some rich folk business, Leo.” She said.

“I know, and I’m sorry. We’re trying to keep things civil but... wait, more people? What did they look like?”

“Two men, dressed pretty similar to the other one. Seems like these ones had a parasol though. Even if it does rain, would you really want to walk through the woods at night like this?” She shook her head and relaxed her posture some. “Listen, these guys were asking for you specifically, not Senna. I don’t know if any of this is related, but I don’t like having nobles coming in here. There’s all sort of nasty rumors about them already, if even one of them is true, I don’t like them being here.”

“Look, Lily, just... give us a second and we’ll do our best to get them out of here, alright? Nothing bad is going to happen to anybody here.”

She nodded and walked back downstairs while I closed the door behind me. Both Senna and Simon were hiding back in the darkness. Senna noticed me looking at both of them and moved closer to my side. I waited for Simon to move forward as well, but his eyes were locked on the sword.

“If they’re here, you have to—" He started to ask.

“No, Simon, I’m not doing it now. You and I both know that they wouldn’t hesitate to take revenge on us if they found out we killed you here. I wanted to do it someplace else so we could claim innocence, but that’s not really an option anymore.” I held out a hand towards him. “Come on, we’re going down there now. Worst case scenario, we have to run away until sunrise and you can die then.”

The mood of the room had fallen considerably from the start, but it didn’t matter. I opened the door outside and held it for the both of them. They filed out, but both of them were staring at the floor as they did.

Let’s hope we can make it through this without anyone else getting hurt.