The Story of Vampire Michaela by Kagami Takaya~

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - The Serial Killer

                          ~The murder mystery strikes and human!Crowley meets t̶̶h̶̶e̶ ̶k̶̶i̶̶n̶̶g̶ ̶o̶̶f̶ ̶p̶̶e̶̶r̶̶v̶̶e̶̶r̶̶t̶̶s Ferid.

Europe of the 13th century was a world of God and religion.

Everyone believed in God and thought that they would be granted a happy life if only they prayed to Him.

Crowley Eusford wasn't an exception, being under the impression that following God's will was the way to attain happiness.

But these days, every time he closed his eyes, he always saw the same dream.

The worst nightmare of a dream where he killed and killed and killed people on the battlefield under the banner of God's name; where his comrades kept being atrociously slain; where pagans, with tanned skin and eyes alight with flames of hatred, kept unleashing attacks on him and his comrades.

Ah, ah, there it was again, that dream. As if he was a sinner and God kept showing him that dream every night to punish him. Even though he believed in God so much.

Even though I believe in Him so much...

"..."

But this was where Crowley Eusford woke up from his dream, all because a gritty sound of swords clashing nearby reached his ears.

The same instance, his hand flew for the sword on his belt, before he remembered: ah, he wasn't on the battlefield anymore.

Ever since he had returned from that war, he had become very jumpy like this. Especially he couldn't handle the sound of swords clashing. The moment he heard it, his heart started pounding hard and he was on high alert, ready to fight.

It had been more than a year now since he had last stood on the battlefield, but strangely enough, he still couldn't quite find peace.

Around him, 10 boys fought in pairs with dull bladed training swords. The place was the training grounds for training knight apprentices that Crowley himself made by clearing the yard of his own house. For a while now, teaching swordplay here was what put food on Crowley's table. It was a second practice of the day, and he ended up dozing off in the middle of it.

"That was rude of me."

With a wry smile, Crowley got up and clapped his hands twice. The apprentices put away their swords in a hurry and lined up in a row in front of Crowley.

"That's it for today. You all got better since our last practice."

Though he did think how shamelessly false-sounding the line was, the faces of most of the apprentices lit up with joy.

"Thank you for today!"

Only one tall boy sent him a glare. "How could you see any of our progress when you were nodding off, Crowley-sensei?" he said.