Chapter 31: Bad Places

Lindenfeld, Wallachia

Trevor glared darkly ahead as Sypha hugged herself to his side.

He'd always known something like this was coming. One day, she'd have the illusion that life was one big adventure ripped away from her. He should've known better. He'd learned it the day he lost his family. Yvette had taught him since then: If everything is going well, you have a disaster heading your way.

Sypha curled tighter against him. 'This could not have gone more wrong.' She turned her head to look up at him. 'What happened?'

Trevor kept his eyes glued straight ahead. 'We've spent a couple of months living your life: adventures and victories. And now,' he sent the horses into a faster pace, 'we're living my life.'

The wagon left Lindenfeld.

Dracula's Castle

Reudi stood there. His arms were folded over his chest. His head was cocked to the side. His eyebrow was raised and his lips were pushed to the side. Obviously, I picked a very bad time to leave. Heaving a sigh, he walked past the two impaled corpses and strode into the castle. As he stepped inside, he called out.

'Alucard?'

A moment later, the teenaged dhampir appeared at the top of the stairs. 'You're back, I see.'

Reudi's eyes were instantly drawn to the burns on Alucard's wrists. 'You've been busy, I see.'

Pulling a face, Alucard reached down and wrapped a hand around one of the burns.

'Well,' Reudi said. 'How about we go upstairs and you tell me what happened?'

'I'd really rather not talk about it,' Alucard said. His emotions took on a smell that Reudi really didn't like.

Reudi frowned. 'Alucard, there are two dead Japanese people hanging on stakes out front. Normally, I wouldn't be surprised by Japanese people except for how far inland we are.'

Alucard frowned. 'I'm sorry?'

Reudi sighed. 'There are three types of Japanese people we primarily find outside of Japan: merchants, pirates, soldiers. Outside of those three, we ask questions. Those two out there were not soldiers, they were not merchants, and they were not pirates.'

'How do you know that?' Alucard asked.

'Based on the slits across their necks, I'd take an educated guess and say they were next to each other when you killed them.' Reudi walked up the stairs and nodded his head, indicating for Alucard to follow him. 'One clean sweep did them both in. Pirates and soldiers would never be so stupid – or they wouldn't have made it from Japan to Wallachia alive.'

'I suppose not...' Alucard followed him.

'And merchants stink of perfume. All the damn time.' Reudi smirked. 'On top of that, where's their wagon if they're merchants?'

'The wagon could've been stolen.'

'Unlikely. Thieves steal wares off of merchant wagons, but not the whole wagon itself. Too much trouble. On top of that, there's no reason for merchants to come around this neck of the woods. No business to do here anymore, is there? Ergo, they're an "other".' Reudi moved into the dining room and sat down at the table. 'So?'

With a heavy sigh, Alucard sat down opposite him and started talking. As he told the story, Reudi said absolutely nothing. The most he did was make them both some coffee. At the end, Alucard glared darkly into the dark brown liquid in front of him. For a moment, Reudi said nothing. Then he took a long drink of coffee before making his opinion known. 'To be fair, Alucard, there was probably something wrong with them.'

He tapped his skull to demonstrate his meaning.

'Why do you say that?' Alucard asked.

'Because anyone who uses sex as an assassination attempt is sick in the head.' Reudi took another drink. 'Your problem was that you let them in too easily.'

Alucard pulled a face. 'Yes, I suppose that was very stupid of me.'

'You're not stupid for it,' Reudi said. 'You're young.'

Alucard looked up at him, startled.

'We all started out like that,' Reudi told him. 'We learned over time. You will too.'

'How do you do it?' Alucard asked.

'There'll be lots of little things that give it away,' Reudi said. 'The way they approached you would have been a red flag to me.'

'You mean the fact that Taka aimed an arrow at my back?' Alucard asked.

Reudi nodded. 'One does not aim an arrow at someone unless they are threatening them. Sumi most likely came up with that excuse on the spot. They wouldn't have been expecting you to notice them before they killed you.'

'So…I should have thought of that?'

Reudi took his empty mug to the sink. 'Word of advice: next time you hear a back-story that involves humans being any kind of slaves to a vampire, be suspicious of them. If it's true, they're going to be predisposed to think of you as a vampire, and to tar you with the same brush as the vampire they were raised under.'

'...I didn't think of that.'

'Of course not. You didn't grow up like that. The other thing to be aware of is word choice.'

'Word choice?'

'People engaging in deception often choose their words carefully,' Reudi said. 'But they'll occasionally slip up. Keep an ear open for dehumanising or demeaning words and phrases.'

Alucard lifted a hand to his chin. 'When they first met me, they asked me if I was the Alucard.'

Reudi nodded. 'Like that, yes.' He turned around. 'I suppose it does sound a bit like a title. We could assume they may have mistranslated what Cho was calling you but...how was their Wallachian?'

'It was actually quite good.'

'No Japanese words strung in here or there?'

'Not that I heard.'

'And their accents?'

'They had accents, but they were barely there.'

'So that's unlikely. They were fluent enough to understand that Alucard was your name and not your title. They probably learned your mother-tongue from a young age.'

'How do you know that?'

'Because the vampires around them would be the only place, from the story you've told me, they would have be liable to hear your name. And they would have referred to you as Alucard-san. If Alucard was your title, if I'm remembering my Japanese right, Alucard-sama or...' He turned around, leaned on the sink and seemed to consider for a moment. '...Arukādo...?' He shook his head. 'Something like that.'

'That's quite a bit to remember,' Alucard remarked.

'Like I said,' Reudi waved it off, 'lots of little things. And you can always do what Yvette does when strangers come to her, seeking the training from a Belmont.' His eyes lit up. 'Oh! Yes, that reminds me. How did they react to the Belmont name?'

'They hardly reacted at all.'

Reudi nodded. 'Suggesting that they were unfamiliar with it. Not really surprising out in the orient. You mention the name "Belmont" over there and only the nasty things of the night really react. The only humans who know who they are those who interact with travelling demon hunters and hear the stories of them.'

Alucard cracked a smile. 'What does Yvette do?'

'Yvette likes to make them earn it,' Reudi said. 'The first thing she does is make them harvest body parts from demons she's killed. Otherwise, she makes them pour over demonology texts and memorise what they read.'

Alucard chuckled. 'She tests their patience and their nerves.'

'Until she's satisfied.' Reudi grinned. 'And, I'll be honest, that takes months and months on end.'

'How many quit?'

'Most of them.' Reudi rubbed the end of his nose. 'Now...let's talk about those lawn ornaments you have, yes?'

AN: Most of what I know of the Japanese language comes from Anime/Manga so I'm sorry if I've butchered the Japanese here. Feel free to correct me if you do speak the language. But also bear in mind the Reudi hasn't been to Japan in a very long time and may be misremembering a bit.