ALPHA
5.
After sir Hellsing went to the Round Table Conference, which had not been held in the Hellsing house, Alucard was ordered to stay with Walter and immediately inform him if he'd recovered. Arthur Hellsing went, not knowing what awaited him, but Alucard saw more clearly how things were shaping against him.
Sir Duncan, the eldest gentleman among them all, and the others who blindly adored human above all other living beings were determined to use this one chance to get rid of the one they believed to be the only vampire left in England hiding under the protection of Hellsing.
"I never knew my men to be running away from enemy, except if it was your horrific vampire causing this!"
"We've seen the casualties and it's devastating. The Hellsing organization is not able to protect human!"
"You've been much too fond of your vampire servant, Arthur! That causes you to be biased. You cannot differentiate between facts and wishful thinking."
"We need an impartial judgment on this. Vampires are vampires, and they must be got rid of! Have you no idea how hard the creature must be laughing behind your back?"
"Indeed! Offering safeguard and shelter for a vampire! There's no bigger mistake one can make. You can forget us financing something like that!"
Sir Islands's speech came last and in spite of the calmness in which his words were delivered, its impact was by no means comforting. "May I remind you, Sir Hellsing, that the true mission of your institute is to kill all vampires? I'm certain the Hellsing organization must be capable enough to fulfill its purpose without help from the undead."
There was nothing Arthur Hellsing could do in the conference. They were all united in fear. They would not listen to anything he got to say. For once Sir Hellsing was not the only person pounding on the table and shouting. Even as he finally made himself heard, explaining that it was his order that kept Alucard from eliminating the enemy, and that it was Alucard's own decision to finally disobey him that gave them the victory they desperately needed, it made no difference.
Instead, things worsened.
One questioned Alucard's sane reasoning to have waited that long. There was no use explaining that vampires moved according to a totally different way of thinking. The other expressed his doubts in the faith that was put into a being that was able to rebel against a direct and clearly formulated order. And everyone blamed Arthur Hellsing for having a vampire in the first place. There, in the honorable organization of the Royal Protestant Knights!
Hellsing was finally forced to agree to eliminate Alucard. He thought of a solution; that he would pretend to kill Alucard, but in reality he would just keep him secret until a better time emerges. Humans are so fickle, and there will be a time when the knights will realize they need Alucard. So he schemed.
What he didn't know was an order to destroy Alucard had been already issued by the conference even before his arrival, and that at the very moment Hellsing soldiers were assailing Alucard under the command of the Round Table Conference. And Alucard, naturally, fought back.
- - -
"Well, miss Hellsing, not every one of the Round Table Conference had been fond of the idea of using a vampire to fight vampires."
Integra made a mental note not to mention about Alucard to the knights. And as an addition, she thought of a possible reformulation of Hellsing's mission: To end all earthly activities of non-human creatures. Non-human is good, she thought with satisfaction. The status of being human is not necessarily something that's only physical. It could mean having or showing those positive aspects of nature and character that distinguish human beings from the lower animals. Being biologically alive was not obligatory.
Walter was speaking, "They only needed the occasion to justify their purpose. The mission was completed, mostly due to Alucard's accomplishment, given that I was badly wounded and the others dead. But obviously that could cause some complication, since Alucard did not set out to fight from the very beginning – which was perfectly in accordance to the order given to him."
"What order?"
"Not to attack human beings."
"But he did it anyway. Isn't that something you would call human, Walter?"
"Yes indeed," Walter answered, then added, "I'm afraid otherwise I would have been dead."
If Integra had a beard, she would have tugged at it repeatedly to accompany her rather desperate thinking. But since she hadn't that luxury, she only drummed her fingers on the desk, trying to find something they might have overlooked. "You said you were in a bad state of health, but you must have experienced something."
"I was unconscious most of the time, I'm afraid, but..." Walter stopped. Now he knew where he saw that grin of Alucard.
- - -
A surprise awaited Arthur Hellsing as he arrived home. From the entrance he could see corpses of Hellsing soldiers on the floor. Blood was everywhere. The annihilation was carrying Alucard's personal signature. For a while Arthur Hellsing looked around in desperation, and then remembered something, he dashed to the room of the most important person for him at that time. "Walter!"
Alucard had been in Walter's room for quite a long time before Sir Hellsing arrived, standing there quietly, blood all over him. He was waiting. Waiting for Walter to wake up, waiting for Sir Hellsing to arrive. Waiting for ignorance to seal the fate of his and his master's.
"Walter!" Arthur Hellsing burst inside the room with a gun in his hand. That gun contained mercury bullets, all of them knew that. And it was aimed at Alucard. "Get away from him!"
- - -
tbc