Vignette 23B - Mercie the Vampire Slayer, Part 2 of 3

"Well, the garlic 'security system' proved fruitless," Seteth commented. He, Rhea, Hanneman, Manuela, the Eisner twins, Shez and Shayla, and Mercedes had convened in the teachers' lounge during the onset of dinner hour at the monastery. They were there to discuss next steps following the morning's 'incident' with the mountain of garlic.

"On the contrary," Mercedes began to say, "it proved that there is indeed a vampire involved, considering the lengths they went to in order to make the monastery grounds navigable for themselves again."

"(By hypnotizing students and perverted thieves...)" Manuela muttered grumpily.

"Come to think of it, there's one thing I did want to bring up," Shez spoke. "Now that we know there is a vampire running amok, shouldn't we try tracking them down or something?"

"Nip it in the bud, cut off the head, and all that," Shayla chimed in.

"The problem is, if there's one major advantage vampires possess, it's their anonymity," Mercedes explained. "To paraphrase: 'the greatest lie a vampire has ever told, was that they didn't exist'. Disbelief in them is what allowed them to thrive in secret for centuries as they feasted on the living, adding to their ranks."

"Which I still find preposterous," Seteth vehemently stated.

"Still, taking more precautions couldn't hurt," Byron offered. "We could double the security around the monastery."

"With all guards wearing garlic garlands with a Goddess Icon, just in case," Byleth added. "Right, Mercedes?"

"That could work," the Blue Lion student agreed.

"Perhaps we could commission the smiths in the marketplace to forge some proper anti-vampire weaponry," Hanneman suggested.

"Now this is getting ridiculous," Seteth said as he shook his head.

"Seteth, we're only examining all options," Rhea assured her advisor.

"Even so, Lady Rhea, I'm having serious doubts about this whole 'vampire' theory," Seteth said. "I mean, for goddess's sake, WHO in all of Fódlan, by the very farthest stretch of the imagination, could possibly be a vampire?"

"Monica?" Shayla said questioningly on seeing the redheaded student in question enter the lounge.

"Well, maybe her," Seteth said, unaware of the new arrival. Rhea cleared her throat, then nodded at Seteth to turn around, where he finally saw that Monica had entered. "Oh! Ms. von Ochs-pardon me, I didn't hear you come in."

"Not a problem, sir, and excuse my interruption," Monica replied, "I've always been pretty light on my feet. Anyway, I just came by so I could get some clarification on an assignment Professor Byleth handed out earlier today."

"Certainly," Byleth said, "I can go over it with you in the dining hall, a few other students were asking the same thing."

"Thank you," Monica said, before her gaze fell on the other student in the room. "We've never formally met, have we? Monica von Ochs," she introduced herself with a slight bow.

"Mercedes von Bartels," Mercedes responded in kind. "Though originally von Martritz."

"Really? I've heard of that house-used to be very prominent in the Empire," Monica said with a slightly-quirked eyebrow. "My father once told me of its abolishment after its head passed on following his child's birth."

"Yes, a shame I never got to meet my birth father," Mercedes said as she shook her head briefly. "But at least I was able to spend time with my maternal grandfather for a while, and he was head of a noble house as well."

"Which one?"

"The House of von Helsing, in Faerghus," Hanneman answered for Mercedes. "Pardon my chiming in."

"Not at all," Mercedes said to the crestologist.

"The head of that house," Hanneman continued, "is also one of the continent's most well-known experts in rare diseases, as well as theology, philosophy..."

"And gynecology," Mercedes added, surprising a few of the others in the room.

"Huh," Manuela said. "Didn't know he had his hand in that, too."

In the plane of existence between the collective headspaces of both sets of twins in the room, Sothis and Arval, following Manuela's statement, played a collaborative rimshot on the same drum kit, with Sothis handling the *baddum* and Arval the *tsss*.

"I see," Monica said. "That's a name quite well-known in von Ochs territory."

"Come to think of it, isn't 'von Ochs' actually the Fódlanized version of your family name?" Mercedes mused.

Monica quirked an eyebrow before answering. "Why, yes-before my ancestors arrived on the continent, they were known by the name 'Orlok'."

"Ah, as in Count Murnau von Orlok, the founder of the family?" Mercedes asked, seemingly-curious. The others looked at her confusedly. "I stumbled upon their history while perusing a book in the library one day," she quickly informed them before returning her focus to Monica. "A rather rich and colorful history, as it were-apparently, the Count was considered a bloodthirsty butcher on the battlefield, who inflicted unspeakable torture on his enemies: severing their hands and feet, gouging out their eyes, and then impaling them on iron spikes..." Hearing all this greatly astonished everyone but Monica, as nobody ever expected things like that to come out of the mouth of Mercedes, of all people. Sure, Shez, Shayla, and the Eisner twins knew of her fascination with ghost stories, but this was a bit more macabre.

Monica, on the other hand, kept her face slightly stony. "(...They had it coming...)" she muttered.

That caused the jaws of Seteth, Hanneman, and Manuela to drop. "What could they have possibly done to deserve such barbaric and inhumane treatment?!" Manuela asked, shocked.

"My family had a saying in the 'old country'," Monica began to answer, "(Nostloy bleckla, den noi pushta!)"

"They also said," Mercedes replied in turn, "(Stanisha ploftoi, gag mul pafuft.)"

"Hmm," Monica mused, "you know my ancestral tongue-impressive."

Feeling the inquisitive stares of the others on her again, Mercedes quickly filled them in. "I study other languages in my spare time-if I'm to serve the church as I get older, I figured it'd help if I was multilingual, were I to be sent to other parts of the continent." She returned her focus to Monica. "Your ancestral tongue was full of a lot of fascinating phrases-like this one: (Fale dadlic ta)."

Monica mildly chuckled at this. "(Kaploi.)" She then faced the faculty. "Thank you for your time. Professor Byleth, I look forward to seeing-"

"(Manush)," Mercedes uttered softly, but just loud enough for Monica to hear.

"-you at the dining hall," Monica finished, before eyeing Mercedes. "Well, well-from the looks of you earlier, I didn't take you for a girl who likes having the last word. Sorry to say, I'm not going to be drawn into such childish antics...(Paloshtoi.)"

Mercedes chuckled a little. "Oh, how silly of me to care who has the last word...(Polotnik!)"

"...Well, the evening's young," Monica said after a slight pause, "I still need to get my questions answered by Professor Byleth. Perhaps we'll carry on this conversation some other time, Ms. Bartels-until then..."

"Indeed," Mercedes replied. "Have a nice dinner."

Monica nodded, and just as she closed the door, she let out a quick but audible "(Abalutza!)".

Though Mercedes maintained her usual laid-back positivity, deep down she was huffing in that instance. "My, what arrogance," she commented with mild sarcasm to the others as she walked over to the door. "We can easily see why the decadent aristocracy is pretty much dead in that part of the world." Mercedes then quickly opened the door before mildly shouting out into the hallway, "(Fushta!)", which startled a couple of priests walking by. She then closed the door again, with the others in the lounge utterly dumbstruck by what they'd just seen of the normally-pious and kind student. "Everyone, in spite of Mr. Seteth's skepticism, our work is not done, not by a long shot. Like Shez put it plainly earlier, the vampire is still hidden among us. Not only that, we must remember that our foe is cunning, and above all, very tenacious!"

At that moment, Monica's voice sounded through one of the walls of the lounge. "(Gerania!)"

This was enough to actually make Mercedes audibly huff. "*Ooh!* The tenacity of that girl..." It was then that a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Tenacity..."

"Got something, Mercedes?" Byleth asked.

"The makings of a theory," she answered.

It didn't take long for Shayla to figure out what she was getting at. "Hold on, are you saying...Monica's our vampire?"

"Yes!" Mercedes confirmed, "...And no."

"Wait, then what are you saying?" Hanneman asked.

"I'm saying 'no'...but leaning towards 'yes'," Mercedes replied.

"Then you're saying yes?" Shez asked.

"No."

"Then it's no?" Manuela asked.

"Not necessarily," Mercedes answered.

"...Forgive me if I say how dubious that sounds," Seteth stated.

"No, I'm positive..." Mercedes said.

"Of?" Byron asked.

"My theory."

"The theory of...?" Byleth asked.

"The theory of yes or no."

A beat passed throughout the group as they stared at Mercedes.

"...I am utterly confused right now," Rhea finally said, a big sweat drop by her head.

"Actually...I have a way to prove my suspicions," Mercedes said, having gathered her thoughts together after remembering a certain object found in Rhea's office. "I know I'm asking a lot of you, Lady Rhea, but this is what I have in mind..."

A few days following the tiny tit-for-tat between Monica and Mercedes in the teachers' lounge, the former was called into Rhea's office. The purpose, Seteth explained, was to evaluate Monica after two weeks of reintegrating herself back into the academic environs of the Officer's Academy. The Eisner twins were present, given how they were two of her teachers, while Shez and Shayla were providing additional security. Per Mercedes's instructions, both sets of twins were to keep one eye on both the conversation between Monica and Rhea and Seteth, while also keeping another on the archbishop's metal box of sweet treats. The item in question currently had its lid open, and what the two sets of twins noticed on looking at it utterly shocked them (which they did their best to mask, given Monica's presence).

The inside of the lid had a small, rectangular mirror built into it, and while they could see the reflections of Rhea and Seteth clearly...Monica's was nowhere to be found, despite her being right next to the thing, in plain view of the mirror.

Sothis...Byron thought towards the being he and his sister shared a headspace with.

Tell us you're seeing what we're seeing, Byleth finished.

"I see it, all right," the enigmatic girl replied, an astonished look on her own face, "but I don't believe it."

"Same over on my end," Arval chimed in from their part of the 'buffer zone' between the Eisner twins' headspace and Shez and Shayla's. "If this is a parlor trick of some sort, then Monica is quite the magician."

It was then that a knock was heard on the archbishop's door. "Come in," Rhea answered. The door opened, and in walked Mercedes, per her part of the plan. She was holding a small bag in her hands.

"Good evening, Lady Rhea," she greeted. "I brought some of my homemade treats, as you asked."

"Thank you, I've been hearing so much about your handiwork from some of the other students that I just had to try some for myself," Rhea replied. "Please, just pour them into the box right there."

"My pleasure," Mercedes said as she did just that, the sound of the clinking of the tiny cookies falling into the vessel in question filling the room for a brief moment.

"I believe that will be all for today," Rhea said as she returned her focus to Monica. "You may be dismissed, Ms. von Ochs, thank you for your time."

"No problem at all, Lady Rhea," Monica said as she got up from her chair and began to walk away.

"Oh, Monica, before you go," Mercedes began to ask. "Might I offer you a treat or two? With your permission, Lady Rhea."

"I don't see why not," Rhea answered. "Go ahead and take a few, Ms. von Ochs."

"Well, if you insist..." Monica said as she reached for the box containing the treats, which Mercedes was holding out to her. However, the moment Monica saw the mirror in the lid, a feral grimace adorned her face as she hissed and knocked the box out of Mercedes's hands, much to the great surprise of everyone present, who also could've sworn that they briefly saw that two of Monica's front most teeth...were fanged. Monica glared at Mercedes for a moment longer, before regaining some of her composure as she turned to Rhea and Seteth. "Sincerest apologies, Lady Rhea, I...dislike mirrors. Don't even own one, actually."

"Then how do you get yourself all gussied up for the day?" Shayla asked.

"Oh, I have one of my classmates on the same floor as me do my hair," Monica answered almost dismissively with a small handwave. "Quite a good hairdresser, she is-almost as good as Dorothea or Hilda. Anyway, as to why I dislike mirrors..." She narrowed her eyes slightly at Mercedes. "I'm sure Ms. Bartels can explain." She then turned and made her leave, but before exiting the office, she looked at Mercedes one last time. "You know, for someone who hasn't lived a full lifetime yet...you're pretty clever, Mercie."

As soon as Monica left the office and was well out of earshot, Mercedes, Shez, and Shayla let out breaths they didn't know they were holding in.

"*WHEW!* Man..." Shez said, a hint of relief in his voice. "Did you see the look on her face?"

"I know-like a wild beast," Shayla replied.

"I believe that explanation is in order, Ms. Bartels?" Seteth queried.

"Simple," Mercedes said while picking up the box and the spilled treats as she faced the Eisner twins, Shez, and Shayla. "Tell me, what did you see in the mirror?" she asked while pointing to the now-broken object.

Byron and Byleth, along with Shez and Shayla, gave each other a brief look before facing Rhea and Seteth. "Both of your reflections were there..." Byron began.

"But Monica's wasn't," Shayla uneasily finished.

"What?!" Rhea and Seteth replied in astonishment.

"How is this possible?" Rhea asked.

"Vampires cast no reflection at all," Mercedes answered. "Whether in a mirror, or any reflective surface, they will not be seen. Additionally, even if she managed to take one of the treats and eat it...to say it'd be terrible for her digestion would be an understatement, considering these happen to be a batch of home-baked holy wafers."

It was soon clear to both head administrators of the Officer's Academy that Mercedes was right-there was indeed a vampire on the loose, and Rhea had just casually sent her on her way after a short chat about her academic experience. It didn't take long for Rhea to make her next move.

"Seteth, have the guards detain Monica von Ochs immediately," she ordered. "She is to be considered extremely dangerous-exercise utmost caution when dealing with her."

About forty-five minutes later, the Gatekeeper of Garreg Mach entered the office. "Bad news to report, Lady Rhea," McCarley began to say. "Monica von Ochs appears to have vanished-we can't find her anywhere."

Rhea nodded at the news. "Thank you, McCarley. Return to your post, but remain alert." McCarley saluted and proceeded out the door. "*Sigh* It appears Monica won't be making it easy for us."

"Agreed," Mercedes concurred. "I have a feeling she'll probably be marshalling whatever undead force she's managed to build up under our noses. Come nightfall, we can more than likely expect a siege on the monastery. Which means we'll need to bolster our own side." She then faced both the Eisner twins and Shez and Shayla. "Can you gather all the houses together in the cathedral, including the Ashen Wolves?"

"We'll have them within fifteen minutes," Byron replied as he and the other three went off to assemble each respective student body.

Seteth arched an eyebrow at Mercedes. "Why the Ashen Wolves as well?" he asked.

"I believe Yuri may be able to validate my suspicions about how Monica's been managing to move about the grounds without issue," Mercedes replied. "Besides, it's important that we all have everyone on the same page. Otherwise, we may be doomed to the worst kind of immortality."

The main cathedral, fifteen minutes later...

"...Vampires."

That response, delivered in a tone both flat and laced with disbelief, came from one Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, the resident aristocrat of the Golden Deer House. It came after the four Houses of Garreg Mach, along with key faculty of the Officers Academy and Church leadership, had been gathered in the main cathedral of the monastery, where Mercedes had then explained to them the situation at hand and what was to come. Before Lorenz had said a thing, once Mercedes had finished her explanation, the rest of her fellow students found themselves staring, dumbfounded, at a girl they thought they knew well-more so when it came to her friends in her own house in the Blue Lions.

"I understand it may be hard to believe," Mercedes began to say, "but if we're to protect ourselves, and the whole of this continent, we must prepare for an invasion of the undead, and it won't be long before Monica and her forces are upon us."

"Question," Sylvain started to ask. "And I think I speak for all of us when asking, if Monica's been a vampire all along, then how come she didn't burst into flames or something, considering she's been hanging around the monastery? Which, at last check, definitely counts as 'hallowed ground'."

Mercedes looked to the Ashen Wolves students before responding. "Yuri, have there been any suspicious persons moving around Abyss of late?"

"Mercie-may I call you 'Mercie'?-considering the atmosphere down there," the purple-haired house leader of the Ashen Wolves began to answer, "we always deem new faces suspicious. But for the matter at hand, a few weeks ago we did notice a group of gentlemen visiting our little community, all of whom were transporting an unusual cargo."

"What kind of cargo?" Shamir asked.

"It was weird," Balthus, the muscle of the Ashen Wolves, replied. "They were all these long boxes full of soil. We didn't think anything strange about 'em, at first-probably figured they were trying to set up some kind of underground garden."

"I, however, had my concerns regarding possible contamination," Constance, the Ashen Wolves' own haughty aristocrat, chimed in. "I secretly obtained a sample of the soil and did my own analysis, and just to ensure my findings weren't wrong, I sent them along to someone with more expertise in this particular area." She eyed said expert, being Dedue of the Blue Lions, giving him a cue to speak up.

"Constance and I both came to the same conclusion," the 'second-in-command' of the Blue Lions stated. "The soil those men brought with them wasn't native to any of the major nations of Fódlan; additionally, it's not native to even Almyra or Sreng."

"Thought so," Mercedes commented before elaborating. "While many of you might be familiar with the notion of vampires sleeping in coffins, it's often forgotten that they can only do so if they have a good amount of their native soil within. Said soil gives off a particular aura that makes it more tolerable for the vampire."

"Let me guess-" Hapi, the major cynic of the Ashen Wolves, began to surmise. "All those boxes full of soil, put together in Abyss, right under the monastery, provides enough of a buffer that'd enable a bloodsucker like Monica to move about without worry."

Mercedes nodded with a smile. "Got it right on the head, Hapi. Which means, if we're to keep the monastery, if not the whole of Fódlan, out of undead hands, our strategy is two-fold. While one large group of us holds off Monica and her horde up above, a smaller group of us ventures into Abyss to locate the boxes, and purify the soil within them, cutting off the vampires' major advantage."

"So once they're crippled, how do we take them out then?" Felix, the sourpuss swordsman of the Blue Lions, asked.

"To put a vampire out of action permanently," Mercedes explained. "They must be impaled-usually with a wooden stake-through the heart." A few among the students blanched a little on hearing this.

"Okay...*BLECH*," Hilda of the Golden Deer commented, sticking her tongue for emphasis. "Any other way to do them in, aside from keeping them busy until sunrise?"

"There is one other method that's little-used," Mercedes replied. "You cut off the vampire's head, stuff their mouth with garlic, and then tear off their ears."

On hearing that, sweat drops appeared by the heads of the majority of students and staff.

"Right then-stake through the heart it is," Hilda said.

"Cyril and I managed to bring in what stakes and hammers were available from the supply room near the greenhouse," Flayn said and she and the Almyran boy in question wheeled in a small cart full of the implements.

"Good initiative," Mercedes remarked. "Thankfully, those won't be the only tools at our disposal." She then nodded towards another area of the cathedral, where Anna wheeled in on a larger cart a loadout of various weapons, to the surprise of a lot of the students and staff. "Professor Hanneman, your idea from earlier was quite sound, so I put in a special order."

"Special doesn't even begin to cover it," Anna said as she presented the items. "One small arsenal of custom-crafted anti-vampire weaponry, all varnished with the purest of pure water. And, given the present circumstances, yours at a unique and exceptional one-time-only price!"

-X-

"Hang on a moment," Soleil said, a skeptical look on her face. "What's Commander Anna doing there? I thought you said this all happened before you'd even heard of Askr."

"Oh, it wasn't the commander," Mercedes explained. "It was one of her sisters, the one living in our realm specifically."

"You've seen the one from Realm-I," Celica reminded the swordfighter from Realm-VI.

"Oh yeah," Solei said, realizing they were correct.

"Unlike them, this Anna's hair was more on the magenta side than red," Mercedes further added. "Anyway, where was I...?"

-X-

The students and staff proceeded to help themselves to the arsenal, with each of them testing the heft and feel of their arm of choice.

"Not bad, not bad at all..." Edelgard, the Black Eagle house leader, commented as she took a few practice swings with the axe she held. "Weight distribution's well-balanced, quality of the silver used for the axe head is top-notch-the smiths who forged these do great work."

"They should," Anna said. "They're a forge that does a lot of business with monster-hunters. In fact, the silver they utilize also goes into the line of anti-werewolf weapons they produce."

"Werewolf?" Dmitri, the Blue Lion house leader, asked curiously while he tested the lance he'd taken up.

"A different animal compared to vampires," Mercedes explained as she draped a bandolier of stakes around her chest, which ended in a quiver of arrows for her bow. "Though like them, if you're bitten by a werewolf, you become one yourself-cursed to spend eternity in misery while wandering the Earth, transforming into a beast with each full moon, hunting the living like a wild animal..."

"Sheesh, who knew she could be so morbid...?" Ingrid quietly mused as she inspected her own lance.

"Indeed," Lorenz concurred. "You think you know someone, and then they find some way to surprise you. Granted, I'd have preferred if said surprise didn't involve facing down an undead horde."

End of Part 2 of 3.