Chapter 15: Playing the Fool

The walk back to the mansion was a very unnerving experience for Akko. The girl had to pretend that she was still under the control of the strange curse while lagging behind Elizabeth. Said vampire girl was humming a sweet tune, completely ignoring the partially destroyed town and the screams of people in pain or frightened. And then there was the exorcist woman that she was dragging on the ground like a bag of trash. The woman herself was unconscious and the blood coming from the stump that was once her arm was making Akko sick. But with great determination she held in her urge to vomit as they finally made it to the House of Myrddin Emrys.

The moment the two girls enter, a dark mist appears before them. That mist transforms into a furious George staring down his daughter, who seems unnerved.

"ELIZABETH MYRDDIN EMRYS! HOW COULD YOU BE SO RECKLESS!? USING THE FULL POWER OF GUNGNIR— DID YOU WANT THE MINISTRY TO CATCH ONTO TO US!?"

"I had no choice!" Elizabeth retorted. "Three exorcists attacked me and they were giving me a hard time! Also, I managed to capture one of them!"

Elizabeth showcased the unconscious Agatha. The rest of the family who just come down the stairs gasped in surprise.

"Why didn't you just kill her?" Hans asked.

"The exorcists keep finding where we are. Perhaps we can torture her to tell us how…"

"Oh~! Good idea~!"

Ivan went to Elizabeth with crazy eyes and his tongue flying everywhere like a panting dog.

"Give her to me, Elizabeth~…I promise to get some information out of her~…"

"Let me take her," Annabelle spoke up. "You always go too far, Ivan."

Ivan pouted as she turned back to his mother.

"Meanie!"

"Wait…"

Appearing out of a glittery white cloud was Merlin who was watching Agatha intently. He then turned his attention to Ivan who was moving around like an impatient kid in the toy store.

"Ivan…take this girl to your domain in France."

"W-what!?" Annabelle said in shock. "B-but father! I could—"

"I have faith that Ivan will prove to be more useful in this task."

Ivan stuck his tongue out to his mother who looked away gritting her teeth.

"The Old Master agrees. Hey! Come here!"

Out of nowhere, multiple snakes exploded from the sleeves of Hans's jacket and attached themselves to Agatha's body like ropes. The sight was so terrifying that Akko almost screamed and blew her cover. The snakes coiled, sprung Agatha, and somehow managed to drag the fully grown woman into the sleeves of Ivan, never to be seen again. The male vampire continued to laugh maniacally as he slowly disappeared from everyone's sight.

"See you all later~! I'm heading home~!"

Lilith chortled.

"He's gonna break her…"

"Hey, Hans!"

The older brother turned to his little sister.

"I blew up half the town with Gungnir and I might have killed a few people too. Can you fix everything with your magic?"

Hans frowned and started to massage his forehead.

"What am I? A servant who cleans after the dirt of the master? You use Gungnir too recklessly!"

"Can you do it or not?"

"Of course I can! I am a genius when it comes to spells of the mind and reality! But all I ask is if I should watch out for those two exorcists."

"Hm? The exorcists? After taking their leader I'm sure they just ran back to their church. But if not, then don't worry. You're way stronger than them."

"I will trust your judgment. I am off."

As Hans walked out of the house and looked up at Merlin who smiled at her. It was the gentle smile of a loving grandfather, but Elizabeth simply rolled her eyes in response.

"Tomorrow you shall return to Luna Nova and retrieve the Lost Grimoire of Phantasia. Do not fail me, Elizabeth," Merlin ordered in a soft tone.

Elizabeth nodded while looking very irritated. After Merlin had left, George and Annabelle proceeded to scold Elizabeth as Lilith and Akko watched. The maid was simply doing her best not to be discovered while Lilith was laughing at the sight of the only daughter of the Myttssh getting chewed out.

That night, Akko and Elizabeth were sleeping in the same bed once again except this time Akko had full control of her body. But to keep up with the plow she did nothing as Elizabeth cuddled with her and started kissing her. Akko really hated the forceful makeup but she had no choice. To Akko, the lips of Elizabeth were warm and her tongue was slimy and wet.

"It's like she's trying to eat my tongue!"

Akko said in her mind and then turned pale.

"What if she IS trying to eat my tongue!? She is a vampire!"

The kiss carried on for a while and then the session ended with Elizabeth sinking her teeth into Akko's neck and sucking some of her blood. It took Akko everything not to scream in pain when the sharp fangs punctured into her flesh and she tried to think of happy thoughts as her energy was being sapped away. After drinking her fill the vampire girl licked the blood that was covering the front of her lips and snuggled close to her familiar.

"Good night~..."

Elizabeth yawned and then finally went to sleep.

"…Her body still feels so cold!"

Akko whined inwardly as she found it difficult to sleep while being closely next to the freezing body of a vampire. As morning rose, Elizabeth was the first to get up. She quickly took a shower and got in the Luna Nova uniform in under an hour. She then ordered Akko to get up, which the pretending maid did. With a flick of her wand, Akko's tattered maid clothes were fixed and then Elizabeth kissed her on the cheek.

"Farewell, my beloved Akko~!" Elizabeth said. "I promise to get you something pretty from Blytonbury when I come back okay~?"

The vampire girl then left, the moment she was gone Akko stuck her tongue to the door from when she left.

The Japanese girl then waited an hour, looking out the window to see Elizabeth hop onto a broom and fly away. A few hours more she saw Annabelle walking out of the house as well. After her was George and Ivan who left in a black carriage being moved by a skeleton horse. And then there was Hans who transformed into a crow and flew away, disappearing into the black clouds of the dead forest.

"Most of the family is gone…"

Akko finally relaxed the muscles on her face and released a breath of relief.

"Alright! Now I just need to find the Shiny Rod and get out of here!"

The young witch took the wand out of her pocket and quietly chanted.

"Metamorphie Fociesse!"

In a puff of smoke, Akko transformed into a mouse and scurried across the carpet floor of the manor. Her goal was to find Merlin and steal the Shiny Rod from him. However, Akko struggled to find the old man. She checked every bedroom which turned out to be empty and she even went down to the library which also had no soul inside. The only people that were around were the undead servants who were cleaning and putting everything back in its proper place. Akko was careful to make sure that none of them saw her while she was a mouse.

"Argh! Are you serious!?" Akko snarled as she scurried away from a zombie maid who was coming out of a room with a trash bag. "Where is that old man!? Did he leave too!?"

As Akko was about to hit a small hole in the wall, the sound of her stomach growling stopped her. The pain of hunger was intense— Elizabeth did not do a good job feeding Akko the proper amount of food a human should eat. Any normal human would get sick from not eating as much as Akko did for the past month, but due to her vampiric transformation, she was not directly in any danger.

But still, it did not stop her usual cravings.

"Not now, stomach!" Akko whispered to her small mouse belly. In response, the stomach growled louder. "Don't you growl at me! Fine! I guess I should fuel up…"

Mouse Akko then went to the kitchen which was luckily empty with no servants or chefs. She dispelled the transformation, returning to her normal human form, and took a lot of food from the kitchen, as much as her arms could carry.

She grabbed a giant turkey, bacon, eggs, cheese, soup, and basically a whole feast that should be served to seven families. Akko dropped all the food on the kitchen table and began eating it all like a wild dog.

"Ohhhhhh! Thank God!" Akko moaned, her cheeks filled with turkey meat. "Food is amazing! Damn that Elizabeth for not feeding me! All she gave me was that stupid greasy hotdog and her damn tongue!"

"Dear me!"

Akko stopped eating as she heard a voice coming from the entrance to the kitchen. She looked quickly but saw no one.

"W-what—"

"If you're going to eat our food at least try not to make a mess."

The Japanese girl's eyes then followed the sound of the voice realizing that it was coming from below. She looked down to see the talking cat, Lilith grinning at her.

"I would have assumed that you would try to escape so I had Lilith watching the perimeter of the mansion. But I am honestly surprised you wanted to try and steal Fantasia from me before leaving. You truly are an interesting witch…"

Slowly walking into view from behind the wall was Merlin who held Fantasia in his right hand. Akko's face had turned pale as the leader of the vampire household entered the kitchen.

"Do you like the food?" Merlin asked. "We got it for you! You're still a human after all and Elizabeth likes you, so we wanted to at least fill you up properly. But that girl…she forgets to feed you most of the time correct? I apologize about that…"

Akko slowly swallowed the food that was in her mouth and burped right after. She then fixed her face and pretended to be emotionless.

"H-hello masters," Akko was doing a horrible robotic voice. "I was just…sleepwalking! Yes— sleepwalking and then—"

"Enough."

Merlin held up his hand to silence Akko.

"We've been aware that you were no longer under the control of my spell the moment you returned with Elizabeth yesterday," Merlin said "To be fair I never expected the spell to work permanently. You were an experiment to see how far the "Face Cleansing" curse could go. But it seems that one of those exorcists may have had some sort of curse-breaking power alongside them…"

"Will that be a problem for the future?" Lilith asked Merlin.

The old vampire shook his head.

"Nothing for us to be concerned about. Especially when Fantasia reaches its final act— there will be nothing in this world that can stop it…"

Akko gulped.

"W-what do you mean? What are you trying to do with the Shiny Rod!?"

Merlin chuckled as he took a seat and sat down on the other side of the kitchen table.

"I don't mind. Let me explain it to you, Atsuko Kagari. The wonders of the Eternal Symphony— the Herald of the Elves, FANTASIA…"

Author's Note:

The ultimate explanation next chapter! Thank you again, Angry9guy!

A/N Angry9guy: Oh I was all too happy to help

Please check out my own original web novel, "The Branded Hero Volume 1: Baxter the Failure". The tale of a hero who has been outcasted by the world since releasing The Demon King: /series/The-Branded-Hero-Volume-1-Baxter-the-Failure/info

And please check out my webcomic, "The Curse of Gringerfield" on Webtoon and Tapas!

Webtoon: en/canvas/the-curse-of-gringerfield/list?title_no=970667

Tapas: /series/The-Curse-of-Gringerfield/info

Next Chapter: The Purpose of the Fantasia Melody