The question cut sharply through the stale air of the cavern. “That doesn’t answer my question. Who are you?” the man demanded again, his voice tight with suspicion, eyes flicking across Ludwig’s frame for any sudden movement.
Ludwig exhaled, slow and deliberate, as though weary from countless confrontations just like this one. Without a word, he reached into the inner lining of his coat. The motion was casual, but every step of it was calculated, measured enough to seem nonthreatening, yet not so slow as to appear deceptive.
The knight’s gauntleted hand instinctively gripped the hilt at his waist. His breath hitched, armor plates creaking ever so slightly as his muscles coiled. The brief flicker of tension hummed like a drawn bowstring, until Ludwig’s fingers emerged, not with a blade or spell component, but with parchment.
“A letter,” Ludwig said plainly, offering it with the calm detachment of a man more accustomed to these moments than the knight likely realized. The wax seal shimmered faintly in the firelight, its emblem unbroken.
The knight hesitated for only a heartbeat before stepping forward, his blade-hand still twitching. He took the letter with practiced caution and sliced open the seal with a small curved dagger that he drew reflexively from his hip a movement so natural it barely looked like a choice. As he began to read, the lines on his face shifted with every word, his brow furrowing, jaw tightening, then slackening in recognition.
The knight, had read every line with the growing disbelief of a man watching his assumptions erode in real time. When he finally folded the parchment and looked up, the slight twitch in his brow revealed how deeply the message had unsettled him.
“Damn it,” the knight murmured under his breath, not to Ludwig, not to the others, but to the stars that no longer shone above them. “If only this had arrived a couple days earlier…”
Then, turning to the rest, he spoke louder, firmer. “From this moment forward,” he said, and his voice held the strained bark of authority, “Sir Davon is to be treated as the acting commander of the Blue Boar Knight Order. All orders are to be followed as if they were mine.”
That earned a reaction.
“What?!” The voice came sharp and incredulous from the corner, one of the two women. Her hair was matted, eyes swollen from either tears or sleeplessness. She stood halfway, wavering between obedience and frustration. “Sir Beal! Who is he to take leadership like that? What has he done? What do we even know about him?”
Beal didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he passed the letter back to Ludwig, who accepted it without a word. Beal turned toward the cave wall, as if even looking at the others might compromise the conviction in his decision.
“That’s what Lord Baltimore said,” he replied at last, voice stiff. “It’s his seal, his words. That’s enough for me.”
The other woman, the one still seated, leaned forward, fists clenched against her knees.
“I thought,” she started, then faltered. “I thought we’d get to leave this cursed place. I didn’t come here to die. I only volunteered to help with logistics, not to…”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Ludwig said flatly. He was scanning the cave the whole time, eyes flicking over the others, weighing each posture, each glance. “But there’s no way out. Not while that thing is still here.”
The silence that followed was absolute.
“You speak as if you’ve seen it, shouldn’t you have arrived just today from the letter date I mean,?” the knight said.
Ludwig nodded once. “I arrived today,” he admitted, “but I’ve seen something similar before. Different shapes, same curse. Same… hunger.” His voice lacked any of the drama that usually came with grim declarations, which only made it more chilling.
A rough scoff cut through the silence. It came from the Vampire Hunter, the one checking over the unconscious Carlo. He stood, brushing dust from his knees, and stepped forward until he was uncomfortably close to Ludwig.
The man’s face was pale, gaunt, eyes bloodshot, and marked by days, weeks, maybe, without true rest. His breath smelled like old copper and moss, and the creak of leather followed him like a second voice.
“I don’t care what kind of noble you are,” he said. “You don’t just waltz in here with your fancy coat and say doom is absolute. We’ve survived this long because we stuck to what worked. Staying low. Staying hidden.”
Ludwig looked at the man, then down at the unconscious one, then back again. “You’re hiding in a cave, waiting for something to find you. That’s not survival. That’s stalling.”
The Hunter’s hands curled into fists. “We made it this far, didn’t we?”
Ludwig’s response came with a sharpness that turned the air cold. “You’re delaying the inevitable. You’re not safe. You’re just…next.”
That cut deeper than the hunter expected. He opened his mouth, but no words came. Instead, he turned away with a bitter snarl and spat onto the cave floor.
“The way you came here! We can leave right? You should have arrived by ship?” one of the men said.
Ludwig remembered how the rowboat was blow apart by something not too long ago, “Not possible anymore,” he shook his head, “The rowboat we used to get to the island was obliterated by something and I’m not planning on swimming back to the main ship… something might still be out there waiting in the waters.”
The man cursed out and slumped down as the realization dawned on him.
Ludwig didn’t press the moment. Instead, he turned to Beal. “You asked if I had a way out,” he said. “I don’t. But I might be able to kill it. That’s the only shot we have.”
“That’s suicide,” one of the men said from the rear, his voice cracking under disbelief. “That thing…you didn’t see it. You weren’t here when it, ” He stopped, swallowed hard. “You’ll die. And you might drag us down with you.”
Ludwig exhaled through his nose. Calm, measured. “If I’m lucky, I’ll die. If I’m not…I’ll just come back. At least that beats waiting for the Holy Order to come here before we’re out.”
That earned confused glances. Beal furrowed his brow but didn’t push for explanation. The Hunter, however, wasn’t done.
“You mentioned the Holy Order,” the man said, and his tone had changed. He sounded almost afraid. “How do you know they’re coming?”
“Isn’t it obvious, your guild, clan, cult or whatever, tried to stall them, but that won’t work for long. They’ll soon arrive here, and once they do, do you think that they’ll let anyone go once they see what happened to this place?” Ludwig asked.
No one spoke. The implications landed hard.
“You’re assuming a lot,” the Hunter said, but his voice was weaker now.
“I’m assuming what’s logical,” Ludwig replied. “The Holy Order doesn’t take chances with corruption. They burn first, mourn later.”
Beal stepped forward. “Sir Davon, if that’s the case, what do we do? Won’t we be found out once we leave the sanctity of this place?”
Ludwig turned his head slowly, eyes narrowing. “Found out? You think they don’t already know you’re here? You’re underestimating those monsters a lot. We have to kill that thing that controls them, or else be food for it, or firewood for the Order.’
“But how…”
“We start by asking the man who clearly knows more than he’s saying,” Ludwig interrupted, turning his gaze fully on the Vampire Hunter.
The man stiffened. “I don’t, “
The Hunter hesitated, even went to reach for his weapon, but once the knight and the other men alongside him reached for their weapons, he stopped himself, “It’s not something that the likes of you have to know…”
“Speak,” Ludwig said, “I don’t have patience for this…”
The vampire hunter sighed, “Fine, whatever, it’s not like you’d understand,” he said as he walked out of the cave, “Follow me if you want to know more,” he said.
The knight then said, “Yuve, take care of the place while I’m gone, also, bind that vampire hunter while we’re gone, I don’t know what he’s capable off but they’re better off bound than not.”
“That’s not something I can accept!”
“I guess you’ll have to make an exception,” the Knight Captain said.
“Damn lowly mongrels!” the hunter cursed and walked out of the cave first.
Ludwig simply followed the two as they exited the cave, and began following the hunter.
“Don’t try and run anywhere,” the Knight said.
“And go where? To my death, just follow me,” the hunter said.