Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 479: Tiers of Hellsingers

Arlette saw Alexia’s expression and knew the reason for it. She felt a bit guilty for stabbing Alexia in the back with a tranquilizing syringe but she didn’t regret it. For the simple reason that, had she not done it, Caius could have died.

Still, it had been a bit uncomfortable listening to Alexia blame herself for how things went down. During those talks, Arlette usually maintained that none of it was Alexia’s fault but sometimes, she did accept that maybe the Von Helsing lady might have been too reckless on the day.

The idea to shatter the formation dome had been a crazy one and Arlette had thought that on the day as well. Had the Gold-black vampires actually been a threat to them, they might not have made it out alive.

The only reason Arlette had gone along with the crazy plan was that it would give her the cover to do what she then did with the syringe.

”Indeed,” Lucian said in agreement with Alexia’s words, ”You did much. A lot more than a simple houseguest should ever need to do.”

”It wasn’t a bother,” Arlette insisted with her hands raised, ”Honestly.”

”Please don’t downplay your effort, dear,” Lucian said kindly.

Arlette tried to say more but then stopped short. Clearly, this praise was going to happen and she should just roll with it. Still, there was one more card to play... One person who could speak some sense and maybe force a pause in all this praise.

She looked to the side at Caius but he wasn’t looking at her. Instead, he had an arm across his chest and a hand stroking his jaw as he took on a contemplative look.

”You know, I wasn’t there but it seems to me that such a deed is deserving of a reward beyond just words,” Caius said in a musing tone. As though he were simply tossing a suggestion out there.

”You’re right son,” Lucian agreed instantly before saying to Arlette,

”You’ve done us a favor and we will do you one as well. Whatever it is you wish to have us do, you need only ask and we shall.”

”That is much too generous,” Arlette said, sounding as overwhelmed by the graciousness as she felt,

”Thank you, My Lord.”

Arlette heard the wording of that and noted that it had excluded any limitations such as ’within reason’ which meant, technically, whatever favor she did eventually decide to ask could be as ridiculous or outrageous as possible and Lucian would be honor-bound to give it.

Arlette wondered if he gave her such a reward because he never conceived a situation where she would ever cash in the favor. Not because he was skirting the responsibility of the promise but because he felt Arlette and Caius were too linked that she would get what she wanted through him anyway.

If that was what he thought, then he wasn’t wrong.

By Caius’s Will, Arlette was in command of the largest and longest-running criminal organization—’Orphiuchus’—that had ever existed in the Acheron Empire. She was commanding humans and vampires alike and still very much involved in keeping the organization running.

There was very little that Arlette needed in terms of manpower or material resources that she couldn’t get without a favor. So at its core, and until she did think of something she needed that she could not get herself, Lucian’s reward was more of a gesture to show his gratitude.

Arlette was fine with that.

Lucian let out a satisfied breath then and his expression became a bit more serious,

”Now onto the issues at hand— We will be discussing Military matters now...” he said.

”Oh right,” Arlette said, thinking her part here was over after being rewarded,

”I’ll leave you to it.”

”Don’t leave o our account, Professor. Leave only if you have a pressing engagement.

The last time you were involved, it was a matter of necessity. Now, I’m offering you a choice,” Lucian said.

”You want me to stay?” Arlette asked.

”If you wish to,” Lucian said, ”We’re not trading state secrets. And if we won’t bore you too much, we invite you to join us. Offer your insights.”

Arlette looked from Lucian to Alexia who gave her a warm smile and then to Caius who looked like he was stifling a yawn and then she glowed as she answered with a bow.

”Well, if you’ll have me.”

Caius found the details of the meeting predictable; It was about Vampires. Of course it was. There was a lot of unease in the Capital currently due to Vampire existence so it would be strange for the monster-hunting family not to be discussing it.

Also, the moment he saw the trio of Hellsinger higher-ups, it became all too clear.

The severe woman introduced herself as Ceron and she was the leader of the Highest tier of Hellsingers. She was usually out on missions with Lucian as his second in command regarding his military unit. She had seen much and killed monsters in the thousands with more than half of her kills coming from clearing Vampire Covens all over the Acheron Empire.

The lanky man with a milder look was Divon, the leader of the Mid-tier of Hellsingers and usually worked in management and hardly ever left the Von Helsing Territory for this very reason.

Divon had actually been around two weeks ago when Alexia had been rallying Hellsingers to join her in taking on Brogan and his Vampire force but he had commanded the mid-tiers to stay out of it as only Lucian could give them commands.

He technically allowed the lowest tier to join her but really hadn’t had a say in that as Alexia was a Von Helsing no matter what and thus held a special status among any group of Hellsingers. So at the very least, the lowest-tier Hellsingers had to go with her.

And it was during that moment that the third Hellsinger in the room got to show what he was capable of;

Gareth introduced himself but Caius already knew of him. He was recently promoted to head of the Lowest tier of Hellsingers. That position technically used to belong to Divon because ordering them was a part of the job description of his management role.

However, after Gareth showed his ability to garner the respect of his peers in the lowest Hellsinger tier, and how well he had worked as second only to Alexia, who vouched for him, he was rewarded with more responsibility. It was also facilitated by the current situation in the Capital.

Gareth’s appointment signaled a bit of a shift and good-natured divide among the Hellsingers. While the possible threat of Vampires in the Capital was a serious one, Lucian had engagements elsewhere. Ordinarily, he would have made the Capital his priority but he felt a bit more secure with Alexia leading the charge at home and allowed her more responsibility by granting her command of an entire tier of Hellsingers.

Lucian also ordered that the Mid-tiers led by Divon were to offer Alexia the support she needed and not to leave her stranded as she could have been two weeks ago had things gone awry.

It was during the ongoing meeting that Caius truly learned how busy Alexia had been in the past two weeks. He was hardly ever at the Estate now and had ducked any potential alone time they could have spent together training either by sparring in the Arena or learning the ropes of Monster Hunting.

Caius didn’t have a specific reason for why he was avoiding her. Or at least, he couldn’t think of a reason yet. He just... did. He was spending a lot of his time with the Leopolds now, getting better integrated with them and learning a lot.

As the meeting went on, Caius only shared a glance with Alexia once and it was such a passing glance that it likely wasn’t intentional. Suddenly, he had a feeling the reason he had been able to duck one-on-one with his cousin was that, she herself was, knowingly or unknowingly, ducking him.