The Appropriate Way to Make a Vampire Apologize
“Hark, vampire!”
“Y-yes…!”
At the sound of Harnok’s gravelly voice, Bellarne flinched and shrank back. Though she stood a respectable one hundred and seventy centimeters tall, before the barbarian who towered well over two meters she seemed positively small. Her long, slender limbs only made her look more pitiful, an image that clashed rather comically with the fearsome reputation of her kind.
“First, cover yourself with this!”
What Harnok thrust toward her was a blanket he had received from the village chief of Ferdo, originally packed among the supplies in case their search for the vampire’s lair dragged on. As it turned out, Bellarne’s hiding place had been only a few hours’ walk away, so the blanket had gone unused—until now.
Bellarne blinked her crimson eyes in a daze at the offered cloth, then hurriedly bowed her head in gratitude.
“Ah…! Th-thank you…!”
Harnok grinned broadly, baring his gums, and shook his head.
“Nonsense! You are now a believer who follows the Lord’s word! Moreover, if you go to apologize to the villagers dressed like that, they might suspect your remorse is not genuine. An apology must be offered with sincerity, and sincerity demands proper attire!”
“Y-yes…”
Bellarne nodded frantically while Harnok looked on with satisfaction. Just then, a voice that sounded half-dead drifted between them.
“H-Harnok, siiir…”
The voice came from behind Harnok’s back. There, Sister Celine was draped limply over his broad latissimus dorsi, her face buried in the muscle.
“Please… put me down…”
At her dying tone, Harnok tilted his head, quickly untied the rope, and lowered her to the ground. When he finally saw her state, he tilted his head again.
“Sister Celine, what happened? I tied you securely to my back to keep you safe from any mishaps.”
Celine’s appearance was nothing short of spectacular. Her once-luxurious silver-blue hair had been whipped into a frenzy when Harnok had launched himself upward to catch the bat; now it resembled a hastily thrown net rather than hair. Half of it covered her face, while the other half had somehow found its way between her crimson lips. Her usually neat nun’s habit had been blasted in every conceivable direction by the wind of Harnok’s movements. One could almost imagine the garment desperately trying to escape the storm that was Harnok. The only parts that remained relatively unwrinkled were those pressed tightly against her more… generously proportioned areas.
Having barely survived the hurricane named Harnok, Celine lacked the energy to explain what had occurred. She also knew—painfully well—that if he had not bound her to his back, she would likely have become the vampire’s next meal and been left as a dried-out corpse. In short, being tied to Harnok had saved her life. And Celine was not the sort of person to snap at someone who had just saved her.
She shook her head slightly, her voice soft.
“…No, it’s nothing. I’m just… grateful.”
Harnok beamed and gave her back two hearty thumps—unfortunately, to Celine they felt more like solid punches. She had only just managed to keep her internal organs from rearranging themselves while clinging to his back; now his “considerate” pats nearly made her revisit whatever she had eaten the day before in front of a vampire she had only just met. She swallowed hard and forced it down.
Before she could even attempt to locate the Pope again, Harnok’s booming voice sealed her lips once more.
“I see! So you were also desperately hoping the vampire would accept the Lord’s word and repent, and you were doing your utmost to make it happen! Of course! Otherwise you would never have ended up in such a state! But, Sister, there is no need to thank me! Since you put in the effort, the vampire’s sincere repentance is also thanks to you!”
If one looked closely, Harnok’s words were not entirely false. From Bellarne’s perspective, Celine had been nothing more than a reed tossed about in a storm while clinging to Harnok’s back. Witnessing a single person rendered so utterly powerless before such overwhelming force had been more than enough to inspire a sense of awe—and, indirectly, genuine remorse—in the vampire. Celine herself felt much the same; now thoroughly exhausted, she could do little more than nod weakly.
“Then let us return to the village together with the vampire!”
The same storm that had rendered both women helpless now possessed the power to set them upright again. At the mention of returning to the village with Bellarne, the nun and the vampire simultaneously jolted upright in horror.
“N-no… Do we really have to go…?”
Bellarne spoke first, clutching the blanket tightly around herself, her face suddenly haggard.
“Th-that’s right, Harnok! Since the vampire who caused the attack has come to this, there’s no need to bring her along! I-if anything, taking her to the village might only remind everyone of the attack. They probably won’t be happy about it…”
“What are you saying, vampire! You clearly stated you would apologize to the villagers and beg their forgiveness! If you are merely ashamed, there is no need to worry. The villagers are kind-hearted; if your apology is sincere, they will surely forgive you! And Sister Celine, you may not know this yet since you have only recently arrived, but the villagers are not narrow-minded. As I said earlier, if you offer a sincere apology, seek forgiveness, and make amends for the harm caused, they will certainly forgive you.”
Her logic, however, was swiftly dismantled by the vampire’s previous words and Celine’s lack of experience. The first to regain her composure was Bellarne. Her rose-red lips parted as she repeated what Harnok had just said.
“…Excuse me? What did you just say? Make amends for the harm caused…?”
“Hm? Ah, yes, of course!”
“S-so the apology alone isn’t enough…?”
Harnok burst into hearty laughter, as though he had just heard the most amusing joke.
“Of course not! If you commit a sin and someone suffers because of it, then it is only right to restore what was lost and make proper amends! Offering a sincere apology is the natural order of things, but an apology alone does not heal the victim’s pain! It would be ideal if both the hurt and the damage could be undone by words alone, but reality does not work that way. Therefore, one must do everything possible to restore the original state and ease the sorrow!”
“S-so… in the end, you’re saying we have to take the vampire back to the village…?”
This time it was Celine who asked, her expression rather stiff as her lips moved reluctantly.
“Of course!”
Harnok nodded with his usual cheerful vigor, driving the final nail into their hopes. Both women felt an overwhelming urge to burst into tears.
“Aaah…”
At Celine’s small sigh, Bellarne glanced sideways at her. The nun’s face was the very picture of misery. Though they had only just met, and though their natures as holy woman and vampire should have made them natural enemies, Bellarne found herself unable to shake the strange sense of kinship she felt toward the suffering nun.