A Thousand Lights and Vacation Homework
"There it is! Home sweet home for the next two days!"
Dick spread his arms wide and bellowed. The place where the four of them had arrived was the very top of the Clock Tower building in the heart of Langestin's bustling commercial district. Simon, Camibarez, and Meilin all wore expressions of pure disbelief.
"There was lodging up *here* this whole time?"
Rising directly above their heads glowed the famous fluorescent clock of the Clock Tower. An empty space in the building had been converted into a guest suite.
Half of the space was furnished as living quarters with beds and furniture, while the other half opened onto a spacious balcony with a long table for dining. The four of them stepped out to take a look.
"Whooooa!"
The dazzling night view of Langestin stretched out before them at a glance. Camibarez hopped around in delight, her face glowing with wonder.
"This is incredible, Dick! How did you even find a place like this?"
"Heh heh." Dick crossed his arms and preened. "When I do something, I do it right. You guys only worked a couple hours at that part-time job, so if you're happy with digs like this, I'd say we're square."
"Yeah, this is really great," Simon said as he took in the night view. Beside him, Meilin was already busily unpacking oil paper and glue — the supplies they'd picked up from a street vendor on the way up.
"Forget the view and start getting ready! The Thousand Lights starts in thirty minutes!"
"……Do we really have to do that?"
"Obviously!"
The Thousand Lights, a must-do attraction of Langestin, was a nightly ritual held at exactly eight o'clock in which people released glowing lanterns into the sky. Simon had once watched it with Lorraine back when he first came to Langestin.
But Simon's reaction had been lukewarm at best, and after watching the night view for a few minutes, Dick complained about the cold and retreated inside, where he flopped onto the bed and started rolling around. Meilin exploded.
"Hey! Isn't releasing a lantern mandatory when you come here? Why did you even come to Langestin if you're not going to do this?"
"She's right!"
As if on the same wavelength, the girls threw themselves into folding their paper lanterns.
"Meilin! Shouldn't you put the glue on *this* side?"
"Ack! I messed up! This one's a goner!"
It was apparently harder than it looked. Unable to just watch, Simon came over and sat down, deftly folding the paper and raising the frame of a lantern. Camibarez burst into applause.
"Amazing! Seriously, Simon, is there anything you can't make?"
He even managed to salvage the one Meilin had ruined. She pouted her lips in embarrassment.
"Honestly. If you knew how to make them all along, the least you could've done was help sooner."
"Haha, it's not that I knew how. I guess I still had the feel for it from when I made one with Lorraine last time."
At those words, Meilin and Camibarez both flinched at the same moment.
"W-wait, when? Why were you with *her*?"
Simon, focused on folding his lantern, replied with a slightly stiff expression.
"The day before I enrolled at Kizen, it was Lorraine who helped me buy my textbooks and supplies. I'd just left my hometown for the first time and had no idea what I was doing, so she helped me a lot."
"W-were you two... old friends, then?"
"That was the first time we met."
The two girls exchanged meaningful glances and shot him sidelong looks.
"Ohhh—"
At that moment, Dick — who'd been rolling around on the bed and now had a drink in hand — chimed in with his usual tactlessness.
"Isn't that the thing couples do together? Must be nice. Get together with Nephthys's daughter and your life is se—"
"Hey."
Meilin shot him a frosty glare. It was the same look she wore whenever she was about to hit him, so Dick flinched on reflex.
"Wh-what? Why?"
"What, is yours the only mouth here, huh? There are three mouths at this table — go grab three more glasses, chop chop!"
"Cough. Worked to the bone, I tell you."
Dick shuffled off to the kitchen, feigning misery.
Meanwhile Simon, the type who couldn't rest until he gave whatever he started his all, remained completely absorbed in making lanterns. At last, he finished all four.
"Look over there! People are gathering at the observation deck!"
Camibarez pointed toward the hill. Countless travelers and couples were climbing up to observation decks, hilltops, and rooftops, preparing to release their lanterns.
"Ours will fly the highest of all," Meilin said, eyes sparkling. Observation deck or hilltop, the highest point in the entire city was the Clock Tower building where they stood.
"Alright then, time to light them up."
They'd agreed that each of them would release one lantern. When the other three lifted theirs, Simon touched each to a candle flame. Finally, he lit his own and held it by the tips of his fingers where the heat wouldn't burn.
"Here we go!"
Beautiful crimson lanterns began soaring into the night sky from all across the city. Simon's group, standing at the highest point of all, waited a little while for the other lanterns to reach their altitude.
"Now!"
At Meilin's cry, the four of them let go in unison. The four lanterns launched from the Clock Tower were the first to climb into the high heavens, and the remaining fragments of light soon joined them, dyeing the city at night in beautiful radiance.
Watching their lanterns rise, the four of each made a small wish.
'May all four of us survive the second semester and keep wearing the Kizen uniform together.'
Simon finished his wish and opened his eyes, gazing out at the festival of flames that was painting the night sky bright as a river of stars.
"It's so beautiful," Meilin said, her voice trembling.
"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life," Camibarez added, tears of wonder in her eyes as she watched the Thousand Lights for the very first time. Dick grinned and gave Simon a light jab on the elbow.
"What's your review?"
Simon answered flatly. "Your two hundred silver apiece is currently detonating in the sky."
"PUHAHAHA!"
Dick clutched his belly and roared with laughter. Meilin glared at Simon with an exasperated look, while Camibarez hid a small smile behind one hand.
"That's right, that's right! Two hundred silver for one sheet of paper is a rip-off!"
"Ugh, you romantics-deficient lot. That's a disease, you know. A disease."
After admiring the lanterns for a while, the four of them settled around the table on the wide terrace and brought out wine. Simon unpacked the lunchbox Anna had personally prepared for him.
Seeing the delicious food packed tightly into the small container, along with Anna's heartfelt note, everyone looked genuinely moved. And the taste went without saying.
"Simon! Please tell your mother thank you so, so much for us!"
"I shall bow in the direction your mother resides."
Over wine and lunchbox, the three of them exchanged stories. Two months' worth of tales had piled up — everyone took turns recounting their own adventures, laughing uproariously.
"You know, whenever vacation comes up, you're the only one who gets quiet, Simon?" Dick remarked.
"……Uh, well. I was just busy with lord duties."
"Pfft, wasted a perfectly good vacation doing work, huh."
Simon smiled to himself, imagining how all three of them would lose their minds if they ever found out he'd gone to the Holy Federation.
And so the night deepened.
"Hmmnya... mmnya..."
Simon lifted the sleeping Camibarez off the floor and carried her into the bedroom. Meilin lay sprawled out, still in her uniform — the blanket, once again, kicked to the bottom of the bed.
Simon carefully laid Camibarez down beside her and pulled the blanket up over both of them. Watching the two breathe softly in their sleep, he quietly closed the door behind him.
"Heheheh. Maybe I drank a bit too muchhh..."
Then Dick, who'd insisted he was perfectly fine, staggered and dropped flat onto the floor with a thud. Simon snickered.
"You had three glasses."
"Three glashes is basicallyh nothing... mmph... mm..."
Simon hauled up the tongue-tied Dick, dragged him along, and laid him out on the single bed. Then, stretching with a long yawn, he stepped out onto the terrace.
The cool night breeze sobered him up. Simon leaned his elbows on the terrace railing and looked down at Langestin — pitch black now, the Thousand Lights gone and the shop lights extinguished.
"Did you have something to say to me... Father?"
At those words, a black figure dropped onto the terrace in an instant.
Perched in a crouch, both feet planted on the terrace, knees bent, the jet-black silhouette stared at Simon.
"How long have you known?"
"Since we released the lanterns."
The Vampire Lord, Dietrich, grinned. "I've delayed long enough. I must be leaving Langestin now."
"I understand. As for Kami—"
"Camibarez is a defective one."
Simon's expression hardened at those words.
"A child who believes only strength and power are virtues, one who could never survive in the vampiric society of survival of the fittest — not in body, nor in spirit."
"Are there really parents who call their own child defective?"
"Cheeky brat."
As he smiled, baring his teeth, his fangs gleamed with a menacing luster.
"I am the Vampire Lord. No matter that she is my own blood — as the one who leads the entire race, I cannot indulge in personal sentiment."
"And yet you seemed to care for Kami a great deal."
"Because she is my karma."
His gaze turned toward the darkness-shrouded Langestin.
"Everyone believes they are exceptional, a pioneer of their age — yet history does nothing but repeat itself. Everything is flowing exactly as it always has."
His voice settled low and unhurried.
"Defeated by a fleeting, primal impulse, I shared love with a human woman, and the woman carried my child. Bearing a vampire's child must have been an ordeal a human body could scarcely endure."
A vampire baby kills its human mother. Even knowing that, the two had come together.
"Because of it, I lost the woman I loved above all else. And Camibarez was born not as a complete vampire, but as a defective one. That was the first time I ever experienced failure. All of it is my karma."
Deep regret flickered in his eyes.
"Then let me ask you the opposite. Meeting Kami's mother, loving her — all of that."
Simon spoke with an icy face.
"Can you really define it as a failure?"
"……"
The Vampire Lord's mouth hung open.
"No."
"Then that's settled."
Simon smiled brightly.
"It's impossible for everything to unfold exactly as planned, exactly as laid out, exactly by the book. What happened to you wasn't some momentary, violent impulse — I believe it was a kind of inevitability, one that led to Kami being born."
"KHAHAHAHAHA!"
Dietrich's laughter rang out thunderously.
Simon flinched and glanced back, but thankfully no one had been woken by the laughter.
"A runt who hasn't lived even half of half of half my life, and yet he talks a big game!"
"But brief thoughts have their own honest flavor," Dietrich said, sweeping his cloak around himself to conceal his form. "Take good care of my daughter."
"I will. You can trust me."
Leaving only those words behind, Dietrich's body scattered into countless bats and vanished. The easy smile drained from Simon's face as he let out a long breath of relief.
'God, that presence of his... My heart was pounding the whole time.'
Simon, too, turned and went back inside the lodging.
The next morning.
Only one day remained until the new semester began. He'd assumed, at the very least, that today would be full of pleasant things.
But it all started when Meilin peeked into Dick's vacation homework.
"You absolute lunatic! You haven't even finished HALF of your homework!!"
Dick broke into a cold sweat at Meilin's shriek and scrambled to defend himself. "Th-that was the plan! I was going to do it with you guys!"
"'Going to do it with us' means you wanted US to do it FOR you, doesn't it! That's it! Everyone else, hand over your homework too!"
Just like that, Simon and Camibarez — who'd been sleeping soundly — found themselves facing a homework inspection as well.
Camibarez was better off than Dick, but having focused on her personal training, her work had gaps scattered throughout. Simon had been reasonably diligent, but his written scores in every subject except Summoning lagged behind, so he'd gotten quite a lot wrong.
"……Wow. Just... wow."
The leader of Group 7 pressed a hand to her forehead, then quickly covered her whole face with her palm. The remaining three stood at attention before her, shifting their eyes about nervously.
"……I want yesterday's emotional moment back, all of it, right now. What was all that about the Thousand Lights, about sipping wine over the night view."
She swept a frigid gaze over the three of them.
"At this rate, you'll waltz into Kizen, score dead last, get slapped with handicaps, and spend the whole semester crawling on your bellies! Especially you, Dick! You're heading straight into eternal vacation! Do you not know Professor Jane's personality? She doesn't care that you rested for two months — your fundamentals have all rotted away!"
Dick forced a laugh and clapped his palms together in supplication. "N-now, now, no need to get so worked up. Let's all just calm down first. And when getting scolded, one should at least be clear about the reas—"
"The reason? You want to talk about REASONS?"
She snatched up the Hemomancy assignment from among Dick's homework.
"The question was: Discuss the caster's handicap when casting the Hemomancy spell Cataphoret. And Dick's answer—"
She ground her teeth as she read.
"'If the blood leaves your body, you get dizzy.' YOU SUBMITTED THAT AS AN ANSWER, YOU LUNATIC!!"
"It's a blood-based dark magic spell, so it's not technically wro—"
The assignment bundle flew at his face in an instant, knocking Dick flat on his back.
"I'm losing my mind! To think I trusted teammates like these to get through the Integrated Second Semester!"
Group lessons would continue into the second semester.
If other members' grades dropped and they washed out of Kizen, or if handicaps and other circumstances left them unable to focus on group projects, the ones who suffered would inevitably be the remaining members.
Camibarez clasped her hands together and giggled, trying to defuse the temper while being as cute as possible. "……Uh, Mommy?"
"Shut it, Kami. Don't think you're getting off easy this time either."
Realizing there was no chance whatsoever, Camibarez snapped to attention, her face going rigid. Simon forced a laugh.
"Mine's a bit better off, though, right?"
"You're all the same, every one of you! You're not stepping one foot outside this lodging until every last bit of this is done!"
Team leader Meilin scooped up the wrecked pile of vacation homework into her arms and dropped it on the table with a bang, shouting.
"Right now! Do it all over again!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
The three of them immediately picked up their quills and got to work. In the middle of it all, Dick thrust out a thumbs-up and declared, ever the optimist:
"This is the moment the eternal truth is proven once more — vacation homework can only ever be crammed."
"Shall I drop you off the Clock Tower and prove gravity while I'm at it?"
Dick's head snapped straight back down to his homework.