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Three months ago, Toya Aoyagi was the youngest son of Duchess Aoyagi. Then, he remembered how he died.
He’d been serving as the court musician in the Prince’s Palace when it was attacked by fairies and they’d all been killed. Sometimes Toya can still feel the cold steel of the executioner's blade.
Luckily, just as he died, Prince Kamishiro used magic to send him back in time, and he woke up on that day three months ago.
After taking the time to process that he was actually alive, he loudly announced to his father that he wasn’t playing the piano and then ran off to inform Prince Rui of the coming attack. Not only did Rui believe him, but he managed to regain his own memories of the future and made Toya his chamberlain so they could work together to prevent not just the deaths of everyone in the palace, but other tragedies that they knew were coming.
Which is why Toya’s here, riding down a narrow road in the rain with Lady Shimizu’s personal attendant on their way back from delivering blood reserves to the vampires in a remote town in Western Kamishiro territory.
The last time they’d sent a larger party along the safer route, but a storm had prevented the aid from making it on time. Taking the quicker, more dangerous route got them there before the storm, and they should be back first too. They just needed a smaller party, and Akito is the most skilled monster fighter other than Lady Shimizu herself, and Toya isn’t insane enough to spend an extended amount of time alone with her.
“Thank you so much for agreeing to do this, Akito.” Toya says.
“It is House Shimizu’s pleasure to aid the Prince,” Akito says. It’s been like that the entire ride back. He first met Akito while passing through Shimizu territory, where Akito rescued him from some monsters. After a stay at the Shimizu manor that Toya might have nightmares about, they all traveled to the Prince’s palace together.
Toya never noticed it the first time around, but Akito’s got this air of melancholy about him that Toya wants to break through, especially since he owes Akito his life.
“S-so, Akito,” Toya says, “what do you do on your days off?” Toya says.
“Do you need something?”
“N-no, I was just trying to make small talk,” Toya says.
“I’m sorry if my service hasn’t been satisfactory—”
“...you don’t have to be so formal,” Toya says.
Toya’s never really had people be this formal with him, Tsukasa-nii treats him more like a little brother than the Duchess’s son his family serves.
“...forgive me?”
“No, I don’t—” Suddenly, Toya gets it. “Whatever Lady Shimizu does when she says stuff like that, I’m not,” he explains.
Akito almost looks sheepish. “That’s good to know.”
“Do you have anything you’d like to know about me? Or Aoyagi territory?”
Akito clearly has something he wants to say, but he doesn’t say anything.
“What is it?”
“You’ll… probably be offended,” Akito says.
“I won’t, I promise.”
“They don’t say good things about Aoyagi territory in Shimizu.”
“I’m sure the stuff we say is just as bad.”
“It probably isn't,” Akito says. Suddenly he stops.
“What is it?” Toya whispers.
“Monsters,” Akito says, getting off his horse and drawing his sword. A shadow swings through the trees.
Suddenly, a black blob with a small beak at the bottom of its mass of tentacles darts out straight towards Toya, but Akito’s faster. Slicing it in half.
“Oh, thank the Four,I—” Toya starts but Akito shushes him. The monster is slinking back together.
“Damn it, a Voice Stealer,” Akito mutters. “They render their victims silent so they don’t attract attention while they eat them slowly.”
“How do you stop it?” Toya asks.
“The best way to kill it is setting it on fire,” Akito explains, something they clearly can’t do with all the rain. “And even worse…” suddenly there’s a whinny that’s cut off, as more blobs grab onto Akito’s horse, its face frozen in horror as its flesh is ripped off by the mass of blobs.
“They tend to act in groups,” Akito finishes. He yanks Toya off the horse and they start running off the trail down the hill.
In a forest like this, there should be a lot of ambient noises even at night. Wind rustling, the trees shaking, the sound of water hitting the ground. But behind them it’s completely silent.
Toya risks a glance backwards and sees dozens of black, inky, squid-like monsters chasing after them.
“Lord Aoyagi!” Akito yells. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes!” Toya says.
“Then do not stop running.”
Toya turns back and sees Akito’s leading them to a cliff, but Toya does as he asks and they charge straight over the side.
They crash into a river, and Toya feels Akito’s arms under him and pull him onto a large piece of driftwood. At the top of the cliff, the Voice Stealers have stopped.
“T-thank you,” Toya says.
“I’m just…” Akito says, but he trails off. “You’re welcome.”
They swim over to the river bank and wander until they find an inn.
Akito completely takes charge getting them to an inn, and Toya can’t help but feel bad about it. He’s technically in charge here, but he wouldn’t know a thing to do in this situation, so he just stands back and lets Akito do the talking.
“The only room is a single,” the receptionist says.
“That’s fine.”
“Sirs I’m going to need—“
“Lord Aoyagi, your badge?”
“Huh?” Toya blinks, then Akito gets incredibly close to pull off the badge on Toya’s lapel saying he works for the palace.
“How’s this for collateral?”
The receptionist takes it, then hands them a key.
“Thank you.”
A young girl comes in carrying some clothes and leads them to the room.
“What if they don’t believe us?” Toya whispers.
“Then they’ll alert the knights and we can get back to the capital that way,” Akito says.
The bed seems rather small for a single bedroom, but Toya doesn’t know if it’s normal for an inn frequented by commoners.
The girl says she’ll bring up dinner soon, and Toya changes in the main room while Akito goes into the bathroom to change. There’s the sound of someone bringing up their food, and soon Akito brings it over to him.
While he’s not wearing a shirt.
“Is something wrong?” Akito asks.
“N-no!” Toya says, looking away and trying not to stare at Akito’s abs. He grabs the small glass of blood next to the food and drinks it, but almost chokes, recognizing the taste. “Is this your blood?” Toya had gotten a taste when they first met, and despite his best attempts he hasn't been able to get the taste out of his head since.
“Sorry, is it not to your liking?” Akito asks. “I wasn’t sure an inn this far out would have blood reserves so I thought it’d be easier if I just used mine.”
“No, it’s fine!”
“I know my blood isn’t that tasty, but would you mind putting up with it for now? I think the innkeepers are already suspicious of us without asking for blood.”
“Not tasty?” Toya stares at him. “Akito, your blood is the most delicious thing I have ever tasted.”
“Huh?”
“I’ve been avoiding it because it tastes so good I don’t want to lose control and try to eat you.”
Akito laughs. “Well, here I thought Lady Fuyune simply had strange tastes.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Before her, every vampire I’d met hated the smell of my blood so much, it was a good way to drive them off if I needed to.”
“Then I suppose I must have strange tastes as well,” Toya replies.
“Well feel free to drink. You need your strength.”
“As do you,” Toya says. “Look at me, I’m keeping you from changing into dry clothes.”
“You’re right, I’ll attend to that.”
Akito turns around, and Toya stops himself from gasping at the sight of the scars in his back. He waits until Akito changes and starts eating to ask.
“Are those all Lady Shimizu?” Toya asks.
“Hm?”
“The scars.”
“Oh, no. Uh some were her, some were the other servants, some were the Duke and Duchess…”
“The Duke and Duchess of Shimizu are abusing their servants like that?!”
“No, it’s just me,” Akito says. “Shimizu vampires don’t like humans that much, so when I was first brought in, they resented me for taking a job that should rightfully belong to a vampire who could ‘handle’ the harsher working conditions.”
Akito says it with anger and a hint of resignation.
“Well, that just makes it all the more impressive you’ve managed to rise to the level of Lady Shimizu's right hand,” Toya says.
Akito scoffs. “I’m touched you think so highly of me.”
“Huh?”
Akito gestures to the bite marks on his neck. “She just wants me close,” Akito says. “I’m not very special.”
“You saved my life!” Toya says, “Twice! And you’re really good at paperwork, you knew what to do to get us place to stay, you’re probably the best sword fighter in the kingdom—”
“Weapons are the cowardly tools of humans,” Akito says. “Real vampires rely on their own strength to fight.”
Toya rolls his eyes. “Shimizu is wasting talent if she’s only using you as a valet,” Toya says.
“Valet?”
“Yes?” Toya says. “That’s Tsukasa-nii’s job, someone who travels alongside a vampire so they can feed on them.”
“Wait, that's all of his official duties?” Akito asks. “He just… hangs around and then when you need to eat you drink from him? Here I thought he was lazy.”
“Yes? It’s dangerous for someone to be doing extensive work if they’re also being fed on once a week.”
“Once a week?!”
“Yeah,” vampires don’t need much more than that. “How often does Lady Shimizu feed on you?”
“Once a day,” Akito says. “Twice if she’s in a mood.”
Toya stares at him. “Wait so she feeds on you once a day, all while you’re still running around doing things as her attendant, including but not limited to fighting monsters, making deliveries—”
“Yes. We don’t have a position just to be a blood bag in Shimizu.”
“Blood bag?!”
Akito winces. “Sorry.”
“O-oh,” Toya says, “no I’m not mad at you, I just…Tsukasa-nii’s more than someone I drink from, he’s like a brother to me. He’s not just for blood.”
“Of course,” Akito says. “Obviously, all that stuff about you driving people crazy and getting them addicted to being fed on until they die was just nonsense meant to scare little kids.”
Toya pouts. “...where do things like that come from?”
“Don’t think too much of it. Let me guess, you think the Shimizus are all psychopaths waiting for an excuse to rip your throat out?”
“I’m… glad to know they’re not?” Toya says.
“They respect power and can get bored easily,” Akito explains, “if you’re not something for them to hunt or someone who’s proven yourself, they’ll basically ignore you. That’s honestly probably why there are still humans and they bother to enforce the ‘only eating criminals,’ thing.”
“Hm?”
“Vampires in Shimizu who want fresh blood are only allowed to hunt criminals,” Akito explains. “On paper, at least. There's a lot of things that can get you branded a criminal in Shimizu if you’re human.”
“How long has this been going on?” Toya gasps.
“As long as I’ve been there,” Akito says.
“But they can’t be allowed to just do that!”
Akito stares at him. “No one’s bothered to get involved with their business. If anyone were to be able to keep them in check, it’d be…”
“House Aoyagi,” Toya realizes. They are right next to each other and do a lot of direct trade.
“Not that the Kamishiros or Asahinas couldn’t do anything either, it’s just no one cares enough about what goes on within other territories.”
Toya winces. Akito’s… not wrong. The Aoyagis have always been court musicians, their duchy is full of artists and musicians. They never wanted to risk their own peace by getting on their neighbors’ bad side.
But… is that really an excuse to leave things the way Akito described? The four duchys were supposed to make each other stronger and keep each other in check, and the others have clearly been neglecting their duty.
“I’ll speak to Rui about this,” Toya says, firmly. He’d be horrified to hear what’s going on in Shimizu and agree they need reforms. Even if it requires Toya having to convince his parents himself, there’s no way he can sit by and do nothing.
“We’ve had a long day,” Akito says. “Let me finish getting changed, and we should go to bed.”
~
Once Akito’s changed, he’s about to just curl up on the floor, but he stops himself. Lord Aoyagi… really isn’t like Fuyune, so it shouldn’t hurt to ask, right?
“Can I have a pillow?” Akito asks.
“For what?” Lord Aoyagi asks, and Akito flinches internally. He’s overstepped.
“I was just hoping to use one on the floor.”
“Are you sleeping on the floor?”
“Of course, where else would I sleep?”
Lord Aoyagi gestures to the untouched side of the bed, and Akito feels his face heat up.
“I couldn’t,” he says quickly. “I’m fine on the floor, I've slept in worse.”
“You saved my life tonight, again . You gave me a lot of insight to help me do my job. You lept into a river in the middle of a rainstorm. If anything, you deserve the bed more than me.”
“B-but it’s… improper,” Akito stammers.
Lord Aoyagi tilts his head. “What are you talking about? It’s the only bed, besides Tsukasa-nii and I used to share a bed all the time as kids. Saki and Ichika would join in too.”
“That’s when you were kids,” Akito says, “besides you’re like siblings.”
“Akito, I refuse to allow you to sleep on the floor after the night we just had.”
Akito’s trapped. On the one hand, he’s incredibly tired and the bed would be so much better than the floor. On the other hand, if Fuyune found out somehow she would be very angry, and Akito would spend the next month making it up to her, at least.
But the bed doesn’t look really really nice, and he’s really really tired.
“Please don’t tell Lady Fuyune,” Akito says, climbing into the bed.
“My lips are sealed,” Lord Aoyagi says, blowing out the light.
Akito relaxes instantly in the bed, and in his exhausted state, his mind starts wandering to dangerous places. He’s not exactly allowed to leave Fuyune’s service, but the Prince is one of the few people she can’t do anything to. And Lord Aoyagi is in charge of all the staff affairs in the Prince’s palace.
If… if Lord Aoyagi were to insist on hiring Akito to work for the Prince, then… Fuyune couldn’t do anything, and Akito wouldn’t technically be breaking their deal.
It’s a long shot, especially because Akito would have to be suicidal to directly just ask Lord Aoyagi to hire him, lest Fuyune find out.
But… if he does a truly amazing job, Lord Aoyagi might just do it, and then he could be free to find Ena.
It’s crazy, he’ll probably discard the idea as soon as he’s rested and able to fully consider the consequences, but it’s easier right now to have a goal in mind:
By the time the year is up, Akito’s going to get Lord Toya Aoyagi to hire him.