I Only Love My Greatest Enemy

Eris was sound asleep in the bed. Her and Armand's servants had already brought up their luggage. Armand stayed awake, waiting until he was certain Eris would be out until morning. Then, he crawled out of bed as quietly as he could. The boy inched forward. It took him a full half hour to get out.

"I'm so thirsty. I need blood soon," Armand thought.

He looked at the door.

"Going out that way isn't an option. One of the guards would see me. And I want to avoid suspicion if someone finds the bite marks I'll leave on the animal. We're still in the middle of the Orlocks Plague's second outbreak."

Then, Armand walked over to the window. He scanned the courtyard with incredible care. His eyes surveyed every last bit of it.

"There's no one outside. I should be fine if I climb out the window. I just need to make sure Eris doesn't notice," he thought.

Armand grabbed a dagger. He plunged it into his hand. Pain flashed through the boy's body, but he held down any screams and made sure no blood fell on the floor. Instead, Armand incanted words as he drew an arcane sigil on his palm. This process was 15 minutes of agony. Then, he did the exact same thing with his other hand.

When the boy finished his spell, the wounds on his hands closed. Armand pushed open the window slowly and quietly. He reached outside and placed his hands on the castle's exterior. They stuck on.

Armand climbed out the window. The boy planted his legs on the wall, and he slowly climbed down. Inch by inch, Armand moved. While he didn't rush down, he didn't waste time either.

Finally, Armand made it to the bottom of the wall. He moved as fast as he could without alerting any guards. The boy moved to the pens where the castle's pigs and sheep were kept.

The boy crawled into the sheep pen. He looked around, making sure that all the animals were sound asleep. Armand then scanned the rest of the area.

"No one's in sight. Still, I should be cautious," he thought.

Armand moved behind the largest sheep so that it blocked any view of him. Then, he pushed its wool apart before leaning close to its leg. The boy bit down. His canines grew into fangs, became hollow, and pierced the creature's skin.

There was no danger of the sheep waking up. Armand's fangs were so sharp that it wouldn't feel any pain even if it was awake.

Relief flowed through Armand's body as his fangs slurped the blood like a hypodermic needle. He felt his thirst disappear, leaving an incredible taste in its wake.

"Will this thirst get better or worse when I become a strigoi?" Armand thought.

When the boy was done drinking, he withdrew from the sheep pen in incredible silence. Armand made sure to keep looking around as he made his way back to the wall. Some guards passed by, and the boy darted behind some bushes.

The guards left after a few moments. Armand kept moving. Soon, he was at the base of the wall. Looking around, Armand saw that no one was in eyeshot.

He placed his hands on the wall and scrambled up, doing his best to remain cautious. Armand reached the window. The boy climbed inside. His body moved with incredible quietness, not making a sound even as its feet landed on the floor.

Eris was still sleeping on the bed. Armand walked over and lay next to her. Soon, he drifted off too.

Morning came, and Eris woke up first. She stretched out with a yawn. Then, the girl looked at Armand's sleeping face.

"He's still asleep. Well, it's still early, and I think Armand was awake longer than I was," Eris thought.

A smile crossed Eris' face as she kept looking at Armand.

"I never realized how cute Armand looks. He's absolutely adorable! Well, we've just become adults, and there's a few years before most adults start looking and thinking like adults."

Eris looked at Armand's cheeks. She lightly pinched them. Then, Eris started playing with the boy's cheeks with a chuckle.

"This is my revenge, Armand, the villain enacting cruelty upon the hero! Feel my wrath as I play with your cheeks like an old lady playing with an infant!"

Armand woke up. He saw Eris grabbing his cheeks.

"Eris, what are you doing?" the boy asked.

"I'm playing with your cheeks," she answered.

A moment of silence passed between them.

"Why?" Armand wondered.

"Because they're cute," Eris said.

"Eris, how old are you? This is something 60-year-olds do."

She withdrew her hands with a huff.

"It's also an act of villainy," Eris declared.

Armand sighed.

"Well, now that we're up, we might as well get you to the doctor," he said.

Eris nodded.

"Yes. It'd be best to stop any rumors before they start," she stated.

The two dressed in clothing that wasn't tear-stained, adorning their bodies in fine garments. They then left the room and moved through the halls of the castle. Eventually, Eris and Armand arrived at a specific room.

Upon entering, they saw a table with a variety of medical equipment on it. A cot was on one side of the room while the other had a desk. There was an old man in black robes sitting on a chair. A woman wearing similar clothing sat next to him. Their eyes turned to the two newcomers.

"Can I help you?" the man asked.

"Yes," Armand answered. "Are you Count Staufer's personal doctor?"

"I am," he said.

He surveyed the two.

"Judging from your appearances, you must be the nobles His Excellency told me about."

Armand nodded.

"I am Lord Armand Concord. And this is my fiance, Lady Eris Hapsburg. If Count Staufer told you about us, I trust that he told you why we're here?" the boy questioned.

"Yes," the doctor nodded. "His Excellency thought you might want to stop rumors before they started. I will have my assistant examine Eris. It won't take long, just a few moments."

The doctor gestured to the woman who was with him.

Eris curtsied.

"Thank you, doctor," she said.

"And now, people will think Armand and I are virtuous. Well, Armand is virtuous, about as virtuous as a noble can be while still getting things done," Eris thought.

"Yes, thank you," Armand nodded.

The exam was, just as the doctor said, very short. When it was finished, the assistant had confirmed that nothing happened between Eris and Armand. This news would be relayed by the doctor to the guests over the course of the day.

Armand and Eris left the room and went to the feasting hall. There, a grand breakfast was being served. Roast goose, capon, wine, and bottarga lined the tables. Eris smiled when she saw that there were truffles available for eating too.

"I forgot they served those at this banquet," the girl said as she and Armand sat down.

Then, something caught the boy's eyes. It was a cup filled with a brown drink. An impressed look crossed Armand's face.

"Count Staufer must have spent more money than I thought on this," he stated.

Eris gazed at the drink.

"I forgot about that too. Well, I didn't have any last time, so that's only natural," she thought before speaking. "Yes. Count Staufer served chocolate at this banquet."

Armand pondered.

"I didn't think there was any chocolate in Foldzar for another few years," he said.

"Are you going to have some?" Eris asked.

"No. I've never liked chocolate. It's too bitter," Armand answered.

Eris looked around.

"I heard it's less bitter if you sweeten it with sugar," she said. "But it doesn't look like there's any here."

"It was probably already baked into whatever food it's in," Armand replied.

The two started eating. All the while, Armand was deep in thought.

"There's an auction today, but I don't know anything about it. I should ask Eris if she's going to purchase anything. Then, I'll need to find out why she is or isn't buying something. I should also ask her about the various other items at the auction. Some of them might be important," he pondered.

"Eris, are you buying anything at the auction?" Armand asked.

She nodded.

"There are two things that I want to buy. Well, there are other things I want, but they'll all get bidded out of my reach," Eris answered before thinking. "There's no point in hiding what I'm buying from Armand. He'll figure it out sooner or later. But I can at least hide why I'm buying them."

The girl ate some goose meat before continuing.

"It's just two small things. The first is a small rosary with the Horn of Cernunnos as its symbol. The second is a statue of a donkey," she said.

Armand narrowed his eyes.

"Who does Eris think she's fooling?" he thought before speaking. "Would this donkey statue happen to be hollow?"

"Armand always suspected I was involved in the Renees Affair, but he couldn't prove it. And if he finds out that this donkey is hollow, that'll be all the proof he needs. I don't think Armand would betray me, but he'd definitely stop me," Eris thought.

"Any statue can be made hollow," she said.

He nodded.

"A fair point, but it seems strange to hollow out a donkey statue just for a scheme. Wouldn't making a donkey out of wood be better? No. It's more logical for the donkey to have already been hollow," Armand replied.

"I'm going to find the truth about this one way or another. Both the donkey and the rosary are probably things Eris would have wanted when she was this age, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't be used in her schemes later on," he thought.

Eris shrugged.

"Perhaps, but why else would someone want a hollow donkey statue?" she questioned.

"To get inside the statue and pretend it can talk. You could do that to entertain children at parties or do a con job," Armand said.

Eris blinked. A smile crossed her face.

"A con job? That's a pretty good idea, Armand," she stated. "If we could find some superstitious idiots, we could convince them that some donkey god wants them to do something."

Shock coated Armand.

"You as good as admitted that the donkey statue's hollow," he said.

"Yes. And I was involved in the Renees Affair. But I didn't get as much out of it as I wanted," Eris replied.

She waved it off.

"Now, how can we use this donkey statue to get more power?" the girl pondered.

A wave of rage flowed through Armand. He forced it down, pushing it deep inside himself.

"Eris, you bitch. 30 people died in the Renees Affair, and you're just waving it off? I know you don't think commoners are humans, but 10 of those people were nobles, and you don't even care about them? You...calm down, Armand. This is exactly what you should expect from Eris. You know what she's like. Don't get distracted just because she's not trying to kill you anymore. You're trying to redeem Eris. Don't lose focus now," Armand thought.

He took a deep breath.

"At least you stopped the Renees Affair from happening again. No, you didn't. You just stopped Eris from being involved in it. Right now, the best thing you can do is keep her distracted so she never gets involved," the boy thought before speaking. "There are plenty of stupid people all over the place, but there are some places where people are stupid and superstitious. We should focus on a place like that."

Eris nodded vigorously.

"Yes. We'll find someplace deep in the woods that's isolated from the rest of the world. The people there will believe anything. Then, we..." the girl came to a sudden stop.

Concern flowed through Armand.

"Has Eris changed her mind?" he wondered.

The girl gazed right into his eyes.

"You asked about the donkey status, Armand, but not the rosary," Eris said.

"That's because I already know that you used it to kill Lady Abene's girlfriend," he replied.

Then, Armand gave her a serious expression.

"You're not going to murder her this time around," the boy said.

"I'll make sure you're on the path of redemption long before then," he thought.

Eris gave Armand a smile.

"Don't worry. I have no intention of killing her. I just want the rosary so I don't change history too much," she spoke before thinking. "I never killed Lady Abene, but this time around, she'll be dead long before she can get a girlfriend."

Armand shrugged.

"If you say so," he said.

"Whether or not Eris is telling the truth is irrelevant. I'll redeem her long before she can kill Sister Janet. Though, I should find which convent she's part of just in case," Armand thought.

Eris took a sip of chocolate.

"There's no way Armand believed me. He probably has some plan to stop me from killing Lady Abene's girlfriend. If he believed me, he wouldn't have to waste his time. Well, I can't blame him for not believing me," she contemplated.

As the two ate, numerous items were hauled into the room. The auction would soon be upon them.