Despite any concerns I had, no one attacked us during the night. I awoke feeling warm and cosy. Also, I noticed Helena was snuggling my tail. I poked her with a finger.

  She stirred and opened her eyes. “Hm? Morning. Your tail is surprisingly soft.”

  “Tails are awesome.” I agreed. It was strange, having my tail held by her. I kind of liked the feeling.

  She yawned and got out of the bed. I saw that Skadi and Cassie were already up and getting dressed.

  “Did anything happen during the night?” I asked Hatsumi.

  She shook her head. “No one tried to enter the room. Chariot and Frank are fine as well. I had the cats stationed inside the main room of the inn. They have consumed one rat but nothing else of note has happened.”

  Oh, I had forgotten about those cats.

  “Meow!” Nyx complained. Hatsumi looked at her. “The cats have consumed one rat but they have caught a second one and kept the corpse for you.”

  Nyx purred.

  It seemed that my undead were getting along well. That was great. I got up and stretched. After getting dressed we went to the main room of the inn to get breakfast.

  The mercenaries seemed rather intimidated and respectful. The innkeeper bowed a lot. I inquired about the man Hatsumi had bitten. He was alive but shaken. Hopefully he had learned his lesson.

  Our driver was fine as well and soon we were on the road again.

  “So, about yesterday…” I began. “Should we have handled those mercenaries differently?”

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  Helena shook her head. “No, a firm statement was good. I am a noble and so is Cassie, meaning we have quite a bit of leeway in how we treat commoners. And they have certainly provoked it. You and Skadi are students at the Royal Military Academy. While you are not really soldiers yet, you still have certain privileges as well. Killing that merc might have been a problem, paralysing him is fine.”

  “It is concerning that they thought they could behave this way. It is also not really our problem, the local lord has to deal with them.” Skadi added.

  “They are lucky I did not poison them.” Cassie said.

  “If they continue their foolish plan to hunt vampiric nightshades they are going to be plant food anyway.” Skadi said.

  She might have a point but that was their problem. We even warned them, maybe they would listen.

  “Hatsumi, thank you for protecting us tonight.” I remembered I had not expressed my gratitude yet.

  “It is mine and Nyx’ duty to protect you.” She replied.

  “Was Nyx involved? Did she command the cats?” I asked.

  “Um, no…” Hatsumi admitted. “Nyx mostly slept inside my tail, ready to ambush and surprise any potential attackers.”

  Cassie snickered.

  Nyx was being lazy, nothing too surprising there. “I see.” I replied. “What is your connection to the other undead? You made good use of them.”

  Hatsumi smiled. “I am hoping I can help to coordinate your forces! Especially the cats appeal to me. I can use them to spy on people, or use them as sentries.”

  “They are bad spies, they can only meow. We wanted to use them to gather information but they can’t share what they see.” I explained.

  Hatsumi scratched her head. “Um, they can’t talk, sure. But if they are close enough they can convey some emotions. Like, they can tell me if something is wrong. They can warn me if an enemy is approaching. I feel like in time they might be able to learn how to communicate more complex information too!”

  “What?” How could she communicate with them better than myself?

  “Aren’t they just tier two? How much information can they actually understand? Can they know if someone is dangerous? Can they distinguish friend from foe?” Helena asked.

  “Hm.” Hatsumi tilted her head while she was thinking. “Maybe they have great instincts? Maybe Nyx helps them?”

  We looked at Nyx. Nyx ignored us and continued to sleep.

  “Maybe you have a special bond because they helped create you? Well, they did not participate in the spell but they helped as we prepared the corpse.” Cassie mused.

  “I will do my best to strengthen this connection and train those cats!” Hatsumi announced.

  “What about Frank and Chariot?” I asked.

  “Well, I can give them commands. I am pretty sure I can sense if they are being damaged, at least if it is significant damage. But my connection is weaker than to the cats.” She replied.

  Now that was curious. “I wonder why. The cats don’t have a core. They don't really have their own magic. They are fed through my link, just like Frank and Chariot. Affinity wise, Chariot is a vampiric undead. You should have a better connection to him than to the draugr cat.”

  Sadly I could not ask a teacher until we returned.

  “We should name those cats. They deserve a name.” Hatsumi suggested.

  “Yes, we are great at naming things!” Cassie said with a grin.