Yukio picked up little Rose with little effort, bringing her up so they could see eye-to-eye. She put on a serious expression, and in an authoritative voice, she said, "Rose, you will listen and do as I say now, okay?"
"'Kay!" Rose murmured, wiggling in her mother's arms. Although it'd been over a year since she'd been reborn, being baby-handled still felt uncomfortable and weird.
"Do you want to go see the birds, Rose?" She asked. Rose looked up at her mom, big baby eyes going wide as she happily nodded.
Yukio smiled as she carried her little potato out of the room she'd been living in for more or less her entire life. Rose's eyes were wide as saucers as she eagerly looked around, taking in her surroundings.
They were on a road surrounded on all sides by tall trees, and the sky was perfectly devoid of clouds. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming, and that reference sucked ass.
Feeling a bit nostalgic, she buried her face in the crook of her mother's neck. Yukio caressed her back with slow twirls of her hand, eagerly telling her what everything was.
She brought Rose to the Nightmares, and let her pet the shadowy creatures, whom for their part seemed to enjoy their little master's attention.
"Look, Rose. This here is a Bloody Rose, like your name. Humans use this to make a lot of medicines and potions." She explained. Rose was wobbling along on the ground, with Yukio holding her hand as she brought her daughter all around.
"Medicine?" Rose asked, looking up at her mom with big doe eyes. Misinterpreting the question, Yukio answered, "It's the stuff that heals you. You get hurt and it helps heal. Of course, you don't need medicine, my cute little potato."
"Why not?" Rose asked, furrowing her brows. She was acting childish, but in truth, this question had a bit more meaning behind it. A meaning that Yukio didn't catch.
"Because you're a vampire, sweety. Us vampires are very different from humans." Yukio patiently lectures, launching herself into a long explanation about why vampires were superior to humans.
Rose patiently listened, just nodding along as they strolled through the streets, the Nightmares carrying the carriage following a bit behind them.
"Humans are generally a violent and hateful race. Still, you should learn to respect your opponents, Rose, and never think yourself above everyone." Yukio rambled on before suddenly stopping and looking at her little potato that was looking at her, nodding along.
"You're not understanding any of this, are you?" She bitterly said, feeling dumb for getting philosophical with a 1-year old. She'd gotten caught up with telling Rose about the world that she'd stumbled upon stuff too deep for her potato to understand.
Rose tilted her head slightly, saying, "Mama no like homan?". Her words were jumbled up and she scrunched her face up when Yukio laughed and rubbed her head. "No, Rose. I like humans, but I prefer vampires." She poked Rose's nose. "Like you, cutie."
Rose giggled at Yukio's touch, and soon enough, they'd abandoned any talk about humans, instead of exploring the forest as Rose eagerly poked and asked about everything, from the strange trees to the weird animals that sometimes popped up.
However, although they'd stopped talking about humans, humans hadn't stopped talking about them. Three shadowy figures looked at the pair from some distance away, murmuring to each other.
"Look at those eyes and teeth... That's a vampire right there." One of them said, keeping his voice as low as possible. "You sure? Double-check. If it really is a vampire, this might be the opportunity of a lifetime." Another one of the shadow figures answered.
"I'm sure. Must be a mother and daughter, and that brat's so young too." The first figure said, his sharp eyes tearing themselves away from the retreating vampire pair.
The third figure spoke up. "If we can catch the little vampire brat and find a good buyer, we'll never again have to work. And even if we can't sell her, we can still train her to be our slave slut. Let's go tell the boss."
The other two obediently nodded to the third figure, and they all quickly retreated. The first figure's eyes landed on the woman one more time as he wondered just what the damned bloodsucker was thinking, walking around like this with nothing on her.
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"Rose, do me a favor, and wait here for a bit, okay? Mama will be right back, don't move."
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The three figures ran at their best speed, quickly reaching a camp hidden within the deep forest. In it, people dressed in all kinds of clothes, going from rags to armor, walked around. Tents were thrown around without thought, and from them, moans and grunts could be heard, with the occasional woman branded by a slave collar walking out with shaking legs and tears falling from their eyes.
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Obviously, these people were bandits. Thiefs, raiders, plunderers... Whatever the name. The three figures exited the forest, revealing themselves to be two rather plain-looking men with only one being dressed marginally better than the other two.
They made their way through the camp, arriving at the largest and most luxurious tent. Screams could be heard coming from within, and normally, no sane bandit would go in at this time. However, after looking at each other, they decided to go in anyway.
"Boss, we've got important news." One of the trio announced as they entered, quickly paling when the man inside the tent glared at him.
He was naked, and in front of him, a young girl no older than 13 was chained, blood flowing out from numerous cuts and from her genitals.
Obviously, she too was naked. The man gave her a glance, slapped her ass with a dark laugh and whispered something in her ear before walking over to his three subordinates with a dark glare on his face.
Putting on his clothes, he looked at the trembling men. "This better be good, or I'll have your intestines strung out and fed to wild wolves."
"Y-yes boss, this is important..." The better-dressed man of the trio quickly said, face pale. "We were scouting the road like we always do when we saw a woman with a baby walking along the road..."
"That's it? You disturbed me just for some woman?" The boss' calm voice echoed in their ears, making their pale face go even whiter.
"N-no boss, it's no woman. It was a vampire, and she had an extremely young child with her..."
The boss laughed. "A vampire? Don't be stupid. Why would you encounter a vampire here, and one so stupid to stroll around with a child." His eyes darkened even more. "Do you take me for a fool?"
"B-but, boss, she had like, blood-red eyes, black hair, long fangs, and the brat did as well..." The subordinate quickly explained.
Hearing this, the boss scrunched up his face. "You're... You're sure that was a vampire?"
"Y-yeah!" The subordinate said. "Boss, if we can kidnap the brat, we could sell her and be set for life, you'd get so rich and powerf-..." The man was rudely interrupted when a fist landed squarely on his face, sending him slamming into the wall.
"YOU GOD DAMN FOOL!" The boss roared, his own face now deadly pale. "There's no way a vampire would ever be undefended, especially a god damned mother!"
"B-boss?" The two remaining subordinates asked, frightened. He glared at the two, killing intent swirling in his eyes. "Go alert the camp, we're leaving, and hope to the Gods that the bloodsucker didn't see you idiots."
"No. You're not going anywhere." A voice colder than ice drifted in the tent. The boss' face went white as a sheet, furiously looking around for the source of the sound.
Ignoring his retarded subordinates, the bandit boss ran out of the tent, and the sight that greeted him was not a pretty sight.
Shadows that seemed to have come to life strung every bandit upside down, their mouths gagged, silent screams trying to come out from under the writhing shadows as their bodies slowly rotting away.
In the middle of this scene from hell was a woman with red eyes. Her hands were clasped behind her back, a look that promised pain and death to anyone that crossed her resting on her pretty face.
"Fuck!" The boss murmured. He wanted to plead, beg for his life, promise to never speak of this woman's existence, but he wasn't given the chance.
A large shadowy crocodile emerged from the ground, and faster than anyone could react, swallowed up the bandit boss, who didn't even have time to scream. The crocodile chewed a bit, licked its lips, and then vanished back into the ground.
"Disgusting." Yukio murmured, watching as the criminals slowly had their life force drained from her summons, who for their part, seemed to be having a lot of fun in torturing the poor humans.
She wasn't stupid. She'd run into multiple bandit groups over just this year alone, but this one was the first one to see little Rose. It was fine if they just saw her alone, and since most bandit bosses were clever, they'd know to get the fuck away as soon as possible upon seeing a vampire. However, it was different if they knew she had a child.
They would almost surely sell the information, and then who knew just who would come to hunt her down. No, she wasn't willing to take this risk. Her growing motherly instincts wouldn't allow this.
Yukio looked at the only remaining alive humans, which happened to be slaves. They looked... happy. They were all women and the look in their eyes as they watched their rapists slowly die a painful death couldn't be described with anything but as pure sadistic/vengeful enjoyment.
Yukio hesitated. These slaves had no idea Rose existed, and she wasn't one to fall as low as to kill beings that had already suffered so much. Plus, she could understand their plight.
She ordered the shadows that had finished their meals to round up the remaining slaves and bring them to the center of the camp. Once that was done, she observed the slaves, who all looked as though they had resigned themselves to die.
12 women, only one of whom was a child. She was bleeding and judging from the smell of the liquid coming from her legs, she'd just been raped.
Biting her lips slightly, Yukio considered her options while silently staring at the fidgeting group, who also looked at her, fear and hope in their eyes.
"Humans," Yukio announced, her voice a bit shaky. "I... I have a friend who can help you. He's known as the Warrior for Freedom, and I'm sure he'll help you out. Those willing to trust me, raise your hands."
The women looked at each other, confusion in their eyes. Yukio's eyes widened, and she silently coughed into her hand, a bit embarrassed. She repeated what she'd just said, but this time, she said it in Common, the human language, instead of Vampiric.
The slaves murmured to each other, and soon enough, one of them timidly raised her hand. Then another, and then another.
Yukio smiled at them, summoned her book, and cast a spell. A portal opened up next to her, and she directed the women to enter it.
They did so, with not a little hesitation. Eventually, only one was left behind: The young child.
Yukio stopped her from entering the portal like the other women. The child looked at her with fear when she did so, but Yukio ignored it.
She carefully put her hand on the small and malnourished child's shoulder, casting a regeneration spell. Her cuts quickly closed, and a bit of color returned to her cheeks, but that was it. She couldn't heal the malnourishment caused by years of starvation.
She gave a silent hug to the young child, who quickly broke into a sobbing fit the moment she received even a hint of love.
Yukio's mind raced as she held the child in her arms. She knew the child was vulnerable at the moment, and she could exploit that, but doing so like this felt wrong. Still, she'd already decided the child's fate the moment her eyes landed on her.
"Little human, I have a proposal for you..."