With the night upon them, Drac created a campfire. The two ladies beside him joined him, now they were fully clothed and were in a better mood as they were not covered in blood and grime anymore. It was safe to say that they had recognized him, evident from the wariness that they were showing. They were maintaining between them, by sitting on the other side of the fire, far away from him.

“You know I dont bite,” he said. To not complicate things more, he needed to get both of them on his side.

“Yes,” Victoria said, “Will there be a problem if me and my daughter sit here?”

“No,” he said dejectedly. Abruptly he clapped his hands, and turned towards them, “Little girl… Do you know Hasy by any chance? It is an old language.”

The girl who sat close to her mother nodded, “Yes I do know it. What of it?”

He formed a smile on his face, “If that is the case, then you will understand that I am not a monster as the people of the capital are painting me to be,” He then opened his satchel, didnt even try to hide the fact that his bag a spatial artifact. He took the book about Vampas, and came to them with it, “Read this. I think… with this, you will understand what is happening in the kingdom. The reason why it is so cold out here,”

They looked confused, the daughter on the other hand looked reluctant at first, but still she took the book from him, “Careful with it. It is a very very old thing,” Then he came to sit down back in his seat.

“How will this book prove your innocence?” Victoria asked.

He asked her, “What kind of rumors are circulating in the capital about me?”

Victoria looked at her daughter who was busy going through the book. She then stared into his eyes and spoke, “They say that you had a hand in killing the Crown Prince. You are a Devil Worshipper, a mana wielder with an unfathomable amount of power. And you are here to destroy the kingdom, as we know it,”

“That is not true,” he said.

“How can we know for sure?” She asked.

“Well, because if it were true, firstly I would not be before you guys. If I am so powerful, do you think I would be making a deal with you to get off this island,”

“You are running away, Isn't that proof enough?”

He scoffed, “Of course I running away. If you knew what exactly is happening in the kingdom, you would as well,”

“What exactly is happening?” He sighed and started telling her the tale of the past two years. He hid some facts, mixed some lies, and then told the rest of the truth. When he was done, Victoria didnt say anything. Her eyes did the talking though, she was trying to discern whether he was telling the truth or not.

“I should believe everything that you said?”

He then leaned forward and said, “Listen to what you are saying. Do I look like a powerful mana wielder to you? Hell, I have not even met the Crown Prince in my life, but I do know for a fact that he was a very strong man. Do I look like someone who could best him in combat?”

His words made Victoria's resolve falter, a seed of doubt was sowed in her mind. “That book there was the thing that the real Dark Mages were using for their nefarious plans. I read it and realized that the real plans of these dark mages are way more evil than I imagined. Which is why I came out of the hiding place so that I could get out of this island as soon as I can,”

Victoria didnt say anything, she was still confused, “You will believe me eventually when your daughter reads the whole book. Till that time, we have a deal. You need to get off this hunk of rock, and so do I. Till then, we are stuck with each other. I will protect you and your daughter till our deal is fulfilled,”

“You assumed that we need your help, but believe me when I say this.. We can take care of ourselves. Those criminals were only able to make us hostages because they drugged us. That is it,”

He chuckled, “I believe when you say that you dont need my help. From what I could sense, surely you both have your 1st circle stabilized and running. Your daughter on the other hand is close to completing her second circle. Only a handful of people will be able to hurt you,”

“So why will we need you?”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Vampas?” The daughter spoke and then looked at him with clarification. “This book talks about dark flesh grafting magic.. This talks about the creature that.. The writer of the book created,”

“That is why you will need me,” he said, “I know the weakness of Vampas,”

“What is a whompas?” Victoria asked.

“It is the creature that the dark mages, who framed me want to unleash upon our kingdom. They are magical beasts that will tear your body within seconds. They are hard to kill as they possess the ability to heal from even the most heinous wounds. You would need a lot of firepower to take care of them. And luckily for you, I have that firepower,”

Both the mother and daughter looked at each other, trying to predict what their future held for them…

***

Trust is a very difficult thing to earn. Drac could have just forced the mother-and-daughter duo to do his bidding. There was a chance that he could have even gotten what he wanted, without the fuss and effort. But he didnt go that way because his experience had taught him that one should always take care of small stuff that could be a problem in the long term.

They could have taken offense of something he might have done, and then come back for revenge. He would have appreciated the revenge part as well, considering he lived for the thrill.

But currently, he was not strong enough. Currently, he was at a level, that he couldn't afford to take on fights with just about anyone. Which was why he needed them to get on his side. So, that they won't create any problems for him in the future.

That night when they all went to sleep, the women took the carriage to sleep in, after they had cleaned all the blood from it. To them, that was a safer option than sleeping out in this marsh. He on the other hand stayed outside and kept a watch on them, while pretending that he was sleeping. Luckily, none of the women even tried to escape, they both fell asleep soon. If he hadn't revealed the things that he did, there was a chance that those people would have surely tried to do something that night.

The next morning, he prepared normal porridge for breakfast. As he served them the plates, he announced what they needed to do, “First thing first. We need to change our mode of transportation. This carriage cannot handle the load of our supplies,”

“What are you saying?” Hazel, Victoria’s daughter asked, “What are we going to use then?”

“Horse carts… Essentially any cart would do. Anything but this carriage,”

“This belonged to my father,” Hazel said, “I cannot just abandon the carriage somewhere,”

“Do you value your life, or do you value this carriage?” he asked straightforwardly. Her silence got him the answer he needed, “These kinds of carriage were never made to take such loads. Which is why only luggage is mounted on them. I was able to fix the axel now, but if we were to get stuck in a tricky situation… We cannot trust this carriage at all,”

“Alright,” Hazel said.

“How are we going to read Jonia’s Keep?” Victoria asked.

“Simple. We would take the longest route there,”

“Why?” Hazel asked,

“The Vampas are not just magical beasts. They create this red crystal in their bodies which is a very valuable resource for the dark mages. Their plan is essential to let those creatures kill the humans, then they would extract crystals from the Vampas. They would be targeting big places with huge populations in order to get as many crystals as they can. So we need to avoid big cities and villages. This is why we are going to travel through sparsely crowded areas, which means that we would have to take a long route to the Jonia's Keep,”

“Shouldn't we..” Hazel hesitated, and then asked, “Pass this information on? The Queen, or even General Tarrain would be able to do something in this matter right?”

“They could have done something if the main communication tower was not destroyed. With that thing gone, this kingdom has no hope. No one will be able to against the Dark Mages,”

The duo didnt say anything and got lost in their thoughts, so he continued, “Secondly, we need to change your appearances as well. I cannot travel with two women who are adorning top-quality silks,”

“What is wrong with our clothes?” Victoria asked.

He sighed, “They could grab too much attention from the wrong crowd. The kingdom is in shambles, the crops are being destroyed by the cold… In order to survive such a harsh condition, most people would start doing unspeakable things. And attention from them is the last thing that we would want,”

They both nodded, as they had experienced themselves the darkness of mankind. He gave them some more rules, like not talking to anyone unfamiliar, and they would not be sharing their supplies with anyone. The girls tried to argue with him on some things, but he quickly stomped their protest down.

With everything sorted, they finally set out for their journey. In the first village that they came across, he borrowed the first cart from the village that he got his hands on. This cart was open from all sides and was spacious, but not as comfortable as the carriage that they abandoned. The girls tried to argue with him, but he was able to calm the situation down. He was still more powerful than them, and that played an important bargaining chip.

For the first two or three days, they remained wary of him. Only talking to him when necessary. But from the fourth day onwards, Victoria was the one that opened up with him. That did surprise him a little bit as he always figured that it would be Hazel that would open up to him, considering that she was still going through the Vampas’s book.

It is on the fifth day did Hazel returned the book to him, with tears in her eyes. She had gotten to the part where Nosferatu described how many lives he took in order to create one creature. And this disturbed her. That day he comforted her with Victoria.

It was on the sixth day when they witnessed something that surprised them all. For him, it was not a surprise, but the women on the other hand were very surprised when white little snowflakes started falling from the sky…