I am not sure what she did but I acquired her at a relatively low price in terms of FP. There were other added challenges.

Firstly, when I acquired Valentine, I also acquired close to a thousand years of memories. Though they flashed by in a single second, it gave me a terrible terrible headache. The pain could best be described as having a fire hose stuck in your lower half and having it turned on.

Secondly, she is a chatter box. She can talk on and on for hours at a stretch. I guess anyone would become one if they did solitary confinement worth a thousand years. She spoke on and on about every unimportant damned detail which I already knew since I had her memories.

There were, however, some memories that I did not acquire. Valentine began her story;

“The story I share of you is of a little girl. She was aged no more than half and six years old. She liked dolls very much. Her father worked hard and bought her many dolls. Her mother loved her and she led a happy life. A happy life that is till her seventh birthday. A young man visited the castle in the dead of the night, he was a count from a far of place. Handsome and deathly pale. He requested the young girl’s father for help. Good girls should be sleeping in the middle of the night but it was different for this girl. She was always hungry at night….she had been spoilt by the subtle charm of midnight snacks.

The girl saw the Count and the Count noticed the girl; it was love at first sight.

The Count and the girl’s father fought and the count left angrily.

The girl never saw the count for another year that is till her eighth birthday. The count came again and again her father fought the count. Words turned foul and bitterness loomed in the air.

Each year, this happened. Each year, the father fought of the Count. Blood was spilt and life was lost that is on the girl’s thirteenth birthday, her mother died. The joy in the big house died and the father weakened. Year after year his strength faded.

The Count killed the mother but the little girl still loved the Count. The Count only wanted her as her bride. Why were her father and mother against it?

The Count kept visiting on the girl’s birthday till he finally slew the father and a thousand other people. It was the girl’s sixteenth birthday. It was the day she married the Count and the day the Count killed her.

The child awoke on a full moonlight. Her body was no longer warm and she craved blood. But the child was pure and innocent. She could not hurt another being, she resisted the blood lust. The Count chose to watch everything. He watched the pitiful girl fight the urges with all her might. He enjoyed the sight.

In her weakened state, he ravished her and left her even further weakened. He did not love; he never did. She never loved him either. It was a magic he had cast on her.

Years passed, the Count grew bored and acquired another woman.

The little girl now all grown was thrown into the dungeon and weakened till her mind faded and all that lay was the monster within her.

Years passed and the lady’s mind recovered, only to discover to her horror she had six children and thousands of grandchildren. Each child was a monster.

Horrified, she stabbed herself in the heart and died yet lived on in others. All this woman craved now was for revenge but there is no one to listen to her.

Will you Sora-kun accept this request of mine to annihilate my kin and beloved.”

To sum it up, Valentine had an agenda; the destruction of her clan and the assassination of her husband; Count Dracula. I helped her fulfil her wish, she promised to swear allegiance to me and even look after me. In exchange, all I had to do was take care of her problems. Given at the time that I was desperate to acquire vampire abilities, I caved into her demands. It's not like her demands were irrational or for evil; it was for righteousness.

Unlike cliché manga style promises could be exchanged verbally and did not require a kiss to seal the deal. Once our promises were exchanged, I acquired her.

But vampires can never be trusted. She immediately attempted to take control of my body. It was some sort of mental battle that I was engaged in. I am not sure how long we fought, but Valentine ended up crucified and imprisoned. I borrowed ideas from the movie ‘Summer Wars’ and anime ‘Naruto’ to build a fort and prison to contain her. If it was a battle of mental strength, she could not overwhelm me…this much I am certain of....why? I don’t remember. However, Valentine since then has been wary of me....to some extent even more timid than before.

After I succeeded in subduing Valentine, I didn’t acquire any vampire characteristics. It was a bitter disappointment. In the end, I wrote off the FP investment. I would have felt cheated for a long time but I completely forgot about Valentine and our first meeting. Why? I have no idea, but I think the answer lies in the fact that I acquired her for so low FP.

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In the end, I did acquire a single vampire characteristic; I burn to dust in the sun. I experienced that first hand when I appeared in the Arid Desert. That is how I confirmed I acquired vampire characteristics….problem was….I acquired no other ability.

I wouldn’t have ever met Valentine again had it not been for that incident; when I bit off the old man’s arm.

Just before I lost consciousness, I met Valentine for the second time. I had no memory of meeting her then and our conversation was very similar to the one I recently had.

No in some aspects it was identical.

She was nicer than before. However, I wouldn’t know this since every time I visit her I lose my memories.

In our second meeting, she informed me that I needed to feed on human blood in regular intervals or the consequences would be something like uncontrollable blood craving symptoms and losing consciousness.

She also complained about ‘others’ and how she had to work overtime initially just to get my different body parts to accept each other. She went on to complain how the monster in me is rampaging and that if I didn’t stop it – it would kill me….since it was an interesting conversation I would like to narrate a part of it:

“The monsters residing deep within you need to be cuffed or else you will die. You will need my help, to stop them….for a price of course…” Valentine said as she looked at me anxiously.

“Price?” I raised my eyebrow at her demand.

“A single drop of blood…” The Vampiress requested as she looked at me hungrily.

“No…” I have a strong feeling my blood is like a key to the seal holding her back.

[fufufu….still intelligent as ever…]

“I think I have had enough of this. I am going back.”

[Awww….don’t be like that! I feel lonely! It gets rather boring down here.]

I don’t like her twisted personality; not one bit.

I don’t like being played around.

I also don’t like being here. There are strange sounds coming from the darkness; like whispers? Whispers in a foreign language?

The lights in the ceiling are flickering.

Is that blood? I think I can see blood oozing from the ceiling.

If I have been reduced to this state then there must be something happening to my real body outside….something being grave danger.

“If you aren’t interested in helping, I am going.”

[Sora-kun! Don’t leave me!] The Vampiress shouted in my mind as I began taking steps back towards the broken down door from where I came.

She seemed to be pretty desperate but I choose to ignore her. I bet she is playing around with me. The more time I spend with her….the worse it will be for me.

[Sora-kun! Don’t go! I love you!]

Did she just confess to me? Dammit I knew it. She is still toying around with me. I can’t believe it for a moment I felt concerned about leaving her alone.

[It’s true! I swore my love to you!]

I am really going to ignore her.

[We even made sacred promises to get married!]

Who would want to marry her? Has she gone mad? She’s only a four on ten!

[A FOUR ON TEN?]

Did I tick her off?

[Why the hell am I a four on ten?]

Somehow I am happy that I have ticked her off.

[HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A PEERLESS BEAUTY LIKE ME?]

She really isn’t all that beautiful as she claims. I would have stuck around to be the sore thumb but I need to figure out a way out of here.

[DON’T GO!] She cried out as I took my first step outside the room.

Is she crying? I look back to see, she is no longer to be seen in her prison. Only her empty voice is echoing in my mind.

I hear her cold laughter. Did I fall for her act?

It was a creepy experience.

When I step out of the chamber and imagine waking up…I lost all memories of Valentine. She became no more than a forgotten tale / legend. My eyes opened and I found the Abbe sitting next to me. There was a lot of blood everywhere and the Abbe was missing an arm.

That was my second meeting.

***

Present moment - recent past

“Here keep it..” The Devil said with a smirk.

SoraChan stared at the head for a long time. It seemed as if he were frozen in horror.

The Devil looked on at Sora curiously before deciding to move on. He didn’t want to be seen here by anyone else; things would turn bothersome if he were seen. He would have to explain to his brother the Red Cardinal why his students lay gravely injured….and there was bound to be a fight over this matter…

What a bother. The Devil was just about to reach over to pick the two injured soldiers when Sorachan let out a war cry.

“AAAAAAAAAAAA….”

The Devil looked up at the adventurer; something was not right.

Has he finally lost control of himself? He wondered.