I wonder if I touched a sensitive subject. I guess I did. Anyway, let's find Mary. As I enter the house, I could hear Abigail singing a sorrowful song. Her voice is tearful, making one cry. Either from her tone of longing for someone or from the lyrics that I don't understand. Another language? I could see her washing some dishes while humming. I wonder if she has a vocalist job. There's no way that you can sing that pure without it, or she is just that good at singing.

"Abigail, do you know where Mary is?"

She turns around, scared at the possibility of finding someone there without a sound made. She puts her hand across her chest, trying to rest her starting heart.

"You scared me, my lady. Could you repeat that?"

"I said if you know where Mary has gone."

"Yes, I do. She usually goes to the market at this hour if she doesn't have to attend her classes."

"I see. I need to talk to her. Could you assist me?"

"Right away."

She wipes her hands on a towel nearby and goes to the front door with me behind her. I noticed that she didn't have any shoes. Are dryads not used to wearing shoes? Would she mind if I would ask her? Eh, no pain, no gain.

"Do dryads not wear shoes?"

She glances at me before answering. "No, my lady. We are most comfortable when we feel the earth beneath us. Did you not know that, my lady?"

"To be honest, you are the first dryad that I met. You and Mary are the first different races besides humans that I met. Ah, I have a question to ask you if you wouldn't mind."

"Go ahead."

"Why did Mary call you a slave monster?"

"My lady, people, will take advantage of you if you don't know of the simplest things."

"They can try. I was a royal comparable to a king. There's nothing to take advantage of."

She looks at me, skeptically, before stopping in her tracks and looking at the ground. "We are monsters that got to a point where we can take a human form. Normally it would take hundreds of years to be able to to that, but when we started to interchange with other life forms, we found out that we could bear offsprings faster than any race. Some races took advantage of that, and here we are. I was born with a mother like myself and a wrath demon. My father used to beat my mother when she didn't get in time to deliver the offspring. He usually would sell my sisters, but before he would sell me, the queen found about it and sent him to prison. I'm thankful for the queen with all my heart."

"I'm sorry to hear that. What happened to your mother?"

"She killed herself when she found out that her second daughter would be sold."

Silence drowns on us. I can't begin to think about what I would do in her position. Sure, I didn't kill that bastard because of the laws on earth. But here? I would kill him... no, I would torture him until he begs me to die.

"I promise to you that I will never do that to you, Abigail. Thank you for telling me about your past. I think you would like to know about mine?"

"N-no, my lady, I didn't tell you about this because I wanted something from you. I told you because I wanted to get a load off my chest. To be honest with you, I only served the queen. I never interacted with anyone else besides her. The maids in the palace didn't like me, so I always kept it hidden in one corner of my heart. You, my lady, are the first person, alongside the others that I met to be nice enough not to despise me at first sight."

"To despise a person like you would be to despise a meal that smells of fruits. I'm not comparing you to a meal; I'm comparing you to this situation from my perspective. I could never despise anyone unless their personality is downright disgusting or if their blood is."

"I am thankful for that, my lady." She slightly bows to me once; then, we resume our walk to the market.

We walk through the streets of this kingdom for a while to stop at a corner. This alley is narrow and smells of blood. Is this the black district? Way to close to the academy, in my opinion. Is there another purpose as to why is the area like this? Oh, I see. Some races would need to let out their urges. Like a succubus needing to went their lust or to get life force or a wrath demon to kill. I wonder what the other races do in this place? As we slowly move through the alley, I could start to see different street markets. Some had potions; some had human meat, wich the blood didn't make me happy. Waste of Maybe blood, in my opinion. Who eats human flesh? Wrath demons, maybe? Anyhow, as we wander through the black market, I begin to question the intent of coming here. What does Mary need from here?

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Suddenly an old lady comes in front of us and begins to blabbing about something I couldn't understand. I try to move past her, but she steps in front of me. I try again, yet she does the same thing. I'm starting to get angry, so I have to ask her nicely to move aside—breath in, breath out. Stay calm; she is just some crazy old lady.

"Could you please move out of our way?"

"Y-y-you are dead! You are a w-w-walking d-dead!"

The fuck? How does she know? No matter, I don't care. "I will ask again. Could you move aside?"

"You will k-kill a-all! Kill a-all!"

Great now she's screaming. Attract attention because why the fuck not! Ugh, what should I do with her? I can't kill her; I don't want to end someone who might be crazy. I guess I could let Abigail handle this situation.

"Abigail, could you do something."

"Yes, my lady."

She moves in front of me and picks up the old lady and throws her into an alley. Well, that works too.

"Thank you."

"My pleasure."

The people around us begin to whisper. Great now, I will have a bad reputation. No matter.

"Let's go."

We advance our way into the alley only to be stopped by some hoodlums. Do you know when I said this is a great day? I take it back now. Why, in the name of God, are people stopping me today? Is this some kind of curse?

"Yo. Ya can't pass."

Are ya shitting me?

"And why is that?"

"Orders from the boss."

Do these guys have a boss? I thought they don't. Hah, I guess I will have to kill all of them.

"Would you like to make your date of death be today? "

They distribute some looks between them and still stand their ground. I guess I will have to show them who's the boss, eh?

Sigh. "And here I started the day on a happy note. No matter, I always enjoy some fresh blood." I smile creepily at them, activating my vampire sight. They froze like a popsicle, and I move to them—some begun to shake under my gaze and smile moreover, falling on the ground on their ass. I wonder if I look that scary. Hmm. maybe I do look scary enough to make grown-ups shit themself. As confirmation, the ruffians that are on the ground begun to smell. Pathetic humans.

"W-wait!"

One of them in full armor makes his way in front of the guys. Is he the boss?

"Please forget their insolence!" He knees with his head on the ground.

"Why? Should one spare life when they picked the wrong fight? As they say, know which fight you should pick cuz if not you may not have another choice."

"N-no! They are supposed to stop a young lady when they enter in the black district. Our boss want's to talk to you."

"Oh? You are not the boss?"

"Hah! I wish. Could you come with me?"

"No. I had come here in the quest to search for my friend. Don't stand in my way again."

"Are you perhaps talking about Mary?"

When his words escape his mouth, it didn't take a second to be in front of him and to pick him up from the ground by his neck.

"What do you know about her. If just one hair of her head is damaged, I will raze the black district until I found her. I will exterminate your existence from this place."

"She- she's unharmed."

"Where is she?"

"O-our boss has her. She wants to talk to you."

I unclench my grip and let him fall to the ground. He begins to cough violently. Did I strangle him too hard? Maybe I should test my powers before I do anything else with them.

"Take me to her now!"

"F-follow me."

And so we follow him. Through the numerous alleys. I can make my way again even with all of this precaution. I have perfect memory ,ya know? Oh, right ,they don't know that. My perfect weapon for things like this. The alleys began to be with more and more ruffians. If they think they can take me, I will laugh my head off. Soon we met a normal house.  Huh, I expected to be some sort of palace or something. Just a normal house you could find on any market. There are no buildings around it and has quite the space between the different apartment blocks. Unusual. He walks in front of the door and begins knocking on it.

"I wish I had a holiday." A code? This boss sure thought of everything. She must be smart.

"Where would you like to go?" A deep voice responds from the door. A woman I think. I wouldn't recognize it if this guy hadn't mentioned it.

"A place somewhere warm."

"What would you have in mind?"

"The sun."

What? What kind of code is this? You know what I take it back.

"Come in then."

When she opened the door, we are met with a beauty. Her blue skin and ice eye were definitely her selling point. Were it not for the scar on her left eye, which is covered with a black eye patch, she would make a celebrity on earth. Damn, she could be an actor with that hot figure. Enough muscle to emphasize her looks and with boobs big enough to hover over her abs.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Irene."