Jack nodded his head. “Mister Vincent, I should head back to my family, the little ones were begging me for some meat.” Jack said, as he let out a laugh.

“Very well, give Mrs. Donde, and the little ones my greetings.”

“Will do, goodbye Mister Vincent, Mister Sam.” Jack said as he waved at them.

“Frie huh?” Vincent said.

“I’m sorry.” Ray apologized.

“It’s fine, at least you didn’t use your full last name.”

“So how do you know him?” Ray asked.

“Jack, he sometimes helps my stores. I asked him to get supplies for me in the woods, though I wished he would officially work for me, but he rather spent most of his time with his wife, and three kids.”

“Oh, does the rest of his family hunt?”

“Hmm, I believe only him, and his wife. He has only one grown teenager, and two kids. Also we are almost to the stores, do you know what kind of clothes you want?”

“I’m fine with anything, plus since it’s your store, I’m sure everything will be great. I’m not picky when it comes to my clothes.”

As both of them finally reach the stores, Vincent told his shopkeepers about Ray as well the knights they came across, while Ray kept trying all kinds of clothes, Vincent was insistent on buying mostly everything that would fit Ray. But Ray stops him, telling him they can only carry back so many clothes on their own. Once the sun was setting they started heading back home.

“We sure bought a lot,” Ray said, he put the clothes over both of his shoulders, trying his best not to drop them.

Vincent walked in front of him, leading the way. “Come on, I have to show you something.”

“Oh ok.” Ray said, as he picked up his pace.

They walked past all kinds of shops, and houses. Ray wanted to talk to Vincent, but the way he was walking as if he was focused on something. Rau decided to remain quiet.

“Just around the corner, you’ll be able to get a closer look.” Vincent said, as he walked around the corner.

Ray caught up to Vincent, and saw what Vincent wanted to show him. Down the sidewalk in front of them was the church. The church was made of stone, there was a big clearing in front of the church, there were stone stairs that led to the church entrance. A symbol of Sez was hanging on top of the church.

Ray looked around, after making sure there was no one around. Ray spoke. “Is this what you wanted to show me?”

“Yes, they recently completed the construction of it. To be honest I wanted to do everything in my power to stop it from happening, but it'd be suspicious if I did.” Vincent said.

“Why did you want me to see this?”

Vincent was quiet before answering. “Tell me fresh-blood, do you still worship Sez?”

“I… I don’t know. I mean I think?” Ray was unsure.

“I see.”

“Do you worship him?”

“No, I would never pray to a monster, from everything that is going on, our god is just a child playing around with toys.”

“Child?” Ray asked.

“Yes, the god we know is an incredibly selfish child.”

Soon afterwards Vincent, and Ray headed home in silence, Ray was pondering what Vincent told him.

{He thinks the god Sez is a child, or acts like one? He did say there might be another god, if that were true the church might be hiding it from the people. But why would they do that? I’ll have to ask master Senya.}

They arrived at the house, and as soon as they got it, Viola was coming from the basement, she greeted them. “Finally back, how was the trip?” Viola asked them.

“It was good, we bought quite a few things, fresh-blood go upstairs and sort out your new clothes, I have to have a little chat with Viola, I’ll call you when dinner is ready alright.” Vincent said.

Ray nodded his head, and headed up the stairs, when Vincent, and Viola, heard his door closed they sat down.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” Viola asked.

“Yes, I like to ask you for a favor, if that is ok with you?” Vincent said.

“Of course, if I can help you, that is going to look good for my master.”

“I need your help training the fresh-blood, when I checked the village, I saw problems that needed my attention, and I can’t be doing both things at once. I need to keep my appearance after all.” Vincent asked.

“You think I can train him?”

“Yes, after all you got training from m- uh I mean Rita.” Vincent said.

“I saw the books, she still hasn’t come back has she?”

Vincent sighed. “No.”

“Well after the fight you told me about, she must still be pretty mad.”

“It's just so stupid.” Vincent said angrily.

“To you, it is. Not everyone is like you.” Viola said.

“I know, I know, so you still didn’t answer my question. Will you do it?”

“Yes, hopefully I don’t get any mission from my master in the meantime.” Viola said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll send her a letter asking her to let you help me.”

“Thanks, between you and me, I have a feeling my master might be trying to kill me with all the missions she’s been sending me.”

“I’m sure you will manage. After all.” They were interrupted by the sound of a door opening then closing.

“I should get dinner ready, are you going to stay to eat?”

“No, I already stay long enough, I’m going to head back to my place, tomorrow I will come back and train Ray.”

“Alright, thanks again, I’ll be sure to send her a letter. Goodbye.”

After Vincent, and Viola said their goodbyes, and after Vincent, and Ray were done eating, Vincent led Ray to the study room. They sat down, opposite of each other.

“I wanted to let you know, starting tomorrow we will begin your training, if everything goes smoothly Viola will help me train you. When we visited the village I saw some things that needed my attention, so I won’t be able to dedicate all my time to you to understand?”

“Ok, will the two of you be teaching me the same thing?” Ray asked.

“Yes, the only thing you have to learn is to command your mark at will, after you learn that we will begin the next stage.”

“Ok, will Viola be able to teach me, like you want?”

“Don’t worry, unlike me she got training from… let’s just say she can train you, as well be sure not to mention what I told you when we saw the church to the villagers. They don’t know my stance on the church, they will probably be suspicious of you if you say that out loud.”

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Ray nodded his head.

“Ok, get to bed we will start training in the morning.”

“Will we be training in the woods?” Ray asked.

“No, we will train in the basement.”

“I see.” Ray said, confused.

“Go to bed.” Vincent said.

***

Inside the church of the village, a meeting took place. The people who attended were a deacon and two knights.

The deacon, Stevan,despite his old age, had a firm posture, he was always seen wearing his long black garments. A long horizontal scar could be seen from his neck, though it bothers some people, he showed this injury prouply, as it was an injury from a past hybrid that he survived.

The knights wore their usual armor, one of the knights, Brandon. He was the captain of the village, until someone of higher status would arrive, he commanded the knights, under his survivision the town was having less problems than before.

The third knight Roger works under Brandon, being his ears, whenever he isn’t around. He made sure Brandon, and the priest orders were carried out. Roger asked for the meeting to discuss what he found out.

“Alright Roger, we are all here, why did you ask for us?” Stevan said.

“My apologies,deacon Stevan, I wanted to notify the both of you that Sir Vildred has finally come back to the village.” Roger said.

“That’s good, was he alone?” Brandon asked.

“No sir, from what the villagers told me, he has a nephew that is accompanying him, I would follow them, but you gave me direct orders to report to you first if I heard they are back in the village.”

“Yes thank you, what about the woman, who is always with him? Stevan asked.

“I didn’t see her either, I believe she still lives in her home.”

“I see, ok, I will visit them tomorrow and ask for some help, we still haven’t received word from the church on when our supplies will come back, or when we will get reinforcement.” Brandon said.

“Even if we get a blessed knight station here, it would let the people be at ease, I will send another letter tomorrow.” Stevan said.

“After all the letters you send them, do you think they will respond this time?” Brandon said.

“What are you trying to say Sir Brandon,”

Brandon slouch on his chair. “Nothing deacon Stevan, just send the letter, and I will go visit Sir Vildred, and ask him for supplies. Roger, did you send anyone to see what is happening in his house?”

“No Sir, after he found ‘that knight spying on him, and he threatened to leave the city. The village people almost kicked us out because of that.’ I made sure to leave him alone.”

“I’m telling you that man is something else, he accidentally found a knight near his house, and jumped to the conclusion we were spying on him, as well traveling to other towns without any knight seeing him leave makes him suspicious.”

“I already told you deacon Stevan, we can’t accuse innocents without evidence, if we were to have him arrested, and he proves human, that will be the end of us in this village. If he is our enemy we just have to wait until a mistake is made. I also find it suspicious, but we can’t go spreading rumors, the situation in the village is still tense, all of us have to be careful whatever we do.” Brandon said.

They sat in silence, wondering what they’re best course of action was.

“If anything comes up I’ll let you know, I’m heading back to my chambers.” Stevan told them.

“The knights bowed their heads, and left the priest alone. Both knights went outside the church, and sat on the stairs. It was already night, they watched the city, as it slowly got darker.

“Tell me Roger, what do you think about this town?” Brandon said.

“It’s alright Sir, the people who live here are alright, even if they don’t like us right now, our job is still to protect them.”

“Yeah, but it does make the job a little hard, saving people who hate you, but I will keep my oath I made, I will protect them.”

“Me too Sir. Even if it cost my life.” Roger said.

Brandon started laughing, “Let's do our best for them, and our families.”

“Yes Sir.”

***

February 07, 1410

Ray woke up to knocking at the door. Ray quickly got dressed and headed for the stairs, Ray saw Vincent already at the door, fixing himself up, before answering. Vincent opened the door, and he saw a knight. Ray instinctively tense up at the sight of a knight.

“Hey! Go to the kitchen, and prepare breakfast, thank you,” Vincent said to Ray. Then spoke something to the knight, and Vincent stepped out of the house, and closed the door.

Ray was still standing on top of the stairs confused with what he just saw, he decided to do what Vincent told him, and prepared breakfast.

After a couple minutes had passed, Ray heard the front door open, then closed, he stood still waiting for the person to show up.

“Relax, it's just me.” Vincent said as he walked into the kitchen.

Ray relaxes his body. “Oh who was that at the door?”

“It’s the captain of the knights in this area, he came to visit to ask me for a favor.”

“What kind of favor?” Ray asked.

“They needed supplies for their troops, they asked if I could donate any to them, since the church isn’t fast enough with their mail.” Vincent said, as he sat on one of the chairs.

“Are you going to do it?”

“I told him, I’ll think about it. I might get some information from them, if I play my cards right. The end goal for me is to get rid of them in the village.”

“Is it ok to be talking like that here, won’t we be heard?” Ray asked.

“Oh don’t worry about that, the knights would never dream of doing that again, last time I ‘caught’ them spying on me, and I threatened to leave and take all my business with me. The villagers were easily on my side, knowing I own the most important stores in the village. I almost got them kicked out too, if only that knight, Brandon, didn’t get on his knees and pray for forgiveness in front of me when I was talking to a crowd, forcing my hand.”

“Wow, to think he would do that.”

“Please I don’t need to hear that again, if only I could kill him without raising suspicion that would be great. Also, you need work on your posture, you can’t be acting all tense up, and talk normally when you talk to the knights, otherwise they might be suspicious of you. I know it's going to take a while, but the last thing a knight needs to feel from you, when you are playing as my nephew is uncomfortable. Act like yesterday when we went to all those stores. Understand?” Vincent told Ray.

Ray nodded his head, suddenly there was more knocking coming from the front door, Vincent told Ray to wait, he was going to get the door.

“It’s alright fresh-blood, it's just Viola.” Vincent said, as he walked back into the kitchen, with Viola following behind him.

“Good morning Ray.” Viola said.

“Good morning Viola.”

“Alright, Viola, after we are done eating I’m going to head to the village, need to work on somethings, you can take fresh-blood here, and finally train,” Vincent said.

“Yeah, don’t worry we won’t mess up the basement.”

“Please don’t, it took me forever to fix it, after you and Rita went overboard.”

Viola started laughing, “Don’t worry, Ray, and I will be careful, right Ray?” She smiled at him.

“Uh right, I’ll be sure to be careful around your things Vincent.”

“Uh huh.” Vincent responded.

Soon after they were done eating, and putting away everything, Vincent started heading out the door, while telling Viola, what do go over with Ray. As he left, it was just Ray, and Viola alone.

Viola led Ray downstairs where the basement was.

“Hey Viola,”

“Yeah, what happened?”

“What is your relationship with Vincent?” Ray asked.

“Oh we are friends, in the village I am just someone who is close to him, but I know him by my mentor Rita.”

“Who is Rita? I mean, I keep hearing her name, but who is she?”

“Oh, how should I put this, I can’t tell you everything but what I do tell you, just don’t tell Vincent I told you.”

Ray nodded his head, even though he was behind Viola.

“Rita is my mentor, she was the one who trained me, when my master turned me. Rita, and Vincent used to be. Just know they fought over something they couldn’t agree on, so Rita decided to cut ties with Vincent. Those books you see in the study are hers.”

“Oh, I remembered Vincent telling me about a hybrid who does research on us, is that her?”

“Yes, Rita wants to find out about us, though she does read a lot she is considered one of the strongest hybrids.”

“Is she stronger than Vildred?” Ray asked.

“Yes.”

“Wow, hopefully I can ask her to train me.”

Viola started laughing, “Just don’t say in front of Vincent ok, I think he might give you a good beating if he ever heard you say that. Now then we are here.”

Ray looked at the basement, it was just another room, there was no way anyone could fight here, without making a mess.

“Isn’t this too.”

Viola interrupted him, “Too short right? Don’t worry we won’t train here, there is a secret entrance to a lower floor where we can train, in front of the statue of Sez.”

“What! Where?” Ray enthusiastically asked.

Viola moved the statue, underneath it was a hidden door, she opened it, and it had stairs running down, until there was nothing but darkness.

“Grab a torch, let's get started.” Viola said.

“Yes!” Ray answered.