As Nova was gazing out the window, she could hear Father Richter gritting his teeth. Considering how old he was, it was surprising to Nova that that his teeth didn’t break immediately.

“That’s it, I can’t take it anymore.”

Saying that, he left us and went deeper into the church.

Nova paid no more attention to him and continued watching.

The thugs kicked the husband to the ground and were about to bludgeon him with their weapons, but a shadow dashed out from an alleyway and knocked them to the ground.

“Aerin?” Nova muttered in confusion.

The figure—Aerin—began beating the thugs up. However, even with her 2-star power, she was still more used to being a sword, so she was slowly but surely being overwhelmed.

Just as Nova was about to rush out to help her, Father Richter kicked the door of the church open and ran outside.

Nova looked through the window again and saw Father Richter wielding a whip and holding a bottle while shouting at the thugs with a red face.

“Stop! You dare make a commotion in front of a Navrian Priest!?”

Not waiting for the thugs to answer, he threw the vial at them. The vial simultaneously combusted into flames and engulfed three nearby thugs.

After a few seconds, the fire subsided. However, the thugs didn’t suffer from any wounds. Instead, only their clothes were burned into crisps.

““W-What?”” They covered their (very small) private parts in embarrassment.

“Holy water,” Father Richter said as he readied his whip. “Unless you’re a Vampire or an Undead, you’ll be fine.”

Then, he whipped the three thugs until they were groveling on the ground and begging for mercy.

While Ihwa was covering her eyes with a red face, Nova stared at them blankly and suspiciously.

‘What the actual fuck?’

Were they having S&M play, or were they fighting?

“Unnie…you shouldn’t come here alone anymore.”

Ihwa nodded while still covering her eyes and inched closer to Nova.

Back to the fight. In no time, Father Richter subdued all the thugs around him. Then, he moved on to the thugs surrounding Aerin.

Since they were distracted by Aerin, he could lob the vial at them and whip them without much difficulty.

As the last thug fell to the ground, naked, Father Richter approached Aerin from behind the flames. Strangely though, his clothes weren’t burnt at all.

“It’s good to know that there are still some good people left in the world,” Father Richter said. “I thank you for distracting the thugs for me. Tell me, young lady, what is your name?”

Aerin didn’t answer. Instead, she was staring at Father Richter with widened eyes.

Father Richter tilted his head in confusion at this. However, upon noticing the newly-made burn on Aerin’s hand, he also widened his eyes.

“Y-You! A Vampire?!”

As if woken up from her stupor by his shout, Aerin began running toward the church.

“Wait!” Father Richter shouted.

But Aerin didn’t listen. She crashed through the window where Nova was peeking through and disappeared inside the church.

Father Richter chased right after her. He scanned the main prayer room. Shattered glass, broken window frame, two shivering kids—one holding two sticks, and nothing else. The Vampire was nowhere to be seen.

‘She must’ve gone deeper into the church!’ Richter thought.

So, after telling the two children to stay where they were, he made his way deeper into the church; whip and Holy water in hand.

*

*

*

*

With Father Richter gone, I asked Ihwa to block the door in case he came back earlier than she expected. Then, I told Aerin to turn into her humanoid form.

“Maste—”

“Let me take a look.”

I grabbed her hand and looked at her burn mark. It was faint, but definitely noticeable. Though, it’d get infected if I left it be.

Luckily for Aerin, I had just obtained the perfect solution for it.

“[Minor heal]”

As the burn mark disappeared, Aerin heaved a sigh of relief.

“Thank you, Master. It was a burn made by Holy water, so it’d have corroded into my bones if I let it be.”

“T-That serious?”

She solemnly nodded. Then, she said,

“Master, about that Priest…”

“What about him?”

“I-I understand why I felt that way now. I-It wasn’t because he’s a Priest.”

“Then?”

“I-It’s because he’s from the Delmont clan—the strongest Vampire-hunting clan.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“The what?”

I’d never heard of that clan before. As I was about to ask her, Aerin continued.

“You wouldn’t know about them, because I…destroyed them before I became your Sword.”

“Clearly, you did a bad job.”

“Y-Yes…” Aerin lowered her head.

“W-Wait! It’s just sarcasm!” I hurriedly explained.

“I know. But still, I still let some of them get away. Seeing how old that Priest is, it’s possible that he was there when I destroyed his clan.”

Well, I knew that Aerin wasn’t a bad person. In fact, considering what happened at that time, it was not a stretch to say that she was a hero.

Basically, even after the Conclave of Empathy declared Vampires citizens of Astoria, there was still a heavy stigma surrounding them since not all people could forget what Count Dracula did just merely four years prior.

What did the Count do? I had no idea. All records of what he did were erased. The only reason why I knew this tidbit of information in the first place was because my Ihwa often asked me to help her in her studies.

Back to the time Aerin destroyed the Delmont clan. Apparently, Vampire-hunting clans, whose main source of profit was now protected by the pesky thing called “international humanitarian convention,” they decided to hunt as many Vampires as possible before the corrupt officials of their countries actually did something to prevent Vampires from being killed.

That was the whole story. Aerin probably prevented a Vampire genocide by destroying the so-called strongest Vampire-hunting clan.

But there was still one question left.

“Aerin, why did you run from him? You know that Navrian Priests don’t discriminate, right?”

“But Master…I don’t want to take any chances, especially when he had a crazed look in his eyes.”

“Uh huh…”

If so, then Aerin probably did the right thing there by running away.

By the way, Ihwa was listening in to everything Aerin said.

Seeing the unmistakable expression of shock on her face, I coaxed her into keeping her mouth shut in front of Richter.

“I’ll let you brush my tail if you don’t say any word of this to Father Richter.”

In response, she placed her thumb and index finger on one side of her mouth and zipped it to the other.

.

.

.

.

After an hour or so, Richter came back and shoo’d us out. Apparently, he was afraid that the Vampire was still hiding inside the church and was just waiting for the right time to strike.

He was indeed a good person to anyone but Vampires.

Anyways, we got back to the inn around the middle of the afternoon. When there, I told Ihwa,

“Do you want to come with me?”

“Where?”

“Alchemist’s distr—”

“NO!”

Ihwa screamed loudly, attracting everyone’s attention. I turned to the people in the main hall of the inn to tell them that it was nothing to worry about, but some looked anyway.

“Why? I—”

“NOO! I’D RATHER FIGHT SOME MORE SPIDERS!”

Well, it seemed like that she’d experienced some kind of traumatic experience in that district. Now that I think about it, Ria also shuddered at the mention of the district… Just what happened there?

It’d gotten so bad that Ihwa started crying.

Nira, who was beside me, sighed.

“She probably nearly got her face melted off in that district or something.”

Then, she took Ihwa’s hand and led her to her room.

“I’ll take care of her. Summon me if anything goes wrong.”

With Nira and Ihwa now gone, I exchanged glances with Aerin.

“Do you want to come?”

“Of course, Master.”

.

.

.

.

Okay, now I understood why Ihwa was so scared. In the five minutes that I’d been here, I had to dodge eight acid vials, three hot iron ingots, and five throwing knives. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought that someone was trying to assassinate me.

It seemed that Ria was proficient at navigating this district safely, as this was definitely much more than I’d expected.

Soon, we got to Erza’s smithy. However, something was strange. It was…burning, and it didn’t seem to be an accident since I knew that Erza was a decent Blacksmith.

People on the streets were strolling past the smithy casually, as if this was a normal occurrence.

“Stay outside, Aerin.”

“Yes, Master.”

There was a high chance that Erza would recognize Aerin, so I commanded her to stay outside. With that now out of the way, I barged the door of the smithy and shouted,

“If you don’t open the door in ten seconds, I’ll assume that something’s wrong.”

Ten seconds passed. Of course, he didn’t answer.

“I won’t be paying for repair fees! [Aura sharpening].”

Slicing the door open with my hand, I dashed inside the smithy, which was now a hell of smoke, fire, and debris. Pretty soon, I could find Erza sitting slouched on a chair with several gaping holes in his body.

“Hey.” He weakly waved at me.

“...”

I stared at him blankly and approached him. Once I got to him, I had to take a step back since he was coughing a mouthful of blood.

“Ehem, excuse me here, please listen to what I say. I don’t think the hole in my lungs will give me much time.”

“Nonsense.”

I placed a hand on his body and cast [Minor heal]. However, apart from the small cuts on his body, it healed nothing else.

“Surprised?” He scoffed. “Did you think Minor heal can do anything to these wounds?”

“Who did this to you?” I asked, ignoring his earlier statement.

“Red skulls. Forgot to pay my monthly debt. They just trashed the entire smithy and took everything; even your money and armor. Anyways, please listen to me, I don’t have much t—”

“T-They… They dare!?”

They had the guts to kill a Blacksmith that me, a Swordsmaster, contracted?

As I was thinking of ways to make them pay dearly for this, Erza gathered all the remaining air in his lungs and shouted,

“GODDAMMIT! I’M DYING HERE! AT LEAST HEAR MY LAST WORDS!”

‘Oh, right.’

I completely forgot about that. With those wounds, it’d be a miracle if he survived for even two more minutes. In fact, Common-grade potions that the Alchemists outside sold weren’t enough to even extend his life for a few more seconds. So, he was thoroughly fucked.

“Alright then, say what you want.”

That was the least I could do, after all.

“But don’t take too long. I don’t want to get trapped inside this burning smithy if that’s what you’re plotting.”

“Pffft, as if I have much more time to live anyways.”

Clearing his throat, Erza continued.

“If you ever go to the Forest of Eternity, look for a Fairy named Leaf. Tell her that you’ve come on my behalf, and she’ll help you make your sword a scabbard.”

“...Why are you telling me this?”

“Dumbass, you’re the only one here right now.”

He did have a point.

“Is that all?”

“Yes. Now, let me enjoy my final moments not looking at your stupid face.”

“...What a harsh thing to say to a five-year-old.”

“I’m dying over here. This isn’t about you.”

Well, seeing no reason to stay here anymore, I turned to leave the smithy. Before I did, I could hear Erza’s last shout.

“Hey, I forgot to tell you something! If you ever meet my Master, tell him that I’m sorry!”

“For forgetting the Blacksmith code-of-honor?”

Erza chuckled and laughed wildly.

“No, for stealing his booze.”

Then, he breathed his last breath.