"Maybe you should take a break for a while, Haruka."

Tetsu looked at his granddaughter worriedly as he watched her fumble with the knife while she was cutting some vegetables. She looked visibly exhausted, with her yawning every now and then while she was preparing foods.

"Hmm? Why?" Haruka looked genuinely confused by her grandfather's words.

Tetsu sighed. His granddaughter had been doing her patrolling for every night now after he discovered her secret. He could tell how exhausted she was due to her staying up late. And he knew that fighting monsters every night wasn't all that healthy, and he thought that she should at least take a break every now and then.

"Hrmh… have you looked into yourself in the mirror lately? You're a mess." Tetsu said. Haruka blinked.

"B-but…" Haruka tried to find an excuse, but Tetsu just gave her an unimpressed look.

"Stay home and sleep early tonight. Don't overexert yourself." Tetsu told her. "If you're tired, you're not going to do your job as a magical girl properly."

"B-but, grandpa…" Haruka tried to protest, but after seeing her grandfather's unimpressed stare, she just sighed and relented. "Alright, fine. I'll stay home tonight. I'm sorry I make you worry, grandpa."

Tetsu let out a grunt. "Worrying about you is my job. There's nothing I can do to help you to fight monsters and all that bump in the night, but at the very least, I can remind you to take care of yourself." His gaze softened. "You're aware that tiring yourself to death won't really help you to do your duty?"

Haruka looked down, looking chastised. "I'm sorry."

"Come on, let me handle the rest. Once we're finished with our dinner, head straight to bed." Tetsu said as he went to take over to prepare dinner.

Haruka nodded. "Alright…"

And so, the dinner was an uneventful affair. It seemed that Karen didn't join them, and she had been staying in her room after she returned from school. When Tetsu asked her if she wanted to eat, she just told him to leave the food outside her room.

Tetsu knew that both Haruka and Karen didn't get along, judging from the tense air whenever they were in the same room together. Still, he could tell that the two of them didn't really hate each other. Both of them were so different in personalities that the two had given up on trying to get along with each other.

Well, at least they hadn't started a fight yet. He wasn't sure if he could take it if both of his granddaughters ended up fighting. Regardless of what he thought about them, he loved them very dearly. He treasured both of them to bits, with him willing to be Haruka's confidant and allowing Karen to stay in his house after she was expelled from her school. He knew how troublesome these girls were, but as their grandfather, he was willing to look past that, allowing himself some excitement in his supposedly peaceful life in retirement.

Well, so much for a peaceful life in retirement. Not that he had any right to complain, of course, considering that he was the one willing to take them in.

----------------------------------------

Karen was in her room, recalling her consciousness back to her from her own projection. She had done conversing with her underlings at the apartment complex, and it had been decided that she would be out to investigate the neighborhood alongside one of her subordinates, Knudsen.

The blonde vampire mistress sighed. Among her direct subordinates, she'd rather spend her time with Knudsen the least. Not that she particularly hated him, but it was due to his excitable and childish personality, unlike her other direct subordinates, Raoul and Homura. But she needed both Raoul and Homura to do other missions, and that left Knudsen to accompany her to investigate the murders of her lesser subordinates. Dealing with him could be quite tiring.

Speaking of the murders, her lesser subordinates who were sent to do reconnaissance job had been eliminated by someone. As of right now, everything about the culprit was unknown. There was no telling whether the culprit belonged to the Demon Hunter Association or the Catholic Church, or an unknown third party that she didn't know yet. Due to this, she was hoping to use herself as a bait to draw out the culprit so that both her and Knudsen could deal with them once and for all.

Karen looked on herself, seeing that she was still in her skintight black leotard, which didn't only accentuate her feminine figure, but also gave prominence to her toned arms and thighs. Her choice of attire was meant to be sexually titillating, because among vampires, sexiness equals power. Vampires are well-known for using their charisma to attract followers, and Karen made sure to appear in a getup fitting for a vampire mistress. And to complete the ensemble, she also wore a pair of long gloves and thigh-high boots. Her appearance was the very definition of a dominatrix.

It was already late at night, and Karen thought that she should get going. Closing her eyes, she focused her vampiric power to transform herself into mist. Using her mist form, she left her grandfather's house, heading over to rendezvous with Knudsen.

Upon reaching her destination, Karen began to reform herself, and when she fully reformed in midair, she descended down to the street and landed gracefully on one foot. Knudsen was already there, waiting for her to arrive.

Knudsen, who was a young man in fashionable clothes, whistled as he saw his mistress landing in front of him. "Looking good as always." He made sure to admire her looks, and his eyes focused on her curves. Karen decided to just ignore that stare.

"Let us begin." Karen said. She looked at Knudsen, whose hair was dyed blue and slicked back. He had a few piercings on his ears and right eyebrow. "We will try to draw out the perpetrator. Keep your eyes open, Knudsen."

"You got it." Knudsen nodded as his vampiric aura started to flare up. His aura seemed to visibly emanate from his own body, red in color. "Are you going to release your aura too?" He asked. Karen shook her head.

"My aura is too powerful to be a suitable bait. Our target may suspect something if I do it." Karen reasoned. "You, on the other hand, is strong enough that our target may become more interested, and weak enough that they won't suspect a thing."

Knudsen flinched a little when his power was called weak compared to his mistress'. Not that it wasn't wrong. "Oof. That's a low blow, mistress. Not everyone can become a Daywalker in less than a year, you know?"

Karen rolled her eyes. "You'd be more powerful than you are currently if you didn't slack off, Knudsen. Now shut up and make yourself a tasty bait."

Knudsen laughed. "Yes, mom."

Both Karen and Knudsen began moving down the street, their forms blurring due to them moving quick. Knudsen's aura trailed behind him as he moved.

It seemed that no one was trying to take the bait, at least not yet. But Karen could sense some presences lurking, and when they stopped, they were surrounded by a group of amorphous-looking creatures.

"Are they our big fish?" Knudsen asked.

Karen shook her head. "I don't think so. These are just lowly monster larvae. The nymph form of Devourer." She studied the creatures surrounding them. "They're lucky they get to become nymphs, but to become Devourers, they need to eat something that is rich with mana or get themselves submerged into the Great Leyline without being disintegrated."

"So, they see me as some kind of succulent meat so they can evolve into big badass monsters of the night?" Knudsen grinned. Karen rolled her eyes.

"Don't delude yourself, Knudsen. You're barely even an appetizer." Karen remarked.

"Oof. Way to keep me grounded, mistress." Knudsen said, wincing. The nymph monsters started to close in, directing their attentions on Knudsen, whose aura was still flaring. "So, what are we gonna do?"

"Annihilate them. Let none survive." Karen ordered. Knudsen grinned as he crouched.

"Alright! Let's dance, losers!" His hands transformed into sharp claws, and in an instant, he started tearing through the group of monsters. He spun and twirled in the air, clawing and tearing their bodies without mercy. With his red aura trailing behind him, he was like a red whirlwind, tearing apart the monsters without problem.

Seeing how outmatched they were, some of the monsters tried to shift their focus on someone else, namely Karen, who wasn't emanating any aura at the moment. As if thinking that they could at least score some win on something that seemed weaker, they got away from Knudsen and leaped towards her. They were ready to overpower and devour her, though Karen seemed unbothered by this.

"Hmph, fools."

A pair of black wings emerged from her back. When the monsters got closer, the wings reformed into giant black claws, grabbing the monsters and crushing them. Then she tossed aside their corpses as she observed Knudsen eliminating the rest of the monsters without trouble.

"With how weak they are, there's no way they're responsible for killing my lesser spawns." Karen stated. "Still, with them being around, it'll be hard to secure this place as our feeding ground because more of them will come here since they're attracted to the Great Leyline." She sighed. "Another thing to work on once we get rid of our target."

Once Knudsen killed the last monster, he looked at his mistress. "So, we continue moving?"

"Yes. We're planning to finish this tonight." Karen said. "It's either that we find our killer or the sun rises, whichever comes first."

"You got it." Knudsen grinned. With that, he dashed ahead, following his mistress' instruction. Karen sighed as she looked at her surroundings.

"What a pain…" Karen grumbled. There was no telling whether she could find their target anytime soon. With Knudsen flaring his aura earlier, he should've already painted himself as a perfect bait, and yet, their target hadn't shown themselves yet.

Rather than dashing ahead like her minion, Karen just walked down the street, taking slow steps as she observed her surroundings. It had been a while since the last time she came here. Back then when she was young, she used to walk around the town with her grandfather, who always had enough time for her even though he had four other granddaughters to attend to.

Unlike her father, her grandfather was always there for her when she needed him. Sure, he was gruff and a bit unfriendly, but he was caring and attentive. He would always grumble whenever she tried to get his attention, but he put up with her regardless, unlike her father, who would always tell her the same sentence each time she tried to spend time with him.

"Maybe next time, honey."

Karen instinctively clenched her fists, recalling the time when she first returned back home after her transformation into a vampire. Her father was nowhere to be seen, and when she contacted him, he acted as if she wasn't missing for a period of time. She remembered being crushed by this, seeing how inattentive her father was that he didn't even realize that his daughter went missing and became a damned creature of the night.

But she had learned to let it go. She joined a vampire clan so that she could survive, and she made sure to use her power to fool everyone, making sure that no one would realize that the old Karen was no more. By joining the vampire clan, her strength grew, and before long, she became a Daywalker in less than a year, an unprecedented achievement that could only be reached by a few of her kind.

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Building her reputation and prestige within the dark vampire society, Karen had decided to establish her own coven, and she wanted to use the Great Leyline in Sakamoto Town to change her coven into a proper vampire clan, with her being the matriarch of it. She also planned to make Sakamoto Town into the feeding ground of the clan, though she would ensure that none of her spawns would engage in wanton slaughter and binge eating.

After all, there was no need for vampires to kill mortals in order to survive. Sure, they needed blood for nourishment, but killing innocent people wasn't something that Karen wished to do. Especially since she grew up in this town, thus knowing most of the people here.

Karen stopped and looked up. She wasn't sure if she actually wanted this kind of life, being an immortal monster thirsting for blood, but there was nothing she could do about her situation. Vampires turning back into humans is a rare thing, if not impossible, and many of her kind believe that reverting back to mortals for vampires is nothing more than myth. She had to make do with the bad hand she had to deal with, and if she had to become a Vampire Lord to survive, then so be it.

"Hmm?"

Karen noticed something. It was a group of those amorphous-looking creatures, the same like the ones that both her and Knudsen had dealt with earlier. She scoffed, believing that these creatures might be thinking that she was an easy prey.

"Tch, how sloppy, Knudsen…" Karen grumbled. "Seems like you missed a spot." Closing her eyes, a pair of black wings emerged from her back. "Well, no matter. At the very least, you've given me something to work with." She grinned, baring her fangs. "So, you losers think I'm some helpless maiden, huh? Too bad! Let me show you my power!"

She unleashed her aura, and her surroundings reacted to it. The moon above turned crimson. The street lights began to flicker, and the monsters became agitated by the sheer pressure of her aura. It seemed that in their search for food, they had found themselves in the gaping maw of a much powerful predator.

Some of them tried to escape, but found themselves unable to leave. Karen had conjured some kind of barrier which prevented the monsters from escaping her. Karen let out a laugh, clearly enjoying the fact that she got her enemies cornered.

"Hahahaha! What's the matter, worms?! You think you can get away from me? Think again!" The black, eldritch-looking wings on her back transformed into a pair of giant claws. "I will squeeze you dry and chew on your souls! Be proud that you shall become a part of me, the great Vampire Lord!" It was clear that she was enjoying this.

Sensing no way out, the monsters had decided that they might as well try attacking her as they rushed over to her, attempting to overpower her with their number. Karen just chuckled as she used her giant claws to crush the incoming monsters, flattening them against the pavement, splattering their innards everywhere.

"How weak! You think you can defeat me like that? Come, make this enjoyable for me!" Karen declared, daring the monsters to come at her again.

The monsters let out screeching noises before they tried to gang up on her again, but Karen made use of her giant claws to catch them before she crushed them like bugs. They let out gurgling noises as they expired.

"Heh… pathetic." Karen scoffed, tossing aside their corpses. There was only one of them left, and it seemed that it was desperate enough that it started grabbing a corpse of another monster before devouring it. Karen raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

The effect was immediate. The monster became less amorphous as it devoured its own kind, and its body became sleeker.

"Ah… so by devouring your own kind, you experience some kind of breakthrough, huh?" Karen wondered aloud. "Heh… I thought your kind is nothing but a bunch of mindless brutes. A bit uncivilized, but at least that's one way to increase your strength." She grinned. "Now, let's see how strong you are…"

The monster, which seemed to have evolved into some kind of insectoid monster, let out a screeching noise. Two blades emerged from its forearms. As for Karen, she dismissed her giant claws as she conjured a pair of black blades from her hands.

"Show me what you're made of…" Karen said. The monster, this time looking more humanoid in shape, took two steps forward before it disappeared in a flash. When it reappeared before Karen, it tried to cut her down with its blades, but Karen managed to parry its attack with her black blades.

Unlike before, the monster was attacking Karen in the more methodical way, seemingly capable of planning its movements. Meanwhile, Karen reacted to its attacks, matching its speed by blocking and parrying its attack. To ensure that there was no property damage, Karen conjured some kind of barrier around them, preventing the destruction of properties as the two of them were battling each other.

"Impressive! You've become a much greater threat after eating one of your kind! You could become an apex predator if you keep doing this!" Karen spoke aloud as she matched the monster's attacks with her own speed. "Unfortunately, this place will be a feeding ground for my kind, and your kind isn't welcome here…"

Clang!

Both Karen and the monster were locking blades with each other. The monster tried to press forward, but despite its best effort, it was unable to push Karen back.

"You have entertained me enough, you overgrown cockroach…" Karen said, showing an amused smile. "Now, let me show you the true power of the Vampire Lord. Rejoice. You shall become a part of me."

After saying that, a few black tendrils emerged from Karen's back. As if sensing something wrong, the monster tried to step back, but it was unable to move, its legs kept in place by Karen's shadow. The monster screeched loudly as if realizing that it would soon be devoured.

"You shall become my pet…" Karen said. "You will lose your free will, but you will be able to reach your true potential under my shadow. You shall become my attack dog, ready at my beck and call. Now, cease your fighting. It will be less painful that way."

The monster started struggling as the black tendrils started wrapping themselves around it. From the way it flailed its limbs, it was clear that it was reacting to the tendrils in terror, as if knowing that it would soon be swallowed by a great predator.

The monster was born mindless, but it was able to evolve to become a much intelligent lifeform. In any other circumstances, it could become an apex predator, a creature that could kill anything in its path. There would be nothing that could stop it from its rampage. It would devour other lesser creatures around it, increasing its intelligence, becoming more dangerous, more destructive.

But here, it was slowly devoured by another predator, a more terrible monster. It would soon be assimilated into such monster's soul, its powers stolen and to be used at its leisure. It would soon become a mindless puppet for the more terrifying monster, becoming nothing more than an attack dog that could only act on its master's orders.

Piece by piece, the monster was consumed, and it found itself in a vortex of souls. Inside the more terrifying monster, there were other lifeforms it had consumed, and the monster would soon join them.

The monster tried to lash out, hoping to escape the vortex. But it was soon swept into the cacophony of madness from all these consumed souls, and soon, its mind broke. It joined the rest of the souls in the vortex, becoming a part of the terrible monster that had consumed it.

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Karen sighed after she was done devouring the monster. She felt full even though she didn't actually use her mouth to gobble the monster up. Now that she was a more powerful vampire, there was no need for her to actually use her mouth to devour another creature. Though she actually preferred biting her victim if she wished to feed on blood.

"Well, that was a good workout…" Karen muttered to herself. While she didn't find the culprit responsible for the deaths of her minions, at the very least she was able to eliminate some of the monsters that could prey on the people in this town. This way, the monsters would not be able to endanger their food supply.

Karen then looked at her surroundings before she dismissed the barrier that she had erected earlier. Thanks to the barrier, she was able to prevent collateral damage when she was fighting the monsters.

She might be a monster herself, but she was no vandal.

"That was entirely unproductive…" Karen grumbled, seeing that she hadn't found the culprit yet. "And where the hell is Knudsen? Maybe I should've brought Homura next time. She's probably weaker, but at the very least, she's efficient and doesn't like fooling around…" She tried to sense where Knudsen was through the connection that she had with him when she suddenly sensed someone from around the corner. "Who's there?!"

She could sense the presence of an ordinary person just around the corner, and Karen mentally cursed herself for her carelessness. She could've easily prevented a civilian from seeing her, but now that she was seen, she had no other choice but to get rid of the eyewitness.

If there was one thing Karen hated the most, it was killing a human being. She knew that being a bloodsucking monster, she had no other choice but to harm humans, but she never wished to kill anyone. And now, thanks to her carelessness, she had to do something that she hated the most.

"Urgh… better get this over with…"

Karen stomped forward, preparing herself to kill whoever this eyewitness was. She hardened her heart, trying to not be affected by the violent act that she was about to commit.

But the sight of the eyewitness made her falter.

"Karen?"

It was her grandfather.

"G-grandpa?!"

Karen froze. Standing right before her was no one but her own grandfather, affectionately known by his friends as Old Man Tetsu. Karen's eyes grew wide as she looked at the old man before her, who was in his usual getup. He was carrying a toolbox. Presumably, he was out here to do some repairing.

Clamping her teeth into his neck should be easy for Karen. She could just get rid of him, removing the eyewitness. But here, she could do nothing as the old man approached her.

"Karen, what just happened? And what's with the getup?"

Her grandfather asked her questions. It was clear that he saw what she just did earlier. Karen trembled, stepping back and shaking her head.

"N-no, no…" Karen muttered. "S-stay away from me, grandpa… please…"

Her grandfather gave her a concerned look. Karen couldn't bear to look at her grandfather's face, feeling ashamed.

"Karen, you…"

When her grandfather tried to reach out to her, Karen immediately broke into a sprint, leaving her grandfather behind. She was terrified. She didn't want to show this side of her to her grandfather.

She didn't want him to know about this side of her, and yet, he saw her.

Karen ran down the street with no direction in mind. She just wanted to run as far as possible from her grandfather.

"This can't be happening!"