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The Next Day…

In the morning, Shalltear waited impatiently in plaza in front of Babel tower. She stood by the fountain at the middle of the public square, waiting for a certain young boy that she had to accompany.

Said boy came running in her direction, equipped with a few daggers and wearing only a small breast plate for protection. It was better than Shalltear's current attire that had absolutely no armor and was simply the same boring clothes that she had stolen from the guild. Miach and Naaza seemed concerned for her safety and thought she acted recklessly but it wasn't as if she really needed any protection. From what she'd seen already, there was nothing dangerous awaiting her in the dungeon.

Remembering the other day's events on the fifth floor, Shalltear sincerely hoped that she wouldn't have to jump in to save the boy, whom she had already forgotten the name of, from every single monster they encountered in the dungeon. That would be extremely boring and a huge waste of her time. At the very least, Naaza gave her a couple healing potions so she wouldn't have to waste her healing magic on the white-haired brat. Aside from wasting, she didn't want to reveal any skills that may trace back to her.

As the boy finally arrived, he blushed and clearly felt uneasy with being so close to a girl of divine beauty such as Shalltear. She hoped that the boy would not attempt to flirt with her. Her love was reserved to her beautiful creator after all.

"E-Excuse me! Is it you that wants to join my party? I-I j-just remembered you were w-with Miach so-"

"Yep, it's me~. My name is Aura Bella Fiora~." She told the boy in a sing-song voice.

The boy's cheeks became even redder. The beautiful face of the petite girl in front of him reminded him of someone. Someone he had met two days ago and immediately had a crush on. Unfortunately, the lights at the time were too dim for him to fully see what the woman who saved him looked like. The only thing he saw was the face... And those bright, crimson red eyes that made his heart warm up and shiver.

He didn't know if this was fear or love, or perhaps a combination of the two. Could this actually be the girl that-

"Oi~. Isn't it rude to not say anything~?" A heavenly voice, that came from the subject of his thoughts brought him out of his contemplations with an irritated look on her still pretty face. "This is the part where you are supposed to give me your name~..."

"Not that I care about it anyways." She whispered that last part out while Bell jumped slightly.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry! My name is Bell Cranel, n-nice to meet you." He said as he timidly extended his hand towards Shalltear who glanced down at it with disgust for a second before back up at Bell's face, causing the young man to pull it away awkwardly.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"I'll see if there is any worth in forming a party with you today~." She said firmly, remembering how lame the boy was when he ran from the weak beastman monster.

"Y-Yes." Bell responded awkwardly.

"Okay, and I will be the party leader~!" Shalltear said in a commanding tone that suggested no objections would be tolerated.

"Eh?! Do we really need a party leader?" He asked, causing the vampire to reflect over her statement for a few seconds.

After pondering over the question for a while, Shalltear answered the pathetic brat's question; "Of course, we do." That was a lie. She knew that there was absolutely no point in having a leader in a two-member party, but the vampire couldn't stand being seen as equal to that boy. There was no way she'd accept that fate. Moreover, there might be more people joining their little group eventually, so she had to take any advantage she had to make herself above others before they teamed up against her.

"Then I guess it's fine… I don't have much experience in leadership anyways… Say, are you a magic caster?" The boy asked, seeing that Shalltear did not have any weapon or armor on herself. Even so, it was still quite weird given that magic casters usually had a staff and carried secondary weapons to deal with monsters that came too close to them.

"I do have some magic, but I use a lance as my main weapon. It is stored within my pocket dimension." She explained to the stupid brat. She had forgotten how people in this city apparently don't have an inventory, so his concerns were not unfounded.

"Whoa! So that means you can store things into an invisible bag? Can it be anything or just weapons? Is it endless?" He asked many questions consecutively with visible stars of amazement in his eyes.

"Yes~, and it only works for weapons~." Shalltear lied once again by confirming this boy's stupid questions. She did not want her inventory to become the go to place to store all of these weaklings' things. She would never accept to be seen as a nothing more than a pack mule, so saying yes to if it worked only for weapons was in her best interest.

Seeing Bell's admiring glare pleased Shalltear by quite a bit. With enough time and training, he may become a good pet. Still, whether or not he would be a useful pet was another matter.

"If you are quite done admiring my abilities, then let us proceed~." She said proudly after the boy's praises and began walking towards the dungeon's entrance with Bell following closely behind her.

"Say, what are your stats like, Aura?" Bell asked as Shalltear flinched at the lack of honorifics in her name. Shouldn't she be called 'master'? Or perhaps this sounded a bit wrong in this environment, so why not 'captain' or 'miss'? A decent honorific would be 'lady', but that would be like declaring that she was of higher blood, which she was. Unfortunately, the attention she'd get from it would be too troublesome.

"What my stats are~?" Shalltear repeated and Bell answered with a nod. The vampire hadn't thought about what to answer with beforehand. She couldn't tell him what her actual stats were, and even if she did, she doubted that the boy would understand due to the level system not being the same to the one where she came from.

"I… I don't know, but it is above most adventurers~." She finally gave her reply before entering the dungeon and walking down the spiral staircase to the dungeon's first floor.

"Aura… that's amazing! Will you be taking out your spear right away?" Even more stars filled the boy's eyes as the two walked down the stairs to the darkness.

"No. Those creatures on the upper floors are not worth staining my spear on them~. I will be using my spells and please use an honorific when talking to your senior~. I will tolerate you calling me 'miss' or 'captain'. Have I made myself clear~?"

Bell was perplexed by this statement. Aura had about the same age as his and perhaps even less, so wouldn't calling her 'miss' sound somewhat wrong?

"Sure… I guess…"