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City of Orario, North Main Street
The vampire did not expect the building that housed the dungeon to be so tall. It was a gigantic tower that appeared to be touching the sky. There could be something interesting at the top of it. She made a mental note of flying up to see the tower's highest floors eventually.
Once outside the tower seemingly endless in height, Shalltear put back her Spuit Lance into her inventory and started walking in her blood-coloured armour with the pair of wings through the streets of the city that housed the dungeon. She could see buildings lining up together and the streets filled with plenty of activity. The sun was bright, the sky was blue; all in all, it was a beautiful day outside for everyone…
Everyone except for a certain vampire…
Shalltear had been sent to this world very far away from her home, the Great Tomb of Nazarick, and she found herself unable to get back there. She was, in other words, failing in her duty to come back and assist the supreme beings in eliminating the threat that sent her in this stupid dungeon.
There were countless emotions of distress inside her head, but she mainly felt anger. Anger at herself for failing her duties. Anger at herself for getting caught up in the enemy attack that sent her here. She expected lashing out at the humans in the dungeon would lighten her mood, but it just made it worse.
Shalltear felt loneliness at the thought of being abandoned by the supreme beings. No, that's not true. The supreme beings would never abandon her. This incident was her own mistake and she had to find a way back herself to prove that she had still some worth as a guardian.
"Hmm… What should I do now~?" The vampire girl told herself while walking through a rather large street, a bit frustrated on top of being depressed. That frustration wasn't for nothing. Afterall, she had absolutely no clue as to how she was going to find her way back to Nazarick. Even if she tried, she'd probably have to wait until one of the supreme beings track her down eventually.
At the thought of having to wait for them to come get her, Shalltear's mood sinked even lower to the point that a small amount of bloodlust leaked, earning herself some scared glares from the people she passed by. What filled her mind was this extremely difficult question: What to do if not serve the supreme beings? Shalltear couldn't think of anything that would be worth more than serving them.
Still, she had already set herself a few objectives in this city, so she'll think about what to do once she's done with those, still with the hope that she will be eventually tracked down and brough back to Nazarick.
The first order of business would be to take a nice, long bath to take off the horrid smell from the dungeon's creature and then find new clothing. She still wasn't entirely sure if the adventurers that saw her in her True Vampire form would remember the casual dress set black robe with the ribbon given to her by Lord Peroronchino, but if that were to be the case, she'd be in big trouble. The other reason was that these dresses attracted too much attention and the vampire wanted nothing that had to do with this city.
Anyways, looking around her, she could see that the bustling streets were filled with food carts selling potatoes everywhere. It was almost comical how so many competing businesses could sell their potatoes in a single spot. Shalltear could only guess that this was the food people liked to eat here or else these merchants were very stupid.
"Do you want a Jagamarukun?" The nearest person that sold potatoes called out to Shalltear whom realised had been looking at the potato carts for too long.
The vampire turned to look at the figure selling potatoes that called out to her. She was a short girl with a large pair of boobs. Her hairs were done up in twin tails wearing a white dress with a ribbon tied to her arms across her front.
'How is her breast so large and she's the same height as me... Whhyyyyy?' Shalltear moaned in her heart. One day, she will find how to get a bigger cleavage too and will swing them in everyone's faces proudly, but that could wait. She just had to leave this girl before her boobs make Shalltear anymore jealous.
"No." Shalltear replied with no care and turned back to move on, but then, the same person grabbed the wings behind her back. Shalltear tensed up and felt like exploding. That girl carelessly tried to hold her back here and decided to do it by placing her dirty hands on her equipment given to her by her beautiful creator. Unfortunately, killing this girl would be too bothersome due to all the attention she'd receive from such actions. Instead, Shalltear turned back to look at the figure once more straight in the face and did her best to keep on a neutral face. "What is it~?" She asked the annoying girl.
"Coooommme oooonnnn! I know you want one! It's only 30 valis a piece. With an armour like that, thirty valis must be worth nothing and I reeaaaallly need the money please-"
"I. Said. No. And the armour was a gift~. I don't have any money on me~." Shalltear told the girl something she expected would shut her up. Though it seems that the girl believed Shalltear's excuse, literal stars formed in the girl's eyes as if she'd learned something amazing.
"You said someone gave this to you?" The girl said with widened eyes, pointing at the blood coloured armour along with the pair of wings. "Tell me. Who did? I need one for my sole familia member and I can't afford one cuz we are so poor! Please, please, pleeeeaaaassseeee."
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Shalltear was taken aback by the girl's annoying behaviour and her incomprehensible words due to her whining. She did not like having to deal with this when she was currently going through depression. If it wasn't for the fact that they were in a public place, she would have cut her up and be done with it. And that is exactly why Shalltear didn't know how to deal with the current situation.
Another thing that bogged her was this commonly recurring word: familia. What was a familia? The animal guy on the dungeon's fifth floor did say it had something to do with a god's blessing.
"*Sigh* What's a familia anyways~?" If Shalltear thought that the girl's eyes could not hold anymore stars, then she was very wrong. The girl bore a large grin as if she had found the jackpot which served to annoy Shalltear even more in her current depressed mood. Was she not going to explain what a familia is?
"You don't have a familia yet? Then join my familia!" The girl with the large pair of breasts exclaimed so loudly that everyone nearby heard clearly what she had said.
"Hold on Hestia! She's mine!" Another potato seller ran up to the two of them.
"No, she'll join my familia!" And one more came.
"Wait join mine instead!" And another one.
As more and more potato sellers gathered around Shalltear like a small army of zombies, the vampire could not help but stare dumbfounded at the scene whom she was the center of. She, at first thought that she had somewhat of an understanding about the meaning of a familia, but it seems that she was wrong.
How foolish of her. She used to think that familias were cults that worshipped different gods based on the animal guy's description of the word, but it was clearly not the case seeing this. If even people that sold potatoes could have members of their familias, then what did the word really imply? Were familias simply gatherings of people that shared the same interests? Like a book club?
Shalltear was surrounded by zombie look-alikes wanting her to join their familias from all angles. Some fought against one another and a few of them even stroked the wings of her armour.
'How dare they put their filthy hand on me!' Shalltear had to resist the urge to blast them all away, but it was very difficult considering the circumstances.
She had to somehow get out of there. Her eyes locked up on a building faraway and she cast a silent [Greater Teleportation] to the building's roof.
And just like that, she had completely vanished from the center of the potato sellers' ambush. On top of the faraway building that she had teleported to, she looked at the place where she had caused a commotion. There were many of those stupid humans wondering where she had vanished to, but none of them seemed to have spotted her in her new faraway location, which meant that she had gotten out of this troublesome situation successfully.
She took in a deep breath, and then exhaled. This experience was suffocating. The worst part was that she couldn't fight back and had to resort to fleeing. Never again will she ask what a familia is or else she knew that she'd face the wrath of the potato sellers; foes that Shalltear did not want to face again. At least in daylight.
She sat down on the building's edge, swinging her legs into nothingness while looking at the sight of the city in front of her.
It was a large city in the shape of a perfect circle. Eight large roads that came from the outside to the center of the city separated the place into eight symmetrical districts. It was quite a nice sight, but what really did set this city apart from others was what stood at the very center of it all.
Shalltear recalled it as the tower that housed the dungeon underneath it which she came out from. The tower could be said to practically touch the sky. From this point of view, there was no way to see the top of it.
'Just where have I been directed to?' Was what Shalltear wondered.
Her mood got down again once she remembered that she was far from home with no way back. The potato sellers almost made her forget her terrifying situation by putting her into another terrifying situation. She felt lonely at the thought of being abandoned by the supreme beings. She felt like crying, but that wasn't something she could allow herself to do in a public area, even if she was basically hiding on the roof side.
Instead, she clenched her fists, eyes filled with determination.
Her only purpose in life was to serve the supreme beings, but she had no way to go back to the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Nevertheless, she still had to cling on to the hope that one of the supreme beings will come back to find her. It's the only thing that she could do to express her unwavering loyalty.
Looking further down, she spotted a group of armoured men hanging out on the side of the road. Good. She could ask them where to find a public bath. Judging by the armour and weapons they are wearing, these men were definitely adventurers so they must have had the same issues as she had concerning the dungeon's horrid smell.
Shalltear's wings opened as she slowly descended in the alley and approached the men. They seemed to have noticed the vampire and turned to look at her with quizzical look, wondering what a flying girl in an amazing full-plate armour wanted from them.
"Ehem. Excuse me~, but do you happen to know where I can find a public bath~?" She asked politely to these adventurers who still weren't sure if they stood in front of an angel, however, it wasn't for too long because an angel descending on the lower world wouldn't be possible.
Some of the men seemed annoyed by her, especially by the way she held herself that seemed to say that she was a noble. The full-plate armour along with a pair of wings that allowed her to fly like an angel also made them quite jealous of her. Were those wings a new prototype of item granting flight developped by the Hephaestus familia's smiths? Anyways, there was no doubt that these men would never be able to pay for the equipment in the possession of this little girl that couldn't be older than fourteen. Jealousy was the main cause of their annoyance, but there wasn't anything they could do about it, so they'll simply answer her question and be done with it.
"First time in the dungeon, huh? There are free to use showers in the Pantheon." One of the men replied nonchalantly in the hopes that this conversation will not last any longer.
"Panteon~?" Shalltear repeated the name in confusion.
"It's the main building of the Guild. You know, where you signed up to become an adventurer?" He was quite irritated after seeing yet another look of confusion on the girl's face after finishing his sentence. He sighed, ignored the snicker coming from his fellow adventurers and replied one more time to the noble girl. "You go this way and then turn the corner over there on Northwest Main Street. Don't worry, it will jump in your face if you still can't see it by then." He replied with a smirk and waved Shalltear off before turning back to his adventurer group.
Shalltear ran in the direction the man had pointed out to her. She wasn't used to being treated as a little girl and she felt somewhat irked by it, but in the end, she got the information she wanted so it wasn't that bad.
She turned on the street that she was instructed to go to and spotted a large two-story building with colourful banners next to the white stone it was made out of. A good number of armoured people whom she had already guessed were adventurers were coming in and out of it.
'That must be it.' Shalltear told herself while running in the guild building's direction.