「Yes, I have watched your fights in the arena. Tracking you down was rather difficult, but I figured you would have to be either watching, or competing if you were to be there.」

The girl nods her twin-tailed head.

「Riiiiiiiiight… And who are you, again?」

Straf's gaze drifts up, as the feeling of being watched starts to make perfect sense now. His eyes snap back to the parasol, and he asks.

「My, pardon my rudeness. I am Lilia Hemaluna, of the house Hemaluna…」

The little girl grips her skirt, swings her foot behind the other, and does a polite curtsy as she introduces herself with a confident, smug smile to her young face.

Rose Acker

[|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||] Lv. 32

Strength: 8 Perception: 10

Agility: 84 Endurance: 10

Dexterity: 102 Willpower: 20

Luck: 15 Intelligence: 11

Charisma: 15 Wisdom: 11

「Huuuuuh… Are you sure your name isn't Rose?」

Straf asks with his brows elevated, as he reads the vampire's attribute screen by his [Discerning Eye].

「W-!? Wh-!? What!? No! I'm Lilia Hemaluna of house Hemaluna!」

The vampire girl's eyes widen in shock, and her lips tighten. She takes a step back and shakes her head, flapping her golden twin-tails around as she protests.

「Really? 'Cause I'm fairly sure you're Rose.」

Straf looks away from the attribute screen to the vampire with a suspicious, discerning eye.

「N- No! I- I'm Lilia… I abandoned that name long ago! I'm Lilia Hemaluna of house Hemaluna!」

She shouts again with a pout, clenching her hands into fists and blinking rapidly as if her scarlet inhuman eyes were on the verge of tears. Straf looks at her in silence, with a mixture of pity and disbelief on his grimacing face.

《Wooooow. She's got the syndrome. I suppose her being an actual vampire kind of gives her an excuse, but still… What's next? A sealing eyepatch and arm bandage?》

「So… Why the much cooler, edgier name?」

Straf asks, still staring at her like a big brother who found his little sister's stash of embarrassing fanfictions.

「It's… It's because my master gave it to me. It's in his memory.」

She frowns, stroking one of her twin-tails as she looks aside.

「Wooooow. So he was the edgy one, huh? What happened to him?」

「The ingrate human scum mercilessly killed him. After everything he had done for them.」

The little girl glares up at Straf, though her slit eyes aren't directing her hatred at him in particular.

「Done for them? Like what? Fixed their high blood pressure?」

「He sheltered humans during the Night of Fangs. And this is how they repaid him.」

Her little hand tightens her grip around the parasol's handle, shaking heavily. Disdain reappears on her face.

「The Night of Fangs? These names keep getting edgier, and edgier.」

Straf's eyes narrow, and Cycelia manages to speak out, mostly hiding behind him.

「Um. It's another name for The Ash Nights, Straf.」

Cycelia confuses him even further, and she looks down at the vampire to gauge her reaction. While initially Lilia's face makes Cycelia's blood run cold, the little vampire girl nods.

「Yes. The Night of Fangs. The Ash Nights. The Night Unending. The Long Dark. The Reign of Blood Barons…」

Lilia continues dropping more and more cryptic, dark names.

「Okay, yeah, I get it. It's related to vampires. How?」

Straf shrugs, and looks at both Cycelia and Rose for answers.

「The Ash Nights in particular comes from the giant furnaces the vampires built, I read that in a history book…」

Cycelia meekly answers, anxiously fiddling with her medallion.

「Correct. I see the girl is well-read and of high birth. Nobility?」

Lilia nods, and directly asks Cycelia.

「Um, well… Uh…」

Cycelia's eyes drift aside as she's unsure whether lying is a good idea.

「Just tell her, Lia. What's the worst thing that can happen? She'll tell on you?」

Straf smirks as he points his palm at Rose. Cycelia looks into Straf's eyes with her lips narrow and eyes full of apprehension, but she decides to trust him anyway.

「…I am Cycelia Redwing.」

She answers the question quietly, which makes the vampire girl chuckle once.

「Ho. That Redwing?」

「Yes… It's probably the same one as you have in mind…」

「Small world.」

Lilia says, slyly smirking. She turns her head back to Straf.

「…Either way, the Redwing girl is correct. The name stems from the giant furnaces my kin have built during the demon lord's height. They consumed anything flammable and spewed smoke high into the air, so much so, that it blotted out the sun for years.」

Rose gives a first-hand account of historical events with a serious face.

「Flammable, like what? Wood? Coal?」

「People, Straf.」

Cycelia says with big eyes.

「Huh?」

Straf's face gains an incredulous expression as it turns to Cycelia.

「Among others. But yes, humans too. The human population dropped from… What was it? Around two billion? To just a hundred million or, so. At least those were the scholars' estimates…」

Rose puts her long-nailed finger on her face as she thinks, then shrugs.

「Ooooooooookay. Now. I might open a very nasty can of worms if I outright start denying that people were getting burned by vampires in massive furnaces, but doesn't the number sound a little fucking ridiculous? Improbable? That sounds like a literal apocalyptic level of population drop.」

Straf says with his eyes furrowed, and very skeptical eyes as he looks at both the vampire and the princess.

「…Can of worms?」

The vampire inquires.

「Straf, it really happened. All human kingdoms functionally collapsed. This is why there was such a large power struggle directly afterwards.」

Cycelia insists, with a very serious gloomy face.

「Yes… While I admit it may sound unbelievable now, it certainly did happen. I witnessed it with my own eyes. My master was sheltering groups of humans from becoming further fodder for the suffocating ash and smoke. And it certainly would have continued until all humans become feeding cattle, if not for the human hero and his party.」

「There's the hero again…」

Straf rolls his eyes.

「Straf, there's a reason why he's such a revered figure in our history.」

「Yeah, and nobody knows his name? Give me a break.」

Straf scoffs, waving his hand dismissively at Cycelia.

「He caused quite a lot of trouble. Slain all the vampire barons one by one, destroyed all the furnaces… When the ash thinned, a lot of vampires were caught off-guard by the sun's sudden reappearance, and burned away.」

Rose shrugs with her free hand, spinning her childishly parasol.

「Weren't you around back then? Why didn't you? And your master?」

Straf squints at the little vampire with his fists on his hips.

「Why, I'm glad you asked, because it's one of the reasons I've wanted to talk with you. My master and I are dawnwalkers. Or… My master was a dawnwalker…」

Her young face grows sullen as she remembers her master's fate.

「And? What's a dawnwalker?」

「Simply put, it's a vampire that fits neither in the night, nor into the day. As you can see, it is day, but as long as I have my parasol, the sun doesn't bother me. I can even resist the sunlight for quite some time, but it's excruciatingly painful the longer it is. On the other hand… And please don't laugh…」

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Lilia once again looks away, stroking one of her blonde twin-tails.

「Laugh? About what?」

Straf asks with his brows raised.

「…Promise me that you won't.」

She self-consciously side glances up at Straf from beneath her parasol.

「Okay, fine. I won't. Pinkie promise.」

Straf sighs and shrugs his shoulders.

「…I get tired and go to bed at night-」

「Pfffft-」

Straf barely manages to suppress his laughter. His face is twisting as he's trying his best to wipe his grin off his face.

「Hey! You promised you wouldn't!」

「I sneezheheh- Hrrrrk.」

Straf's bluff comes out wrong as he barely manages to suppress bursting out into laughter again. Lilia pouts at him heavily beneath her parasol. She sighs.

「…Anyhow, the reason I wanted to talk with you is, I want you to become a vampire.」

「Huh?」 「Huh!?」

Both Straf and Cycelia react the same, albeit Cycelia is more shocked.

「Nah, thanks. No way. I am not in any foreseeable future willingly changing my race, class, religion, diet, insurance company, way of mind, world, or opinion about bankers and democracy.」

「…What? But why?」

The small vampire shakes her head in confusion at the barrage of random words, and asks.

「Because 4 people at the wheel don't drive the car better.」

「…What? I meant, why do you not want to be a vampire?」

Rose clarifies her question, furrowing her brows.

「Oh. Isn't that obvious? You get to live forever. Technically.」

「Yes! Isn't that great!? You can free yourself from the fear of death!」

The vampire shills the perks of being a vampire with undead vigor.

「Is it?」

Straf asks with a serious face, looking the vampire straight in her inhuman, confused scarlet eyes.

「Huh?」

「Is it that great?」

Straf asks again, with a little pity mixed into his expression.

「Of course! You don't get cold, or too hot! And you don't need to drink anything except blood! And you don't need to eat anything! And you're never sick! Ever! And I'm not like the other vampires! You don't need to fear the sun with me! And since you'll never grow old, you have all the time in the world to do whatever you want!-」

Rose keeps listing the perks of undead life as Straf looks at her with ever-growing pity.

「So then, you end up doing nothing, right?」

「What?- Sure, if I feel like it! Time isn't pressuring me!」

Lilia shakes her head in confusion, and shrugs, conceding she has all the time in the world.

「So, you do nothing. Right? You set everything off for later, because you'll never die. The reaper will never come knocking, you gave him a fake address. All his calls are going to voice mail, and corporate lit a fire under his bony ass because his deadline is 900 years late. When was the last time you made something? Learned something new?」

「I…」

Rose looks down at her dress, troubled as she's unable to deny anything.

「Never, right? You always have an extra day. You're not wrong. This may go on forever, frankly. But…」

Straf momentarily looks at the blue sky and sighs. His gaze returns to the embarrassed, pouting vampire.

「You know your end won't come. I don't know when my end will come, so I have to haul ass. Tsk. Had to, at least.」

Straf looks aside, momentarily frustrated. He sighs again, and he looks down at Rose with pity.

「On top of all that, isn't it a bit lonely?」

「Huh?」

The little vampire looks up into Straf's eyes, confused, her brows furrowed.

「Don't you miss your parents? I mean, you had parents, right?」

Straf asks as he shrugs with his hands. Even Cycelia is starting to grasp to where Straf is leading the conversation, as she looks down at the terrifying vampire with pity in her emerald eyes as well.

「I barely remember them… They died when I was young, and my life was awful. I just wanted to die without suffering, then my master came… I was hungry, cold, sick, alone. He saw me, and asked me if I didn't want to live without it all…」

Lilia pulls away her collar, revealing two black dots on her thin, pale neck.

「He bit me, and told me to accept what happens next. I broke into a horrible fever, but I was glad because at least I wasn't cold anymore. I felt my whole body was numb, and I finally didn't feel sick, so I fell asleep. I woke up, and my master explained everything to me later.」

She looks down on her flared, ornate, gothic dress as she recalls her past.

「I don't have good memories of being alive. But I have good memories with my master. Until they killed him…」

「When?」

「Last era, just after the news that demon lord is dead broke. The villagers he saved thought they no longer needed him, and that he was a danger. And that was their gratitude. Someone drove a stake through his heart from behind, and they left him out in the sun to burn for hours.」

「Man…」

Straf sighs with his hands on his hips, as he looks at the little lonely girl.

「10 years of being lonely would have broken most grown men. You managed to get by for 200 years or so?」

Straf says, stretching his hand out towards her golden head.

「What are you-!?」

Lilia exclaims as the hand heads towards her, but doesn't make any tangible attempt to dodge it.

Pat. Ruffle ruffle ruffle.

Her head bobs around as Straf strokes it with a slanted mouth.

「Must have been pretty hard, huh?」

「Wha-?」

Ba-dump.

As Straf strokes her head, a confusing feeling and warmth spreads in her tiny torso.

「…Huh?」

She mumbles out in confusion, placing her hand on her flat chest, feeling for something she thought for sure has moved inside. The feeling soon fades, and she fails to feel any movement.

「Listen, Rose-」

「I'm Lilia…」

Lilia protests with a pouty frown. Straf sighs, still keeping his hand on top of her head.

「Okay, look. Let's meet in the middle and call you Lily. That's obviously what the name stems from, anyway. Anyhow, Lily, you can be an honorary member of my harem.」

Straf straightens out, and puts his hands back on his hips. His eyes drift to her flat chest.

「You lack certain assets and character development required to be a full member, but…」

Straf looks the vampire in her scarlet eyes with a serious face.

「…For as long as I am around, you don't have to be lonely anymore.」

「…Huh?」

Lily begins to blink rapidly. For some reason, Straf's words resonate deeply with her. Her lip trembles, confusing her even further as human emotions return to her for the first time in over 200 years.

「S- Strafffffff!」

Lily exclaims as she jumps into Straf, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him tightly.

「Yeah, okay- Ow. Ow ow ow! Ow! Stop crushing me! My organs are still barely attached!」

Straf winces, and starts shoving Lily's face away from him as she wraps his lower torso in her inhuman hug, sobbing. The scene unfolding in front of Cycelia makes her blink rapidly and sniffle as well. Lily sniffles for the last time, and separates away from pained Straf.

「Owwwwwww… Okay. Alright. Squeezed out that 200 years? Done?-」

「Can I have your blood, Straf?」 「Huh!?」

Lily asks with an innocuous smile, re-covering herself with her parasol as she's steaming heavily from the sunlight. The uplifting scene abruptly ends, shocking Cycelia.

「Huh!? No! I need it too, and I'm on short supply right now!」

「Pleeeeaaaaaase?」

Lily tilts her head, and asks again with huge, slit, red, inhuman puppy eyes.

「What makes you think I'll give you some for a pretty please!? I'm not a juice carton! Suck on a rat!」

「But- Hrk!?」

A broad spearhead pierces through Lily's flat chest. Cycelia jumps back, drawing her sword.

「What the fuck!?」

Straf exclaims, as the still confused vampire is lifted into the air as if she were a flag, or a standard. The blood-stained Beast Hunter swivels around on his heel, and swings the spear down at the ground behind him.

Thudcrack!

「Hurk!」

A breathless grunt escapes Lily's mouth as she slams onto the stone road. Bones audibly crack, and shatter as she bounces off the ground, blood spewing from her tiny mouth. She lands on the ground again, and rolls a few times. Finally, she rolls onto her back and starts steaming as she lies in the sunlight...