“I… suffered too, you know, it’s just…”

I didn’t continue my sentence. I don’t want to remember it. It was pretty painful, I’m starting to think it’s better to not remember at all.

Hmm? Why is she looking at me like that?

With a determined look on her face, she asked me something that I never expected.

“Will you be my friend?”

“...What?”

“Will you be my friend?”

“...Will I what? Why?”

“Will you be my friend! Yes or no!?”

She said, almost yelling.

“Uhh… yes?”

“Yay!”

She raised her both hands up in the air with a big smile plastered on her face. She’s surprisingly childish, I guess she’s still a kid, huh?

Why would she suddenly asked me to be her friend? Oh well, I don’t really care anyway.

“R-right. Can I ask you a couple of questions?”

“Yes?”

Her cold eyes has disappeared and replaced by a gentle, warm, innocent looking eyes while smiling at me.

“Can you explain to me about Soul Weapon?”

“Yes! Soul Weapon is a weapon made out of Soul Essence!”

“... I see… can you elaborate more?”

“Yes! Soul Essence is… is… uhm…”

Soul Essence is what? Cat got your tongue?

Soul Essence… the black flame, is that what she meant? I showed her my black flame with my right hand and I ask her.

“Is this Soul Essence?”

“Yes! That is a Soul Essence!”

She said while pointing at my hand with a big smile on her face. I asked her about how Soul Essence is formed, she just looked at the ceiling while creasing her forehead. That’s fine, take your time, I’m not in a hurry anyway.

Finally she said.

“There’s not many books containing a lot of informations about Soul Essence or Soul Weapon. The only thing that I know is that, Soul Essence is your very own life. Every life has their own energy and essence, people who have strong souls are able to cultivate their Soul Essence. By cultivating Soul Essence, they gained a lot of benefits, though I only knows 2 of them, such as increasing one’s physical capabilities and creating a Soul Weapon.”

“So, how do you, uhh… cultivate stuff?”

“Err, that, is a very good question! …”

“... You don’t know?”

“I-it’s hard to explain…”

Suddenly she looked sad while staring at the ground. Damn, now I feel guilty.

“Well, it’s like, you know, there are many methods you can use to cultivate! The most common is meditation but there are some who cultivate their Soul Essence by training their bodies. Depending on the cultivator, each have their own methods. Personally, I cultivate my Soul Essence by training my body!”

These mumbo-jumbo stuff seems very familiar.

“And Soul Weapons are?”

“Soul Weapon is a unique weapon! Each person have their own unique Soul Weapon, like me, I have this Sword!”

Suddenly a red aura is gathering on her palm. This is her Soul Essence? Each people have their own color?

The red aura began to form into a sword.

I remember that sword, it’s the one she used to fight me from before. Now I took a better look at it, I can feel the sword is emitting something… it’s Soul Essence.

And it disappear into nothingness, this is pretty interesting.

“See? I used my Soul Essence to create my Soul Weapon. Every people’s souls are unique, Soul Weapon is the reflection of one’s soul. Got it?”

“Got it… I think.”

‘Soul Weapon is the reflection of one’s soul’, huh? What about mine then? My Soul Weapon, Black Flame. It can be a sword, spear, axe, shovel, hammer, needle, shield, and even bow. It can be transformed into whatever I wanted.

So…what kind of ‘soul’ do I possess?

Nah, it doesn’t really matter, it won’t change anything. Hmm, wait a minute…

“...Can one transfer one’s Soul Essence into another?”

“I… don’t think so, I never tried and I never heard something like that… not from the books anyway.”

“Yeah? Well, I have tried and it works.”

“Really!? How does it works then!?”

She said with beaming eyes, her face is getting closer to me.

Oy, your face is too close. I took a bit of distance and said awkwardly.

“Well, I just, you know, transfered my uhh… Soul Essence.”

Yep, it’s something you can’t explain through words, only feelings.

“Well then, try it on me!”

Uh-oh, her face is getting closer again. I took another distance.

“You sure? I’ve never tried it on another living being except Ren over there.”

I pointed at Ren who’s laying on the ground. He looks very sleepy lately, it seems after a long journey in the forest, for the first time… he can relax a bit.

“Yes!”

She said, determination filled her eyes as she raised her both clenched fists.

I almost asked why, but I didn’t. It’s not going to harm me or anything like that anyway… right?

“Alright, but don’t blame me if anything weird happens.”

Then I aimed my palm at her and my black fla- Soul Essence fired toward her.

My Soul Essence engulfed her entire body, she looks scared and excited at the same time. You can see those expressions everyday at the nearest roller coaster… hmm? Roller coaster?

“W-whoa! This is, this is amazing! I feel so~ strong and so~, so~ excited!!”

She yelled at… ecstasy? happiness? I honestly can’t tell. Now I’m kinda scared.

“O-okay, calm down, take a deep breath and try to relax.”

Suddenly, A red aura- no, her Soul Essence, burst out from her body.

What? What’s happening?

Her Soul Essence and my Soul Essence are… merging. It’s Fusion.

The Red and Black is mixing together, the color changed into Dark Red.

“Ah, Len! What’s happening to me!?”

She said in panic.

“I don’t know! I told you, this is the second time I tried to transfer my Soul Essence!”

After a while, the Fusion stopped. Her Soul Essence… it’s becoming much more… stronger, elegant, and thicker. What the hell just happened?

“A-are you alright?”

“I think so, I feel stronger actually…”

It can’t be… the effect is permanent?

She summoned her sword again and as I expected, the sword changed.

It has the same form but there’s more. There’s two ruby now, the first ruby is red and the other is black. The blade is black with a bit of red carvings.

I can feel her Soul Essence is thicker and… I can’t describe it, but I feel a faint sense of familiarity.

My Soul Essence and her has mixed together and become one, how does that work?

Is this what happened to Ren too? Our souls mixed together which made him… evolved?

Ren needs a week to fully evolved to what he is now, so I guess it takes time to completely fused, huh?

“Wow! Look at this Len! I feel stronger and so does my Soul Weapon! I didn’t know you could do this!”

“I think you need a week for the Soul Essences to completely fused, at least that’s what happened to Ren.”

I told her the truth and she nodded vigorously.

I can see her hands shaking from the excitement. I guess I shouldn’t judge people too quickly. The first time I met her, she looks more like a cold beauty type, but now… heh, she’s just an innocent kid after all.

I tried to take her out of the mansion, but she refused. She won’t tell me why, but she looks afraid, so I didn’t pursue the matter.

I’m not going to stay here forever, sooner or later, I will leave this place anyway and find a human settlement.

And when that happens… what will happen to the innocent vampire? Will she stay? Will she leave with or without me? What will she do after I leave? We will see.

---

A week has passed and just as expected, she did evolved.

I don’t know how it works but it works.

Her red hair has become a little dark and her body become much more slender. It’s also affect the physical body too, huh?

And her Soul Essence has become much more thicker, stronger and fluid. I remember the first time I fought her, her Soul Essence is too… rough, like a wildfire spreading everywhere. Her Soul Essence is literally leaking all over the place, she wasted around 70% of it.

But now, her Soul Essence is so fluid, there’s literally no leakage at all. Her Soul Weapon is much more sharper and so does her eyes. She told me that she can see ‘very very clear and very very far away’. And of course it’s not just limited to vision, her sense of touch, smell, hearing, it’s all increased to a whole new level.

And the last, but not the least, Ren.

He’s just lazing around the mansion, sometimes he goes out on his own and hunted a few monsters. Nothing much to say about it.

When I took the monster cores and absorbed it, Ciel was very surprised. She told me that, usually one needs time to absorb the whole Soul Essence within the core. An average monster around F to D needs a day, C to B needs  4 to 7 days, A to A++ needs 12 to 30 days and so on.

But I’m able to absorb it almost instantly. I don’t know how, but it happens.

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Another question suddenly popped out in my mind. Is magic exist in this world? The answer is definitely yes, but I need to hear it myself from Ciel.

Apparently from what she learned when she was a kid, (well she’s still a kid actually), magic is indeed very common and at the same time, very rare.

The essence of magic is mana, the ‘mysterious’ substance that flowed through the whole world. Actually, when I heard about this, I cringed. I don’t even…

Still, these stuff about ‘Magic’ and ‘Mana’ intrigue me, sadly even Ciel doesn’t know much about it.

In this one week, I realized something, though it’s pretty obvious.

Everything that Ciel told me is definitely useful but it is still lacking in information. I need more, maybe some of them could answer about my abnormal condition or maybe about my memories. I do not know.

And that dream… it’s been bothering me quite a lot recently. Who is he? Is he even real? sigh, what I’m supposed to do now?

She asked me about my ‘skin’ a couple of times, but I don’t even know anything about it. It’s not really bothering me, so I don’t really care…

I’ve read all the books in the mansion. There aren’t many books here, it’s just a basic knowledge about Mana and Souls, nothing about history and geography whatsoever.

29/03/1999, is today’s date. It’s monday, I hate mondays. Fortunately, this world’s date is the same like mine.

Finally the time has come. I’ve decided to leave this mansion and continue my journey to find a human settlement.

But what about her?

“Ciel, tomorrow… tomorrow I’m going to go.”

I told her about my plan, but her reaction shocked me.

“No! Just stay here! The outside world is dangerous!”

Of course I know, where did you think I came from?

“I know but I can’t stay here forever, I… need to…”

“Need what?”

She creased her brow while looking at me with sad expression.

“I need to know… everything… anything about this world, maybe I will find some answers about why I’m here or my purpose along the way, you know?”

“But, but, but… what about me?”

She asked hesitantly, tears began to accumulate in her eyes.

“That is up to you, will you go outside with or without me, or stay in the mansion.”

“I-I can’t…”

“You can’t leave the mansion, right? Why…?”

“I… “

She bit her lips and clenched her fist.

I kinda get the gist of it. It’s… trauma, huh?

Seeing your own parents and brothers got killed with your own eyes could make a guy insane for the rest of their live. Especially if you have no one to talk to.

She’s scared of the outside world, she knows nothing of it. She… WE are afraid of the unknown, that is our nature. The trauma made her paranoid and she will remain like this forever… if no one reach out to her that is.

“Are you scared of the outside world?”

“...”

She remained silent. Was my hunch correct?

“You are strong, very strong actually. What made you afraid? Those monsters are nothing compared to you.”

“I’m scared… of… humans…”

“How so? There’s no human in this forest, it’s just monsters.”

“There is! It’s at the… umm… I forget where…”

“Listen, I’ve found a human settlement before, but it’s pretty ancient. Maybe a bit over a hundred years. There are no more humans in this forest.”

“There is! They killed my dad and mom and my brothers and my sisters and, and, and… they are evil!”

“Ciel, I know how you feel about them, but sooner or later… you must leave this place.”

“What? Why?”

“Do you want to live alone in loneliness? If not, then you must go out, find people you can interact with and live with them.”

“It’s not that easy!”

“I know, I don’t think even I can do it… but I have to try.”

“Then just stay here then!”

“You’ve seen this coming, right? Me leaving this place is inevitable. You’ve grown stronger for the past week, Monsters around here pose no threat for you at all. I’m not going to force you to go outside, I’m just saying if you want to continue your live, you can’t live in the same place doing nothing forever.”

“...”

“I don’t wanna… I’m scared…”

Another memory pops out in my mind.

A boy, crying alone in his room, abandoned. Damn it, stop!

I… can’t let this girl alone. I… have to save her. She resembles me too much, I can’t see her suffer. These damned memories, why I’m only remembering the bad stuff?

“Your parents…”

“Huh?”

“What would your parents feel when they see you right now?”

“What does my parents got to do with all this!?”

“They wanted you to continue on living, not to hide yourself in this old mansion. You are a disgrace to your family.”

“W-why are you so mean!?”

She started to cry.

“They are all died and you are the only survivor, don’t you feel ashamed that you are spending the rest of your life in this place? The outside world is dangerous alright, but so what? You have the power, but you didn’t use it. You hid in the corner of the room and cried until you fell asleep, right? Is that the life you wanted?”

About ‘crying in the corner’ part is just me randomly guessing.

“But I’m scared to go! Waah~!”

She’s crying louder than ever.

Goddammit, this isn’t going nowhere. What do I do now?

I grabbed her hand and forced her to go outside.

“No~!! Let me go!”

She tried to run away, but my strength is far stronger than hers.

Suddenly, her body was engulfed by her dark red Soul Essence. You are really persistent aren’t you?

“C’mon! Just a single small step!”

“No! Never!”

I activated my Soul Essence too and I throw her outside the mansion. She landed on a tree, is she alright?

“Are you alright!?”

I yelled at her.

“Waah~!!”

She’s crying. Yep, she’s alright.

She ran toward me and punched my stomach, I got blown away and landed on another tree.

“What was that for!?”

I yelled angrily at her. Damn, there’s no need to get angry like that… right?

“You meanie!”

She keeps crying while sitting on the ground.

Luckily my stomach has recovered by absorbing monster cores or I’m sure as hell my stomach would be destroyed by that punch.

Oh well, it’s fine, she’s outside now.

“See, it’s not that bad, right?”

I said while petting her head.

Ren just sitting in the front door, yawning. At least show a little concern about me, I feel sad you know?

It took me 3 hours to calm her down. I’m not going to do this for a second time, ever.

“So, what do you think?”

“I…”

Her eyes still red. She just staring at the ground, stupefied.

“That’s called a grass, relax it’s harmless, it’s just a plant.”

“I-I know it’s a grass! It’s just… very weird…”

“Weird, huh? Look over there, that’s called a tree, it’s big and tall and it’s covered by a lot of leaves.”

“I know what a tree is! Are you making fun of me!?”

“You see up there? It’s called a sky, there’s cloud floating around and that is a sun.”

“Stop making fun of me! I’m not a retard!”

She’s shaking my body around. Stop it, it’s making me dizzy.

“...So? It wasn’t all that scary right?”

Her face complexion is much better, it seems my bad joke is working.

“Well, no, but…”

“Come, I will show you around.” I grabbed her hand and took her on a walk.

Her trauma will never disappear until she faced it head on. She has been consumed by fear which made her paranoid about anything that related to humans.

The trauma made her think, that the mansion is the only safe place in the world. Well, it is safe actually. It’s covered by a thick vegetation and very secluded from the outside world.

I’m just going to support her to face the trauma she’s been enduring for the past 8 years, the rest is up to her will and determination.

However there are still questions lingering in my mind.

Why did they suddenly attacked the Vampires? Where do they live? Is finding those people a good idea? I’m quite curious about them.

Hmm? Her face looks red, is she sick? Is that even possible?

===========================

If you found any grammar mistakes, please do tell. I'm a human after all.