Chapter 1: Stranger Clad In Darkness
Outskirts of Nelfalhem
A tall man looked down from a hill, eying the city in front of him carefully. He then looked back at his map to make sure that he was in the right place. After confirming, he placed his map back on his pocket and laid down on the ground.
"If I knew how far this was..." The man muttered to himself. "I would have left coming here for tomorrow". He then sighed as he slowly lifted his body from the ground and recalled his mission.
You are to infiltrate into the slave-trader city of Nelfalhem and kill all slave-traders and slaves. Leave no one alive.
He sighed as he directed his attention to the city. There were still lights on, so he would wait until everyone had gone to sleep. It wold be easier to kill them that way.
"Kill everyone, huh?" The man mused. He had no problems in killing slave-traders, but slaves? That troubled him, even if only a little. "Oh well, I took this quest knowing this. Too late now to back down"
He then got out a dagger from one of his many pockets. After twirling it around his fingers for some minutes, the man got bored. He had literally nothing to do.
"You know what?" The man said to no one in particular. "Let's just kill them and get this over with" At that moment, the man disappeared from sight, leaving no prof that he was ever there.
Entrance of the slave-trader hotel
Near the entrance of the slave-trader hotel of Nelfalhem, one of the shadows, cast by the glowing torches, started to change it's shape. Soon, the shadow started growing out of the ground, forming a black mass with glowing blood-red eyes.
The black mass walked over to the entrance. "No need to kill the town people. All I need is right here," It said before it slowly opened the door, carefully in order to not make any noise, and walked inside.
"Hmm..." The shadow muttered to itself. "Where should I start?" It said as he looked left and right. To it's left was what appeared to be a slave's room and to his right a master's living quarter.
"Let's go random," He said as he placed his hands on his pocket and grabbed a gold coin. In one of it's side was a crown and on the other one, the number 15. "If it falls on number, I start with the slaves. If it falls on crown, I start with masters." He said before he threw the coin up in the air. It soared trough the air before it landed down on his hand.
"Crown, huh?" He said as the coin fell on his hand. He quickly placed it on his pocket and directed his attention to the master's living quarter. "Sorry, blame it on the coin," He said before he kicked open the door and walked inside the living quarter.
Upon walking in, the first thing he saw was an empty dining room. He then walked to his right, and opened the door. As he peered inside the room, he saw a skinny man sleeping. He calmly walked over to the bed. Once he was a few inches from the sleeping man, he raised his dagger and brought it down on his neck, killing him instantly.
"One down, a lot to got" He said before he walked out of the room and then out of the living quarters.
He then entered the slave room and did the same thing. After killing the slave, he looked back at the huge corridor.
"This is gonna take a while..." He said with a sigh. He really felt like going home and having a good sleep, but it would tarnish his reputation to stop a quest mid-way.
"Should I use that?" The man pondered. "Yeah, that would make things faster" He decided before he placed his dagger back in his pocket. He then lifted up his right hand.
"Come forth," He said. At that moment, a black ball of energy formed in his hands. The ball then split itself shape, becoming several smaller balls. The balls then hovered on the air, as if awaiting a command.
"Kill everyone," He said two simple, but deadly words. The balls immediately transformed into animals; some becoming bats, some transforming into rats. The now transformed balls then started going into the rooms, killing it's inhabitants, causing various screams.
The man, on the other hand, calmly walked trough the corridor, seemingly oblivious to the pained screams. As he walked, the animals entered and exited rooms non-stop, all covered in blood. The man grimaced at the sight.
"This is making me hungry..." He muttered as he continued his walk. After walking for several seconds, the man stopped.
"Damn, this shit is huge" He muttered as he stared further into the corridor. Just as he was about to continue walking, he saw a rat walking down the corridor, a trail of blood behind him. The rat wasn't one of his creatures, since it was a real living being. He watched as the rat approached him with wobbly legs.
"Hmm... I wonder where this trails leads to..." He said as he ignored the injured red and started following the trail of blood. After some minutes, he was in front of a slave's door. His creations were also approaching this area.
He was about to open the room door, but stopped when he heard the person's breathing. From what he could tell, the person was a young boy, 6 years old at most and seemed to be heavily injured. It also seemed to be crying.
'I can handle killing adult slaves, but child? No way,' The man thought. As the man was thinking, one of his creatures, a dark rat, approached the room, intending to kill it's inhabitant. However, before the rat could fulfill his mission, he was stopped by the foot of his creator. The rat looked up at his creator, sending him a questioning look.
'Ignore this room,' He told the rat mentally. The rat than nodded and continued his killing-spree, making more screams. The man then decided that he would come back to his room after he had finished with the rest of the hotel.
10 minutes later
The man sighed as he once more stood in front of the room. He had already dispersed his creatures, so the only beings alive on the hotel were him and the slave inside the room. It also happened that he was the only kid in the entire hotel.
'Hmm... how should I do this?' the man thought as he mused over what his course of action would be. After some seconds, he decided that he would just go with the flow.
With the dark mass still covering his body, leaving only his blood-red eyes, the man walked inside the room. Inside the room, a brown-haired child, not older than 6, was trembling with his eyes closed. The first thing that the man noticed were the bloodstain on his shoulder and hands.
He continued analyzing the child. He could see various scars running through his body. He scowled at that, although his facial expression didn't appear trough the black mass.
"Huh?" The child said as it slowly opened it's brown eyes. The man immediately noticed how those eyes contained immense pain. There were also dried tears near its eyes. The child seemed utterly scared.
"Who are you?" The man asked, wanting to know the name of the child.
"Issei, sir," The child, now known as Issei, answered back in scared tone. The man noticed that he must seem intimidating, covered in darkness and all, so he took off the dark aura that was covering him, revealing his real appearance.
Issei' eyes widened as the darkness that was covering the man dispersed. Even though it was dark, he could tell that the man had long gray hair. The man was also wearing some leather clothes with a long coat that reached its feet.
"Better?" Asked the man, motioning to his appearance. Issei nodded slowly, now less frightened. Although he was less frightened, he was still wary of the man. As far as he could tell, the man had killed everyone on the hotel.
"So, child, let me tell you something," The man started as he knelled down in front of Issei, making him jump back, his back hitting the wall. "You are free now," The man continue with a smile.
Issei eyes widened. Did the man just say that he was free? Issei couldn't believe him. The man, noticing Issei' surprise, chuckled.
"Your masters are dead. That means that you aren't a slave anymore," The man exclaimed, making Issei widen his eyes even further. He was so scared of dying that he hadn't even noticed that. His masters were dead. He was free. Tears started coming out of his eyes.
"Thank you," The boy muttered as he tried to stop the endless flow of tears from pouring out of his eyes. He had never been happier his entire life. All of the pain, the torture, it was all over. He looked up at the ceiling.
"Maybe you really exist..." He muttered to the ceiling. The man had heard what the boy said, but decided to ignore it. He had to get things done fast if he wanted to get home early.
"So, listen," The man said, making the boy look back at him. "You have two option right now. You could either stay here or you could come with me. I am going to head back home now, and wouldn't mind dropping you at an orphanage in the way."
Issei mused over the two options. This was a slave-trader city. As soon as other people figured out that everyone on the hotel was dead, with the exception of him, it would mean trouble for him. He was also injured. So, staying here was a no-no. That only left going with the mysterious man.
"I would like to come with you," Issei said with determination, making the man smile. The child seemed like he would be able to survive in this world if it had this determination, after all.
"Perfect," The man said as he turned around, still in the kneeling position. "Hop on."
Issei looked at the man in confusion. Why would the man show him his back and tell him to hop on? No one had ever done that to him before, so he was at loss as to what he should do.
"Hmm..." The child said, unsure of what to do. "Hop on?"
The man nodded. "Yes, just climb on my back. You are injured, aren't you? Let me carry you."
The boy's eyes widened as he understood what he was supposed to do. The man was actually helping him! The boy then shyly walked over to the man's back and placed his arms on his shoulders.
The man then turned his head to look back at the child. "Hold on tight," He said before he suddenly got up and started walking out of the hotel. Issei tried his best to hold onto the man. With one of his hands injured, it was proving to be a difficult task.
"Bear with it for a little more," The man said as he noticed Issei' pained face. "We are almost reaching it."
Issei nodded, still trying his best to maintain his grip on the man. After some minutes, they were standing on top of a hill. In it, there was a pitch-black horse. The man then placed Issei on top of the horse and went to pat it's head.
"How are you?" The man said kindly as he looked at his faithful horse. "We are going to have an extra passenger today, so try to your best," He whispered into the horse's ear before climbing on top of it, with Issei laying down in front of him, already sleeping.
"Seems like the effort was too great..." The man muttered as he placed Issei close to him, in order to not let the boy fall down. After he was done placing the boy in a good position, he motioned for his horse to go.
The horse instantly started running, passing trough the woods at impressive speeds that no horse should be able to achieve. The man turned his attention to the injured boy near him.
"His wounds... if not treated, he will lose his hand..." The man said slowly as he carefully analyzed the injury on the boy's hand. He had no need to pay attention to the horse, since it could ride itself without any problems.
"Hmm... do I have any healing magic?" The man wondered out loud. After thinking for some time, he reached the conclusion that he had nothing that could heal in his huge arsenal of magic. All of them were offensive magic. The man was extremely powerful, but only in terms of offensive powers.
"Oh well, although this won't cure as fast as magic, it will work," He said before he extended his left arm to his side. Suddenly, a crack in space appeared near to the man's arm. He instantly placed his arm in the crack and pulled out a some medicines and bandages. The crack quickly disappeared afterward.
The man then placed the medicines in his laps along with the bandages. He then grabbed the boy's hand and also placed it on his lap. He then got the medicine, opened the lid, and poured some of its content on the boys hand, making him wince slightly.
Ignoring the sleeping boy discomfort, he lifted up the now disinfected hand and wrapped it around on bandages. He then did the exact same thing with the shoulder.
"Okay, his wounds are treated..." The man muttered as he looked around the boy's body, trying to find any more wounds. Finding none, he placed the boy back on his previous position.
The man then looked at his horse. "Hey, how much longer until we reach Marisli?"
"About 2 hours," The horse answered back in a manly and gruff voice. If Issei had been awake, he probably would have jumped off the horse in surprise. Never, in all of his life, he would have expected to see a talking horse. The man, on the other hand, was already used to it.
"I see..." The man muttered. "Still a long way to go, huh?"
"Yeah, long..." The horse muttered as he turned left in a crossroad. "Oh yeah, didn't your quest explicitly say to leave no survivors?" The horse asked the man.
The man scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, about that..." He stared saying. "I just couldn't bring myself to kill the little fella."
"Okay, that makes sense, he is a child, after all," The horse said. "But, I don't understand why you are helping him."
The man then put on a faked hurt look on his face. "What? Do you think I am the type of person that would ignore a hurt child?"
The horse nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much you."
The man sighed. He couldn't say that the horse was wrong. He had already killed thousands, including children. He had quite a reputation to himself. But, those were the old days. The man wasn't as cruel as before.
"Yeah, I know. It's just that I felt like helping him. He reminded me of how I was before," The man explained with a far-away look, as if remembering the old days. He wasn't lying. The boy truly reminded him of how he was before the "incident". A scared, hurt and empty boy.
"How you were before, huh?" The horse said with a thoughtful look. "If you say so..."
2 hours later – Entrance of Marisli.
"Finally!" The man exclaimed with a tired face as he jumped off the horse. He was getting tired of sitting for too long. He then started stretching his legs to make the blood flow.
"Oh, shut up," The talking horse said in annoyance. "I was the one who did all the work, you lazy bastard."
Ignoring the horse's insult, the man got the kid off the horse and carried him in his arms. He then looked back at the horse.
"I will call you later. Rest for now," He said before he placed one of his hands on the horse's body, making it disappear. After taking care of his horse, he walked to the closest hotel in the town. He already knew that it had no orphanages, so he would have to spend the night here with the child before going to Zerut, a town close to his home that had an orphanage.
After searching for some minutes, he finally found a good hotel. He then walked inside, the boy still in his arms, and went to the counter. In it was a sleeping lady. He chuckled as he watched her sleep. It was dawn, so he wasn't surprised that she was sleeping. Sadly, he needed a room, so he would have to interrupt her sleep.
"I want a single room," He told the lady in charge of the counter, waking her up. She looked around in disorientation before noticing the man in front of her and understanding what was happening. The lady looked the man up and down and then the kid in his arms before blushing. The man was incredibly handsome, with sharp and manly features. He also exquisite red eyes that gave him a mysterious aura.
"That will be 5 gold coins. Housing for horses will cost an extra gold coin," She said in a business-like tone, trying to suppress her blush while completely ignoring the fact that she was sleeping in work just a while ago.
The man nodded as he placed his left hand in his pocket, equilibrating Issei on his right arm. Although it seemed that he was searching his pockets for coins, in reality, he had just opened a crack in space and was getting some of the gold coins from his fortune.
Getting 10 gold out of his pocket (read: crack in space), the man placed them in the counter. "I will only like one room. No horse housing necessary. Also bring breakfast."
The lady nodded slowly as she grabbed the coins and placed them in a drawer. She then picked up a key and handed it to the man.
"Room 03," She said. "Third room down the hall."
The man nodded. "Thanks," He said before he walked to the room. Upon arriving on a door with 03 written on it, he once more equillibrated Issei on his right arm as he unlocked the door with his left. After it was unlocked, he walked inside, not caring to lock the door.
The room was pretty simple. A large bed, a sofa, a drawer and a table. It also had a bathroom. The man looked around the room before placing the boy on the sofa and going to rest on the bed. Both the sofa and bed were equally as comfortable, so it didn't really matter where each one of them stayed.
The man then looked at the boy sleeping soundly on the sofa on last time before going to sleep. Even though he wasn't tired in reality, he still liked to sleep.
5 Hours Later
The door to the room the man and Issei were in opened slightly, a person clad in dark robes walking in. He looked around the room before setting his eyes on the sleeping man. He then walked slowly to the man's bed, careful to not wake the man and the boy up. The person then placed his hand on his pocket, trying to grab something, but the thing slipped from his fingers, falling down on the ground, making a small noise.
Instantly, Issei's eyes fluttered open. He looked around, still drowsy, before noticing the person near to the bed his savior was sleeping in with a dagger on the ground. The boys eyes widened as he jumped up and placed himself between the man who saved him and the person clad in black.
The man in black robes looked at the kid in surprise. "Boy, get out of the way. I only want the man dead. I have no reason to kill you," The man said in a pissed-off tone as he tried to get the boy out of his way. Issei, instead, kept still with his arms up.
"No," Was the short answer Issei gave to assassin. The assassin was pissed off even more.
"Come on, boy. That man is dangerous," The assassin tried to convince Issei that the man was bad, but failed.
Issei simply shook his head. "He saved me. That's enough to earn my trust. I won't let you kill him," The boy said with strong determination that a boy his age shouldn't have.
The man who seemed to be sleeping widened his eyes. In reality, he had been awake ever since the assassin walked in the room. He was planning on dealing with the assassin the moment he was about to kill him, but the boy completely changed the situation. He hadn't expected that the boy would try to protect him, even more with such strong determination.
A smirk appeared in the man's lips. 'This boy... he seems interesting. It would be a waste to place him on an orphanage. Perhaps I should take him with me?' The man mused over what he should do in his mind.
"So be it, boy," The assassin said before he grabbed the dagger from the ground and went to attack the boy that was in his way. Just as he was about to reach the boy, he stopped. He looked around in confusion. He noticed that he couldn't move.
"So foolish..." The man said as he got up from his bed, surprising the boy and the assassin. The assassin glowered at the man.
"So you were awake?" He asked in an enraged tone, still trying to move. Issei, on the other hand, had no idea of what was happening.
"Of course I was awake, you naive little assassin," The man said as he walked past Issei and stood in front of the assassin. "Now, you must be wondering why you can't move, right?"
The assassin gritted his teeth as he nodded slowly, enraged. He had no idea why he couldn't move. It was as if he was frozen in time.
"Let me tell you a piece of advice," The man said as he lifted his right hand up, a crack appearing in space. He then placed his hand inside the crack and took out a dagger. "Before you try to assassinate someone, you should research the person abilities," The man said before he slashed at the frozen assassin, tearing off the hood, revealing it's face. It was a handsome man, not older than thirty, who had a scar down his right eye. He had blonde hair and equally colored eyes.
"So, might telling me why you tried to kill me, Mr. Blondie?" The man said, giving the assassin a nickname based on his characteristics.
Issei could only look in amazement at the events that unfolded in front of him. The man who saved him had just frozen the assassin and pulled a dagger out of thin air. He was completely amazed.
"You don't remember me?!" Mr. Blondie cried in rage. "You ruined my life!"
The man just sighed as he shook his head. "Believe me, I have ruined a lot of lives already. Could you be more specific?" He asked as he played around with his dagger.
"You destroyed my business two years ago, you bastard!" Mr. Blondie screamed. "I have spent this past two years searching for you, so I could get my revenge!"
The man, on the other hand, seemed to be in deep thought. "Two years...business..." he muttered before his eyes widened. "Oh, you are the one with the female-slave trader business!" he exclaimed in realization.
Mr. Blondie scowled. "Yes, and you fucking ruined it. My life was great, capturing girls and selling them to rich men, but you just had to ruin it, didn't you, you bastard!" He screamed in rage.
The man simply shook his head. "Of course I had to ruin it," He said in a playful tone before he stopped playing around with his dagger. "Who on earth capture young girls and sells them as sex-slaves?" he said on low and deaadly tone. Killing intent filled the room.
Mr. Blondie shivered as the temperature in the room dropped considerably. The look in the man's eyes was murderous. He was beginning to regret his decision.
"At that time, I couldn't find you, so I decided to let you go," The man started. "But, now, I have the perfect opportunity to get rid of one more scum on earth," He said before he raised his dagger and slashed at the man's throat, making blood gush out of it, killing him instantly.
Issei looked at the scene in disgust. Not at the blood, but at the dead blonde haired assassin. That bastard truly deserved to die. He didn't know what "sex" was, but if the person was a slave-trader, he was already considered scum by Issei.
The man than looked back at Issei and sent him a sad smile. "Sorry about all that," He said in an apologetic tone. "I wasn't expecting to be attacked so soon."
Issei simply shook his head. "I don't mind," He said before he directed his attention to the dead corpse "What are we gonna do about him?" He said as he pointed at him.
The man simply shrugged his shoulders before placing his hand on the corpse. At that moment, the corpse was covered in darkness before disappearing out of sight. Issei's eyes widened in surprise. The blood stains also disappeared. When Issei looked at the blood stains, he remembered about his own injuries. Looking back at his hand and shoulder in surprise, his eyes widened as he noticed the bandage.
"Was it you?" Issei said as he pointed at the bandages while looking back at the man.
"Yeah, it isn't much, but..."
Issei simply shook his head, his eyes filled with gratefulness. "Thank you."
The man simply scratched the back of his head. "No problem, kid." He said before he looked at the door. "Let's get going? I am sure you don't feel like eating anymore."
Issei nodded. Even though he wasn't bothered by the blood to a great extent, it still bothered him nonetheless, and he didn't feel like eating after witnessing a person dying.
The man then opened the door and led Issei out of the hotel. Five minutes later, they were already on the road, riding the horse.
As they passed trough the forest, the man looked back at Issei. "Kid, I have a proposal to make. How about instead of going to the orphanage, I adopt you? I have got plenty of space back at home, anyway."
Issei's eyes widened at the proposal. Not even a second later, he already had an answer. He completely trusted the man. "I would like to go with you," Issei said with determination. The man smiled as he looked back at his horse.
"Change of plans, Felli. We are going to the castle," The man exclaimed.
Issei eyes widened. Did he just say castle? Even more, the strange things he did earlier... what the hell was that? Issei was full of questions, so he decided to go with one that could possibly answer all of his questions.
"Mister, just who are you?" Issei asked.
The man looked back at Issei with a wide smile, showing his large canines. "I am Shinso. A vampire"
Weekly Power Status
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