"What do you mean you can't help me?"
"The dungeon is stuck for your party, and you are at twenty-eight percent. What happened?!" Healia asked me, still sitting down.
"I was trying to tell you. The third room was a Boss Room, and now the place won't reset. Even Tim tried to go in, but it was still the same for him. Do you know what's going on?" I asked hopefully.
"No idea, go to bed, there is a second room for Mei upstairs now. Lesha's I left it for you on the nightstand, remember what I told you. Good night, we will figure this out in the morning."
Then she left and I was left stunned. No idea? What did that mean? Tim's voice cut into my thoughts.
"Alright, I'm going to get some rest. Maybe I will see what's in the kitchen, Gram! What's Cooking?" Tim asked with his nose in the air.
"Leana is in the kitchen with the boys getting food ready, go get clean and come back down. We will even get some more tables out here, hehe!" Gram said with a chuckle.
I needed to relax, we had no idea what any of this meant and there was no point in getting worked up about it. I walked up the stairs with the girls and when we got to the top, the place had changed. Half the fireplace and room were cut off by a brick wall and an open door.
"Is that my room?!" Mei asked, barely able to hold in her excitement.
"Yes, go see," Lesha said, patting Mei on the back.
Both of us smiled as she slowly tip-toed over, gasping for air when she got to the door. I was worried something was wrong until she screamed and ran inside. I looked at Lesha with a bewildered expression, but she just smiled at me, and took my hand, leading me to the room.
Mei was inside rolling around on a pink bed set, and as I looked around the room I noticed that everything was pink yellow, or light blue. The place was almost hard on the eyes with the flickering firelight, but Mei loved it. That's what mattered, and would keep her in her own bed.
"I've never had a room like this! It's a girl's room!"
"Well, girl, you need to go have a bath."
"But I already had one today!" Mei complained.
"And you were in a dungeon, so go have a quick clean before we eat."
Mei grumbled but went to have a quick bath. While she did, I walked over to sit down on the bed.
"Don't even think about it! Keep your dirty ass off the clean sheets!" Lesha commanded, making me jump up.
"Hey!"
"Don't you hey me! You need to go get clean, you are dirty. Once Mei is done we will send her downstairs and…" Lesha's voice was cut off by the sound of my father calling my name up.
"KIADA!"
Both of us ran out of the room, and down the stairs as fast as we could. When we reached the bottom a woman was holding a massive sword standing in the doorway, but nothing was going on.
Then it hit me, Chocolate Mint, that smell, what was a chocolate mint? I knew the smell but I had never tried it before, but I loved it. I looked at the tall woman and she was of average build but held her greatswords like a toy. Red hair, but not bright, and her eyes were green, and they were glaring at me.
"Have you found her yet?! Or have you just been playing house with your little," The woman froze in the middle of her speech.
Lesha had her sword, and I was already hovering over her neck, the flavor was mine.
I was thrown before I could sink my extended teeth into her neck. But I caught myself in the air and righted before landing in a crouch. She was fast and tough, and now she was glaring at me and Lesha.
I tried to take more blood from Lesha, but the woman seemed to see through what I was doing and she rushed me. I was about to use some of my stored blood when Mei yelled from the step, making the woman stopped dead in her tracks.
"Stop!" Mei cried coming down the stairs in only a towel. "Don't hurt K and Miss Lesha!"
I didn't wait, I used some blood, and then streaked around the woman, sinking my teeth deep into her neck. It was like sweet electrified Milk but refreshing. It was like her blood left a cool feeling on my throat, and when I let go, she looked at me in confusion.
[Platelet Service] Acquired!
I had taken in some brief flashes, and they were all of Mei, but older and with this woman. I could see the pain in her eyes as she looked at Mei, who was in the body of a child. This must have been hard for her to see the person special to them with something wrong.
"Sorry for attacking you like that, I could smell your blood and that meant that you were one of my servants, but I look like you already partially knew that, right?" I asked the woman, but she wasn't paying attention to me.
"Who are you?" Mei asked the woman, and the woman grabbed her chest over the left side, squeezing her heart.
"Gloria, and it is a pleasure to meet you," She said after taking a deep breath.
"Time for supper, can you all help with the tables!" Leana asked, sticking her head out of the kitchen and shouting.
"Come on Lesha, We can carry them!" I said, grabbing Leshas hand and dragging her with me.
"Hey! Don't you want to know what happens next?" Lesha asked with a big grin.
"I Want to know what happens after our bath!" I said while dragging Lesha into the storage room.
"Why did you need me!" Lesha complained as I dragged her into the back room.
"Because I'm not carrying this table alone! Leave the girls, it has to be hard for both of them. Mei doesn't recognize her, but she knows Mei. Could you imagine if only you could remember me, but I had no idea who you were?"
Lesha let out a sigh and came to help me carry one of the tables out. The girls were sitting at the other table, but neither was talking or looking at the other one. This was going to be weird for a while, but the biggest problem was that I couldn't give Gloria a ribbon.
Though with the dungeon in its current state, that wasn't an overly pressing concern, but it would become one in the future. We set the table down and I asked the girls to come and help me with the chairs. When Lesha and Mei each grabbed one, I stopped Gloria, asking her to wait while the others went.
"How much do you remember? Do you know what is going on? Did you know me?"
"Only Mei, and I have been looking for her for a very long time, but no matter where I looked I couldn't find her. How did you find her? And no, I do not know you, but I do feel like I might have, but I don't know what that means."
"She came to me, I am the first Guild Leader, and others with Mana are drawn to me, and Healia."
Gloria spat on the ground at the mention of Healia, and I looked at her with disgust. I bite into people's necks and the girls could tear a man limb from limb, but we weren't animals!
"Hey! Don't spit at the floor! This is a nice place and you are…" I tried to say, but Gloria dropped the table and started to go off on a tangent about god waving her hands around as she fumed.
"Gods are the scourge on the world! I am sure that Mei was taken and hidden from me by one of them! All of them are traitor monsters that only seek to de-harmonize our world! I have seen what they are doing in Westoff right now, Randamodeus and Telporation are pitting their followers against each other, tearing the cities apart in the process! All gods are evil!" Gloria finished and picked up both her chair and the one in my hand in a huff and half dragged me out.
"That wasn't the gods, it was someone before they came that did this to her, so be mad at that person, the Game Master. The gods are bad, but Healia isn't like them, and there might be others. Still, I do understand what you mean, we will find the person responsible for what was done to Mei, but you need to be here for her now, that's what you can do!"
We set the chairs down and Gloria came around and gave me a quick hug.
"I know we know each other, and we were friends, I just don't know how yet, but thank you for finding her."
Gloria and everyone was getting ready to sit down, but I cleared my throat, and my brothers almost dropped the food they were carrying out. I signed and glared at the girls.
"How many people?"
They all jumped up and ran to the storage room and by this time the other boys had come down so we ended up getting two more tables. Put together they made one nice long table, and with the food and plates set out we all sat down. Sixteen of us all sat down to eat, just missing Healia, but she didn't seem to be a part of this, and I wasn't about to force the matter.
Everyone said thanks for the meal, and then started to dig in, passing food and plates around to everyone. Once everyone was eating, Lesha leaned in to talk to me.
"Where are we going to put Gloria? We don't have extra rooms, I checked before. Our rooms are up with your rooms, and it's not like we can expect her and Mei to sleep together on the first night, right?" Lesha asked me, before taking a bite of salad and steak.
"Who are they? They are fine, let them figure it out," I said while looking away from Lesha, filling my own mouth with steak, lettuce, and a slice of strawberry with an almond slice stuck to it.
I knew what she was getting at and I was not liking what she was implying.
"K, she is going to sleep in our bed tonight! We have a huge bed!"
"But the thing, you know, the THING!"
"This is your fault, the dungeon is no one's fault, but you messed up with the points and now we have nowhere to put her! And you bit her, so now we are responsible for her!"
"Alright! Don't get so worked up, I see what you mean. I don't like it, but I do understand, but I don't like it," I said with a tone that dripped like acid.
"You said that twice," Lesha said while rolling her eyes.
"That's because I don't like it! I just wanted to enjoy the first night and such, but it's fine, and your right. Still don't like it!"
"That's good, I will make it up to you when we have a free night!"
I went back to my food, trying not to give Gloria dirty looks. The steak salad was excellent that Leana had made for us with strawberries, almonds, and some kind of sweet vinegar dressing. After everyone was finished we cleaned up and said good night to everyone.
"Can you all meet me down here in the morning before going out? I need to talk about some things that happened today, but I would like to wait and see what Healia figures out about it before talking about it, thank you."
I waved everyone off and then headed up to my boring bedtime.
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GOT IT