Sora was very happy to see the healer had given up chasing after him but his happiness was short lived when other monsters began chasing him. Sora intentionally began making his way away from the crowded streets into narrower empty streets. Sora did so because of a painful experience he had in Royal Road when he was being chased – someone from the crowd tripped him over and he was caught. Having learnt from his mistake, Sora now always ran away from crowded places than into them (much like he did with the Abbe).

Sora had no idea why he was being chased by the other monsters – he didn’t do anything to them. Yet, they still chased after them! Sora nearly gave up hope when the vampire appeared in front of him. However, Sora recovered in an instant when the vampire asked for Ai and offered him no harm in return.

[God bless you…] Sora thought as he chucked Ai to the vampire as he crossed by the vampire – the other monsters were after all chasing him. (Author’s note: God blessing a vampire is pretty much verbally abusing the vampire but Sora wasn’t thinking about this at the time).

Sora thought that the vampire meant him harm, but actually turned out to be a saviour! He took off the extra baggage Sora had been tugging along! To begin with Sora, didn’t even know why he picked up Ai and began running. Maybe because he just panicked seeing the doctor reaching out for a weapon – first reaction based on instinct was to pick up the trouble maker and run. Thus, Sora ran with Ai wrapped in his arm. However, having some time to think about it, Sora realized he didn’t need to carry Ai. Just when he was about to dump her, the vampire asked for.

This is why Sora was very grateful – much to the confusion of the vampire.

***

The vampire stared at Ai who was clinging on to his arms in fright.

“Tch! An undead…” The vampire muttered as he let go of Ai – she fell with a soft plop on the ground.

Ai too like the vampire was very much confused. Why did Sora throw her away like that? Why did he hand her over to a complete stranger? Sora’s actions made no sense to her. First he rescues her, then leaves her, then saves her again and now dumped her. If Sora was in a relationship with Ai, she would have described him as very flimsy and unreliable. After all, what kind of man keeps running away from someone and then rushes back to save them?

The vampire paid no heed to Ai. There was no reason to do so – even for a slave she was too unqualified (mostly in the chest size department). Even if she were to grow older there was no reason to believe she would turn out to be a beauty. The vampire was swift to decide that the costs far outweighed the benefits of keeping Ai.

Since Sora was so happy to give up Ai, that led the vampire to believe that Ai was truly nothing disposable more than disposable garbage – making her even more worthless in his eyes.

Ai was completely unaware of the disdain the vampire stared at her with. She was just trying to make sense of everything that had happened; why did the healer start chasing them? Why did cute bunnies start chasing them? Why were there so many monsters here? Ai was scared of monsters – she was human to begin with so it was given she would be afraid of them. However, Ai was not afraid of all monsters (especially if those monsters were not part of her bed time story). Sora was a skeleton but he gave off a nice feeling. Also, skeleton’s had been part of the good monster’s group in her bed time tales. The monster’s in this dungeon were different, especially those after Sora. They emitted a wild blood thirst for Sora which scared Ai.

Ai began crying, all this was overwhelming her. Finding a friend in the desert, losing a friend, then getting eaten up by a big worm, finding lost friend, having friend’s finger bones stuffed down her throat, being chased by monsters and finally being dumped in the icy cold arms of a stranger. One must remember Ai was brought up by an over protective otaku father. So the recent few events was really too much for a small child.

“WAAAAAAAh” Ai began crying loudly.

Tears were pouring from the side of her eyes like fountains. Her friend was truly dreadful for gagging her for no reason and now dumping her here. To top it off, this stranger just dropped on the ground like garbage.

The vampire, already very pale, turned a shade paler. Nothing is more annoying to a monster than a high pitched crying voice. He would have killed her but for a certain reason avoided in doing so. Rather he turned his thoughts towards Sora who was very far away. The vampire was regretful it took him so long to recover from the shock Sora gave him.

(Ai was stunned that no one pays attention to her when she cries – so she stops immediately.)

What is it that Sora had, that made him so valuable? The vampire wondered. He wasn’t going to be hasty like last time. After all, he could catch up to Sora in ten seconds. “He might have stolen something from the healer? “ The vampire thought aloud.

Just as the vampire was about to chase after Sora, he felt a tug against his leg. Ai was holding on to him really tightly.

“Let go! Rotten brat…” The vampire angrily spoke – he didn’t want to lose his prey to the other monsters.

“Sora! Hasn’t stolen anything!” Ai shouted at the vampire, refusing to let him go. “Sora is very nice. You are bad!” Ai declared.

The vampire was in a bad mood – what did this little girl know about worldly affairs? He would have smacked Ai down but the consequences would be too much for a vampire of his stature to deal with. It appeared that the vampire was afraid of something…or someone?

In the end, the vampire stopped short of hurting Ai in any way. He instead froze her all her limbs to the ground. Ai was horrified to discover ice rising from the ground and slowly freezing her over. The vampire didn't even have to pay attention to Ai as he froze her - she was no more than an ant in comparison to him. He took one last glance at Ai, to make sure she was unhurt by his actions and then resumed his chase after Sora who appeared to be cornered on a ledge by the two goblins and the orc.