Jonathan held Ray out with one arm, his other hand scratching his chin as he examined her.

“You’re a strange one,” he admitted. “What are you? You have some vampiric traits but you’re not undead. You’re far too weak to be a seraph. Are there any other monster races with vampiric traits?”

Ray spat in his face.

Jonathan didn’t even flinch as he wiped the liquid away with his free hand. Then he reached into a bag hanging from his waist and pulled out a small vial of purple liquid. He uncapped the vial and poured the contents into his mouth.

Nothing changed. Ray stared at the man in confusion as he grimaced.

“That wasn’t poisonous? What a waste. I had to make sure, though.”

Ray promptly dismissed the man’s actions.

She had decided on a plan. It was a stupid plan and would probably end with her body in a ditch somewhere... but even that would be an escape of sorts.

Jonathan released Ray, dropping her to the ground with a thud. He pulled a black cloak out of his bag and tossed it over her. Without another word, he started walking in the direction of the huge wall.

The archer prodded her with his bow. She meekly pointed with her bound hands at the rope tying her feet together. The thief snapped his fingers, and the rope released her legs and returned to his hands. She obediently rose to her feet, walking with her back hunched to keep the cloak covering her figure.

The group walked in formation, the thief moving in front while the archer was in the rear. Suzy walked beside Ray while Jonathan was a short distance in front of the two girls. They moved in silence. The four individuals were tense as they constantly observed their surroundings.

Ray, for her part, ignored them as she focused on the rope binding her hands. The cloak functioned as an excellent cover as she slowly experimented, prodding it and attempting to move her hands around. The rope didn’t seem to conform to her wrists without its master’s orders. Perfect.

For the next several minutes, Ray focused on working her hands through the rope. She hid a grimace as the bones in her hands ground against each other. After a minute of painful compressing, a piercing wave of agony shot up her arm as one of the bones cracked. She bit her lip to stop herself from making any sounds. She focused her mind on the tiny sting as she continued to pull her hand through the rope.

Her arm started trying to regenerate, so she pulled harder, trying to prevent it from healing by causing further injury. She heard an audible crack and flinched, hoping that nobody heard it.

The four humans stopped in their tracks, searching for the source of the sound. Ray pulled one more time and felt a wave of relief as her right hand squeezed through the rope and started to heal.

She smiled.

After several quiet minutes, Jonathan signaled that they should keep moving. The group started to move together along the path once more. Ray, walking beside Suzy, twisted her hunched form slightly to observe the white-robed girl.

Specifically, her eyes latched onto the hilt of a dagger peeking out from the sash of her robes. She turned just enough to inconspicuously glance at the archer in the rear, noting that most of his attention was focused on their surroundings. He only occasionally looked at her, probably putting too much trust in his friend’s flying ropes.

The walls were moving ever closer, and Ray estimated that they were still about thirty minutes away. She waited for one of the brief gaps when both the archer and Suzy were looking away from her.

Now or never.

Ray lunged at Suzy, grabbing the hilt of her dagger, and deftly shoved it up under Suzy’s chin and into her head. The dagger felt strangely natural in her hand and the dagger cut into Suzy with little resistance. Suzy went limp, the light in her eyes dying before she could even recognize that she had been attacked.

Without pausing, Ray launched herself at the archer at breakneck speed, holding her cloak in place with her left hand. He started to turn, noticing something approaching in his peripheral vision but he was too late. Ray shoved the bloody dagger into the archer’s ear. His neck snapped from the force of the blow and he fell over, dead.

Both Suzy’s and the archer’s bodies hit the ground at about the same time.

Unfortunately, the bodies hitting the ground made a noise, which meant that Jonathan and Vick noticed something was amiss.

Ray resisted the compelling scent of blood that began to waft through the air as she quickly slashed the rope into three pieces with the dagger. She felt a growing urge inside of her to attack the other two, but she suppressed it as she reached down and grabbed the bag tied to the archer’s waist, slashing the cords that held it in place. Then she faced Jonathan and Vick, starting to circle off the path to the left as if to approach them.

“By Loki, what did you just do?!” Vick swore, his face turning white.

Jonathan stared at his friend’s corpses with a grim expression. He donned his shield and unsheathed his sword, turning to face Ray. As she was shuffling to the left, he matched her movements to keep her at a far enough distance that he could react to anything she might try.

Vick moved with Jonathan, keeping himself behind the frontliner. He wasn’t sure how Ray had escaped or killed the other two party members. Until he had more information, he didn’t want to charge forward or put himself in a position to get attacked.

When they completed half a revolution of a circle, Ray stopped. She wanted to keep fighting. She could feel her heart pounding as adrenaline surged through her.

She also felt that it would be a bad idea to continue. She took out two of them in a surprise attack, but she didn’t really know how to fight.

She took a step back, bowing to her opponents.

Jonathan and Vick froze, unsure of what to make of the gesture.

Ray straightened her back, finally pulling her arms through the sleeves of her new black cloak as she stuck her tongue out at them. Then she turned and ran towards the wall at a speed far faster than a normal human could run.

She giggled hysterically as she ran, licking the blood off the dagger. It wasn’t anywhere near as good as the blood she tasted when she first awoke, but it was still delicious.

She summoned the image of Jonathan’s and Vick’s surprised faces in her mind, as well as Suzy’s blank expression.

Ray replayed the sequence in her mind repeatedly, chuckling with delight every time she remembered the pleasant sound of the archer’s neck snapping.

In the short time since she became aware, she finally made a memory that she never wanted to forget.

Victory tasted incredibly sweet.

***

At some point after some undefined amount of time passed, I was relieved to feel my senses beginning to flow back to me. I couldn’t really say for sure, but I suspected that whatever Auto did to me also removed my sense of time.

As I focused my attention on my surroundings, I found myself floating behind the familiar vampire as she ran down the mountain towards the walled town.

Why was she out here? I thought Auto told me she was inside a temple in the town.

Then again, I had no idea how much time had passed. It couldn’t have been too much because she didn’t look any older than when I saw her last. She was wearing a black cloak now and laughing hysterically as she licked a bloodstained dagger. It wasn’t the weirdest thing I had ever seen, but it still made the list.

“Mr. Overseer?” robo-voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Yes, Auto?”

“It appears that you are approaching an important decision that will influence you for the rest of eternity.”

“What’s that?”

“You have to choose a new name.”

“...”

I honestly hadn’t thought about it that much, but Auto was right. Try as hard as I might, I couldn’t quite seem to remember my name from when I was on Earth. Everything else about my previous life was crystal clear, but whatever process turned me into an Overseer withheld that one detail from me. I wouldn’t be allowed to claim that I was the same person here.

That being said, I had no idea what to call myself. I decided to spitball whatever came to mind.

“Hmm… considering the ‘vampire’ and ‘monster’ stuff, maybe something Anime-ish? Lord of Darkness. King of Vampires. His Almighty Spirit-ness. God of Monsters? Nah, those are all titles. I need a name.”

“If you so desire, I can run a Name Generator to give you ideas.”

A Name Generator? What could go wrong?

“Sure...”

“Calculating… complete. I will now read the generated options.”

The voice paused for a moment before taking on a slightly different tone. It was still robotic, but this time it sounded almost… amused... or perhaps whimsical?

“Sugar Fruit, Sunshine Zephyr, Snow Music, Juicy Firefly, Amethyst Poser…”

“STOP! Stop, right now!”

Auto’s voice cut off. After a brief lull, he spoke again. “Objection, I was nearing the more creative ones.”

“I don’t even want to know.”

What the hell kind of name generator did he just use?

“Sir, are you absolutely certain that you do not want to be known for eternity as ‘Coco Velvet’?”

“Yes, I am absolutely sure.”

But I was starting to have doubts about my impression of Auto’s personality. This was a rather sudden shift.

“Noted. Shall I use a different generator?”

“No, I think I’ll brainstorm a bit more on my own.”

“May I address another topic then?”

If I had eyebrows, I’d probably be raising them now. “Sure, what’s up?”

“Now that you are aware of the truth of this world, I must apologize for allowing you to choose a non-human as your Tether.”

Ah. Was Auto feeling guilty?

“Can I ask you a question related to that? You claimed that the sword-and-board warrior was the third strongest adventurer in the region. Why were he and his party defeated so easily by a random monster?”

“That entity was not simply a random monster. However, I did exaggerate and falsify information to manipulate you.”

Huh. Though I’d suspected as much, I did not expect such a forthcoming reply.

“Why?”

“You are an anomaly. There were only four Overseer’s given free reign over this world and then you suddenly appeared. My master grew concerned and sent me to observe and manipulate you into choosing a less-than-promising Tether.”

“And yet you are very honest in all your appraisals.”

“Naturally. I have taken an interest in you. Your decisions do not follow established protocols and I wish to see interesting things.”

“Hmm, so basically if your master orders you to screw me over then you’ll do it with no hesitation. Otherwise, you’ll help me ‘because it’s interesting’?”

“Affirmative.”

“And I don’t suppose you’ll tell me who your master is?”

“Do not ask inane questions.”

Right. No way it would be that easy.

“As for your apology, don’t worry about it. Given my personality, I probably would have ended up on this side in the end anyways. This just forced me into that position a little sooner, that’s all.”

“I am relieved to hear that you hold neither contempt nor anger for my lack of candidness. In the future, I will be more forthright with both my aid and my training.”

“Sure, don’t mention it.”

I needed Auto to teach me how to do this Overseer stuff, after all. I wouldn’t be throwing my ‘teacher’ out quite yet, notwithstanding my complete inability to actually do so.

I returned my attention to my Tether. I circled around her as she ran, noting that her silvery hair was tangled and had mixed clots of dried blood and dirt spread throughout.

The sight of the blood reminded me of the horrific event that ultimately led me to turn her into my Tether. She was quickly approaching the town. At her current pace, she would probably reach the gate in a handful of minutes.

Outside of the gates, I could see several humans. Some had carts or wagons. Other’s carried heavy loads. There were many armed individuals who seemed to be guarding different clients. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that the people there mostly consisted of merchants, farmers, adventurers, and hired guards or mercenaries.

Disappointingly, though as expected, I didn’t see any nonhumans. Other than that, everything externally looked like I would expect it to for a medieval fantasy world.

My Tether moved to the end of the line and I decided to wait and watch for the time being. Once she got inside the town and found a place to stay, it would be time to introduce myself and have a good heart-to-heart conversation.

We were going to be seeing a lot of each other for a while, after all.