One may wonder about the day prior, specifically speaking, how Aurora felt or what she thought when Lilith’s cold aura exploded. The answer is that she was frightened and yet a strange sense of pride enveloped her. She wondered about Lilith’s strength since she didn’t see the moment Lilith broke the man’s fingers. Rather, she couldn’t see it.

Aurora had decided to push her curiosity to the back of her mind. In the end, does it matter? Isn’t it better for Lilith to be strong? With that in mind she enjoyed the rest of the day with Lilith. Their first date could be said to be a complete success. However, if you were to say that to either of them their faces would turn bright like a tomato and deny it with all their might.

The next day came and they departed the city... late. You see, Aurora had been using some of Lilith’s clothes and after the day prior she was having trouble with keeping herself in check. Day by day her mutated soul was changing her body. The result of such changes was a constant increase in her senses. Because of this Lilith’s clothes which held her sent were driving Aurora insane.

“Excuse me, we want to buy some clothes for Aurora over here”

“Oh! such cute children need proper clothes. Sure I will help in whatever way I can”

The clerk had a wide smile and shining eyes. It was more than obvious she liked children, or rather, she liked to play dress up with them. That is precisely what happened with Aurora and not even Lilith could escape. Piece after piece of clothing was brought to them and each time the clerk squealed with excitement.

“You girls should get this one! Oh! and this one, this one is cute too!”

“Erm miss I think these is too much, I don’t need so many”

“I also already have a lot of clothes so I don’t need so much”

“Denied! I will pay this myself if I have too! I can’t let such cute girls not wear cute clothes as well!”

In the end they managed to convince the clerk to compromise. They ended up buying a total of ten sets of clothing out of which eight were for aurora and two for Lilith. Of course Aurora tried to get the number of sets for her lower. After all she had lived as a slum girl for most of her life. She would have been alright with two sets. Her resistance was for naught though as Lilith had joined the clerk in pushing her to buy more.

As of now Aurora is wearing a dark purple jacket over a white and cyan striped blouse. A pair of shorts and thigh high black socks paired with black leather boots. Most of her clothes consisted of a similar combination with different colours. Of course there were some dresses in there too but that is for another time.

That was the first reason why they left late. The second was that Aurora pointed out that neither Mia nor Lilith had any weapons. The two of course didn’t need them. However, to an outsider it would be suspicious to find out a small girl and her maid were adventuring weaponless. So they all visited a weapon shop as well.

“Hello, we want to buy some weapons”

“Hey kid, this is no place to play. Not to mention you could get hurt if I sell you a weapon, that would diminish my shop’s reputation”

A short well built man sat behind the counter. He is the owner of this shop as well as the blacksmith that makes the weapons. The reason why he is currently attending the counter instead of someone else is because he was taking a break from smithing. Another characteristic that is worth mentioning is that despite his small stature he is in fact a human.

“I may be a kid but I know how to handle myself you know. Not to mention, I don’t really need the weapon to defend myself or kill monsters but having one can’t harm”

The man looked up and down, seizing Lilith with discerning eyes. From an onlooker it would seem like an old dwarf was looking at a small girl with lecherous eyes. However, in fact, this blacksmith was studying Lilith’s breathing and movements.

“Fine, hit my hand, if you manage to surprise me I will consider it”

With that said the man held his palm out waiting for Lilith to strike, which she did. Of course she held back. If she had punched the old man with all her strength, who knows how many fragments his arm would have broken into.

“Damn lady, you hit like a mad bull!”

With that said the Man shook his hand. Numbness claimed from his hand all the way to his shoulder. It is needed to say that as a blacksmith his arms are quite strong from all the hammering. Even an adult would have some trouble getting the man to feel numb from a single punch.

“My name is Gam. Sorry for my behavior earlier but you need to understand that it is for the safety of the younger ones”

“I don’t mind. My name is Lilith, this maid is Mia, and the beast-kin is Aurora. I would like to get a pair of daggers of myself. A rapier for Mia and… Aurora what you want?”

“Uhm, how about some metal clawed gauntlets?”

Lilith knew herself as well as Mia as the palm of her hand. Daggers were the best option for her since her speed far surpassed her strength. Not to mention that carrying them around would be easier. Mia, despite being a mage before, had gained a strong body thanks to becoming a dhampir. Not to mention she wanted to be at the frontline to protect her beloved master.

On the other hand, Aurora knew that she was at her strongest when transformed into her wolf form. Despite not knowing how to transform at will, learning how to use claws would still help her when she did. For a slum girl with little to no education she had made quite the good decision.

“I see, I can show you the daggers and rapiers I have. As for a clawed gauntlet, I will need to modify an existing one. It will take me at most two hours so feel free to wait if you want, or come by tomorrow to pick them up”

“We will wait”

With that said, gam asked the actual clerk to show Mia and Lilith around while he took Aurora to fashion her personal weapon. The first to make her choice was Lilith. Her twin daggers were black with some blue, a gem-like luster coming from them. This is because the black part was made from obsidian. As for the red It is an alloy between ice stone and frozen steel. This made the daggers hold a cold aura to them, as well as giving them a freezing property.

As for Mia’s rapier, It is made of mana steel with a bit of mithril in it. Mana steel has a high mana conductivity and the mithril aids in its hardness as well as its mana retention. Like this, the light green rapier would work both as a sword and a staff.

Finally, Aurora's gloves were made of black steel which is an alloy of steel and adamantite. The ratio is usually ten to one. This makes the gloves quite heavy yet resistant for their size. The tip of the claws were made of pure adamantite only a millimeter or so of it. However, thanks to this, their pricing power skyrocketed.

In the end, the weapons and clothing had completely dried off Lilith’s savings. To the point she actually had to head to the adventurer’s guild and sell some stuff before she could afford it all. Thankfully, they had a lot of valuable stuff to sell.

“was it really alright to buy such expensive weapons?”

“It's fine, we will make it back in no time. Not to mention, if we really like money we could just go and hunt something really big to sell”

“Actually I was wondering, how strong are you Lilith?”

Aurora couldn’t help it anymore. After walking out of the city, she had been wondering about the price of the clothes and the weapons. Lilith and co were so nonchalant about being penniless. For her who had always worried about not having money, this kind of attitude was strange. Add to that how confident Lilith was on her strength Aurora couldn’t help but be curious as well as worry a little.

To her surprise Lilith held her hand up. From it, her nails grew into claws which easely tore a tree open before it fell under its own weight. The action had been smooth, almost effortless. Aurora couldn’t believe her yes! Even now it was hard for her to gauge Lilith’s strength.

“Don’t worry, I am sure you will be able to do something like that soon enough”

“Eh! Me!? No way, there is no way I could do that! Before that! What did you do!? Are you like me? How did your nails grow like that?”

Aurora’s head spun a thousand questions as her eyes looked back and forth between her hands and Lilith’s. As for Lilith, she couldn’t help but let out a stifled giggle. She took one of Aurora’s hands before patting her head with the other. To that Aurora reacted by wagging her tail while squinting comfortably.

“I don’t think we are the same. I can’t turn into a wolf, but I do have this claws and I need drink blood from time to time”

“Wait, you do!?”

“Ah! Sorry for not telling you before, it's alright if you think we are some kind of monsters”

“I would never!”

Lilith had bowed to hide her saddened expresion. However, Aurora denied it instantly. A relieved sigh escaped Lilith’s lips as she looked up straight into Aurora's eyes. Those eyes were imnotic to her. She had to use all of her willpower to stop herself from tackle-hugging Aurora.

“Okay, let’s get this straight now. My name is Lilith, I am a vampire, for all I know I might be the first of my kind. Mia, Shadow, Silver, and Sapphire are dhampirs. Which is to say, I made them into part of my species”

In that moment Aurora’s jaw dropped. She could have never expected to join such an odd group. However, she felt extremely elated to have done so.