As the horrible dream was ending I was waking up from the deep slumber that had put a constraint on my mind, only focusing on one thing in particular……...the day my parents had died…….kuh. I decided to not dwell on the topic since the memories aren't exactly happy ones.Then suddenly I heard knocking at my door which made me get up to answer the door. I walked over to the door, grabbed the doorknob by my hand. the door came open with a sudden movement then a man appeared, not at the doorway but at my throat with a dagger. As he noticed the shocked expression I had on my face,he smiled and knocked me out.

After I regained consciousness I saw him cleaning his dagger while he was leaning back in on of my table chairs. He happened to look up from his dagger cleaning and saw that I had awakened.

He said “well well it looks like our little princess is awake.”

he then snickered. As he said those last words my mouth was agape, I thought to myself ‘how did he even know I was princess!!!!’. He took notice of my surprise and said “ah, I see you are surprised by how I know your name, well you see I am an assassin.”

As I looked at the assassin in front of me, the sun started to rise in the room which helped me get a better look at this man's face. He had long hair but I wasn't too long that it would the length of mine, it covered one of his eyes. His eyes were red and filled with hatred, pain, and agony. What also saw was a weird scar on the left side of his face, then i noticed it was what people called a “demon’s burn” and now that I see it on his face it is also in his hair. Long ago I heard of this phenomenon it happens when someone tampers with dark magic, if they fail it can leave you with a curse called the “demon’s burn”. Essentially what it does is that a demon is summoned and usually it burns you but it also can choose you as vessel, but it didn't look like he got the better part of the failure. it also doesn't hurt you but at times of great emotion it will turn the victim into a terrible demon with no control over it. He was also wearing a butler’s uniform.

I finally spoke for once in this conversation and said “hehe it looks like you were cursed Mr. Assassin Boy but my question is how do you know who I am”

He said “well I have my ways of getting information little miss princess Aria, oh and for my name I am Dante Shinjiru”. As he finished with that sentence he started another sentence saying “well why don't we start talking business or should I say terms of our agreement” as those words fell out of his mouth, a sly smirk came to his mouth.

I said “so what are these terms of yours Dante”. As I said that his face lit up with excitement and said “you will agree----” he suddenly stopped and cleared his throat. He then spoke with a more manly voice that was completely out of character “ah yes the terms I take you with me to my master and I don't destroy this small village, that you love so much hehehe.” As he said that he filled me with complete and pure anger. I suddenly shot up but soon noticed he had noticed that I was tied to the chair, I thought to myself ‘dumb bryn, how could you not notice that.’ He got up saying with a teasing tone “well looks like we have an oblivious princess here don't we”.

As I calmed down, Dante untied my ropes and awaited my answer. I began with saying “ok I will agree with you on one condition……..it is that you explain to me how you got that demon burn ‘kay.” He was a little bit confused for a minute and said “what’s a demon burn if I may ask?” He then touched his face as well as saying “oh, you mean my Demone Bruciare if that’s the condition to tell you about then….yes.” I was confuse also so I asked “what is a Demone Bruciare?” He counter by saying “I believe in your way of saying it's called the demon burn.” I then facepalmed myself thinking ‘how could I not infer that from what he was saying’.

As I packed and said my goodbyes to this wonderful village I went back to the house I had so many good times in, I then saw a glimmer of light in the corner. I thought to myself ‘didn't I get everything?’ I walked over to that corner, what I saw was something that brought to tears to my eyes. I dropped to the floor crying looking at the picture of me as child sleeping next my parents on a beautiful field. As I sat there crying my eyes out I heard Dante knocking on the door, I quickly wiped the tears from my face took the picture and opened the door. Dante stepped out of the way as I walked by him, I stopped without looking him straight in the eyes and said “let's go, I have no regrets now.” As I smiled so did dante as to say ‘well that's good to hear.’

Me and Dante set out on our journey to his master’s residence. As we exited town we were faced with one of the many challenges on this journey there was a pack of wolves glaring at us from afar like we were their first victims for today. I slowly pulled out my crystal red and black rapier that I named “Kuroi Chi” from its sheath until dante whistles and the wolves coming cheerfully running towards dante. The wolves jump on him and start licking him cheerfully, I then look closely while I sheath my rapier. The wolves have earrings with the letters DS inside a flame symbol on their left ears. As soon as dante notices that I am looking at their earrings he explains saying “these are the wolves I grew up with there names are Aurora (female), Benito (male), Bonavento (male), Zaire (male), Maeve (female).”

As Dante motioned the wolves to go scout ahead he looked at me and smiled saying “well milady let's start walking then.” We started walking down the path until a huge tremor shook the ground beneath our feet. As we tried to get a foothold on the ground we saw what was making the ground shake, it was an orc plus there were goblins following close behind the orc. I and Dante had the same idea, at the same time we both pulled out our weapons and charged the monsters. The orc slammed down his club to do us both in but we dodged it with a quick movement and sliced at his knees, he then fell to the ground that’s when I took out Kuroi Chi and stabbed him straight through the heart. He dissolved into ash amongst the ash was an object a shiny golden round gem that had always fallen we you defeated a C-Class monster.

Although there were a lot of goblins the didn't take much to kill under 15 minutes all of them had been annihilated and there E-Class gems sprawled amongst all the ash on the ground. Dante seemed confused by these gems with the letter E inside them so I asked “what is the problem Dante?” He said “uh……..what are these gems and why are they the same color but the orcs gem is a different color?” I countered by asking “have you not heard of the Monster Reward System?” then he said “no, I have not.” I explained “well to summarize the MRS is a system that rewards you for hunting monsters; each monster has its own color and class to their gem they drop like Clear for S-Class, Misty Blue for A-Class, Silver for B-Class, Gold for C-Class, Red for D-Class, and finally Green for E-Class. S-Class gems are the highest quality and E-Class gems are the lowest quality. After you're done hunting down monsters you turn them into the guild and you get money for it, well that about summarizes the MRS for you.”

After my explanation Dante said “oh, that clears things up for me thanks Bryn-chan.” We started walking after my explanation but what came up in the distance was something unfathomable, a giant black castle towering way above the trees and the clouds. Just when I stopped beholding the giant castle, Dante said “this is my master’s home welcome to Nero Castello.” He finished and motioned me towards the gates to the castle as he opened them I saw this beautiful hedge path way all the way to the castle doors. We treked all the way to the doors in silence because i was marveling at the whole garden, castle, and the pathway to the castle. when we came to the castle doors Dante opened them and what we saw was a complete black interior, and with that Dante’s master looking down at us then saying “welcome Princess Aria to the Nero Castello.”

THE END OF CHAPTER 2