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*******************

I have been here for 3 months.

The vampire lair turned out to be a gigantic cave inside a mountain.

Though, the cave is so in name only.

Inside there are all the usual comforts of a dwelling. Beds, lights, bathroom, shower, etc. I guess they have had plenty of time to mold the stone of the cave to their liking.

I thought they would lock me up in some sort of cell, but I can move freely as long as I don't leave the cave.

They even bring me the food I ask for from outside, although they don't seem to need it.

After so long here I feel like I've gotten used to it, both the place and its inhabitants.

Gideon can be brusque and doesn't show much emotion, but I can see that he tries hard in teaching me, and his explanations are always easy to understand.

Teresa on the other hand is kind and I might even say affectionate. And, although I find that her explanations on mana management are not as good as Gideon's on fencing, that may be due to how bad I am at controlling my mana.

I'm currently training with Gideon and, while he continues to outperform me absurdly in speed and strength, I think I'm slowly getting better at my swordsmanship.

"Wrong" says Gideon, as if contradicting my thought from a moment ago and knocking me down with a shove "I already told you that you have to go with the flow of my movements. Combat is like a dance, you shouldn't move a moment before or a moment after, but at the right moment."

"I understand, but you're just too strong" I say, accepting the hand he holds out to help me up.

"Strength has nothing to do with it" Gideon says sharply "You rely too much on your strength, but strength isn't everything in battles. You have bad moves. It's like you've gotten too strong in a short period, and it seems like you're still not used to fighting using everything you've got. You have to get to know yourself. You also have to learn to observe your opponent. The one who knows himself and knows his opponent will lose no battle."

"I am trying" I say, a little irritated and thinking that maybe I should stop the training for today.

"Not hard enough" he says in an appeasing tone. Gideon seems to be able to read my thoughts just by looking at my face "It's not enough to predict my moves. That's easy. You have to instinctively understand how to react to every movement, your body has to react without you having to think. You have to learn to see and act accordingly instantly."

"That's impossible" I say, because I find what he is saying ridiculous. No one can react instantaneously to something. Some thinking time will always be lost.

"It's not..." he says and sighs "I was in your shoes many years ago and I know it's very difficult to understand. But believe me when I tell you that, when you understand it, you will see that strength is not so important in a fencing match" he finishes speaking with a smile to which I respond in kind.

Over time I have become more and more confident in Gideon's advice, to the point where I am deciding to take his word for it, even though it seems to me to be seemingly impossible.

"By the way, when is your father going to wake up?" I ask, trying to change the subject. A little uncomfortable that Gideon can read my thoughts by seeing my expression as he always does.

"I don't know... We didn't think it would take him this long to control his thirst" he says and frowns "otherwise, we wouldn't have brought you here to keep you here for so long."

"Don't worry, I'm already used to living here" I tell him in a joking tone.

"That's the problem, it's not just you..." he sighs "If our father decides you are detrimental to the world he will murder you, and that won't sit well with Teresa" he says as he looks at me with his characteristic expressionless look, ignoring my joking tone.

"Ahh" I say tersely because I can't think of what else to say.

My spirits fall through the floor as I think about what Gideon just said.

I'm getting used to living here… To the point where sometimes I forget that I'm not here by choice and that I'm waiting for a sentence that will decide my future…

...

I wake up in a soft place… where am I? Ahh, yes, I'm in my bed.

I passed out trying to perform the mana spear spell and I guess Teresa brought me to bed.

As I think about this, still with my eyes closed, I hear her voice full of concern.

"I don't understand. You're already incredibly strong for your age, why would you try that hard to do something you're clearly not ready for?" says Teresa worriedly. She seems to have noticed that I woke up, even though I didn't open my eyes.

"yeah well, that force won't bring the loved ones I've already lost back..." I say with a grunt, trying to get up. And, as I conjure up the memory of my parents, Ragnar, and Joseph I am reminded of Augustine's words 'you are cursed' "I need to learn more spells and become stronger so I can defend myself and others. I was able to defend myself against your daughter by sheer luck, but what if my enemy was someone or something of your level, or Gideon's?"

"There aren't many people like that..." she says in a chagrined voice "Besides, I don't think the people you lost would have liked to see you overexerts yourself like this."

"Maybe, but I can't ask them, so…" I say and get up ready to take one of my last remaining mana potions and try again.

...

In the end, I couldn't learn the mana spear no matter how hard I tried.

It's probably because I simply don't have enough mana capacity to do it since the spells I'm trying to learn solidify and condense large amounts of mana to achieve the piercing effect.

If only my affinity with the fire element were normal and not minor.... But hey, I have Azure, I can't complain.

But, while I couldn't learn to cast the mana spear or the mana weapons that they can summon out of thin air, I could at least learn to use the piercing mana bullet.

According to its description, it works similarly to its simpler counterpart. But it uses much more mana and, as it travels through the air towards its target, it spins on itself. This, coupled with its conical shape, allows it to pierce armor with ease.

Its cost is 180 mana per shot, so I wouldn't be able to use it much.

But, although it doesn't have the same devastating effect as the mana bomb, it is a very good option for enemies with high defense.

Also, I only need one second to prepare it as opposed to the 15 seconds required by the mana bomb.

***

I'm sitting at the kitchen table in the cave, having breakfast on toast with jam while drinking coffee.

Next to me is Teresa, drinking the same kind of drink.

As I eat breakfast, I remember a doubt that came to my mind yesterday before I went to sleep.

"How did you find me in the forest?" I ask as I spread a piece of toast with strawberry jam "I remember I was told it was because of Debi, but what does that have to do with it?"

"Now, after so many days, we could no longer trace you" Teresa says, while sipping her coffee in small sips "But back then you still had in your body a lot of the blood that Debi had used to try to control you. This blood belongs to Regis, my father. It allows him to track and sense anyone with his blood with ease."

"And then why didn't he track Debi from the beginning?" I ask sharply, puzzled as to why they left someone so dangerous unchecked "Couldn't the deaths in the village have been avoided that way?"

"He couldn't... He tried, but it seems Debi was especially skilled in our magic. It was only when she died that my father was able to track her down. It's a shame she decided to use her abilities for evil purposes" Teresa says with eyes wet with held back tears "When we found her she was a kind girl who was slowly dying from a poisonous sting. We never thought she would misuse the second chance at life we were granting her."

"And why would she have decided to go to that town? It's not even very far from here" I say quizzically "wouldn't it have been better for her to get as far away from you as possible?"

"Not necessarily. After all, we couldn't find her. When she escaped from us she was only a few months into her new life. That's why we assumed she had escaped returning to her village and we headed there" Teresa explains in an anguished voice as she finishes her coffee.

"Didn't you tell me she was 96 years old?" I ask, not quite understanding.

"yes, but she spent those years asleep. The first 100 years are usually very hard for us. As you may have noticed, we don't need conventional food, even though we can ingest it. What sustains us is blood, and it can be of any kind. We can live perfectly well on the blood of animals, but the blood of people has a euphoric effect on us, and the thirst does not allow us to think clearly. My father suffered a lot during his early years, being alone. That's why he came up with the idea of putting Gideon, Debi, and me to sleep during our early years" Teresa explains, as she regains calmness in her voice.

"Ahh, and didn't you notice anything strange in Debi's actions when she woke up?" I ask quizzically. I don't understand how Gideon could have missed it, considering how easily he reads my expressions.

"No. For us, she was the same lovely girl she had been while she was human. It just seemed strange to us how eager she was to learn to control her new powers, but we couldn't imagine what she wanted to use them for. We should have kept a better eye on her..." finishes Teresa downhearted.

"Yes" I say with a bitter voice full of sadness, remembering the faces of Joseph and Ragnar "you should have done it."