Alucard struggled to open his eyelids that felt like they were sealed shut by several locks.

His blurry eyes that sat under his thick black mask found it harder than usual to adjust to the light, but it did not take too long for the world to finally come into view.

He blinked several times before his face laid frozen. He simply gazed up with a lazy stare at the now orange-tinted wooden ceiling that was concealed by a thick layer of illuminated dust that elegantly danced in the air, and the ambient sound of birds chirping loudly trickled into his ears through the small cracks of the unpolished window. He could not help but find himself lost at the humble, rather familiar, warm feeling of the view.

It was peaceful and unusually sombre; it almost felt like a dream that he could stay in forever. But, like all dreams, it sadly had to come to an end.

*Grrreh…* *Ehh.*

He once again blinked many times as he was mellowly snapped back to reality by the sound of slight grunting coming from his side. It seemed to be always there, but he did not notice until this very moment as though it was filtered out by his ears.

When he tried to turn his head to the side, he found it to be just as difficult if not more difficult than forcing his eyes to open. Still, he persevered through the unusual pain, and he was rewarded by quite an odd sight.

There he saw Luck, fast asleep yet not so peaceful, he shook around switching from side to side like he was in a cradle, his face that held an ocean of sweat was contracted in agony, his teeth biting his lower lip tightly to the point that blood began to drip and mix with the sweat. The sweat spread all around his body and leaked onto the pillow underneath, forming a wet puddle where he laid.

"Huh…" Alucard's dull eyes shot wide open as he witnessed what was going on and heard the low grunting, it was the first time he saw anything like this happen.

He had many things going through his mind, but as though it was out of instinct, he forced his heavy hand up and slowly brought it towards him.

"Hey, Luck, what's up? You okay?" He nudged him lightly with one finger, and Luck's eyes immediately sprung to life.

"WHA!!" …" He screamed before his reality set back in, looking at the ceiling of the room. He lifted his hands up in the air and inspected the state of his body with clear shock.

"Luck, you hear me?" He heard a sparse voice to his side and he abruptly shuddered before he took several deep breaths, shaking his head and slowly turning around to meet that voice head-on.

He was met by a black mask, but underneath that mask, he sensed eyes of concern staring at him, which helped ease his nerves and calmed him down, giving him the courage to smile.

"Oh… Lord Alucard… I'm so sorry to startle you… It's nothing to worry about, it's just that some days during the year, we fairies experience unbelievable pain when we sleep, this is the trade-off we have for receiving our fairy dust." He lifted himself and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"See, I'm good as new!" He smiled, fluttering all-around Alucard's head in elegant laps before he rested softly on his shoulders.

Alucard could not help but feel slightly skeptical about this fact he had never heard about, but he eventually disregarded it as something he had not read up on or simply something new to this reality of his. He was just glad Luck was okay and that it was not his fault in some way.

'Huh? What am I even thinking?' He shook his head seemingly out of nowhere, but when he did it almost felt like it was about to explode like the watermelon it felt like.

"Glad your okay," He replied back as he tried to force himself to stand outside of bed, his hands tightly gripping his dizzy head.

"My lord! Are YOU okay?"

His hands still on his head, he managed to get out of bed and bring himself up on two feet, nodding towards Luck who flew off his shoulders.

He did not want to directly answer him just in case there was anyone spying at them through the door. He was almost certain that it was not well made or insulated and he did not want to take any chances, so in the end, he simply whispered it all to Luck.

"It's because of the sun, these curtains are like paper, they don't even work,"

Alucard should have both expected the low-quality blinds to leak in sunlight and for that to be the reason for his weak body, but he only now noticed due to him being lost in some weird nostalgic fantasy he barely even remembered. He felt stupid, now was not the time nor place to waste time for such things, not when there was much to be done.

Alucard's headache was intense, but it did slowly get better. Taking that in along with the colour of the light shining in, the sun must have been close to completely setting.

"How dare they put you in such a filthy room! Have they no respect!" Luck screamed in a whispering voice.

"Don't worry, we won't be forced to live in this dump forever. I have bigger and greater things planned." Alucard sighed and chuckled at Luck's words.

"Oh yes! Certainly, I have no doubts!" He nodded vigorously as he saw his lord slowly inch towards the door.

"Come on Luck, there's much to be done today if we want to survive in this new, unforgiving world. Let's go on our first field trip in the city."

"Of course!" He beamed and swooped down towards his lord's shoulders.

"In the pocket Luck," Alucard shook Luck off his shoulders and pointed at a pocket along his cloak. "I don't know how this city will react to your kind and I'm not taking any chances. You can take small peeks out for air but that's it. You are not to come out unless I allow it. Don't worry, I'll let you out once I go on my first mission,"

Luck seemed somewhat disappointed but completely understanding, but, when Alucard made that promise, his eyes immediately twinkled with glee.

"Is that a promise?"

"Yes, it's a promise,"

"Okay!" Despite how much he clearly hated it, Luck smiled brightly and did as he was told.

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

"Hey Jenny! We're about to go on our break! Can you take over for us?"

"Yeah, sure, why not…"

"Thanks, Jen you're the best!"

She deeply sighed as the sounds of her fellow staff member's laughter echoed into her ears.

She tried to act indifferent on the outside but she could not shake away the unease in her heart, especially after yesterday's events that continuously popped up in her mind.

*Argh* She scratched her head vigorously before she took several breaths to calm herself down and forget about her worries.

Yesterday was bad enough, and she had no plans today to make it any worse.

She forced her tired, baggy eyes open, leaning her head on her hands as she stared calmly at the rather soothing guildhall ahead like she was a zombie.

"Hey, missy, can you tell me where can I find the salt,"

"Yes of course! Right over there!" She smiled and pointed to the side counter.

"Thanks,"

"Your very welcome!" Jenny smiled brilliantly at the disgusting face of the blushing man, feeling inner revulsion that she was not allowed to show before going back to her normal face.

That was when she sighed once again, looking at the increasingly dimming light shining through the thick glass windows over the swinging front doors.

The hall was rather empty, she could count all the people on the inside on one hand. This was known by the staff as "The dead zone,". A time in the day when people were not recruiting and eating to prepare for their next adventure, and a time when they were not back to sleep and celebrate, it was sometime in between then. Currently, it was nearly sunset and most of the adventurers were out either on an assignment, exploring, or doing some errands. There was no reason for them to stay. The few stragglers that remained were either people who came in to eat or simply the dead-beats that everyone hated or could simply find no team.

Though it was the most peaceful time of day, it was also by far the most boring. There was nothing to be done that would help distinguish herself from her peers and further make up for yesterday's disaster, the hall was clean, the quests and assignments were all posted, and no mail carriers were going to come to deliver anything new any time soon. She had already done it all and extra.

All that there was to do was wait… and wait… and wait… and wait... and wait...

Eventually, the waiting felt too long, and she was left staring at the unmoving front doors with ever so dimming eyelids until her blurry vision suddenly went blank…

"..."

"..."

"Miss…"

"Miss... "

"Miss… Are you there?"

"Miss?"

She heard faint, rather familiar whispers enter her ears, but she felt too fatigued to even think before responding.

"Yes, yes… I'll be right there… Stop nagging me… I do more than enough around here okay…"

"Ummmm… Excuse me?" She heard the voice once again, only this time was even louder.

"Huh?" She yawned loudly, scratching her eyes wide open, the light of the hazy world hitting her eyelids, only this time, that light was not bright at all like there was a shadow looming over her. Not to mention, her vision was abnormally filled with black which made her deeply wonder.

"Hello? are you alright?"

It only took for that same sound to enter her ear one last time before something clicked in her brain, and she was finally shocked back to her senses, her eyes slowly panning up only to be met by that same black mask as the day before...