“Your daughters ran away?”

Filled with melancholy, Listae made a saddened nod while recalling her two daughters that she hasn't seen for dozens of years. For immortal monster such as vampires, those years doesn’t amount to much. In her eyes, these daughter of hers were still children.

“Why did it happen?”

Making a wry smile, Listae looked at her black right hand with a gentle yet complex expression.

“Just a mere argument turning into a fight, they probably ran away in fear of being punished after injuring me.”

Making a shocked expression, Kanabo slightly trembled as she was fully aware of Listae identity both within the city and as a high-class vampire. She was powerful to the point that even a hundred of Kanabo wouldn’t leave a scratch on her.

Shina, on the other hand, wasn’t much concerned about this issue but felt more curious about the reason behind this fight as well as how Listae was feeling about them.

“Do you resent them?”

Resent, it wouldn’t be that strange if Listae harbored some. She was injured by her own daughters and they ran away to another place, some parents would call their children unfaithful or irresponsible and deny their very existence.

But from Listae’s expression, as she spoke of her daughters, it was definitely not the case. It was a face filled with worry, sadness, and remorse.

“Even if I tried to, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to. The whole situation was my fault, I can only carry this sin as a mother and continue to look for them.”

“Your fault?”

In her eyes, Listae seemed to be a good mother, or at least that was the impression she felt when she looked at her.

“This is a situation you often see in the human's civilization. When the eldest one Prana was born, the situation within the city was very stable and I could manage to spend some time with her. But troubles arose and I became very busy.”

“In other words, this is a case of neglecting your children…”

Shina didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It didn’t matter if whether it was humans, monster or even gods, most children needed parents by their sides.

“Having to raise her youngest sibling on her own, Prana quickly matured and took this harsh task upon her despite being so young. At that time, I didn’t realize anything at all... I didn’t notice their call for help... their loneliness.”

“Redia’s personality soon became worse and worse, and one day, the situation exploded. She confronted me and it was only once everything was over that I realized their problems.”

“And that’s why you’ve let them go? Hic~”

Listae’s shoulder shook for an instant, Kanabo’s words were most likely true as she turned silent for a few moments.

“It might sound irresponsible from me, but I fully trust Prana’s capability as an older sister. She is very mature for a child and will definitely take care of her sister. If by escaping from me they can start a better life... then as a mother, I’ll support their decision.”

“But you’re still searching for them, hoping for them to come back to your side.”

“I am still their mother after all, I can’t stop worrying about them.”

“That’s right, don’t give up that easily.”

Remembering her previous life where her mother died and left her alone, she understood that children needed a family.

Listae felt a complex feeling after realizing that she had just spit out all of her worries toward two children. Under the momentarily lightened hope she felt after hearing about two newcomers being girls in the same range of age as her daughters entering, Listae felt very sentimental and didn’t hold back at all.

Whether talking about it with children was stupid or not, she still felt strangely relieved.

But her relief was only momentarily. Suddenly making a surprised expression, Listae folded her umbrella and it vanished, returning to nothingness. She mumbled something as she hurriedly prepared to leave.

“It’s bad… ‘That person’ is back.”

“‘That person?’”

Presuming Listae was most likely talking about Mystel, Shina chuckled while imagining the reaction she would show when they would meet later on.

Before leaving, Listae waved her hand at Kanabo with a gentle smile.

“Once I am done, I’ll come to pick you up.”

“Pick me up?”

“You don’t want me to?”

Quickly realizing what she was talking about, Kanabo simply nodded after realizing she was talking about taking her into her protection.

“I am grateful.”

Replying with a smile, Listae disappeared like a mirage, her body melting within the darkness of her shadow and divided into many ink colored shadow which slowly vanished in the ground.

Releasing a sigh out of relief, Kanabo appeared relaxed as she realized that she wouldn’t have to hide away anymore and could enjoy drinking in peace. Patting her shoulder, Shina congratulated her.

“Congrats, now you’re pretty much free.”

“Umu~ Let’s celebrate it with a drink.”

“Jiiii~”

Kanabo raised her gourd, but after meeting Shina’s glare, she lowered her hand with an embarrassed face.

“Ha… Haha… I didn’t plan on forcing you anyway…”

“Liar…”

Picking up the soul hiding behind her back, Shina hugged it like a pillow. Despite giving the impression of being made of fire, she had noticed after being hit that the soul wasn’t releasing any heat. In her arms, the soul was soft and squishy and would make the perfect sleeping pillow.

She looked exactly like a child holding her teddy bear. Adding to it her pouting expression as she glared at Kanabo, it was hard for Kanabo to describe the feeling she experiencing as she rushes to embrace her in her arms while rubbing her cheek against Shina.

“Hic~ I apologized already, please forgive me~”

Shina tried to struggle while holding her pinching her nose, but under Kanabo’s herculean strength she was incapable of moving.

“Uhhh~ Let me go, you drunkard!”

Instead of letting her go, Kanabo rubbed her cheek even harder while emitting some strange sounds like ‘Kyu~’ or ‘Cuuutee’, completely destroying Shina’s first mature expression of the girl.

“I forgive you already so let me go!”

Kanabo released her pretty quickly with a satisfied face, making Shina realize she was tricked.

“Good… You said it yourself~”

Despite her word, Kanabo felt somewhat unsatisfied and wished she could have continued a little longer.

“Despicable… Uh?”

As she was going to complain about Kanabo’s actions, Shina noticed an abnormality with the soul she was holding.

“It became… red?”

The ancient soul hadn’t really become red, but it kept changing colors, alternating between gray and red. This occurrence somewhat made Shina felt worried, thinking she was maybe holding it too strongly, she tried to release it but it didn’t change anything.

Red and gray, gray and red… Gradually the interval at which the soul changed colors became lower and lower.

“What is happening?”

Kanabo didn’t say anything but stared at the soul. Despite innately holding a certain amount of knowledge about souls as an Oni King, she didn’t know what was going on, making her quite worried.

Thinking this was maybe due to Ancient Souls being different from normal ones, Kanabo hesitated for a moment before forcefully taking the soul from Shina’s arm and throwing it a few meters away.

For an instant, Shina felt a hint of shock and anger which was quickly subdued after seeing Kanabo’s serious expression. The power of souls wasn’t something to be underestimated, even Shina who didn’t have much knowledge on this topic knew about it and understood she was doing this to protect her against an eventual danger.

The soul soon turned red, it had lost its grayish color which was exchanged for a crimson color.

All of its movements momentarily froze, any undulations emanating from the soul were frozen like time had stopped. After emitting a bright and powerful red light, the soul once again started acting as if nothing happened.

Like a spoiled child rushing back to its mother, the soul fled toward Shina with an incredible speed and kept rubbing itself her. Not knowing how to react, Shina and Kanabo kept staring at the soul with perplex eyes under its strange actions.

When Kanabo tried to touch the soul, it quickly flew in circles and hid behind Shina while occasionally poking her head as if trying to determine how it should act with Kanabo.

“Did it perhaps become a sentient being?”

Shina looked at the small red soul behind her with shock.

“Sentient being?... You mean that it gained a conscience?”

Slowly extending her hand toward the soul, seeing its reaction as it simply hid away when she made any kind of movement, she was pretty sure she was right.

“Pretty much but not exactly… How should I say, it probably didn’t form a conscience yet, but it has started to develop instincts.”

Neither of the girls understood what was actually happening. If it was a normal soul it might only seem strange… But this wasn’t a normal one, it was an ancient soul which existed for many eras. It existed for countless years but for some reasons only became a sentient being today.

While Shina’s reasoning didn’t go as far as this, Kanabo who has much more experience than her definitely felt shocked. Moreover, the soul was especially attached to her like a chick following its mother.

Shina was at lost, she didn’t know how to react and while she was hesitating, she felt a certain something moving around her neck. She was wearing a small string as a necklace which was linked to a beautiful marble.

For some reasons, the marble which was resting against her chest started struggling and freed itself. Shining and sparkling brightly as if angered by something, the marble flew in the airs and charged at the small red soul.

Despite being at least five times bigger than the marble, it completely overpowered it and sent it flying three meters away.

“What is that?” Kanabo exclaimed in shock.

“Kiel? Why did it suddenly wake up?”

The soul vibrated for a few moments as if it was crying before shining in a color even darker than before and rushing back as if it was full of anger and hatred.

It was the first time Shina saw Kiel act so strangely, it looked extremely angry for some reasons and once again charged against the soul.

The two balls charging at each other, after a violent collision, Kiel easily overpowered the reddish soul and sent it flying. Not willing to give up, the red soul tried a few more times to fight back but was powerless against the overwhelming Kiel.

Instinctively realizing it had no chance of winning, the red ball flew toward Shina and once again hid behind her. But once it realized that Kiel was chasing after it, it started flying around Shina in circles while being chased around.

In the girls’ eyes, it looked like the two shining sphere were playing a strange game of tag where the mouse was chasing the cat. Shina quickly realized Kiel’s actions was similars to a child bullying another because he felt threatened or jealous like a child getting less attention after getting a smaller sibling.

This picture made her giggle as the more she thought about it, the clearer it became in her eyes. The red soul kept around her while emitting red flash as if asking for help while Kiel was determined on giving the red ball a lesson.

Extending her arms, Shina easily caught both the soul and Kiel, while the soul was extremely docile, Kiel, on the other hand, didn’t want to give up and kept struggling.

“Calm down Kiel!”

Hearing Shina yells at him, Kiel’s color dimmed as if it was feeling wronged while the red soul shone a few times as to provocate it.

Shina truly felt like a mother having to watch over two mischievous children and made her laugh under Kanabo’s dumbfound expression.

“You don’t have to feel jealous, I won’t abandon you…”

Kiel somewhat calmed down, while it was not completely relieved it still completely believed Shina’s words.

While Shina was busy mediating between the two ‘childs’, Kanabo’s eyes were fixated on Kiel. She felt a strange and powerful power hidden within the marble, something neither she nor Listae felt before it awoke, but she decided not to ask any question.

The idea of keeping the soul and name it crossed Shina’s mind, but thinking about how she already had Kiel by her side most importantly, the danger the soul might potentially be in if it remained by her side.

From Listae’s story, the soul’s race was destroyed by Mystel in a surge of anger after a revolution. While she didn’t know whether her mother was still angry at them or if she had already forgotten about this, Shina didn’t know how she would react if she found out that one had escaped her punishment.

I can’t bring it home…

A great idea suddenly crossed her mind, with an uprising smile, Shina extended the red soul toward Kanabo.

“How is it, it’s cute right?”

The red soul felt somewhat afraid of Kanabo, but under Shina’s care it slowly calmed down and allowed Kanabo to pick it up.

Within Kanabo’s hand, the strange smooth and squishy feeling felt really satisfying. From starting by poking it with her fingers, she soon started grabbing it played with it. The sensation was as smooth as a baby’s cheek and very elastic like a chew-gum.

As long as she didn’t use too much strength, the soul remained unperturbed and allowed her to do as she pleased.

“It’s pretty funny~”

Kanabo’s amused expression made Shina smile as she retracted her hand.

“You don’t mind keeping it?”

From the beginning, Kanabo wasn’t really against the idea so Shina’s small act wasn’t necessary. While she initially felt dubious about the reddish little soul, it wasn’t like it had any bad intent so she didn’t have any real reasons to deal with it.

Moreover, knowing that Shina would probably have to leave soon, this little soul might keep her company and become one more reason for her new friend to visit her. And who know, there were a few souls in the underworld that sometimes accompanies the Oni in their banquets… She might as well use it as a drinking bud until she successfully teaches Shina the joy of drinking!

While Kanabo how she could enjoy the soul’s company, a rough voice echoed in the area.

“*Kroak* We’ve kround her!”