“A vampire?” I said slightly surprised at the appearance of the girl. She was wearing nothing but rags. Her hands and feet were chained to the ground and on her neck was a big collar which seemed to be enchanted in some way.

The girl also seemed surprised at me for some reason but I decided not to think about it as there were plenty of things to be surprised about.

*Ahem*

“Sorry about that I was a bit surprised to see a vampire here.” (Kenos)

She snaps back and seems to have finally snapped out of it. Geez I hope this is the last time I see this reaction. It’s getting old.

“OH! Um… no I… its fine.” (Vampire girl)

She seemed flustered. Who knows what she was thinking.

“Can you help her?” (Lily)

“Sure.” (Kenos)

I slashed off the shackles which fell to the ground together with the bars of the cage and ignoring the vampire who blushed strongly as I approached I inspected the collar on her neck.

The enchantment was simple. It will kill the girl if someone tries to take it off forcefully. The thing is that the enchantment itself was easy to erase so I did and broke the collar as well.

“There.” (Kenos)

The girl touches her slender neck as if to make sure the collar is truly gone and looks at me with a hint of affection in her eyes. She stands up clumsily as if she has not used her feet for weeks.

“Th-thank you for releasing me.” (Vampire girl)

“Thank Lily. If she hadn’t told me I might’ve missed the door. How DID you know about her Lily?” (Kenos)

“What? Was there some reason for me to miss it? It stood out quite a bit as the only door in the room other than the entrance…” (Lily)

… I wonder if Lily has some sort of gift with illusion magic. Or maybe it’s me that wasn’t paying attention. I’ll look into it later. The vampire girl seemed like she didn’t really know what to say.

“Right. Well then let me introduce myself. My name is Kenos. Ken for short. Pleased to meet you.” (Kenos)

“Um… my name is Celene Nocturne. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” (Celene)

“Well then let’s get out of here. This place makes me feel uncomfortable.” (Kenos)

The two girls nodded and prepared to follow me but before we left I remembered. I once again turned around and placed my hand on Cel’s head, creating a set of clothes better than those rags she was wearing. I also included some modern underwear and she honestly seemed overjoyed.

“Now let’s get out of here.” (Kenos)

As we leave we pass by the still-bound to the floor lord who got a slit throat as a farewell gift. Through the windows we saw a large group of guards who had not been in the mansion at the time of the massacre facing off against the slaves who were the only people from inside the mansion that were not killed.

I felt a bit guilty to just let them die so I decided to give them a simple gift. In front of each emerged a single sword of black metal. The swords were all identical and were sticking out of the ground ready for someone to reach out and use them.

I would not help them out directly though. Though I felt like it was partly my fault that some of them would die fighting I also felt like if I kept just gifting people victory they would come to always expect it to be granted to them.

That was my whole problem with religion in the first place. Some people got so absorbed in kissing God’s ass that they forgot that instead of praying to him to do shit for them maybe they could do it themselves. And I was not ready to ironically become one of the things I hate most.

I changed my voice and shouted, transmitting my voice trough the shadows so that it feels like it is coming from all directions.

“I HAVE HELPED YOU REACH OUT FOR YOUR FREEDOM AND THE MEANS TO FIGHT THOSE WHO HOPE TO TAKE IT AWAY! NOW IT IS YOUR TURN TO STRETCH YOUR HAND JUST A LITTLE MORE AND GRASP IT!” (Kenos)

The slaves hearing my speech took the swords from the ground and rushed the still shocked guards.

“Come on. Let’s go.” (Kenos)

“Are you sure you can leave those weapons to them? Humans easily get corrupted by power.” (Cel)

“The weapons will disappear after they are done fighting. More like I’ll make them disappear. I’ve only given them a chance to grasp their freedom and have no intention of giving them power to keep it afterwards. That will depend on them and their determination.” (Kenos)

Both Lily and Cel nodded approvingly. They seemed to agree with my maybe slightly contradictory ideals. I’m well aware that to some my ideals may seem a bit hypocritical but honestly I don’t care. Having a balance between two extremes is much better than completely devoting yourself to one of them. So hypocrisy might not always be a bad thing. It is only bad if you use it for yourself.

Having had enough of that thinking we left through the back of the mansion and jumped over the wall. There weren’t many people around here so nobody seemed to notice. The fact that we were dressed in pitch-black clothes during the night also might have helped with that. We head to the inn.

“So, Cel. What are you going to do now that you’re free?” (Kenos)

She looked at me as if wanting to say something, about the nickname probably, but stopped and instead seemed to think about the question itself.

“What about you two? What are you going to do?” (Cel)

“We’re… what ARE we going to do?” (Lily)

“Oh we’ll be heading to the capital first because I have some business then and then we’ll leave the country. The Beastlands have a lot of spare space where we can either live mostly secluded from the tribes and clans that live there if we wanted or we could go to the elven country and live there as I heard that elves actually welcome humans in their country as long as they did their jobs.” (Kenos)

“Wait we’re leaving the country?” (Lily)

“Do you have a problem with that?” (Kenos)

“Well… no… I just would’ve appreciated you telling me you know?” (Lily)

“I hadn’t decided that until… this.” (Kenos)

She didn’t say anything, seemingly understanding what I meant.

“So anyway. Cel?” (Kenos)

She mumbles something I can’t hear while her face is red. I just tilt my head questionably. At this point I know what she’s going to say but I don’t like putting someone’s words right into their mouths. I’ll keep asking until she says it herself.

“Please let me come with you…” (Cel)

“What? Sorry I couldn’t hear you.” (Kenos)

“Please let me come with you!” (Cel)

I noticed Lily smiling while watching this cute display which made even my cold poker face melt into a smile. I don’t even need a beatkin loli or really cute and naïve fox-girl. Yes this will do for healing my soul just fine. I now swear to whatever god of justice this world has that I will make whoever tries to hurt this creature beg me to send them to hell for the devil himself to torture them instead of me.

“Sure.” (Kenos)

I pat her head while her face goes crimson red. I could almost see smoke coming out of it while she walked in front of me. The funny thing was that when I was about to take my hand away her head followed it as if not wanting it to go away… I need to go back to that mansion and hope the lord’s soul is still there. Then I need to invent soul magic, create a container to place his soul in and then leave it buried beneath the ground somewhere for it to be tortured in the container for all eternity.

When we got to the inn the innkeeper herself said nothing. She just looked a bit afraid. I watched Lily and Cel eat dinner during which I got rid of the swords I gifted the slaves and then went to our room for both Lily and Cel to use me as a hug pillow. Good thing Cel was small or else we might have not been able to fit. I thought she would have trouble falling asleep as she was again red like a tomato but instead I was forced to admit to myself that I might literally be the best hug pillow that exists in this world and any other as she fell asleep in mere seconds.

That night. Unknown to the rest of the world a single man had revived an ancient forgotten magic of which even current-day records were scarce. A single soul was mercilessly pulled out of the void, stuck in a ruby and put into a large coffin of a black, nearly indestructible metal to be buried deep underground in its own former backyard while experiencing excruciating pain the like of which it had never felt before.

When Cel woke up she once again lit up. I swear I could use her as a lamp at this rate. Ba dum tss. Anyway I patted her head again to which she seemed addicted until Lily woke up and we went down for breakfast.

“So when are we heading for the capital?” (Lily)

OH GOD THAT’S A DIFFICULT QUESTION.

“I… I…” (Kenos)

I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE MY LIBRARY BEHIND!!!

“T… today…” (Kenos)

I needed to leave as soon as possible or else I would never want to leave again.

“A-are you sure you seem like…” (Lily)

“Today!” (Kenos)

“O…kay.” (Lily)

Cel stayed quiet as she enjoyed our conversation instead. It’s not as if she was the quiet type. I mean she was a little shy but otherwise she just seemed to not like speaking while eating. There are people like that too you know.

“Oh I should buy you some clothes again. We can che-“ (Kenos)

“No!” Lily screamed getting the attention of everyone in the cafeteria. She instantly became red and looked down on the floor realizing what she had done. “I mean… I’m okay with this.”

“… You know those clothes are basically me right? You know having those clothes on is similar to having me constantly embracing you right?” (Kenos)

She just nodded… wow… I’ll just pretend to be a donkan protagonist for now.

“Well whatever you say. What about you Cel?” (Kenos)

Looking over at Cell she was lit up in red once more and started nodding frantically.

“*Sigh* Got it.” (Kenos)

After finishing breakfast we went back up to our room and tok our supplies which we bought the other day. As we went to exit the guild te innkeeper was at the door looking out. She turned around to see us and seemed a bit afraid to see me walk towards her. I stopped in front of her and took her hand putting a coin in it.

“Thanks for the room. I really liked the inn.” I said smiling the most genuine smile I could make right now.

Afterwards I just walked off towards the north gate.

“That was a platinum coin right? When did you get one of those? I thought we only had around a hundred gold before we entered the city.” (Lily)

A platinum coin was worth a hundred gold ones and it was true, we didn’t have one of those when we got in the city. I held up the enchanted money pouch I had and shook it a bit.

“The lord gave me some stuff as an official apology. Straight from his own mansion.” (Kenos)

“Wow. When did you even manage to rob him?” (Lily)

I just ignored her. I didn’t rob him…this was compensation for kidnapping Lily and imprisoning Cel who was pretty much the cutest thing I have seen in this world yet. Even Kate could not compare.

“*Sigh* Fine. How long will we be staying in the capital then?” (Lily)

“None. I’ll just go there, meet the king and we’ll leave in the same day. Well I guess it technically depends on if we arrive at night when I think about it.” (Kenos)

“Umm… what business might you have with the king?” (Cel)

“… Just… personal stuff…” (Kenos)

“Are you going to kill him too?” Said Lily narrowing her eyes judgingly.

“No… yes… maybe… it depends” (Kenos)

“*Sigh* Of course. Fine let’s get this over with.” (Lily)

When we left town and were far out of sight of the walls I tried something new. I actually tried making the girls’ clothes colorful. I mean I can make myself look like any color I want so why not do the same with the clothes?

In the end the result was that Lily wore a white shirt with a red skirt and a white scarf with some brown boots that ended about half-way up to the knees. I also gave her a sword made of what I now call voidsteel with the hilt being covered with what looked like reddish leather for better grip with the rest of it being entirely black. Cel on the other hand wore a black shirt with a white coat and again a red skirt with short black boots and white thigh-highs. Pretty good if I do say so myself. She didn’t have a weapon as she claimed to be a mage but maybe I’ll try enchanting later.

… Should I talk about the underwear? Of course I should… I made white modern underwear for both of them. A normal bra for Lily and a sports bra for Cel as her assets were… on the small side. Nothing else to say here. Moving on.

For myself I just put some white on the edges of my cloak as well as made some white fur-looking material covering the edges of the hood while I mdid the same for my shirt making the bottom edges white while there was a white line going up my sides and across the middle of my sleeves as well as the edges of my collar. My pants and boots just remained simply black.

I’d say the biggest thing I learned through this isn’t coloring stuff but instead making materials that looked leather silk and so on. Basically I became more adept at changing the properties of my void. The other good thing that came out of this is that those clothes are a part of me. In other words I can sense them wherever they are and if I concentrate I can even use them as eyes… as much as I am ashamed of it.

It only took us two days to reach the capital. It was indeed night so we found an inn. Leaving the hug pillow me behind I went over to visit the king.

In the palace I was a black cat once again. This time I looked like a normal black cat though not a demon black cat from hell. I soon found the kings room. He slept with his wife but that didn’t matter to me. I was still a cat since I didn’t want to give away my face easily and I also went ahead to change my voice.

I covered both of us in a vale of darkness… well void actually and slapped him once with a shadow hand to wake him up. I wanted to make this quick.

*Slap*

“Huh? Wha-?” (King)

He looked around like an idiot finally noticing that everything around him is pure darkness and he also noticed me. A single black cat sitting in the middle of the darkness while somehow not blending into it.

“Hello. It’s a displeasure to finally meet you.” (Kenos)

“Wha- Who are you? What are you?” (King)

He was shaking in fear. Pathetic.

“I need to ask you a few questions. If your answers satisfy me I will not kill you. Understood?” (Kenos)

“What? How dare you? I am the king of this country? Do you really think you can get away with killing me?” (King)

“Of course I can. Do you think anyone will hear you here? You are in the void. Nobody will hear you scream. Nobody will see your blood. Nobody will ever find out who or what killed you.” (Kenos)

He seemed to finally realize his situation as he started shivering even more hysterically.

“Now will you answer my questions?” (Kenos)

He nodded his head repeatedly.

“Good. Now you see. A while ago your father mobilized the military and razed a village to the ground along with all the villagers. Tell me all you know about that.” (Kenos)

“Oh! That! Of course! My father was very sick back then. He was told that he didn’t have much time left and the healers could do nothing about it as he was afflicted by a powerful curse. I don’t know the details I just heard that father found an antidote in that village.” (King)

“Yet he still died. Why is that?” (Kenos)

“That is… I heard that the men failed in retrieving it. That one of the commanders stole it and ran away.” (King)

“Okay. Then one last question. Do not lie as I will see through it. I want you to be honest. What do you think of the lord of Karpas?” (Kenos)

“He’s great! He brings me really good slaves every time he visits. Most of them are really beautiful too.” (King)

The king’s body was found without its head on the floor of his room the next morning and no matter how hard they searched his head was nowhere to be found.

At the same time the body was found three figures left the city and headed to the north border of the country.