[Four Days Have Gone By]

Over the last four days we have been taking turns showing Amelia how to fight, each day filled with more frustration than the last. She really does get upset easily when she can’t do something right.

She’s had a lot of progress with it though.

Clang!

Amelia drops her sword before falling back onto the ground.

"I’m done for right now," Amelia says with frustration in her voice.

"You aren’t even doing that bad Amelia," I assure her while kneeling down next to her.

"Being able to fight is important but I definitely won’t be able to get to a good level before we leave here," Amelia responds while crossing her arms.

"Training won’t stop just because we leave the camp here. Eventually we’ll find another spot to make a camp which means more training," I say with a calm tone.

"What if we run into bad people along the way?" Amelia asks with concern in her voice.

"That’s why you have me and Lia to help keep you safe too," I answer.

She looks towards Lia who is starting to pack some stuff up in the distance.

"I just don’t want to be a burden to you both," Amelia says with a bit of sadness in her voice.

Pat. Pat.

Her sad expression seems to fade away a little bit after giving her a couple pats on the head.

"Don’t worry about it, we have it under control," I assure her with a smile.

"I’ve noticed you don’t smile a whole lot. I think you should more, I like it," Amelia responds with a smile on her face now.

I stand back up and give her a hand as well.

"When I have a good reason to, I definitely will," I say calmly.

Afterwards we start to help pack up everything since we’ll be leaving in the next hour or so. Luckily there isn’t a whole lot for us to pack up since we never had a whole lot in the first place.

Just we can’t leave any sign that we were even here.

"So where exactly are we heading after this Dante?" Lia asks with curiosity.

"Is this Yami Forest on the way towards the Lumiel Capital?" I respond back with a question as well.

Lia takes a second to pull out the map and begins to check out route.

"It is along the route we are taking for Lumiel, wait... You want to go there," Lia says after realizing what I said.

"We’ll get this artifact along the way first, but yes. I do want to go there," I reply, still keeping my calm demeanor.

"Hunters literally thrive there! Why would you want to head there?!" Lia shouts with a bit of frustration.

"Lumiel is responsible for starting this war and there are answers I need," I respond.

"So you decide to dive into battle?!" She asks, anger showing more on her face.

"You don’t have to come along for that Lia. My journey doesn’t change regardless," I respond bluntly.

She paces around for a moment before letting out a deep sigh. She is clearly frustrated by my way of thinking with this, but she’ll get over it.

I can understand why she is upset by it all though... She probably thinks it is some sort of suicide mission for me to take upon myself.

But it isn’t like that in the slightest. I plan to be smart about everything when I do arrive in Lumiel. Keeping everything under wraps until there is something obvious for me to go after is the way I was thinking of going about it.

Also we don’t know what this artifact will be capable of doing just yet which could make a difference as well.

I don’t think I’ll be getting as much attention as Amelia... She might need a disguise.

"Dante." Amelia calls out my name.

I turn around to see her standing before me, quickly taking me out from my thoughts.

"What’s up?" I question with curiosity.

"I don’t think it is dumb to go to Lumiel, just make sure nothing happens to either of us please," Amelia responds.

"Nothing will happen to you two," I assure her.

I’ll definitely do everything in my power to keep the two of them safe until we have somewhere they can stay. One day it’ll be nice to have somewhere to fall back to that isn’t dangerous.

The manor was safe for a long time until the humans finally decided to attack. I don’t really know what caused it or if it really was just because we are vampires.

That’s another question I’d like to have answered at some point if I can. Why do we still have to die?

"Thank you Dante," Amelia replies with a genuine tone.

"I think we are good to go," Lia speaks up for us both to hear.

I give Amelia a quick pat on the head before heading over to join Lia. It is finally time for us to get going.

One last look towards the waterfall and I can already tell that this spot will be one I won’t forget. Everything here was peaceful and we didn’t run into any problems with anyone here either.

"Let’s get going then," I respond while beginning to walk.

Our journey is a long one but I’m kind of glad to have some people by my side for it. Originally I didn’t intend for anyone to join me on my quest to bring back my kind or to destroy the very people who killed them.

I don’t know if Amelia will stick around when she finds out about the goals but she is around now... At least until her father shows up or turns up dead.

He asked me to keep her safe and that is something I’ll do while continuing on my journey.

I’m still troubled by a few things though, like that Zerif guy for one. He doesn’t have a heartbeat but he wasn’t an enemy either, which was the thing that stuck with me the most.

It makes me wonder if I’ll see him again and what he is doing in Ariel now.