The Vampire Empress.

 

We soon went forward to the west where we were greeted by several of the guards who managed to recognize us, we did attract a bit of attention especially among the guards who possibly had known me. I wasn’t that active with sightseeing over the city though which meant I lack knowledge about who is who and the like.

 

Greeting the guards only took a few moments though as they understood that we were going somewhere and opened the gates for us. Some of them even offered to be our escorts but we kindly rejected them since I am more than capable of this difficulty of the quest, especially since the orb on the guild didn’t reject us for this quest.

 

“Is that the forest, Mama?” Ayaka questioned while pointing over at the forest in the distance. It was a forest that stretched over the horizon with leaves that were of gradient from golden to green which gave it a unique look.

 

The forest looked magnificent though if it was restructured a bit, it would make the best picnic place ever.  I can imagine the scene of cherry blossoms falling from the branches of the trees, the wind blasting gently towards the picnic spot.

 

“Mhm, it seems like so. It doesn’t really look like a forest that would contain monsters to me,” I laughed a bit as both Felice and Iona nodded the same while we glance at the forest, “Anyway, let’s quickly finish up this quest and have some nice snacks, shall we?”

After receiving both of their nods, we continued on our little walk towards the forest. It was a short walk that was around ten minutes and Ayaka was enjoying it the most as she danced around the tracks with a happy smile. It was like she was a bird that was freed recently, flapping her feathers freely.

 

Her curiosity was also piqued many times by different flowers over at the tracks. There were also plenty of flowers that I didn’t know about, like for example, there was this flower with fluffy blue orbs that somehow breathes… like seriously, the flower breathes.

 

But it was a different kind of breathing, it would glow for a second then lose its glow the next second, and repeats the process which kind of counts as breathing. It was an amusing sight, to say the least as the entire process didn’t emit a single bit of mana which meant it was pure nature. I don’t know how it was possible though, but nature can be strange in many ways.

 

After reaching the forest, we first took a glance around. There were plenty of people around, mainly beginners and a lot of them had plenty of confidence among themselves as they went through the forest with different kinds of equipment and specialties.

 

There were plenty of heavy-armor users among the most confident of them which showed that the armor that they wear truly brings a lot of their confidence up which makes sense as the armor kind of gives you a sense of confidence that you won’t die easily since they are metallic to the touch.

 

“We truly don’t fit in this place…” Felice laughed bitterly.

 

Yeah, we did not fit this place at all compared to the others, our weapons were minimal, and our armor was non-existent.  Felice and Iona wore under armor though which was light enough to walk around speedily while also being thin and strong.

 

Ayaka was constantly protected by mana from Helesta and also, I can sense the presence of several of her guards watching around us at different hidden spots which kind of made armor useless as those guards of her can appear almost immediately.

 

“Let’s head in, we need to grab as many as we can possibly can within a short span of time,” I said before the others nodded as we quickly went inside the forest where the skies were blocked with a little sunlight passing through here and there.

 

It was quite dim inside the forest, but it wasn’t dim enough that we needed to carry torches, it would be another story if it was nighttime though but it’s normal. There was hardly any herb that you can find at the first parts of the forest which was also expected considering how many starting adventurers would take anything from the front side.

 

“Mama, look!” Ayaka who ran towards a tree and plucked some plant said while showing the plant that she grabbed to us.

 

It was an herb and exactly the one that we were looking for: thyme… but there was a difference between the thyme here and in the past world. To be exact, it was the color that was different, but I could tell with a single glance that it was thyme as its appearance was like one.

 

“How were you able to find thyme so quick?” Felice questioned before Ayaka tilted her head as she pointed at another plant which was also thyme before she then pointed at another plant which was also thyme, and this continued for like twenty times.

 

All of us were a bit speechless as she was able to find thyme faster than any of us, it was as if she had senses that can tell her where a certain herb was and from her expression, she also has no explanation over how she can tell.

 

“Do you feel any mana radiating from her?” I looked at Iona and Felice who both shook their heads.

 

“The little lady isn’t emitting any change in her mana during the times that she pointed at the herbs and within a few moments back. It seems like this is more of something that is on her instincts like how a knight can instinctively tell where their swords are or where an opponent is,” she answered.

 

“Mama! Did I do good?!” Ayaka who went to take the thymes that she pointed came running towards me with all her harvest, a bright smile blossomed on my face unconsciously as I patted the little girl’s hair.

 

“You did good, do you still want to find more?” I lowered myself a bit before she nodded happily. Her eyes were shining, showing her curiosity being piqued once more as she constantly looked around unsatisfied with her surroundings.

 

At certain times when we could sense a dangerous presence approaching Ayaka as she wandered around the forest, one of the guards nearby would suddenly vanish and the presence would disappear as the guard returns. It shows how skilled the people Helesta assigned were.

 

“It’s getting quite boring here, don’t you think?” I laughed while looking at the distance as Ayaka continued to pluck herbs one after another without minding the gazes of others who were quite speechless over the little girl’s actions.

 

I would be speechless as well if I was in their spot. Just imagine, you who spent five hours searching for at least ten herbs were to suddenly see a little girl going around the forest and plucking herbs one after another at a rapid pace. It’d make all my efforts feel like it was thrown at some kind of garbage bin.

 

“My lady, there are some wolves over there…” Iona pointed towards the opposite direction of where Ayaka was going where the sight of ten beautiful furred white wolves could be seen preying on Ayaka.

 

Those wolves sure came at a good time though since I was getting quite bored from watching Ayaka do all the work for us. After taking a good look at the wolves, I turned towards Iona who understood immediately as she brought her sword closer.

 

“I’ll be borrowing this for a bit,” I smiled before taking the sword out of its sheath, pointing it towards the ten wolves with a smile.

 

I’ve been wanting to try out a certain new skill of mine that I learned over the time I’ve spent here. It involved swords and mana which is a newer concept of mine.

 

Pointing the sword down at the ground a little bit to my back, the sword made a little mark at the dirt before I poured in some mana onto the blade of the sword as it shone blue as I had expected. Pushing a bit of mana onto my feet as well while entering a stance. I soon released all the energy that was kept within the few moments.

 

The energy blasted me forward towards the ten wolves as I swung the sword horizontally with all the might that my hand could muster. Almost immediately after the swing, a bright blue slash appeared that stretched towards the last wolf. It was moving towards the center of all the wolves.

 

And like some kind of kitchen knife going through butter, the slash sliced the wolves into halves as I paused behind all the wolves, flicking the sword a bit which caused all the blood that was on the sword to spill out.

 

“That was fun…” I smiled before turning around as a beautiful blood rain eclipsed over my spot and the sight of dozens of adventurers looking at me with a pale look and horrified look.

 

Felice and Iona who were bringing Ayaka along quickly came to my spot with Felice handing over a handkerchief while I returned the sword back to Iona who happily took the sword back, “Thanks…”

 

“You really are quite monstrous, my lady. To defeat all ten wolves in a single slash, it’d be no exaggeration to say that you are possibly one of the strongest people living on the town right now,” Felice complimented which brought a smile to my face.

 

“It’s getting quite boring on this part of the forest, how about we dive deeper?” I suggested to the two who quickly agreed without hesitation as we happily went deeper inside the forest under the heavy gazes of many people.

 

Who would have thought that our decision to dive deeper would soon reveal a terrifying event that was hiding under our nose…