Hadrian moved through the silent streets of Wandermere swiftly, heading towards the one shop he remembered catered to both vampires and night owls. On the way, he passed by the bazaar.

There were still some stalls open, even at this hour, and Hadrian saw the sire killer librarian at one of them. There was a beautiful vampire woman hanging at his arm. Hadrian nodded at the man, and he received a nod in return.

“How did your research into resurrections go?” The librarian, a man whose name Hadrian didn’t know yet, asked.

“Nasty stuff, that. It is best if no one tries it,” Hadrian was not going to go into details of what Edwin had done wrong with a stranger. Too many have died for him to reveal the truth now.

“Yes, I figured. Nothing that comes out of Aleric Stormcrow’s mind can be pleasant. Were you aware that Mopia doesn’t have a Boliarin anymore? It turns out Stormcrow has been killing necromancers silently in the Tsardom, and now they have no one to fill in his shoes,” a nation without a Boliarin was vulnerable to others who had it. That could easily spell a war.

“First the coughing sickness and now this,” Hadrian looked thoughtful for a moment, and then he continued speaking. “Say, would the library be open tomorrow? I know it is Sunday, but…”

“No, we don’t work on Sundays,” the librarian scoffed at Hadrian, as if telling him to work on Sundays if he wanted to so badly. “Come by during the week.”

“Will do. Say, do you happen to know why Mopia can’t just borrow a necromancer from her neighbors?” There must be a purely political reason behind a country risking instability and invasions from their neighbors.

“The Boliarin of the Tsardom of Mopia is traditionally a dwarf. They are very isolationist there, and they don’t give any key positions to non-dwarves. Even with dwarves, it is difficult to get a high-ranking office if they were not born in Mopia. Crazy, I know,” the librarian chuckled and Hadrian nodded at him one last time before continuing on.

If Edwin ended up staring a war by waking up Paulina, then he wouldn’t forgive himself. It was time to contact Ash and dig up a dwarven necromancer from somewhere.

With this task in mind, he continued on to the shop. The cashier was cleaning outside it, the lantern bathing the entrance in soft, flickering, yellow light. A better welcome, Hadrian couldn’t have wished for, considering the hour was nearing eleven pm.

“Hello, are you still open?” The cashier pointed at a sign saying that the shop was open 24 hours. Hadrian chuckled and went inside. He passed by the now stocked stand with pig blood sludge, something that become mass-produced after the four members of the vampire council promoted it.

Stopping by the candy stand, he took a bag and filled it to the brim with bonbons. He needed to keep his status as the patriarch of the family with any dirty trick he could.

Then, he took some melted chocolate and peanut butter in a jar and saw some white melted chocolate with bananas and coconut. Taking one jar of that too, he went to the nuts section.

He had been reading Luciano’s medical text and, for every one who spoke about general sicknesses, there was one on nutrition. Nuts were good for the brain, but in small quantities. He took 200 grams of cleaned walnut and then took 200 grams of raisins. Campfire muffins would do the kids good.

Moving to the meat section, he noted that there was a lot of beef and pork, but almost no lamb. Taking a lamb rib rack and some beef, he passed by the pork. Then, he was off to the dairy aisle.

Two flagons of milk, one wheel of cheese, yellow and with holes, but lacking mold. Hadrian couldn’t understand people who ate cheese with mold. The guide was letting them use their ingredients, for a price. Eric was nice like that.

His shopping cart was ladened to the brim when he came to the fruit and vegetable section. He picked the freshest things. Some strawberries, probably from a greenhouse, bananas, corn, cherry tomatoes and some cornichons. The kids, especially Elidys, would like that their food was about the size where they could eat more of it before they feel full.

The cashier looked at him with raised eyebrows as Hadrian began to unload his purchases.

“I have four growing boys,” supplied Hadrian when the cashier was slow on the packaging.

“Are you preparing them for the army? Your wife must be exhausted after four children,” Hadrian let his eyes glow then and the cashier blinked.

“Oh, adopted?” the man guessed, and Hadrian nodded proudly.

“And I have a fiancé who is the best healer there is, and a wonderful man at that,” the cashier nodded and began to calculate the price of everything on a sheet of paper.

“Here, double check, sir,” he handed Hadrian the paper and the vampire scanned the calculations.

“Seems right, so, twenty gold coins?” Hadrian fished out his coin purse and handed the cashier the among from the note.

“Here, this is on the shop. Please consider coming to shop from us again,” and the cashier gave Hadrian a box with caramel sticks.

“That is nice of you! While my family is staying in Wandermere, I will be sure to come by often,” Hadrian pocketed the candy, already imagining the children reaching out for it.

“Have a pleasant evening, sir,” Hadrian picked up all his bagged purchases and went out in the warm, spring, night. The trek back to camp was slower, as he was ladened with what appeared to be ten kilograms worth of stuff, but he still made it in time for the flipping of the last pancake.

The children were all waiting patiently with their plates on their laps, and Hadrian smiled at their discipline. When he had been their age, he used to jump up and down until his grandmother gave him breakfast.

“I brought everything, plus candy,” a chorus of happy yells was his answer, and suddenly small hands were grabbing at the bags.

“Candy, really, Harry? What if their teeth rot?” Hadrian smiled at Edwin’s disapproval.

“Meh, they can always go to the dentist again,” at these words, the children left the candy with horror and just reached up for the chocolate.

 Boy, were they in for a surprise when Edwin would explain to them that chocolate rotted teeth too. But that happened after the dinner, and it prompted frantic brushing of teeth by all four of them.