After the whole afternoon and evening I spent with Yana in the sewers we managed to get some more rats, but unfortunately there were no slimes, or actually anything other than rats. Yana sucked blood out of them all, getting a bit stronger, and while it wasn’t anything noticeable at first glance, if she repeated that a few tens of times she would get much stronger than she is now.

She got a bit bored to the end as we were basically wandering through the sewers for a few hours with a rat to kill every now and then, but still seemed very happy I took her along, especially considering she finally got to seriously fight a monster.

We are just now walking through the sewers in the direction of the kid’s shack and Yana is holding my hand, smiling happily and looking at me from time to time as if she was hesitating to tell me something.

“I will probably get Ned tomorrow.” – I say in the comfortable silence. – “I think you could tag along in the evening, though.”

“Un, okay.” – She nods her head. – “What about Helia?”

“I will probably take her the next day, or first get Ned to fight something stronger and then repeat with Helia. We’ll see how it goes, it will largely depend on Ned.”

She nods once again, then looks at my face and musters her courage.

“Um, can I… call you sister?” – She asks in a small voice, averting her eyes.

I look at her with mild surprise since she has never called me brother, but then smile wide. – “Sure, I don’t see why not. But what’s the reason?”

Yana looks at her feet and gets a bit pink on her cheeks.

“Um, I… always wanted to have a brother or sister, but we are not really brothers and sisters in our group, and I like you the most, but… I hesitated to ask before...” – She gets redder and redder with time and doesn’t finish what she is saying.

I giggle seeing her like that and ruffle her hair. – “Alright, I don’t mind you calling me sister. But I’m the big sister, okay?” – I say with a grin.

“Huh? But I’m older-“

“But you’re smaller.” – I cut her off. – “And I am stronger.” – I add as she is just opening her mouth to say something.

It is funny though that she is indeed older than me, even if only by a few months. And yet she barely reaches my chest with her puny one and something meter in height comparing to mine 140 centimeters.

Yana pouts after my comment and looks away, but after a few seconds she gives up and comes closer, hugging my waist. – “Um, okay, b-big sister.” – Even her ears get red as she is saying that.

“Yup, that’s my little sister.” – I grin reciprocating the hug.

That said though, size-wise we look almost like mother and daughter, but let’s ignore that.

“And, um.” – Yana raises her head, showing a happy smile. – “Will you be registering in Hunter’s Guild?”

“Probably, yes, Laura said she will help me with that. Though if they will accept me is another matter. Why do you ask?”

“Um, I would like to go outside, but…” – She bites her lip. – “I can’t go with Laura and they won’t let me go alone, so… you are kinda my only hope.” – She says with resignation.

“Oh, right. Hmmm… I doubt they will accept you in the guild, but if I get permission to go outside by myself it should be possible to take you along. Is that what you want to ask about?”

“Un.” – She nods. – “But I don’t want to slow you down, so I hoped I could get into the guild somehow~.” – She stretches her voice in complaint. – “Or maybe get another way so we could freely go out. It’s just… I am not sure if Hunter’s Guild is the right choice. I mean, hunters have a lot of jobs to do, don’t they?”

“I’m not sure. You would need to ask Laura for more information. I was thinking about the same thing, but chances the guards will let us out can be said to be zero, and I don’t think there is any better way than Hunter’s Guild. We’ll see, Yana, don’t worry about that. Even if they assign me something to do it will probably be nothing more than simple requests in the city I can complete within hours.”

She sighs lightly and nods her head. – “Un, okay. Let’s go for now. I’ll ask Laura about it later.”

We resume our walk and after a few minutes reach the flop. We go up, with me pulling Yana up since she is really short, and we go to the shack. The sky is already dark, but the street is still visible and real night will be in around half an hour.

I raise my hand to knock on the door, but Yana is faster than me, reaching to the handle and pushing the door open, showing the whole room behind with all six kids eating a light meal alongside Laura.

Ned, Geil and Helia sitting with their backs to the door all turn around in surprise and their eyes open wide seeing the sudden intrusion.

“Yahoo! We’re back!” – Yana shouts, completely unlike her usual shy character.

“Hello, Yana, what happened to you to be so happy?” – Laura asks with a smile on her face after her initial surprise. – “Did everything go well, Nea?”

“Yep, I’ll tell the details later.” – I nod, dropping my arm and glancing at the half-vampire with a wry smile, then nudge her side, seeing her taking a suspiciously deep breath, as if she was going to shout what happened. – “Calm down, there’s time for everything.”

I focus on Ned and Geil one after another. – “You are Ned and Geil, right? Nice to meet you two. As you’ve probably heard, I am Nea, Neo’s sister.”

Ned is the taller of the two, or actually the tallest out of us all. He is over 160 centimeters tall at fourteen years of age, so he is just a bit shorter than Laura, and has quite muscular build. With sharp face, large jaw, short black hair and black eyes he looks quite intimidating, like a brawler, and is the strongest among the kids, now probably excluding me. Also, he can be said to be the musclebrain of our group, though fortunately he is not a hopeless case.

Geil is sixteen years old, but he is shorter than him at below 160 centimeters and has much frailer stature. He has slanted eyes and slender face with blue eyes and black, longish hair. He is no fighter, but has head on his shoulders and can make some profit even with meager amount of goods he can procure with our money. He can also be said to be the leader along with Helia, having good charisma and social skills despite living most of his life on the edge of the slums.

They both look at me with slight surprise, Ned with narrowed eyes and a frown and Geil with wide open, slightly dazed eyes and half-open mouth.

Geil then shakes his head, recomposing himself, likely after seeing my beauty, then stands up and walks up to me. – “Nice to meet you, too. I heard you went to sewers with Yana, thank you for that. She always was eager to fight but rarely had a chance.”

Hm, as polite and outspoken as ever.

“Don’t mention it. It was a good experience also for me. That said, Ned, did Laura tell you…?”

“Yeah.” – He gets up and stands beside Geil. – “I heard you will take me to the sewers to let me fight some monsters. I’ll be in your care then.” – He glances at Yana still holding my hand with left brow raised as he has in habit.

I nod my head and walk forward, waving my other arm, not in Yana’s grip. – “Shoo, shoo, finish your meals. We can talk then.”

I hear Laura snorting and covering her mouth, almost spitting the bread she has in her mouth, probably having compared my behavior to past Neo, or maybe seeing Ned’s and Geil’s reactions as they slowly back away without knowing what to say as I send them to the table in their own home.

I look around the table, noticing they are eating bread with some vegetables, and I walk to Neo’s past seat, coincidentally next to Yana’s as she is closest to me in age, and sit slowly.

“We have already eaten.” – I say, seeing Laura about to get up.

She looks at me with furrowed brows in exchange and gets suspicious seeing Yana’s cheeks reddening. – “We?”

“Well, technically Yana only drunk, but yeah.” – I reply, and continue seeing her questioning gaze. – “She drunk rat’s blood. It makes her a bit stronger and satiates her hunger, but it’s not a long term solution. It would change though if she was a pure-blood, but right now I’d say she can take half of her meals as blood, though only if it’s fresh.”

Laura makes a bitter expression at that. – “You know that from your master, right?” – I nod, and she sighs both with relief and bitterness. – “Well, better sooner than later. I got refused to enter the library’s upper level where information about vampires is so I didn’t have a way to learn about that properly. I won’t ask where she got to know that, though.”

“Um, only fresh though? Why?” – Geil asks with a frown, stopping eating for a while.

“…You don’t know how vampire’s bloodsucking works, do you?” – They all shake their heads. – “Vampires suck out the soul of whom blood they drink. Yana has weakened version of that ability, but it still works properly. She gets some energy and nutrients along with that, but it’s not enough for her, because her body is not fully mana-based. But if the blood is not fresh, say, you store it in a container, the soul leaves it and it only provides some mana and blood itself.”

“Um, okay.” – Laura says. – “Is it why the vampires are so detested by the Church?”

“No idea, but it’s quite likely. Even if a person survives having their blood sucked out they lose at least a large amount of their power and usually need a long time to even be able to use it at all, so that might be another reason. Even Yana could incapacitate anyone for a long period of time if she sucked out their blood.”

They all nod their heads thoughtfully.

“As a side note, Yana, I didn’t say you can learn to suck out only blood, did I?”

“Um, you didn’t.” – She answers, raising her head.

“Well, so now I do. If you want, you can learn to suck out only blood without affecting the soul. It should be instinctual to you, but you would need to practice.” – I explain plainly.

‘Um, Master?’ – I suddenly have a thought. – ‘Would the target still feel the pleasure if she did it like that?’

{It depends. It is instinctual thing. If she wanted you to feel the pleasure, you would, but she probably can bite without sinking her fangs into the soul.}

‘Um, wouldn’t it be a good to create a… slave or something?’

{Yes, it is. If a vampire sucks out someone’s blood regularly while making sure they will feel that pleasure, they will quite quickly get addicted, effectively becoming a slave. If you add that vampires very often have blood manipulation abilities, allowing to mark people using your blood and get various effects that can be as effective as contracts, vampires become one of the best rulers and slave masters.}

‘I see, I see.’

That sounds a bit scary to be honest, but well.

“Anyway.” – I get back to earth and look at Laura. – “We got a zombie in the sewers.” – I say, prompting a surprised looks from the kids, especially Ned and Geil.

“And?” – Laura asks quickly, slightly tense.

“Yana got it good, though dropped her guard by the end.” – I notice with the corner of my eye that the half-vampire girl gets red on her cheeks. – “I would say she only lacks is experience and pure strength, but she fights well. If you ask me, she can go out to the forest and fight with E and E+ ranked monsters, but she would need someone supervising her.”

“…I see, that’s good.” – Laura says after a pause. – “Well, we’ll so something about that later. When are you planning to take Ned?”

“I thought about tomorrow morning. Would that be alright?” – I glance at Ned to see his frown when he looks at Geil.

“I was planning to go with Ned to commoner’s district tomorrow.” – Geil says. – “Would it be alright to go at later hour, like in the evening?”

“I don’t mind, I’m free all day.” – I shrug. – “What about you, Helia?” – I turn my head to the other candidate.

“Uh.” – She stumps at the sudden question, then glances at Laura.

“You can go, one day won’t make a difference.” – Laura says with a smile.

Hm, Helia was probably going to look for some jobs in the poor parts of the commoner’s district as usual.

Helia nods her head with somewhat apologetic smile and turns to me. – “I’ll go tomorrow morning and you will take Ned at the evening then. Would that be alright?”

“Sure, that’s good.” – I look down at Yana pouting with cute expression and ruffle her hair. – “I’ll take you the next day, there no need to rush.” – She only gets redder and continues to pout, but nods after a few seconds. – “I’ll get you one or two alive.” – She gets even redder, but stops pouting and a small smile blooms on her face.

“By the way, Laura.” – I raise my head. – “What about getting me into the Hunter’s Guild?”

She nods her head, looking into the distance. – “I asked after you went to the sewers with Yana. They said that anyone can join, and they have special place for the young below sixteen, but they don’t accept kids below twelve. You should be alright here, but after I asked about going out, the guy said they have a group of free hunters where you sign a contract that they are not responsible for what happens to you and they won’t send help.” – She frowns. – “In short, you can go out if you want, but they don’t give a shit if you die or if someone comes knocking on their door for you.”

“I see, that’s good. Actually, it would be even worse for me if they monitored me.”

“Actually, do you know what the structure of the Guild is?” – Laura asks, to which I shake my head. – “Mhm, I should have explained that first. You have hunters divided into twelve groups. You have teams, they are nurtured inside the city and go out only for missions, you have the Stars, who are lone hunters, they are raised from very young age and are usually very strong, and you have free hunters who have much less privileges but much more freedom in exchange. Then each of these is divided into Bronze, Silver, Gold and White groups basing on strength. My team is among the strongest bronze teams by the way. Oh, and a fun fact, over ninety percent deaths among hunters are bronze free hunters, so keep that in mind. Any questions?”

“What privileges would I have?” – I ask. – ‘This system sounds quite good. It’s not needlessly complicated, but very versatile and allows various people to do what they want. Though it prompts a question why Laura hadn’t registered as a free hunter, but I guess she was after the food they give.’

She pauses for a second. – “I don’t know exactly because it is decided individually, but I know for sure they don’t provide food or place to live to free hunters. Actually, a place to live is only for silver hunters, so you wouldn’t get it either way. As for refining formation… I have no idea, but I doubt they will provide anything good, at best it will be the worst kind that is two or three times less effective.”

{Yeah, there are some like that.} – Natria chimes in.

“Then instructors, they will probably offer to join others in group training, but you have completely no need for that. Apart from these… I don’t think you will get anything to be honest.”

“That’s not a problem.” – I say as she has troubled face. – “It’s not like I need anything from them. And I have no need for refining formation, at least now, so I don’t mind that. Would it be alright if we went there in five or so days? I’ll wrap up everything with Ned and Helia and some my things and I’ll go with you to register, okay?”

Laura thinks for a moment and nods. – “Alright.”

“Um.” – I feel something tugging on my cloak and turn to Yana who looks at me with hesitant expression. – “Um, can I go too?”

“You mean forest?” – She nods her head. – “I don’t see why not, but not at the beginning. When I go out I’ll be gone for, say, five days or so and I will come back, and I can take you next time. How’s that sound?” – I ask while glancing at Laura, who frowns.

“…Alright, but I’ll personally make sure you don’t ever go the forest if anything happens to her.”

“Yay!”

I smile wryly and raise my hand to protect my head when Yana suddenly jumps, almost knocking her chair over, and hugs me with all her strength.

“I’ll be waiting! Make sure to go and come quickly!”

“Calm down, hey, I’m not going yet.” – I peel her off me as the kids and Laura laugh loudly.