86: A Shocking Past

A Shocking Past

Skillfully pouring a cup of tea for Dante, the red-headed lady politely bowed as she went to go check up on the rest of her family.2

"I'll be right back." Flute said, walking away as his red-slit eyes lingered on the woman's retreating figure. Although she wore a dress of sorts that went down to her ankles, he could easily notice the eye-catching body that was hidden underneath all of it.

Carefully grabbing the cup of tea from the table in front of him, he took a few sips from it in order to check the taste and actually found it to be pretty good. In about thirty seconds or less, what remained inside of the cup had quickly disappeared.

Taking a curious glance around at the decorated kitchen interior, Dante's interest eventually settled on a small piece of paper laying on the counter next to the sink which appeared to have been used already. Made by what was most likely a child, the drawing roughly portrayed a group of three people huddling together as if they were preparing to snap a family portrait.

On the left side, the tallest person was a male figure in possession of a stick that Dante assumed to be a sword, along with some kind of ornament sitting on his head. With the way it spiked upwards on the top, it was most likely a crown.

After a few moments of thinking, he came to the conclusion that it had to have been Augusta. The crown must've been included as a nod back to his prior status as a sword king, the title ultimately lowered to the advanced rank because of a gradual decrease in skill after settling down to have a family of his own. Realizing that this was probably made by their daughter, it meant that she was at least somewhat aware of her father's past as a swordsman.

Dante felt like that was something to keep in mind.

Next to the drawing of Augusta was a long-haired woman, and Dante was almost certain that this was Flute, but it was a little difficult to tell because of the fact that the entire thing was made with only a single color. What made it more obvious, however, was the little girl standing in between the two adults.

That was most likely the aforementioned daughter, which Flute briefly told him about during their earlier introductions to one another.

Putting a bit more focus into analyzing the childish piece of art, Dante noticed a key piece of information that he hadn't seen previously. His eyes narrowed in confusion when he looked at the mother's torso area, the stomach drawn in a way to make it seem like it was slightly protruding. Flute hadn't said anything about an extra child earlier, which made Dante feel like he was probably overthinking it in the end.

It was just an illustration made by a child, after all. There was bound to be mistakes and misinterpreted meanings, especially when the person looking at it wasn't exactly in a stable emotional state right now.

Bringing up a hand to rub at his eyes for a moment, he also chalked it up to the fact that he hadn't slept at all ever since the invasion back at Murenfall Village. In an attempt to keep himself busy, the black haired boy mostly spent his time keeping an eye on Sara while she was asleep, or tirelessly practicing the moves that had been drilled into his head by Norvella with the sword.

However, before he could look at anything else, faint noises began to reach within earshot. Focusing on each step that was made towards the kitchen, Dante was eventually able to pick out three individuals by paying close attention to their separate walking patterns.

Taking a deep inhale in order to calm his nerves, Dante let his body only slightly relax against the dining table as he leaned forward, wrapping both hands against the empty cup of tea sitting in front of him.

Just as he let out the breath of air, the door abruptly swung open, and Dante's red-slit eyes purposefully widened enough to the point that they seemed at least somewhat innocent. Three different people walked into the kitchen, as he expected, and a friendly smile quickly crawled onto his face.

Wearing a pair of plain black shoes, as well as black pants to match, the long sleeves on Augusta's light blue shirt were rolled up, revealing a nasty set of old wounds that had long since healed. Dante keenly noticed how they continued up into the pullover concealing the rest of his body, which gave a subtle hint as to just how the older man's life was back in the day. The burly man also rocked a medium-length brown beard, lending the veteran swordsman an even more mature appearance. The seemingly converted family man's hair went down to just about his broad shoulders as well.

In conclusion, he was pretty intimidating at first glance. However, considering Dante had already been through a literal zombie apocalypse, it was kind of easy to ignore those sort of thoughts in order to focus on other things.

After they had all come within the same vicinity as Dante, he immediately stood up and introduced himself to Augusta first, who firmly grasped his hand in what was most likely a subtle test of character. "Hello, sir. The name's Dante Luca, it's nice to meet you."

Since Dante always gave firm handshakes, adding just a little more pressure wasn't an issue for him. Their eyes had also locked from the very beginning, and it stayed consistent throughout the entire interaction, which earned the black haired boy a couple more points from the sword instructor.

"...Likewise." Augusta eventually muttered with a crooked smile, his teal colored eyes just barely widening in recognition at the unique last name.

Seemingly nodding to himself, Augusta considered the stranger in front of him with a trained eye. He definitely liked how confident the very obvious non-human appeared to be, which was always a nice trait to have as a swordsman, but there was something that just felt slightly off about him. However, the bearded man had some trouble establishing what exactly it was that made him feel that way in the first place, but decided to push it to the back of his mind for the moment.

Gesturing to the little girl standing behind Flute's legs, Augusta let out a grunt of amusement before addressing his daughter in a crisp tone of voice, "Lilia, come out here and say hello to our guest. I've already told you that it's about time you started making some actual friends around here."

Nervously hiding behind her mother, their young daughter peeked her head out to get a hint as to what Dante looked like, Flutes brief description from earlier not enough to satisfy the girl's barely restrained sense of curiosity. At the sight of his unusual eyes, Lilia almost unconsciously moved towards the black haired boy, gazing at them with a fascinated look in her beautiful purple orbs, which she inherited from the woman that brought her into this world.

Flute, noticing her daughter's line of sight, brought a hand up to her mouth as she let out a quiet giggle. In an attempt to be a little more friendly, Dante crouched down and pointed towards his own eyes, smirking at Lilia as he posed a question which he already knew the answer to.

"Do you like them?" He asked, earning a hesitant nod from the small girl. She appeared to be around two years younger than him, and if he was right, that would mean that she had been born in K340. "Well, I like your eyes too. They're very pretty, and I can see where you got them from." He playfully whispered, glancing up at the woman standing behind the red-headed girl.

Honestly, it was like they were damn near twins.

Their short interaction brought a smile to Flute's visage, who was happy that her daughter was at least socializing with someone close to her age. Unfortunately, the children that lived around them weren't very friendly towards her, which caused the young girl to develop a certain shyness, as well as problems with opening up to others.

The fact that she was seemingly befriending Dante within just a couple seconds of them meeting for the first time, especially without any sort of difficulty, somewhat astonished both of Lilia's parents.

While that caused Flute to smile and listen into their conversation with a figurative cloud of happiness surrounding her, Augusta was a bit of a different story. Instead, there was a multitude of calculations running through his head, which was all hidden underneath a mask of slight stoicism.

Eventually, the conversation veered to a question that caught Dante at least somewhat off guard. It wasn't really because of the expected inquiry, however, but more so due to the fact that he wasn't the one that gave a reply in return.

"If you're not a part of the beast race, then what are you?" Lilia innocently probed, displaying her clear lack of knowledge concerning the other walks of life in this world. Just as he was about to answer her question, Augusta cut into their dialogue with a surprisingly accurate albeit relatively short explanation of his race's history.

"He's what you call a vampire, Lilia." Augusta said, crossing his arms in the midst of speaking. "Their original physical features didn't actually resemble the boy that's in front of you, or even anything close to a human in appearance at all. While they naturally varied depending on their age, the older ones would normally reach an enormous size, easily capable of dwarfing most of the larger ships that have ever been built within the Ringus Sea. However, since they hailed from the Demon Continent, it was only through some kind of ancient ritual which has been long lost to the sands of time that there are now vampires who look like him." The heavily scarred man finished, gesturing to Dante at the end, who was internally freaking out with how much he knew about his race.

While Dante was already aware of the things included within the bearded man's explanation because of his mother, the fact that Augusta was so aware and well read about the topic slightly concerned him for some reason. The black haired boy knew that there was at least a book or two out there with information about vampires, but they were most definitely rare and hard to find. Not to mention, there was nearly a world-wide stigma against them because of their evil origins, and a lot of people didn't have any sort of desires to know more about them.

Quickly shaking himself out of those thoughts, Dante regained his composure but couldn't stop from becoming a little withdrawn, and Augusta immediately noticed the subtle change in his mood. During all of that, while Lilia had gotten a little scared, it was mostly overwhelmed by how it sounded like somewhat of a fairy tale. Wide in amazement, her purple eyes locked onto Dante, and it briefly caught his attention.

"Wow..." She muttered, a cute little smile on her face. The adorable sight caused him to relax a small bit, which served it's purpose of allowing the black haired boy to focus back on the whole point of him being there in the first place.

Augusta witnessed the short exchange between the two kids, once more concealing his thoughts under a blank mask.

Dante turned to the man standing a couple feet away, clearing his throat as a way to shift the conversation towards a different topic. He didn't waste time doing so either. "Excuse me, I never explained why I was here in the first place. To put it simply, I would like to learn from you, sir. It's actually the reason behind my arrival within the capital." He said, proceeding to reach for the hidden pouch of coins at his side. "I mean, I'm also willing to pay quite a large sum of money for lessons-"

Raising a hand to stop Dante from continuing further, the black haired boy cut short of pulling out the currency, and Augusta motioned for him to sit back down at the dining table with an amused smile plastered across his face. "Slow down, kid. You can explain yourself while all of us eat together. Honey, be sure to make enough food for our guest here."

Nodding in acceptance, Flute went further into the kitchen to prepare their meals, a skip to her step as she walked away. The interaction between Lilia and Dante had made the woman feel a lot better.

Before Dante could tell her otherwise, which was due to the fact that he still needed to return to Sara, Augusta had a feeling that he hadn't come to the city all alone. "Don't worry, I'll make sure that you can get back to your place before it's too dark outside." The man reassured, sitting down at the table with his daughter.

Resigning himself to the current situation, Dante sat down next to Lilia as they all proceeded to talk amongst themselves, easily getting along with each other for the most part.

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