The Fallen Vampire

Chapitre 250: Chaperone?

yukiko could feel something amiss.

she couldn't describe it very well, but it was akin to the feeling that she got before bath time.nôv(el)b\\jnn

yuki didn't like baths.

she put down her crayon abruptly and looked up at her current babysitter.

"where daddy?" she tilted her head.

raymond was busy drawing a picture of himself and tiche in a flower field while holding hands.

... she was his first woman, alright? being a little ditzy over her was part of the experience.

some would say a rite of passage even.

"little lady, do you think i made ti-ti's head as pretty as it is in real life?" raymond held up his picture with a worried look.

continue your journey on empire

yukiko kind of just stared at him with a droll look that was dangerously similar to taira's.

"ah..." raymond scratched the back of his head. "you said something again, didn't you?"

yukiko nodded.

"m-my bad..."

"where daddy??" yukiko asked again, with much more puffy cheeks.

"not actually too sure about that..." raymond said thoughtfully.

they'd been back at the cult for a day and a half now. only the ladies of the cult had been seen out and about, while the dai-shi remained in their room.

yukiko had just seen her parents this morning though. it was as if she was only just now realizing that she had been placed in the care of someone other than them.

"go see!" yukiko pleaded with big eyes.

raymond's face lost almost all of it's color. "little miss, i don't think i should be going anywhere near your parents' room. that sounds like the kind of thing senior brother vaal would hit me just for thinking about."

yukiko pointed to herself. "go find..?"

raymond's face couldn't have been more comical if he forced it to.

he could think of a long, laundry list of things that the main family could be doing that their child couldn't be around for.

"u-um, well, maybe we should wait for-"

"pleaseee..?"

yukiko's eyes were as big as clay pots. and cuter than two million newborn puppies wrapped in onesies.

despite his rugged exterior, big country was not immune to such trappings. his resolve was crumbling like a granola bar.

inadu's expression threatened to crack underneath the weight of the blatant favoritism.

"n-not mommy? any of us?"

"daddy!"

shakti could've been imagining things, but she could have sworn she heard the sound of four hearts breaking behind the door.

inadu discreetly rubbed a tear from her eyes and turned to shakti. "would you like to come in..?"

shakti was largely robotic and unshakable, but that simple invitation had rattled her to her core in a way that no battle ever could.

"w-w... would that not be p-presumptuous of m-m-me..?"

inadu smiled shyly. "well... you didn't come all the way here just to stand outside... did you?"

the door widened and shakti saw a string of very familiar faces.

namely, taira's.

she was pretty sure everyone here was an advanced enough cultivator to hear the way her heart started beating out of control, and that single thought mortified her.

but she was almost too distracted by the appearance of taira's face to care about that.

unlike shakti who was too mesmerized by taira's face to notice what he was wearing, yuki was much more observant.

"go somewhere?" she tilted her head.

"i'm afraid we are, peanut." aveena smiled sadly. "your father and i are going on a small day trip and we'll spend the night away."

"i go too?" yukiko pointed at herself.

it took every ounce of strength in aveena's body to shake her head no. "sorry, baby-doll. it's a work trip and it might be dangerous for you to go."

yukio's ears couldn't have dropped any lower if she took them off and put them on the ground. the fragments of her mothers' broken hearts were crushed into even finer pieces.

"she can come with us." taira suddenly said.

yukiko's ears bounced back up with alarming speed and her eyes sparkled like gems. "weally??"

taira took her into his arms. "it may be a little dangerous though, so you can go as long as you have a proper chaperone to watch you."

unanimously, everyone with the amarok last name turned to stare at the only member among them who did not belong.

shakti was still staring at taira awkwardly; flustered that she had been rendered incapable of even saying so much as a word.

"shakti?"

"y-y-yes...?"

"you wouldn't happen to have any plans for the next day or so... would you?" he smiled.

shakti had initially promised to tutor some of the young ones today.

but she had almost completely forgotten about that as she shook her head without a thought behind her eyes.