Blade demon 01: Approach

After about a day of traveling, Alice finally reached the next hamlet where she was able to use the money she had to resupply.

"Hey you there, what are your business coming here?" The man guarding the hamlet entrance asked her as he did all the other travelers.

Alice lifted her hood, "Just passing by and wanted to rest here for a day, do you know where I could find the general store?"

The guard lifted an eyebrow, seeing such a young girl traveling alone was quite strange. "You will find it at the end of the street." He said pointing with his hand.

"Thank you." Alice thanked him and put her hood back up.

"Ah! before I forget, don't wander around at night. A girl has disappeared two days ago, we suspect her to have been kidnapped. I don't need to tell you what that means, right?" The guard warned her.

"I know, I will keep that in mind." She replied and kept walking without turning back. A serious look covered her face as she thought 'It could be him...'

It was a slim chance but it was plausible. Even kidnapping wasn't an uncommon thing, it usually happens in big cities and not in such a small community.

"Excuse me, is there anyone here?" Alice asked as she slowly pushed the shop's door open.

"Haven't seen your face around here, are you a traveler?" An old man asked her from behind the counter.

"Yeah, is that a problem?" She replied with a stern face, her red eyes glowed faintly and the shopkeeper took a step backward.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude." He apologized, "But let me say one thing, those eyes of yours are beautiful, please be careful outside." He has never seen red eyes before and thought the glowing was just because of the sunlight reflection.

"Thanks, I inherited them from my father. Do you have any bandages? Some olive oil as well." She thought he was talking about her brown eyes, she had no idea they have turned red.

"Bandage and olive oil?" He said being puzzled.

"Do you have them or not?" She called him again.

"I do, I do. It's just that they are rarely bought. Are you by any chance injured?" He asked while looking at her face.

"Fine, forget about it." She turned around and exited through the door.

"Wait, what happened to you?" The shopkeeper rushed behind her, "I do have them!"

Alice slowly turned around and stared him right in the eyes. She then turned and kept walking without saying anything. No matter how much he called her, she didn't give him a second look. He was asking her too much that she go uncomfortable around him.

After a few minutes, she found the hamlet's inn. "Excuse me, is there an available room?" Alice pushed the door open and asked the innkeeper. The woman smiled, "There is, do you want to eat something as well?"

"Yeah, I will eat anything light that you have. And I wanted to ask if I could get some olive oil and clothes." Alice asked as she saw the woman smile.

"I have the oil but what kind of cloth do you want?"

"Old rags, bandages, anything would as long as it's clean," Alice said hoping she can get some.

"I can provide that, here is the key to your room. Let's talk about the payment later." The woman rushed inside to get everything prepared.

Alice then walked to her room, a while later the woman came to her with the items she asked for and an additional bowl of warm water.

"Thank you, I will be down quickly!" Alice thanked her for the extra water; this woman seemed to be more understanding than that idiot at the shop was.

After the woman left, Alice checked her feet. This was the first time she walked for a whole day so she got some blisters. She used the warm water to clean herself and then applied the olive oil wrapper herself with the bandages the inn woman gave her.

After a while, she came down to eat. The innkeeper offered her some milk and a Quiche. She started to eat slowly, as she wanted to rest for a while.

"You, would you mind touching this paper?" A young man wearing a weird outfit and carrying a sword at his waist approached her. He had short black hair and blue eyes, Alice noticed he was keeping a hand on his sword as he talked to her.

"I don't mind, just let me eat," Alice said as she poked the paper that he was giving her, nothing happened.

"Sorry for interrupting your meal, I seem to have been mistaken." The man bowed slightly and turned around to leave.

"Would you mind sharing what is this all about? You are not going to use that paper for anything indecent, right?" Alice asked him and the man flinched, he didn't expect her to call him back.

"Sorry, but I can't say. Would this work as a prof for you?" The man turned toward her, ripped the paper in half, and handed it to her. "It has already served its purpose, you can have it." He said and quickly left after that, Alice looked at him puzzled.

"What a weird man, he was handsome thought." The innkeeper said with a slight blush on her face.

"Your husband is listening from the kitchen…" Alice told her as she noticed the angry man behind the kitchen door.

The innkeeper panicked and rushed toward him. "I was joking dear, you're the best…" Alice ignored them and headed back to her room to take a short nap. Her body was exhausted.

When she woke up, it was past midnight. She slowly opened the window and watched the trees wave in the wind.

'Where would I find that fiend?' She wondered to herself when she spotted something at the edge of the hamlet. She focused her vision and was able to see it clearly. It was the fiend's footprint.

The joy of finding a trace pushed her mind away from questioning the fact she was able to see clearly in the darkness of the night and from such a large distance.

After gearing up, Alice used her rope to climb down from the window. The innkeeper would have stopped her if she wanted to go through the front door.

She landed in the bushes of the backyard and then climbed the fence. After making sure the road was clear, she rushed to the other side. CRACK! She heard someone walking in the distance, when she looked he was the guard making his patrol.

'I need to change my direction.' She quickly jumped into one of the house's backyards and rushed to the other side. In the distance, she could see where she spotted the footprints so she rushed there when the area was clear.

When she reached them, she determined the direction the fiend was going and followed him. The footprints lead her to a lone house outside the city. Reminding her of her home.

She took a deep breath and calmed her shaking hands. The fiend should be close.

"KYA!" She heard a woman scream from outside the house but the voice silenced quickly. Determining that the fiend is attacking someone, Alice rushed inside and kicked the door down. The door was already open.

The scene in front of her resembled what happened in her home. The fiend was there lifting a woman from her neck while a man lay dead in the corner.

"So you two finally came? I was getting bored from…" Before he could finish, Alice swung her rope at him like a whip.

"Wait what?" He threw the woman away and caught her rope with one hand. "Are you by any chance angry that we killed them? I told that idiot to wait…anyway where he is?" He was smiling.

Enraged by his smile, Alice grabbed the axe from her waist and threw it at him. A sword made of blood formed the fiend's hand and he deflected the axe as if it was nothing.

"Where is he?" His smile faded as he was getting worried.

Alice tried to pull the rope from his hand but she lacked the strength. The fiend pulled her toward him instead and grabbed her from the neck.

"What happened to him? Speak up!" The fiend yelled. Unable to breathe, Alice quickly wrapped the rope around the fiend's neck and started strangling him as she did to the first one.

How quick her hands worked surprised even the fiend. "This won't work on me!" He growled as the veins in his neck hardened to protect his airways.

Alice tried to strangle him harder but she was quickly losing the strength in her arms. Just as her consciousness was fading.

"Fire sigil, ember blade!" A man jumped through the window with a fiery blade and sliced the fiend's arm.