Oh My Sweet Home~

"When I was a child, my grandmother brought me to The Forsaken Land." Elara stepped forward and looked around the area with a lost look on her face. "I still remember it to this day. I liked this place so much that my grandmother got someone to build a house for me to stay here."

"Well, she also wanted me to train more. So I can't say her motives were entirely selfless." She chuckled at her own joke.

Alvin smiled softly and followed behind the two women, only to stop a few meters away from the entrance.

"What happened? Why stop here?" He looked around the area, confused, wondering what they wanted to do.

"This place, even though it's merely an outhouse, is very magical. Since this place is very dangerous, my grandmother had to get some witches to place safety measures in place." Elara smiled at Alvin and raised her hand in the air. "This place is only visible to very few people who are bound to the magic protecting it or someone who is very powerful."

Elara's hand stopped midair, not because she paused but because it seemed to have been stopped by something intangible in the air.

The air rippled like a drop of water falling in a still pond, and as a chain reaction, a huge, complex-looking barrier surrounded by glyphs and symbols appeared before the three of them.

Gray energy rushed out of Elara's hands and touched the barrier. It moved around, spreading all over the symbols. Like gears, they turned, stretched, widened, and finally faded out of existence.

"Even if someone can see this place, they cannot enter it without my permission." Elara took her hand back and looked over her shoulder only to see a shocked look on Alvin's face.

"What would have happened to someone who tried to enter by force?" Gulping audibly, he asked. The sheer size of the barrier was 10 times bigger than the house itself, and the power it emitted gave him a sense of danger.

"Incinerated." Vanessa mumbled with a listless look on her face; her eyes gleamed with fanaticism. "The intruder would be burned alive by the hottest of the flames these barriers can conjure."

"Would you stop acting like a fool?" Elara saw the look on her face and clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Every time you see this barrier, you look like someone who deliberately wanted to try and force their way inside the house even when they have the key."

"Was it that obvious?" Vanessa looked at Elara in genuine shock. Her reaction only caused Elara's expression to turn cold. She clicked her tongue and ignored the maid. "Come, Alvin, we have a lot to do and very little time to do it in. Act as if I never had a maid."

Alvin chuckled and followed her toward the entrance, while Vanessa trailed behind in silence.

"Lady Elara, please let me clean the place first before entering." Elara's hand reaching out for the door handle paused upon hearing Vanessa's offer to clean the house. She nodded and took a step back, allowing the maid to enter first.

Vanessa opened the door and disappeared inside; less than five minutes had passed before she returned and asked them to enter.

"Already done?" Alvin asked, skepticism clear in his tone.

"Spells are quite convenient when you use them correctly," Vanessa replied with her head lowered, but Alvin caught the glimpse of the smug smile on her face.

Alvin's eyebrows twitched, 'So much for the perfect maid act.'

Elara ignored her and entered the house first. Alvin also followed behind along with the maid. A faint smell of wood and wine made his nose twitch a little.

The inside of the Victorian villa was nothing short of luxury, but there was an old charm to the place, something vintage.

Even as Alvin walked across the old-looking wooden floors, they made no sound. His gaze swept over the elaborately carved pillars supporting the main hall.

Though the house's architecture leaned vintage, its furnishings and decorations were of the highest quality.

Plush leather sofas gleamed under soft lighting, crystalline vases were placed on crystal tables that shone in magical light, and modern paintings hung on the walls.

Vampires may fear fire, but magical light does them no harm, Alvin mused, glancing at the ceiling—until a faint noise caught his attention.

He turned his head, only to see Elara fiddling with a remote. A flat, transparent screen emerged from the ground.

The words slipped out before he could stop them.

Elara shrugged without looking back. "Many of the top corporations on Earth are under our control. We can bring whatever we want here."

She flipped through several channels before pausing on a news broadcast. Alvin glanced at the screen. Nothing out of the ordinary—just a report about a drunk teenager sneaking onto the second-tallest skyscraper in China without security noticing.

She changed the channel. Then again.

Finally, she turned the TV off and tossed the remote onto the sofa.

"They covered up what happened at Fugetsu," Alvin muttered, realizing what she had been searching for.

"Not that it matters now." Elara turned to him and placed a firm hand on his shoulder, her expression serious. "This is your fresh start."

Alvin nodded, but there was no expression on his face.

Vanessa, who had vanished at some point, reappeared from one of the inner corridors.

"It may be late, but you two should eat something first." She carried a tray and set it on the dining table in the corner before calling out to the two of them.

The trays were covered with lids, keeping the food warm and fresh.

"Good, we are starving, right Alvin?" Elara turned to Alvin, who nodded along.

They took their seat at the empty dining table and turned the flipped plates before them over. Vanessa walked to the gaps between their seats and removed the lids from the trays and revealed the dishes.

Leaning towards Alvin's ears, she whispered. "You never got to finish this, right?"