Dance

(On the morning of the first day of the hero's festival)

Marie rushed to Krys's room with breakfast she bought with her own money.

 It was actually the same soup and bread as yesterday, but she had to pay out of her salary to give it to Krys.

Krys ate it happily. Marie tried teasing him by trying to feed him again but he begged her to let him do it himself.

"How are you feeling today?"

"Ah, I'm good."

He then seriously looked at Marie.

"I want to help you around this place in exchange for all you've done for me."

"No no no, you don't need to."

While arguing with Marie, Krys noticed someone staring at him. When he looked towards the door, he saw several small eyes staring at the two of them.

When Marie looked behind, she found the children gathered outside of the room.

"Hey sis, is this your boyfriend?"

They started teasing her first thing in the morning.

Marie's face instantly became flushed.

"No no no no no. He… this guy is—"

Before she could finish her sentence, they ran into the room and upped their antics.

"Wow, so nice, he looks handsome too. Maybe you'll finally get married."

"No no, she is way out of his league. She will just get her heart broken."

"Yes, yes. She will just become more depressed if she gets her hopes up."

As they were chatting among themselves and making fun of her, she snapped.

"YOUUUU LITTLE PRICKS"

"I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU"

The kids ran out of the room and she ran towards the kids.

Krys was kind of amused at this sight. He got out of the bed to take a look around the place.

When he went downstairs, he saw Marie chasing the kids around a sofa, going around in circles.

Her face was red as a tomato, with mixed emotions of anger and embarrassment. 

She was not trying to seriously catch the kids, otherwise she would have already become the leader of little punks. 

She was just letting out her frustration and playing along with the kids. This was just how her life was.

Krys was amused by this. He picked up one of the kids who was about to be caught and started running with the children.

Then he played around a bunch with them. Neither of them knew when they started giggling like the other kids.

This all stopped when the owner of this orphanage stepped out of her room.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP, I'M TRYING TO SLEEP HEREEE."

A tiny old lady stepped out of one of the rooms on the first floor.

She had white hair and was wearing a purple sweater even though it was spring. 

The kids all immediately straightened out in fear. Marie as well froze without moving.

It was very clear who the boss here was.

She faced Marie and Krys who were next to each other.

"You boy. You look fine now. Go help her with the house work." 

"Yes Ma'am."

He had no problems with her order. He had already planned on doing this.

She handed a list to Marie and went back to her room. She shut the door so loudly all the doors in the house resonated.

Marie faced Krys with an awkward smile and asked him formally for his help.

xxx

As they were returning from their shopping trip, Krys was holding all of their bags. 

"I'm sorry for making you carry them."

"No no, it was my request."

Krys and Marie looked around Village to see the preparations of the hero's festival almost done.

There were stalls put up and all the houses were decorated. 

Children were playing around while their parents watched over them. The elders didn't sit around leisurely while the young men worked. 

Seeing this sight, Krys's heart was filled with peace and satisfaction. He couldn't help but feel a little proud as well.

After all, he was the reason for this happy sight. 

Meanwhile Marie thought they looked like a young couple coming back from a shopping trip.

On their way back to the orphanage, they ran into the bodyguard from yesterday once again. 

He scoffed at them before walking away. This angered Marie.

"Harold you-"

Krys stepped in before Marie could snap his neck from behind.

"Wait, wait. Let's not get into a fight." 

"He likely doesn't want me here. I will be leaving in a while anyways. You don't need to sully your relationship with others just because of me."

Marie puffed her cheeks at Krys's words. She stopped herself and continued back to the orphanage by herself.

Krys ran before her trying to cheer her up. 

Marie's anger towards Harold had turned to sadness upon realising the fact that Krys would leave the day after tomorrow. 

xxx

After helping around the orphanage, doing chores and decorating both the floors, Krys and Marie went outside with the kids.

The owner had decided that she would go tomorrow and kept her door closed.

While enjoying the decorations at night and eating food from multiple stalls. 

There were multiple floating candles up in the sky. Illuminating the village.

With clear skies and the full moon, the Village looked magical.

While enjoying this scene, it got time for the dance.

All the couples in the village held each other's hands as they danced in the Village square.

While Marie and Krys were looking at them, the kids pushed both of them towards the stage.

They started cheering for them to dance.

"Go get him." "Bewitch him while he is in the mood."

They were actually jeering at them.

Marie got mad but Krys just laughed at this sight. He extended his hand towards Marie.

She hesitated for a second but then grabbed his hand.

He pulled her into a dance, not giving her another chance to doubt.

They looked like any other couple enjoying the festival under the moonlight and candles.

The two of them enjoyed the dance as they looked into each other's eyes. They both got a little embarrassed but didn't want to let go.

They looked around and found even the chief dancing with his wife. Krys's first thought was that she looked out of his league.

But the way she looked at him was a look of love.

'Well love is wonderful.' he thought to himself.

As Marie smiled under the starry sky, her figure blurred, overlapping with someone he had lost.

He didn't let his expression turn sad and continued. 

He questioned if he deserved this peace.

xxx

While the festival was going on, Harold was alone in his basement.

There were a few cages lying around. In one of them, a live but weakened demon could be seen.

In the others were corpses of mutated pigs or goats or live but weak ones. The skin of the dead ones had turned brown and hard.

Also around him were chemistry equipment, such as beakers or a burner.

"Finally." he was talking to himself.

He extracted some blood from the demon and mixed it with a vial. The transparent vial turned blue with the demon's blood.

Then he put some of his own blood in there and mixed it around. Soon the bottle became yellow.

He injected the medicine into his arm. He waited around for a few seconds, feeling nothing.

Then he felt immeasurable pain in his arm as it started to grow in size and change in colour.

At first he screamed in agony. But soon his scream turned into laughter.

"YES… YES… I DID IT."

He screamed in both pain and joy. 

"Lord Dunzo, I'm one step closer to immortality now."

He was talking to a shiny stone on his table. The stone replied.

"Very good. Now, follow the next step very carefully."

"Yes milord."

His entire body had been mutated and was growing in size.

His body hair was turning into black fur and his eye sockets were changing in shape.

His skin turned brown and claws appeared on his hands.

His teeth turned into sharp fangs, some of them ripped out of his mouth.

"Become a true demon by bathing in human blood."