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No one really had any respect for supporters. Because their job was to carry items and equipment for other adventurers, they were usually seen as nothing more than pack mules, people who weren't strong enough to be proper adventurers.

Because of that, it was a position no one wanted to fill in. This was especially true for a pallum girl by the name of Liliruca Arde.

Today was not a good day for her. But then again, since when has her life as a supporter ever been good? With chestnut colored hair and eyes and reaching just past a hundred centimeters, she was slightly smaller than the average Pallum. Her petite and small figure made it almost hard to believe she was of age 15.

'Why me' Was the thought that ran through the head of the running Pallum. She had decided to terminate her contract with her latest adventurer. He was rude, crude, foul-mouthed, disrespectful, basically what most adventurers were like. She made it her point to not stick around these kinds of people for long.

What happened after was…

"Yer not getting away!"

The man didn't take it very well. Although she tried to secretly take more money than what was given to her, it wasn't a reason to start running after her with a knife in hand.

With an enraged adventurer hot on her tail, she ran to the back alleyways in the hopes of him losing sight of her. Unfortunately, due to his speed, the man was quickly catching up to her.

"Hey, miss Fiora. Do you think with enough time, I could-whaa!?"

*Bam*

Lili didn't even have a chance to slow down or move out of the way. Two individuals, male and female had appeared from around the corner and she ran into the male one, making both he and herself fall on the ground.

"Ow..." She groaned out, holding her nose and checking to see if it was bleeding. Thankfully, it wasn't.

Lili saw that she had run in a white-haired human boy and was now laying on top of him. Quickly raising up, she looked up to see that the girl beside him, most likely his sister because of their similarities, was giggling hard, seemingly finding this amusing.

"Ouch… Are you alright?" The human boy asked Lili, ignoring the pale girl as if he was used to this kind of reaction from her.

"Finally caught you, you little swine!" The adventurer that had been chasing her finally caught up. "Damn supporter, just stay right there!"

In his rage, he didn't register the other two people's presence until the white-haired boy came forward and stood in front of Lili, surprising the adventurer, the pallum and the human girl. Although the human girl seemed to enjoy the moment, the adventurer got really annoyed.

"Huh? Who the heck are you, brat?"

Despite his fear of facing a stronger foe than himself, Bell squared his stance and locked his legs in place. "Umm… What are you going to do with that girl?"

"Shut it! If ya don't scram right now, I'll carve ya up along with the piece of crap behind ya!" The adventurer said in anger and annoyance.

Bell remained where he stood because he had to. Putting their lives on the line is what heroes do. Moreover, he had his mentor right beside him, who despite seemingly not wanting to enter the fight, he was certain that she would not allow him to die here. Then again, she did actually try to do that on their first trip to the sixth floor.

Seeing that Bell remained standing where he was, the glazed look in the man's eyes vanished and was replaced with anger. "Do you have a death wish, brat?"

"W-Wait… just a minute. If you can just calm down…"

"Shut up! The hell is wrong with ya?! Is she yer friend or somethin'?"

"N-Never seen her before in my life." Bell admitted with no shame.

"Then why are you protecting her?" He asked, baffled by the brat's foolishness.

"Because she's a girl!" He exclaimed and Shalltear immediately began to laugh uncontrollably behind him. He felt somewhat embarrassed, but he had already made his resolve to not move.

"The hell are you saying?" The adventurer said and then turned towards the sounds of laugher. As he noticed Shalltear's presence right behind the boy, he smiled lustfully. "Fine, I'll slit your throat first kid. Then that piece of shit and I'll claim that other girl as a prize."

The man reached behind his back and drew out his sword. A ferocious smile appeared on his face as killing intent emanating from him could be felt by everyone around.

Lili gulped with her eyes fixed onto Bell. She really did not know what was wrong with the human girl and why she found this whole ordeal so amusing. She reckoned that she must be mentally ill and responded the situation in the wrong way, so the boy in front of her was Lili's last chance to survive. She would use him as a decoy to run far away and hope that the man doesn't have time to follow her.

The human girl seemed to notice her leaving, but did not seem to pay it mind, so she kept on running away as fast as she could.

Back with Bell – The boy was holding his knife in front of him, shaking in his boots. The adventurer took a few steps forward and then jumped at Bell.

His speed was too much for Bell and he realized that he wouldn't be able to block the man's blade on time.

'So, this is it, huh.'

He closed his eyes.

*Slash*

"Hmm~. You didn't even try to fight back~. Talk about pathetic~." He heard a familiar sing-song voice utter those words.

Hearing nothing but silence afterwards, he slowly opened his eyes to see Shalltear in front of him with her hand piercing right through the man's heart.

Bell stared at the scene with his mouth agape. The man's body was shaking, and blood spurred out of his mouth.

Shalltear licked the blood off her face and swiftly removed her hand from the body, with the man's heart in her fist and allowed the body to fall on the ground.

Bell was at lost for words. For a second, he thought he'd seen her face distort and her tongue extend to a ridiculous length to lick the blood of her face and around her, but it must've been his imagination playing tricks on him.

After all… He was shocked.

The girl whom he fell in love with had killed a man. Murder was not something very rare in Orario, but it was still shocking to see happening right before your eyes. Even if killing in self-defence was not an actual crime, he really did hope no attention would be brought to this matter.

Shalltear dropped the hearth down, looking at the fresh corpse sorrowfully.

'I won't be able to drink his blood when this brat is around~… What a waste~.'

Yes, drinking blood is not something humans, elves or dwarves do. She might be found out about being a monster if she were to do that in public. She even unintentionally stretched her tongue out to lick the blood off her face and stopped herself in time to not let it reach the ground.

That was very bad.

This was a sign of a near blood frenzy. Her face might not look so nice anymore.

She had to leave this place before she her need for blood took the better of her.

At least, no one saw her kill other than that boy. She also doubted that he would be the kind to report the incident and sell her out, so she was safe for now.

Still, they had to run before anyone sees them.

Seeing that the boy was still staring at the bloody corpse in shock, Shalltear spoke up, her head looking away as to not reveal her features that were in between her true vampire appearance and her usual pretty face. Of course, that wasn't a sight she wished the boy to see and the further they got from all this blood, the quicker her normal appearance will come back. "C'mon let's go~!"

Bell looked up at Shalltear who stared the other way and reluctantly nodded and started running away from the corpse, following her from behind.

After they were far from the body and went back to walking, Bell spoke up. "Say, miss Fiora… Have you ever murdered anyone before?"

Shalltear's eyes widened for a short moment before going back to their usual stoic appearance. Her magnificent face back on. "Of course, I did~."

"B-But w-why would you do that?" Bell asked, still shocked.

"Sometimes you have no other option~." She answered, seemingly trying to end the conversation and did not want to answer any further questions.

And with that, there were no other words said. To Bell, it really did seem like the pleasing girl was hiding something terrible from her past and could only sympathize with her. He knew she was troubled, but not to the point of having killed actual people before…

Ryu was an elf that worked at the well-known pub called the Hostess of Fertility.

She had been on her way back to her workplace with food supplies when she had come across the horrific scene of someone killing an adventurer mercilessly. That person was a petite silver-haired girl that seemed no less than 14 years old, the same age as the boy who accompanied her.

That boy was Bell Cranel. The boy whom Syr, one of her co-workers had feelings for. What was this silly teenage boy doing with such a dangerous individual?

The elven woman had been following the pair from the shadows ever since this unfortunate 'incident' happened.

She was tremendously scared.

The speed at which the silver-haired girl move towards the adventurer was unbelievable, and those eyes were those of a cold-blooded killer. How could someone so young be this powerful? She was already too old to be a pallum, so she was, in fact, around Bell Cranel's age.

In her opinion, the speed the girl went at was at the very least comparable to a level 6, the pinnacle of strength, which should not be possible at her age. Of course, as a level 4, Ryu could not properly assess a higher level's strength, but considering that she couldn't see her move, her assessment must be close.

Yet, the biggest question on her mind was what she was doing hanging out with Bell Cranel.

She certainly did look beautiful, comparable to a goddess of beauty's looks, but it would be impossible for her to be a goddess if she had a falna. Her pretty looks could certainly rival mortals such as Aiz Wallenstein.

Was Bell in love with said girl or perhaps were they related? They did share quite a few characteristics in common.

As she saw Bell and the silver-haired girl walking away from the alleyways and onto the main street, she decided to let it go and go on her way back to the Hostess of Fertility due to it getting late and the adventurers will soon fill the pub. For now, she would only tell it to Mia, the owner of the pub, but will nonetheless remain cautious of the young girl.

Having powerful beings popping out of nowhere in Orario was never a good sign…

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