Ascension to the Crimson Throne [One Piece]

[Morpheus146]

A/N: Greetings to anyone who clicked on this thread of mine, even if you did it accidentally, I hope you stick around for longer and don't get discouraged by the initial historical undertone of the first chapters, it only happens for 3 chapters which will be released swift ( I guess)

This is a story about a historical figure, who is infamous for his deeds and actions, Vlad the Impaler, and I attempt in this story of mine to make him go in a journey inside this Fantasy World of the One Piece series. Huh, I am not so great at scamming people with an over-the-top description that doesn't match the actual content.

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However, I still wonder? Will his notoriety resound higher in this fantasy world or will his legacy still be the one he built in his first life? That will be for you readers to find out.

Hope you enjoy the read, and I am open to criticism.

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Chapter 1 - A Failed Mission​

Everything started on a cold winter night, in a time where the people had another style of living.

It was on a tall mound, protected by its natural structure, gifting it plenty of protection was resting a magnificent Renaissance-Gothic styled castle where a tall bridge to match the height of the castle connected the imposing fortification with the rest of the city.

Inside this castle, a young man with long, blonde, curly hair walked toward the upper levels by himself while wearing prestigious noble clothes that only men of the medieval era would be entitled to wear.

As this young man who was climbing the stairs to the upper level of the imposing castle breathed, vapors could be seen thanks to the torch in his hand, and after seemed hundreds of steps, he reached a hallway that led toward more rooms, but his target was the last room on the end of the hallway.

Approaching closer, a calm yet cold voice resounded in the entire hallway.

"You said you wouldn't be visiting me until you see me dead? Why the change of heart?"

"Lord Basarab, how come you can tell so accurately who is visiting you?" asked the blonde young man, who still continued walking forward, unbothered by the remark of the man inside the room.

"How come? It is simple, but I will not tell you my secrets. It would be dumb.
Now, what problem do you have in your mind that I can help you with?" responded the man behind the door with his voice not changing in emotion, remaining cold.

The young man's face was slightly paled, with circles of tiredness under his eyes, with redness in his, and some marks of tears touching his young face, and as he reached the last door of this floor, he stopped in front of the room and remarked with a defeated voice.

"Catherine died in childbirth. My son was stillborn." (A/N: Mathias Corvinus first wife, no need to stress yourself)

He supported his head on the black wooden door to get closer to the person inside the room, and when he received the man's response, it felt expected, with some mockery in that cold, arrogant voice of his.

"So that girl died. How old was she? I don't remember. The passage of time in this prison has messed up how I perceive time."

"She turned 15 this year."

"You can't say I didn't warn you. This is nothing concerning the Lord and Savior, instead is the thing I explained to you." ending the man inside the room, soon after hearing the young man hitting his head slowly on the door.

"Can't you say something to make me feel better? I always heard my father tell me that you have your way with words and making people feel better. Being the best person at manipulating people."

"… That stupid old man, he told you everything, right? No matter. What things am I not doing for Lord Ioan? We're going to the Library?'

"No, we can talk here."

"Good." responded the man, followed by the sound of the lock mechanism being opened.

*Click* *Creak*

With the door opening without him even being required to use his keys, the blonde young man, in question, the King of Hungary, Mathias Corvinus, looked at the middle-aged man whose ink-black hair reached his waist, with a body that was slim but also ripped, signs that he didn't linger idly in this room.

The clothes of this middle-aged man were rugs with some filling to them.

He wasn't privy to a fireplace to keep himself warm in those hard times, such that his only option was to train his body and maintain himself in good physical shape, trying to emulate his prime when he was just like a ferocious beast.

"Brat, you sure are a sissy. You look so pathetic, no longer bossy like when you captured me."

"How did you manage to open the door?"

"Once again, secret. Haven't you heard your courtiers? I am a strigoi. I can vanish and do whatever I want, even steal the keys from your Black Captains." (A/N: Eludes to Mathias's Corvinus Black Army - the first professional army in Europe under a monarch)

"Bullshit. Peasants stories to keep their calves in check.

Anyway, even if you have the keys to your cell, I don't care. You are free to move around the castle starting tomorrow.

Now keep my head occupied and tell me more about those stories you heard from those interesting slaves of yours that you killed."

"No thanks. I don't feel like it. I lost that war and I really don't want to remember about it."

"I tried, but those stupid peasants and greedy boyars have their own agendas against me. Regardless, back to your little doll, are you now going to doubt me when it comes to women and their childbirths?"

"I still can't understand how come you know all of that information. You, the dreaded Impaler that can scare any turk, german or hungarian just by telling them your name."

"I feel insulted right now. Tone down the way you mention me as if I was some possessed monster.

Everything I did was for a reason. Do you think I am the one who invented the wheel?

The Impalement?

Brat, the answer is by studying. I didn't waste my time, unlike others. Instead, I've studied inside Adrianople all the documents I could get my hands on, from Turkish, to Greek to Latin, you name them. I've read a decent-sized library if you would compare it. (A/N: Adrianople or how it was named in Turkish, Edirne, was the capital of the Ottoman Empire before the capture of Constantinople)

"Also, in conclusion, I can tell you this, brat, compared to men, the bones of a woman are slightly fragile, so you can imagine what the stress of pushing the infant would do to a little girl, such that you have birth complications.

Do you understand, little Matei? I am not telling you those words just so I can seem smart. It is just the correct conclusion I reached."

Mathias, when hearing Vlad mention this with such confidence in himself, it started steering up his frustration and anger for not taking heed of his advice, as he didn't take the important step of not impregnating her.

"I pray on her soul in Heaven that she can smile on me right now."

Taking deep breaths, trying to calm himself, he felt a rough skin touch his head, where the callused hands of the infamous Impaler, who could be said to be like a distant uncle that had his mood swings but constantly was kind to one nephew.

"This is life, little Matei. Sometimes you win some, other times you might lose everything. Everything is decided by our life choices."

"Thank you for those words, Uncle."

"Hahaha, annoying brat, you captured me so you could use me to be your advisor or what?" laughed Vlad when hearing the young king's appreciation.

"No, I intended to stop your madness, and now that you have calmed down, I might keep you as my advisor. You aren't half bad."

"The amount of money you have to pay me for all my services, even the military ones, it will take you chests of gold coins to satisfy me."

"We'll see if it can be achieved. Besides, can you go back to your story of those slaves?"

Vlad, who had only a wooden bed without any softenings or pillow to it along with one lone chair, went to sit on the chair.

"Hard to explain that experience fully. But to tell you shortly, those slaves of mine didn't belong here at all. I've got them from the Turk's camp, where they looked to be Mehmed's prisoners of war or something."

"That was the souvenir I gained from that whole debacle of attempting to kill Mehmed with my own hands, ending this scourge. "

Vlad shook his head as if he had an inner conflict, not agreeing with his approach but also finding it ironic that he couldn't kill Mehmed since he was in a military tent similar to the Pasha's tent he stormed, thinking it was supposed to be the resting tent for the Sultan.

It failed horribly for him, which was a situation that later descended into total chaos, and now he was acting as a boy's emotional support of sorts.

"You stopped. Did you forget where you were left?"

"I am not senile. I was reminiscing about past events. Now that I think about it, I may have left those two guys to live. They by no means were spies from their whole body language. Okay, let me continue my story."
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[A/N: Wait a little bit. Sorry to interrupt you. But to give you a context of what's going on in the first part of this chapter, the story starts with Mathias Corvinus at that point being a youngster visiting Vlad who has been imprisoned inside the Corvin Castle for about one year, the year of this action being somewhere around 1462-1463.

Everything that happens in this chapter, and the following 2, are historical fragments I interpreted and played around to my taste, like a chronicler. I can't place the entire wiki on this format since I will bore you to death, so you'll only see important fragments. Now back to the story.]
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Going down the memory path, the point where he prepared the entire special operations of storming the enemy camp.
It was an opportune moment because it was their last push toward Targoviste, and Vlad bet everything on this plan's success. Wishing to end all this war and beat the nail to the Ottoman's coffin by killing Mehmed.

All the stars on the sky seemed aligned for him that night, making his conviction rise to the skies. All the puzzle pieces were prepared, the Janissary Armor stood to attest that Vlad was more than ready to leave with extra height his hands could carry while he was saddled on a black stallion.

They were still in the forest outside of the Ottoman Camp, unsure of how things would progress, with his men waiting for his last instructions.

Assuring them of the plan's success, which made sense at that time, they went into action, moving toward the Ottoman Camp approaching a confident aura, similar to the Ottoman soldiers, who were brimming with morale since the conquest of Constantinople, the Queen of Cities. (A/N: This event will end rather soon with Vlad's second reign of Wallachia Principality)

"Remember, let me do the talking.

If the Turks ask you something, keep quiet or only those who know Turkish may respond. However, if they insist on asking the rest who don't know the language, listen carefully.

"One cough of mine means yes. That would be translated to a nod, two coughs of mine meaning no, you shake your head, it's a no. Don't do it in reverse like the Bulgarians."

"Lastly, don't panic and remain in formation if everything fails. It will take the Turks a while to mobilize and figure out what happened. Until then, slaughter everyone in your sight. Understood?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." responded the whole contingency of soldiers under Vlad with their morale high.

"Good, then let's get going. Don't forget, our only target is Mehmed, no one else. If you spot him with his guards, storm and take his head.

"Please, God, this will be a long night for us. Give us strength."

Finishing the speech that boosted his men's morale while doing a slow cross to the sky and then in a passive stance, he appeared in front of the camp passage gate riding his black horse.

The scenario played out just as he expected.

The Turks stopped him asking him about his origins, and in flawless Turkish, he painted out the story about how he was a contingent of the main army, who returned from scouting of the enemy territory also managing to get some information from the peasants.

The way he behaved didn't arouse any suspicion on his end, such that without even knowing, this poor Ottoman guard opened the gates to the hyenas that started smelling the rotten taste of flesh.

When getting inside the camp, Vlad looked left and right until he found his target, a large military tent that looked simple but also expensive, something only the ones of higher rank would use.

Soon, he separated with his small contingent force, getting closer to Mehmed's tent.

Silently, his facial expression switched, turning dead cold, emotionless, moving with long strides toward the tent he was willing to bet that Mehmed resided in his entire life.

Stepping inside, he didn't waste time to observe the number of people, as he took out his favorite weapon of killing, the Kilij, a lighter weighted saber faster than other European made blades. (A/N: Kilij means in turkish, sword. Hah, so original)

The explosion of power and agility that were boosted by Vlad's Kilji instantly made the difference in the confrontation, as he took out in a flash two Turkish men wearing large Turbans, decapitating them without even giving them a chance of a reply, but to his surprise none of them were Mehmed.

However, to his luck, he killed those Pashas so swiftly that there were no cries which could alert the camp.

'Cursed bastard, where are you? Are you at the second tent?' thought Vlad, who frowned, starting feeling the pressure building up on his shoulders, and before departing, he used the white turban of the Pasha he slew to clean his saber, making it a sadistic and yet ironic display of power.

Returning back to his Janissary appearance, standing upright with his Kilji stranded on his waist, he stepped outside, moving toward another of the tents of high officials.

Before stepping inside, he took deep breaths and burst once again in motion, swiftly culling down his enemy without a care of who they were, only finding their faces familiar when they were dead.

'DAMN IT! Where are you, rat?'

The anger in his mind was building up, and to vent some of it, he stabbed the decapitated man into his heart so many times that his heart turned into flesh pulp, oozing blood.

In that state of anger, seeing his boots covered in blood woke him from his madness, later turning his attention on another corpse that he used as a sponge, going outside when cleaning around.

The only problem he encountered was that when he reached the third tent, the lucky charm that the pagans believed in, he heard the camp's alarm going off.

'Don't tell me those incompetent idiots couldn't stay shadowed? Even though most Turks are in their tents, sleeping, drinking, or God knows what else, they had to mess it up.'

Thinking that he prepared himself to enter inside the third tent, but before he could make his entrance, the Royal Guards appeared from the tent, looking at Vlad with a questioning look, asking him something in Turkish.

"You came to alert us about the enemy?"

"Yes!"

"Good job, your service will not be forgotten."

Then from inside the tent, a familiar voice was heard, belonging to someone he hated so much, his eyes turned even colder than he could possibly get.

'WAIT! PATIENT! ONCE HE GETS OUT, I'LL TAKE HIS HEAD WITH ME.'

Yet before Mehmed could get out from his tent, another Royal Guards exited, and once they saw Vlad, they looked big-eyed and instinctively placed their hands on their swords.

Not giving them a chance to scream for the reinforcements, Vlad took out his Kilji and slashed the head of the Royal Guard, in doing so, alerting the others that gave of the alarm in this surrounding area.

"DRACUL! You monster, you will suffer for all your transgression. You even dare to come here?"

"I'll dare to even fuck your mom, now go preach to that Allah of yours. I only want Mehmed." remarking that he then started fighting off with the Royal Guards that kept coming.

Not long after, Mehmed came into his eyes, looking around with a worried, even scared expression.

"You came, scared rat? Here, receive my parting gift."

He took out a dagger with his available left hand that he threw like a maniac at Mehmed's direction, and sure of his skills that he hit the target.

Making sure he uses this chance of alertness of the Royal Guards who turned to look at their Sultan.

Vlad took out a smokescreen bomb that he smashed on the ground, where he made his way out, gathering his men who began fighting like possessed beasts, knowing that Mehmed was dead from his words, spreading out the news in the camp, which leads to more instability in the Turks orders.

"Kill how many you can! Once I give you the Retreat order, you do as I say!"
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All the thoughts spent on this mission, all the money, equipment, everything went down the drain because of his blasted luck.

A third was a lucky charm, but some stupid fool in his ranks had to mess up his mission. Once he gained enough distance from the Turk's camp, he found the ones who gave the Turks the alert signal, two guys wearing ripped rags that gave him the impression they were slaves.

His hatred for the moment was directed at those two guys who trembled in fear after spotting his gaze.

"This guy might even have the Conqueror's if we were home. What a scary spirit he has."

"Shh, act normally. We can get out of this, I will try to use my Advanced Armament to break the iron chains after things calm down."

"I DARE YOU SAY ONE MORE WORD, I'LL BREAK ALL YOUR BONES ONCE I GET TO TARGOVISTE."

The two middle-aged men struggled a bit to set themselves free. However, once they heard Vlad's mad roar that made them remember about the legend of a certain individual from their home, and swiftly shifted their appearance, complying with what Vlad's soldiers were ordering.

"Fuck, we are screwed, my friend."

"Let's hope we find some reason with this crazy person."

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 2 - The Fate of the Two Emperors​

Looking back at his memories, he still didn't know if the cause of his mission failed because of those slaves since his soldiers weren't the most capable that they would be trustful.

And as he told Mathias about this incident, now that he was detached from the spirit of the battlefield, he told this story again to the young king, making him reminiscent of those guys' words.

"Since I got to Targoviste, I began interrogating the two slaves. All I got was a bunch of information that didn't make sense to me.

As if those people weren't from Europe, but a distant place. In that rage of mine, it was something they would rather not tell me, as I vented my anger on them. Weak, right?"

"A bit, but understandable." responded the young king while listening to this experienced Prince, someone he valued highly for his military and administrative skills.

"However, don't bother telling me how you tortured them and all that unnecessary information. Tell me what stories they had to tell before you ended them."

"I got to recollect all the information on those slaves."

He stroked his long beard, a body mechanism that told that he started processing the information collected in his life.

From all the events that happened to him, remembering some insignificant slaves he executed wouldn't be something that he would remember, but those two marked him with their stories.

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With the wind of June 1462, he was at the back of his army as if he was the last defensive line. He could see their morale vanish so chilling like burnt wood ash, and he, too, understood the consequences of his actions.

Being silent made him calm down, but the anger at how fast this operation ended made him stare murderously at the two slaves dragged by his infantry soldiers.

It was a pressure that those two guys could feel but couldn't do anything to have this man they didn't even know to calm down. They only prayed that they wouldn't be killed in the following hours and were given a chance to explain to Vlad their origins.

Besides worrying about their lives, those two guys also took the chance of looking at the surrounding scenery that were all scarred with marks of war.

Nevertheless, it wasn't a long journey since it took them 5 days to reach a fortified city rather large compared to the desolate villages they passed by, where one could take in the miasma of death lurking in the air.
There was so much death surrounding them that their lives on the sea and piracy was nothing compared to what this monster in front of them unleashed.

'This is a mad world. I have never seen so much death in my life.'

'There's so many impaled corpses all the eyes could see.'

Unlike anything they saw in their lives, the fortified city's presence made them gulp, looking at one another, questioning where they had truly shipwrecked.

They couldn't see everything in the city, as they were taken directly to the Princely Court, another set of fortifications with walls surrounding a vast wall that gave them the impression of looking at an image of the Celestial Dragon Gate of the Mary Geoise.

Not long after, they found themselves inside a dark, cold torture chamber, bound by the heavy iron chains.

They felt so hard that it made them question where their power went, have they vanished altogether?

"Quinn, we are screwed. I can't use my Haki, and also my body is so weak, I can't even bulge those chains." mentioned in a whispering voice one of the slaves after the guards bound them, taking their leave.

"I am also trying Wormblod. I am in the same position as you. I have this feeling we are fucked.

Also, fuck you for telling me to chase Roger, "We can end him easily.". Moron, can you see in what state we ended? Without my devil powers, without my Haki, and even the strength I trained so much to nurture. All ended in that damn Vortex."

"Fuck! Fuck! Why have I not listened to you, Quinn?

Why have I gotten arrogant believing I could destroy that Vortex with my own hands? It got us in this mess because I almost got so close to destroying Roger's flagship and drowning him on the Sea like the dog he is. Brother, if we meet in Hell, I will apologize again."

"Wormblod shut the fuck up for a second. We have to do everything to convince that madman to release us."

"Friend, I doubt we can do such a thing. We might have landed in another world by using that Vortex. Only the two of us survived the impact of that anomaly."

"No, there must be a way out of this prison, I, Wormblod, The Hound of Hell will not sit down rotting inside a prison cell without fighting back." mentioned the middle-aged man who began struggling in the chains that bound him tight to the floor.

"We have nothing here. We are like those simple people we laughed at. How things can change in an instant is quite ironic. How did those things even happen? All the stars were aligned for our success in defeating Roger after his fight with Shiki. I even pierced his chest with one of my arrows."

"Arghh, it is so painful to remember that."

"Let's try, and maybe we can find the reason why we got in this mess we're in right now."

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In their minds, the events of that important day where Shiki challenged Roger again reached their ears, and their fight made waves inside the whole Paradise, a point where the two saw this as an opportunity to take down two rabbits in one stone.

The chase began at full speed, entering Paradise using an extreme method of passing the Red Line at top speed, and then reached the moment where Roger defeated Shiki, who retreated, while himself was taking his breath recovering from the fight.

"ROGER, YOU THOUGHT WE HAD FORGOTTEN YOU? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING IN THOSE BLASTED LANDS OF THE PARADISE?

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR SOMETHING?" shouted Wormblod, who morphed his entire arm into a monstrous hand covered in a black energy armor that released waves after waves of spirit.

The people's cries could be heard from inside Roger's ship, giving great satisfaction to the middle-aged man preparing for his powerful attack.

"It is the Hound of Hell, Wormblod!"

"HAHAHA, So you bastards also come to wish me good luck on my journey? How cute of you, hound." replied Roger from a distance, immediately turning serious from his initial smiling expression when the two Emperors came to greet him.

"LAUGH ALL YOU WANT, ROGER! I WILL TAKE YOUR HEAD!"

"TARTARUS GATES!"

Wormblod sent out a powerful punch attack that devoured everything in its path from the rain and clouds of the sky, to the water the attack touched, with only a target in mind, Roger and the Oro Jackson flagship.

"DIVINE DEPARTURE!"

Roger, who was standing on the Bowsprit, released hearty laughter before slashing his gladius sword, releasing an insane sword wave that collided with Wormblod's attack, canceling out one another while the clash of Conqueror's Haki was on full scale.

In that clash of wills, the sky was washed by a black color like the ink, where thunder began charging up.

"You still have a long way to go to defeat me, dog."

The two yonkos saw Oro Jackson turn around to flee from them, and before they knew, a chase inside a Paradise where the Sea in question did look way worse and more menacing than the ones in the New World.

Curses were flying from both sides, while Roger, visibly weakened from his fight with Shiki, could only laugh at their pathetic attempts at making him fight to a suicidal point.
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The outside was stormy, with the waves of the Grand Ocean being able to devour most ships from the Yonko's fleet, devouring everything in their path, yet for the two Yonkos sharing the same ship was easy to pass by this stormy environment.

This wasn't something to bother them. With their immense powers Wormblod who had an Mythical Zoan powers, destroyed the waves, ready to gobble them up.

On the other hand, Quinn was hot on Roger's pursuit, firing his bow shots using his "Archer-Archer" Devil Fruit being able to shoot accurately at will, having Roger in his sight at all times.

It was Silvers Rayleigh, the Dark King, defending the Oro Jackson from Quinn's murderous shoots.

Rayleigh was mocking their attempts at fighting them in their weakest state, and while the two Yonkos started getting closer, following their tails, suddenly vortexes inside the Sea began propping up.

Initially, the first vortexes were small enough to be dodged by ship, and even Roger's crew managed to deal well with this part.

They passed more of the smaller ones, but once they were so close for Wormblod to blast one of his powerful hits on Roger's Flagship, a larger vortex appeared before him, making him frown and curse for losing his chance at blowing Roger up.

In his arrogance, he didn't give much importance to this occurrence and tried to destroy the Vortex using his Advanced Armament Haki and Devil Fruit power combined.

He tried once, tried twice, another try, time flew by, and Wormblod assured Quinn that he would destroy this Vortex in the next hit, but that too failed.

Once they got too closer to the Vortex, it was too late to do anything, getting devoured by this mysterious water vortex that instantly pressed them down with a weight they couldn't understand how it was so heavy.

The cries of their henchmen could be heard by the 2 yonkos who struggled to keep themselves planted by this weight until they too dropped down on the cold floor of their flagship.

Slowly unsure of how long it passed, with a chilling silence they suddenly felt and sensed the light touch them once again along with the cries of the birds, and the waves that pushed them and their ship, another storm welcomed them to their new location.

They felt their bodies go weak and without being able to stop their ship from going wreak.

Soon they hear the cries of men, shouting about their ship, reaching the shore before the men could get to them. Both Wormblod and Quinn looked amused at those guys gathering with weapons on their bodies, as if they were about to apprehend them, two of the 5 Emperors of the New World.

The first thought was that they reached a new territory undiscovered by any man, and in their mind, they started celebrating the idea they might have reached the Last Island of the World, which was only a fable they heard only by word of mouth.

With those thoughts only by themselves, one could see confidence rising in their eyes as they were staring at the Guards wearing a uniform they never saw before with turbans on their heads.

'Could those people be like the ones from Alabasta?' thought Quinn while seeing those guards.

Until they touched the shores, finding out first hand the harsh truth, about how weird their bodies felt when landing down, a chill and the numbness of their legs was a first for them, and this sensation continued on, finding themselves going weaker with each second, not able to comprehend why and how their powers were lost.

Seeing the guards get to them, the yonkos tried to behave normally, but the Ottomans didn't have much common sense and glanced at the two middle-aged men with aggression.

"Greek Pirates! You swine of the Sea finally reached your end and got thrown off by the Sea."

"Identify yourself, you pirates!"

"Don't bother listening to their made-up stories about how they aren't pirates.
Just look at their ship. It is worth lots of money from what the Genoese Merchants told me. Let's take their treasure, even their ship, since we could repair it. Afterward we can kill them."

Wormblod, who was told by Quinn before landing on the shore to keep his cool, had his anger boil over and instantly lashed out when his limit was passed by a lot, directly sending out his punch to the one who wanted to get inside their ship.

In his mind, that one punch was a sure kill, yet the impact was similar to another normal person hitting another, which the guard, after crying out once in pain, returned the favor and ignited the fight in the sandy ground.

In this fight, Quinn also jumped in to help his friend, only to discover that his strength and abilities were nowhere to be found. While trying to muster his powers that he not too long could call his own, the guards sounded the alarm making the entire situation more chaotic for the two Yonkos.

Their fight started off rather awkward, not finding their balance, unable to muster their haki or devil fruit powers.

Even after a life of piracy and killing people on the Sea, terrorizing the weak, they managed to kill the initial group of guards with ease. However, soon they began getting overwhelmed by many Guards coming to apprehend them, leading to the bloodlust Sea Emperors who hit left and right with the intent of killing.

Nevertheless, in this weakened state, their end was certain.

Like they were madmen, the Ottomans pinned them down and started chaining them, where a certain individual watching everything not far away contemplated on what he saw and heard from those two Sea Emperors.

From the uniform of this individual, he seemed to be a Janissary Officer, and after ending his moment of contemplating, he decided to take Wormblod and Quinn to Sultan Mehmed where he could show him these new guests that denied being Greeks, yet knowing Turkish to perfection.

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Their memory train was rough since getting inside the Ottoman Camp where they got interrogated for a brief time until Vlad and his men stormed the camp in an attempt of killing Sultan Mehmed, and by how the twists of fate had their ways for the two Sea Emperors.

They now landed in the hands of another dangerous person of this world they had no knowledge about.

Bouncing ideas as to why this vortex occurrence happened and if it ever happened in history, they couldn't find a single thing, not even in the memories about legends.

"Quite ironic that we, two Sea Emperors, standing at the pinnacle of our world have landed in the hands of some barbarian." remarked Wormblod, who felt insulted by this entire situation, finding death far more enjoyable than this treatment.

However, not even seconds after he said the word "ironic" a cold, emotionless voice resounded in the entire torture chamber and underground prison, followed by the heavy steps on the floor that echoed inside the surrounding area, that it froze the two foreigners.

"You could repeat that again."

Both Wormblod and Quinn turned quiet as Vlad made his appearance still wearing his black armor, while his hair was like a black veil that obstructed them from seeing him properly, but with a grab of his hair, Vlad pulled it back.

"Slaves, do you know what is ironic? The fact that weeks of planning, thousands of gold forints, thousands of lives were wasted and now you to say that word.

Before I relieve my anger, tell me everything you know about the Turks, who you are, and why you were inside their camp. The fact you can speak my language in this way, means you are from my lands."

The two guys remained silent, observing this middle-aged man that looked more imposing then the legendary Rocks they met in their early years of young pirates. The way this man talked to them, the macabre air about him, gave them chills on their backs even though they experienced so many things in their lives. Their hands are also not innocent, spilling the blood of the innocent.

Yet compared to this man in front of them, they were only babies when it came to atrocious acts.

"Are you mutes now? I heard you speak Latin. Go on, tell me before I start breaking your bones."

"..."

His anger spilled for a bit, punching both in their faces, afterward grabbing their faces and remarking like a psychopath.

"If you don't talk, my anger will spill up like now. It is in your interest you talk. You are the ones who messed up my entire plans. Give me a reason not to kill you."

"TALK!"

"Lord, we don't know what we should tell you. We were captured by the ones you call the Turks after our ship touched the shore, and immediately we got taken to see their leader, the one they called Sultan." replied Quinn trying to act calm, seeing that Vlad's face changed a bit once he started talking, his anger being repressed.

"Ohh, so you know Turkish too? Then the reason you got captured?"

"We fought back against those bastards that tried to take all our possessions and treasure, about 300.000.000 Berries."
Vlad looked at the man with a confused expression as if he tried to make sense of what he said and to make sure he asked them.

"You mean, ducats, right?"

"... No, Lord, they are called berries."

"How much would that be converted into ducats?"

"We don't know." replied Quinn, acting as the spokesman from the two captured.

"They got your treasure?"

"I doubt we hid it on the beach after we killed the first guys to apprehend us. Still, sir, can you tell me where we are? Since we shipwrecked, we have no idea about where we landed."

"You don't even know where you are? Have you traveled on Dnieper and landed on the Black Sea, later losing your coordinates? Or you used the Don? Otherwise, I don't see how you could have reached the shores of the Black Sea since you would be required to pass the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean to get here, and all those routes go past the Marmara Sea.

Don't try to lie, I know this region well enough to not get lost."

"Sir, truthful to you, we have no idea about any of the places you mentioned."

Vlad still couldn't buy their response and looked coldly at the two bound guys before walking toward a table filled with torture devices, which made Wormblod to react when seeing the entire arsenal of torture devices this madman had under his fingers.

"Wait, what are you doing? We really have no idea where we are. There's no reason to torture us."

"Okay, then start singing. Go on with who both of you are." mentioned Vlad, who put down a heavy iron pincer that was unknown what was used for, turning his attention back on the slaves.

"I am Wormblod, while the guy next to me is Quinn. We are the Captains of the Scavengers. Emperors of the New World, where we had a vast number of territories under our name. Respected and feared by the pirates and the World Government alike." replied Wormblod, turning his comment arrogant that it rewarded him with another punch in the face from Vlad.

"Heh, Emperor? New World? World Government? I heard about this New World, from the letters I received from the Papal State, where both Portugal and the Spanish Crown found new land."

"Sir, I doubt that. We seem not to be from your world."

"Hahaha, that is an interesting notion. Look, you scum, do you take me for a fool? What do you mean in another world?"

"I don't know how to explain it to you, but we simply have no clue about anything you have mentioned, Portugal, Spain, Papal State. No Clue. We are simply victims of some anomaly."

"Poor guys. Guess what, slave? I am also in a big anomaly called the Ottoman Empire. Would you be able to give me the chance of taking Mehmeds head?"

.
.

As he was recollecting his memories, he told the young king about all the strange things he heard from those guys.

From how their "so-called" world was structured, the manner it was mainly formed by islands, where two groups were in a power struggle for the world supremacy, Sea Emperors and the World Government as they told him.

"Such blatant lies, how could there be such places? God will punish us for even contemplating such information."

"Well, their stories weren't half bad, they tried to tell me everything they knew, about their friends, their enemies, some of those "secrets" not many people were aware, places they hid their treasures, worthy places to take over and start a Kingdom, and so on, only to escape torture and punishment."

"Later on in the month, since I had some extra time before Mehmed appeared on my walls, I extracted most of the information from those guys.

They told me they used to have mystical powers granted by some fruit, and also their bodies used to have another power called "Mana", but those slaves were only talk. They couldn't even break the chains I placed them on with those so-called mystic powers."

"I don't know what to believe, Uncle, either you went crazy or those people have bewitched you."

"Neither of them, do you see me believing their stories?"

"Half of them."

"Hmm, maybe. They really weren't lying. I could see it in their eyes. You can tell someone is lying by their body reactions, and the eyes are the window to the soul."

"Indeed, I know this. It will be something that will be with me until my death.

To end your story? What was your reason for not granting them freedom after they begged you for so long? Even telling you everything they knew, about themselves and the surroundings."

"Simple, I didn't trust them. Haven't you heard? They are pirates. Emperor of Pirates at that. Just like Frederick is the Emperor of HRE, haha." still having another word to add, his voice turned cold, giving the entire description of those guys "Spineless cowards." (A/N: HRE = Holy Roman Empire)

"Still, they could have been useful to you if you took them with you."

"So you could steal them and make good use of them? No thanks, their fate was decided when they appeared, destroying the entire plan I've pain-stackingly built.

I feel no remorse anyway. At least I managed to get my hands on an interesting story to scare children."

"Not really, but it was truly an interesting story."

"I guess it did its job. You are no longer acting like a sissy." remarked Vlad from where he was sitting looking at the young man in front of him that regained some of his pink colors in the skin, a visible change that came from him.

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 3 - Soldiers shouldn't drink during campaigns​

They talked about other things that were of the young king's interest, the brewing Renaissance that sprouted inside Florence starting spreading out its influence in the entire Italian Peninsula, and the new ideas reached his ears from his advisor.

"I didn't have time to read on this subject. I rarely even had time for myself."

"You can at least give your opinion on this matter?"

"Ohh, that one I can do, and is rather simple. This Renaissance of the Italians is based on the rediscovery of our ancestors' work, from poems to architecture, paintings, way of thinking, etc. Don't look at me like that. The books I managed to read were all in Latin from the Eastern Roman Courts.

"You mean everything is based on the rediscovery of the past? Now that makes sense, the old buildings with a weird style from Napoca, the Ancient Baths from Turda, the ancient Fortifications, and the Temples of Zila our ancestors used to pray, are still there in the places they used to live."

"By origin, we are Romans, you and me, we share this prestigious bloodline that is unlike those of the greeks, turks, germans, slavs, only the Italians, the Iberians, and the French are our brothers."

Moving on to another discussion, the two talked about laws and how one could efficiently use the legal system, something that Vlad had a mixed approach telling the young king exactly that, but one remark stuck with Mathias.

"The Prince is the law of his lands, and he should also abide to those laws set in place."

Mathias instead mentioned his own way of seeing things, calling "A Monarch is at the head of the law and rules over it."

.

Vlad's cold face shifted into a small smile, staring at the young man in front of him, mentioning something to end this discussion.

"Don't forget, even though you are a King, where you are protected by people who you entrust your safety too.

Never put your trust fully on them, that being said, including myself. Everyone has their own interests in approaching you, and in the future, even your children might try to stab you, so be ready for that moment.

Always question with 'WHY', someone would want to approach you or offer you a deal, a treaty, and a marriage alliance.

Deep down, everything has a motif, and no one would give you a penny for nothing. You are an adept believer of God, but this leads to weakness."

"Why are you telling me all of this? Father, did so many things to sabotage you, even I, captured you and framed you for collaborating with Mehmed."

"Because I see myself in you, boy. Even though our circumstances are different, you shoulder a heavy responsibility from the moment your father went into Heaven. Another motif of why I say all of those things? Is so I fuck over all my enemies when I go to Hell."

"If I can't stop Mehmed in this life, at least allow someone I consider competent to take care of my problems."

Mathias gave Vlad a deep stare from where he was at the prison cell door, and his blue eyes had vitality in them. Without saying anything else, Mathias exited the room, locking the door in the process, which led to Vlad chuckling, making it seem like a deranged person.

"Good, you learned quickly."

Saying that he went to his bed, resting his body on the cold wooden frame that didn't have any damping, and as if he wasn't bothered one bit, he closed his eyes, going to sleep.

Sleep was the most common activity one man could recharge the energy of someone, and it was exactly what the Wallachian Prince was doing.

His activities didn't change since being captured by Mathias, and he spent 14 years of his "captivity" at the young king's court that grew into one of the magnificent Monarchs of Europe, while he grew older, beginning to feel the passage of time on his body.

Nonetheless, he received the freedom to move around Buda to his desire, which led to many other events that will remain in his memory. He wanted freedom, and the matured youngster who became one of the great kings, approved without batting an eyelid, and now that he was free, he found himself lacking a direction, a place to call home.

Age had its twisted way that it changed the perception of someone, leading to different states of mind, from having his perception slightly altered, pain experience, belief, desire, intention, emotion, and memory modified by his aging body and mind.

The people of Pest would at times pass by the infamous Draculea and could only see a shell of his former imposing self, but was it truly that?

"Hah, I want to return to my homeland and give it a chance for the last time. I will no longer wage wars on anyone. Instead, focus on building the Principality with the knowledge I gained over the years."

.
.
.

The desire of returning to his natal homeland burned harder in his aged veins, and after an open discussion with Mathias, whose plans turned upside down with regards to the Wallachian Principality, that was in the hands of an Ottoman fanatic, a puppet for the Sultan.

An intricate political play culminated in him going on the road from Buda, but not long after settling some "old business" for Mathias.

At the helm of a Black Army commanding one of the best armies of Europe in that day of age, the experienced Voivode was sent on a campaign of quelling some of the Turk's attacks in the Balkan region.

Where exactly? His attacks were targeting the Turks that settled down in Bosnia, and as if he knew what would ensue by unleashing this monster on the Turks, Corvin did it regardless, being left without any solution inside the sphere of influence of the Balkans.

Vlad's campaigns began inside Bosnia, where he and another counterpart, the despot of the Serbian Despotate, Vuk Grgurević, took over the campaign.

Vuk, or how his people called him the "Fiery Dragon Wolf" which made Vlad roll his eyes whenever seeing this man, was in fact someone with an interesting story such as his own, a comrade of faith whose lands were ravaged by the Turks,

It made their cooperation even so smoother, as both took charge of the Black Army at different campaigns of the young Mathias Corvinus, and even to this day, that former young man who would cry his heart out, in a sense had built some trust on Vlad.

"Impaler Prince, we got in position against the Turks. Do you have something specific for them?" asked the Serbian despot, Vuk, standing side by side with Vlad watching the fortification the Ottomans took over.

"Wolf, are you really that incompetent to ask me something so stupid? Do you even know how much it costs to fit those boys into their black armors and professionally train them? Right, you only took the helm of the army and don't care about butchering those young lads."

"Nonetheless, you have gained decent achievements to make Mathias tag you in with me."

"I might not know the price, but I am not stupid not to know that they are precious to any commander." replied, Vuk, a middle-aged man wearing a black armor similar to his own with a specific slavic hat of a despot.

"Well, it doesn't matter. This is useless talk. Gather the officers since I want to hear their opinion on how we should approach this siege.

Ahh, also bring that stupid old man. These are his lands, not mine."

"Argh, fine, you are the Commander of the Army."

Not long after giving that order, from a safe distance from the Srebrenica fortress, Vlad was starring along with other men at the decently imposing castle positioned in a great strategic place for holding back the attacks of the enemy.

"Is it really true what the peasants say about the sickness hitting the Turks? You should know better the situation of those lands, old Nicholas."

"Hmph, Draculea, use my honorific titles. I am King of Bosnia, not old Nicholas." mentioned an old man wearing expensive medieval clothes that really didn't fit with the soldiers covered in metal from toes to teeth.

"Do you think I give a shit about who you are? King or not, I can kill you with a swift slash of my saber, but it will be a bad move, so listen here.
Gather your men first tell the one you gathered, along with Laurence, to stick close to the Black Army. We will attack at the downfall and take the Turks by surprise."

"... How certain are you by our success?"

"Quite certain I can kill a contingent of 2000 Turks, now get to your positions. Don't forget what I told you, old Nicholas."

The meeting didn't last long, as they reached quickly to a rational approach to this siege, and with the old man mumbling in an angry tone, angry at the disrespect Vlad was showing him, he had no way out of this since Mathias himself appointed Vlad as Commander of the Black Army along with Vuk Grgurević.

Once the time proposed arrived, it didn't take long for the cries of people to be heard inside the Fortress, as the Black Army soldiers began slaughtering the Turks in such a cold way that it was only befitting that someone who took pleasure from the suffering of the Turks to shout to the sky, as if a beast was unleashed.

"SPARE US! WE SURRENDER!"

"There will be no surrender, only dead Turks! Kill those who resist, capture the ones who surrender! Prepare the stakes."

His own supporters gathered from Transylvania, and the Black Army soldiers whose hate ran deep in their bone marrow didn't question this action.

Leaving in their quake the dead bodies of the Turks impaled, creating a scene taken out from Hell, and this path of destruction didn't stop, as the operations of taking over the Bosnian and Serbian fortifications were on a full scale.

First to fall was Srebrenica, which from looks might give you the impression it was the hardest to conquer, but then the fortresses in the surrounding region started falling like rotten trees at the strong winds, hitting hard and violently.

In the Bosnian campaign, Vlad once again resorted to his terror tactics, mass impaling captured Turkish soldiers and massacring civilians in conquered settlements. His troops mostly destroyed Srebrenica, Kuslat, Zvornik, Smederevo, Sabac and razed to the ground the villages and cities that accepted the rule of the Turks so nonchalantly, without putting a resistance and joining the other Christians.

The monster inside of him awoke once again, and the bloodshed started becoming ever so sweet to him who, in his sadism and cruel side, relished whenever he slew in close combat the captains of the Ottoman Garrisons stationed to defend the strategic locations.

"My skills might have gotten a bit slow, but it is barely noticeable. Onward, the next Fortress on our plans."

A question not many had answers as they moved efficiently, barely losing some men on their journey, which boosted the morale of the Black Army to the skies, regardless of their dark acts of massacring people that might even be called innocent, but Vlad's comment would calm their minds, grounding their morality deep.

[In wars, everything is on the table, as long as you win it. So far, we have a flawless win as we achieved most of our targets.]

While he was resting his men inside the Smederevo Fortress, the messengers started being sent over to the Kingdom, notifying Mathias about their success, but not a couple of days passed that a messenger appeared in front of Vlad.

Taking his hat like a ghost pushed him to do it, the man bowed respectfully, delivering him a letter from Mathias that announced to him about the situation inside Moldavia.

How his cousin Stephan was having a hard time against Mehmed, being under siege, specifically Târgu Neamț being sieged down, entering a state that was similar to someone trying to cut your throat.

[Lord Basarab, I want you to take the entire Black Army under you and start marching toward Moldavia, we can't allow Mehmed to gain anymore ground in Europe. Take Vuk and Dmitar Jakšić with you. You'll meet on your way with Stephen Bathory at Brasov.]

Showing the letter to his officers, especially Vuk and Dmitar, they released a deep sigh but nonetheless had no chance of turning back, entering the struggle against the Ottomans quest for Supremacy in Europe.

Once he got sight of the Turks that were besieging the fortifications of Targu Neamt, he started the cavalry charge that shocked the Ottomans senseless.

This charge propped them to lay down their siege and start retreating from the fight they weren't expecting. Still, hating the fact the Turks were now retreating once they found themselves matched numerically, he followed after their backlines, killing a decent number of them with his cavalrymen.

"Ahh, I would love you Turks dared to fight a fair fight. What would I expect from a bunch of barbarians that were the slaves of the Umayads."

"Draculea, you know that most of those Janissary guys are Bulgarians, Albanians, Armenians, and Greeks, with a small number of Turks in some small areas.

You have to calm down. It will be dangerous if we continue chasing them." mentioned Vuk, trying to be the sense of reason that Vlad was lacking.

However, it was unnecessary as Vlad stopped his chase and moved from the battlefield.

"They are cursed by now. Do you think I was the same hot-blooded youngster, Wolf? I'll not risk the lives of my men, let's go to the Citadel since one more night awake, and my eyes will bleed out."

"Yea, I am tired too. You better have some nice girls in those lands of yours, small Romans."

"If this is what you want, I can't say no. We'll get one for whoever wants to relax, a delicate girl."

Getting to the Citadel, it was the place where he snored so hard, one could get scared of him even in the sleep.

Later on, he began his fight against the Turks again. Especially the puppet put in place holding the throne that by birthright should be his own, not the pretender Basarab Laiotă.

As such, Stephan, after forming an alliance with Vlad and with the Hungarian support, the two began their attack on Wallachia, forcing Basarab Laiota to flee the Principality after both cousins occupied Targoviste, forcing the defeated to seek refuge in the Ottoman Empire.

Since this win, his return was accepted with some skepticism, but the manner he acted seemed changed. He no longer gave you the impression he wanted your head.

Instead, the moment he took over Wallachia, the first thing on his list was to inform the merchants of Brasov and Sibiu about his victory, urging them to return to Wallachia and start their operations in his country.

A country without qualified people and organizations was a shamble, without something to ground them. This is why he wanted the merchants to view him in a different picture, leading to the Saxons starting their trade with him and with plans of developing the Wallachia iron industry and the mining operations.

Yet it wasn't to be, the manner the world worked and the political plays of that time were a chaotic mess, with no honor.

Three months lasted the peace Vlad managed to win in his principality, a mere three months that he worked tirelessly to sign trading deals with the Saxons of Brasov and Sibiu, and news that Basarab Laiota returned to Wallachia with Ottoman support infuriated Vlad, who saw all his gains and sacrifices turning into a fragile construction.

Immediately he began preparing for the battle, only managing to amass an army of 2,000 soldiers that he tried to equip with all the armors and weapons he had on his hands, and along with the retainers of Stephan that he landed to him for protection, went to prepare the battlefield ahead of the Turks and their puppet.

"Your Highness, we reached Snagov." called out a retainer, watching the body of water not too far from them.

"Good, have the rest prepared and give them some strong spirit to numb their feelings.

It will boost their morale, and in battle, they will not shatter the formation." replied Vlad from a black horse, while he was wearing the clothes of a Janissary officer, reminiscent of his younger days when he was one of the leading officers of the Janissary Corps.

"Your Highness, wouldn't this affect the battle if they are drunk."

"You will not give them all the spirit, so I don't have a soldier to fight along with."

Things looked favorable for Vlad, who arrived first in a defensive position, and feeling himself with extra time, he had his men start planting traps along the entire zone.

'No way I lose this fight, from what my scouts told me, Laiotă managed to get only 4,000 people, with his core force being the Turks. I am prepared for them and for you, pig.

Only a moment of carelessness from you, and since you are already a Turkish whore, it will be easy to approach you fuck you from behind.'

He planned all the battle steps, watching over the lower fields, something that he was found doing when he was younger, yet now it entered in a reflex of his mind, to scout for the best position military-wise. Then after a couple of hours passed in the middle of the day, a fat man with a long beard, wearing some battle clothes, appeared with his supporting force.

"CHARGE, THEY ARE SO LITTLE!" screamed the man with a desperate voice, not even bothering to screen the place for traps or for Vlad himself.

'Everything according to plan.'

Thought Vlad, who was blending with his soldiers, waiting for the moment to charge and take his enemy by surprise, in a guerilla fashion.

Waiting patiently on the defensive lines, as he instructed his men, he saw the turks stepping inside his traps, and departing from this world early

Yet their number was still larger than his, which resisted reaching Vlad's positions, and from there on, the bloodshed was unleashed.

Both sides killed one another, with Vlad acting up, sneaking past his formations, and entering the Turks formations like a master assassin, and the way he approached Basarab Laiotă was so smooth that you could say to be taken from the fantasy movies.

Even Vlad was shocked by how easily he entered the enemy lines, but his shock was short-lived, as before he could get in range with Laiotă, in the chaos of battle and stupidity of peasantry, a halbert pierced his vital organs, which made him cry out in agonizing pain.

"FOOOOLLL! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? THIS IS WHAT WE SPOKE, YOU, CURSED PEASANT?

I EVEN SHOWED THE DIFFERENCE OF CLOTHES, SO YOU GET MY APPEARANCE!"

"Your highness, was it you? What have I done!"

The soldier that vitally wounded Vlad panicked and forgot where he was, all of the people of the battlefield heard Vlad's cry of anger and agony, which morphed into hatred, as he took out his Kilij and decapitated the peasant who wounded him.

Nevertheless, before taking a break into the Abyss, he pushed his body to the limits of humans and began slaying toward Laiotă, who screamed for support like a bitch.

"Impaler Prince, what a surprise! Your tricks are so good that you managed to fool even your men. How funny.

If it wasn't for that idiot, we probably would have lost without the rats from that scum. Do you have any words for my Great Sultan?" inquired a Janissary whose clothes was similar to Vlad, being in the ranks of an officer, the leader of this contingent of soldiers sent by Mehmed to support Basarab.

With a pale appearance, he looked at the guy in front of him, and while trying to slash his saber with all his force, he responded, trying to take this man with him in the Abyss.

"I will wait for him in Hell. When we are alone, I will see if he can act so arrogantly in front of me."

"Such big words, Impaling Prince. If the Sultan is pleased, I might tell him this. DIE!"

*Thud*

The body of a great warrior, a genius military mind of his age, lost all the frails of life in those moments, in a way no one would even believe, being heavily wounded by his own men without them even having the intent of betraying him.

Vlad's lifeless body, whose heart was pierced by the Janissary Captain, dropped on the ground first on his knees and later on his side, before being turned on his back, green eyes with lost soul staring at the blue sky and the blinding sun.

"KILL THEM ALL. THIS IS OUR VICTORY. I WANT A MASSACRE!" ordered the Janissary Captain, who stood next to Vlad's body.

The soldiers Vlad gathered all lost morale trying to break formation, and in this chaos, they couldn't do anything to stop the advancement of the enemy, dropping dead on the marshy lands of Snagov.

"Captain, what will we do with the Impaler's body?"

"Take his body to the monastery his ancestors built. He will receive a humane burial. He might be a monster to the Turks, but I can understand his feelings of wanting to protect his homeland until his death."

"Captain! You better don't say that to some Turk, or they will rat you out."

"You are a Serb. While I am an Albanian, our people fought the Ottomans, but it was a lost cause. People died for nothing. Instead, they should just surrender without fighting and enter the new system.

.
.
It was unknown for how long Vlad stood lifeless in the marshy fields of Snagov.

Still, deep down, since he got stabbed in his heart, he could see his vision losing focus, with the light his eyes received from the sun being smaller and smaller, but the buzzing on his ears, as if ants played with his brain, began from nothing.

What followed next was seeing something akin to a spinning wheel that moved faster and faster until he lost all his vision, unknown if he journeyed to Abyss, Hell, or Heaven.

However, something was certain: he didn't die with a peaceful mind and was vanquished like a dreadful wraith that will forever haunt the minds of his enemy and future generations of people who would listen to his life story.

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 4 - A Cold Awakening​

It was hard to describe the feeling Vlad was suffering in those moments, but since he lost his vision and believed he was done for, moving straight to the Abyss for all the inhumane and sadistic crimes he committed,

Something he was aware of himself, going through a headache that he couldn't explain by origin.

'Is this how it feels to wake yourself in Hell? Argh, it feels as if my whole body has been plunged into the sea, unable to move.'

'What? Move? Wait, I can't feel my body. Something is up here, wasn't I killed in battle?'

The ringing of his ears, as if he was once again staring at the blinding sun that took his senses away, right in those moments slowly his ears could start picking up the voices of people that were ruthless and cold in tonality.

"Abandon the ones who can't make it, and the ones who thought are of importance. Especially the one whose body I broke into pieces. Feed him to the sea monsters for all I care."

'Feed me to the Sea Monsters? I've plunged into the River of Hell making my way to the last layers of Hell, standing side by side with Juda and Nero?' asked Vlad rhetorically in his mind, still finding it hard to open his eyes, as if there was a blockage inside his brain that didn't allow him this action.

Usually, such cases were triggered by head trauma, which was caused by the man in question who boasted about breaking the bones of someone.

Vlad then felt a vague sensation that he translated in his inner self with someone touching him, and before not long, the sound of water splashing could be heard repeatedly, with clearly having people heeding the orders of the one sounding "domineering".

*Splash*

*Splash*

.
.

*Splash*

"With that piece of shit, we'll be cleaned off the heavy bags, captain. Our journey supplies are also shrinking, so it is a good decision of yours to take off dejected goods until reaching Valent."

"Obviously, I only care about my profits since no one would buy a disabled boy. Throw that trash before I kill him myself."

"Yes, captain."
Vlad immediately felt another weird sensation, which he couldn't explain, but it was clearly gravity that pulled on him, planting him in the water from the height of 15 meters that the ship was transiting, not even giving him a chance to figure out what happened.

The body of a young boy that was only 9-10 years old that had a lifeless state of motion, from a large height that was akin to a building, started plunging down until the boy made full contact with the dark-blue water, evaporating in the water like most of the bodies of the kids who still had motion in their bodies.

*Slash*

A chilling cold commenced his damaged brain that didn't give to his neurons enough sparks to fire up his body functions, and unlike the other kids that simply began drowning, Vlad was emotionless in everything that was happening to him.

He was trying to figure out a way from this infernal challenge thrown at him to survive without having motion to one's body.

'Cold! This is water if I don't drown first, I will freeze to death later for sure. But I can't be worrying about that now. I got to calm down and keep my breath until I start getting to the water's surface. Afterward, we'll see what I can do next.'

The water entering his ear canals already filled his brain that he could only hear his thoughts and only that, but not form him the other victims of this tyrannical act panicked and entered in the dangerous trap of not knowing to swim and instead of surviving one by one they drowned, with only another boy surviving, keeping his body afloat.

"HELP! SOMEONE HELP US!" shouted the child in a desperate attempt at attracting some attention to his cause, but he was in the middle of nowhere, with the cold Ocean being his only companion and maker.

However, as he was screaming his throat out, he noticed that slowly a body of another comrade in suffering made its way out, and while he at first was shocked to see Vlad made his way out, he got scared shitless by how still he was with his abyssal black eyes staring at the sun, yet they weren't focused out, as if he was blind, his face was fully bruised, with wounds that weren't fully closed.

The salt of the Ocean was like acid to Vlad's bruised body, but he simply couldn't feel anything, unlike what he wanted to always remark, that he was indifferent to pain.

Right now he started feeling some anxiety, not knowing what was wrong with his body.

He couldn't see anything, while his body also didn't function properly. Only his hearing worked irregularly. Sometimes he would hear some buzzing, while other times he would hear a fear-inducing scream of a child that could crawl up the skin of any man,

Nonetheless, the boy, who was the only one to survive the initial panic, and knowing how to swim, began pedaling toward Vlad, still trying to gather his attention in a way.

"Charles! RESPOND, CHARLES!"

"NOO! Don't tell me he is dead? But if he was dead, he would be sinking in the water."

Reaching Vlad, he waved his hand at his face but couldn't notice any change into the young body full of hideous bruises while on the other hand, Vlad was pondering on what was happening to him, while his ears continued buzzing, almost overshadowing his thoughts by how powerful it got.

'Quiet down, I can't even listen to myself. Curses, is this what I deserve? Being sent to Hell? I sinned so severely that Satan doesn't even allow me to open my eyes in punishment?'

Those questions filled his mind, but in a sense, it also occupied him in not descending into madness, as most people would have embraced the darkness he was currently, giving up on the fight.

Nevertheless, he wasn't left without hope, as the maddening buzz his ears had calmed down, and in a weird interval, he finally could hear dimly, the voice of a boy that was calling him with a name he wasn't familiar with, which immediately sent the first alert in his mind, with a big question.

'What happened. Why is this boy calling me Charles? Something isn't right, but I can't tell what is wrong.'

The boy tried to get some signal from Vlad, but without success, as if he was dead and while he was preparing to go save himself, no longer wasting his energy on screaming for someone to save him, he stopped and gave Vlad another look, talking to himself.

"If he was dead, he wouldn't be floating like this, instead, drown like the rest. He must be sick after he suffered that torture. I can't abandon him. He did so much for me, sharing his food with me."

After building his response, the boy who was slightly taller than Vlad took him by his fragile body that showed signs of malnourishment and began swimming toward a direction he thought was the closest islands.

The more we swam, the more tired he became, and he began crying, feeling his despair building up.

"My hands and legs hurt so much, I can't continue. I can't even see an island to guide me."

He stopped from swimming, which was one of the most fatal errors one would make in a marathon. Stopping his legs turned even number from the muscle stress he built up, that his facial expression changed to pure pain.

"Child, be calm and take it easy."

He looked at Vlad, and his initial pain was washed away by the feeling that he wasn't alone in this, but when he looked at him, his eyes were still not focused, while his body was unflinching, like a lifeless vessel.

"Charles, can you hear me? Are you alive?"

"I don't know, boy. Am I truly dead? I could hear you from 30 minutes ago, but I couldn't speak to you. Tell me what happened to me as you recover some of your energy. Also, tell me your name."

"You forgot about me? Have you lost your memory from the beating you received?"

"I don't remember anything, but I know that my name is Vlad, not Charles. Whoever is this Charles had a miserable life, but he died today."

"What do you mean, Charles? You are alive." inquired the boy, who looked at Vlad as if he ingested some rotten fruit.

"Sigh, it doesn't matter. What is your name?"

"Arik. Do you really not remember anything?"

"No, so you better make sure to tell me what happened to me." replied Vlad at the insistent questions of the boy called Arik, and with his question thrown in the lap of the boy, he started sharing about the recent events, and who they were.

'I see, I was, or better said whoever Charles was, got an unlucky treatment of being punished on the wimps of a sadistic psychopath. To think people's standards would drop so low nowadays. Wait, wait, something isn't right. I have a deja-vu right now.'

"Arik, tell me do you know what Europe is?" asked Vlad while he remained motionless, staring at the sky like a blind person.

"No, what is that? I never heard about it. Is it an Island?" responded the boy without a glint of a lie in his tone, as Vlad's ear canals started working in better conditions, where it was decent enough to allow him to hear him normally.

'He doesn't know about Europe? Could it? This feeling I have experienced in the past is within my reach, but what is it? Let's probe a bit more.'

"Are there a lot of pirates on the sea, am I right, Arik?"

"Yes, since the death of the Pirate King, many people, even the ones from my village, have taken to the sea in search of this treasure. Why do you ask? Haven't your parents left you in the care of someone else so they could search for the treasure?"

"Arik, I don't remember anything."

"Ahh yes, sorry. Maybe if I respond to your questions, you will get your memory back since you are smart. You can get us out from the sea without having sea monsters killing us."

"This Pirate King, what is his name?"

"Wow, you really don't remember a single thing. Everyone knows his name. Gold Roger is the name of the Pirate King."

"Gold Roger … Gold Roger … Gol D. Roger. I see, so this explains my deja-vu."

"Did you remember something? You've got your memory back?" asked the boy, curious, only to hear Vlad decline in an emotionless tone.

"No, it is empty up there, also a lot of darkness."

With this response, he turned silent, ignoring the boy's questions and worries. Entering into a conversation with himself, as he spanned out the information he gained thus far from the boy and making the connections with the familiar information sitting in his memory.

'Those "Emperors'' were after the tails of a certain someone called Gol D. Roger. It can't be a coincidence of names. I know no person in my life to have such initials on their names. A connection has been drawn on that point. The information about the Pirates, from what those two slaves told me, there is such a thing, a battle between Pirates and Marines. Half a connection since I can't fully agree with this point.'

'The last point is the child's lack of knowledge about locations from Europe.'

'Conclusion? I have been sent into Hell, a hell made of bodies of water with a large number of islands. But how? I was sure dead because of that damned peasant.'

'Hah, I have to survive and get the hang of this new environment.'

.

"Charles, I will start swimming again. Keep your breath if some water hits you since I am not the best swimmer."

"Remember what I told you, take it easy and be stable. You'll steadily lose less energy swimming. Also, don't forget to breathe in and out. Steadily and without panicking."

"Understood. I have the feeling that after you get hit in the head, you've turned smarter than before."

Then Arik began swimming calmly, no longer worrying about sea monsters after listening to Vlad convincing him that his worry over such big variables would be energy wasted for nothing. Both of them would be dead if what he remembered correct from the two slaves he interrogated would prove truthful.

On the seas of this world, there were lurking deep down, humongous monsters that could swallow entire islands. Such beasts were reminiscent of the Leviathan of the Bible.

They made some progress, but the young body of Arik that suffered too from the wounds inflicted by the Pirates who, in fact, were slavers proved to hinder him right now.

Arik wanted to push himself forward, to progress a little bit more, but his tiredness started nesting itself in the boy's mind, who dropped his weapons like a valiant warrior, resting his head on Vlad's upper body, floating together taken by the currents of the sea to the unknown.

It was an outcome he never foreseen or even contemplated, and for the entire hours that were spent in this chaotic way, he was at the mercy of the wind and waves that carried him in the darkness he was still suffering, but something unexpected came into his ears, the voices of people.

"OLD PATRICK! We got some kids floating on the sea."

"Dead?"

"Probably!"

"Then forget it, continue the journey to Picodras!"

Inside Vlad's mind, still with his own thoughts keeping quiet so he would alert any hidden monstrosity underneath his body, instantly reacted and shouted with all the strength his broken body allowed.

"Wait, don't go! We are alive! Please, save us!"

"Ohh, this is really a surprise. Who would have thought I would see this in my old age. Have you heard the boy? Lagos, go pick them up."

"Yes, father." replied a man who was in his early 20s with short hair and a decently, appealing body who, after taking his shirt off, jumped in the Ocean.

Swimming toward Vlad and Arik, and after he reached Vlad and Arik, who was starting to wake up, he could only watch the bruised body of Vlad.

"Boy, what happened to you? Who could have done this to you? In such a way?"

"Pirates. I am someone they disposed of, being thrown on the sea." responded Vlad, unable to see who the person rescuing him was.

"Careful, Lagos, so you don't aggravate his wounds." shouted the old man with long silver hair and a small scar on his cheek on his clean, shaved face.

"I know, father, it is not my intent to harm this child more than he already is." responded the one called Lagos while placing Arik slowly on his right shoulder.

While in Vlad's case, he took him carefully at his chest, starting swimming just with his legs toward the medium-sized ship that anchored.

Once on the main deck of the ship, all the sailors of the ship looked initially curiously at the newly arrived boys, but once they saw Vlad's bruised body, whose legs had some twists to them, in a similar fashion being his arms made them frown and curse the ones who could deliver such a treatment to innocent children.

"Make way, let me see our new recruits." said the old man who climbed from the captain's cabin toward the main deck and immediately frowned once his eyes spotted the mess Vlad was, however besides the broken state of his body, he noticed the unusual way he had his eyes open, and once he checked his eyes, he saw no light in them, only an abyssal hole.

"Child, can you see my hand?"

"No."

"You were born blind? Or you got hit in your head?"

"Yes, gramps, Charles was hit really badly in the head that blood started oozing from his head, nose and ears."

"My name is Vlad, not Charles."

"Understood, little Vlad, we'll go with what you wish. Do you remember anything else noteworthy?"

"Blank." replied Vlad, calmly, which made him look even scarier to the sailors, who couldn't imagine what pain this child could have been in.

"Another question, little Vlad, your body. Can you feel it?"

"No, however, I felt the cold temperature, so I don't think I am paralyzed."

"You even know about those things. Child, you are intelligent. I can feel it from the way you speak. Hah, you probably said something that angered those brutes that got you into this mess. Sometimes it is better to keep quiet when facing psychopaths."

" … That I can agree with too. Mister, I have a worry that my body will turn sick if I don't get dry. Can you help me, please? My life has already been endangered too much. I can't risk anything."

"As you wish, my child. Lagos, take the boy to the medical room. I'll try to operate on him and arrange his bones."

"You'll do what?" asked Vlad from where he was resting on the floor, like a log.

"Simple, I will put all your bones in the correct anatomical structure, and all you have to do is pray that they connect together to heal up."

"BOYS, YOU CAN LOWER THE SAILS TO PICODRAS!" shouted the old man in an alerted way, watching Lagos pick up Vlad carefully, while Arik, who recovered a bit since fainting, followed after Lagos in a worried manner, sticking up with his friend, making the old man smile a bit.

However, it was a bitter smile.

'Boy, all I can do for you is this. The rest is up to your body.'

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 5 - The taste of feeling pain again​

"Mister, will Charles be alright?"

It was clear from the boy's voice that he was worried about his partner in suffering. Moving closer to Lagos, he continued asking him all sorts of things about Vlad's health, making the young man only sigh and explain to him without scaring him.

"Your friend is hurt badly. We can only try to help him recover. Everything else is on his side. If he recovers, you two will be able to play around."

Hearing the man saying that, if his eyes functioned properly, Vlad would be now rolling them, even his facial expression was dead cold, not switching a single emotion.

'Play around? These are interesting words. To think I would be in this situation and be transformed into a lad. Such an unbelievable idea making me act like little Matei and start shouting 'Blasphemy' left and right.'

'Yet, as much I would want to believe this is a stupid dream, I doubt it is an ilusion made by my mind. I died on the battlefield. That is a fact. The Halberd of that peasant pierced my kidney badly that I couldn't recover from such a wound.'

'And now? From what those people kept saying, like that child, my bones have been twisted and broken by that maniac. Was it really necessary to relieve your frustration on a child that could be your son? Sometimes, it makes me wonder if I am the one with more sanity compared to other specimens out there.'

Vlad was having his inner conversation, unsure what was happening to him, but from what Lagos and Arik talked, he was carried to some medical room.

Placing Vlad on a medical table, Lagos could only sigh at this sight of a broken boy, and to not traumatize Arik, he took him to the lower deck, in a cabin of some sailors that were lazing about, leaving the cabin after giving the sailors some instructions.

"Take care of this boy. For now, he is one of the boys we rescued from the sea."

"Don't worry, Lagos, he will be in good hands. Oyy, guys, take some of the cookies for this child. He must be starving. Also, some clean clothes."

The sailor in question ordered the other sailors, exuding some authority of his own, and after Lagos left toward the medical room to assist the old man, the sailors tapped Arik's head, saying in a warm tone.

"You'll be fine now, child. You've escaped from those tyrants and now have a new chance at life."

"Mhm." nodded Arik, beginning to tear up at the warm treatment he received from the sailors who began offering him some oversized clothes.

Nevertheless, they fixed them with some ties without troubling the boy and afterward taking him to a warmer place on the lower deck to dry up.

"What is wrong, boy? Are you worried about your friend?"

"Yes, Charles helped us since the pirates raided our village and orphanage, and because of that he angered the evil pirate, who took him from the room he kept us just so he could beat and torture him."

"Hah, to think there exists such beasts. I knew that pirates had no honor and morality, but to drop so low to relieve your frustration and incompetence on a child. Don't worry, little Anik. Your friend is now in good hands. Boss Patrick has magical hands."

"Thank you for everything and for stopping to help us." mentioned Arik with tears on his eyes, munching on a cookie given by a sailor who sat rather close to listen to his story of how they got captured by slavers.

Everyone, regardless of age from the group of sailors, could only lament in their minds about how despicable the enslavers were.

The name the whole World gave them was befitting them, The Parasites of the Seas.

.
.

On the other hand, before Lagos could return to the medical room, Patrick made his appearance later on, preparing his equipment to bind together or arrange his broken bones.

"Can you hear me, little boy?"

"Yes, my hearing has returned, but not to a normal state. I can still hear some buzzing. Makes me believe I have been cursed." mentioned Vlad as he was placed on his back, with his eyes looking at the ceiling, but he didn't follow anything in particular. They were without life.

"You have to remain calm, boy. If you hear any voice or start hallucinating, it is all because of the trauma you've suffered. It still amazes me how you can talk so calmly in such a situation, where most people would collapse."

"I can only pray, old sir. I got my hearing back and my ability to speak. My mobility might be paralyzed, my eyes might have gone blind, but what use would be for me to lament this? I will leave everything to flow naturally."

"Such a smart boy. However, you are right. You can only let things flow naturally and not force anything."

After picking up his equipment, Patrick took out a cigarette from his pocket and lighted inside the medical room, waiting for Lagos to return, and in the meantime, while smoking, he asked Vlad some probing questions.

"Can you smell this miasma, boy? It should be quite strong for the nose."

"No, I can hear you making some weird noises with your mouth, but I can't smell anything." responded Vlad, who found this question rather strange, but he soon understood what the old gentleman wanted, he was checking the body functions that were failing him right now.

His sense of smell was nowhere to be found. The next thing Patrick checked was Vlad's taste which, to his surprise and even his own, he could pick a bitter, sour taste.

"What I gave you, boy, is a syrup made from lemon, honey, horseradish, and garlic. How is it? Can you pick any flavor from it?"

"I can. There is the bitter taste of the syrup and the hot sensation on my tongue from the garlic and horseradish."

"I see, you have your sense of taste, the hearing. You also remarked feeling the cold temperature of the water, and felt the touch of Lagos, so you have 3 out of 5 senses."

"None of them are vital for someone's survival, except the hearing."

"Ohh, you are mistaken, boy. It is favorable that you have all of them. Missing one is like missing one of God's gifts for us, humans."

"... You are right."

The old man and young child continued talking in a back and forth, and the more Patrick probed on Vlad, the more his interest was picked, as instead of him continuing asking and receiving answers, it was Vlad that started inquiring about the syrup he ingested, if it had any medical properties, later on getting to each individual ingredient used for this concoction.

"We'll have plenty of time to talk about those things if you are curious once we arrive in Picodras. Finally, you got here, Lagos. Did you settle down, the boy?"

Lagos, who returned, nodded his head. Moving toward a bucket of water and using soap, he cleared his hands, showing that they weren't "amateurs" in medicine. Meanwhile, old Patrick took another cigarette that he smoked like a farm boy, vanishing instantly and making Lagos shake his head in a condemning fashion.

"Father, where is the hygiene if you smoke cigarettes in the presence of the wounded?"

"Fuck it, son, don't get me started. It is not like the smoke will harm him. He can't even smell. Anyway, let's get ready. We'll start from the legs and work our way up, understood?"

"Got it." replied Lagos, who arrived at Vlad's side later touching his legs, asking him if he felt something, but Vlad's response was the same.

"Keahaha, It is good he can't feel his body. The pain he would be enduring now would crack his skull. … Bad joke, sorry boy, your head is already cracked. Anyway, you just stay there and be calm. We will ask you to check if you start getting your senses."

Wrapping his hands into some protective gloves, the old man's expression switched into a serious mood, beginning his work on Vlad's body, starting with the first bones of his legs twisted by the slaver.

"Hold his leg stable. I will slowly move his leg to bring it to the right location."

"Yes, father."

Vlad couldn't see what was happening to his body, and with himself concentrating on what they were saying, painted in his mind what procedures they were doing utilizing all his life experience of the human body, and he started regretting utilizing this visualizing method because his broken body was revealed in his mind.

'Poor boy, you gifted me something that will be hard to heal. It will take me years of recovery to be normal again.'
The operation continued even on the night with the father and son working tirelessly to fix Vlad's body, and to their shock and even the small boys, there was a scream of pain from him.

"ARGHHHH, MY LEGS HURTS! WAIT, MY LEGS HURTS? I CAN FEEL MY LEGS!" screamed Vlad, who miraculously gained his lost senses with his legs, but the pain that assailed his mind was piss-inducing.

Both Patrick and Lagos stopped from their work, taking this chance to drink some water and with Patrick smoking another cigarette after some long hours of tense moments.

"How much does it hurt you, child?"

"SO MUCH THAT I COULD ASCEND TO HEAVEN! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

"Boy, clench your teeth, don't be a sissy, we put your legs together, and it seems your nerves weren't damaged that badly. They just couldn't transmit their signals to your brain."

"I don't understand what you are saying."

"You don't have to understand. Just know that you'll be able to walk if you stay put and listen to me in the future. I'll give you some time to cool your head, and afterward, we will go for your hands. They would hurt less, I promise you." remarked Patrick, who went to take a seat, starting smoking from there.

Lagos kept himself busy, cleaning Vlad's bruised body of the sweat he was giving off while also giving him some water to drink, encouraging him that he would be fine by patting his head.

"You'll be healthy again, little boy. We only have to work on your arms and check your spine and ribs. Only after those steps, we'll be done here."

"Thank you, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me. I will not forget about this. Never."

"Hah, it is fine, little guy. You don't need to promise anything."

"Leave him be. If he wants to promise and if it makes him feel better, it is his choice."

After the break was over for Patrick, they continued their operation, resuming from where they stopped, Vlad's upper body, specifically his arms that were in a similar condition like his legs, and after more hours passed, Vlad couldn't carry with the pain he was suffering after his hands gained their motion and released a recital of suffering that kept the entire ship awake.

Some of the sailors even wondered how Vlad was still awake after screaming so much, but the biggest worry lurking at the back of their heads was the danger of alerting a Sea Monster since they anchored their sails for the night, not risking traveling on the troubled waters of the Southernmost Point.

"Yes, yes, you have a nice voice, little guy. It would help me if you could lower your voice for a bit. Not that I fear some Sea Monster, but my ears will hurt after this day."

"Give him a break, father. The little guy is taking this operation like a champion."

"Well, you could say so, but my ears aren't like they used to when I was young."

"There's a little bit more, with his shoulders, and his spine seems to be fine, he only has some broken ribs, those must be hurting him a lot."

"YES, MY STOMACH AREA HURTS! NOT MY ARMS, I COULD GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT THEM. MY RIBS ARE KILLING ME!"

"Okay, okay. Lagos spread the mentos ointment on his rib cage. It will soothe his pain a bit and allow me to work in peace."

Nodding, Lagos changed gloves and scooped a decent amount of a green ointment that he later spread on Vlad's fragile body that gave a comical reaction on the face of the boy who gained his body motion.

"By Virgin Mary, is that ointment you've put on me the touch of cold? It feels so good, what is that?" asked Vlad with an ecstatic smile that made Patrick laugh that his hands working on the canvas started shaking.

"Kewahaha, what a funny kid. Just look at his face. Boy, you are a big masochist."

"No way, I like hurting people, not getting beaten."

"No, I can tell you are a masochist."

.
.
As the operation continued, the sailors who couldn't sleep because of Vlad's screams of pain finally got a window. When he stopped being a recital maestro, the boys immediately went fast-asleep, starting snoring. Yet Arik and the group of sailors that housed him were closer to the medical room and were pried to hearing the conversation between the old man and young man.

"Little Anik, was your friend, hmmm, this weird?"

"Noo, he would be crying a lot whenever he would be beaten, and his screams of pain were different, scarier. Right now, it is different."

"Maybe he started getting pleasure from pain?" suggested another sailor from this group, looking up the wooden ceiling.

"No fucking way, that boy is only 9 or 10 years old. Right, little Anik?" responded another sailor to the one who suggested such a crazy thought.

"Yes, mister, this is what he told us when we were alone." replied the young boy, Anik, unsure how to respond to those sailors who started gossiping like bitches.

"What if, and I say only with IF's, the boy received such a big head trauma that his personality changed? There are all sorts of strange things in the World, and I heard from the old grandmas in the Islands that when someone is struck by lightning in the head, things are bad.

Either they die or become a different person from God's Wrath, becoming chosen ones ..."

"Go away, man, do you hear yourself? But, … I hate to agree with an idiot like you, but your words might be true. This boy got a personality change and became a scary masochist who enjoys pain."

"Idiot, you don't have to call me an idiot for agreeing with my point. It will just make you a bigger idiot."

"Enough, you guys, go talk about something else. It seems you are having fun at the expense of others, but would you be able to take in what that boy is suffering right now?"

"Captain, are you even asking? We aren't fucked in the head to take such treatment. Ahem, excuse my language."

"Then, go talk about something else?"

"The Bitches from Valent? Oyy, who managed to pick up some of those high ladies from Kaysang?"

"I bet it's Captain Nelson, but he keeps it to himself." replied a sailor who found this subject interesting, to which a man from the center of the lower deck, standing by himself, turned his head, mentioning in a calm tone.

"Go bother someone else, you idiots. Old Patrick is not paying me enough to entertain you."

"Pff, captain, you are such a joy killer. Come on, tell us how to pick up the ladies from Sagletius, Valent, you know those hot babes, not ugly village girls. I myself got tired of them."

"Sometimes, it is better to know your boundaries and how much you can reach. If you are ugly, you can't expect to eat swan meat. Am I wrong?"

"WHAT A BURN!!! Good one, Nelson!" shouted the sailors like some madlads, laughing at the expense of the sailors who tried to pick a word-battle with Nelson, one of the officers picked up by Patrick himself.

.
.

Back to the operation table, Patrick and Lagos could hear the commotion on the lower deck, and with some anger, the old man murmured something that sounded bad that he planned for them.

"It seems those idiots got it easy after staying in Valent for three days. Some even managed to get laid with the beauties. Meanwhile, old me had to stare at ugly hags. What do you think, little Vlad? Do I deserve such treatment?"

"He went fast asleep. Let's not wake him up." said Lagos, who took out a cigarette from the old man sitting on a seat that watched over the operation table where a boy with blemished black hair, cut in a messed up way, was sleeping.

On the boy's head were many bald spots, clear signs that he was shaved for the operation, where he got cleaned up for any possible infections and stitched with horsehair, which secured a strong grip that would support his healing wounds.

"Never in my life have I spent so much working on someone's body. Not even when I deliver babies from the village women do I get so tired. This boy, I can't even believe how he survived without dying."

"This child is resilient, father. His future will be assured if we take him under our wing and guide him."

"Those are ifs, son. We have to monitor his conditions since he will be bedridden for a year or two."

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 6 - Returning to Shore​

The merchant ship's voyage finished without any events that would disturb the crew's safety and the cargo.

In the distance, a decent-sized city was revealed on the horizon for Arik, who journeyed with those saviors of him for five straight days.

He learned a lot of things about them and who they were, things that he would relate back to Vlad that was inside the medical room, bandaged from head to toes in a protective wrap, and in a sense, this boy that saved him became his eyes.

The boy still lacked the knowledge to formulate a perfect picture for him, as such the descriptions of sceneries he saw from the ship deck made him chuckle a bit, finding the boy amusing. Yet, his expression remained cold, only listening to Anik's stories about the outside and what the sailors told him.

"Charles, you will not believe what I saw not too long ago, it was a large fish, this large!" explained the boy who returned to tell Vlad what happened outside and what he saw, while gesticulating in front of his face, until he remembered that Vlad was blind, which turned his mood down.

It was something Vlad could somehow sense, the switch in his tonality, and even though he was detached, not caring that much about this child who saved him, he still told him calmly.

"Continue with your story, but don't move your hands too much around my face. It annoys my ears."

"Charles, aren't you upset you can't see?"

"Once again, for how many times do you wish to remind you? My name is Vlad. I don't care what I told you in the past, my name is Vlad. Do you understand?"

"It is really true what the misters say. After you got your head hit, you had a change."

"I guess. Does it change anything for you?"

"Well … I don't know you for long, so I can't tell. I got used to calling you, Charles."

"Wean yourself from this habit. You'll see how easily it will be for your mind to call Vlad, instead of Charles, you just have to call me for a bit more with my name." mentioned Vlad from the operation table, not moving one bit as per Patrick's instructions to assure that his bones had enough time to make their connection.
"Fine, I will try. Where was I with my story?" inquired Arik, after agreeing with the point Vlad made about the name, and while watching Vlad's face, his bruised lips moved, saying.

"You were talking about that fish. Quite big, that one I understand, but what was so special about this fish?"

"The sailors say that it is a fish from the All-Blue."

"... I see."

He had no clue what this boy was saying with the locations, and the more it felt like the roles reversed with those guys coming from this world into his own, and now he was the one into a hurdle, finding it hard to adapt to the new flow of information. Nonetheless, he had an in-built excuse to try collecting more information from everyone, such as having a head trauma and forgetting everything.

A curious mind was required in those moments, something that he didn't lack at all, and Arik, finding his response lacking, immediately figured that Vlad had no idea what he was talking about.

"You don't even know about All-Blue. How bad has your memory been?"

"It is blank in my head. What is that All-Blue you mentioned with the fish that is so special. What could make a fish special anyway? Does it give you mystic powers?"

"I don't know about mystic powers, but it is a common children's story, a legend, where there exists a place in the world where all the Seas, North, South, East, and West seas meet. In this legendary ocean, it is said that there are fishes from each of the four seas."

"Don't tell me. You know at least about the Seas, right?"

"Not at all." mentioned Vlad, who listened to Arik explain about the seas, where in a flash a memory fragment from his past appeared haunting him, with the two "Emperors" telling them information about their world, exactly this one, which then leads to him thinking about something blasphemous.

'Those guys, the Emperors, have told me the truth about the Seas and even this place called New World. Even the world's important people that they were fighting for Supremacy … How were they called? Try to remember that. It was only 14 years ago, not 40 years ago when I was just a little boy.'

'Gold. Gold? Gold something? Yea, I remember since they were talking hatefully about this person, Robert. Robert? It doesn't click in my head.'

'Let's try again. Gold Robert, Gold Roger, Gol. D. Roger. Ahhhh, correct, the guy with the weird name, the one with the initial.'

Next, as he remembered the one called Roger, it became rather easy for him to remember the others from the Emperor's stories.

'Those idiots sure told me a lot of names. Unnecessary now, I can barely remember some of them. So we got Robert, damn, Roger, Rock … Xebec, the two "Emperors" Wormblod, Quinn, Whitebeard, Charlotte Linlin, Shikki, Kaido, Silvers Rayleigh, some Monkey guy, a buddha guy, a Gorilla, and five dangerous monsters residing in a large palace.'

'While I am alone, I should start trying to remember the stories of those two guys. It is the only information I can grasp in those moments to guide me. Everything is on the table, even the stories about how they fucked some insignificant women. I will not judge them right now. In fact, I might be the one judged to be thrown into those lands after I died.'

Arik kept on talking with Vlad, while in an emotionless fashion the latter simply said "I see.", however, it didn't affect the young boy who at least had someone to talk with close to his age, but the truth was, he was like a little boy talking to his father about how his school day was, with the tired parent giving his ear half-healthy to listen.

It wasn't that he wasn't interested in the boys' stories. By no means they picked his curiosity slightly. However, what his mind was preoccupied was searching his memories. Specifically, that cursed month everything collapsed on his head, June 1462.

Vlad would stop from his search only when Patrick and Lagos would visit him to check on his health, where the old man kept staying for a bit more to talk with Vlad about whatever was on his mind, initially being like Arik until he was convinced that Vlad didn't remember anything about his life, however that didn't mean he turned into a retard, no, he could see Vlad brewing with intelligence in his speech.

"Little boy, we will arrive in a couple of hours to the island. You'll live with me until you heal up, while your friend will go with Lagos. Is it fine with you?"

"Sir, I really don't care. Where the wind will blow me, this is where I will settle. I am just a dead leaf that has been picked by a kind person who tried to water me just so I could sprout my roots and be healthy again."

"Such an interesting way of looking at things, little guy. You aren't wrong at all, I really want to nurture you, to give you home since you are an orphan."

"I appreciate your gesture, but no need if it is hard for you. I appreciate you for giving me the opportunity to heal up."

"Child, don't be stubborn. I look forward to the day you'll start running like a spirited boy your age." remarked the old man, with a smile on his face while looking at Vlad's face that gestured a small smile on what could be said to be an emotionless face.

"So you also know how to smile. I thought you lost this ability after getting the head trauma. This is why I didn't even ask you to make faces."

"Fortunately, I can feel emotions. I just don't find a reason to smile most of the time? Is there a reason? Similarly, I have no reason to cry and lament my state."

"You'll have to live and experience those feelings that will make you cry or smile from the bottom of your heart."

"I doubt this will happen, sir. You could say I died once already … with that head trauma." remarked Vlad from the operation table, with his abyssal eyes remaining the same, dead, without light.

"Don't be like this boy. Even if you experienced such hardship, you can't let this disturb your early childhood. You are just a nine year old child. You have to learn to play with others your age, talk with girls your age, maybe experience your first kiss, learn a craft, those things young boys your age would start picking up."

"I will keep this in mind. As for a craft, I have something in mind."

"Ohh, go on tell this old man, what do you want to become?"

"A healer … A doctor." replied Vlad in a serious tone, as he already thought out what his future would look like, no longer having a "birth-right" to rule anything, returning to a commoners origins that allowed him to pursue one of his childhood aspirations from his early formative years in Sighisoara, Targoviste, Adrianople and Constantinople.

The amount of books read from Greek to Latin, that debated the subject of medicine, with various philosophers explaining the known information about various plants that could assist in the healing of the body, from others who touched on the anatomy of the body and what roles various organs of the human body had.

It was one of his lost loves, the art of medicine, awakened by his dear mother when he was only a little boy.

Even though he wasn't able to study after becoming the Wallachian Prince, with his not so fortunate encounter with Mathias, he made sure to make use of all his available time to request books from the young king's library.

From medicine to anatomy to science, he was truly a scholar in the making. If only he abandoned his armor and sword.
.
When old Patrick received this response from Vlad, his expression lit up immediately, asking him a simple question.

"Do you want to learn medicine from me?"

"I don't know, are you some respected healer?" asked Vlad with half a smile on his lips, which had the old man start laughing, finding the question amusing.

"I might not be the Master of Doctors, like Lady Kureha from the Drum Kingdom, but I can't say that I am half-bad myself. Am I wrong, little guy? In the end, I managed to stitch you up."

"I guess it is true. You aren't half-bad. However, who is this Lady Kureha you mentioned? Is she the Queen of Doctors?"

"Ehh, there's no such thing, boy. Your curious mind is playing jests on you right now.

The medicine trade is something that is particularly progressing in each community.

However, in the world, only specific names have notoriety, and one among them is Lady Kureha, who has been acknowledged by the masses and even a big community of doctors as, Master of Medicine and Master of Doctors."

*Whistle* "You make me want to get to her so she could teach me the craft." mentioned Vlad, finding the information given by Patrick truthful.

As such, his curiosity to see this person was ignited.

"Haha, it will be a long journey, child. She doesn't live in the South Blue, instead is in the Grand Line, a place filled with dangers. To reach her, you need a strong party or be strong yourself to fight the various monsters and dangers lurking in the sea."

"... Then forget it. In the end, my life is far more important than some more information that couldn't even be so useful.'

"Heh, you aren't that wrong, so you'll have to stick with me if you want to become a doctor."

"Right, I wanted to ask you this. How come you choose the path of medicine, and how have you learned the craft?"

Patrick, who began smoking his cigarette, looked at Vlad, bandaged in a protective layer of plaster that contained Gypsum, a secret dear by most doctors who respected their craft.

While exhaling the smoke, he started telling Vlad how it all began for him in a sarcastic tone.

"I was forced by circumstances. I didn't choose medicine. She chose me.

You might not believe what I will tell you, but long ago, when I was a young lad, similar in age to most of the boys under my care, those sailors. I was an officer of the Royal Navy of Kaysang, a kingdom far away from us.

Having such a rank, and such heavy responsibility, it was obvious that I would be tasked with all sorts of operations.

From stopping pirates to protecting trade channels from the enemies of the Kingdom, even being charged with leading armies in wars, slowly but surely, I began seeing my friends and comrades die without me even knowing how to save them from some common wounds.

Sickness, broken arms, poisoning, I was an ignorant fool back then.

This is how the medical path found me on the battlefield trying to save my people. As for whom I learned, it is irrelevant since that old man is long dead."

"Interesting story, you were a sailor for this kingdom. Then, why are you sailing your ship to some island?"

"Mhm, maybe I will tell you this story for another time. We will have plenty of time for talks. You will be with me for one year or two, so you better get prepared."

Not continuing the talk in the direction he wanted, Vlad and Patrick went to talk about different things, such as herbs, plants from his memories. His proposed target was to see if there was something common that he could strand himself on.

To his surprise, a vast majority of the plants, herbs, and alchemical ingredients were confirmed by Patrick, with some that were missed from the old man's knowledge.

Finding this connection between what he knew with what existed here eased up his mind, making his relaxation even sweeter. Even though his body was grounded and he was blind, he appreciated life for what it had to offer him.
.
.
Hours passed, and from inside the medical room of the ship, the excited voices of the sailors with their shouts entered Vlad's ears who concluded that he arrived at his new home, the Picodras Island, and still by himself, soon Lagos, a sailor wearing an annoyed expression, maybe because he was forced into a job he didn't want, and Arik stepped inside, bringing along the news.

"Charles … Vlad, we reached the shore. We finally can breathe at ease since we escaped the water."

"You shouldn't be afraid of the water. Wouldn't it be tragic?"

"I am not scared. Still, it is quite scary to be alone on the sea."

Lagos patted Arik's head and checked on Vlad if he was excited to be finally home.

"How is it, little Vlad? Prepared for your new adventure?"

"Hah, don't get me started, Lagos. All I care about right now is to have my bones healed up and be able to run again."

"What about your sense of smell?"

"I could care less." replied Vlad straightforwardly with what he thought in his mind.

Where next, both Lagos and the sailor moved Vlad on a thick blanket and started carrying him to the main deck, while Arik watched with excitement the city's scenery getting closer and closer.

A harbor was the first thing entering his eyes, which housed some lightships anchored close to the wooden platform.

Some of the buildings were more prevalent than other buildings, and while the boy was watching with excitement, Vlad, which was held in the blanket by the two men, was in total darkness.

Not even the sun watching him, burning hot, was strong enough to break the abyss inside his eyes, and what followed next was the debarking of the sailors, where part of the group was Lagos, and the sailor called Jervis, took Vlad inside the city.

The citizens of this city, from old to young, managed to peek at who the person carried by the two sailors, finding out that it was a young boy with bald spots and a body fully covered in bandages, looking quite sad as he watched the sky, at least so they thought in their minds.

On the other hand, Vlad managed to eavesdrop on most of the people close to him, who talked about him, finding out that they weren't hostile to Arik and his arrival.

"Arik, how is the city? Can you describe it for me, at least how much you managed to see so far?"

"Of course, leave it to me. I will be your eyes until you heal up."

"Mhm."

Shortly after that weird procession toward a larger house, Lagos settled down Vlad on a comfortable bed, and he couldn't contain his laughter when he saw Vlad's relieved expression.

"Comfortable, right?"

"Indeed, I hardly remember when was the last time I sat on such a soft bed. Even in my bandages, I can feel it, especially this pillow. This is magic."

"No, it is not magic. It is called Goose Feathers. Anyway, I will leave you for a bit since I got to return to the ship and give a hand to the boys. I guess you'll be fine."

"Ahh, yes, don't worry about me. It's not like I will run anywhere, anytime soon."

"Come on, little Vlad, don't be so somber. Boys your age should smile more.

At least, this is how I remember when I was young."

"I see. I will keep this in mind." responded Vlad with an inbuilt mechanism to cope with certain requests or questions.

And, with Lagos and Jervis's departure, only Arik was inside the room Vlad was resting. However, at that moment, he heard the crying of the young boy.

"What is wrong? You are crying."

"No, I am happy to be alive and escaping those pirates. I can't even imagine how my life would have looked in their hands."

"Probably dead in the following years." responded Vlad in a chilling tone, emotionless as he was from who knows when.

Nevertheless, he made sure to end his remark with a slightly positive take.

"However, you've already experienced a rebirth. You should look at this new chance at life like an opportunity. I hope you'll follow your dreams and not forget what you wish to become.

Now, stop crying. Didn't you say you'll tell me about how this Picodras City looks? We now have time."

"Okay, but it will be hard to tell you how big the buildings are."

"Trust me, I will get it once you tell me by the method I told you to do."

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 7 - Baby Steps​

Passage of time was an easy concept to understand.

It was the process that washed away all traces of any creature, regardless if it was a monster, spirit, human, or even celestial bodies. All of them were subjected to this immemorial law of time.

Things were subjected to change or stagnation around the world, and in such a state was the Island of Picodras which didn't see any change since the two years a young man made his arrival in an unfortunate state.

If one would consider a change in the Island, it was the people, who aged two years, and such was the story for a young man with short black hair who was covered all over his body with a gypsum bandage cast to keep him protected, like the shell of a tortoise.

Currently, this young man was lying on a medical check-table, while around him an old man in his late 50s and a young adult in early 20s seemed to talk in a spirited fashion, asking the young man on the table some casual questions.

"How is it, little Vlad? Are you ready to exist in your cocoon?" asked the old man, who touched the black-haired boy on the head while the boy had his eyes closed, replying with a normal tone that didn't show much emotion.

"What can I say, quite ecstatic."

"Vlad, you'll finally be able to play with me. You must have felt bored not being able to move or play." mentioned a young boy with short brown hair that had the appearance of a young teenager of 13 years old.

"... Sure. I can't wait." responded the black-haired boy on the table with half the mouth, not showing any excitement for what the young one had to mention.

"Okay, little Arik, you can stay at the back if you want to watch your younger brother. Lagos, give me the scissors and scalpel, and prepare some warm water just in case things are stuck too hard."

"I doubt you need it, old man. The cast is rather loose. It even started itching me."

"It means your bones have healed properly. Hopefully. The last time I removed your cast last year, we checked if the bones were bound, we now check if they have been strengthened a bit to give you mobility."

"Makes sense, please begin. I've got tired of spending my time inside that bedroom.

"Heh, it's good to see you this spirited." remarked old Patrick, who watched Vlad remain silent on the operation table, yet inside the young man's mind, there was a deep discussion.

'I mean, sure, I am slightly nervous since if my bones didn't heal properly. I will be in trouble and really be a cripple. Now, please, my body, you took away my sight, at least bless me with something else.'

'This is all I can ask you right now, for everything to function with my body.'

'We'll see how I will adapt to this life in darkness since this is a magical world. There should be something to heal my vision.'

This type of motivational speech was going on in his mind as Patrick began cutting the thick gypsum cast and later used his sharp scissors to cut the bandages.

Minute by minute, the old man started taking pieces of his protective armor, revealing Vlad's tender and fragile legs at first, and starting by going up, later moving to his upper body from his torso to his chest and later his arms.

The floor was starting each minute to be filled with pieces of Vlad's gypsum cast and some parts that began cracking on their own, releasing a white powder from them, which was the calcium mineral itself.

Patrick, who worked with a careful touch on Vlad's body, watched Vlad's fragile body that only had his pair of underclothes on. He began checking his legs which had scars of the bones that pierced his skin and verified if Vlad could move his leg sole and fingers.

"Move your toes for me."

"Like this?" responded Vlad by moving his toes slowly,

Later on, he began executing the checking movements that Patrick requested of him, slow movements of his ankle, knee, and hips.

"Good, very good, they healed up nicely. Sadly, you have some scars, but I can't remove scars, only heal people. Now, can you please sit facing me? I want to check the response of your legs, the reflexes we talked about."

"Understood."

Lagos went to Vlad's back as he tried to raise up in a seated position and gave him assistance, but it was still a good sign because he showed mobility in his body, with his arms trying to raise him up.

Afterward, Vlad underwent the reflex test, and he passed them with full marks, with old Patrick not finding any errors in his reaction and mobility.

Still, the biggest challenge that Vlad had to face when his cast was removed was to get on his own feet, which was a strange debacle in itself. When he got on his legs he rapidly lost strength, fatiguing that he wanted to get back on the table.

"Lagos, teach little Arik how to help Vlad when he tries to walk. Also, tell Jervis to come and bring those crutches for little Vlad."

"Yes, father."

After Lagos explained to Arik how to hold Vlad so he wouldn't fall, he walked out of the medical room and returned back along with a young man that was larger than Arik by a lot, being a full adolescent at 17-18 years old, that Vlad knew as Jervis, one of Patrick's disciples.

"Old man, I brought the crutches you mentioned I craft in my past time, I made them from Redwood since it was for the little blind. I even decorated the crutches just in case he wants to see them."

"Thanks, Jervis, but you know I wouldn't need something extra. Also, I don't need such support, I will walk by myself."

"Big words, little blind, you've shriveled doing nothing but sleep for two years. I really want to see you walk by yourself and not rely too much on our help."

"Mhm, that's what I want. Give me those sticks." requested Vlad, who extended his hands toward Jervis, which shocked the young man at how precise this little blind boy was in finding his location.

Patrick could only chuckle in those moments, seeing one of his disciples being taken aback by Vlad, and once the crutches were on his hands, the black-haired boy went to his feet, at first without supporting himself until he lost stamina again and instead of going back on the table, he used the crutches.

"Take it easy, little Vlad. This is only your first day since we took your bandages. You'll slowly regain your strength and no longer require those crutches."

"I know. It seems even my arms are getting tired. Hah, I got a lot of work to do."

"Indeed, I will leave Jervis and Nelson to assist you in training your body the right way, so you wouldn't be damaging any muscles."

"No need, I will handle this myself, but thank you for the support." replied Vlad in a detached voice, as he opened his black eyes and took the old man by surprise since his eyes were right on his face.

"You can see something, little Vlad?" inquired Patrick, who felt the stare slightly weird, especially when he glanced at those dark, dead eyes.

"No, I just felt like opening my eyes since having them closed too much would form a habit on my eye muscles. I might not be able to see you guys, but from what Arik told me, I got a nice pair of eyes."

"Haha, he isn't wrong. Your face isn't bad either after you recover from your bruises." remarked Jervis, who soon departed to his own activities, and then the group left Vlad to his own actions, leaving him only with Arik.

"Vlad, you have to take it slowly. Didn't you hear, mister Patrick?" mentioned Arik with a worried voice when he saw Vlad start to slowly walk toward his room since those guys didn't even bother to take him there.

He didn't reply back to Arik, and like a stubborn mule, he got to an endpoint, where he couldn't find the exit.

'Damn it, it is hard to navigate this room. Also, my body is so weak, I can't even believe this is me.'

'I should start thinking of a way to work my muscles but without forcing them too much.'

"Arik, help me a bit until I get to my room."

"See, you are an idiot. I told you to listen to me since you would just harm yourself by hitting yourself like this trying to find the exit to the medical room."

"I get it. Will you help or not?"

"Obviously. Here, let me point you to the right path."

Then the black-haired boy with crutches started to slowly walk toward another part of the mansion, moving according to the directions Arik was giving him, and as he passed past the mansion's hallway from the living room.

Old Patrick was smoking a cigarette, seeming to ponder about something.

'That boy sure is stubborn. You don't want our help, but what can you do? I can't imagine what you feel right now, being stripped of your eyesight.'

'Hmm? Look at him go. Hah, even if you can't see, I will offer you plenty of education, so you can do something in life.'
.
Reaching back to his room with Arik's support, he felt his legs tired, with his muscles already being engaged by simply walking. His upper body also tired down, lying on the bed while starting to ponder about his future steps in this new life of his.

Since he got into his room, Arik also went about his daily activities after Vlad told him he wouldn't be going anywhere.

In this lonely atmosphere, it made it easier to contemplate, from how he should train, to how much, from ways to reinforce his bones and make them far more flexible and superior, but nonetheless, his medical path didn't escape his train of thoughts.

*Step*

*Step*

"Little Vlad, I came to check on you. How are you feeling after the whole day? Do you feel any discomfort, or pains in your bones and body?"

Hearing old Patrick, who visited him before sleeping, he raised up on the bed and turned his head in the direction his voice came.

"I have no pain, but discomfort? There are plenty of them. I can feel it all over my body. Walking in itself turned into an exercise for me, which is pathetic."

"Everything at their time, slowly and surely anyone can climb Mount Galena."

"Indeed, I know my limits. It isn't in my interest to hurry and recover my strength, but instead to slowly build the things I am missing. Anyway, old Patrick, you have my whole respect and appreciation for what you've done for me."

"Don't mention it. It is really nothing for me, but two years have passed since I've picked you up from the freezing sea. Yet it feels to me that you've lost those years without enjoying the experiences a child your age would have."

"You are wrong. Those two years have not been lost on me. You've taught me a lot of interesting things, which have opened my mind.

Also, I didn't expect that becoming a doctor, one is required to know so much knowledge, and I appreciate your patience in telling me everything since I can't read as I am right now… "

"Truly a sad thing, my boy. We waited. Days passed, months, and even years, but your vision didn't return. Only your sense of smell has returned. I don't know how to help you with your vision, my boy. I never encountered a blind person in my life."

"Why are you stressing yourself in my place? Still, I appreciate everything you've done for me, but if this is what God wants from me, I will not be cowardly and defeated by the circumstances in front of me. I can't see? Okay, I understand that, but I am still alive.

Because of this, I don't have a reason to be angry, or to lament my situation. So don't feel sorry for me. This is my life, and I will face this on my own." mentioned Vlad with a clear voice that was of a calm never encountered by Patrick in young people, especially kids who suffered from traumas, those being the weakest he knew, most of them giving up on the fight with life.

"Still, my boy, there is hope. Do you remember when I told you about Miss Kureha? I've thought many nights about how to help you with your eyes, but I don't have such knowledge to treat eyes, which are one of the most fragile organs.
We can try journeying to the Grand Line to find Drum Island and pray we can receive the Master's assistance."

When hearing this information, Vlad went quiet, pondering about this choice for an extended interval, and shook his head.

"Why not, boy? This might be our last chance to recover your sight."

"It is too dangerous. You've told me that the path toward the Grand Line is infested with monsters, hazardous weather, and calamities. The success rate for this type of journey is minuscule to none.

I'd rather not attempt to make such a journey and risk your life and even mine. I don't know about you, old Patrick, but right now, I've decided to value my life a lot more than I did when younger."

Patrick's face turned a bit bitter with Vlad's rejection of his plan, but once he listened to the whole comment, it made him laugh a bit and pat his head in a teasing way.

"I don't know what I will do with you, little boy. Your personality is messed up. You don't want to interact with kids your age. Instead, only talk with Arik, probably because he helped you out on that day.

I wish you were like them, joyful, full of life, messing around, pulling pranks."

"Sigh, sorry old man, but after what I experienced, you can't call me a normal child anymore. Besides, who would play around with a blind boy? We have to be realistic right now.

Also, I found more joy in learning from you than "messing" around. I doubt you'll see me running around naked anytime soon."

"Haha, at least I can take the good side of your personality. You'll be my little assistant from now on."

"I will be in your care, old Patrick."

"You better be ready. After you start regaining your mobility, I will make you work tirelessly for me. Soon, those medical concoctions of mine will be under your jurisdiction, so if you mess something up and you poison one of my clients, you are screwed."

"Hehe, I can't wait." laughed Vlad, which for Patrick was a unique thing, hearing this stoic boy that had quite dark tendencies to laugh like a young lad, happy for what was thrown in front.

"Good, then I will leave you to sleep. Don't forget, sleep is important for the recovery of the body, sleep, and food."

"Yes, you told me this two years ago."

"Well, I am an old man. What would you expect of me, to have a young lad's memory?"
.
.
Moving forward, he continued on with his life, slowly training his body to regain his strength and stamina, an arduous process that one could pass only with patience and sheer will.

Aside from his physical therapy, where he used all his knowledge to train his body as if he was the Janissary Officer that was overwatching the new recruits, he also took his time to learn the art of medicine from Patrick, which filled his entire schedule to the brim.

Yet, there was also a thing that he was forced to do by the old man, integrate into society, where he took him to different locations of Picodras City, telling him about the different sceneries noteworthy that he should try to visualize in his mind.

"My boy, if we can't see. We should train our imagination and visualization abilities.

You were not born blind, so you know how the outside looks. Even though you are still fragile in your formative years, I will do my best to paint in your mind how those objects, sceneries, and people look. You just have to trust my words and use your mind to view those people."

"Fine, I'll try this since you'll force me anyway. Who knows, it might help me out with something else."

"Exactly, if nature is so cruel to take away your vision, she would make sure to balance things out and bless you with other qualities." mentioned the old man who was holding Vlad's hand, walking with him toward the shore of the Island, relatively close to the city.

He explained to Vlad all sorts of things, the young man could simply nod, agreeing with his view of things.

"Hopefully."

This was a new way of life for Vlad, who learned once again to behave like a commoner and not view things from the perspective of a monarch because his new circumstances and the world didn't allow for such arrogance, especially in the community of the Picodras Island, who viewed the outsiders with skepticism.

Yet, they still continue on trading their goods with the Kaysang Kingdom, the main source of luxury goods they lacked.
.
.
A/N: Indeed, young man, Nature is cruel, but she would always find ways to balance everything.

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 8 - Acclimation​

Another two years passed since Vlad stepped on his fragile legs, and the progress he made was visible from the following year.

When he turned thirteen, showing some little progress that brought joy to the boy, which he kept solely to himself, remaining quiet and minding his own in his dark world for most of the time.

The city people learned about Vlad and his struggles since he first came with the merchant ship, word spreading out from the sailors who were shocked by his transformation, which became a known story in Picodras.

A boy with his entire body broken has survived that ordeal, now walking among them.

It made them interested in this young man, but that was all they were interested in. Everyone began knowing him for a blind and treated him slightly differently when encountering him walking with his crutches alongside Patrick, sometimes with Arik, Lagos, Nelson or Jervis.

Most times, his companion in the walks that supposedly were to refresh his mind was Arik.

Some of the citizens were patient with him, others were giving him hateful glances which only Arik could see, but usually, people didn't bother him since he was known for being close to Patrick, one of the Islands leaders.

They also didn't receive a reason to be bothered since Vlad spent most of his time inside Patrick's home.

Nevertheless, those walks of his apart for refreshing his mind began a weird routine for the young girls of Picodras to peek at the passing young man, becoming infatuated with him rapidly since he was by no means ugly.

His once malnourished face recovered its luster, which Patrick, Lagos and most sailors discovered that the bruised, broken, young child grew up to be a handsome lad.

His face made some sailors butthurt, especially of the ugly ones, leading to various stories from this close group of certain sailors who wanted to take revenge on Vlad, but all in a joking manner.

Arik, who was taken as an apprentice by Patrick in the navigation and sailing path, was aware of those underground jokes, and it made him happy to see that Vlad was having so much success with the girls.

Whenever he would pass by with Vlad past a group of girls that gathered specifically to see their hot blind boy, they began screamed like little girls seeing their idols when Vlad glanced in their direction with his abyssal eyes, being an instant turn-on for them, feeling captured by his mysterious colored eyes, but did he care about their advances?

Not at all. Vlad still didn't feel his Testorone and hormones kick in, activating his sex drive.

Still, he wasn't the only one who grew up from the two with Arik, too, turning out into a fine lad from what Patrick and Lagos told him, helping him visualize this interesting boy, who helped him unconditionally with his blindness.

Arik kept his hair short and built a strong body to help him on the ship, carrying the goods that were to be transported on the sea, from Picodras to Valent city, the Trading Center of the South Blue, belonging to the Kaysang Kingdom.

He was initiated in the craft of sailing from Patrick and Lagos and the rest of the experienced sailors.

Those two were known in the city as close brothers, something that Vlad didn't try to change as he found Arik quite handy in turning away girls that tried to approach him, wooing him, and apart from this, the young man was also his pair of eyes whenever they would walk in the city, visiting various shops, especially the stalls that were selling herbs, medicinal plants, plant sprouts.

Above all, when he wasn't working on building his strength and body, he enjoyed visiting the Market and exploring the various plant shops and stalls where he could use his regained sense of smell that he only recovered when he was a 12 years old lad.

It was an activity that relaxed his mind, and the merchants weren't too harsh on him, allowing him to touch their product.

"Be careful, little blind child. Those plants cost more than what your old man can fetch from his trade in Valent." warned some of the merchants when seeing Vlad start touching their booth to find the plants.

"It will be fine. I can smell most of the plants you got here on display. All are common plants, so don't get me started that they cost a fortune. I might be blind, but stupid I am not."

"Hahaha, well said, little blind. This will teach that cheap bastard not to boast that he has the best plants from the entire Picodras. Hah, how is it? Have you really gone to Galena to pick those plants, or are they from your garden?"

"Ahem, no need to quarrel, sirs. I don't really care where your plants came from. Well, I am thankful that you allow me to train my sense of smell. It will be easier to make the old man's potions in the future."

"Aye, brat, we can't disagree with this point of yours, so be free to smell our plants and guess which one is which.
We'll be fair with you. Your friend is here to attest to it. Maybe we play a game for some money?"

"Mhmm, like gambling?" inquired Vlad, who opened his dead eyes to look directly at the merchant that talked to him, which creeped out the man at how black his eyes were with no light refracting from them.

"Only if you want, I don't want to hear you going to Lord Patrick and mention that we stole your money."

"I only have 10.000 with me. This is all my allowance for this month."

"Brother Vlad, I also have 50.000 that I gathered. If you want, I can give them to you."

"Is not required. That is your money, keep it warm, spend it however you want, not on some games of mine. So, mister, will my 10.000 be good for you?"

"Fine, 10.000 will be one round. Are you in?"

"Count me in." mentioned Vlad to the merchant in question, who began shrewdly rubbing his hands.

While he cleaned up his table of the plants he put on display, he lowered himself down to pick his rare plants for this battle of wits, and before the entire game started between Vlad and the merchant, most of the people and merchants that were on this section of the Market got interested.

"Hehe, this will be interesting, little blind. Are you ready?"

"Anytime."

"Good, then tell me what the plant I just placed on the table is. To give you a chance for a competitive game, I will allow you 2 failures, okay?" mentioned the merchant who placed on the table a white flower that had a delicate texture to it, even tender, which made the herb merchant look impressed at the plant taken out.

Vlad touched the table while he lowered himself to the level, starting sniffing it, where he found a clean, refreshing smell which was quite rich in the herbal fragrance, and opened his eyes as he touched the flower with a soft touch, and after 5 minutes he told the merchant the name of the flower.

"Peacebloom. Mister, I take back my words. You guys also have interesting plants and herbs."

"One more?" asked Vlad, who extended his hand, asking for his money.

"You want one more game? You'll have it. Lower your hand since you'll be leaving the Market with a sour expression."

"I doubt, but sure, let's do it."

Next, the merchant took the Peacebloom from the table, and brought out another flower.

This time it was a flower with unfurled bloom spirally arranged, where the flowers were trumpet-shaped, in a pure white color, but this wasn't all about the flower. Each petal had a hue to them.

It gave the spectators the sensation you were staring at a unique flower, but Vlad had no way to see this appearance of the plant, which was precisely what the merchant was betting on, taking advantage of his blindness.

Vlad approached the same, starting sniffing the flower and touching the petals gently, making the merchant nervous, as he began to wonder if Vlad could sense the hue by using his touch.

However, Vlad couldn't feel any of that hue, instead approached the subject in question differently from what the people looking at him thought.

Instead of guessing them using his luck, he was visualizing in his mind, using the vivid description of the plant delivered by old Patrick, and the touching he did was to make in his mind the shape of this flower and use his building database to check which one was right.

"This one is Morning Glory?"

"No. You have failed once." replied the merchant, who felt excited that Vlad was losing the game.

Yet soon, he got nervous because the plant he took out belonged to the same family of flowers, and his worry was confirmed.

Without getting upset that he failed once, Vlad thought for another couple of minutes and gave his final response.

"Dreaming Glory. It is the variant with the light hue.

Sneaky.

Mister, you want to take advantage of the fact I am blind? Not bad."

"Aren't you angry, boy?"

"Me? Why should I? You make it more fun for me.

Go on, take advantage of me. Let's see what happens. My pocket has 40.000 .

Do you want to continue?" asked Vlad whose voice gained some life, feeling some excitement from this game.

"Argh, let's. But only one more round since I don't have so much money with me."

"I only got 50.000 left on me."

"I see, then we'll do it for all my money. Show me, my next opponent."

'Tsk, annoying brat, I will teach you a lesson since you are confident.

Little blind, you shouldn't make fun of adults.'

The merchant quickly searched in a bag full of plants and herbs, until he stumbled upon a brown plant that had golden thorns on it, similar to a rose stem, but this one didn't have a flower, only the golden thorns.

When everyone saw what plant the merchant took, it garnered a reaction. Some seemed to be pleased, while others frowned.

Arik was among them, and even though he didn't know what plant the one taken out was, he walked toward Vlad, approaching him to warn him, but was stopped halfway.

"He took out something interesting, right, Arik? Stay put. I don't require you to help me with plants."

"Go on, young man, can you guess what plant you have in front of you?"

Vlad once again opened his eyes, and this time even his face switched a creepy smile and without responding back, started humming.

He searched for the plant with his hand, and immediately when touching the thorns, he was cut.

Yet, the merchant could see Vlad continue smiling creepily as he was palpating around the plant, covering it in his blood that it scared out the girls in the audience.

"Good one, sir. I'll be honest with you, I have absolutely no idea what plant you took out.

I have those 5 plants in mind when I touch this plant, it could be [Bruiseweed], [Brianthorn], [Dragon Teeth], [Deadnettle], or [Goldenthorn].

So you know what I will do, sir. You said I am allowed 2 failures, right?"

"Mhm, correct."

"Then, I pick my first choice [Deadnettle]"

"Wrong."

"I see, it makes sense. The thorns in this one are sharper and harder, while Deadnettle has smaller thorns, like a nettle plant. Also, I doubt you have the luck of getting a [Dragon Teeth] as they rarely appear in coastal areas, then, [Brianthorn]?"

"Wrong." responded the merchant who saw the twisted smile Vlad was giving him.

Each moment his hands bled out rapidly, it scared him that he still didn't take his hands off the plant, instead continuing to touch the thorns and harm himself.

"Indeed, is not [Brianthorn] if it was that plant, I would have killed you right now for trying to poison me. But we are good friends, anyway, right? Your intent wasn't to harm me. This is just an honorable game."

"Indeed, you wanted rare plants in this game, and I gave you rare plants." said the merchant, who saw Vlad close his eyes and stop smiling, hearing the young man say with a calm voice.

"Keep those 90.000 , and whenever I visit your shop, you'll show me what you got without asking me dumb questions. Got it?

Let's go, Arik." remarked Vlad, who used his shirt to wrap it around his palm while he continued to walk calmly without Arik's assistance.

"Wait, you didn't say the name of the plant."

"No need. See you another time."

.

Vlad and Arik made their exit from the Market in a fashion that only heroes from the novels people would fantasize would do, with the protagonist teaching a lesson to the arrogant antagonist.

Nevertheless, on their way to Patrick's mansion, the brown-haired young man kept assaulting Vlad will all sorts of questions.

"Brother, why have you done that? Wound yourself for no reason? You didn't take the money home. Also, it is clear as night that guy wanted to harm you. So why did you leave him alone?"

"It isn't required for me to do anything, simple as that. I don't want to make any enemies and only wanted to play around a bit since the old man keeps annoying me with his wishes to see me play around like a young man my age."

"Yes, he did say that, and you always decline me when I ask you to tag along with me playing around with my friends. Sigh, brother, you are always by yourself. What would you do without me?"

"You want an honest answer?"

"..."

"I'll probably be the same. Well, not really. I will feel bad for the first couple of weeks, maybe months, and move on."

"Damn, brother, that pirate really messed you badly. Why would you think like that?"

"Heh, why? You know, Anik, we humans are social creatures, but we initially started as hunters. We are predators.

Regardless of one's circumstances, our instincts will always prevail. So if I am into a social circle, or if I am alone, in my opinion, it will not change me with anything."

"Fine, fine, I will no longer ask you about those things. How is your hand?"

"Some of the healing potion, and the wound will close. It's not that deep anyway, it's just my skin that got pierced. Irrelevant. When will you go with old Patrick to Valent?"

"In a couple of weeks, why? Do you wish I could buy something for you?"

"Mhm, if you are so kind, would you buy me some old books that you can find from the city?"

"Why books, you can't read them anyway."

"I know, but this doesn't mean that others are so dumb not to know how to read."

"I'll not read those stories for you."

"Don't worry, it's not like I had you in mind in the first place."

"... You know, brother, sometimes I really think you are an asshole."

"Hmm, I know." replied Vlad in a stoic way, moving without requiring Arik's assistance, as if he learned the path from the mansion to the Market and back.

"..."

Arik didn't have a comeback from that direct answer, with Vlad agreeing to the whole point he brought, making him quiet on the entire walk home.

.
.

It was such a case where his recovery took a full year to fully regain his body functions and be able to walk, with only a small limp on his right leg, as trauma from the heavy damage he suffered.

This didn't faze him, and he simply went about with his normal life, not rushing anything, and slowly accumulating the information Patrick was sharing with him.

Since the incident in the Market, the merchants viewed Vlad differently and no longer messed with him, but this remained only inside their small circle of herbalists, and they would help him around with the plants.

What shocked those merchants was that one time, when Arik departed with Patrick toward Valent along with the entire merchant crew, where they journeyed to Valent to trade the goods of the Island with the goods offered by the Kingdom that they lacked, such as linen fabric, and other expensive goods.

Vlad brought along with himself 3 old books and told the merchant who he put in place calmly.

"You remember what I told you, right? Read those three books for me. I heard from old Patrick that they talk about the medicinal effects of plants and their applications. I doubt you care that much, only seeing money as God, but for the amount of 90.000 you'll be under my services."

"Got it?"

"What if I don't want to do it?"

"Well, that's also an option, but I'd rather have you not. Trust me, you'll also learn something from this book, and it is not like you are needed at something. You are sitting on your stool all day long and barely sell some herbs. Lucky for old Patrick and me. Otherwise, you'll be searching for another job."

"Elias, don't upset the young man, and read his books." shouted the merchants on this market section, hearing Vlad's cold words.

"Fine. Come and sit on a chair, and make yourself comfortable."

"Got it. Can you read the titles of the books first before I tell you which one to start?"

"Damn, okay."

Then the merchant started reading the book, he picked from the tree, and to also pass his time, so he would be sitting idly while listening to the book, he took a large stick that he came with, and from his pocket, he brought a knife which scared the merchant.

"Ahh, don't be scared. This isn't for you.

I try to make a walking cane since it troubles me when I step on terrain I am not familiar with.

This stick will be like a third arm, where I check the path I will be required to go or if I shouldn't go. Continue with the book since it reached an interesting part."

'Damn, what a weird kid. Are all of the blind kids so weird?' thought the merchant who saw Vlad casually using the knife, taking some of the wood from the thick stick, polishing it with his knife.

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 9: Fables and Aspirations​

His thirteenth year passed by without any significant incidents that could be called noteworthy.

He would spend his time back and forth from his mansion to the Market, using the merchants as tools to read his books, and slowly before he even turned 14, the section of the Market, specific for the Herbalists, turned into a cenacle where Vlad debated the information he heard with the Herbalists.

Doing so made his life easier in learning specific information that was hard to digest by talking about that exact information, where different views were put together, forming a whole.

So much time he spent around the Market that people saw him as a symbol, while for the Herbalists he was the boy who acquired the books they would read.

In their interactions with Vlad, they found that he wasn't as bad as they thought. Although he was an asshole, he was a respectful young man, humble for the most part, that recognized his mistakes if they were pointed and explained.

One could even say he bonded with the merchant Elias, who suffered the most from Vlad's weird antics, but only the blind boy could be an authority to say if they were "friends".

They were cool, sharing all sorts of stories, arguing a bit, while Vlad was using stories from his first life centered on plants and medicine, while the merchant mentioned to him about a fabled place that would feel like Heaven for his curious mind.

"There is such a thing? A Heaven you say, aren't you mistaken, Elias?"

"Noo, not at all, my young friend, this place is called Isle of Gardens, a place where all sort of plants can be seen, think of it like a touchable 'All Blue', and you are quite lucky because this Garden is inside our region, the South Blue."

"Then you can't call it fabled. It wouldn't make sense since you know where it is. There's no basis for calling it a fable."

"Hehe, this is where you are wrong, little Vlad.

The Isle of Gardens is under the strict control of the Order of Flower Knights, the Grandmaster forbids any outsider to enter the island, and only those with High Status can visit. That visit is short, a couple of hours, right guys?"

"Yea, I heard the Grandmaster is some virgin who hates men, and this hatred is translated in the fact she kills any men who tried to step on her island without her approval."

"Sounds sketchy." mentioned Vlad, still not buying into this story of Isle of Gardens, but the merchants were adamant on how legit their story was and even told him another piece of information he didn't ask.

"There's another place similar to the Garden, called Amazon Lily, a place where only women live and any man stepping on that place will be killed."

"Mhm, but then if men are killed, how was the story shared?"

"Hehe, here comes something more interesting for you, little Vlad, since you are curious to find more about those amazons."

"No, in fact, I am not curious. I could care less." interjected Vlad, with a knife in hand and another one on his cane, adding some ornaments.

"Tsk, don't be so quick to decline. I promise it will be interesting." mentioned Elias, who was next to Vlad, and after he received his silent response, he started talking.

"You asked how the story about this place has been shared if no men can enter that island, and here comes the interesting part. Because that place contains only women who can't have kids by themselves and continue with their culture."

"Aha, I get, so they go from place to place to have sex with men, get inseminated, and once they are pregnant, they go about with their lives, returning to their place of origin? Am I wrong?"

"Exactly, the story goes that most of those girls keep their origin a secret, but there are also some who get attached to their sex partner, and share small details, in such way the news escaped and detail by detail the people formed the story about the Amazon Lily."

"Quite barbaric if you would ask me. Those women either are stupid or are all complete hypocrites."

"Why do you say that, little Vlad?"

"They are fighting the nature of humans. A bunch of hypocritical women, they want to live by themselves in their own laws. Yet when it comes to continuing their society, they instantly forget about their "principles" and go hunting for men.

If this isn't hypocrisy, we might even have to reinvent the meaning of the word."

"Guys, here he is again with his asshole side. Give him a plant, so he gets silent."

"Fuck you guys. I wasn't the one who brought up this Lily place. It was you guys. I gave my opinion on the matter."

"Say that to the poor guys who were sucked dry by those hot girls and still dream of reuniting with their amazons, fucking them once again."

"So stupid."

Vlad continued ornating his cane with a floral design, and as his hands were busy, he inquired about the location of the Isle of Gardens, finding it an interesting location to reach if he would ever explore the sea rather than Amazon Lily.

The merchants laughed a bit, asking him some stupid things as if he was "interested" in the Grandmaster.

They quieted down when he treated them coldly in silence, making them continue their story, giving him the directions for reaching this place, which he noted in his mind.

It filled the Market section belonging to the Herbalist in a comedic spectacle, as all of them laughed at the thought Vlad was interested in seeing a woman, with him barely showing his emotions.

"Little Vlad, if you are into old ladies, we will not judge you. Maybe you can conquer her and start selling all her herbs and plants cheaply. What do you say?"

"I am not suicidal, so no thanks."

"Then why did you even bother to find out about this location."

"So I don't die a stupid peasant?"

"Yeah makes sense. However, if you ever have some crazy thoughts, don't do it.

You are blind. You can't reach such places. It will be doubtful that you'll make it, so you better tag along for more with us."

"Tsk, I am just 13 years old. Do you think I will go anywhere?"

"Who knows, kids nowadays are unpredictable. They all believe in that thing called One Piece and jump on to become pirates, making a hard life for the rest. Lucky for us, our City doesn't have such specimens of pirates, but you never know."

"You guys forget why I am blind."

"Hmm, I guess you should be the one hating them the most."

"You can't really call it hate, more like disgust for how some people behave and act, without reason."

"It is good that you'll not get on the seas to be some pirate, getting yourself drowned on the sea."

During their talk, a group of guys passed by close to the Herbalism Sector of the Market and heard the conversation Vlad and the merchants had about pirates, which triggered a scoff from them and a hateful glance toward the blind boy sensed something but couldn't be sure what.

However, that feeling he had was confirmed after he wrapped things and decided to depart home, not even for a second thinking that his discussion with the merchants would reach to some youngsters being hurt or triggered.

Here he was facing the passing group of adolescents, ranging from 14 to 17, who stopped him to have a "friendly" chat.

"Oyy, blind idiot, we heard that you had some nasty words for pirates and their aspirations for finding the Great Treasure. Can you say that again in front of us?"

"Haha, look at him, with people he knows he acts so mighty and smart, but when he is all by himself, he is just a blind fool. Repeat those words about pirates, I dare you."

The entire group had such remarks against Vlad, who tried to remember if he ever badmouthed the pirates and failed to remember, which led to the conclusion that those kids were eating shit and putting words in his mouth.

"I don't remember ever mentioning something about the Pirates, especially to your group. But to be sure you don't spin my words and force words in my mouth.

I'll say this, pirates or marines are of no concern to me. I am only a blind, right? Can I even set sail to become a pirate or become a marine to hunt pirates? No, I am just an blind.

So, In the end, how can I help you? Some herbs, perhaps?"

The way he mentioned his point made the group of young boys search for words, with their leader, the oldest.

It was a young man that had a normal appearance, but his face as he looked at Vlad was rather ugly, looking hatefully at Vlad, for a reason unknown to Vlad, however the boy made sure to tell Vlad.

"Blind boy, I will not pick on you right now, there are simply too many people in the Market, but I warn you, stop talking with Mary. She is my woman."

'I see. This was the reason you wanted to pick on me. It is that little girl who helped me when I lost my balance on the way to the Market. Hah, kids nowadays, can't you give me a break. I am too old for this shit.'

"Got you, I will not talk to her, but what do I do when she tries to approach me? I can't simply tell her to stop disturbing me. It isn't gentlemanly."

"Bastard, you better stay away from her, or you will get hurt badly, far worse than what those pirates did to you. Don't look at me like that, I know everything about you."

Vlad gave a small smile to the boy who made it seem that he was mocking this lad, but when he smiled, it was a sign that his interest was picked, and waiting in front of the group, he waited for something to happen.

"Boring."

Vlad remarked in a detached way, passing past the group who didn't throw a fit or hit him, yet surely while Vlad was transiting past them, the group leader kicked Vlad's cane, throwing Vlad off-balance, landing on the ground.

"Hehe, this is just a sample of what you will get if you don't listen to me."

Hearing that, Vlad didn't even take to heart what a little shit had to tell him.

Without overreacting and with a calm mind, he started searching for his cane while on the ground, giving more satisfaction to the group who departed the Market.

After spending some minutes searching for the cane on the ground leading to his clothes getting dirty, he raised up and left the Market, and on his way back to the mansion, he thought about those kids that "bullied" him that instead of angering him, made him laugh, finding the entire situation amusing.

"Maybe I should also play with those kids. This body of mine isn't ugly, correct? If I keep to my nutritious diet, training and building my muscles, and also by swimming, my body will grow taller and taller than the average."

"Or so was the theory, and if it is wrong, I can only hope that the father or mother is tall enough that I don't remain small-statured."

.
.

Since that incident, the villagers stopped seeing Vlad walking around to the Market, which made the merchants worried that something bad might have happened to him.

He simply could care less about them, but they couldn't resist the worry, and Elias and another merchant visited Patrick's mansion, being welcomed inside by the old man who was skeptical at first for why those two guys visited his house.

"Lord Patrick, our apologies. We were worried about little blind, ahem, little Vlad's health. We haven't seen him around the Market for months, is everything alright with him?"

"You are the ones the brat has been forcing to read his books?"

"Well, Lord, now you can't really call it forcing because we also enjoy the content of the books."

"I see, that's good. Then follow me to the courtyard, but be quiet. You'll understand why once you get there."

Elias and his other friend respected what old Patrick said, and once they reached the courtyard, they saw Vlad doing exercises where he pushed his once fragile body to another stage.

They could see the muscles on his body, but still not fully developed.

"You'll see him when he wants. I lost a bet with the kid, since he proved to me he can make some friends, those being you guys, which lead to me giving him more freedom to train as he wishes without supervising him." mentioned Patrick after taking back the merchants to his living room, litting a cigarette, while seated on his couch.

"Lord Patrick, besides this, I don't know if I should tell you, but that little shit, Revil, wants to bully little Vlad."

"I know, but I really don't care. I already talked with that brat, and what he mentioned about this situation baffled me.

He said "Once a male gets in heat, regardless of species, it will do everything in its power to mate with the female. But that is if the leader of the pack allows him such benefits."

Take it with a grain of salt, because he likes to give all sorts of weird analogies, but if I would translate his words, it would be like this. "If that little shit wants to fuck with that girl, Mary, it will depend on me if I want.".

Childish arguments, which pleases me to see him showing that side about him.
.
.

Vlad heard the arrival of the Herbalists and even Patrick as he filled the merchants with some information about his situation, Yet he continued with his training, spending most of his time training his body and later on sleeping, making sure his body reached a balance.

And since the incident in the Market with those brats, Vlad only focused on himself, ignoring the outside world

Only when Patrick, Lagos, or Arik would return from their journeys to Valent city, bringing along another batch of interesting goods with them, especially Arik who kept to his words and brought another set of books for his tastes.

He compelled the young man to read out loud some books he picked up at random, giving him more assistance with building his book collection.

Vlad's excuse for doing this was all that maybe in the future, his vision would return, and right now he was preparing ahead of time, believing it would be a smart move. Nevertheless, he was defeated, his vision still didn't return after 4 years.

Another winter passed for Vlad, leading to a new change, with him becoming a young lad of only 14 years old.

His height was that of your average boy his age, nothing out of the ordinary. One could say he looked frailer than most and smaller in height.

Like the other four years, his fifteen-year anniversary passed by without anything noteworthy happening to him except him having a stable growth and building more body mass on his frail frame.

To Patricks and even Arik's surprise, Vlad started training his body using the sword, beginning a long and arduous process of enforcing the muscle memory on this young body of his.

With a stable schedule that he found worked the best for him, he would be training inside Patricks' courtyard while Arik simply watched him, unsure what to think about his old friend that he had known for 5 years.

.
.
.

Time was cruel and didn't forget or forgive anyone, but it was, in essence, a privilege given to men to grow and mature, and for Vlad, who turned 17 years old, with 7 years spent in this new world.

From among the people of Picodras, if one asked who was the tallest person, it was almost certain each city dweller would immediately respond with the Blind.

Ironic how his nickname stuck in the heads of the people, but only the sailors that worked for old Patrick, his close mentor, his son, and the small boy who was with him for 7 years called him Vlad.

Their behaviour was totally different with him, finding him just like a little brother and friend, who suffered a lot in life, suffering from incurable blindness.

A conclusion both Patrick and Vlad reached after all those years where they hoped, prayed his vision would return, but to no avail. However, Vlad didn't despair. While most ordinary people would be turned mad by the darkness, he viewed it differently.

First, it was an atonement for all the crimes he inflicted on the innocent people in his first life.

Secondly, he took it as a challenge thrown by God to see if he would turn mad or not, and thirdly he remembered most of his conversation with Wormblod and Quinn, the Emperors of the Sea, whose identity Patrick confirmed with a shocked face, hearing such old names that existed in his mid-age.

Vlad remembered when the Emperors explained to him how their powers worked, from the devil fruits who gave a mystical power for trading the ability of swimming in the ocean, to the ability of 'Mana' as they explained to him, initially being 'Haki'.

However, because he was skeptical about most of what they were saying, they had to find an easier word to digest, such as Mana.
And this term stuck with him, finding it displeasing to call the Mana, Haki, feeling the term lighter to his sensible and empowered hearing.

He started training this Mana or at least trying to learn more about it from Patrick, yet he couldn't get any information from him, as if he wasn't aware of this information. Even when Vlad explained, Patrick looked at him confused, and even he asked Vlad if there existed such a thing which turned into a funny back and forth.

"Does such a thing even exist? I lived for 62 years, and I didn't even know that there existed such a thing. Damn, someone must be plotting this, so we peasants don't have a single idea."

"Well, old man, take it with a grain of salt. You at least know about the Devil Fruits."

"Obviously, child, that's something we all know. I even saw with my own eyes some of those lucky ones who eat a devil fruit."

"And what happened to them?"

"They are long dead."

"... Then forget it."

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 10: Growing up​

The conversation between the old man and young man after the small derail that went into a darker room returned, turning their conversation into an easy-going way.

Vlad tried to find more information from the books he acquired from Arik, Lagos, and the other sailors that either had debts to him or gave money for gambling and other foolish things youngsters would do.

Aside from this, even though he had the materials containing the information, he was still blind, and found the idea of relying on the merchants to get across this problem a pain.

Bothering the merchants wasn't really so enjoyable to him nowadays that he turned into a young adult that looked even larger than your average adult, standing tall at 1.88 meters with a chiseled body that made you think he was a God's Avatar on Earth.

Since he turned 17 one year ago, his old partner, Arik, became more unreliable, making it annoying for Vlad to wave around the unpredictable events that would happen to him.

When Arik turned 18 with his own 17th birthday, the young lad didn't even have time to read his books, offering his assistance. Being preoccupied with his girlfriend, almost forgetting about his blind friend he promised to be his eyes.

It looked rather hilarious and bitter to see this blind young man mention how Arik forgot about his duties, turning Patrick, Lagos and the other two captains of the merchant fleet to make fun of him and his situation.

"Vlad, leave Arik alone. He finally reached the next stage of life, becoming a man. It is obvious he will focus more on his girl instead of you.

Besides, don't you already know the entire Picodras by heart? You probably even have the whole map of the City in that smartass brain of yours." remarked the fiery sailor, Jervis, having black hair and green eyes, with a solid build, slightly taller than Vlad.

"Indeed, little brother, you have to let him spread his wings, or you'll have him on your head all your life. I bet you don't wish that to happen." remarked the blonde young man, Nelson, that was of similar size with Vlad, watching the entire group of 4 around him at this discussion brought up by the latter.

"Keahaha, to think I will live you to see the day, you'll be in this state. Little Vlad, are you going to admit you got attached to little Arik?"

"Heh, that's quite the question, father."

"Indeed, old man, with this one, we cornered this cheap smartass." remarked Jervis, after listening to Nelson, Patrick and Lagos's comments for Vlad, who had a facial expression as if he ate something rotten, making the entire interaction a satirical comedy,

Vlad was the one suffering the brunt of the jabs from all sides.

"Okay, stop it, you fools. It is not as you think, and it is not like I don't have people to read my books. How about it, Jervis? All the money you have loaned from me totals 100.000 . Do you want to be my partner? One book for 10.000 ."

"Fuck! Well ... little brother, you know how things are for us sailors ... We don't know how to read that well. Blame it on the old man for not teaching us more."

"Jervis, don't blame this on the teacher. He taught us to read. It is just that you are stupid and ignored his lectures."

"What about you, Nelson, your loans amount to 65.000 . Are you up to reading my books?"

*Whistle* *Whistle* "I forgot to tell you, little brother ... but I also passed on teachers' lectures about reading. I am sorry to say this, but I can't help you."

"Can you see it, old man? You taught a bunch of gambling addicts and idiots who can't read." mentioned Vlad staring at where Jervis and Nelson stood on their couches, making it seem as if he could see them.

Clearly, he was doing this to make them feel uncomfortable, rubbing more salt on them for their degenerate antics.

Meanwhile, old Patrick simply smiled at the boys, and while glancing at Jervis and Nelson who looked awkwardly at Vlad, they saw him nod in their direction and later remark with a clueless tone.

"I have too many people to teach, so if those two guys skipped my classes, it is not of my concern. You should be more careful with whom you give your monthly salary."

"I know, but in the end, we are just jesting. I don't care about the money, so you guys can either gather the money to pay me or not, it's up to you, but know that if you don't pay your debts, I will view you differently."

"The next trade we will do in Valent, I will make sure to repay my debts. Capiche?"

"Sure, but know that I am not hurrying you."

The group talk went about from subject to subject, with the first one being the situation with Arik that troubled Vlad, no longer having his little assistant that would help him with his alchemical concoctions, and now had to do everything on his own, slowing him down a lot, messing his orders finish date.

It interested Patrick because he was like a father figure for Arik and was glad to see him spread his wings and leave the nest, but in doing so, leaving a blind owl on the prowl.

"Little Vlad, I can't do much about it. Is not like I will force Arik to do anything."

"Old man, I am not saying this, so you take mercy on me. I'll deal with the alchemical potions and ointments for when you guys depart for Valent.

Why did I told you this piece of information? I don't want to hear you complaining about my work ethic."

"Either way, we would know you wouldn't be backing off from this task."

Each group member said their piece, and how they viewed Vlad's potions and the large variety of concoctions he knew for a strange reason.

From healing potions to poisonous ones, in those 7 years, they felt that he had already reached a master level, yet only Patrick knew how extensive Vlad's knowledge was, from medical concoctions to surgical knowledge.

Even his assimilation rate was no joke, always bringing out new subjects of interest even to him, and getting along with this subject, the guys who had no clue what it took to produce the alchemical products suggested ignorantly.

"Why don't you get yourself a girlfriend and have her help you around. Wouldn't it be easier?"

Hearing this question addressed by Jervis, Vlad went silent as if he was pondering on this question, and it took him quite some minutes to return from his inner conversation, responding to the boys, something unexpected.

"Maybe you are right."

"Oho, you finally show interest in girls. I thought you were limp down there."

"... Really? That's how much you can think? It is not as if I can't have it go erect, but I wasn't pressed by my instincts to chase them in the past."

"As if you would have to chase any of the girls. You don't know, but all the girls in the City who don't have a partner want you.

Ahem, this is why most guys, even our boys on the ship, look at you with mixed emotions. Some want to approach you to introduce them to girls, while others don't even want to see you stepping outside of the house, remaining with your own potions."

"Should I feel honoured by this remark?" inquired Vlad feeling small fragments of awkwardness when Jervis mentioned the split perception of him.

"You take it as you wish, but the boys will get frustrated whenever they see the girls tailing you like horny sluts."

"And? Do I even have a fault with this?"

"No, not at all, but you know how the boys in the City are. They think with their dicks instead of their brains as if they got sponges instead of brains. This is why I say you should simply get one girl and make it known that you are a taken man, so no more girls make scenes in the City."

"Mhm, old Patrick, what do you think of this? Should I care?"

"Slightly, but I doubt those kids will be able to do anything to you, and I fear you'll do something stupid. Our fears are more transferred to the boys in Picodras who might not know how much you progressed in those past 7 years since you settled here."

"Haha, I am not fighting little brats." remarked Vlad, chuckling a bit when thinking about how he would feel if some youngster would challenge him in a real battle.

Regardless of whether he was blind, his body and strength far exceeded the abilities he had in his first life, feeling these mystic changes to his body, and once again, what the two Emperors told him in his prison cell, were correct statements.

While he was resting on the couch with the group of guys talking, he went back into his memories, where the image of the two late-mid 30's men were chained talking to him about some weird concepts he didn't understand at that time.

.

[The bodies of the people of our world, if appropriately trained, can reach states where destroying a mountain with the bare hands would be a simple task.]

[Crazy bastard, if we were in our world, we could kill you in a split second. My spit would be enough to kill you.]

*Punch*

[Come, release me and see what will happen, I can kill you without having to rely on my devil powers or my haki.]

*Punch*

[If you were so strong as you say, you wouldn't be in this situation. In the end, your ramblings are the stuff of crazy people. Magic powers? Devil Powers? Hah, this sounds like a child's story, but if you are so knowledgeable, go on and tell me more.]

[You, the one called Quinn, you seem to know what's good for you, so tell me more about all you have talked about]

[Certainly, Lord. But you have to promise us that you'll release us.]

[If I am satisfied with your stories and information, I might think of it.]

.
.
'Surprisingly, their information was truthful. The more I contemplate those events now that I have a certain knowledge about this world, the more I am shocked about all the possibilities one body could achieve.'

'I reached my pinnacle of power when I was 26 back home while here at only age 17. My swordsmanship has been sharpened, with many other techniques I couldn't execute at my old age being available. All the German Grandmaster and Italian Grandmaster manuals that I've read in Matei's Library are now useful.'

'It feels like this world is an evil twin of my natal world.'

'Besides this, I should also ponder what I want to do in life except becoming a doctor and healing people.'

'Being bound to this Island for the only reasons that I am blind doesn't work. I want to experience more now that I no longer have to worry about the responsibility of the Throne pressing down on my shoulders, binding me to take the mantle of leading foolish people.'

'Also, that child, Arik, told me a lot of stories about the outside, new people, cultures, monsters. While Elias and the boys also have their own stories, unfortunately for them, they only heard those stories, not reaching the places in question personally.'

'Maybe I should do it. A blind on a sea fare journey?

'… Hahaha, what could go wrong?'

'I can listen to the waves and guide myself along with them, a technique that Patrick taught me that could work on the sea while we talked about the possible advantages of being blind.'

'That was two years ago.'

'Seven years, who would believe that I survived for 7 years without light. At times, I would want to smash my head again so it would crack, maybe, just maybe, I get my sight back. But, that would be a suicidal act, and I only have one life this time.'

'... I think.'

.

"Hey, Vlad, are you listening?"

"Mhm? What's wrong?" asked Vlad, who suddenly heard Lagos's voice directed at him, breaking his contemplation.

"We asked you something, but you remained non-responding for one minute. Anyway, what do you think about the marines? I heard from Valent that those guys are interested in building a base in our City but require the Guilds Masters, Lord Dugar and old Patrick's Approval."

"Marines? They must have some underhanded reasons for this for sure. The coin has two sides, pirated and marines. Regardless of who it is, it will not change anything for the people. Besides, tell me why would you guys be worried about the safety of the Island? South Blue is famous for how weak it is economically and military wise."

"Makes sense, continue, little Vlad."

"Strictly speaking from what I understand, and if you think I am wrong, stop me. Pirates are those people with no future, or those fools who chase that dream and treasure, Pirate King and One Piece, fables sent by a criminal to stir more chaos in this world.

However, if you assure that those possible future pirates receive fair treatment, can feed their families, and continue living without worrying about their lives, you'll be worry-free, at least so I believe." explained Vlad his views on the subject after old Patrick stirred him to talk.

"You aren't wrong, little brother, but in most cases, the ones who take to the sea in our island are because of the dream of becoming some "Pirate King". We can't do anything to stop them if this is what they want to be."

"Indeed, let's say you introduce the marines on our Island. You'll simply give an extra reason for those who want to be pirates to be so."

"Okay, sure, I think we get this point, but what about the marines? They don't seem like the bad guys."

"I don't know about them since I never thought about them that much in the first place. I could tell you so much about the pirates because of the kids that kept on boosting they will become pirates in the future.

Nevertheless, if I am to say something about the marines, if you would let them here, they will be able to get people from the village and take them to other places, which could lead to depopulation and other effects I don't want to think about, for example have a strong guy attack the island for revenge?"
Patrick, who listened to Vlad calmly dissect the entire bodies of the coin in his mind, what he said made sense, and he understood all of the points brought, the risks each side would have, and he would bring this to the table at the meeting in some weeks time, that would put in the discussion this subject.
Bringing some light to the Guild's views who only worshiped money.

A couple of hours later, the meeting between the group ended with each taking off. Even Vlad went outside to cool his mind while pondering about what was brought to his attention, such as finding himself a girl, breaking this grip he had on the girl's love.

'Being handsome can bring benefits and disadvantages to a young peasant boy or commoner, while it can only bring advantages for a monarch. It is a weird feeling since from what Arik, Lagos and an old man told me about my appearance, they made it sound like I was really good-looking as if I got better than in my first life.'

'This is what happens when I don't focus on a certain thing that I can't control.'

The people immediately noticed his appearance when he stepped inside the City Square, wishing to reach a small library of the City. The blind was famous in the City with his cane checking around calmly.

Around him, some girls could be seen watching him timidly, all quite beautiful, which obviously entered his attention since he could hear their whispers easily because of how his senses balanced out from his blindness, and he smiled a bit, finding it annoying and cute at the same time.

'Why don't you approach me? Come on, I'll be sure to entertain you and be gentle. I can smell your fragrance from afar.'

'This is the advantage of a blind. I can hear and smell far better than a simple person.'

With himself expecting something to happen anytime soon, he sensed the footsteps of someone approaching closer, and with a bold gesture grabbing him by his large hand, soon the sweet voice of a girl got into his ears.

"Where are you going, Vlad? Let me help you around."

Feeling this girl's soft touch and hearing her sweet voice made him get a spark in his malfunctioned brain that was contemplating the discussion about him requiring a "girlfriend" so he wouldn't be bothered by the other girls. He tightened his handhold on her hand and inquired calmly.

"Mary, we meet again. Aren't you troubling yourself by taking care of me?"

"There's no trouble with you, sweety."

"Thank you, Mary. But wouldn't it trouble you, I heard from the boys on the docks that you are seeing someone. I don't want word to go out that I am troubling you.

People would frown when hearing that you are together with a blind man." mentioned Vlad, who walked hand in hand with this woman with shoulder-length black hair and beautiful tanned skin.

Compared to her, Vlad's skin tone was milky white.

Behind his tails, the girls, once seeing Mary approach Vlad so lovingly, instantly thought about the worst-case scenario and stomped their feet in frustration, thinking that Vlad was taken away by Mary.

On the other hand, Mary looked at Vlad's handsome face, who had his ink-black eyes staring at her, even though she knew he couldn't see her, and with his remark bringing out the fact she was seeing someone, it made her bite her own lip.

"Not at all. I am not seeing anyone. Those guys at the docks are simply jealous and want to place all kinds of words on me. I hope you understand me, Vlad. Besides, I only love you, how can I see someone else?"

'Hoh, this little slut, nice act. However, you are mistaken dearly if you see me as some "revenge" tool for your relation with that little shit. What was his name? Regel, Ravel … Revil.'

"Mary, I don't know. Are you sure you are willing to be with a blind like me?"

"There's nothing wrong with you. If you go outside and don't say that you are blind man, no one will know."

'Hah, this guy sure is annoying to talk with, but take the good part.'

'He is the hottest man on the Island by far. It will be far easier to manipulate him than that pig, Revil. For now, let's make him feel safe with me. I'll sure find ways to have Revil get to the news.'

This woman had her own thoughts about the entire situation, but also Vlad had his own plans for the young girl, and as he talked with her, acting innocently, like a fool who didn't know much about the opposite sex.

Once they stepped inside the library, Mary found the chance to kiss Vlad on his lips.

'Tender lips, it has been ages since I've tasted tender flesh.' thought Vlad, who took the girl by surprise when he forced his tongue in her mouth, giving her a kiss she had never experienced in her life, no matter how much of an experience she might have with others.

'For the following months, you'll be my little maid. Until night, let's make good use of you and read some books from the selective group.'

They weren't seen by anyone with that kiss, and once he got to the librarian counter, an old man with foggy eyes, he heard him crack a joke.

"You've got a new reader, a girl at that. I thought you were interested in the same gender since you brought only guys."

"Yeah, sure, I'll be on the back. Don't disturb me." replied Vlad detachedly to this old man, who liked to make fun of him for bringing people he scammed to read his own books.

'Wait, what did the old man say? He takes people here to read him books? Don't tell me? I am not here read some stupid books.'

Vlad still held Mary's hand and walked as if he was a normal person without using the cane, which gave the girl a weird feeling.

That feeling intensified when Vlad entered another section of the library, where it was utterly dark, triggering her reaction, a scream.

*KYAAA* "It is completely dark here."

"Stupid me, let me light the lamps. It is fine, it is only the two of us here. Nothing will happen to you. If you want, we can stay like this."

'Is this Blind inviting me to do it here in this library? I want a soft bed with a romantic setting, not some boring library.'

"No, I'll get scared if I stay in the dark for too long. I fear the dark."

Hearing her say that, Vlad smiled creepily, and he touched her lips with his finger as if he could see her even in the dark, triggering the young girl a chill that was accompanied by Vlad remarking in his sombre voice.

"A shame. The dark can be sometimes calming, but also chaotic."

Next, as if he knew the places of the lamps beforehand, he went to each, and with a match, he brought light to the entire room, making Mary calm down and once again see Vlad in normal light.

"Now, could you please help me out again? I got some books that I am interested in, it talks about various folklore of the region and the South Sea. It will not be boring at all, and I will do you a favor."

"Will you do me a favor?"

"Of course, but you have to help me. It is tough for a blind to learn more knowledge, and it is troublesome to get people to help me because they either get tired, which would lead to them avoiding me, not knowing how to read, or they outright refuse my cry for help."

"Such bad people. Of course, I will help you." said Mary with a smile on her face, as she walked toward a comfortable couch, sitting next to Vlad,

Before she even knew, Vlad touched her waist and grabbed her, gently closing the distance.

'He might be blind, but he is terrific. For a wish, I'll read this book of yours.'

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 11: Mary​

The book reading went according to Vlad, who after a couple of days since he captured the desire of the city girl, Mary, without her even knowing, was reading a folklore book inside a large house which she never expected to belong to the young blind.

All sorts of questions stirred her, but her mission was still set on capturing and spellbinding Vlad, securing his affection for herself.

She was even more pleased seeing Vlad so clueless and eating from her hands each of her excuses and words, and by a couple of days since the library, without even noticing, she was still reading the book while only having a sexy nightgown.

"Vlad, I am getting tired of reading this book. Can't we do something more entertaining? We are all alone in your house. Would it be a shame?"

"Okay, but tomorrow you have to promise me we will continue with the book since it got to an interesting point, a challenge for the worthy."

"Still darling, those are just stories."

"Legends, but they also hold some truth to them."

The brown-haired woman closed the book while lying beside Vlad reading at the oil lamp, placing the book on the floor and blowing the oil lamp. Moving to kiss his lips, where the latter returned the gesture with a forceful kiss, teasing her tongue.

Mary felt Vlad take her nightgown off and start fondling her breast that still had room to mature if nature willed, being only 18 years old.

She was so pleased by Vlad's skills that she felt more enjoyment in having sex with him than her other boyfriend, Revil. As such, her bitchy remarks in her mind about him started shifting.

Meanwhile, Vlad was also having a great time releasing his sex drive since he also began getting affected by the bulging testosterone of a young man, being no different than an adolescent when his drive couldn't be kept in check by his strong mind.

He began doing a foreplay that made Mary feel precious, not missing any erogenous spot on her body.

As was the saying 'He didn't leave that place without every single stone to be unturned.'.

His body was drenched in her orgasm, and it was more enjoyable after preparing Mary, exciting her, turning her more perverted, and starting doing all sorts of pleasure techniques.

Even her vagina wasn't bad, having a tightness he was familiar with, and with plenty of time in the night, he made the image of her body in his mind, with every single of his caresses.

Barely even having the concept of night, Vlad's energy was spent in those moments, leaving Mary to have a pleasant sleep with a beaming smile on her face that Vlad couldn't see, but could guess that she reached the 'Heaven' from how strong her moans and cries of pleasure, and even the dirty words which pushed Vlad to get rougher with her.

.
.

Day came, and while Mary woke herself tired with her body sore, she was almost scared by Vlad's meditative state next to her, with his legs crossed. (A/N: Now, do you guys know what I thought here? About the guy sitting on his head while another one was standing in the corner, cowering in fear)

"Good morning, darling. What are you doing?"

"Meditation? It helps me clear my mind and start my day with a calm mind. What about you, how is your body? I think I've gone a bit overboard, forcing you to do all of those."

'Blind beast, you've gotta be kidding. Doing those positions felt so good. You've hit all my weak spots. But I'd rather not tell him this since he will use that weakness on me again to make me his.'

"It is fine, darling. I felt excellent."

"I see, glad to hear that. Now, don't forget what you've promised me."

"Understood, darling. But I also want my reward afterward."

"Mhm. Clean yourself, and you can eat the remains from last night's meal." mentioned Vlad calmly, while Mary sniffed a bit her sweaty body, immediately getting up, rushing to the bathroom, seeing a large bathtub filled with steaming water.

'Ahh, he even did this for me. Such a gentleman. Why can't Revil be like this, attentive and make me feel precious? That fool doesn't even know to act romantically. Besides having eyesight, Rival doesn't compare with Vlad at all.'

'What's more, he is the city's alchemist, supplying the city with precious curing elixirs.'

She stepped inside the bathtub and admired the small decorations of the bathroom, and after cleaning herself, she woke herself with a delicate dress that had a clean design on a wooden hanger that wasn't initially in the bathroom.

It made her smile with a pure smile, and after she had her breakfast, Vlad was inside his living room, standing with his hands crossed at his chest, pondering on something, and she went to sit beside him, wrapping her hands around him in a loving manner.

"What is on your mind?"

"I was thinking about that legend and its location. Have you relaxed enough, little Mary?"

"Don't worry, darling, after I recharge my spirit standing like this, I will immediately begin from where I stopped."

"Hah, how cute, go ahead, it feels rather nice standing, as if I have a warm blanket. Wait, I got an idea."

Saying that after Mary made herself comfortable at his shoulder, he took her by surprise and raised her like a feather, placing her on his chest as if he was about to start a second round.

And Mary believed that which made her get horny, especially when Vlad opened his black eyes. Feeling spellbound, she went to kiss him but got stopped by his long index finger.

"You have to be good, don't be so slutty."

Mary took his finger in her mouth starting sucking it like she was doing his dick, which made Vlad chuckle, amused by how perverted this girl could be. Even the noblewoman from Mathias's court weren't such sluts, having some decency in how they behaved. Yet this girl only had sex in mind, limiting her from which he was restraining her.

Then, after the girl calmed, being like a cat on his chest, she went to pick the book from the bedroom and began reading it for Vlad, reaching what his mind was trying to figure out.

The stories about a large mountain with a weird shape to it, various peaks that the one who wrote this legend had difficulty describing.

However, something stuck to him, it was the fact that in the tallest point of the Mountain, there was a lake.

Other points could be used for hints in this legend, such as the rivers, flora or fauna.

While Mary kept on reading this book, that mentioned the challenge awaiting a future hero, the stuff of legends, but inside Vlad's mind, he was pinning together all these small details, from locations to the appearance of the Mountain, which led to him concluding an appropriate zone that fit the description of this legend.

'All those details seem similar to what Elias has read about the landscapes of Picodras.'

'A book found inside Galena Mountain, beside the skeleton of someone, along with other belongings of this explorer.'

'Still, what was the interesting point in that adventurer's journal was how it ended, [I heard something, and it makes me tremble in fear. Now I understand why those villagers at the base of the Mountain say that the Guardian will not allow anyone on the mountain passage.].'

'Such words can't be written down by someone who wants to fool someone, and his dead body and journal were subject to this.'

'It can be that exactly this Galena Mountain hides something from those villages, and I got to explore it and experience it for myself.'

'If I am to also combine what Arik and the boys told me about the Island, how it looks from the sea, mentioning the Mountain, and how around the coastal villages its view was the best thing they ever saw. You could say this information also fits the legend.'

Still, even though he made up his mind about this legend, that he would explore it since it was as if it was behind his backyard,

He continued listening to Mary reading as if he was a teacher listening to a student, and once the lesson was over, he reached his target of having the folklore book being read.

Afterwards, Mary's reaction when Vlad told her that he had something to do and that she should also go to her home was comical.

"Wait, darling. Are you really going somewhere? Can't I stay here and wait for you like a good girl?"

"No." mentioned Vlad in a concise, direct way that confused Mary, as if all her progress went back to Step 1.

Even when she tried to get clingy with him, asking him in a cute, loving manner, and even slutty way, she was denied.

"Let me ask you, little Mary. Are we in a relationship?"

"Aren't we? I love you a lot." continued Mary on her acting, which was so-so, even though she didn't know what she felt, but Vlad rejected this, and with a calm reply brought her with the feet on the ground.

"I can't get inside your mind to see how much you do, but for me, I see you as a little maid who wants a lot more from her master. But are you my little maid? Obviously, no, this is why you can't rely on me or others."

"Please don't say such words. You know how I feel about you."

Vlad rejected, and the girl with a dejected expression also departed, however, she made a mistake not changing in her initial clothes.

She departed with the dress gifted to her by Vlad without even changing on her initial clothes, and while Vlad saw her off, he felt a hateful stare running not too far from his house.

'Haha, I hope you can admire her beauty now, little boy. The next time she kisses you, saying that she loves you, the thought that she blew me so hard that I painted her entire face in white.'

'Those worries of what happened inside will eat you alive, little boy. It will get you so badly that you will rush to me, trying to kill me. I can't wait, maybe this time someone does something interesting.''

His keen senses made it easy to guess who the person staring at him so hatefully was, and the lover who went to search for his lover was shocked to see his woman exiting the house of another man, wearing an elegant dress that made her more beautiful, and with some earrings.

'So that letter was right. Mary was indeed cheating on me with the Blind. Arghhh, I will kill that bastard! But before that, I will have to settle this problem with Mary. I either take her on the sea with my boys, going for the Grand Line or breaking up for good.

However, before I depart, I will kill that Blind bastard.'

Nonetheless, when the young man moved from his spot, Vlad started chuckling, finding the entire situation comical, and another cruel thought ran through his mind.

'Maybe I should also prepare that boy a parting gift since the boys at the harbour kept mentioning that Rigal was preparing to set sail with some of his friends, maybe precisely the ones who picked on me at my weakest.

Closing the door with his own key, he departed, moving toward Patrick's mansion, where immediately once he got inside, he heard the old man remark with some disappointment in his voice.

"Boy, you really had to pick that girl? Mary?"

"Oho, what do you mean, old man?"

"Don't fool with me, child, the news that you are seeing that girl Mary has been spreading out for one week that you were 'occupied'. Mind explaining to this old man? Why would you do this, stealing the woman of someone else."

"As far I am concerned, if the girl told me she doesn't see anyone, she's good for catching. I don't care if she was in a relationship or not since it wouldn't affect me in particular." mentioned Vlad smiling a bit, where he began laughing, finding the situation amusing.

"I take you lower yourself that much to take revenge on some kid that picked on you in the past?"

"It's not the main reason I picked that girl. It is even comical. She approached me even though she had a partner?

Besides, I'll not miss that chance. I heard she has quite the pepite face. Her body was also decent." remarked Vlad, who got a seat in Patrick's living room while having his eyes closed.

"Hah, you stupid kid, you might be ruining your status in the community for adultery."

"Now, now. Could you stop worrying about me? I am no longer that boy with all his body broken, who required your assistance to feed.

Even if I am blind, do you see me being affected too much?

Also, if people start annoying me, I will simply cut their supply of potions, and I'll see how those guys will deal with their wounds after getting used to my alchemical concoctions."

"Okay, I will not bother you with this, since I doubt you are serious about this relation of yours."

"Pfff, you thought I would pick up a little slut for my partner. Please, my brain might have been damaged but not to that extent.

That is just me fooling around and having a taste of flesh." explained Vlad with a casual smile on his face, getting into some details with Patrick that he would only tell him since he saw him akin to a father figure.

"You are walking on a thin rope. You might have that Revil brat actually try to pull something on you." remarked Patrick who listened to Vlad's reasons for picking Mary, which made some sense, but was also quite crazy and cruel.

"Hmm. What can he do? I am curious." inquired Vlad with a smile on his face, making it seem as if he was a deranged person, expecting something bad to happen.

"Ambush you with numbers and kill you?"

"Interesting. I will await that day, it's been a while since I've seen that little shit. Besides, I didn't visit you to tell you about those childish affairs of mine, instead I want to inform you that I will be out of the city for a longer period."

"By yourself? How long?" asked Patrick, slightly worried about Vlad doing such walkouts.

"Indeed, for about two weeks, maybe? It can be longer since I am unfamiliar with the outside of the city.
I want to experience something myself, the Mountain. From a legend book, I heard about a place that would grant powers to an individual who passes a respective challenge."

"Sigh, boy, don't believe in everything you read. Galena Mountain is dangerous, full of beasts and monsters that will devour you. Don't you remember that notebook of the adventurer who shocked the entire Island? You wish to be the second to be immortalized in the villagers' minds."

"Why are you acting like some worried mother? It is my choice and I believe in my abilities to ascend the Mountain with or without beasts.

Also, this is an opportune chance of testing my sword skills, " replied Vlad casually, making old Patrick ogle at his calm face, not showing signs of fear.

"... Fine, you may go, but don't you fucking dare not return in one piece."

"I was expecting such a response." smugly replied Vlad while having a relaxed posture on the couch, making old Patrick laugh dejectedly as if he was defeated by Vlad's stubbornness.

Then, with only telling Patrick about his crazy idea, not bothering with Lagos or Arik for fear he would start annoying him to tag along, for fear he would lose his path, he went to prepare his supplies for this "adventure".

It didn't take him long, that in the cover of the night, a tall young man with tied black hair wearing some hunter clothes that were styled with some merchant clothing pieces, who had a large backpack on his back, with a longsword strapped at his waist, seeming to be ready for war.

And with all of his preparations, his journey started taking him outside of the city gates without anyone ever noticing that he left apart from Patrick who he briefed with regard to his plans.

The picture of a tall young man using a cane to walk forward in the dark night made it quite a bitter scene.

For Vlad, this was just a typical night where his ears and senses were overwhelmed by the massive amount of information his brain was picking from his surroundings, especially once he stepped inside a forest, leading to the following settlement on his list.

'Welcome home, Impaling Prince, and let's hope I get some luck on my way and stumble on a real legend.' thought Vlad, who walked at a steady pace, checking around with his cane in case he would be stepping in the wrong way.

'To not forget, the boys told me it would take me two days to reach Triel Village, and there I will be able to sleep at the tavern. Afterwards, there are 2 more days to reach Bray. From there on, I might require some directions.'

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 12: Journey to the mountain top​

At the cover of the night, a medium-sized tavern inside a rural village, a tall young man with a weird movement of his hand using a cane, always probing forward, appeared before the tavern door where his cane stopped, stepping inside afterwards.

While inside the tavern, the tall young man was greeted by the voices of people constantly bickering, and having a great time, drinking and eating the tavern's food.

His arrival had most people of the tavern raise their heads or turn them to see who was the newcomer, and they didn't notice a familiar face,

Instead, it was a young man with tied black hair, wearing on his back a large backpack, while on his right hand was a black colored cane full of decorations.

*Tap*

*Tap*

*Step*

The sound of the cane hitting the wooden floor of the tavern along with the hunter's boot touching wood made a sound that began getting rhythmic.

The same procedure of the young man continued until he arrived at the tavern's counter where he went about, touching the shoulders of the guys seated at the counter until he found a free seat.

"Young man, are you alright?" asked the Innkeeper, who watched Vlad act until getting on his seat.

Not long after, he saw him open his abyssal eyes that revealed no light as if they were dead.

"Ahh, my bad, I did it again, and I kept telling myself to use my cane to check if someone occupies seats on the counter table. Good evening, can I ask you something, Innkeep?"

"Of course, how can I help you?"

"Does your tavern have sleeping rooms, or is it just for dining and drinking?"

"Such stupid question, haven't you seen that the tavern has two floors?" remarked one of the guys at the counter, annoyed by Vlad's shoulder tap, now finding his way to get back at him.

"Hey, this guy, doesn't he look like a blind?" asked another guy not too far from the first to ask, feeling intrigued.

"How could a blind man get here without company?"
"I don't know, man, I have eyes. How could I know what it is like to be a blind man? Maybe that's the role of that stick."

"Shush, blind people can hear everything, even our thoughts. Monsters, I tell you."

The gossip at the counter was transmitted to the tables where the people noticed Vlad's behavior, while the latter was undisturbed, even giving a small smile that the ones at the counter spotted.

"Hmm, Innkeep, from the other people's response, you seem to have sleeping rooms. I want one if there's any available."

"Sure thing, young man. It will be 1.500 per night. Anything else? Maybe some warm stew? Are you interested?"

"Sure, can you drop some more pepper on it for me?"

"I'll see if I can find pepper in the kitchen, wait for a bit." told the Innkeeper who went to the kitchen, leaving the counter.

Vlad touched his hunter's coat for some pockets, where he took out a leather bag finishing out some coins that he placed down, in preparation for both the room and food, about 3.000 worth of coins.

The guys next to him noticed this, along with how relaxed Vlad seemed to be, and as if inspiration hit them, they extended their hand to take Vlad's money and make it seem as if he didn't brought out the money, making out with 3.000 . Yet, when the guy next to him touched the coins, he felt the cold texture of the black cane.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"I was giving you a hand in counting the coins. It seems you have taken out the wrong amount. You only have here 1.000 ."

Vlad pressed his cane harder, holding the guy's hand to the table, and with his face turned at him, with his black eyes gazing at him, making the one in question feeling a creepy sensation run down his spine, he heard the young man remark in a cold tone.

"Can you see "Fool" written down on my forehead?"

"Do you want a fight, you blind fuck?" asked the guy, who mentally was already defeated by Vlad, ending his smartass attempts at stealing his money and choosing violence like a cornered beast.

Meanwhile, Vlad continued to smile, giving the outsiders the impression he was deranged, and before the guy could get fierier, he raised his cane, pushing his hand away from his coins, and the force he used was so strong that the guy slapped himself on the face, triggering him, until someone from the tables zone walked toward the guy and whispered something.

"Dude, stop being an idiot. That blind guy has a longsword that is bloodied. He isn't some simple blind that you might rarely see around, but instead, it might be a legit killer."

"No way, how could a blind be a killer." asked the guy, who got on his feet walking away from his seat to check Vlad from outside, and it was indeed as the one from the tables mentioned, Vlad's longsword was dripping with blood, immediately giving him goosebumps.

After realizing that he shouldn't mess with Vlad even though he was blind, he went to another table with some of his buddies, leaving a decent space between Vlad and the next guy at the counter.

"What happened to those idiots?" asked the Innkeeper after returning with the stew he recommended to Vlad that was poured inside a bread bowl.

"..."

"Well, it doesn't matter since those guys paid me. As for you young man, the stew will cost 460 , and also, another question. How long do you plan to stay in Bray?"

"One night." quietly replied Vlad, pointing at the coins he put on the table.

"It is too much. Please take the rest."

"Keep them. It will help you more than me." rejected Vlad, who carefully touched the hot bread bowl, and brought it closer to him.

Afterwards, taking down the backpack that released a small impact when getting in contact with the wooden floor.

"If I may ask, what wind brought you to this place?" asked the Innkeeper with a professional smile, having already formed a better perception of Vlad and his generosity.

"I want to climb the Galena Mountain."

When the Innkeeper heard such a declaration, his expression shifted, turning solent, and before he could even reply to Vlad, some guys at the table, not the ones who had ideas with his money, began laughing out of order.

"Hahahaha, another fool who decided to commit suicide. This is great. Our village is the stage forward in sending people to their death."

"Shut up, you idiot, we shouldn't stop those who want to climb the mountain. It is their free choice."

Many comments got to Vlad's attention, filtering the bits of information thrown in a satirical manner, and soon he closed his attention for the ones at the tables, and opening his eyes, he seemed to stare at the Innkeeper's face.

"Continue, sir. You wanted to remark something."

"Indeed, but those idiots made a commotion. You can ignore most of their comments, but there's a piece of truth that is universally known by any islander belonging to Picodras, we don't climb Galena."

"Yes, I know that. I am not impressed by the stories told to scare people. Most of the ones who died were killed by beasts after being taken by surprise. My blade can attest this since even some insignificant forest had some predatory beasts lurking inside."

"Don't tell me, you arrived inside Bray by traversing the Druarwood that you encounter beasts?"

"That's how that forested place is called? Well, you can thank me, most of the wolf population has been slain by me. The shepherds will have a better life right now. Anyways, this is irrelevant. I wanted to know if you can offer me some directions toward the mountain."

"Young man, are you sure? I will only ask you once and leave you alone to your choice. However, I'd rather tell you some stories that outsiders might not know. Maybe it will change your mind."

"Thanks, but my goal will not change. Still, a good story is always appreciated." mentioned Vlad in a detached way, starting to eat from the bread bowl, the spicy hunter's stew.

The Innkeeper could only sigh when seeing how headstrong Vlad was at this moment, ignoring his warnings and painting a better picture for this blind man.

Getting on with his story while Vlad was eating, he told him about many beasts lurking in the mountain, the dangerous terrain hard to traverse, and with its landscape still unexplored by the villagers and the outsiders who always failed to return.

It was nothing that interested Vlad, who already thought of some scenarios he should worry about on his way to the mountain. One piece from the Innkeeper had him interested.

[Besides the beasts and monsters, the dangerous terrain filled with steep, there is a story spread by the old people of the village who tell about the Guardian]

[This Guardian has banned those who he deems unworthy of climbing the top from reaching the top of the mountain.]

[And, you might ask me, why no one returned from the mountain even if they explored just a tiny piece. The story goes that the Guardian doesn't allow anyone who stepped inside his mountain to leave without passing him.]

Compared to some useless and unnecessary remarks, such information significantly influenced Vlad, who, after finishing the stew, went slowly to his room after getting the instructions to where his room was.

Vlad dropped all of the equipment inside his room, falling in the bed, and relaxed his body.

'A long day will await me. I should get some sleep now that I don't have to camp in the wild and fight beasts at every corner.'

'What's more, I got my directions for the mountain and some inside information. The Guardian… Could it be the? It is the being that kills everyone who steps inside the mountain. Hah, I can't wait to get to you, Guardian.'

Not having much to prepare before going to sleep, securing his door, next he took a short stop at the dream space, and in the morning before the sun even raised, he was off from the tavern that only had a young man as the Innkeeper who he presented the key to.

"Good luck, mister. I heard from my father that you will ascend the mountain. I can only wish you luck."

"Much appreciated." replied Vlad, who moved slowly toward the tavern exit and similarly toward village outskirts, where he reached the first indication of the Innkeeper, a crossroads.

[After you reach the crossroads, take the right direction of the crossroad sign from the position you will be. But be aware that this will be your only warning to back off.]

[Once you picked that path, may the Gods be kind to you. You can drink something for free since I might never see your face around.]

His memory was playing the bits of conversation he had with the Innkeeper, and from where he was positioned with the crossroads, he touched each of the wooden directions and obviously went with the right path.

Starting hiking in a balanced way in about some hours of walking using his cane, he reached the first part of the rugged terrain, and mountain escalations that were in his path put him to work.

'It will soon get useless, but so far let's get to the limit, and I'll have it strapped to my waist.'

While his cane had various utilities, he couldn't proficiently use it on this mountainous terrain when he had to climb, yet once he reached another elevation, the terrain felt stable so that he could use the cane to guide himself forward.

'I am the son of the Carpathian Mountains. I will not get lost in the mountains. This wind feels rather familiar, exactly to when I reached the weird lion's head and stared over the horizons.' (A/N: Vlad here makes a reference to the Carpathian Sphinx in Bucegi Mountains)

Vlad felt his body reacting well to the fresh air and winds. Unlike what stories he heard, the Galena Mountain were a darling to him, except the mountain climbs that hurt his legs and arms, requiring him to take breaks.

And, even though he couldn't see anything, he heard the birds chirping around, telling him that there were signs of life in this place, and once he got to a higher altitude, only the tree branches being moved by the wind.

The wind and the water stream could help him guide him forward.

'I don't know where I got, but I have the feeling I still have more to go, and I should proceed with great care, so I don't literally drop into the abyss.'

However, he didn't know that his surroundings were of an emerald green, a stunning view hardly ever encountered, which made it rather a shame that Vlad couldn't take his time to admire this emerald picture.

As such, his journey continued steadily and efficiently since he wasn't stopping for what most people would do, and sensing the altitude raising, he reached a point where he touched head first with the mountain.

'Damn, it hurts like heck. I've reached a point where I have to climb again? I guess.'

While he was preparing to climb the dangerous part of the mountain, not far from where he was the crossing path had an easier way of bypassing the challenging route.

If Vlad had known this, he probably would have hit his head again on the mountain wall, but it was too late, he began escalating the wall.

'Maybe I should have trained in something similar to mountain climbing. I got to the point I simply guessed, instead of having some accuracy in my choices.'

It was an arduous climb for Vlad, who felt all his body tensing up and hurting, with certain parts playing the heartstrings of the young man who dropped in the abyss two times but managed to rebound by grabbing hold of the stones.

"Fuck, I already hate this mountain for being so unpredictable. Hah, even the concept of time has been lost on me."

The more he climbed and had to battle his frustration of being blind and not having the most accurate climb, the more he managed to progress the steep wall that split up his palm skin.
Unknown to him when he will end this climb, the sound of a woman's humming could be heard by Vlad's keen senses, stepping on his break, stopping in place with the backpack on his back while holding tight on the wall.

'Have I begun having hallucinations? But I don't remember this being a sickness one gets from climbing?'

*Woman singing*

'I can't understand a single thing that ghost sings. Well, it must be my challenge to defeat. All or nothing.'

Making up his mind while holding tight, accompanied by the women's enchanting singing, he pushed and finally got out from his entrapment, where he climbed for hours one single wall.

*Woman's singing*

With Vlad making out, he opened his abyssal eyes wide open, just so he might have seen a change in them from this "fabled" place, but it was for nothing.

Instead, what was in front of him was a body of water, a decent-sized lake with crystal blue water, giving a pure hue to it, where resides a small naked woman bathing inside the lake while singing.

The small, fairy-like woman was so beautiful, one couldn't take their eyes off her, but Vlad couldn't see her since he was blind.

Nevertheless, the fairy noticed Vlad's presence and immediately screamed, panicked, vanishing inside the lake, only to return with her head sticking out to see Vlad use his cane to walk forward, checking around for rugged terrain.

"My apologies, young lady. It wasn't my intent to disturb you. Would you be so kind as to give me some directions toward the mountain summit?" asked Vlad, who finally reached the lake, where his black cane made contact with the water, stopping at the boundary.

"You? Who are you? A human?? I can't remember how long I have been here without seeing a human. Wow, I got scared that I might have done a upssy inside the lake."

"Okay, sure, but I don't have time for cheap talk. I got to climb Galena's summit."

"Human, you have already reached the summit of the mountain. Also, could you stop looking at me? It is indecent. Don't tell me, you are one of those?"

"Those?"

"You know, perverts."

"..."

'Where the fuck am I? Who is the woman talking with me? She has a weird speech, but I can understand her surprisingly.'

"I am not a pervert. My name is Vlad. More importantly, who are you? How can a woman be so high in the mountain? Are you an inhabitant? A secluded person, maybe?"

On the other hand, with this vital question thrown, the little fairy, who put some silk fabric gown on her, flew toward Vlad and landed on his shoulder, replying in a whispering voice.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know? It is who you are that I am asking."

"Champion, I really don't know. However, something I can remember is that I've been standing here, around the summit, for many years, without someone visiting me.

*Crying* It was quite lonely being the only one here."

While she was crying, Vlad, who felt the gentle landing on his shoulder that felt like a small bug, quickly acted and caught the fairy in his hand and while his abyssal eyes were opened, trying to check if his defected eyes could see something.

"Heyyy, you said you weren't a pervert."

"I am not. Sigh, I can't even see you, young lady. You can't accuse me of anything of that order. Besides, it seems, I've fooled myself again."

"You. Those eyes are so black. There's no light in them at all. You can't see me at all?"

"I've been blind for 7 years now. So to speak, the chances of me getting my vision back are similar to finding a needle in a haystack. Anyway, can you explain to me what this place is? Why have you been here for so long?"

In the meantime, he was asking the fairy his questions, the latter made her way out from his palm and jumped on Vlad's nose, where she glanced at his eyes, closer than anyone has ever done it in his life, both ones, he felt a soft and delicate touch on his nose.

"It must be hard on you, champion."

"You get used to it with years. Also, why do you call me champion? I've told you my name, use it. Don't change the subject." replied Vlad in a detached manner, seeming cold inside and outside.

"Because you've passed the Guardian's challenge. Obviously, you'll be the champion to receive the chance at getting the sword from the lake."

"Wait a minute. But I didn't encounter any "Guardian", am I still the champion in that case?" inquired Vlad, whose irises dropped on the fairy on his nose that had her mouth opened in shock.

"... No way."

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 13: The Fairy and The Lake​

"No way! How could you get here without the Guardian's agreement?

That person is really scary. He will not allow anyone to the summit without them passing his Test." mentioned the Fairy, who looked shocked at Vlad from his nose that she fell down, being caught by Vlad.

She panicked in the free fall, but Vlad's sensible ears heard this and scooped her, placing the Fairy in his long black hair, to keep her safe from any sudden movements that would lead to her fall.

Grabbing onto his hair strands, she sees Vlad start walking using his cane toward another part of the lake, where he could have a seat and listen in a relaxed way to the Fairy's story.

"You are so calm. Also, thank you. You aren't like the humans I imagined in my mind."

"Like?"

"Barbarians. You are gentle with me, which I approve of." replied the Fairy nodding her head, pleased by how Vlad had interacted with her thus far.

"I see, don't forget about your story.

Who are you, and what is this place?"

"I don't know who I am since I forgot all my memories about myself, not even my name. However, I know that someone contracted me to watch over this place and protect something that should be rewarded to a champion passing the Guardian's challenge."

"This is why I was shocked to see you at the summit because you said you didn't encounter the Guardian, which makes it even stranger. How did you get here?"

"How? I climbed the mountain?

There's no how. I just did that.

Even though it was dangerous that I almost lost my footing 3 times, nearly falling into the abyss, my perseverance proved its worth."

"You've climbed the mountain peaks?"

"I don't know. There's no way for me to see and understand where I got. Take me as someone who got lost if it is easier for you."

"Unbelievable! Then, what should I do? Only those who pass the Guardian's challenge are deemed rightful to reach the summit, becoming judged as eligible for passing my challenge, and try their luck in finding the treasure hiding in the lake." explained the Fairy, who landed on Vlad's nose, finding it far more comfortable than his head.

Once she ended saying that, Vlad gave her a response that scared her.

"It seems I really have to pass that challenge from the Guardian…

Could you guide me to where this Guardian is so we can get done with this part?"

"Wait, wait, don't rush yourself. You've reached the summit on your own abilities, even though you are probably stranded from the right path, not encountering the Guardian.

I can't ask you now to step down and walk the right path. It wouldn't be fair to you human, especially with your blindness." remarked the Fairy patting Vlad's nose, stopping him from raising up and going about with her directions.

"Well, I am glad you understand me, young lady. I've spent a lot of energy on this journey and even resources. I've been away from home for 8 days if we consider that this day is almost over."

"Indeed, I am not the one who put those rules in place. No rule says otherwise, such in your case. You've got here using your own abilities, giving you the privilege to be eligible for my challenge."

"Much appreciated, young Fairy." replied Vlad, who found this little Fairy interesting and not an annoyance like Mary or other girls in the city.

"You are welcome, champion."

"Vlad. I am not a champion by any means. I've done a lot of bad things in my life. Even God might frown on me once I get to Heaven's Gate."

"Fine, no problem by me. While I like how you talk with me, I don't remember my name."

"You want me to give you a name?"

"Mhm, I have a feeling we'll be together for a long time." said the Fairy with a pure smile on her face that Vlad couldn't see, but while perceiving her voice.

He felt a tender, warm tone from this little Fairy that had the appearance of a beautiful woman, with elf's features that could put to test any man's desires.

However, the Fairy felt security while standing on Vlad's nose and could only giggle when she heard the latter had no response to what she mentioned.

"You feel?"

"Mhm, I do. I believe you'll be able to take the sword from the lake and bring me along with you. You are a good human."

"... Hah, such a silly young lady. You don't even know me and place your trust in me?"

"So silly"

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"There is plenty of wrongs. What if the one who came first instead of me was some evil criminal without morals and consciousness? Would you think the same?"

"Obviously, no. I will instead hide inside the lake. My contract doesn't state that I should welcome anyone I feel undeserving, which would be impossible because the Guardian would defeat any evil person trying to take the sword from the lake.

Also, my name. Give me a name."

"I got none right now." replied Vlad in a concise manner, turning silent while the Fairy was animated, talking with him about various subjects as if she hadn't had a conversation with someone in ages, making him think about how she must have felt being prisoner to this place.

"What should I do with the challenge? Can I take it?"

"Ohh, you finally made up your mind? It is simple, inside the lake, two sigils bind the magical sword to the bottom of the lake.

To pass the challenge and gain the sword, you have to find the seals and activate them."

"That's all? I don't have to fight anyone for the sword?"

"Not that I am aware. You should have fought the Guardian, but what should I do now that you are here?

I can't fight against you. Just look at me, would such a fragile girl like me fight?" mentioned the Fairy, moving her hands on her own bodyline, right before Vlad's eyes, and immediately got embarrassed by her bold move, but remembered that Vlad was blind.

"I bet you are a very beautiful young lady. A fabled Fairy can't be ugly. It would be blasphemy.

I wish I could see you right now, this refreshing lake or Galena Mountain with its whole scenery."

"Don't worry, Vlad, you'll be fine."

"What's more, little Fairy, are you curious to hear why I adventured to this place?"

"…"


Getting the young lady seated on his nose and relaxing her back on his nose bridge, she wondered why, as if he activated her instinctive curiosity.

"There is a legend about this place that would offer something of one's desires once they pass the test. This adventure of mine was searching for my vision, not some sword which I already have."

"I am sorry to hear that."

"Don't be. There are more legends in this world that might bring light into my dead eyes."

Staying like this, he was seated on a leveled rock, while the Fairy on his nose made it look rather harmonious, with both talking with one another, both responding to each curiosity, until Vlad picked the Fairy from his nose and held her in his palm.

"I had enough recovery time. Excuse me, young lady, but now it is time I search for this sword."

She was gently placed on the ground and stared up. She could see Vlad take off his clothes and even his underwear, preparing himself to enter the lake.

In doing this change like this, the Fairy, initially curious to see how Vlad's body looked, turned embarrassed and placed her hands on her eyes.

Nevertheless, she couldn't escape the temptation of looking for more, and going off his private parts, she noticed that Vlad's body was full of scars, all in weird places that didn't make sense.

His lower body and upper body bore the marks of his suffering.

'Don't stare there! I'll not be able to face myself if I look down there.'

'Besides, I wonder what happened to him, to have so many scars…'

"Well, young lady, I will be off. Ahh, the last question. Do I have a time limit?"

"Don't look down there. Ahem, you asked me something?

Ahh, you actually have a time limit, but I can make an exception since you don't have a vision. Unlimited time."

"Ohh, thank you, young lady. I see that you also want to get away from this mountain. Don't worry, I might be blind, but the rest of my senses are better than most humans."

*Splash*

Jumping on the cold lake while he was butt naked, he felt this temperature refreshing, and after taking some minutes to adapt to the temperature.

He smiled in the direction of the Fairy and dived, starting his descent while his world was black, feeling the water touch his eyes and the water entering his ears.

His dive was nimble, but soon he started to feel the lake's deepness, which made his descent challenging. Feeling that the lake's deepness was quite challenging, and with only a single breath after 7 minutes, he touched the ground with his arm and searched for the sword or the sigils.

The first failed attempt had him swim back to the surface, remaining silent at the questions thrown by the Fairy attempting to find how he went.

But it was a failure.

Only after the night dropped, making the water temperature decline, when he prepared to say it quits for today, he touched the handle of a sword.

'Is this the sword the little girl mentioned? Let's see if I can take it out from where it is stuck.'

He tried once, twice, and other endless tries until his breath shortened, forcing him to get to the surface. Yet finding the sword made him try again, ending sourly in the expenditure of his strength and stamina.

'The sigils bound the sword. I need to get to the sigils, but tomorrow. I got to sleep a bit.'

With Vlad reaching the surface, he started swimming toward the shore, getting out, making the Fairy embarrassed again when seeing him in full display.

"You've grew quiet, young lady. Got upset with me for ignoring you when I was at the surface? Ahh, I see. I'll get my clothes immediately." remarked Vlad, who understood what was wrong with the Fairy peeking at his body between her fingers.

Covering his lower body and getting his boots, he turned his head where the Fairy was, asking her.

"Would you be kind enough to help me choose a leveled ground location so I can set my camp?"

"Mhm, no problem, but it has to be within the radius of the lake because I am bound to this place."

"Surely."

The Fairy jumped on Vlad's head and in a comical side that the young man rarely ever showed.

"Good, you've got to my head. It will be easier now to guide me.

Listen. If you want me to go ahead, you'll have to pull the front part of my hair. If you want me to go to the sides, pull my side hair. Backward is the back strands. Easy, right?"

"Wouldn't it hurt you?"

"How cute. Don't worry, young lady, your touch is akin to a fly touching me. In fact, I might have to concentrate on picking it up."

She pouted at this response, but she didn't find a problem.
She guided Vlad, acting like his eyes and settling him down on a greenfield with lush grass. Reaching a safe spot, he took his backpack and started getting from there his sleeping bag, where next he went to gather some wood from the surroundings using the Fairy guidance, starting a fire to warm up.

"How can you do so many things even though you've lost your vision?" asked the Fairy resting in Vlad's palm, at his warm cover.

"I visualize many things in my mind and use my imagination to make out certain things that my hands touch. My only way out from the insanity." responded Vlad in a solemn tone, where his voice's temperature dropped down a bit.

"Does this mean you can imagine how I look?"

"If you can help me with a description of how you look, it would give me a chance to view a fabled fairy."

The Fairy played with her beautiful hair that was shimmered in all the color of autumn leaves, acting like a shy young lady.

Raising her head at Vlad, who had his eyes closed, her golden eyes shining like the sun sparkled a tiny bit, and while she rested her head on Vlad's warm hands, she began telling him.

"From what the lake showed me, I have mixed colored hair like the autumn leaves, my eyes are of golden color like the sun, my skin is milky white just like yours, a lot softer than yours, but nonetheless yours is also pleasant. I have two small translucent, brightly colored wings.

Ahem, I like to wear white silk clothes made from spider silk.

… Do you also want to know about my body?" asked the Fairy quietly.

"If you want to tell me, it will not make a big difference in my mind. I've already painted your figure in my head."

"Noo, it is important. What if, by chance, you are confused that I have a flat chest? Or that I don't have a curved waistline? These are important aspects to a girl."

"Hahaha, such a cute girl. Go on, I am all ears."

"Ahem, I don't have a flat chest. Instead, it is quite big. Here, I'll show you."

Ending that, the Fairy turned her body on Vlad's palm and pressed her bosom on his palm, which made him humm, impressed, and even felt her nipples touch his palm.

"Noted down, this changes things. I have to modify the upper body. By the way, aren't you a little bit of a pervert, young lady? How could you do such a thing to a pure young man like myself?"

"Y-y-y-you made me do this. You are to blame and don't act as if I am the one pervert. You are the one who s-showed me."

"Showed you what?" inquired Vlad, using a playful tone that had the Fairy all red, like a cherry, and she moved around restlessly, trying to mess his palm.

"You baddy, you showed me everything and act as if you are innocent. If you tease me, I might have you do this challenge in one week."

"Yes, young lady. My bad, but who told you to peek at my body."

"Arghh, stop it. It is embarrassing."

"Huhuhu, fine, I will stop."

.

In this moment, where the stars were closer than when he was on the ground, he couldn't admire the mesmerizing night sky, but the Fairy was able, and when turning to look at Vlad, he saw him stare at her with his black eyes.

'Can he see me? Let me wave my hand at him. Maybe I will get a reaction.'

Waving her hand at Vlad, trying to get a reaction, she received Vlad's pinky, who made contact with her tender hands, waving along.

"You can see?"

"I would love to, beautiful fairy. But I am only a blind man.

I just heard the movement of your hand, waving at me. I only replied back."

"Ahh, I am sorry."

"Don't be, as I told you, I used to be a cruel, bad person that looked down at life, with his hands stuck in hell, soiled in the blood of his enemies and innocent. And it's not as if I changed myself, I am still the same cruel person with bloody hands.

Getting blinded is the punishment I am suffering for my past transgressions, and I have to live on, accepting it. Until one point where the madness will catch up to me, and I want to escape this abyss."

"You don't seem like a bad person to me. The way you speak and act is of a serene person. No way, you could be such a person."

"Hah, young lady, the beast hides deep inside of me. Lurking in the shadows of my mind, waiting to devour anyone standing in my way, blocking me from achieving my goals."

"It must be hard for you, struggling with such dangers that might harm you."

"Silly girl, that beast can't harm me. I am that exact monster."

"I will stop it once it gets out."

"Haha, silly girl. Sure, I hope you can stop me if you are so special." remarked Vlad who caressed the Fairy's head with his index finger, preparing himself to sleep in his sleeping bag, made out of thick blankets and thin ones, insulating his body.

Before he even went to sleep, the little Fairy made her way inside the sleeping bag, and, seeing that Vlad was giving the impression he was sleeping, went to his face and kissed his cheek before lowering to his neck and finding a comfortable part that she used as a pillow.

"Good night, my champion."

"Good night to you too, little Titania." mentioned Vlad with a small smile on his face, spooking the little Fairy and at the same time bringing forth a wave of emotions in herself.

"The name you picked for me is Titania?"

"If you like it, otherwise I can think of another one."

"Nooo, I love it. Good night, " replied Titania, who giggled like a happy little girl getting herself some sweets or toys.

Instead of sleeping, she played with Vlad's skin, where the latter didn't disturb her, finding her interesting, and before he even knew it, he was sleeping profoundly while Titania too found refuge in his warm neck, that she began salivating on.

In the morning, Vlad woke himself with his neck wet, but he didn't know that the little Fairy had left him some gifts without her even knowing, giving him small hickeys the size of a mosquito bite. Titania, when waking up, finding herself clinching on Vlad's neck, still drowsy, touched the neck as if it was her pillow, arranging it, finding out that it was wet.

"You like the present you left me, little Titania?"

"It wasn't me." denied the Fairy, who looked at the hickeys she gave him, making her avoid glancing at his handsome face.

"No? Then it must be me sweating. How could the gentle Fairy do something indecent?"

"Hm, exactly."

Vlad smiled, and picking Titania from where he was, he placed her on his disheveled ink-black hair, cleaning out his sleeping bag while Titania remained quiet, braiding some of his strands.

"When will you search again in the lake?"

"After I meditate and eat something, I will resume my search. I thought a bit about where those sigils could be located and got to test the locations."

 

[Morpheus146]

Chapter 14: The puzzle and the Blade​

His attempts at solving this puzzle started reaching high numbers.

Like this day passed, and he reached the first week since he reached the summit of Galena Mountain, struggling to solve the puzzle of where the sigils might have been located.

The food supplies he brought along from Picodras also ended, but he wasn't dejected in those moments, managing to get hits on all those days that he spent fighting this puzzle.

Apart from this, he also had a company he started to enjoy in Titania that brought his spirits up whenever he would resurface with a frown, getting stuck with one major conclusion about this challenge.

'Whoever created this puzzle must have been hit worse than I was in the head. I identified the walls with a flat polish to them, but this is like finding the needle, and I got to find two of them.'

'The lake also has a depth of 120 meters to add salt to injury. Fuck you, whoever built this "challenge". Your attempt of making it spicy doesn't help this blind man whosoever.'

"Fight Vlad! Don't give up on the search." shouted the little Fairy from the shore, seeing Vlad frowning, annoyed.

'Luckily, I have this adorable girl to keep my mood up. Otherwise, I would simply hit my head on the mountain and climb down.'

'Fuck that Sword. I already got one.'

'Here we go again. What attempt is this? Hah, I lost the count, maybe 82.'

Thinking that not expecting anything important to happen in this dive of his, he went in the direction of one wall touching it around with his hands.

Feeling the texture, something he did for each level, shift going deeper, and with a mentality that was indifferent to anything that was going to happen, he felt his hand entering deeper inside the wall of the lake.

The crackling of a mechanism opening up could be heard even at 80 meters by Vlad, who was shocked that he had almost lost his breathing.

'Was this the sigil that I just touched? Finally, luck strikes me. Let me remember the texture of the wall and mechanism.'

Swiftly, he stuck to the lake wall like a leech and began using his tactile senses to the maximum extent his senses, and when sensing his limit was reached, he began ascending to the surface, shouting like he had won the lottery, feeling the refreshing temperature of the lake once again.

"I finally found one of those tiny sigils! DO YOU HEAR IT LITTLE FAIRY? I FOUND ONE OF THOSE BUGGERS AT LAST!"

"I TOLD YOU THEY EXISTED!" shouted Titania, excited for Vlad's success, starting to jump on the greenfield while Vlad felt his spirit reinvigorated.

Vlad waited for his stamina to recover and again descended to find the last sigil, where he started swimming toward another wall, hoping this would be his path from this annoying and time-consuming puzzle.

Going on trying to find this sigil using the same method he did with the first sigil, Vlad didn't see any success, even after moving to all of the walls that consumed most of his day, and he couldn't understand where the remaining puzzle piece was.

His muscles went sore from diving and ascending, while his mind was tired from all the thoughts going at the same time in his mind, and annoyed by this stupid challenge once again, he dived directly to the Sword.

Grabbing hold of the handle, he started to pull it.

Nonetheless, he was just expanding his energy over a lost cause.

The Sword didn't give one millimeter of the ground as if it was fused with the ground.

'Where is it? It is already night, and I only have supplies for one more day before I will be required to hunt, which will lead to me encountering the "Guardian".'

'Where is it? I've tried each wall, each corner, each rock that I felt off, I've tried everything, but it didn't click.'

In his frustration, he decided to quiet down and no longer stress himself, lurking at the lake's deepest point.

Touching the ground with his legs and taking a seating position underwater as if he was trying to commit suicide by drowning, Vlad had something else on his mind, pondering about his surroundings.

Clearing out his unsound state of mind it immediately brought some benefits to his body, making it seem as if he could keep standing underwater without feeling the need to exit, and in that serene moment, he had a deja-vu, where this situation felt similar to a point in time he couldn't explain.

Vlad no longer rushed himself to get his reward, instead swimming toward the Sword he couldn't see that had some runes on its blade shining with dark light/

Getting on his feet, he stood upright holding the handle of the Sword, and with him positioning his feet in the correct position, suddenly the click he searched in a madded state was heard.

*Click*

*Mechanism opening*

From nowhere, with the position he never expected the sigil to be in, his left leg got deeper inside the ground, making him unbalanced, and feeling that he was getting shorter of breath because of everything going around him.

His hands held strong on the Sword's handle that still didn't budge. Yet, the sounds going underground, similar to a castle door being opened, made him realize that he still had to wait until everything was released, and without much time to wait, he resurfaced, hearing Titania's worried voice.

"Vlad, are you alright? You've spent more time than you used to do. If you want to take a break, we can search tomorrow. No need to hurry and get hurt in the process."

Vlad could hear the Fairy worry and also the cold breeze of the mountain that blew on his long wet hair, and while gazing at her, guiding himself using her sweet voice, he started laughing in a crazed manner.

"WUAHAHA."

Titania, finding it strange for Vlad to laugh in such a way, started flying toward him, landing on his head, asking again if everything was alright, but what she received was Vlad taking her from his head and kissing her face.

"My lucky charm. I told you, you will be my lucky charm since I've heard from the books I had people read for me that Fairies are bringers of luck."

"A-a-a-a. What got into you? Did water get into your head?" asked Titania with her face going into a cherry-red after Vlad ended his excited kiss on the beautiful woman that had a mystic charm to her, escaping from his palms and landing on his head trying to evade his hands.

"Yeah, in my ears in particular, but I will be fine.

I've done it, little Titania. I found the last sigil."

"After I gather my breath, I will dive for the last time to get my reward."

"Wait, you actually did it?" asked the Fairy, who couldn't believe what the young man she was standing on was mentioning.

However, moments later, she felt as if a weight got unbound from her tiny legs and instantly began celebrating with Vlad.

"I AM FREE! THAT CURSED CONTRACT HAS BEEN LIFTED!

YEEEYYY! YOU DID IT, MY CHAMPION!" said Titania, who began jumping on Vlad's head before she went into the air, releasing a bright light from her wings.

Soon the fireflies appeared from around the mountain, starting to light up the sky for the Fairy and the blind young man who couldn't enjoy the spectacle in the air.

Soon, Titania began singing in a magnificent voice that captured Vlad's attention, moving his eyes directed to the Fairy according to her voice and her song.

In her excitement, she flew toward Vlad and kissed his lips, acting airheaded but not forgetting to continue her song, accompanied by the fireflies.

'Such an interesting woman. Even though I can't understand a single thing she signs, it must be good. I get a joyful vibe from it. I will ask her later after she calms herself. Maybe I scoop some more kisses from her. Her saliva tastes like honey.

Hahaha, to think that I will once again enjoy being kissed genuinely at my old age. Come, little Titania, shower me with gifts.'

Vlad wasn't disappointed, the Fairy, along with her singing, would at unexpected intervals get to Vlad to kiss him with her tender lips, where he wasn't quick enough to take advantage of her, but once her song was over, she landed on Vlad's head, and lowering herself to his forehead, kissing his forehead.

"I can't remember for how long I've been here.

I don't remember who I am, but I can tell from the bottom of my heart, this is the happiest day and night of my life.

Thank you for freeing me. I don't know how to repay you."

"No need. It is fine. Helping you, by extension, is helping myself."

"No, I have to do something. You've allowed me to sleep in your warm bed even though I've done those bad things to you, the marks, sorry.

You allowed me to eat your delicious food, you've talked with me, telling me about yourself from the good and bad moments. I have to repay you, or I will go crazy."

*Chuckle* "Take it easy, little Titania. I've never heard you so consumed by something. You don't have to do anything for me. You've already done plenty by standing beside me, encouraging me not to give up."

"I will repay you either if you like it or not." replied Titania, who stood on his nose bridge, pressing her small forehead on his procerus.

"You don't have to."

"Wait, now that I am free, what will I do? I don't remember anything, where is my home? Doesn't this mean I am alone in this world?" asked Titania, who felt an existential crisis in those moments, starting getting panicked and scared.

"You might not know who you are, but I do know who you are. You are Titania. If you don't have a home, I can be your home." remarked Vlad in a warm voice, making Titania to stare with her pure golden eyes at his black eyes as if they were a contradiction of elements, light, and darkness.

"Won't I trouble you? Won't I be a nuisance?"

"Haha, little Titania, I am only a blind man. I can't offer you a gracious house worthy of a Fairy, only my oily hair and body.
I haven't told you, and I rarely tell people this, but I have a deep dislike for people I deem unworthy to talk with me. There were many that I ignored and turned my ears deaf to them, and you are one of the special ones that I listened to with curiosity."

"A blind man like me can't go to many places, even though I plan to explore the world searching for a cure for my eyes. If you are with me, you'll be my pair of eyes that I lack, lighting my path forward while we will also search for your past memories."

Hearing Vlad's confession from his shattered heart that was barely held into its spirit form, a part of himself that suffered a lot of defeats and disappointments in life, there was a new door created for a beautiful Fairy that was wetting his nose with warm tears, making it seem as if he was crying.

*Crying* "You think so highly of me that you made me cry already. I promise I will not be a nuisance and that I will be your eyes from now on.

Thank you for being with me right now, Vlad." mentioned Titania who continued to cry, while accepting Vlad's offer to join him from now on, making the latter to give a wide smile, also happy that he wasn't declined.

"It will be fine, Titania. We'll be able to see a lot of interesting places from now on." reassured Vlad, who brought his pinky to clear the Fairy's cheeks of tears.

While he caressed her face a bit, he sensed something approaching him from nowhere inside the lake, making him start swimming from harm's way, scarring Titania in the process, holding tight to his face.

"A false alarm? Wait, from where did that feeling that something was going to hit me come? I never experienced such a thing in my life, even when I fought those wild beasts."

"Vlad, look! The Sword has appeared to the surface." exclaimed Titania, who could see the Sword stuck at the bottom of the lake reveal itself for the first time even for her, who didn't know for certain what it was that she was watching over, seeming to levitate on the water surface.

"How does it look? Compared to my Sword?"

"Obviously you, silly, your Sword is scraps compared to this Sword.

It gives a strong feeling about it.

It releases a black light, while there are some symbols inscribed on the blade that shines with a dark light. I never expected the Sword to have such a spirit as if it is animated."

"Wait, little Titania. Could you vividly describe to me what the Sword looks like?"

"Sure. It is half your height, while the handle has some leather wrapped around it with a nice touch, and the blade is exactly as I told you. Sorry, I am not good at describing such things, weapons."

"We live and learn little Titania. Hold tight since I will start swimming in the direction of the Sword. Guide me."

"The hair?" asked the Fairy, as if she got the tutorial on how to control Vlad's buttons.

"What else?"

Titania nodded her small head, and jumping on Vlad's head, she went to grab a strand of hair from the top, back, and sides, acting like a Gundam pilot, directing Vlad toward the Sword.

Until she felt a strong repulsing force hit her and the young man, who remarked with a cold, interested voice, which told her a lot.

"Impressive to think there would exist such a thing. It doesn't want me to approach it, as if it has a soul and spirit, just like you mentioned."

"It probably has one. Be careful."

"Hmph, I was the one to release it. Does this scrap sword think can behave bossy around me?" commented Vlad, who took a deep breath later, telling Titania something she didn't like to hear.

"Titania, for your safety, go to the shore. I will face this rusted Sword on my own."

"No, you can't. I will be with you in this one. I will give you my strength."

"Come on, little Titania, don't be stubborn right now. You are strong in your own ways, but this repulsing wave is not something a gentle Fairy like you can handle."

"You wanna bet?"
"On what?"

"A kiss on the lips." replied Titania with a serious voice, glancing at the black Sword with some annoyance, feeling mad that even after Vlad suffered so many defeats and frustration, it still acted as if it didn't recognize Vlad as the rightful wielder.

"We got a deal, my lady." replied Vlad, who opened his abyssal eyes focused on where the Sword was levitating.

"Good, you better don't go back on the deal."

Vlad felt like snickering when he heard the Fairy so serious, but with his mindset changing, the more he waited, turning into a war mode.

He started swimming in the direction of the Sword while Titania was holding tight on Vlad's scalp.

The Sword gave off a strong black wave blast that hit Vlad head-on, making him feel his state of mind getting weaker, but not giving up on this fight, finding it pathetic that he could lose to a sword.

He forced his way closer and closer, where the pressure grew stronger, finding his body getting tired, but a gentle touch on his forehead revitalized him to the point it was enough to get to the sword handle and touch it.

"SWORD, I AM YOUR MASTER! ACKNOWLEDGE ME, AND I PROMISE YOU A BRIGHT FUTURE WHERE EVERYONE WILL FEAR OUR MIGHT!

I, YOUR MASTER, VLAD THE DRAGON, WILL HAVE A BRIGHT FUTURE WHERE I WILL WATCH DOWN ON EVERYONE FROM THE PINNACLE! NEVER TO TASTE DEFEAT IN THIS LIFE!"

As he shouted that, Titania, who held strong on Vlad's hair, felt an intense spirit coming from Vlad, and even she was shocked by the strong proclamation that promised greatness for both the Sword and himself.

Nevertheless, this clash of spirits and convictions between the young man and Sword, had Vlad get tired rather faster than he expected.

Not knowing how to explain this sensation he was experiencing, the Sword too lessened its resistance, and when he thought he would lose focus, the Sword stopped resisting, securing itself in his grip as if it allowed Vlad to win this fight of wills.

"You did it!" celebrated Titania seeing Vlad hold the black Sword while remaining unmoving and non responding as if he had gone unconscious.

Turning panicked, she jumped on his nose and started to tap on his Procerus, trying to get some response. She checked his nose and heard him breathe calmly, without showing signs that he was hurt, which immediately calmed her mind, placing her at peace.

'He might be having a talk with the sword right now.'

Once she returned back to his head, she started playing with his long wet hair, making braids, getting later on spooked by Vlad, remarking in a calm and collected voice.

"Arrogant bastard, that's how you behave with your new master? You didn't even want to talk with me like men, one on one, instead just sent out the things you can do.

Transforming forms regardless of weapon.

Coward. If you acted with such bravado at first, keep the front. Tch, at least you have an interesting ability. Only by thinking about the new form can you shift forms."

"Vlad, what happened to you?"

"I went into some trance state, where there were some strings of thoughts that didn't belong to me, telling me about some abilities, presumably coming from this sword."

"I see. I am glad to hear that you are alright." confessed Titania, who patted Vlad's head, and after he swam out from the lake in the Adam costume, she remained on the top, trying not to look.

Her curiosity was eating her alive as she took a small peek down, getting herself embarrassed and also fascinated.

'Don't tell me, I am a pervert?' thought Titania to herself while Vlad was cleaning his wet chiseled body, as if it belonged to a Greek god, later on changing into his lower body clothes, picking her up.

"Mhm?"

"Not "Mhm" I lost my bet. Are you ready?" inquired Vlad, who held the Fairy in his palms.

"What bet?" asked Titania, not remembering what she betted with Vlad on the wave of adrenaline she felt, now being confused.

"Ahh, I'll let you be shy."

Using his pinky finger, Vlad touched Titania's lips, brought her closer to the mouth, and pressed his lips to her tiny lower half of the face, where he, later on, felt the Fairy's tongue touching his upper lip.

"I told you, my little Titania, that I am a bad person." ended Vlad saying, licking his lips after he gave the Fairy a gentle kiss, finding the bet an overall win for himself, while Titania was red like a cheery, looking at how Vlad was licking his lips like a predatory beast.

"Mhm, you are a bad person. A very bad person." replied Titania shyly, vanishing from Vlad's palm and getting inside his hair, starting hiding, while she placed her small hands on her bosom, feeling her heart beating like a hopper.

Meanwhile, Vlad, who actually felt a lot of pleasure from giving that kiss to Titania, unknown why, moved on, leaving that thought for another time to solve, now turning his attention to the Sword he stabbed on the ground like it was worth scrap.

"Now that I've rewarded my little Fairy, let's see what this arrogant sword can do before I go to sleep."
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A/N: If you want to read 20+ chapters ahead or support me, visit here:
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