The Fallen Vampire

With his daughter and three of his wives on his back, Taira walked towards the palace of the Profound Pill Union.

Or more accurately, the area behind the palace.

A crowd had formed in a beautiful stone garden.

Two seating areas were packed to the brim as everyone's eyes were glued to the spectacle beneath them.

Two scholars were working over simple medicinal cauldrons without any enhancements.

They each had two wooden tables nearby with a large amount of plant ingredients still waiting to be used.

From the moment that Taira and the girls showed up, they were immediately interested.

"What's mommy doing??" Yukiko leaned forward.

"Seems like a bit of alchemy, dear. And a competition too no less." Keran chuckled. "We seem to have missed a lot."

"Were you expecting us not to catch you up, my darling?"

Lucia and Aveena walked over while linked arm-in-arm. Their lovely green dragoness seemed fine, but for whatever reason the buxom oni seemed as if she were teetering on the verge of a violent outburst already.

"You seem unwell... Did something happen?" Taira tilted his head.

"This whole system is fucking corrupt... I'll tear it apart with my bare hands if I have to." She growled.

"..." Everyone slowly turned their hands towards Lucia as if they were looking for a more clearheaded explanation.

"She's upset because Dan Master Hideyoshi stipulated that she wasn't allowed to participate in the judging of this contest."

"And that's such bullshit! I'm the most fair and impartial person on this entire fucking island!"

"What pills are they making, love?" Enyo asked.

"I wasn't paying attention, but I'm positive that Vermeil's are better." Aveena stubbornly folded her arms across her large chest and looked away in a huff.

The group kind of looked amongst each other without saying anything. But somehow, they were all having the same thoughts.

"Mommies!" Yukiko held out her arms.

Somehow, Aveena forgot all about the unfair slight she had suffered earlier.

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Lucia and Aveena pilfered the young girl from atop Taira's back and kept her sandwiched between them.

"Hellooo, my little cherry blossom!! Did you miss us??"

"I'm sorry we weren't there when you woke up, but Mommy had to work a bit and make some connections... I hope we didn't disappoint you."

"Am okay." Yukiko smiled. "I see you now!"

Aveena felt an arrow of love shoot through her heart.

She had only been a mom for one night, but she was already loving it. Their dream had taken a long time to achieve, but Yukiko was more than worth it.

Hopefully, she was always this pleasant even when her teen years finally arrived.

*Whoosh!*

Two explosions resounded behind the family.

One was caused by an explosion of seemingly normal flame.

The orange, searing column of fire took the form of a great dragon.

It soared throughout the air briefly before it flew to Grandmaster Hideyoshi.

Opening up it's muzzle- it dispensed exactly six dark green pills into the dwarf's waiting hand- and he held them out for all to see.

"Rank-Four Jade Bone Pills... I've never seen them prepared in such a way."

"They all look like they're of an incredibly high quality. I can't wait for a proper appraisal."

"Yea, but..."

Everyone was looking at the other spectacle that was somehow not as grand as his.

Instead of one, there were three dragons made from glowing blue flames and stars. They all danced around each other in the sky as if they were apart of some calculated ritual.

One by one, the dragons descended in front of Vermeil and spat pills in her hand.

The process was a quick one, but those with the best reflexes were able to see each dragon spit out three pills into her hand before she tucked them away into a small brown bag.

She didn't bother to show them to anyone in the crowd. She actually looked a tiny bit annoyed for reasons that no one knew.

Only her family could see the ghost of an old man floating around her- seemingly laying out some staunch criticisms.

"T-This is crazy... she was able to produce more pills with the same amount of ingredients."

"Y-Yea, but they surely aren't as high of a quality as the Dan Master... Besides, it's probably got something to do with that weird blue flame she uses. "

"You can't possibly know that. She put them away so quickly that no one got a chance to see."

"W-We'll see in a minute, won't we. Just take my word for it."

Both contestants seemed to behave as if they were paying no attention to each other or the murmurs of the audience.

With round four already over, Vermeil and Hideyoshi went to their tables to grab the next batch of ingredients and begin throwing them into the cauldron.

Although, for some reason Vermeil seemed to take a little more time holding onto her ingredients before she actually attempted to cook them.

As the competition was still not quite over, Taira gave Aveena a small nudge with his snout to steal her attention.

"Alright, I'm sufficiently curious... Care to tell me why or how this whole situation has come about?"

- Twenty-Eight Minutes Later...

The excitement surrounding the competition had reached a fever pitch as the competitors finally finished their last batch of pills.

As of right this moment, they were bringing their pills to the judges table for inspection. The buzzing of the crowd was so loud that it was making the bones in Vermeil's chest rattle.

And yet, it did nothing to drown out the voice of the man floating above her head.

"...I do not understand you, Vermeil. Why would you stifle your own proficiency like this? Your pills should have come out ten times better with me as your teacher!" Velreth huffed.

'I already asked you eighty times to drop it, Grandpa Vel. It's done, and the cake's been baked already.'

"Do not speak to me of cakes, and confections, little earth girl! I want to know why you have chosen to hide what you are capable of!"

Vermeil maintained a good poker face as she shook Hideyoshi's hand as a show of sportsmanship.

'I just flew off the handle earlier and got caught up in the spirit of competition. But I don't actually want to humiliate this old guy.'

"What?! Where is all of this softheartedness coming from!?"

'I... I don't know. It's stupid. Shut up.'

"Vermeil!?"

Vermeil was beginning to get a headache as she placed her pills on the judges table alongside Hideyoshi's. 'I just... I don't want to be the reason potential alliances turn to shit.'

Now, Velreth was truly slack-jawed. "Vermeil Doré, what are you talking about..?"

A vein bulged in Vermeil's head. 'It doesn't matter. I've already done it so theres nothing more to be said at this point.'

Velreth stopped asking because he could see that Vermeil was establishing a firm wall between them. Attempting to cross it even more would prove to be fruitless.

Vermeil was out of it for the duration of the judging. She didn't hear what the judge's assessment of her work was. Or even the full enthusiasm of the crowd.

Her mind was several worlds away- and with people who likely didn't even think about her anymore.

She kind of just wanted this whole day to be over.

There was only one kind of distinctive stimuli that could have saved her in the moment.

A pair of small arms attempted to wrap around her legs like a vice.

Looking down, Vermeil saw the most delightful smiling face that she had ever witnessed staring up at her.

Those arms that didn't even possess all that much strength within them had successfully managed to pull her from a very dark place all on their own.

Now more than ever, she was assured that her decision had been the right one- even if it was unpopular.

"You won, mommy! You did it! I do not know what you did, but you did it!" Yukiko cheered giddily.

Just like that, Vermeil could hear the world again.

Whenever any great competition sees a surprise upset during a match, reactions are always full of shock, awe, and bewilderment.

Stay tuned to empire

And sure enough, this instance was no different.

They were all on their feet. Some where clapping, others held their faces as they lost their minds, and the remaining few just stood around with their jaws permanently lodged open.

She won. 5-2.

They were cheering for her.

But none of this, no matter how grand, made Vermeil feel anything.

The only thing that reminded her that her heart was beating, the only thing that made her feel like a real victor- was the little girl hugging her legs.

'And…'

She glanced at the seven lovers who she shared her life with. All of whom seemed to be cheering for her twice as loudly as everyone else and ignoring any sense of decorum or public image.

She lifted her daughter into her arms and held her close- so close that it seemed like she was trying to absorb the young girl into her skin.

She turned to the Dan Master a final time- bowed and thanked him for the exhibition, and practically ran into their waiting embrace- abandoning any thoughts of any other prize than them.