Little brother?

Seeing the exhausted Dante, Eva ran over to him and pulled him into a hug.

"Thank god you're ok…" She said, tears threatening to flow from her eyes.

Dante had become someone important to her in the past two days. She enjoyed their conversations and she also enjoyed learning about one another. So, seeing him almost die clawed at her heart.

"I'm fine, just a little tired." Dante reassured her.

Not hearing Dantes words, Eva proceeded to check him and make sure he was fine. She didn't stop checking on him until Dante was forced to calm her down.

After finally calming her down, Dante headed back to the coachman to make sure he was okay, with Eva holding on to his arm to make sure he didn't fall. Conforming that the coachman was fine, Dante and Eva went back into the carriage.

Out of mana from the previous fight, Dante decided to meditate and Eva promised to keep a close eye on him.

Diving into his mind space, Dante was once again greeted by his Bronze Core. Turning the Bronze Core to replenish his lost mana, his attribute engulfed it but it didn't seem to be devouring all the outside attributes like it did previously, instead it focused on something inside his mind space.

Turning his head to look at what his attribute was devouring, he saw a pitch black pearl and based on the aura it was giving off, it was that man's Death attribute.

The Death attribute tried to fight off Dantes attribute but eventually realized it was pointless and allowed itself to be devoured.

Devouring the Death attribute quickly replenished Dantes mana and even more. Little cracks started to appear on his Bronze Core and they slowly grew until they were covering the entire core. Sadly, right before what looked to be another breakthrough, the Death attribute was fully devoured and Dante awoke from his meditative state.

"Everything go alright?" Said Eva worriedly.

"Yep, I ate that man's attribute and it quickly replenished my mana."

"You ate his attribute?" Eva had never heard of such a thing.

Dante assumed that this wasn't normal but still told Eva to gauge her reaction.

"Yeah, my cultivation is a bit…strange." He said, in an evading way.

Realizing that he didn't want to talk about it, Eva decided to not speak on the subject anymore, she trusted him anyway.

"We are about to be at the inn for the night." She said changing the subject.

"That's a relief, I feel like I've been awake for days." Dante responded jokingly, earning a chuckle from Eva.

Soon they arrived at the inn where they were staying for the night and exited the carriage.

After getting set up in their rooms they decided to go out and enjoy the town. Being the successor to the Astaril Dukedom Eva knew many shops to go to but the first thing she wanted to do was to clean Dante up.

Finding the location of the best local barber, she dragged him to it and had him get a haircut.

"Just for your little brother?" Said the lady at the counter.

Hearing someone call Dante her little brother, she took this opportunity and ran with it.

"Yes, ma'am. As a big sister it's my responsibility to take care of my 'little brother'." Said Eva, while giving a teasing grin to Dante. But he didn't let that go.

"That's ironic given the situation, isn't it me taking care of you?" He whispered so only she could hear.

Knowing his words were the truth, Eva's face quickly turned ashamed.

Realizing that he poked a sore spot, Dante quickly played along.

"Yes! My big sister's the best!" He said while latching on to Eva's arm, giving her a look that a normal 9-year-old would have towards his older sister.

Dante's words caused Eva's face to burn a bright red before she returned her gaze to the lady with a bright smile, it was obvious his words had made her happy.

About 1 hour later, Eva was waiting in the lounge when she heard the door open. Looking towards the opened door she was charmed. Dante's previously long unclean white hair was now short and shined a pearly white, which greatly complemented his cerulean blue eyes. Overall his appearance came off as a charming innocence, anyone who looked at him wouldn't doubt that he would grow up to be an extremely handsome man.

'Calm down Eva, he's 9, you're 12.'

Eva held herself back from jumping onto him and giving him a smothering hug, but she wasn't the only one. The barber who was doing his hair was also holding herself back, that could be noted by her heavy breathing.

"How much for the haircut?"

Eva spoke to the barber, snapping her out of her thoughts about Dante.

"Money? None, it was my pleasure to work on him." She said while wiping a bit of saliva from her mouth.

Dante noticed this and felt a chill run down his back, he had fought against a 'Silver Core' before but even then he didn't feel as frightful as he did now.

Eva seemed to have noticed it too, so she didn't hesitate to take the lady at her word and quickly left the store with Dante in tow. It irritated her that someone would look at her 'little brother' like that, but she didn't realize that she was giving him the same predatory look.

After they left the barber, she once again pulled him into another shop but this time it was a clothing shop and from what Dante could tell it was expensive clothing.

"Eva, I don't need clothes, I'm fine."

He felt guilty that she was buying all this stuff for him, after all he would get a generous 'reward' when he returned her home.

Feeling his dilemma, Eva spoke.

"I'm doing this for my own sake. I've watched you fight for me twice now and I couldn't do anything but sit back and watch. So, please, let me do something for you, my little brother."

Eva spoke as if Dante really was her little brother but as he was about to rebuke her, he noticed her glowing smile and didn't have the heart for it and just allowed himself to get spoiled a bit.

Inside of the clothing store, the employees stopped when they noticed Dante, his innocent looks drove an arrow through the hearts of many of the females, provoking their protective instincts.

After a fierce tournament of rock-paper-scissors between the female employees the winner quickly approached the two.

"Hello, my name is Anna, how may I help you today." She spoke with a cheerful smile, while disregarding the sharp glares that were being sent to her by her co-workers.

"Hello, We would like to buy 'MY' little brother some clothes please."

Eva put an emphasis on the word 'MY' and tried to make the woman back off.

'What am I, Territory?!'

Noticing how the girls were basically fighting like cats, Dante started to miss his previous appearance.

Following the quick staring contest between Eva and the woman, the woman took Dante to the back and found multiple different clothes that fit him.

Of course when Dante came out of the changing room, Eva damn near drooled along with the employee, then she made him try on every other article of clothing the store had to offer.

By the time he was done Dante had basically turned his mind off and just mindlessly kept changing clothes. The number of employees watching him had increased as well, there were even some customers that they disregarded.

Finally finishing all of the clothes the store had, Eva chose the one that looked best on him and bought it while he was still wearing it.

This marked the end of their 'date' and they headed back towards the inn with Dante even more exhausted than when they started, Eva on the other hand had a bright smile. She had thoroughly enjoyed this date with her new 'little brother'.