8: City/First blood

"Mira, baby are you ready? Do you want me to help you?" Raziel knocked on the door to the bathroom and waited for the girl's reply.

"Now, Miwa's down" (No, Mira's done) A while later, the door was pushed open and a soaking little girl came out. Water dripped on the floor, making the ground wet and messy, her towel didn't properly dry her hair and wasn't covering her right.

Raziel decided to help her by taking the towel and wiping the water. He had her wear a pink bathrobe and made her sit in a vanity while he brushed her hair and styled it. This had been a normal occurrence to them, sometimes, Seren would come to help and join but it was Raziel doing it most of the time.

"You're going out with sister today right?" he asked while combing her hair with a pink and black hair brush.

"Yup, Sisi and Miwa will play towgether, big bwo, yow not coming with us?" she answered and nodded her head like a pecking chicken.

"Hmm, I'm sorry but I'm a little busy right now, maybe next time" Mira saw him smile at the mirror, reassuring her. "alright, it's done"

Mira starred in the mirror, admiring her double braided buns done with lovely silver hair threads. Each had small yellow sapphire chips linked to the threads that cost more than $200. The price was too high for kids' accessories, but who cares? Money was never a problem. After that, she wore a sunny, sleeveless, knee-length dress with floral designs and a pair of flat shoes that matched her eyes perfectly.

"Shank you, big bwo ish talented, should be a hewrdwesser"

His mouth twitched in response to her remark, but he decided not to pick a fight with the little ancestor so early in the morning. Raziel then picked her up and went to the kitchen. After preparing a light meal for the child, he brought her downstairs where Seren was waiting with another woman.

"Mira baby" she called, bending her knees while smiling.

Mira ran to her arms and hugged her neck while giving a soft kiss on her cheeks. "mowning, Sisi"

"Good morning" Seren unknowingly patted her head making her smile.

As she looked up, Mira saw a woman standing at the back. The mansion was mostly empty so she knew almost everyone here. There's the gardener, the chef, and a maid, yet this person, she's familiar but she can't remember, so she asked.

"My name is Dasha, do you remember me?" Mira tilted her head and was silent for a while before her eyes lit up.

"Ah, Asha, Asha!" That's right, it was the woman she met some time ago, her memory span is short but it's better than most kids so she can still remember what happened a year ago.

Dasha wasn't expecting much, to be honest, she was relatively surprised to know that the little girl was alive. Not to be a pessimist but a human surviving in this mansion is less than one percent. But her views change when she sees the little girl being carried by Raziel and being friendly with Seren.

'Just what did I miss in this past year?'

"Dasha will go with us since Raziel can't come, is that all right?" Seren asked, taking the girl's hand.

Mira nodded in response "Yup, it's okay"

As they prepared to leave, Seren pulled his brother to a corner to give him a briefing. "Did you get that?" ever since Dasha came back, the two became more anxious, they thought, maybe, something happened to the other side so one of them went back to check.

Fortunately, nothing happened to their family and the issue didn't come from their territory but from the settlement's core. It seems that someone from the royal family went missing and that the third queen issued a large-scale search with Vai Arkuran, a ruling family in the southeast.

It wasn't hard to guess. The disappearance matched the time when Dasha went missing. Perhaps, that 'someone' from the royal family threatened her or something, which will explain what happened. The thing is, the third queen is the mother of two children, a prince, and a princess. While the princess is mild and meek, the same couldn't be said for the other despite being younger, he would prefer running around and have her mother die from heart attack.

"It's him, isn't it? We need to find that brat, Dasha will tell us nothing so keep her in the dungeon. This might not be her fault, but who cares, she took part in it and I'm still pissed off!"

And that's how their hunt started. Unfortunately, 'someone' was so good at hiding himself that they couldn't find him even after a year. Honestly, he's becoming a headache. That's also why the siblings go out frequently these days, with an excuse to take Mira out every week, they can search human cities. Of course, they let her have fun and buy things she wants like toys and food.

However, this time Raziel won't be coming because he had something else to do. "I'll be going now, see you later" he kissed Seren on the cheek before waving MIra, who was playing with Dasha, goodbye.

After a while, the three also departed, heading to the nearest city of Tengro. It was east of the mansion, about 20 kilometers away. Normally, it will take around three hours but the three arrived after twenty minutes.

"Go! Go! Let's go! Fashter!" Mira pulled the two adults into the street of the city. You could see how excited she was to be here by looking at her smile.

It wasn't her first time being here so she was already familiarized with the surroundings. She knew where the food stalls were, the amusement park, shopping districts, and famous restaurants. The two let her pull them everywhere, instantly becoming her nanny and maid.

"Thish one, shree please" Mira showed the ice cream seller three of her fingers confidently. The old man laughed, seeing the lively little girl, so as a reward, he added an extra scoop to her cone.

"Here you go" the ice cream seller gave the cone to the kid while the two others went to the adults. "You're so cute, you remind me of my grandkids" He laughed like your typical neighbor next door.

"Shank you, gwampa!" Mira waved goodbye and happily left with a skip in her steps. However, she hadn't even walked that far, when a red liquid got on her vanilla ice cream.

Bang!

Boom!

A loud sound resounded and the panic screams of people took over the place. Mira looked at the ice cream old man and her face turned sour in an instant. It was red, the ice cream station was covered in blood. And the ice cream man, the old man was there, standing with his head blown apart.