Dawn- An age of Darkness

"Call me whatever you want. The name's not important."

She straightened herself. "Then, I shall call you Sir." She cleared her throat. "Thank you, Sir!"

And yet, she didn't feel the necessity to mention her name. 

"Don't mention it." I didn't save her for nothing. I needed information and that was clear. 

'Wait, couldn't I just have asked the goblins?'

Fuck!

Facepalm sigh it was. 

"What, Sir?"

This sir business was rubbing me the wrong way. But I couldn't just say anything either. 

"What do I look like to you?"

"A handsome man?" She said that deadpan. 

"I meant my race."

"OH!" She again straightened her back. "I'd say a half-vampire Sir!"

A half?

But a vampire, regardless?

Hmmm…. Didn't seem farfetched. 

I did feel the urge to drink blood but I also felt the urge to eat raw meat. But just because this girl said so, I couldn't just accept it. The vice versa was also true. I couldn't just disregard that either. 

"Anyway, I'm looking for the ruins of this place, that's it. And stop calling me Sir!" I started walking. 

Though at this point, visiting the ruins had no value for me. The reason for me to go looking for the ruins was to find the answers about goblins. But now that I found the answers- there was no point in going there. Besides, Alisa herself had said that goblins lived near the ruins- not in them. So technically- sigh. 

I was really just running away. 

I really was. 

After all, what was the point of confirming all this? Was it going to get me anywhere?

In the end, I still didn't know how to beat the emperor. Yeah, I got a parchment with the ability to cancel magic but still- wait, the parchment!

I hadn't thrown it in my ring yet. I forgot that I was still holding it in my left hand.

  I just opened the slimy-eeky- gooey parchment and read through the contents. It described a complicated method of how to prevent your enemies from casting and how to suppress their mana. The method was complicated and there were certain criteria to be fulfilled beforehand. But- 'This could work!'

"I actually don't know their location but- are you looking for the Dale blade? And that's why you're interested in the ruins? Personally, I don't think that's worth it. There is supposedly a knight sleeping in the ruins- an eternal knight."

"Basically, an Undead." With that said, I cut a demon undead in two which was coming for us. 

This broken mystic blade was still good enough for me to use but- it kind of reminded me of my broken promise. 

"Yes."

"Well, then it'll be a fun place to raid." 

And to test this parchment. 

Undead mostly didn't have mana. Some goblins did but I had a feeling no goblins would attack me here. The monsters here were mostly just undead and they were keeping their distance. I also needed to find out my current limits. This body was fully healed and I could move faster than before. My senses were also sharpened but I didn't know just how good this body was, yet.

I could have just used this girl as a guinea pig but- I didn't do that for moral reasons. Those reasons being- excuses. 

I just wanted excuses to delay my eventual confrontation with the emperor. 

'Am I running away?'

But I shouldn't have been feeling fear- then what?

Oh-

And then a bit of realization hit me. 

I wasn't running away from the emperor. 

I was running away from the death of my friends. 

'That's right, all of them died for me.'

I was just running away from them. I was trying to run away from the feeling. By focusing on revenge, I could forget about them and by sidetracking myself I could forget about the revenge. 

After all, the moment I'd confront the emperor, I'd have to accept that my friends were dead because of him. 

I chuckled. Talk about being a hypocrite. I was the finest kind, contradicting myself with every thought. 

An audible sigh. "Well, you are strong, I suppose you can manage. But-" She fidgeted slightly. "Do you- perhaps have clothes I can borrow?"

She eyed my whole body and then became disappointed as she saw nothing. 

"I do actually." I pulled out a shirt, a boxer, and pants from the ring. All were washed. I was supposed to change into them after my training session and after a shower. But- then a lot of things happened. "Well, I guess you won't like men's underwear-"

She snatched all of them. She didn't even ask if they were washed or not. She didn't care where they came from.

On that note, I might have had my old underwear from when I disguised myself as a woman. 

With a sigh, I again threw my hand in my ring and brought out a pair of panties and brassier. 

The girl gently took that inside the robe. Talk about double standards. 

Though she was covered inside the robe, I turned around. 

There were plenty of undead around, but they mostly just ignored us. 

My girl clothes weren't washed and I didn't want to give them to this girl either- after all, those were a gift of sorts. 

Besides, in this world, clothes by gender weren't as big of a deal. 

"These are a good fit. Is that a magic emblem you're wearing?"

"No idea."

"Oh? And I'm guessing these are washed?"

"Probably?"

"Your lover's?"

"Something like that."

Better than saying I used them to disguise myself and stuff-

"Since you're carrying them, I can assume-"

"She's far away now." And hopefully, It'll stay that way. Even now, even though I'd turn into something like this, I didn't want to turn into a girl again, no thanks, I liked my junk. At least it didn't give me cramps. 

"I see, I'm sorry. And I'm done."

Well, that was fast. 

Probably the fastest I'd seen or rather not seen a woman change. 

She unhooked the robe and gave it to me. Meanwhile, she had my boxers in hand. "You're not into briefs?"

She actually looked good- though the shirt was a bit baggy. 

I took both, chucked the underwear back in my ring, and put on the robe. 

"I'd rather not have that conversation."

Why the hell were we talking about underwear in goblin and undead territory anyway?