Reincarnated into a New World As a Vampire
Chapter 97: A Change of Heart 2

'Was I the main culprit all along?' Aldritch thought to himself, a light smile on his face.

Even though he had that mindset before, in these few months, his cold heart had been swayed, ever so slightly. Out of all the vampires in his family, Aldritch had a handful who he would treat like actual family, as it meant to him.

Choosing to be sincere, Aldritch said to her with a mildly serious expression, even though his lips were curled up in a light smile, softening his facial features, "you're right, I did say that, but I've had a change of mind these recent times.

More than just following orders and living my sole purpose, I want to see all of you grow stronger and become more than what you are in the present, I also want to see you accomplish your individual goals. Somehow, I feel like that too, would give me great satisfaction…' He said.

Even though he didn't go on, seeing the others happy did bring Aldritch some form of satisfaction. Whether it was the satisfaction of a leader seeing those under them prosper, or it was some form of love, Aldritch couldn't tell. Though, the fact that he wouldn't hesitate to still put someone, one of those he cared about, before him to die for him made him lean towards the former.

Even then, he would still go after anyone who messes with his family, not only have they hurt those he cares about, they've touched his possession, it was only natural.

Ingrid's expression after hearing this was just as complicated for a few seconds before morphing into one of joy and sadness as tears started rolling down her eyes, uncontrollable this time.

She tried to speak, but nothing came out as her voice trembled. She just cried silently, trying not to make any noise.

Feeling like he had caused it and wanting to at least take some responsibility, Aldritch closed the distance between them and hugged her lightly to stop her tears.

Well, all it did was aggravate the situation, leaving Aldritch more confused and Ingrid more embarrassed and confused, she didn't even know whether she was to hug him back or not, in the end, she raised her hands apprehensively behind him and held him lightly.

'Who knew I didn't know so much about women like I thought?' Aldritch thought to himself. Even though he was great when it came to bedroom activities, it would seem like he hadn't yet understood the heart of women completely. It was also possible that the situation was different and caused this reaction, there was no need to think it too much.

Within two minutes, Ingrid regained herself, quelling her tears. Noticing that it would become weird if it carried on longer than necessary, Aldritch let her go, to which she did the same, her hands falling in front of her while her fingers danced about one another in a shy manner.

Patting her head lightly, Aldritch smiled a bit as he said, "take it easy and rest. You can reflect on the events that took place later, ok?"

Ingrid nodded her head to show that she understood, then Aldritch left, walking back to the mansion while Ingrid remained standing in the yard surrounded by greens and some flowers, a sheepish look developing on her face quickly as her cheeks brightened lightly.

'So master cares about us too?' She somehow knew he did based on his interaction with them, but there was no way to be certain, and this was the first time he had said such a thing. It really was reassuring and calming, even more though, it felt great hugging him.

…

For Aldritch, after the brief moment with Ingrid, his mind quickly wandered elsewhere. Day by day, he kept seeing more reasons to focus even more on getting stronger. If it wasn't for his bluff, things could have gone badly. Well, there was the fact that the others were with him and they had easily more chances at killing their assailant, but even Ralwa was caught.

"Heh…" Taking into account those around him, Aldritch could easily consider himself the strongest in this lower world, but individually, picking him out, he was nowhere strong enough. The end goal was to travel to the higher world, so his strength in this one didn't really matter much, since the real quest would start once he entered the higher world. Experience tales at m v|l e'-NovelFire.net

If people in the lower world were powerful enough to be an obstacle in his path, talk less about the higher world, he would be trampled upon, and he already had problems awaiting him there.

Thinking of his condition, Aldritch made a firm decision in his mind, his yes glimmering faintly without him even knowing, "training alone, will no longer cut it. If it takes being an enemy to the world, so be it." His decision had been made.

Walking into the dining room, Aldritch found the others still gathered there, and well, why not surprising, Lodestar happened to had joined them also.

"Lodestarrr…" Aldritch dragged his words in a tired manner, evident he was about to complain terribly, since that was the only thing he could do to Lodestar really, apart from spilling spoilers, mistakenly.

"I know what you're going to say, but hear me out, it wasn't my fault, alright? She used some kind of spell on me to keep me asleep. The lady operates some rather fascinating magic, so I heard." He explained himself, speaking in an apologetic tone, even though it wasn't exactly his fault. He even had a smile on his face which he tried to conceal a bit because it wasn't appropriate for the time.

Learning of such magic would definitely be exciting for such a mage.

"Aren't you supposed to have quite a number of passive defensive skills and spells?"

"Yes? But I heard this one was a spiritualist or something like that, I only know a certain bit about it, not so much." He explained.

With that said, there was no way Aldritch could fault him as he had planned, so they moved on into discussing other important things. Before they began though, Aldritch wanted to address something important.

The door leading to the dining room was already shut, as they were about to hold a kind of meeting there.