Vampire Summoner's Rebirth: Summoning The Vampire Queen At The Start Chapter 8 The Doll Maker

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After deciding to cut ties with Chris and Eric, I've been ignoring them every ti I see them around the plaza. I mostly go there with Erika, although the intense glares from people get very annoying, there's nothing much I can do over it, so I've decided to just ignore them.

re glares don't hurt anyone anyways, as long as they don't dare co and insult us in the face, I will not chase down every person that cos across and looks at us strangely.

Erika is very strong, she had already learned how to ignore such glares, and has been ignoring them very well, as if they were not there anymore.

I had tried to sneak once into the forest with her so I could catch so small animal and extract its blood, but my parents are always everywhere I am, so they caught and brought back ho.

Erika had even spent so nights in my room, sleeping on a second bed. Now that I am about to beco five years of age, sleeping in the cradle won't do, so I am sleeping in a small bed. There was another bed too, which used to belong to my mother, so that's where Erika sleeps whenever she wants to stay here.

I've been growing more interested in her abilities, however. As I recall my fight with Chris, I rembered that he had used Mana even when his spirit had yet to be born.

So why couldn't Erika do that too and practice to grow stronger? So over a year, I have been trying to teach her how to grow stronger using her Mana.

She had been doing it very clumsily. But she can do it, she's certainly capable of sensing her own Mana, which is incidentally pink colored like her hair.

Over a year I've been trying to teach her, and well, she had actually managed to learn a few basic techniques in the usage of Mana such as Mana Control, Mana Sense, and Mana Reinforcent. It was arduous because she's not really talented, but my teaching abilities are on point even now that I've been reincarnated.

She can now control mana better, enhance her senses using it, and also reinforce parts of her body at will too. However, that's kind of all… I tried teaching her spells in secret, but she was too confused to use them, she might need a bit more ti, and perhaps so written books to help her conjure spells.

But in this world people don't use conventional spells though, but spirit techniques which uses their spirits… So maybe she'll be able to learn that faster than spells.

I had once tried to sense her Pressure Points and her Qi, though.

"Now calm down, and rest on the bed, I will slowly sense your body's Pressure Points, so relax." I said.

"I-If I can unlock them, will I be able to move amazingly like you did back then?" she asked.

"I think so, but calm down for now and let do my job, Erika." I said.

"O-Okay…!"

Erika closed her eyes and rested on the bed as stiff as a log. I hadn't told her to close her eyes but whatever.

I infused Qi into my hand and then inserted it into her body like a wave.

There's a thod to awaken Pressure Points through the usage of an external Qi user. It was hard to do it myself, but I can easily awaken another's person's Pressure Points if I do it myself.

I haven't done it with my parents because they'll make a fuss and question how I even knew this stuff, but Erika is an intelligent girl that always keeps our secrets, so I trust her more.

I expanded the waves of Qi trying to find her Pressure Points but…

"Huh?"

There…. There were none?

How?

She had no Pressure Points.

Strange, I had never seen soone in my entire past life without so. Even the most bizarre aliens I've et had Pressure Points and could cultivate Qi.

But she doesn't have any? How is that even possible?

Is she… really not a human?

What is Erika then?

I stopped doing this a I looked down at her. I began to inspect her body so more using Qi Waves, and then I realized sothing bizarre.

She was hollow.

There were no organs inside of her.

There were no bones.

What…?!

This… Erika… W-What kind of entity is her?

I almost fell on my butt over the disbelief and the strange, bizarre feeling I felt all over my head. I looked at Erika not with fear, or sothing, but with concern.

She suddenly opened her eyes as she looked back at .

"Hm? Blake?" she asked innocently.

"…Nothing, it seems that you're more talented in Mana usage, Erika… So just stick with that for now." I said.

"O-Oh… alright." She said while nodding.

She seems to be unaware of her own body structure.

Who… can answer my questions now? I can't just tell her what I saw.

She will most likely feel just as terrified.

Who wouldn't feel terrified when they discover that they're not even humans? That… your entire body is actually just hollow?

I can't tell her this.

"Erika how about we go play for now? Wanna play ball?" I asked.

"Yeah!" she said happily.

For now, I decided to simply leave this thought aside… I will try to find answers soon.

…

After many days since then, I had managed to convince Erika to bring to her ho.

"B-But it's a bit dark and cramped inside so… D-Don't point it out… My bed is a ss too…" she said.

"Sigh… Instead of just talking about that why didn't you just fixed it then?" I asked.

"Eeehehe… I would rather spend ti with you than waste it making my bed…!" she said.

"Hm, you're just lazy." I said.

"Geh…"

As I reprimanded her, we reached Erika's ho, which was outside the wooden wall of the village. Rather far away from the rest of the entire village.

She slowly opened the door with a key, as the darkness of the inside greeted us.

"Daddy, I'm ho!" she said, walking inside.

"Ahh… Dear, welco back…" her father greeted us. He was sitting near a desk only with a few candles illuminating the darkness of the entire house.

He looked old. A man around his mid 50's to almost 60's… I can't believe he's the father of her.. Did he have her so old? She's almost five years old like .

When I entered the room, Erika presented to her father.

"Papa! He's Blake, my best friend! I've talked to you about him, right?" she said, as her father kissed her forehead and hugged her as a greeting.

"Ooooh! I see! So you're Blake! Boy, thank you for being such a good friend with my little girl… She's always so lonely, and I am not fun either, so she doesn't want to stay with this old man all the ti… I am deeply grateful for offering such a long friendship with her… Y-You… you an a lot to her," he said. The old man didn't have pink hair, but gray hair and pale blue eyes. I couldn't really find anything that made him look like Erika… Maybe she descended more from her mother?

"It is nice to et you, sir…" I said.

"Na's Gustav. Feel free to call just with my na. Formalities are not my thing, haha." Giggled the old man.

He seed weak, his entire body… his Qi was slowly emptying, his vitality was running low, his body will soon perish out of old age and exhaustion.

But I also felt this glowing bright light of mana in his chest, his Spirit Orb was Rank 1 like my parents, but it was a few stages higher, so he was fairly strong, magically.

If I could relearn my Hands of Nirvana, I could… do so treatnt to his old body and give him a few years of lifespan, but… without Mana, that's impossible, and even if I had, I would need imnse quantities of not only energy but divine power, sothing I cannot possibly fathom to get for years to co.

"Thank you Gustav, sir." I said.

Erika quickly infused mana into a light bulb as the entire ho was illuminated, and several things hiding in the dark were revealed to .

"Hehe, look! My daddy is a talented carpenter!" she said.

The entire room was filled with many furniture pieces masterfully crafted by the old man. I felt amazed by his great crafting talent. However… there was sothing disturbing breaking the sense of beauty of this place.

Countless wooden dolls were hanging around the entire ho. Many of them unfinished, sitting in the corners, above other furniture and more. So many I couldn't count them all… there were threads, fabric, and cloths around, and even hair…

Was he a doll maker? Erika's doll must have been made by him.

His desk was filled with things that he used to carve through wood as well, and there was actually a long leg-shaped wooden piece resting on the table, which he quickly covered with cloth, as if he didn't wanted to see it.

"D-Don't let yourself feel intimidated! I sell furniture and dolls, the people love to buy them, that's how we get through the year." Said Gustav.

"I see… You're very talented." I said.

"Ooh, thank you! It is nice to be recognized from ti to ti, hahah…" laughed Gustav. He seed honest, an honest and gentle-hearted man. I couldn't discern any malice within him at all, even through constantly inspecting his Aura of Emotions which every person has through my enhanced eyes using Qi. He was a genuine person.

But he… held a dark secret. I don't know what it is but it might be related to Erika.

Erika led to her room upstairs, which was a ss with clothes of her spread all around the place, and dolls, countless dolls she used to play with to not feel so lonely. It was honestly rather sad.

"You really got a ss in here… Alright, we are going to clean all of this, Erika." I said.

"Eeeh? But let's play doll house!" she said.

"No buts! We are cleaning this." I said.

"Geez… O-Okay… Don't get angry…" she sighed.

We spent roughly two hours cleaning her entire room, it was really a big ss.

However, when things were tidied up, it really looked like a pretty girl's room. It was a good job well done.

"Better…" I sighed in relief. I am rather obsessed with cleaning.

"Phew… Okay, now let's play!" she said.

"Sure thing." I said.

And like that, I et all her doll friends. She had nad all of them. She rembered each of her doll's nas as well… It was quite impressive she had such amazing mory.

After that, her father invited to have dinner with them, and I accepted. In there I was able to see his Spirit… his Spirit was a Tool Spirit nad Puppeteer Threads, which glowed with pink light.

He used them to not only control puppets and make them work as servants, but also, he used them to move around objects with ease. It was an incredible useful Tool Spirit.

"Hoho, amazed, Blake? You'll get an amazing Spirit as well! I am sure of it, you're a talented kid after all, very talented kid." Said Gustav.

"Daddy will I get a Spirit too? I want a strong one!" said Erika.

"Hehe, of course you will, dear. You're a strong girl." Said Gustav with a smile. Although his smile carried a bit of lancholy.

"I can't wait!" said Erika while smiling radiantly.

"Hm, now, ti to eat!" said Gustav.

Gustav served us so nice pork stew with potatoes. It was rather generous in the amount of potatoes it had, alongside carrots, while it had little at here and there, but it was still good and filled the belly.

"Phew, thanks for the dinner." I said.

"It was yummy!" said Erika.

"Hehe, I am glad you liked it." said Gustav.

After the dinner, I had told my parents I was staying with her beforehand, so Erika invited to sleep in her room.

She didn't have a second bed, but her bed was enormous, so both of us could sleep there rather comfortably.

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