I look through the whole training ground and see the soldiers training there. After a little bit I find a guard who was taking a break. After walking within a few feet he finally looks up and notices me. He bows in greeting before talking to me.

  Polite Guard: Hello little princess, What do you need me to do today.

  I could tell he was a little uncomfortable with the etiquette and I tell him my request.

  Celine: Can you help test my technique? I wanted to try out how strong it would be in a fight.

  After a moment of hesitation, he decides to agree and both of them go to an open and unoccupied section of the training grounds.

  Today, there were few people at the grounds so we were able to find a retively secluded and open space quite easily. The guard I chose then materializes his weapon, a spear. He motions me back a while and when I do so he quickly swings his spear. While swinging his spear, a red energy flows on his spear and extends the attack range of his spear even further than a spear would.

  The spear aura quickly fshes by and marks a circur range with a radius of about 20 ish feet. He then pces two lines on either side of the range.

  Polite Guard: Under normal dueling practice procedure, we normally practice in a range like this. We are not allowed to step out of the range and try to keep the fluctuations within this range after a countdown from 5. Is this fine with you little princess?

  I nod and ask him a question.

  Celine: Can I summon my servant beforehand?

  The polite looked surprised for a moment before responding.

  Polite Guard: Normally it would not be allowed, but as this is a test of your own technique I shall allow it for this duel. Remember that in a combat situation, an enemy may not allow you the space to summon a beast.

  I respond with a nod and activate my technique.

  Celine: Sanctuary of Blood!

  The familiar field surrounds me once more as I look upon the surprised expression of the guard.

  Polite Guard: A Field!? At this age? No, the energy fluctuations don't reach that level... A prototype? This may be more interesting than I originally thought.

  He then fshes a somewhat frightening expression, but before I could pay more attention his expression reverts back. Did I imagine things?

  After a second of pondering I then decide to summon my skeleton first. I reach my hand out and a few seconds ter the skeleton reappears in front of me.

  The polite guard looks at the skeleton in interest and points the spear downwards in front of him. I tell the skeleton to prepare and it stances with its left arm in front of his chest and its right arm holding his sword upwards in front of him.

  Polite Guard: If you are prepared I shall start the countdown. Remember, I will count from 5 to 0 and the moment I say zero the duel begins.

  After nodding in response he starts his countdown. I don't know if it is my illusion, but the guard seems to be showing a very scary expression right now...

  When the countdown came to zero I mentally commanded the skeleton to fight the polite guard. The skeleton rushes towards him.

  As the countdown disappeared, the guard pulled back his spear, he suddenly dashed towards my skeleton. When my skeleton came in range, I saw only a fsh of light and a csh of metal. In that instant the guard suddenly thrusted his spear like a fsh of light.

  Surprisingly, my skeleton summon predicted the direction of the spear and deflected it away from themselves. After the successful deflection it ran the sword along the spear expecting to cut right towards the guard.

  Out of nowhere a thick guard appeared around his hand blocking the sword. As if sensing danger, the skeleton quickly brings his sword back and jumps back as a second spear suddenly thrusts out of the guards spare hand.

  So close! If I was there I wouldn't be able to notice a second spear forming before I got skewered. I remember that in the Tome of Blood it mentioned that some people could create multiple weapons and use them effortlessly in combination with each other. Although dual spears is not rare, it is quite uncommon as having two spears can maximize the damage dealt in a short time, but it is quite dangerous as spears aren't particurly defensive and can be damaged easily.

  After the exchange the duel went into a more heated stage. Although the his attack speed of his spears had slowed down a bit. Is he only showing enough strength to be on par with my summon?

  After the initial csh, my summon went more on the defensive expertly dealing with the threat of both spears as well as many of the feints hidden within. After a few minutes the polite guard then quickly speeds and pushes the skeleton out of the way. He then stands by and I call the skeleton back to the starting position.

  Polite Guard: It was quite surprising that your summon was quite this powerful. I remember that even your father's summon wasn't this strong the first time he summoned it.

  With a surprised expression I turned to him and asked a question.

  Celine: You knew my father when he first got his summon?

  Polite Guard: Oh I knew your father from way back. I remember it like it was just yesterday he summoned his Bloody Crow and went to the training ground to show off and compete with the guards there.

  Celine: What happened next?

  Polite Guard: Oh, I beat the snot out of him that's what. I went past his crow and beat him up myself. It was fun beating him up so handily.

  He showed the scary expression again as he was in his memories. I could feel shivers go down my spine on the spot.

  Then I heard a familiar voice behind me.

  Warren: It's not nice to expose old wounds so readily Carlos. Especially if it is to my dear daughter while I am around.

  I turn back and see my father was standing behind me before I noticed.

  Carlos: HA you think that's embarrassing, imagine if I told her about some of our old adventures back in the day. Man, those sure were the days.

  I look between my father and the guard before asking my father my question.

  Celine: Dad do you know this guard?

  Warren: Celine dearie this is Carlos, one of my old friends and now the head of security here in the mansion. He is known as the Bloody Spear Carlos. We used to adventure together with your mother and a few others back in the day.

  He then looks back to Carlos and asks him a question.

  Warren: What brings you here to the training ground? Usually you would be wandering around the territory aimlessly looking for fights.

  Carlos: I came for a breath of nostalgia air. I kinda work here y'know so I was feeling bored before I found your daughter. She sure has a strange technique. Almost reminds me of that time against the Legendary Water Spirit doesn't it.

  Warren: Yeah, I remember that bugger. Took ages and a lot of money to take down. It just kept summoning water spirits to both block and heal itself perpetually.

  They both begin to reminisce for a while. After a bit I ask the guard Carlos a question.

  Celine: Hey Carlos, what did you mean when you said prototype domain before?

  Carlos: Oh that? It is what it says. Your technique is simir to the domains that people get at the ptinum level. Oh you might not know about ptinum. Have you heard of Gold? It's above that. Ptinum is differentiated by an extreme change in your understanding of energy to the point that you could turn the environment around you to your own home field advantage. Although sometimes a Gold level fighter might be able to create a domain.

  He then took a breath and ended his expnation.

  Carlos: Anyways, your technique looks like a weakened version of a domain. Having that kind of technique may give you an advantage in understanding a domain when you get to gold yourself.

  So there are levels above what was mentioned in the tome. It is to be expected since the tome did not look like it was a super secret for the family.

  My father and Carlos continue to reminisce as I go back to my room to rex as today was quite an eventful day. After a little break, I then stand up and follow my original routine.

  The next day I once again go to the training ground. After looking around I don't spot Carlos so I go to find an open space to begin practicing my technique.

  This time, I am not only going to practice summoning my skeleton, I am also going to practice the Blood Weapon technique by following the method on the Tome of Blood. Although it may not have much beyond the gold rank in terms of knowledge, it should help me from my current strength point.

  The Blood Weapon technique is unlike other techniques as anyone can learn them. It is just that those who awaken it as their own natal technique would find it to be easier than others.

  The first part shown in the Tome for learning the technique expins that the user needs to meditate on what exactly the weapon of choice for the user will be.

  I imagine a sword as I think many people would. I mean swords are kind of the quintessential weapon in many reincarnation to another world stories aren't they?

  When I started to imagine it the image of the sword started to get clearer in my head. A standard long sword would suffice. I imagined a cssic style of long sword that a knight from medieval times would wield. After a few minutes, the image cleared up and I found that I could sense a unique flow of energy in my body. I followed that feeling and reached out and grasped in front of me.

  From my palm, a spring of blood flowed out from my body and it stretched itself into the image of the long sword in my mind. When my finally grasped it I excimed the name of this technique.

  Celine: Blood Weaponry!

  The blood sword completely solidified in my hands and I was able to feel the weight of the sword. According to the tome, the next period of training would be learning how to control the various properties of the blood sword. In addition to that I would need to learn swordsmanship. Although I think I have a solution for that.

  I turned to my skeleton summon and said my command.

  Celine: Help me practice with my sword.

  After that command, I could sense a shift in the skeletons mind as it turned toward me with its sword towards me. In my mind I could sense a voice telling me to prepare. I try my best to mirror the skeleton's stance. I could feel the skeleton's frown aimed at me. In my mind I again heard the voice telling me how to adjust my posture.

  After some shifts for a while, I finally was in a stance that the skeleton approved of. Both of my hands were on the sword handle and I had a slightly lowered center of gravity to facilitate my bance.

  The next thing I heard the voice tell me was to begin swinging my sword following the skeleton's pace and posture. It then began to lift its hands slightly above its head and swung it downwards. It kept its posture and swings at a rate of a swing every two seconds. I tried to keep pace, but began to falter after a few swings. As I was swinging, the voice kept on reminding of any minor shifts that I needed to do.

  After some swings my hands felt almost as if they were made of lead, but I still kept on persevering. After a while the voice told me to stop and my hands almost immediately fell lifelessly to my sides as my blood sword was sucked back into my body. I sat tired on the ground as the skeleton went back on standby. I then felt the energy in my body circuting according to my original technique.

  I felt my body recovering a little faster than it would have naturally. After some time, I felt like I could go back to swinging again. Just to be safe I waited till my body felt like it fully recovered until I began practicing again.

  This time, I could feel that my body had gotten a little more used to training as I made fewer mistakes than I did back in the first attempt. Although I still made some of my previous mistakes, I still had a visible improvement. My second practice round sted a few more swings then the first and after I finished recovering after I heard a voice calling out to me.

  Mifune: Celine! There you are. I couldn't find you anywhere. It's time for lunch~!

  Celine: I'm coming.

  I guess I can only do two rounds of training right now, though I'll get back to it after lunch.

  After lunch passed and a few minutes left to digest the food I went back to the training grounds.

  This time there were more people here training than before. Maybe vampires really dislike the morning sun here? This time I went to a random guard and asked them to a practice spar. They agree and we compete in an unoccupied area for a few minutes.

  In order to cater to my needs, the guard keeps his strength and speed at a level that I can compete in and points out some mistakes that I make in fighting.

  Mistakes in fighting and training can be quite different things as combat tests not only your skills, but also various factors such as spatial and environmental awareness. After a while I begin to feel a little tired and the guard calls for a break so I can get back to perfect condition.

  I then spend my days training in such a cycle. In the morning after breakfast I go to practice my swordsmanship with my skeleton. After lunch I try to consolidate what I learned by competing with various guards who all wield various weapons to compete. Afterwards I have dinner and py around with my parents before finally resting for the day.

  These days continue on for a few months and now the training situation has changed.

  Unlike before, when practicing my sword with the skeleton, I am now competing in swordsmanship rather than just practice swings. Although my skeleton summon easily deflect every blow with ease I am now not completely helpless when caught in close range.

  The only reason I began practicing Blood Weaponry is that I wanted to be able to fight for time in order to be able to summon my skeleton in case of a surprise battle. Now I believe that my current swordsmanship can suffice for that goal as I trained mostly in how to block and deflect various blows coming my way. In addition to all this, my original technique now has a slightly rger range and the overall strength of my skeleton has also increased slightly.

  Recently I've been getting more attention by the guards around and vice versa. I have noticed a strange trend where there are more guards outside of the manor than inside as the amount of guards in the training ground has decreased while the training of the remaining guards here have been to a higher standard.

  This trend from what I could imagine probably means that there are some problems going on in my dad's territory, although it won't be my problem for a long time to come.

  I continue to compete with various guards and my skeleton and start growing stronger and stronger. Now if it is just swinging, I could handle 2 hours of uninterrupted sword swinging without tiring too much. This would be unheard of for any 4 year old back in my world... I think? My memories of that world have gotten a little hazier as time has passed, but I think that should be right.

  Although not much has changed in my schedule, but all things can be changed to my liking if only I were strong enough.

  Although I have mostly focused on my combat capabilities in this time, I haven't given up on reading and understanding more about the situation in this new world. In this time I have learned more about some legendary figures here in the dark nds and have found some information about the major pyers here.

  In this nd mass, there are various different races that compete for domination of this nd. The three most prevalent races are us vampires, the werewolves and the dark elves.

  We vampires have a slight advantage in the strength department as most vampires are trained to be comprehensively strong allowing us to dominate most fights. Werewolves on the other hand, rely on their absolute dominance in straight up close quarters combat and their absurd tracking and pursuit capabilities mainly to hunt us Vampires as we have bad beef. Dark elves are more mysterious and hidden among the trio of races. They rely on pure magic supremacy to use various tricks to deal with anyone targeting them as well as a surprising level of coordination between them.

  Although these three races are the major pyers in this continent, they are not the only ones as various other races as the beast folk and undead make their homes here as well.

  Other information I have read up on is that every few hundred years there is a crusade of people from the light attribute nds that attempt to conquer and purify the parknds through force. You can probably guess from the fact that we are still here that they haven't made it that far. Although the invasion may cause mass casualties, the dark nds themselves are a vast and treacherous territory with minimal light flowing.

  All of these factors have made the regur invasion into a kind of joke that most of the major races disregard as a non factor.

  Other than that, the other information I have learned is just more information on various ndmarks on this continent.

  Now that I have finished reminiscing it is time to go back to training.

  I swing my sword at an even pace and all following the same trajectory. After a while I put my arms down and look at my summons by me.

  That's right. I said summons. Now I am able to summon two skeletons by my side. Although each one individually is weaker than a single skeleton summon, they are able to work together to make up the difference. Unlike my original sword wielding summon, the two I summon are a pair of a bowman and a skeleton that wields a metal gauntlet with cws at the end.

  Because of how different the summons are, competing with the single swordsman is a different scenario from competing with the skeleton duo.

  With the swordsman, I have to make sure that I am always on guard as it can easily catch me off guard if I position myself in a way that leaves even the slightest opening. It's like trying to build a house of cards. One wrong step and the battle will snowball against me.

  In comparison, The skeleton pair is obviously quite skilled in teamwork and I have to constantly be wary of both threats especially if the archer can maneuver into a blind spot.

  I also still compete with various guards here with mixed wins and losses.

  Overall, all of this training has me feeling the drastic change in combat power I have now. Without a doubt, I have changed with all of this training and experience.

  Now it is time to focus. It is a competition between me and the skeleton pair. Although this won't be my first or st duel, every match makes me better at focusing on the environment around me.

  Nowadays, in order to train my combat awareness in different situations, I asked my father how I would be able to practice in a more complex environment. He then let one of his own summons guard me. It was a weird deer that I had never met before. Both the fur and antlers had a texture simir to tree bark on them.

  After riding the deer to a more secluded area of the manor's vast garden, The deer stopped at a clearing and with a simple stomp I felt a green aura flow from the deer to the ground. Suddenly the dirt and various trees sprouted from the ground and turned the clearing into a woody forest like area.

  Each time it brings me here, it changes the yout of the forest to a randomized form and after practicing it reverts the clearing to its former state before taking me back.

  Now I have gotten somewhat used to using not only my eyes to fight. As the duel began when I gave my summons the signal I immediately summon my weapon as I go into the forest to hide.

  Because of this training, I now almost instinctually have my blood weapon on the ready and habitually look around for hiding spaces. Like now, I have hidden in the bushes with my weapon hidden in my hand waiting for the skeletons to appear within striking range.

  After watching the duel between my skeleton swordsman and Carlos, I now sometimes choose to hide my weapon for both better concealment as well as to catch an enemy by surprise. Although this tactic doesn't really work with my skeleton summons...

  After a while of waiting I finally heard an unusual movement in the surroundings. My skeletons don't have blood so my blood sensing doesn't trigger with them. Because of this, I have learned to understand all of my senses in order to quickly find my opponent. I use my senses to detect the situation and only hear one obvious noise.

  It is most likely my cw skeleton as the cws make it hard to hide. Only one noise means that the bow Skelton is already in position and is hiding in order to sneak attack when I strike the cw summon.

  I softly shift over there, making sure to make minimal noise by calcuting each movement precisely in order for my steps to not make a noise.

  After a while of shifting and waiting, I finally catch a clue on where the bow summon is. I carefully watch all directions incase this is a diversion before heading to the clue. After getting halfway there, arm bells ring in my mind and I jump back as I hear an arrow flying to my previous position. After calcuting where the arrow came from, I find a general direction to pay attention to.

  As I feared, the archer summon had left a little clue in order to trick me out while staying in the dark. I have noticed that each skeleton has its own set of conduct.

  The archer is more treacherous and uses a variety of traps and misdirections in order to fool prey(me).

  The cw brawler fights more head on and, likely due to experience, can work seamlessly with the archer.

  In contrast, my swordsman is more like a chivalrous knight and rarely pys tricks.

  Due to always practicing with them, I have now gained a bit of the archers insidiousness, although you can see that it wasn't enough. In addition, I didn't prepare any backhands or tricks due to my impatience to deal with the archer.

  After a little game of tag with the two I finally get tired from all the running and get hit by an arrow from the archer summon. Afterwards the cw summon caught up and I was put into quite the predicament. After some time I called off this round as my loss.

  Although not my first loss, it still stings losing in any kind of match. I sit and calm my mind for a second before beginning my review session. I have now gotten used to reviewing my battles whether I win or lose because only while reviewing and backtracking can I truly find out my mistakes to learn from.

  This time, I can say my mistake wasn't not only not hiding well enough. I also was quite impatient as well. In addition, I could have easily quickly taken down and disarmed the cw summon had I hurried enough. Going after the cw summon would force the archer out to view and given me an easier shot at finding them.

  After some review, there was a sudden rustling noise as the pnts nearby shifted. The deer my father let me borrow arrived in front of of me and gestured with its head. Seeing this, I cancelled my summon and prepared to ride the deer back home. After a quick stomp, the clearing was once again all cleared and the deer galloped me back home.

  When I got home, I noticed that the mood here was a little strange. Everyone I met had slightly worried and hesitant expressions. After wading through such an atmosphere I finally arrived at my father's office. There, I saw my father looking worried and so I asked him.

  Celine: Dad I'm back. Did something happen while I was gone? Everyone is acting weird.

  My dad looked up in surprise before responding to me.

  Warren: Oh Celine your back. So you can tell now huh. It is no problem. It is just that there was news from another family of vampires that was raided by a pack of werewolves. Although few casualties, the main royal bloodline believes that we should be more cautious than ever since this might be a sign that we may go through another racial war.

  Celine: Racial war?

  Warren: Yes. A few hundred years back there was a war between our races. In that war, the number of casualties on just our side was calcuted to be in the tens of thousands. It was a massive blow to our total racial strength as we only had about a few hundred thousand vampires in total. Now both races have not only recovered, but also have even more numbers and increased strength so the war may only be even more tragic than st time.

  After saying all this, Warren rubbed his temples is annoyance as he was thinking.

  Warren: Although we may be more prepared in this war, It is still difficult to tell how this will all end up and the holy crusade of the nd of light has already begun to make preparation. It sure is an eventful time.

  Although he said all of this, my father still seemed quite confident in our own safety. And so I asked him why he was so confident this time.

  To that question he answered with a simple phrase.

  Warren: A vampire king has awakened.

  Probably seeing my confused expression, he began to officially expin the vampire hierarchy.

  Warren: For us vampires we are of course born from the original Ancestor of Blood. From then there was the Vampire Ancestor who then gave birth to four Vampire kings. Two of them have fallen and now One of the kings stays here in the dark nds while the other guards another group of vampires hiding on another pne. Under each king is our princes who are active of the territory and are present to manage the vampire race. Under them is our level of Vampire Dukes. We are the backbone of the vampire race and we respond to our prince's calls to action. Finally under us, is the Marquis rank and then Count and Viscount as well as barons and knights.

  He reminisced for a while before continuing.

  Warren: We are under one of the older princes. Each prince role is passed down every once in a while, but our prince has still been going strong for a millennia. He absolutely has the experience to deal with these things. Let alone the fact that our king has awakened. Every awakening of a king leads to a leap in strength for every lineage under him and at a time like now is like a blessing in the cold. Although they can't fight directly they can help us to get stronger ourselves.

  They can't fight directly?

  Celine: Why can't the vampire king just defeat our enemies if he is so strong then?

  Warren: Not only do the werewolves and dark elves have their own powerhouses on the same level, the dark nds themselves restrict them from descending down here.

  He paused for a second before asking me a question.

  Warren: Do you know what a world will is?

  Celine: From the sound of it, does the dark nds have a mind of its own.

  Warren: Bingo! It indeed has a mind of its and doesn't take kindly to anyone too strong. At a certain level of strength, the dark nd begins to suppress you until you reach the level of the vampire king where they are not allowed in the dark nds at all. Thankfully the same is true for all powerhouses regardless of race. If they tried anyways the world will would let them know why the dark nds is considered one of the main continents in our world.

  Our world? Does this mean there are other worlds that we can access? As if sensing my question he shook his head and just responded with saying that it wasn't my time to learn about these things.

  Afterwards, no matter how hard I tried he didn't tell me more. Seeing how meaningless this was, I instead asked him about what we would be doing now in this situation.

  Warren: Now? Waiting while making preparations. Although this could be a false arm, it is safer to prepare just in case rather than to not prepare and get caught unaware.

  Celine: What kind of preparations would we be making?

  Warren: All we can do is fortify our defenses while increasing the amount of patrols to stay wary.

  After this, I tried asking a few other things, but my dad said that I had learned enough for today and that he would tell me more once I have gotten stronger.

  I finally decided to leave my dad's office and began to mindlessly wander around the manor.

  I quietly wandered around the manor while taking in all the info I learned today. I have learned of the hierarchy among vampires as well as more about the world itself. I have also confirmed the existence of other worlds. Would my previous life be one of those worlds? Although I may not have my current memories of that world, maybe I'll visit it if I have the opportunity.

  After I finished my contemption, I found that I ended up in the garden. I looked around at the pce I have rarely visited since my mom took me st. I looked again at the various pnts here including the ones from the human world that my mom personally cared for. Looking at these pnts I found that I felt no attachment to them in the slightest. It seems that I now recognize this new life and new self rather than my previous life as a human.

  I sat quietly by the garden taking in the view. Would this garden get affected by the coming war here?

  Inwardly I felt a new emotion. A feeling of unease and uncertainty. Also a feeling of resolution. I wasn't able to hold onto my memories in my reincarnation. I definitely won't allow my life to go through such things again. Maybe this is a wish from when I was losing my memories. To create a safe haven, a sanctuary for myself in this new life.

  Although it was just a hunch I felt like a small weight was lifted off of my shoulders. The weight was so negligible it felt like an illusion, but maybe it will help me in the long run.

  I sat in silence at the garden just watching the changes in the various pnts there. I saw the slight shift in position that they went through as well as the artificial light flowing on the human pnts flickering.

  In this silence I relished in the quietness as this day ended as I left for my room to rest once again.