A little girl wakes up on a large bed, inside her pretty large bedroom. Her hair is as white as snow and her eyes are as blue as the sky. It's easy to guess that she's at most 6 years old.

  "Good morning, little lady." The maid in charge of taking care of her, an elderly woman with a kind look in her eyes, says as she enters the room.

  "Good mowning, Fweya..." The little girl replies, still not able to pronounce 'Freya' nor the letter 'r' in any word correctly. Calmly she gets up from her bed and moves to sit at the dressing table.

  The maid does her part, moving to start brushing the girl's hair. "Do you have something in your mind?" She asks noticing a slight frown on the girl's face.

  "I wish I didn't need to wake so eawly..."

  "Well, I could ask for your daily lessons to be moved to the afternoon."

  "You can?" A smile spreads across the girl's face.

  "Alright, alright, if it's such a big issue to you, then I shall do it, I'll ask your parents as soon as they come back."

  "Thank you, Fweya!"

  "Oh, my. It's a bit early to thank me, they could simply refuse my request."

  "I wead in a book yestewday, twying is the big pawt!"

  "The important part, you mean?"

  "Yeah! That wowd!"

  Just as the girl finishes getting dressed, a knock is heard at the door. "May I come in?" A masculine voice asks.

  "Yeah!" The little girl answers.

  The door opens revealing a butler. "Lady Kristina Schneekalt, your tutor is here." Why does he always use my full name...?

  "Good morning, my lady." Rose's words wake Kristina.

  "Good morning, Rose..." Kristina calmly gets up from the bed and moves to the dressing table, reflecting on her dream as her lady's maid gets her ready for the day.

  Schneekalt... That was the surname Kristina had abandoned in the backstory I had in mind for her... Just the German words for snow and cold smashed together, it was meant to refer to her white hair. Well, not just hers, I imagined all of her family being white haired as well.

  So, another one of Kristina's memories, I can't escape them even in my sleep it seems... They just won't stop coming...

  Everyone gets new memories all the time, that's living. So if memories are what makes someone themselves, then is everyone constantly becoming a different person all the time? Then... Maybe I just shouldn't worry about this?

  I... I didn't feel bad for the goblins as I massacred them. Even though most of my memories are Emilia's for now, my emotions seem to more closely align with Kristina already...

  "My lady, I have finished," Rose brings Kristina back to reality.

  With a few minutes remaining until sunrise, Kristina, Rose, Ernst and Helena gather in the entrance hall of the manor. All of the vampires wearing their day outfits, so they won't burn when they leave.

  Ernst feels surprised seeing Helena's outfit, since it was the same one Kristina worn in the day he first met her. However, his masks makes it so no one notices his reaction.

  "Are we all ready?" Kristina asks.

  "Yes, my lady," Ernst and Rose answer simultaneously.

  "Yes," Helena affirms, giving a curt nod.

  "Alright, then," Warp.

  They reappear in the center of Seestadt. I could've made we appear right in front of the shop and spared us having to walk there, but I wanted Helena to experience walking and observing the town a bit.

  As they walk, Helena looks at her surroundings like a kid in a candy store. Being amazed by every little detail of the town, be it a food stand selling meat skewers or the florist watering their plants. She hadn't been out during sunlight for hundreds of years after all.

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  However, she quickly becomes uneasy whenever she glances at Ernst. Noticing this, he asks her: "Is something wrong?"

  "Well... It's kinda hard to walk calmly beside the person that killed me..."

  "Believe me, killing you wasn't personal, even with all of your taunting."

  "My attempt to kill you wasn't personal either, but you wouldn't want to walk beside me if you had just been resurrected after getting killed by me, would you?"

  "Why wouldn't I be calm? As long as you didn't have any motive to kill me anymore, I wouldn't have any reason to worry."

  Helena just sighs defeated, but an unexpected ally comes to her aid.

  "I think Helena is right," Rose speaks after finally building up the courage. "If someone not only hurt me, but actually killed me, I would be absolutely terrified of them, no matter what. Emotions aren't logical, just because they didn't have a reason to kill you anymore, doesn't mean that you wouldn't feel like they could end you at any moment!"

  "Well, I guess acting rationally may be difficult after going to an event as traumatic as being killed..." Ernst concedes.

  Having succeeded in her argument, Rose lets out a sigh of relief. However, her relief is quickly replaced with surprise as Helena gives her a sudden hug.

  "Thank you! What was your name?"

  "It's Rose..."

  "I think we are gonna be good friends Rose!"

  "Su-sure, if you want to..." Rose feels a bit overwhelmed by Helena's enthusiasm.

  A smile spreads across Helena's face. "It's nice to meet you, bestie!" To be clear, she used some medieval term that got translated to "bestie" thanks to Kristina's translation ring.

  "It's nice to meet you too..."

  Helena seems happier and Rose seems to be getting over Ernst's rejection of her, or at least to be not thinking about it. This is going better than I expected.

  The two red-haired girls end up walking closer together on their way to the shop.

  Just as Nora finishes opening her store for the day, four people come in. Three of which she recognizes and one new one.

  "Kristina, what do I owe your patronage today?"

  "When we first came here, you told us that in a few days you might have something to show us. So, should we have waited longer or...?"

  "I have made the potato bread, not sure how close it is to the one from your homeland though..."

  "How much for one for each of us?"

  "No need to worry about that, these are on the house. "

  "Thank you," though I really could've paid. Like, I actually feel bad for not paying when I have so much money...

  "By the way, who's the new friend? I don't think I have seen them before..."

  "Helena," Kristina answers. "She's the first vampire I've found since I came to this place, she's from this kingdom I believe."

  "I see... Anyways," she walks towards a door on the back. "'Potato bread' coming right up!" She announces before going into the back room.

  Nora comes back bringing a tray with a few circular apple-sized breads. "These have just finished baking, so be careful, they might be hot..." She proceeds to give one to each person.

  Rose looks at the others, waiting for them to start eating first before starting herself.

  "Well, we can't really eat with our masks on..." Helena mumbles.

  "The store only has windows on the front, if you eat looking towards the back of the store then sunlight shouldn't reach your face," Ernst explains.

  Soon, they are all eating, side by side. All seemingly pleased with the food. It's definitely different than Brazil's potato bread, but it's still pretty good!

  "This is delicious!" Helena exclaims, overjoyed.

  After everyone has finished eating, Nora approaches Kristina. "The priestess often comes here to buy bread and, you see, when I mentioned to her that I met you, she asked me to take you to the temple the next time I saw you."

  "Hmm... I don't see any reason not to go." While holy stuff often hurts vampire in fiction, back in Vera Phantasia I had no issues entering churches. I did have a slight weakness to holy magic though... Still, I don't think there should be any issue.

  Kristina, Rose, Helena and Ernst enter the church following Nora.

  At the end of the room lies a large statue depicting a long-haired woman, presumably the goddess. In front of it lies a podium from which the priestess is delivering a sermon, but noticing their entrance, she quickly shifts her focus to them.

  "No evil being is able to enter the house of the goddess, but yet some vampires just entered with no issue. This can only mean one thing, vampires aren't inherently evil." Wow, I wasn't expecting this, but it's nice that she's using her influence to promote tolerance.

  "This is yet another point where the Northern church's doctrine has shown to be flawed. In this case, it's their belief in inherent undead evilness that has been proved wrong." Oh, it's about scoring against the opposing team, I see...

  Anyways, Theresia had mentioned that in the North they aren't as accepting. Maybe the difference between the Northern and Southern churches could be one of the reasons for that? That leads to another question though, why are the churches different?

  Looking at Kristina's group, the priestess gestures towards a spot that has more than five empty seats in a row. "Feel free to attend the rest of today's sermon if you so wish."

  Kristina and the rest of her group, promptly move to sit in those seats. From left to right: Helena, Kristina, Rose and Ernst. Meanwhile, Nora sits somewhere else, near family members of her.

  "The Northern church is merely a tool the king uses to provide itself legitimacy and-" Wow, her ideas actually sound pretty radical... I wonder if the nobility is aware of this?

  "Kristina," Helena speaks quietly as so not to disrupt the sermon, "I wanted to thank you, for giving me another chance to fulfill my promise to my sister."

  "You're welcome, but, if you don't mind me asking, what promise?" I didn't even know she has a sister...

  "To live for the both of us..."

  "I see..." She had a sister...

  Suddenly, everything seems to turn black and white and stop moving. Kristina looks at herself, realizing she's the only person that still has colors and, not only that, the only person still moving. Everyone else appears to be frozen in time.

  From behind the goddess statues, a person emerges. A woman with hair green as grass and a skin color so pale that if seen in a regular person would make you worry about their health.

  Comparing the statue to her, there is no doubt in Kristina's mind, she is the goddess. Not only that, they are the only people to be able to move and to not be in black and white.

  "I've been waiting for you, Emilia."