"Good. Very healthy!"
Dark rubbed his chin as he studied the Vampire Young Lady's tearful face, thinking it over. "Being able to cry is a blessing. Looks like the spirit-awakening effect of 'Lust III' is a bit stronger than I expected."
He mulled it over a moment too long, and the Vampire Young Lady's wailing began to fade.
But the instant his gaze landed on her face again, she burst right back into full-volume sobbing.
Dark had raised more than a dozen children by now. There was no way he'd miss a little trick like that, though he didn't call her out on it. He simply bent down and scooped her up.
The Vampire Young Lady immediately stretched out her small hands, clambered onto him, and — still sobbing in a steady rhythm — began rubbing her face against his.
Before long, half of Dark's face was soaked.
He let her cry on while he channeled magic power into the Magic Guide Card again, and more feedback came flowing back to him.
Since this "Vampire Young Lady" really did work, it was worth understanding her in far greater depth.
First of all…
Her race was Undead Species, her attribute Shadow-type.
Her magic power sat at the peak value a seven-star could reach — 3500. Her attack was slightly below Bastemon's, only 3200, and her defense lower still at just 2500.
A stat spread like that barely qualified her as a high-magic Magic Guide Spirit. Given that she was a gold card, she had to excel somewhere, which meant her real substance was most likely concentrated in her Ultimate Moves.
The "Vampire Young Lady" possessed a full four Ultimate Moves: Vampire Secret Rite, Vampire Fang, Blood Ritual, and Death's Embrace.
Just the names alone radiated power.
Something stirred in Dark's mind, and without quite meaning to, he fixed his attention on the most ordinary-sounding of the four — "Vampire Fang"!
A hunch struck him: that "Vampire Fang" might well hand him a very pleasant surprise.
"Lemme have a look-see."
[Vampire Fang: The Vampire sinks her fangs into the blood vessels of her prey. While drinking, she can calm the prey, and can also make the prey experience the pleasure of Lust.]
"Hiss! It really is what I guessed. I wonder if it works the way I think — can it convert 'Wrath' into 'Lust'?"
Dark itched to test it that very second, but a glance back at the little darling still going "waaah, waaah" in his arms drained the excitement straight out of his face.
"I'll look into it when I get the chance. No rush anyway."
So he started from the top instead, turning to the first Ultimate Move — "Vampire Secret Rite."
An Ultimate Move with "Secret Rite" in its name gave him some expectations.
[Vampire Secret Rite: By offering a four-star or higher Vampire as a sacrifice, you may Special Summon the Vampire Young Lady. If a Drifloon or Drifblim is present, the Vampire Young Lady may be summoned directly.]
"Cheating?"
The word slipped out of Dark's mouth before he could stop it.
"Waaah!"
As if she'd sensed someone badmouthing her, the Vampire Young Lady's crying swelled again.
With a blank look on his face, Dark moved on to the next Ultimate Move — "Blood Ritual."
[Blood Ritual: Through a ritual of blood, convert life (magic power) into an equal value of attack power or defense power. May be used for a single attack or to block a single instance of damage.]
"Converting magic power into attack or defense… If I remember right, the 'Vampire Young Lady' in Yu-Gi-Oh! had a similar effect. Which means this last Ultimate Move must be…"
[Death's Embrace: A living being bitten by the Vampire Young Lady will, upon death, become an anguished undead spirit under the Vampire Young Lady's control. Duration: three minutes.]
"It really is that effect!"
Dark sucked in a sharp breath, then looked down at the back of the Vampire Young Lady's head and gave it a hard rub.
Her four Ultimate Moves were each more broken than the last. No wonder Professor Harvey had warned him.
"Blood Ritual" and "Death's Embrace" were both enough to turn a battle on its head, but the one that made this "Vampire Young Lady" genuinely practical was "Vampire Secret Rite"!
An effect that let him summon her outright as long as a "Drifloon" or "Drifblim" was on the field meant he could bring out a full seven-star "Vampire Young Lady" at no cost whatsoever.
And in everyday life, it made calling her out that much more convenient too.
"If I'd known about this effect earlier, I wouldn't have needed the Sacrificial Summoning at all."
Dark shook his head slightly, finally free enough to deal with this fake-crying little miss.
He didn't drag it out either. He simply slid his hands under her arms, tickled her twice, and had her squirming and shaking, half laughing, half crying, begging for mercy.
Her language ability was still limited, though, so the pleading came out muffled and garbled, as if she had a banana stuffed in her mouth.
Dark wasn't surprised.
Digimon were a special form of life, born already able to speak human tongues.
The Vampire Young Lady might have a human shape, but she still had to learn it the hard way.
Not that it was a problem. His household might be short on plenty of things, but early-education material was not one of them.
Once he'd coaxed the Vampire Young Lady into laughing, Dark turned her around, settled her on his knee, and tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling. He was genuinely tired.
After a moment's thought, he handed her over to DemiDevimon, set himself an alarm, and got ready to sleep.
Before that, though, he didn't forget to summon "Drifloon."
In fact, the moment the Ritual ended, "Drifloon" had already returned completely to its original state.
But in theory, "Drifloon," like the "Vampire Young Lady," still counted as a vessel of the Demon King.
It wouldn't be strange if the Demon King suddenly descended into one of them someday.
A Magic Guide Master, however, held extremely strong control over the Magic Guide Spirits he had forged himself. If the Demon King really did descend into one, it would be walking straight into a trap.
On top of that, the awakened intelligence of both "Drifloon" and the "Vampire Young Lady" had been granted by a Demon God's "Major Sin." By the logic of rank suppression, being displaced by the Demon King was all but impossible.
On that point, at least, Dark had a fair amount of confidence.
According to the professors' line of thinking, if every vessel of the "Demon King" were forged into a Magic Guide Spirit, then one day it would fall into the net on its own.
And then the whole nuisance could be settled once and for all.
"Speaking of the Demon King, I wonder how the Holy Church will react once they discover it slipped its shell and escaped? Will they announce it publicly on the spot? Not likely, but I should keep a closer eye on the Great Sage Daily these next few days…"
"Besides, this Ritual was an accident, you could say. Even without it, the Demon King's escape was inevitable.
But the site of the Demon King's seal is a complete secret. No one outside the Holy Church could possibly know it. I had no idea at all how it managed to escape — but now it looks like the previous Archbishop had a hand in it."
"I wonder what their faces will look like when they exhaust every scheme to break the seal, only to find the Demon King already dead?"
Thinking it over and over, Dark drifted off to sleep under Drifloon's licking.
Fully restored to vigor, Drifloon's eyes lit up at once, its face turning openly greedy.
…
The second day of April.
The students still hadn't shaken off the afterglow of the Easter Dueling Festival.
When the first-years filed into the summoning classroom, they turned around out of habit to look for the Dueling Festival champion.
But Dark Demon, who always arrived early, was unexpectedly absent today.
It wasn't until the second period, Magic Guide Theory, that Dark showed up in the classroom looking faintly drowsy.
Professor Kazel came in afterward and gave him a nod, as if he already knew what had happened the previous night.
A little later still, Virt and Robert came charging into the room after the bell had already rung.
Professor Kazel only told them to sit down and didn't dock any points.
The Magic Guide Theory lesson began in a rather lively mood and ran smoothly to its end.
Dark had skipped breakfast for once and was planning to grab a proper meal at the Canteen as fast as possible, but Professor Kazel called him back after class.
He assumed the professor wanted to discuss last night. He was wrong.
"Didn't you draw the 'Transfiguration Spell'?" Professor Kazel asked, heading toward his office.
Dark smacked his own forehead. Only then did he realize he'd nearly forgotten one of his Dueling Festival prizes entirely.
"Yes, Professor," he said quickly. "But it isn't a complete Magic Guide Card."
Professor Kazel smiled. "That 'Transfiguration Spell' is one I made myself. You only need to compose your own transformation incantation to finish it. If you like, I can teach you personally."
"I'd love to," Dark agreed at once, then asked out of curiosity, "Professor, is that 'Transfiguration Spell' the kind Professor Pava Jones uses, or the kind Professor Claire Kate uses?"
The question genuinely stumped Kazel. It took him a while to answer. "It should be… Professor Jones's kind, I suppose?"
"That's not bad either." Dark nodded. "If I successfully forge the 'Transfiguration Spell,' will I be able to transform freely?"
Professor Kazel spun his wand between his fingers like a pen and laughed. "Don't get ahead of yourself. A 'Transfiguration Spell' with free transformation is well beyond your reach right now, and honestly, that sort of thing isn't necessarily more useful than a single-form 'Transfiguration Spell.'"
Understanding dawned on Dark. "Then what can I turn into? A bear, too?"
Professor Kazel shook his head. "That, I couldn't tell you. Everyone suits a different form. The 'Transfiguration Spell' Magic Guide Card I made restricts the form to ordinary beasts. You might become a cat. You might become a rat."
Dark clicked his tongue. "Tch!"
Professor Kazel chuckled. "Well? Still want to learn?"
Dark grinned. "Of course I do. But Professor, building on this kind of 'Transfiguration Spell,' is there an advanced version that lets you turn into magical creatures?"
Professor Kazel drew an upward diagonal line with his wand, smiling. "There is. But transforming into a magical creature or a magical beast takes more than knowledge and skill. It takes talent.
Professor Pava Jones has a very singular gift in that area. If you want to dabble in it down the road, you can go have a chat with her."
"Once my grasp of the Magic Guide Language reaches the upper-intermediate level," Dark said, "we'll talk about it."
Professor Kazel stopped abruptly and pointed at a fork in the corridor ahead. "That way leads to the Canteen. When you're ready to learn, come find me."
Dark clamped a hand over his softly complaining stomach, cheeks reddening, and waved hurriedly at the professor. "Then I'll be off. Goodbye, Professor."
Professor Kazel watched his back vanish down the corridor and couldn't help a smile.
…
From that day on, Dark Demon's academy life settled back into its routine.
He didn't rush off to learn Transfiguration from Professor Kazel. Instead he spent some time sorting through what he had and hadn't mastered, then devoted the rest of his hours to raising the kid.
The Vampire Young Lady looked about eight or nine, but her mental age was clearly lower than that.
Dark introduced her to Big Sister Gatomon and put Gatomon in charge of her preschool education.
Gatomon was thoroughly practiced at this sort of assignment. However unhappy she looked about it, she taught with tremendous patience and care — a supremely competent private tutor.
Dark supervised from the side, applying carrot and stick to steer the Vampire Young Lady toward studying seriously.
Among all his Magic Guide Spirits apart from the Digimon, the Vampire Young Lady was, without question, the fastest at picking up language.
By Dark's estimate, she'd overtake Ditto before long and would be talking within ten days to a couple of weeks.
After that, communication would be far more convenient.
Before bed, over her howling protests, he forcibly recalled her into the Magic Guide Card, making her a member of the "Watchers' Alliance."
Since she hadn't been registered into "[Paradise]," there was no way Dark could supply her with magic power around the clock.
She could replenish magic power through "Vampire Fang," true, but that was obviously not a realistic option.
In any case, with the Vampire Young Lady taken care of, Dark could finally get one solid, worry-free night of sleep.
The next morning.
Dark rose early for his morning exercise, took a shower, then sat down at his desk and pulled the day's Great Sage Daily out of the basket DemiDevimon had brought, reading it closely.
The paper, however, recorded nothing but trivial odds and ends.
"So even the Great Sage Daily can't turn up big news every single day. The Holy Church really has covered up the Demon King's escape, then? Or maybe they just haven't gotten around to announcing it?"
"Though news like that would cause unrest. They wouldn't leak it casually."
Dark set the paper down, sipped his goat's milk, then summoned the Vampire Young Lady and started teaching her how to use cutlery.
Tasting goat's milk and bread for the first time, the Vampire Young Lady brandished her knife and fork with shining eyes — though she was plainly far more interested in the little dish of tomato sauce.
After breakfast, with class still some way off, Dark headed to the infirmary to find Professor Carian.
Professor Carian was unusually industrious today.
When Dark knocked and stepped in, she was still busy compounding potions.
One glance told him it was the familiar "Grimm Potion."
He didn't press her about it. He waited until she paused, then summoned "Leomon" and asked her whether Leomon's "madness" could be cured by medicine.
…
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