As Dante and Elizabeth fell asleep, the knights took turns in protecting the place, while Skylar didn't sleep at all.
In this world, vampires didn't need to sleep. It was both a curse and a blessing to them.
Obviously, they all kept glancing toward Dante, ensuring that he was safe as well. They didn't know that he had a loyal shadow protecting him relentlessly.
The hours kept flying by quickly until the morning arrived.
They walked forward, following Skylar's lead, and luckily, they encountered some small beasts.
The saintess' group ended up killing a deer and some rabbits, meanwhile Dante killed a few wild chickens.
Of course, they didn't use a single spell or ability on that. Dante especially didn't even use a sword—only an axe.
But Skylar was the only exception.
He summoned a large blood-red scythe out of nowhere, and claimed that it was his ability.
According to him, everyone would get only one ability after receiving their class, but the crowned existences were the only exception.
No recorded crowned existence had gotten fewer than two abilities at least after awakening their class, which made Dante realize that he wasn't that special compared to the other crowned existences.
If some of them had three or even four abilities, then he didn't seem that special among them.
In the night, they made a small trade. Dante gave them some salt, and they gave him a few pieces of deer meat. He enjoyed all these new flavours and didn't regret his decision.
When he was bored, he practiced his new shadow fire and read the runes notebook and tried to memorize them. With his high mind stat, his memory was far better than before, so it wasn't hard to learn quickly.
Eventually, they managed to see a glimpse of the village far away. Immediately, Dante adjusted his blindfold to partially hide the mark on his forehead.
"We are almost there. No need to thank the humble me, hehe."
"Mr. Vampire, you are the best!"
"I know, I know."
Dante looked at Skylar and Elizabeth who were laughing happily, focusing on the fact that Skylar was carrying her on his shoulders.
'They became really close.'
He was amazed by how fast they became that close, and more surprised that the knights were allowing that.
'Maybe they understood that he isn't a threat after sleeping beside him.'
Skylar cleared his throat and said: "If you don't know, we are in the lands of one of the strongest kingdoms in the northern region, Ashton Kingdom!"
"We are now heading to a small barony of only one village, called Ash Estate, and it's ruled by a tyrant, so don't be surprised when we arrive there."
'Estate? Barony? Ash? Tyrant??'
Dante didn't understand some words, and was dumbfounded by others, but he decided to wait and see.
After walking for some time, they finally began to see humans. But, this wasn't the sight that Dante expected…
'They are… poor.'
The village's buildings weren't anything fancy—only small houses made of rock and mud.
The villagers dressed in torn, plain outfits. Dante couldn't help but frown when he saw some people barely covering their lower parts.
Obviously, in this cold, their bodies were dangerously affected without good clothes. Some of them had blue and black limbs, while others had missing limbs.
Seeing their luck, Dante was shocked when he barely saw fortune and the intense blood-red luck. In addition to that, the green luck was barely visible in them.
After seeing the beautiful spring in the forest and the magical Dragon Palace, Dante had had high expectations for the appearance of a magical village, but his expectations failed him.
'Can't they use magic? Why are they looking too miserable?'
As they finally entered the village, most of the people fixed their eyes on them.
They saw two shiny armors, one silky robe, a cloak made of a frightening wolf, and a simple yet durable and comfortable black outfit.
One word echoed in their minds:
'Rich.'
The villagers approached them desperately and started begging.
"Sir, please, anything."
"I didn't eat for days…"
"I have… cough… water and food. I want to trade them for something warm or medicine."
The group was forced to slow down to pass through the people.
Other than Dante, grim expressions were fixed on the group's faces as they did their best to ignore the villagers, who seemed to have expected this result.
Their begging was almost robotic, repeating the same words over and over again without even a change in expression. They had already lost all hope.
The more the group went into the village, the less the frequency of the beggars became as they finally reached the houses. There were even some stores here.
After finally reaching a place without beggars, everyone but Skylar stopped to process what they had just seen.
"W-why is this place like this?" Elizabeth asked, her expression dark.
"Why don't they just go and hunt if they're hungry?" Dante asked in confusion.
Even without magic, killing a rabbit shouldn't be that hard, right?
Skylar looked at Dante, who glanced back at him curiously, and decided to explain everything from the start.
"Let's start with the nobles. As I said, we are in a small village in Ashton Kingdom, one of the strongest kingdoms in the northern region. As you saw earlier, the entire forest is a part of the kingdom, and it's very small compared to the entire kingdom. In such a large kingdom, a king alone can't rule everything, right?"
Dante nodded.
"Kings need some people with enough power to command people to rule their land. And here come the nobles! They are individuals who were granted power and permission to rule some lands and have to pay and obey the king."
"The highest ever rank of nobles is Duke for male and Duchess for female, followed by Marquis, Count, Viscount and lastly, Baron. A land ruled by a baron is called barony or estate. I prefer 'estate' more as it's a general term to all ruled lands."
Skylar glanced sadly at the houses: "This village is ruled by a baron called Ash, who, obviously, failed in his job as a ruler."
Suddenly, he moved his head closer to Dante and Elizabeth and whispered: "Or that's what he shows on the outside. In fact, that bastard is living with a big harem of poor villagers, eating good food everyday, and guarded by the knights who were supposed to guard the village. His manor is in the centre of the village, but let's ignore it."
Skylar looked at Dante and sighed: "As for your question, know that we are the exceptions, not the standard."
"We are what?" Dante looked at Skylar in a daze.
As a response to Dante, Skylar chanted: "Mana Dagger."
Immediately, a blue dagger appeared on his hand.
"You see this simple spell? Most people would die without knowing how to cast it."
Dante's jaw dropped instantly.
'Fuck! I've been using damn dragons as standards!'
In the Dragon Palace, Fafnir was the only unlucky kid without the ability to cast many spells due to his lack of education. Before going to prison, he had seen the older kids using cool spells and techniques as if they were nothing, so it seemed normal to Dante.
But if what Skylar said was true, then he was simply overestimating the human race.
'No wonder Beatrice's son was so happy for a chance to be a mage!'
Even Beatrice herself barely cast any spells!
Skylar continued: "Not many people are awakening good fighting classes or possessing any talent for casting magic. Oh, there is something called stats, and for most humans, they won't even surpass the value 10 in a single stat even after awakening their classes. Unless they're completely hopeless, no one would risk their life in the forest without even a weapon."
Dante's shock only increased with every word. But then he looked at Skylar with confusion: "Then why are you all too strong despite your young age? And I know what stats are."
Dante's gaze then fell on Elizabeth, remembering her high Spirit value.
"Oh, it's because of some special methods." Skylar laughed softly: "I remember how my mother used to feed me those herbs as if she was filling a barrel. Those magical herbs increased all my stats before my awakening, and my class was already good enough to give me a small boost."
"And yes, some classes would give small boost in stats, but unlike the crowned existences, it's not something that happens with every breakthrough."
Dante sighed as he nodded in understanding: "Thank you for everything, but I think we'll leave each other now. Again, I'm really grateful."
"Eh…? Why suddenly?"
"Won't it be dangerous for you?"
"We can travel together!"
Skylar and the knights did their best to convince him to stay with them, but Dante refused everything. A moment later, he left them alone.
'Oh, wait.'
As fast as he left, he returned to them again. As hope returned to their faces, Dante asked: "What is the difference between a bronze coin and silver coin? What can I buy with them?"
"Oh, I forgot that you don't know about these things. Sigh, that's why I want you to stay with us." Selena rubbed her head before explaining as much as she could.
There were four different coins. The most common coin was the bronze coin, and ten bronze coins were equal to one silver coin.
Ten silver coins were equal to one gold coin.
And ten gold coins were equal to one platinum coin.
Selena explained the value of each coin with some examples before Dante finally left on his way, looking for an inn to stay the night.
Selena gave Maxwell a quick glance, and he responded by giving her a thumbs up.
Obviously, they weren't going to leave Dante alone.
Instantly, Maxwell drew some runes in the air. Then a shadow bird appeared and followed Dante's path.
Seeing this, Skylar sighed: "You guys are really terrible."