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A five year old Gwyneth briskly runs down the shadowy hallways of the centuries-old monastery. She's greeted past by the orphans who were heading to their daily classes and she doesn't miss the opportunity to return the kind gesture, repaying them with her familiar crooked smile.
Her swirls of brown hair hopping in the air as she hurries down the stairs, lifting up her skirt to not stumble and fall.
She's been dying to see her father. It's been nearly a year and he wasn't able to attend her fifth birthday last month. Because of that, she had a week-long tantrum and she wouldn't talk to her friends nor anyone else, not even her own mother. She was upset, and so Guinevere had begged Granger to come home once he's done with a mission.
Guinevere was already waiting in the entrance hall but gladly there's not a carriage that has arrived yet.
Gwyneth creeped up to her mother who was having a light chat to two nuns around her age from the Convent.
"Lady Guinevere Baroque? I never expect you'd be here. Do you live here now?" The nun with platinum blonde hair said in disbelief. "I found out you're now married. Is it true, milady? And may I find out who the lucky man is?"
"He is my daddy!" Gwyneth grinned, being the one to answer.
The nuns softly laughed as the little one popped out from behind her mother's skirt.
"Awe, so adorable you are! And you have very gorgeous green eyes, my dear." Complimented the redheaded nun and a blushing flattered Gwyneth adorably thanked her. She has one flawless ivory skin and probably a hair as red as Guinevere's inside her 'habit' or head-covering. To be exact, she would pass as the Miss Violet's long lost twin.
The church bell rings for noon and the visiting nuns had to go inside to meet with the head nun inside.
"I pray we meet again!" Said the white-haired nun as she and her companion come inside.
A drop of water falls on the tip of Gwyneth's nose, then another. "Gwyneth, have you eaten yet?" Guinevere asks her daughter.
"No."
"And why is that?" Her stern motherly tone comes out.
"I wanted to meet Dad as soon as he arrives."
"Oh but waiting with an empty stomach is bad, Gwyn!" Her mother cried. "Let's go inside and have lunch first. Your father will come around surely."
"But! But! But!" She faltered.
"Come along." Guinevere sang as she towed her youngling away from the doors. Gwyneth crumples into a crouch, having herself be dragged like a cart. "Gwyneth, stop being such a fuss."
Muffled gallops of horses echoed from outside. Gwyneth peered over her shoulder and smiled.
"No! No! No! No! No!" Screaming, Gwyneth bit her own mother's hand and Guinevere yelped. Once freed, she ran back out in the pouring rain, splashing puddles.
The carriage doors opened and before the passengers could exit, Gwyneth pushed them back in.
Granger, who was staring peacefully out in the window, could almost squeak as his daughter lunged for him. Alucard, who was having such a deep snoring sleep across the seat, woke up in a panic.
"We've been attacked! We've been attacked!" Alucard was screaming with a breaking falsetto. "Oh, it's just Gwyneth. Gwyneth?!" Alucard looked out to find they've arrived in the Monastery of Light.
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"
Granger almost choked as she was suffocating him and gripping his neck. Though in horrific pain, Granger still pulled her daughter in for an embrace.
After cutting the hug short, Granger couldn't help but to examine her, noticing how much she's grown. She was three inches taller than before and her hair was styled into a waterfall braid. This surprised him very for she used to keep her hair down. This must be his dearly beloved wife's doing. Who else could it be?
Guinevere watches her family from afar, cherishing the scene before her. Her father never gave her the love she have always yearned for. But she's glad. Her daughter has Granger as a father- and having far better parents than what she had.
"What are you just standing here for, hmm?" Alucard asked with a hint of smug.
"I'm just... so happy that I now have a family of my own." She said slowly, dreamily. With Gwyneth hunched over his back, Granger smiled at Guinevere as he approached her.
"I wish I also have a family someday," Alucard muttered but Guinevere was unable to hear.
She sighed heavily when he swallows her into a hug. Gwyneth giggling behind. "Come on, daddy! Let's go storytelling."
"I need to greet your mother first."
"Then greet her already so we can go..." Their daughter whined, tiredly rubbing her eyes.
Guinevere smirked devilishly. "It seems you'll have to cancel your precious daddy-daughter playdate for it's time for you to take a nap."
"What? No! I'm not that sleepy." She yawned.
"You know what? I'm hungry." Alucard purposely interrupts. "How about let's go have lunch and tell you stories about mine and your father's missions. How about it, Gwyneth?"
'Thanks.' Granger and Guinevere mouthed at him simultaneously and they look away shyly.
Alu's plan turned out to be a success for Gwyneth hopped off her father and transferred to her uncle.
Guinevere was giggling behind her hand. "Let's go somewhere private."
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"You first."
"No, you go ahead."
"Granger," she groaned. "You're ruining the moment."
He raised his hands in defeat and came inside their room first. It was most like the rooms in Guinevere's dormitory back in the Academy when she was still a student. He looked around of what was once his prison cell, and noticed drastic positive changes.
The single-person bed became queen-sized and the room looks bigger with the newly painted walls of white. They used to be black and he never had a light bulb before. Not like he would have needed one for he only uses the room for sleep. Afterwards he would go off to another mission. He has now the things he couldn't and would want in his room thanks to his noble wife.
"Gwen, I-I know how much you don't like living here but my savings is now at max, which means I can finally buy us a house big enough for the three of us." He said, frowning. She hung her hands loose around his neck. Those alluring eyes... somehow it's as though she's looking straight through his soul. He wonders if she can read minds. Surely, he'd already been dead by now if she could.
"I like it here," she replied with a strange tone of seduction. He scoffs. "Gwyneth does too because she can play with the orphans and you whenever you're here."
"But don't you feel cramped up in here? I know I do, I mean I used to- before..."
She gave him an infuriated look. "Shhhhhh. Granger, I don't care wherever we live. So long as I get to be as close to you as possible."
"But you once told me you were claustrophobic-."
"I can endure all of it. Hehehe." She grinned wickedly.
The infamous demon hunter chuckled deeply. He has witnessed her weirdness a couple times but still he couldn't believe she has such a prominent trait.
If you have reached this part of the book, thank you and congratulations for you have reached the end! You can always read the Sequel too though it's still kind of being edited. :)