Wait! Wait you little rascals!"
I ran, far more than ever in recent memory.
Furious and frantic.
Or at least, the appearance of doing so, maybe.
As I wildly swung my arms in a mockery of of certain desert dwelling coyote cartoon character, I ran, at quite a slow pace at that.
""Ihihihi~!""
That was, I ran after my two daughters, who ever so cutely ran away on their stubbly little legs as I chased them.
Of course, thanks to the fact that they were born with levels more comparable to a typical adult, their running speed was far faster than one would imagine coming from a pair of eighteen month year olds. But even then, it wasn't fast, even by normal adult standards. Not when despite their high physical strength, they hadn't developed the coordination to make use of such incredible stats.
Alicia, followed closely by Fate, ran around a corner, and as I rounded the same corner, I just barely saw them disappear around the next, circling around the building I was chasing them around.
"Alicia~! Fate~! Where did you go~?"
I loudly called out.
""Ehehe~!""
My ears easily picked up the sounds of them giggling while they huddled together just past the next corner.
As I made my way slowly past the corner they disappeared from, I continued to call for the two.
""UI~!!!""
"Wah!"
Suddenly, the two appeared behind me, grabbing my legs.
"Oh geez, you little rugrats!"
Of course, I didn't fail to notice them sneaking up behind me. Not only did I hear their stiff footsteps a mile away, but [presence detection] never lost sight of them in the first place.
"Okay, you've had your fun. Let's go back now!"
""Okay!""
My ever cute little twins raised their hands as I picked them up, and we went back. After all the fun we had, their breathing was a little laboured, so it was time for them to rest.
As we got back, my eyes narrowed as I was filled with conflicted feelings looking at the building which we called home.
Frankly speaking, it was enormous.
The others said that it was appropriately so, being that it was both the house of one of the elders, but also the one who had sole ownership of the dungeon the entire nation relied on.
Though to be honest, that fact felt more like a formality than anything. It wasn't possible to actually solely control the dungeon, which was why the Hunter's Guild was established in the first place. The guild even built a pair of new buildings to encapsulate the two entrances.
One reason was to hide it from outsiders, since it was only a matter of time before someone shows up. The other was for the sake of convenience.
Not only did the building allow people to enter and exit the dungeon more conveniently when it rained or snowed, but a lot of business could be done inside of the large building. The guild established new reception areas to receive materials from requests and to pay the hunters for them, but also had a full fledged garage that held hand wagons for loading to be transported to the cities.
In the end they were simple, mostly bare-bones buildings, but they made everything much more convenient, allowing the economy to turn noticeably better.
But my house, which was built right beside the western entrance, was what was giving me those mixed feelings.
It was probably the size of a small hotel.
The building was four stories high and had four large rooms per floor flanking each side of the main lobby, and was half again as deep as it was wide. The rooms themselves were divided for use, and overall varied in size depending on that use, but even the smallest rooms, like my bedroom, was more than twice the size of my old studio apartment I lived in before I died.
I opened one side of the double doors and stepped into the lobby. This first room was half the size of a basketball court, and was decorated with plenty of fire element lanterns with the floor being covered with carpets.
Right in the middle, there was a huge central staircase which split ninety degrees both ways two thirds the way to the second floor. I couldn't help but imagine some pompous nobleman slowly walking down the stairs holding a glass of red wine greeting their guest while looking down at them when I first walked through those doors.
Without even bothering with the carpeted stairs, I simply levitated us up straight through the open ceiling until I straddled past the guard rails for the second floor overlook. The lobby didn't extend past the second floor, so there were different rooms directly above. A pair of staircases did run alongside the overlook to the upper floors.
Walking through the side hallway, I entered the first door on the left.
My personal room had everything I needed in it. Which to say wasn't much.
As a vampire, I didn't need a bed, nor a table to eat at. There was a desk and some chairs, along with a coffee table flanked by a pair of couches, but of all the things in the room, the one thing which normally shouldn't be in a bedroom was the only thing which actually got proper and regular use: a large bathtub.
"C'mon you two. You're covered in dirt. Take your clothes off and let's take a bath."
"A bath!"
"Yay!"
Alicia and Fate excitedly exclaimed before they awkwardly stripped down. They worked the buttons on their robes one at a time before throwing them to the side, then bundling their under dresses over their heads. They awkwardly gripped the bow tie on their laced boots before managing to undo them and loosening the laces. Though it took them a minute to remove each boot, once they were off they were unceremoniously thrown behind them, making dull thuds as they landed and rolled to a stop.
Finally, the lowered and stepped through their underwear before running towards me, appearing like the day I gave birth to them.
"Mommy! I did it first!"
"No, I did it first!"
"Yes yes, you both did a good job taking your clothes off."
I gave each girl a pat on the head as their cheeks slackened and they giggled.
Behind me, the tub had reached its capacity so I stopped my magic and stripped down myself, though I placed my clothes on a bench beside the tub rather than scatter them around the room. Not like scattering them would make this enormous. room feel less empty.
Taking the two into my arms, I lifted a leg and stepped into the warm water. It was a bit cooler than what I preferred, but making it any hotter might not be good for my girls, so I endured this little bit of discomfort.
The moment I let go of them once I was seated in this huge tub that was as wide as a Jacuzzi, Alicia splashed water onto me. Of course I erected a wall of hardened air around us so the water wouldn't spill out of the bath.
"Ehehehe!"
Fate glanced at her sister, then with a bright smile she splashed water onto me as well.
"Eeee!"
As the little girl stood in the bath water looking proud for herself, Alicia turned to her sister with a bit of a frown and splashed water her way.
"Wah!"
With a yell of surprise, Fate slipped and fell backwards into the water. A moment after her butt touched the bottom of the bathtub, she started to flail her arms around, with only the crown of her head above the water.
I quickly lifted her up and gave her a hug.
"Are you alright Fate?"
My little girl pressed her face into my chest while returning a tight hug. But even then, she gave me a firm nod after a few moments.
"Alicia, you need to take care of Fate. You're her big sister."
"But..."
"No buts. Now apologize."
"Mmmm!"
Alicia gave me a frustrated look as her gaze bounced back between me and Fate, but eventually she let go and gave me a shallow nod.
"Sorry Fate."
"And?"
"I love you Fate."
Hearing the key words, Fate turned her head to her big sister's.
"And what do you say Fate?"
"It's okay. I love you too Alicia."
And without me even needing to prompt her, Fate let go of me and gave her sister a hug. Alicia hesitated for a moment before returning it, her expression that suitable for a loving big sister.
"Now then, now that you've made up, what type of soap do you two want to use?"
I pat my two adorable daughters on the head as I asked them.
"Oh! Ummm, ummm...!"
"I want the orange one!"
"Yea! Me too!"
Despite being the first one to respond, Fate ended up simply following her sister's choice. Somehow it always ended up being whatever Alicia chose. I worried a little about her passivity, but she was still young. She still had time to grow out of it.
"Alright. Orange scented it is!"
I first raised up orbs of bath water into the air, then slowly poured them on top of Alicia and Fate's heads. They giggled and stamped their feet under the water as their hair was soaked, then I did it for myself before taking out a block of soap which gave off the distinctly sweet smell of oranges.
Alicia and Fate both eagerly rubbed their wet hands into the bar of soap, as if they were competing to see who can wash their hair first.
(No, maybe they really are competing.)
Either way, they awkwardly rubbed their palms into the suds covered block then rubbed their hands into their hair before going back to build more bubbles.
"Ah, be careful Fate!"
Just as a line of soapy water started to make its way down Fate's forehead, I caught it with a finger and wiped it away before it could get into her eye.
"Mommy! Mommy!"
"One moment Alicia."
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