Dawn Of Twilight

Nana's work ethic didn't allow for favoritism of any sort. Tobi maybe her future apprentice, but Bella had to wait for her turn like everyone else.

Tobi hadn't been so happy about being in a queue since in his student's days in University, he would just find something doing to no get bored.

When it was their turn, he studied and analyse how Nana performed her works. Being next to Nana, Tobi had the moment to appreciate every gesture and hand movement, as she lightly rubbed Bella's back region down her waistline.

"I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is that Bella's condition is the same as always, with no sign of degeneration this time at least. The bad news is that her condition doesn't seem to be improving either.

"I'm afraid that she will remain like this and forever. The more she grows, the lesser her chances of her body recovering on its own."

The room had become tense, with this piece of news, a lifetime illness was bȧrėly better than being dead.

Tobi was shocked, the whole world meant nothing to him if he could not share it with the only family he loved and trusted.

They came out of Nana's house in low spirits, as they returned home in complete silence.

Once they arrived, Christy shared the bad news and dug herself into Christopher's arms as she sobbed. One by one, everyone had burst into tears, while searching for a comfort zone in each other.

Except for Tobi, he couldn't even cry as all the water in his eyes seemed to had dried up. He was dazed, life once again wasn't showing him its good side.

'What is the use of being a vampire when I keep being useless to the ones important to me? Why does life always keeps making me remember without it oxygen am just a dead man?

'Is this just bad luck or a curse from being a demonic child? He thought helplessly.

During the following days, Tobi kept second-guessing every decision of life he made, before bȧrėly accepting the fact that he couldn't change the past but the future. Bella was already ill before his reincarnation, so it couldn't be his fault.

Having been accepted as Nana's apprentice. He had proved to be capable of doing the whole house chores, relieving his mothers and sister from their stress.

Thanks to his speed and stamina, sweeping the whole house was a matter of a minute or two. Even in the darkest night, nothing could escape his sight.

It could be said that he had taken a few notes on his body reaction when he was outside. It didn't seem like the sun was affecting him in any way, nor did he feel sluggish under the sun or his skin getting pale or prickling from sunburn.

What was new was his skin slightly glowing under the sun, his conclusion was either he was a werewolf or this type of sun didn't seem to affect vampires, and maybe it was a red sun that affects them.

Yet all he managed to achieve in his theories was a dead end. Even the idea of turning his sister was put on hold, till further progress.

In the following year, he could not feel any joy regarding the discovery of turning a person into a vampire, every discovery and information was just too little and too useless, to be useful.

Though his powers and comprehension of his abilities kept growing, but it could not erase the perpetual taste of failure that accompanied him.

With him clocking four years old. The period called as the golden ages, for children under six and four years in Amai. Children that were considered big enough to have their own little freedom.

They would be allowed to play all day long without a care in the world. It was the perfect time to make friends and grow closer to one's own neighbors and deepen ties between families.

On the day of his fourth birthday, after he had finished his chores, Bell took him outside as she tried introducing him to a few children, but they all ran away from fright as they called him a demon boy.

He was supposed to socialize and play, but every neighbor hid their children behind their doors at the sight of him.

Bell took him home with tears on her face, she didn't like the way everyone treated her younger brother. It wasn't his fault he was born that way she would think.

But Tobi had other plans. No amount of failures or grief could make him forget his household suffering ever since he clocked a year older.

Christopher's farm was a little far from their house, a little less than two minutes run for him. And a few foot walks from the big bush Bula.

Despite its name, it wasn't a normal grassland but instead, it was filled with tall trees and the likes of animals. The people who lived there all gathered their dumps to be thrown there.

Bula was just its nickname instead of a forest. Bula was less abundant in wildlife, so most ȧduŀts go there and a few lucky ones would harvest from their wild animal traps.

It was impossible to meet any monsters in the forest unless one went further into its boundaries, the inner areas and across were still uncharted territory.

Even though Tobi had never practiced martial fighting techniques in this new world, which required lots of energy. He was still skinny than all of his siblings, any more exertion and he would become a skeleton man. Since he needed much more energy to train his body physique.

Due to being called a demonic child, he knew less than nothing about the outside world, especially business. He needed money for food, and that was why he was headed for the house of aunt Gloria's his father's step-sister.

The only cheapskate the entire villagers knew that bought veggies for half its amount and a person that his parents said don't discriminate anyone respective of their status and were also a relative.

'The only problem is that I have no idea how to get her to buy veggies from me. I'm still too little to figure out the types she might like, and even if I wasn't, it was unlikely she had not heard of my tales.

'She has no reason to trust me, again with my stupid status as a demonic child, even if she doesn't discriminate against anyone.'

Gloria's house was a single-story wooden house, at least almost the size of Tobi's, about a hundred square meters large. There was no henhouse or barn.

'She clearly doesn't plant vegetables of her own, at least that a piece of good news. That means her business is good enough. I wonder if she is a benevolent person or not.' He thought.

Tobi knocked, his innards were tied in knots from the nervousness he was feeling. The door opened almost immediately.

"Who? Oh, are you lost?" Gloria was described she was at the same age as his mother, which means she was thirty-nine, 1.7meters tall. Had fat all over her body, with a much darker complexion he had ever seen. Her black hair was made into braids.

She could be considered an average set of women, her fat features coupled with her sharp eyes and rough attitude, made her look like obese. 

She wore a wrapper over her waist, with a scarf slightly covering her braided hair. Seeing her made him canceled the thought of her being a vegetarian, and maybe it was the side effects of being lazy and giving birth to six children.

"Hi Aunt Besta, do you need fresh vegetables?"

Gloria arch an eyebrow."Why?" A bit surprised seeing such a small figure at door, asking such a question.

"Because my parents have for sale."Not having any leverage on her, Tobi had decided to go with a lie, he couldn't obviously tell her his household was suffering, even if he did what would she do? It wasn't her concern anyway.

"We have fresh pumpkins and the likes. I know you wouldn't believe me so I brought some, they are all fresh."

"No, the little child you got it all wrong. I mean who did you steal it from? And how much for a stalk?" Now she was staring intently at the vegetables, on Tobi's hands with slight glints in her eyes.

Earlier, he had taken a stroll to Bula, the constant smell of his mother's veggies had been ingrained to his nostril, that he could identify it with his eyes close. And immediately smell them from afar when he walks.

Plucking a few stalks, he gave some to Bell which he lied to her just to avoid her being worried over him. Telling her he found some near their father's farm. 

Within the whole village and with the information from his parents and siblings, he had a rough idea and calculations of people that buy veggies in quantity.

Excluding those that bore hostile towards him, and his parents.

"Three stalks, for ten coppers," Tobi said while advertising his goods. As a businessman, he knew the fastest way to gain customers, was to sell your products cheaper than the regular market.

"Honestly, I don't believe a little child that bȧrėly strong enough to hold a bowl of food, can afford to sell such. Except it was stolen."

She scratched her scarf searching for a deal, that could reduce the total price down. 

"Okay, so here is my deal. If you want me to buy it from you, first you must sell it for about five stalks for ten coppers. If I find out or hear complaints about it being stolen products, I will report you to the village head immediately."

'Greedy ba*tard, that's just daylight robbery.' Tobi thought while battling his urge to not rip off her head while also granting her a painful but slow death in the process.

"I'll take it. How many do you have?"She replied.

"20 coppers, worth of veggies. Will you be around tomorrow?"

"Yes, I'll be here all day. And perhaps my husband will be coming from his hunt, so I will need more."

Tobi handed over the stalks, as he got his money's in return. Seeing the little child's scared and timid expression, as she scammed him of his goods, Gloria could not help but fixed a victory smile. This was like taking a banana from a monkey.

At least until the door slammed on her face, sending her buŧŧ on first flight onto the floor. After getting up infuriated, she went to the nearest window to watch if he was still there, as she fumes from annoyance.

His little figure had long disappeared from its position, after getting his money Tobi was a bit excited. Though he might have appeared to be scammed, only he knew he had just sold a random weed that smelled like the veggies his mother use, after all, he didn't need to go to an extreme, just for a cheapskate.

At first, he was a bit skeptical, about selling it but soldiered up after seeing how she had wanted to scam him.

.....

After getting to the edges of the woods, his face was turned toward her house. His eyes had a dim blue glow at the night dawn.

It was one of the many skills he had created after months of practice, called Mana Vision. By allowing Mana to infuse with his eyes, Tobi's eyes would glow a certain blue light allowing himself to see living beings as their life force, while the rest of the world was turned into a world made of shaded blue.

Tobi didn't need to wander or search, as his nose and vision had already picked up the scent he was most familiar with, the veggies!

Due to his keen senses nothing could escape him, he would have loved to face off a monster, but explaining how it got to his hands was the problem.

Everything was all in his reach, his speed made him the fastest child alive. Even when he ran an animal could bȧrėly notice his presence, except the leaves from trees that would brush up from time to time, because of the winds caused by him.

"I could collect more, I but I don't want mother and big sisters to be worried."

He had only needed 30 minutes to search the whole forest while running back and forth.

And in less than 20 minutes he had gathered 10 to 20 stalks of veggies.

While returning to Aunt Gloria's house, his greed was fiercely debating with his mind.

'Dammit! Why didn't I collect all the stalks from the forest, what if someone mistakenly sees it? And decided to harvest them?

'They might as well sell it to someone else, and make gains out of my findings!

'If not for those damn villagers, I would probably be as rich as Jeff Bezos himself.'

When Tobi arrived at Aunt Gloria's door he had calmed down and has managed to hide his excitement behind his poker business face. He took a few breaths before knocking.

When Gloria saw him, she was about to mock him and call him to return her money for the stolen goods.. But then Tobi showed her the fresh stalks with a smile, making her whole"I won't return the veggies and where is my money" speech die in her throat.