"So it's true then..." A young woman said lowly.

"Yes. The vampire known as the 'Princess of Roses' has survived. And she's somewhere in this city."

"What should I do?"

"As long as she doesn't cause any harm to the populous, she may be allowed to stay," the commander responded. "However, we must monitor her behavior regularly. After all, we live in a time now where Nightlings can peacefully coexist with us as long as they obey our laws and keep their true nature a secret to the public."

"Yes, ma'am."

"We shall keep a close eye on her. For now, just continue to do your job and wait for our word to make the next move, if necessary."

"Understood." The Hunter saluted to her commander and left.

...

The next day...

Chaeyeon had another appointment with Kwon Eunbi, just a checkup to check on her progress with her sleep.

Much to her delight, Chaeyeon had slept very well last night. Maybe it was because she got some closure with Sakura and Nako, apologizing to them, as well as with her mom, finding out that she was a witch.

Of course, she couldn't tell Eunbi the "vampire" or "witch" or "shadow demon" parts, but the young psychiatrist was happy to see Chaeyeon's mood had improved after a good night's sleep.

After their meeting was done, Chaeyeon met up with Nako and Sakura at the mansion to help them look for a way to track down their missing companions.

"Here," Sakura laid out a book and pointed to what looked like a recipe written on the page.

"What is this?"

"Oh it's a tracking spell!"

"If we can conjure this potion, we might be able to find their location. But we need the necessary ingredients."

"So conjuring spells is sort of like cooking?" Chaeyeon asked.

"Right!"

"If you don't mind, Chaeyeon, there's a few items we'll need you to go and find for us."

"Eh? Why me?"

"Me and onee-chan are going to find some items that can't be found in regular grocery stores. They're very particular items for conjuring potions."

"And since this mansion does have a reputation of being 'haunted', we wouldn't want to raise too much suspicion. Especially since no one around here knows who we are."

"I see... Leave it to me, then!"

Sakura wrote down a list of what she needed and handed it to Chaeyeon.

"Retrieve these items and bring them back here."

Chaeyeon read down the list, seeing salt, a couple of different spices, and a few herbs.

"We've been needing to re-stock for the past 18 years, anyway," Nako said with a shy chuckle. "Oh! While you're out, can you also get some chocolate?"

"Huh? Is it for the spell?"

"No. It's for me."

Chaeyeon smiled. "Okay, I'll get you some chocolate, too."

"Yatta!"

...

Since it was Sunday, Yena wanted to spend the day out with Yuri.

Even though Yuri had advised her to focus on homework and studying for the test, Yena insisted that a day out would be able to clear her head so she could study better.

Thus, seeing as it was impossible to try and argue any further, she gave into her friend's request to go out for the day.

Now Yena was waiting to meet with Yuri, sitting on the bench while fidgeting with her phone.

As she was doing this, she didn't notice a young girl had came and sat beside her, a map in hand and a broom tucked underneath her arm.

Yena happened to glance up and noticed the girl, seeing her looking at the map.

"Huh..? A tourist, maybe? Or did she just move here?"

She looked down and saw a suitcase at her feet.

"Yeah, she's definitely not from here."

"Excuse me," the girl then spoke up, facing Yena.

"Ah, yeah? What's up?"

"Do you know where I can find Madam Bam's Fortune shop?"

"Madam Bam?" Yena scratched her head. "Where have I heard that name before..?"

"She's a famous fortune teller that lives around here. I'm supposed to start living with her starting today."

"What? You're living with a fortune teller?"

"Yes!"

"Huh~ that sounds cool! Hmm, fortune teller, eh... Yesterday, I passed by a fortune teller lady," Yena retraced her steps in her mind, looking at the map. She then pointed south, down the street "Just head that way and take a right. I think it's around there. Go see if that's the right place."

"Thank you!" The girl then grabbed her suitcase and started walking down the street.

"Living with a fortune teller... I wonder what that must be like."

"Yena~" She then heard Yuri's voice as she looked down the other side of the street and saw her approach the bench.

"Yuri~" Yena hugged her as she got up.

"Jeez, clingy as usual," Yuri poked Yena's cheek as she broke the hug. "Come on, let's go."

...

"Well, I think that's everything," Chaeyeon said as she managed to fill her shopping cart with all the necessary items for Sakura and Nako.

She started to roll her cart towards the cash registers and paid for everything.

As she was leaving, she started to make her way back to Sakura's mansion, when she suddenly stopped, feeling a chill run down her spine.

"I feel like... I'm being followed."

She started to look around, trying to see if there was someone, or something stalking her.

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

Chaeyeon froze as she heard the familiar hiss that made her blood run cold. She saw a demonic shadow rise from the shade of the trees.

"A mortal playing witch? How amusing."

She saw one of the shadows claws reach out for her. She took a step back, the light of the sun preventing the demon from leaving the shade.

"Come now, the sun will be setting in mere moments. Just surrender now."

"No way that's happening. I got somewhere I need to be."

Chaeyeon saw her ring glow, the blue light surrounding her hand.

"This light... Could it be..?"

"Oh, so you ARE a witch."

"Well, not exactly," Chaeyeon dropped her groceries and raised her fist. "I'm working on that part."

As the shade grew more, the shadow charged at Chaeyeon. Chaeyeon swung her fist, punching through the shadow.

Blue energy cracked like lightning in her palm. She unballed her fists and saw a flicker of light.

"So much power... Give it all to me!" The Shadow-walker hissed as it charged again.

Chaeyeon grabbed the demon, the blue lightning in her hand surging through the shadow, weakening it.

As she stared at her palm, she focused her energy and formed a small ball of energy.

She forced the ball of energy forward, thrusting it into the shadow's body. The demon dispersed into black dust, disappearing as the sun went down.

"Huh...That actually wasn't too bad," Chaeyeon said as the blue energy slowly faded away.

She picked back up her groceries and continued walking to Sakura's place.

Once she made it, she gave all the ingredients to Sakura for her to make the tracking spell. When Nako asked why she took so long, she told them about the Shadow-walker she encountered and how she was able to fight it off with her magic.

"That's amazing!" Nako said, her lips covered with chocolate from the candy bar she was eating.

"This definitely means your powers are growing. But you must be careful," Sakura said in a serious tone as she added the herbs to a small cauldron.

"Because someone could see me?"

"Yes, that, but also because using magic without any training can be very dangerous. Magic is very fragile and must be performed exactly to get the desired results. If done incorrectly, you could even endanger life itself."

Chaeyeon stared at her fist again, remembering the overwhelming surge of power that grew within her as she fought the shadow demon.

"My ring... It glowed, too, in that moment."

"That's because the ring I gave you is a conductor."

"A... conductor?"

"You know how there are electric conductors that control the flow of electricity. It's the same with magic. The gem in that ring channels and controls your magic so that it remains stable."

"I see."

After some time passed, the magic began to swirl and spin within the cauldron. Sakura began to whisper a spell under her breath, her eyes glowing dimly red.

"Uwa~ onee-chan is super concentrated," Nako whispered.

"It's like she's in a trance..."

"She's focusing on channeling her magic. It's best we not interrupt her."

Chaeyeon silently nodded, watching Sakura as she stared intently at the cauldron.

"Do you think I'd bother her if I watched?" she then asked.

Nako thought about it, then answered, "As long as you don't break her concentration. Just don't touch her or talk to her."

"Okay."

Chaeyeon slowly got up and walked near Sakura. Quietly, she leaned forward to see what was inside the cauldron.

To her amazement, she was seeing visions of the past, with four figures being reflected in the waters of the cauldron.

"These must be her Guardians..."

The first person she saw was a young woman wearing a velvet hooded cloak over an elegant Japanese robe with a golden dragon design on it. In her hands, she was holding a leather book that had the same rose insignia as the one in front of the mansion.

The next person was a boyish looking young woman with leather armor and a sword strapped at her waist. She swung her sword at a Shadow-walker demon in one swift movement, immediately dispelling it.

The next was a short girl in a loose white shirt and short leather pants, with fingerless gloves on her fists. She lifted up a large boulder that was twice her size and threw it with incredible strength.

And the last was a woman in black and red attire, with a deadly look in her eyes that made her appear to be like an assassin. She held a dagger in her hand and slashed at something unseen.

After that came a succession of random images.

A bookshelf in what appeared to be a library.

An art museum exhibition.

A stone cave.

And a row of tarot cards.

Suddenly, Sakura fell weak at her knees, caught by Chaeyeon as she slowly collapsed.

"Onee-chan!" Nako ran to her sister's side as the magic glow in the cauldron diminished. "I told you not to push yourself."

"R-right... Sorry, Nako."

"Did you find out where they are?"

Sakura shook her head.

"Not yet. There were some clues. We'll use those as our starting point."

"I hope we can find them..."

...

That evening...

After her day out with Yuri, Yena made sure to keep her promise with her friend and focus on studying for the upcoming test.

As time passed, she slowly felt herself being drawn into sleep. In order to keep herself awake, she went downstairs in search of a sweet snack.

"Let's see, pudding... Are we out of pudding?"

Unable to resist her sugar craving, she decides to head out to the local convenience store and buys some pudding.

As she walks back home, she comes across a stray dog fighting a cat in the street. The cat hisses and claws at the dog at first, but then the dog lashes back and the cat jumps away.

"Woah. That's one feisty dog."

The dog walks up to Yena and sniffs her foot.

"Hey, that fortune teller lady said I should be careful of dogs... I wonder."

Yena looks up, seeing that the sky was cloudy, so she couldn't see the moon.

"Well, it may be okay."

She kneels down to pet the dog, the animal nuzzling its head in her palm.

"Well, you are pretty cute."

The dog then sniffs her bag containing the pudding and tries to rip it open.

"Hey! No! You can't have my pudding!" Yena pulls back, trying to keep the dog from ripping the bag.

As she continues to walk home, she notices the dog was following her.

"Oh man, mom's gonna get mad if I end up bringing a dog home... We can't keep a pet."

She turns back and looks at the dog, trying to shoo it away.

"Shoo! Go on! You can't come home with me."

She hears the dog whine sadly.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't."

She continues on, doing her best to ignore the dog's cries.

"Ahh, it hurts...! It really does..."

Yena forces herself not to look back until she reaches her house. Once she opens the door, she lets out a long sigh.

"I feel bad for that puppy... But I really can't keep a pet. I just hope it'll be okay all by itself."