"See, what did I tell you, you're not useless!" Alucard said as his sister blocked another one of his strikes. "Adjust your footing!"

"Are you really going easy on me?" Stela asked as she attempted to block another strike, only to get the short sword knocked out of her hands.

"Not really." Her brother admits before sheathing his sword. "Now I think that's enough lessons for today, let's head back to the house and wait for our companions."

Earlier while they were practicing, the two siblings had noticed Trevor and Sypha leave the house with the other Speakers to see them off and make sure any stupid townspeople tried to attack the Speakers (there still were some a few days ago who didn't entirely believe the group weren't responsible for the horde attacking the cities and attempted to stab a few Speakers). Stela had stopped to say goodbye to them before going back to her lessons. By now she had grown tired and was already sweaty from training with Alucard, so a nice long break before they had to set out and get a wagon and supplies to leave at sunset was something she needed. That and a nice long nap, but she could rest in the wagon (assuming they could find someone willing to give theirs up).

They walked into the deserted house, Alucard going into a dark corner to pick up a stick from the floor while Stela made a beeline for the crates to see if there was anything to drink or eat.

"Assuming we do manage to accomplish this, what do you want to do?" Alucard asked as Stela managed to find an apple in the crate. "Since father won't be around to tell us what to do anymore."

"I don't know, maybe finish what mother had been trying to do for years, maybe travel that world on foot like father had been doing for a while, pick up some new medical skills from different parts of the world to share it here." Stela responds with a shrug as she shuts the crate and bites into the apple.

"Sounds like fun, not sure what I'm going to do. I assumed you were going to find yourself a real life outside books and medical knowledge."

Stela made a face at her brother before swallowing the apple she had been eating. "That's no fun, why waste whatever time I have left to find someone to marry and have children with?"

"That was mother's plan, not marry and have children because she was too busy trying to learn, and yet here we are."

"I don't have time for relationships Adrien, maybe in the future- assuming we actually succeed, but who's going to want to marry a girl who was adopted by the lord of darkness and raised in his castle?"

"You never know, but it'd be nice to see either of us living a happy life with a family of our own. After everything we've been through, that's what mother would have wanted for us."

Stela heard someone approaching the house and looked out one of the windows to see Trevor and Sypha approaching the place, arguing with each other.

"Then why are most of these stories you've told me in the last few days about you arriving somewhere and then getting punched in the face?" She heard Sypha ask as they were approaching the house.

"That's because... everyone else is a horrible piece of shit!" Trevor argued and perked up a bit when they got close to the house. "Seeing how you're all sweaty I'm guessing today's sword fighting lessons went well."

"Yeah and I'm not sparring you after this practice." Stela says as the two enter the house.

"So how do we proceed?" Sypha asked Alucard as he was scribbling mindlessly in the dirt.

"Have the Speakers left?" He asked, earning a "yes" from the other two humans before looking to Sypha. "I'm sorry, in success you'll be able to see them again soon in far happier circumstances."

"See, he knows how to be nice." Sypha stated as Trevor slunk into the house and reached the crates and looked back to Alucard. "Is it true then? The castle can travel somehow. We've heard the stories,but it's hard to separate myth from truth."

"Tell her about Dracula's castle Alucard, our day can't get anymore ruined." Trevor said as he opened the top crate and began digging around in it.

"Dracula's castle moves, how to describe it?" The half vampire said as Stela sat down next to him. "It travels without moving."

"It appears in location as if by magic." Stela adds. "Not sure how to describe it exactly."

"There has to be someway to trap it." Sypha said as Trevor pulls a bottle out of the crate, only to find it broken at the bottom and empty of anything. "How do we start?"

"I want to go home." Trevor mutters loudly.

"Have you been drinking again?!" Sypha asks in annoyance.

"Not since two nights when he got so wasted I had to carry him back here and he refused to let go of me." Stela answers, stifling her laughter when Alucard makes an annoyed face at the memory and tried to finish her apple.

"Some chance, but no, I want to go home." Trevor responds. "The old Belmont estate."

"I was under the impression that it was destroyed, villagers, pitchforks, and torches, that sort of thing." Alucard said as Trevor shut the lid of the crate.

"It was, but the value of the old house wasn't the house itself, it was underneath it. The Belmont hold, the family library and trove."

"The collected knowledge and materials from across generations who fought the creatures of the night, that sounds interesting. If it survives."

"There are solutions to the problems of finding and killing Dracula, they are in the hold."

"You're guessing?" Stela asks. "Assuming this family library of yours is still intact and undestroyed."

"I am guessing, I can't read or understand magic." Trevor admits. "But my family stored everything they found including books of magic and whatever other weird stuff they came across. I just...can't do anything with it, but you three can."

"Fortunate indeed then I hadn't chosen to kill you or eat you Belmont." Alucard said as he flexed his fingers with a small smirk on his face before Stela elbowed him. "Oh come on, I was joking- partially."

"And that I decided against gutting you, flaying you, and turning you into shoes Alucard." The hunter retorts, lifting his boot up.

"Such a merry band we are." Sypha muttered as she walked to the entrance of the ruined house. "I will go find us a covered wagon and horses if you two can manage not to kill each other while I'm gone. Stela, please accompany me."

"Oh please, we're not children." Alucard commented, to which his sister snorted. "What?"

"Oh nothing. But I'm not staying here, being around both you and Trevor gives me a headache." Stela commented as she got up from the ground and walked to the door to follow Sypha out. "Play nice little brother, and you too Trevor."

The second she stepped out of the ruined house, Stela heard Trevor say "Eat shit and die.", to which her brother responded with "yes, fuck you."

"What did I just say?" Stela scolded before the two men erupted into laughter and she gave a frustrated groan. "Sypha wait! Don't leave me alone with these two!"

The Speaker laughed as she waited for her new friend to catch up with her. "Couldn't stand being around your brother and Trevor?" She asked when Stela caught up to her and started to walk.

"Being around either of them is fine, but when they're acting like that it makes me want to scream." Stela responded. "Like come on, the world is going to end soon, just get along before we die!"

"I'm sure by the end of this mission, the two will be as thick as thieves." Sypha assured her. "I do hope by the time we finish this and are successful in doing so, I will be able to return with my family."

"I'm rather curious what Trevor has planned if we finish this, I'm planning on continuing my mother's work in spreading my father's knowledge to all of Romania, I don't really know what my brother has planned, and you have your plans."

"Probably going back to his old ways, traveling alone, drinking, getting into bar fights, wooing the occasional barmaid with his tales of how he slaughtered some monster with his bare hands. Or hopefully finding a way to be un-excommunicated, reclaim the Belmont lands and rebuild the old ancestral home while rebuilding the Belmont family with his own children."

"The first one sounds more like Trevor." Stela chuckles as they enter the square of the city.

So far they hadn't found anyone willing to part with their wagons or horses, anyone they asked simply yelled no or told them to leave them be (in a rude manner), while others explained they couldn't part with them due to needing them. Luckily they found a fruit vendor willing to give them his old covered wagon, he told them they would need horses for it. As their luck would have it, someone was willing to give them a set of horses that used to belong to the bishop that he used to be able to travel. And much to their relief, the bishop was dead so they would have no problem taking them without getting in trouble, and were also given some supplies by the townspeople for their travels.

"You two behaved yourselves while we were gone?" Stela asked as she and Sypha entered the house.

"Obviously, can't kill each other because you two would have smacked me if I so much as flicked his face." Trevor said as he got up from his spot on the floor. "So, you two managed to get a wagon and horses?"

"Yes! And some people even gave us some supplies like blankets, dried meats, fruit and medical supplies on our way back here." Sypha says clapping her hands happily. "We were very fortunate to have gotten some horses and wagons so soon!"

"These should do until we get to the next town, we'll have to make camp wherever we get to when darkness falls." Alucard says as he got to his feet. "We should leave soon, Argesh is the next town and we could gather more supplies there and then leave for the Belmont home to have enough time to find the library."

"And assuming the library is still alright." Trevor adds as he hands Stela her cloak. "Come on, best we leave while we still have daylight before more of those demons come our way."