Todd turned Vasha around to face him, locking eyes.
The man glared at Vasha as if he could devour her. Traces of their childhood were faint, like an underlying color beneath thick paint.
“…That can’t be.”
Vasha struggled to deny it, gasping for breath. Todd pursued her as if chasing her down.
“Then why?”
“Urgh!”
Todd’s grip tightened. Urgently, he held onto Vasha, pressing her for an answer.
“Why did you abandon me?”
“I didn’t abandon you…”
Vasha couldn’t bring herself to continue speaking.
What should she say to Todd?
Was I raised by you just to regain memories?
All that matters to me is recovering my memories, and that’s why I eventually left you?
Although Vasha was a vampire, she knew such answers could hurt a human.
Unable to say anything, Vasha awkwardly chuckled in response.
“…No matter what I say, you won’t let me go, will you?”
“Of course not.”
Todd replied with a smile, facing Vasha. It was a smile like a rose petal withered in someone’s hand, eventually fading away.
“Alright, I didn’t expect you to give easy answers. It’s okay. We have plenty of time now.”
Todd, with a victorious smile, reached out towards Vasha’s face.
The small hand that used to cling to Vasha’s clothes in childhood had grown so large that it could now cover her face with one hand.
“Take a rest for a while.”
There’s nowhere to run.
Vasha tightly shut her eyes as Todd’s large palm approached her.
As familiar darkness descended upon her, along with the heat as if she were melting into fire, Vasha slipped into unconsciousness.
Chapter 1: There is a Paradise in Escape
The life of a lower vampire is unparalleled in its harshness.
It’s a life of being pushed around and chased, surviving day by day.
Vasha felt this truth keenly every single day.
“The prey is going that way!”
“Catch it!”
Huff, huff.
Vasha’s breath was ragged to the tip of her jaw.
She was exhausted to the point of being unable to utter a word.
Yet, Vasha couldn’t refrain from shouting.
“Damn it, stop treating your own kind like prey!”
The pursuers chasing Vasha didn’t even hear her cries of injustice; they only mocked her.
“Treating a lower one as our own kind? Ridiculous!”
“This is outrageous!”
It would be more bearable to be chased by vampire hunters instead,
Vasha thought, gritting her teeth.
She was running to avoid being eaten by vampires like those now.
In the past, vampires didn’t need to eat other vampires. Humans were spread across the earth, after all.
However, as human civilization advanced, all of that glory passed by.
Even when cameras were invented, vampires didn’t care. Vampires didn’t show up in mirrors, so they left no traces in cameras either.
But as science advanced, not leaving traces in cameras became crucial evidence revealing their identity.
If images of vampires hanging in the air while being sucked dry of blood were recorded on CCTV, it would be shocking from a human perspective.
They speculated about beings ‘not caught on camera’ and soon proved their existence through infrared cameras.
Thus, the existence of vampires was exposed to the world.
Modern humans prospered, organized, and were exclusive. They began hunting vampires, adept at detecting and excluding those who harmed them.
They could use magic, but that alone couldn’t withstand human firepower and quantity. Vampires quickly hid their existence and had no choice but to admit they were no longer superior predators to humans.
Vampires who could no longer directly prey on humans resorted to stealing blood packs or hunting animals to survive.
But even that had its limits.
Eventually, vampires began hunting and sucking the blood of other vampires.
Vampires form bloodline groups called ‘clans,’ following the higher vampires who turned them into vampires.
It is taboo to mess with members of the same clan when hunting.
Disturbing clans with unequal power leads to war.
On the other hand, beings like Vasha, who lack both clan and abilities, were perfect prey.
Vasha bit her lips nervously.
‘If I had just regained my strength, I would have turned into a bat and fled!’
Vasha was originally a high-ranking vampire capable of various powers. However, all her strength seemed to have disappeared, for reasons she couldn’t recall. Only memories of being a high-ranking vampire remained.
Unable to use any abilities and with most of her strength sealed, she was essentially no different from a lower vampire.
Lower vampires cannot use spells like hypnosis and lack abilities such as transforming into bats.
There are no claims that only high-ranking vampires are true vampires.
In such circumstances, Vasha tried desperately to regain her strength and memories. She asked around and searched for all kinds of remedies, but to no avail.
Yet, reclaiming her strength to become a high-ranking vampire again was no easy task.
How could a lower vampire become a high-ranking one? At least 200 years of drinking human blood would be required, and even surviving until then was uncertain.
Vasha ran through the city’s alleyways, like a gazelle crossing the savannah.
Tonight, the full moon shone exceptionally bright in the sky.
Despite the bright moon, there was an unusual silence, with hardly anyone out admiring it.
After running for who knows how long, she reached a dead-end alley.
Panicked, Vasha surveyed her surroundings. Even jumping onto the pipes seemed futile.
‘What should I do?’
In her moment of desperation, moonlight suddenly poured onto one side of the wall.
Revealed was a brightly lit rectangular open door.
‘Wasn’t this wall made of concrete?’
Vasha cautiously reached out her hand.
Her fingertips were engulfed by the light as if being sucked in.
It clearly led somewhere.
How did this door appear? And where does it lead?
However, as the vampire life was synonymous with mystery, extrasensory perception, and the unscientific, Vasha didn’t dwell too deeply on it.
More precisely, she didn’t have the luxury to think deeply.
“The prey is in the dead-end alley!”
The voice of the vampire chasing Vasha grew closer.
Anyway, there was nowhere left to run.
Then there’s no need to hesitate.
Vasha immediately leaped through the door.
***
“There’s a vampire over there!”
“Catch her! Destroy her! Eradicate her!”
“Huff, huff.”
As she crossed the threshold of the door, the cityscape vanished, replaced by a dense forest that greeted Vasha.
But Vasha’s situation hadn’t changed much. Doubly aggrieved, she howled in frustration.
“Are these people engaging in religious wars in this world?”
Just when she thought she had escaped from the vampires!
Adorned with square stars, these unpredictable individuals chased Vasha on behalf of their kin.
Daily life might be mundane for lower vampires, but isn’t this a bit too much?
Running endlessly through the forest without rest, Vasha felt tears welling up.
“Damn it, shooting silver arrows out of nowhere!”
Vasha clenched her bleeding arm. Vampires may regenerate quickly from cuts by swords and spears, but wounds from silver weapons are not easily healed.
“That glowing door! Was it deliberately dropped here for me?”
Exiting through the door, Vasha collided with a group of people.
They immediately realized Vasha was a vampire and shot silver arrows at her.
So Vasha had no choice but to be hit by the silver arrows without any chance to evade.
Rolling her body quickly to avoid vital areas was the best she could do.
“Huff, hukk…”
Blood spilled between Vasha’s fingers, dripping steadily. The grass and flowers touched by the drops withered instantly.
“Damn it…”
If Vasha didn’t tend to her wounds quickly, she would eventually be caught off guard.
But there was no time to spare, even for immediate treatment, as she needed to flee urgently.
In a moment of distraction, Vasha’s foot caught on a tree root.
“Uwaaaakh!”
Unable to stop herself, Vasha tumbled down the steep hillside.
