Episode 16

Bishop Johann completed the blessing and poured the holy oil into the Brix River, a ceremony meant to pray for a smooth and accident-free regatta.

Under the canopy, Rosanna, who had been watching the scene, turned her gaze toward where she could hear Henry’s chatter. Vlad stood in front of the mirror, dressed in his uniform, while Tanesia and Henry checked to see if everything was in order.

Rosanna approached them.

“Do you really have to participate every year? Doesn’t it tire you out?”

She met Vlad’s gaze through the mirror.

“This is all business. The club is a gathering of upper-class gentlemen. It’s full of potential clients. Of course, I need to maintain my connections.”

“You live a tiring life.”

“It’s a world you wouldn’t understand, my lady, who only knows how to command with a flick of her finger.”

“Such cheek.”

Before their sibling banter could escalate into an argument, Tanesia changed the subject.

“Apparently, there’s a young man Henry met who came along with Bishop Johann. Have you seen him? What was his name again?”

“Kyle! He’s over there. Henry saw him earlier.”

Henry pointed somewhere along the riverside. Even though it was too far away to make out people’s faces, it wasn’t a problem for a vampire with heightened senses.

Rosanna immediately spotted Kyle.

“It really is him.”

Her eyes returned to Vlad.

“Well, it’s not like I brought him.”

“Did the bishop just bring him along?”

“Probably. Today’s event is a small fundraiser for the parish. Having young, handsome seminarians around helps gather more donations during the party after the race. The noble ladies tend to be more generous that way.”

A furrow appeared on Rosanna’s brow.

“So, he’s just there to encourage donations….”

“He could probably make them swoon with just one smile. By the way, sister, did you also—ouch, what’s with that look?”

Tanesia pinched her oblivious husband, but the damage was already done. Henry sighed beside them, mimicking his mother’s tone from memory.

“Dad, you’re a fool. A fool.”

“What did I do?”

“Mom said that sometimes you do foolish things and need to be pinched. She just pinched you, so you must have done something foolish!”

“Our son is so smart.”

Tanesia patted Henry’s head, then shot a glare at Vlad.

“You’ve wasted your life. Hundreds of years down the drain.”

“The race is about to start, and instead of cheering me on, you’re criticizing me. Henry, isn’t your mother too harsh?”

“It’s just curiosity. Where did all those years go? If I knew, I could be more understanding.”

Rosanna joined in, backing up Tanesia’s comment.

“You’ll have more exasperating moments ahead. It’s your burden, Tanesia, for picking up such a clueless fool.”

“That’s true. I’ll just have to manage him well.”

Vlad was left speechless by the two women’s banter. Suddenly, he scooped Tanesia up in his arms.

A short gasp echoed through the waiting room.

“We’ve lived long enough to become husband and wife. If my lifespan were like a human’s, I would have died before you were even born. Then we never would have met.”

“Alright, alright. I get it. All those years were so you could meet me. Now, put me down!”

Tanesia’s feet dangled in the air, and Henry found it amusing.

“Dad, me too! Henry too! I want to go up high! Please!”

Henry clung to Vlad’s leg, begging. The small waiting room, made of canvas tents, quickly grew noisy.

At that moment, the music started playing outside, marking the opening of the event.

“Tanesia, Henry, let’s go. We need to head to the stands before the race starts.”

Rosanna was about to leave but turned back, remembering something.

“Oh, right. Vlad, win this race for the honor of the Enache name.”

“You don’t need to tell me.”

Vlad’s team won without any unexpected incidents.

Rosanna watched part of the trophy ceremony but eventually slipped away. She was glad about the victory, but she couldn’t bear to watch Vlad flaunt the trophy with such arrogance.

Below the podium, the celebration began. A donation box was placed on one side, and Bishop Johann, along with his entourage, moved from table to table, exchanging greetings. Kyle was among them. Whether he remembered what they talked about when they parted after the boat ride, or whether he was simply following the bishop, the important thing was that they were bound to meet again soon.

Rosanna’s lips curled into a smile. This would be her first meeting with Kyle since their kiss, and she was eager to see his reaction. She imagined him greeting her, shyly averting his gaze. The thought was amusing, but she was more eager to see it happen in real life, so she signaled him.

Kyle, perhaps sensing her gaze, glanced in her direction. Their eye contact lasted only for a moment before he looked away without further response.

“Is he avoiding me?”

Rosanna was sure of it now.

Kyle had been avoiding her ever since the race. Even while watching the competition, he had averted his gaze several times, and he continued to do so during the victory celebration. The reason was obvious—the kiss by the lake. He must still be embarrassed.

“Too innocent for his own good,” she mused.

But even as she said it, she felt joy. There was so much she could teach him, and that, too, would bring her pleasure.

Surrounded by ancient vampires weathered by centuries, Kyle was a rare sight.

And rare things were worth collecting. Rosanna was a seasoned collector. While she easily grew bored with most things, her hobby of collecting was one that had lasted. The thrill of acquiring rare items was akin to the joy of the hunt. She had gathered anything rare that caught her eye, using that joy to combat the monotony of her long life.

But after coming to Britna, she hadn’t found anything worthy of adding to her collection. Even though antique and taxidermy collections were in fashion, nothing piqued her interest. With her only hobby waning, she was left to endure her faded, colorless routine.

“And then, you appeared.”

Kyle, a theology student, had piqued her curiosity from the start. He possessed a charm that drew her attention more and more with each encounter—a sensitive young man who gave her new feelings, someone who would bring her pure joy.

Her new attachment toy, Kyle.

His appearance in her life, a rare addition to her collection, reinvigorated her.

“I’m looking forward to this.”

Rosanna raised her wine glass, aligning it with where Kyle stood, as if capturing him inside. Seeing him through the glass pleased her.

As she finished the remaining wine, the Countess of Haywood and her entourage appeared.

“Rosanna, why are you sitting all alone at this table in the corner? We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“The view is better here.”

“What view?”

Instead of answering, Rosanna smiled and glanced toward where she had been looking earlier. Kyle was already gone.

“He’s avoiding me… Oh well, I’ll let it slide for today.”

—

In the rugged mountains of the Sovereign Federation…

The white land, covered in eternal snow, was now stained red. Lower-ranked vampires lay dead and dying across the ground, and standing amidst them was a man with dark brown hair.

A village elder, cowering on the ground, begged the man for mercy.

“Please, spare us! We’ve been living here in peace, in hiding. There’s no reason to attack us! We haven’t harmed anyone!”

“Do you know Sancha Danilova?”

“I don’t. Is she someone you’re looking for?”

“A vampire murdered in Sovereign decades ago. She was brutally killed by her own kind for having a child with a human.”

The elder fell silent for a moment.

“It’s as I feared… The sins of the past have caught up to us. It was during the end of the Dark Era. The radicals went on one last rampage. It was a barbaric time. We should have stopped them, but we were too afraid to interfere.”

Just as humans had the witch hunts, vampires, too, had a similar dark period. The “witches” were the mothers of dhampirs.

This era later became known as the Dark Era, and most of its disgraceful history was erased.

“Please, spare these villagers. They’re innocent country folk.”

The man remained silent, his cold, piercing eyes glinting with icy indifference.

“Innocent? That’s not a word that applies to any of you.”

The blade, made from the ground bones of a lycanthrope, pierced the elder’s heart.

With a groan, a gust of wind blew, and the man’s hood fell back. His eyes, hardened by a life of killing, glinted coldly as he gripped the hilt of his sword.

“You… you’re a Hunter. There’s a group that raises dhampirs to become vampire executioners, aren’t there…? So it wasn’t just a rumor…”

“That’s right. The sins you’ve sown have survived to deliver judgment.”

The man pulled his sword free and decapitated the elder in one swift motion. The elder’s dying scream was swallowed by the snow-covered landscape.

“I will execute the Sovereign faction that butchered Sancha. You will be sacrifices for my mother’s peace.”

No one remained to answer his declaration.

At that moment, footsteps crunched in the snow behind him. Recognizing the presence, the man sheathed his killing intent.

Turning around, he saw a small, fur-covered figure approaching. Much smaller than the man, a blonde girl’s face peeked out from the fur.

“R-Raymond, let’s go back now.”

The girl’s face was flushed red from the cold. Snowflakes had already settled on her eyelashes and hair, her body shivering uncontrollably.

“I’m freezing, even though I’m bundled up in lycanthrope fur. I’m going to die of cold.”

There was a hint of resentment in her voice, as the man, Hunter Raymond, remained completely unaffected by the cold. The girl envied his resistance to the freezing weather, though she certainly didn’t wish to be a dhampir.

“No one asked you to come. I told you to wait in the village. You’re not even a Hunter, yet you followed me all the way here.”

“I came because you didn’t return for days! Besides, Breeder called us. We really need to go now.”

Breeder.

Raymond’s benefactor, who had saved him, informed him about his mother’s fate, and trained him to be a Hunter so he could seek revenge.

Whenever Breeder called, Raymond would return immediately, no matter where he was. This time, however, he had discovered and wiped out a vampire den. Although it was a solo mission, he had secured his spoils of war, so he felt it was alright to take his time.

Breeder understood just how deep Raymond’s hatred for vampires ran.

“Let’s head out. But first, Nina, gather what we need.”

The girl walked over to where Raymond had motioned. As she saw the vampires who were barely clinging to life, her face lit up with excitement.

“They’re still alive? Perfect, they’ll make great materials. I need to extract them before the nerves die to keep everything fresh.”

Hehehe. Nina let out a creepy laugh and pulled a heat-insulated vial from her inner coat pocket. Tilting the vial over the mouth of a vampire, a special liquid dripped down, causing the flesh to dissolve and reveal hidden fangs.

Nina pulled out her tools from her pocket and began extracting the fangs. Because there were so few entities capable of standing against vampires, their fangs made excellent materials for weapons.

After collecting all the fangs and storing some blood for comparative research, Nina returned to Raymond.

“When we get to Britna, I’ll craft some great weapons for you. I also need to finish my research. Ah, this is going to be fun.”

Nina Shea was the Holy Cross Order’s genius technician. Even among the order, which was known for recruiting those who had lost their sanity after traumatic experiences, she was considered an eccentric, and she was famous for her many nicknames.

The Mad Scientist.

The Biotech Enthusiast.

Her subjects of choice were vampires—particularly the high-ranking ones referred to as the “Elders” among their kind.