10. A Twisted Royal and a Vial of Green

Prince August watched Damien enter the library through a large doorway with his supposed family member. Seeing that the drama was over, the students started leaving to go about the rest of their day.

The Head Professor also turned to leave, but quickly stopped in his tracks.

August Greentail, First Prince and heir to the throne of Kassinki. To everyone, he is a friendly and kind person who always had a dazzling smile on his handsome face. With his blonde hair and smile, Damien would have labeled him as a ‘typical hero protagonist’.

Once the last of the students went on their way, August approached the Head Professor and put his hand on the man's shoulder.

To anyone who passed by, they would assume they were friends having a happy chat, but the smile has disappeared from August's face and instead became slightly sinister. Victor had taught August magic as a private tutor when he was a child. When Victor heard people call Prince August a kind and respectable man, he would almost choke, and scream in his mind ‘He's the most vicious bastard I have ever met!’ When he was a child he had this sinister smile on more often, but as he grew older he learned to hide his true nature.

Victor had once been inside one of Prince August's ‘Summer Houses’ which were log cabins built out in the wilderness. Inside he found demi-human corpses, the male ones were hanging from metal hooks and chains, covered in deep gashes and wounds. Some still leaking blood that slowly dripped onto the stained wooden floor below.

He almost threw up at this sight but tried to maintain some dignity, Victor's daughter was a maid in the Royal Palace assigned to Prince August. She tried to escape many times but would always be dragged back by the guards.

She tried to quit her job, but August claimed she knew too many “state secrets” to be allowed to leave.

August was a lust-filled psychotic maniac and was the reason Victor despised Royalty with his very being. Unfortunately, he can’t openly oppose Royalty and can only take it out on the Nobles that are loyal to them.

August tightened his grip on Victor's shoulder, almost cracking his bones.

“Victor, I speculate you know the ramifications of this duel?” Victor just looked at August's face, which had gone from a kind-hearted young man to a sinister beast.

“Evelyn may be paying a visit to my humble abode in the woods.” The words seemed innocent enough, but Victor almost fainted when he superimposed the image of Evelyn being chained to the bed with her insides completely ravaged and hanging out like that cat girl beastkin had been the last time he had visited Augusts ‘Summer house’.

“M-my lord, I have been in a weak condition recently, I am not assured of victory,” Victor answered honestly. He didn’t mind if he died for his loss, but the idea of Evelyn dying in that way was too horrific.

August's unnerving smile only elevated as he pulled out a small glass vial filled with green liquid.

As Victor was a scholar, he knew what this liquid was.

“I can’t use something like that! What if I kill the man?”

August just laughed “Don’t worry Victor he is no ordinary man if his pale skin and red eyes weren't already a giveaway, his ‘family’ member had two small holes on her neck. He’s definitely at least part vampire. Although a true vampire hasn't been sighted in over 300 years, he may be a servant to one of the noble vampires.”

Victor clutched his chest in pain, the amount of shock he had received in the last half an hour could bring him to the grave!

Victor reached out and retrieved the thumb-sized glass vial with the ominous green liquid inside. August nodded and added, “To fight a monster, one must become a monster.” he then left, making sure to put on his fake and dazzling smile.

Victor quickly hid the vial and headed off towards the Mage Tower while muttering curses under his breath.

***

Pov Fay

Master seems different these days. He’s still a bit insane, but his eyes are different. Before they were almost dead as a fish, he would just lie around in bed all day and occasionally wake up just to have a bath and feed on my blood.

But now they had purpose behind them. As if he had some big ambition or pressure on his shoulder.

Fay took a cautious peek at Damien, he was sitting in a comfortable armchair with a glass of cheap red wine in his hand. A light stone was embedded in the wall behind him and was casting a soft glow upon both Damien and the books surrounding him.

Yes, books.

There were five books all floating around him, he was calmly switching his attention between them while frowning from time to time. His level of concentration was insane. Fay knew that Psychokinesis used up a lot of mental power to manipulate five books at once while also actually reading them?

Three days had passed since the duel was declared between him and the Head Professor. Since three days ago, Fay had never witnessed Damien using magic, she was quite surprised to discover that he was a Psychic mage and seemed to never rely on Blood Magic.

Fay had visited the Public Library many times in the past while Damien was asleep, and she found a book detailing vampires. They were long-lived creatures that survived off the blood of mortals to increase their lifespan. A normal vampire could live up to 500 years, but noble vampires could live over a thousand years. There was also some speculation that they could be technically immortal, but none had lived for more than 5000 years in recorded history. The oldest vampire was Kazimir Nightshade who lived for 4673 years, he died after being hunted down by a group of A-grade mages after he kidnapped the emperor of Oshal’s wife at the time.

It was mentioned that vampires were weak to the Pyrokinesis (fire) and Photokinesis (light) magic schools. Silver-coated weapons were also highly effective. Fay made note of these weaknesses, should she ever need them in the future.

Fay had noticed that Damien's personality had slightly softened over the last few days.

‘At least he stopped threatening to kill me for every little thing. He was still a germaphobe control freak. But his attitude towards me had changed. Before he just ordered me around like some kind of slave or livestock, although I technically had been one for a few weeks I don’t remember much of it. It's all kind of hazy, as if my mind was being controlled.’

‘But for some reason, he seemed to release his mind control on me. He continued to order me around but left me on a pretty light leash, especially while sleeping. Maybe he also had a rough childhood as I did? And that's why he's such an overbearing person?’

Although Fay noticed Damien's slight change in personality, he also seemed to be wearier of her, especially when she used a knife to cut food in the kitchen.

‘Is he afraid of knives? He never used to watch me cook, he only ever slept.’

Fay stopped looking at Damien and tried to focus on the book in her own hands. She kind of enjoyed this cozy atmosphere of sitting in the study and reading during the evening.

After trying to read the third page of Basic Principles of Mana Manipulation for the hundredth time and not understanding a word, Fay let out an audible sigh.

‘Perhaps I can ask Damien to teach me magic? Will he just say ‘No’ as Dad did? Maybe he knows how terrible my talent for magic is.’

‘Well worse case he says no and threatens to kill me, as he does with most things, yet I'm still alive…’

“M-master… can I ask something”

Damien broke concentration from his books with a visible scowl on his face. “What?”

“Since you are so good at magic, could you maybe teach me a spell?”

Damien seemed for the first time genuinely bewildered. His hand went to his chin and he looked off to the side, deep in thought.

‘He’s actually considering it?’ Fay thought with surprise. She expected to just be outright ignored.

After almost a full minute of deep thought, Damien returned his stare at Fay. As if trying to read her mind and peer into the deepest parts of her soul, it was an unnerving experience, to say the least.

“Sure.”

He finally replied!

“Really!! What spell?” Fay forgot to address him as Master for a second, but he let it slide and answered nonchalantly,

“A cleaning spell.”

Fay almost fell out of her chair.