In the summer of 1988, inside an ancient castle in England, a chestnut-haired girl with tousled hair was tied to a single armchair. Standing before her was a strikingly beautiful young man. Against his deathly pale face, his red lips stood out all the more.
He was a Vampire Viscount. Compared to the Last Bloodline, whose mixed heritage made them barely worthy of the name, and Blood Servants as ugly as addicts, the handsome looks granted by his bloodline were what he liked most about himself.
"Such is the mark of nobility!" he said. ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
The young man gazed at the trembling child as though appraising a fine work of art, but beneath his blood-red eyes lurked undisguised bloodlust.
He drew close to the little girl and inhaled deeply. An unnatural flush spread across his pallid face. "Oh~~" The sudden display of perversion gave the already terrified girl another layer of goosebumps.
"Just as I thought! Only a young girl's pure blood is fit to be a delicacy for a Noble Bloodline like me~" With that, the vampire wrapped his arms around himself, as if pitying his poor habit of drinking only the morning dew.
When he finished speaking, he licked his lips, revealing the fangs he'd kept hidden. A delicacy was not to be desecrated—or kept waiting.
Just then, a voice dragged the story back from the paywalled chapters to the free ones.
"'Young girl,' my ass! She's eight! She's a child! ( #｀へ´)"
The vampire looked up. A teenage boy was leaning against the window of the castle, holding a Horizontal Saber, his face openly filled with disgust.
You know that's illegal, right? .JPG (Can't insert images early on, so use your imaginations, dear readers.)
"Who are you?"
"Your father... No, forget it. I couldn't have fathered something like you. That'd be humiliating."
The boy looked so repulsed, as if the vampire were filth he wanted nothing to do with. That made the man, who had always prided himself on belonging to a Noble Bloodline, seethe with rage.
"Brat, you're insulting the noble Dracula Sete!"
"Dracula again? How many girls did Vlad Dracula ruin back in the day? Why are his bastards everywhere?" The boy jumped down from the window, pulled out a small blanket, and covered the girl's head with it. His left hand tightened around the hilt.
"Whatever. They're all fledglings. It makes no difference whether I cut down one or two.
Huaxia Daoist Sect, Bing Huan."
The next moment, Bing Huan took a deep breath. His right shoulder drew half his body backward as he gathered all his energy and spirit, becoming like a dead tree in the desert.
Proud of his bloodline—and unable to sense even the slightest trace of power from Bing Huan—Sete had already decided the boy was just an ignorant fool trying to play the hero.
"Ha↗↘hahaha~ Little boy, you need strength to save a beauty. Still, though you're lowborn, you've got a pretty face. I'll be merciful... I'll ruin it, then make you my Blood Servant."
Sete grinned viciously at Bing Huan. The full force of a viscount's aura poured out, startling the little girl beneath the blanket.
The person in question, however, didn't seem to feel a thing. "Is that your last word? You sure? Once you confirm, you can't change it."
"Still haven't faced reality? So be it. The ignorance of ants always gives them courage they don't deserve. Let me show you just how great the difference is.
"By the way, that's a Sword Draw Slash from Sakura Country, right? I heard your Sword Drawing Technique came from Sakura. But over there, the lower you bow your head, the stronger you are, isn't that right? Don't want to bow? Come on, don't be shy. Lower your head before the great Dracula!"
"From Sakura?" Those words were enough to enrage any Descendant of Yan and Huang. "Ha. They're just a bunch of clowns we kicked out, trying to save face. And you really believe the nonsense those short monkeys spout?"
(Unsheath)
"Ho~? Then do me the honor of showing me what you can do—your so-called... Hk... hk..."
(Resheath)
Sete clutched his neck, which had been cut halfway through, and stared behind him in disbelief. He couldn't understand how, in that instant, an aura more immense than an adult Giant Dragon's had burst from this seemingly harmless body.
"Relax~ Dizziness is normal." Bing Huan turned around, holding his saber. "That's the orthodox Sword Drawing Technique of China. Remember that?"
Thud.
Of course, the only answer the boy got was the sound of a corpse hitting the floor. Bing Huan raised an eyebrow. "Oh, looks like you'll have to remember in your next life. Assuming you have one."
He formed a fire seal, tossed Dracula Sete's corpse outside, and burned it. With their master dead, the Blood Servants outside began to go mad, their killing intent rising.
"Looks like there's still some weeds to cut down..."
Bing Huan went over to the armchair and lifted the blanket. "Aaaah! Don't kill me!!!!"
Shing!
With one slash, the ropes fell loose. The girl, who hadn't felt anything happen to her, opened her eyes and saw the boy helping her down from the chair.
"Small body, loud voice. I'm Bing Huan. What's your name?"
"Hermione Granger."
"Listen, Hermione. There are still plenty of monsters like that one outside. I'll take you out of here in a minute. Hold on tight to me. Got it?"
Hermione tugged at Bing Huan's sleeve. "But there are forty-seven of them!"
"Fo... how many?"
"Forty-seven."
"Wait, weren't you taken here? How do you know that much?"
"Oh, he didn't seem worried I'd escape, so he didn't cover my head or knock me out. He even had everyone in the castle come out to welcome him..." Hermione puffed out her cheeks, apparently angry at being underestimated.
"So, are we still going to fight our way out? They sound pretty angry." More and more Blood Servants and vampires were snarling outside.
"Hah~ ah."
"Hmph~ ah."
"Slurp, slurp."
(.≖ˇェˇ≖｡)...
"We'd better sneak out instead. It's mainly for your safety, absolutely not because there are too many of them and I don't want to fight, mm-hm!" He said this with a perfectly solemn expression, then patted Hermione on the shoulder.
(￣▽￣") "I don't believe you."
"...Kids who are too clever aren't cute! Let's get out first. If we wait any longer, we really won't be able to sneak away."
Once they were out of the room, Bing Huan closed his eyes and listened for a moment, then picked the quietest direction.
"Brother, are you a cultivator from the East?"
"Oh, you know about that?"
"Yeah. My uncle went on a trip to China before and accidentally fell off a cliff. A Daoist priest rescued him. My uncle thought he was an immortal from the legends, but that man told him to believe in science, then jumped back up the cliff. Later, my uncle asked around and found out there were lots of people called Daoist priests over there. Do people in China really have the same names so often?"
o_o ...
"Your uncle... wasn't it Longhu Mountain he visited? And wasn't the man reeking of alcohol?" Bing Huan thought of his own Martial Uncle, who had tricked him into drinking strong liquor when he was three.
Hermione tilted her head as she thought. "I think so, but my uncle apparently mistook the smell for an immortal's fragrance."
(facepalm)
"That was my Fifth Martial Uncle. He's great otherwise, but he really likes drinking. After taking on a disciple last time, he drank straight through the night. The next day, all my junior brothers and sisters were dumbfounded.
"But Daoist priest isn't his name. Daoist is a form of cultivation. It means a person has reached a certain level of spiritual attainment. It's an honorific people use for them. You could think of it as a title or a position, like principal."
"When you closed your eyes just now, were you sensing things? Like a map appearing in your mind!"
Bing Huan pursed his lips. "I used to be able to, but before I came here, my master sealed my Spiritual Sense and some of my other abilities..."
"Why would he do that?!" The little girl, who always gave everything her all, couldn't understand why anyone would hold themselves back like that.
"You've already reached Foundation Establishment. If you need to go all out against a bunch of viscounts, that just means your cultivation isn't good enough yet!" Bing Huan lowered his voice and imitated what his master had said before he left. "That's what he said."
As they chatted, they reached the entrance. Bing Huan took hold of the doorknob. "We have to be careful from here on. We absolutely can't let them spot us."
"What if they do?"
"If they spot us, I'll throw you out to be eaten. You little jinx." He even put on a fierce expression.
"Bleh." Hermione could tell that this boy, who was only a few years older than her but kept pretending to be an adult, meant her no harm. She gradually relaxed.
They opened the front door, and the two little ones were met by forty-seven pairs of eyes, glowing red in the dark.
"Uh-oh..."
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