Below the wall of Esteban School’s Fifth Auxiliary Library is the perfect place to get beaten up.
It would have been nice to know that thirty minutes ago. Ruslan regretted it as he was being thoroughly beaten.
Thirty minutes ago. He had been walking with his nose buried in a book as always.
Thud!
He tripped over someone’s foot and fell, then rubbed his throbbing chin and looked up to see Bruce’s gang grinning at him.
“Working hard today too!”
“A lowborn has to study hard if he wants to survive.”
Ruslan obediently nodded at the guys who were nudging the books he’d dropped with their feet.
“Yeah. Right. Sorry for getting in the way.”
Ruslan busily gathered up the scattered books and smiled vaguely, trying to look as inoffensive as possible. In front of these noble young masters, it was best to act completely docile and dim-witted.
Roughly cut dirty blond hair and a face scattered with freckles. A small frame with protruding shoulder blades and a pale complexion.
To anyone’s eyes, Ruslan didn’t fit in with the other well-dressed noble students.
The only reason a commoner like Ruslan could enroll in Esteban School, which mainly admitted children of the Empire’s upper class and sons of noble families, was because he had studied himself to death and passed the special scholarship program.
A special admission system created by Her Imperial Highness, who held the ambition to “support poor but excellent students regardless of status or nationality with scholarships and raise them as outstanding servants of the Empire.”
Without it, Ruslan, an orphan from a poor country like Frükan, could never have dreamed of studying at an Imperial school.
The tuition at Esteban School, known as the Empire’s finest educational institution, was astronomical, and it was a place where young masters from the Empire’s prestigious noble families and gentlemen families renowned for their wealth had enrolled for generations.
Arrogant and exclusionary, they constantly looked down on commoner students like Ruslan who received government support without paying a penny, and the one they found most disagreeable was the low-born orphan without even a surname who was always holed up in the library reading gloomy books—Ruslan.
“What’s this again? <History of Vampire Extermination>?”
Bruce’s Number One Lackey—as Ruslan had named him in his mind—picked up one of the books Ruslan had dropped.
The guy opened to the page with the bookmark and frowned at the illustration of a vampire baring terrifying fangs, then read aloud the passage written below.
“<Vampires were known to be able to hypnotize and control animals.
When an animal was discovered behaving strangely, to determine whether it was hypnotized, one had to hold that animal up to a silver mirror.
Like the eyes of vampires that turn red when using their supernatural powers, the eyes of creatures controlled by vampires also turn red.
Occasionally, exceptional vampires would manipulate things so their eye color wouldn’t change, but when held up to a silver mirror, one could confirm the animal’s eyes dyed with an evil red light…>
…You’re reading books like this again?”
Bruce’s Number One Lackey—shortened to Lackey One in Ruslan’s mind—made a pathetic expression.
Ruslan scratched the back of his head and smiled awkwardly again.
One of the reasons Ruslan was looked down upon even more than other scholarship students was because of this peculiar reading taste.
He was constantly reading books on stale topics like <Vampire Hunting> or <History of Bloodsucking> that even history professors rarely covered in class.
“Why do you go around reading stories about vampires that went extinct hundreds of years ago? Instead of at least showing a cultured appearance befitting an Esteban School student.”
Lackey Two looked at Ruslan with contempt.
From the perspective of Imperial nobles who believed that classical literature and ancient language memorization were the most cultured education, Ruslan, who was passionate about stories of monsters like “vampires” that only appeared in old tales, was truly pathetic.
Add to that his always hunched posture and unkempt bangs covering his eyes, his slovenly appearance, and the southern Frükan accent that caused his pronunciation to slur awkwardly in a way that could never be fixed—all of it was equally irritating.
Lackey Three shrugged, mocking Ruslan.
“You never know. Maybe this guy is so dim-witted because he’s being controlled by a vampire. Maybe we should hold his eyes up to silver to check.”
Lackey Three pulled a silver pocket watch from his pocket, held the flat back in front of Ruslan’s eyes, and pretended to carefully reflect it like a mirror. Then suddenly, checking the reflective surface, the guy’s eyes went wide.
“Huh? Wait. What’s this? This guy’s eyes are red!”
“What?”
“Here! Look closely! This guy’s eyes are completely red!”
“What nonsense are you…”
It was the moment when not only Bruce’s gang but even Ruslan looked somewhat dumbfounded at Ruslan’s deep navy blue eyes reflected in the silver—
The guy suddenly whipped around and struck the distracted Ruslan in the eye socket.
“Agh!”
As Ruslan fell clutching his eye socket, the guy grinned and wiggled the pocket watch triumphantly.
“See, it’s red, right?”
Lackey Three grinned, pointing to Ruslan’s eye area that had swollen red from burst capillaries due to the assault just moments ago. Bruce’s gang burst into laughter.
“That’s genius!”
“It’s weird that only one side is red. The other side should be the same color to make sense.”
“Good point.”
Bruce cracked his fingers looking at Ruslan.
Ruslan swallowed, gripping his throbbing eye socket, then quickly turned and started running the moment Bruce took a step forward.
“Catch him!”
“Hey, vampire minion! If you get caught, we’ll hold a proper vampire trial!”
“How did they kill vampires in your country? Was it gouging out the eyes then burning at the stake?”
Before long, Ruslan’s hair was caught by a large hand and he tumbled against the wall, letting out a breathless scream. Kicks and punches flew mixed with ridicule.
Small and thin compared to his peers, Ruslan was no match for the Imperial nobles who had grown up eating good food, large in stature and strong in stamina. On top of that, the numbers were overwhelmingly against Ruslan at 1:4.
Four ganging up on one guy and you talk about culture? These thuggish bastards.
Ruslan swallowed his curses internally and curled up as tightly as possible.
He was unlucky. Near the deserted Fifth Library, not even a single ant passed by, let alone professors or students. Realizing there was no hope of being discovered or receiving help, Ruslan clenched his teeth with his arms covering his head.
I’m going to get beaten no matter what today.
That’s what he was thinking when—
“Grrrrr…”
At the sudden low growl, Ruslan, Bruce, and Lackeys One, Two, and Three all froze.
Looking back in bewilderment, the pocket watch fell with a clang from Lackey Three’s hand.
A jet-black dog was baring its teeth, drooling, and glaring at Bruce’s gang with glistening eyes.
The boys’ faces grew paler as they heard the murderous growl rumbling from its throat.
“Bark bark bark!”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
When the black dog charged, Bruce’s gang turned in unison and ran for their lives. The terrified Ruslan also pressed himself flat against the library building wall, avoiding the dog passing right beside him.
“Bark bark bark bark bark!”
“Why is that crazy mutt acting like that?!”
Bruce screamed in disbelief at the dog chasing them like it had gone mad. In this moment at least, Ruslan agreed with Bruce.
That black dog raised by the groundskeeper was originally a well-trained guard dog that never attacked students… Did it catch rabies or something?!
Before long, Bruce’s gang scattered in all directions and fled, and the surroundings became quiet.
The trembling Ruslan was carefully unwrapping his arms from around his head and looking up when—
…Damn it.
Less than ten steps away, the black dog stood there.
Now that Bruce’s gang had disappeared, its excitement had calmed a bit and it wasn’t drooling like before, but just its dim black eyes alone were equally terrifying.
Having lived as a rural commoner, Ruslan knew that a hunting dog that size could kill a boy of his build if it charged at him. Back home, he’d actually witnessed a scene where a child was nearly killed by a dog attack.
As Ruslan fumbled around looking for a rock he could strike down with in an emergency, something glinting just a few steps ahead entered his field of vision.
The smooth back of the overturned silver pocket watch was reflecting light like a mirror.
In the worst case, I’ll have to grab that and try to strike its eyes.
Ruslan was hastily reaching out his hand at the sight of the dog gradually approaching when he suddenly spotted the dog’s appearance reflected in the pocket watch and froze.
…What?
Thinking he had seen wrong, he checked again, but he still saw the same thing.
The dog’s eyes reflected in the silver pocket watch were red.
Ruslan stared at the dog in a daze.
The dog’s eyes visible to the naked eye were black.
But when he looked down to check, the eyes reflected in the silver pocket watch were still red.
Goosebumps rose all over his body.
While Ruslan was frozen stiff, the dog hesitated, then stepped back a few paces and looked up. The dog tilted its head while looking somewhere.
Ruslan instinctively turned his head to follow the dog’s gaze. And he discovered what the dog was looking at.
The fourth floor of the auxiliary library. Someone was standing by the window.
Because Ruslan was crouched close to the library building, all he could see was the lower part of the windowsill and an arm languidly draped over it.
Because they were wearing the school uniform, Ruslan easily noticed it was a male student around his age.
The wrist slightly revealed at the end of the sleeve was dazzlingly white. Probably that face was just as white, but from the angle where Ruslan stood, he couldn’t see the face. From his position, Ruslan probably wouldn’t be visible either. At most, the dog standing a bit behind Ruslan would enter the field of vision of the boy standing at the window.
The arm draped by the window moved, then white fingers lightly flicked. It was a motion like grasping something and then releasing it.
At that moment, the dog shook its whole body as if it had been possessed and was now freed.
While Ruslan watched in a daze, the dog stood there bewildered for a moment, tilting its head as if it didn’t know why it was here. The dog sniffed around, warily surveying its surroundings with a puzzled expression, then soon looked up at Ruslan with a gentle expression and whimpered.
Ruslan stared blankly at the dog wagging its tail as if it had never barked like a mad dog and charged at people, then soon bolted upright with a thunderous realization.
<…When an animal was discovered behaving strangely, to determine whether it was hypnotized, one had to hold that animal up to a silver mirror.
Like the eyes of vampires that turn red when using their supernatural powers, the eyes of creatures controlled by vampires also turn red.
Occasionally, exceptional vampires would manipulate things so their eye color wouldn’t change, but when held up to a silver mirror, one could confirm the animal’s eyes dyed with an evil red light…>
Ruslan jerked his head back like a madman and looked up.
The arm that had been draped by the window had already disappeared.
“…!”
In the feeling of blood rushing backwards, Ruslan dashed out like a whipped beast and ran toward the Fifth Library entrance.
He didn’t feel any throbbing from his beaten eye socket at all. Instead, he heard the sound of his pulse racing madly in his ears.
Ruslan rushed into the building like someone half-possessed and leaped up the stairs two or three steps at a time. In an instant, he was out of breath and his chest heaved, but he had no time to care about such things.
Slam!
Ruslan threw open the door to the fourth-floor rare book storage room and looked around. The bookshelves of the Fifth Auxiliary Library, where people rarely came and went, had a thin layer of dust accumulated on them, and the window was only half open.
However, the boy who had been standing by the window had disappeared.
Ruslan felt his heart beating faster than he could handle and his breathing becoming labored as he approached the window as if entranced.
Gripping the window frame and looking down, Ruslan stood at the window where he could see the wall where he’d been beaten and the books he’d dropped in front of it, and swallowed.
The boy standing by the window had definitely been watching him. He must have been looking out the window after hearing the screams and Bruce’s gang’s shouts and discovered Ruslan being beaten.
…It was a vampire.
Ruslan thought amid the tremors.
A vampire saved me.
Ruslan felt his heart pounding hotly like heated iron, scorching inside his body.
There’s a vampire.
At our school.
His hands began to tremble faintly. Ruslan clenched his teeth tightly, feeling his whole body boiling with an emotion he didn’t know was fear or ecstasy.
I finally found one.
Ruslan gripped the window frame with both hands as if trying to stop the trembling, but the trembling only grew worse. Maddening emotions swept through his entire body. The past sixteen years seemed to flash before his eyes like a panorama.
Ruslan thought he wanted to scream and bit down hard on his molars until the tendons showed.
Ruslan had come to the Empire to meet a vampire.
He had a desperate reason why he had to find and meet a vampire.
If not for that reason, he wouldn’t have endured those hellish seven years and clawed his way up to this top Imperial school.
