Lying flat on top of the bell tower roof, Ruslan swallowed his dry saliva while trembling.
He completely understood why Sarka had been so calm, why he had looked down at Ruslan with a pitying gaze rather than fear or anger even after being found out.
Vampires’ abilities are diverse, but among them, the abilities possessed by psychic vampires are overwhelming.
They can dominate all three levels of an animal’s <consciousness, thoughts, and memories>.
Just now, Sarka had opened the part of Ruslan’s brain that controls <thoughts> and blown in a new <thought> that ‘I should climb the bell tower and stand on the roof.’
If Sarka opened the part of Ruslan’s brain that controls <memories>, Ruslan would completely forget all <memories> about Sarka, including what happened today.
His body trembled with fear. What on earth was impossible for a vampire who could dominate human minds?
Just as Kanya had changed Chichi’s personality, Sarka could manipulate everything about Ruslan at will.
He could kill Ruslan, make him offer loyalty without compensation, or make him worship and revere him like a god.
Not just Ruslan, but anyone at this school—even the professors and the headmaster—he was an existence who could make them bow their heads and lick his feet if he so desired.
The Empire, which had declared the New Religion as the state religion, strictly prohibited purification rituals and vampire trials.
In such an environment, a vampire this powerful was almost no different from a god.
The terrifying false god who had ruled ancient humans.
“……”
His breath unconsciously roughened and his pulse quickened. Ruslan looked down at his own trembling hands with a pale expression, then suddenly came to his senses as if struck by lightning.
……So what?
Is that boy also a monster that must be killed?
It felt like all the fine hairs on his body were standing on end. It was like a huge bell had rung in his head.
Ruslan swallowed. His wavering gaze settled, and his roughened breathing slowly became quiet.
Ruslan gritted his teeth and chewed and swallowed one by one the fear and doubt that had filled his heart. Ruslan’s dark blue eyes rippled with blue light again.
……Absolutely not.
Sarka didn’t kill Ruslan.
Even though he had the power to kill and the justification to kill, he let Ruslan live.
When it’s revealed that someone is a vampire, not only the person themselves but their entire bloodline is exterminated. The principle was to not leave a single drop of vampire blood.
If there was a human who had noticed his identity, it was natural to immediately kill and eliminate them. Anyone in Sarka’s position would have done so without any guilt.
However, Sarka let Ruslan live.
If he had really intended to kill Ruslan, he wouldn’t have simply ordered him to ‘stand on top of the bell tower.’ It would have been simpler to order him to ‘jump off from the top of the bell tower.’ Ruslan would have obediently committed suicide without even knowing he was dying.
Suddenly, Ruslan realized that Sarka had never intended to kill him from the beginning.
Without needing to do the bothersome acts of shoving him into a bookshelf and floating objects in the air, if he had just ordered him to jump out the window, Ruslan would have jumped without hesitation from the fourth floor of the rare book storage room. That would have been much simpler and a cleaner solution leaving no evidence.
Locking the door, shoving him into a bookshelf, and floating objects in the air was merely a light show.
A brief one-act play to mock the impudent human claiming that ‘humans and vampires are equal’ and ‘I will protect you’ by showing the difference in power.
“……”
Ruslan slowly raised his upper body and carefully crouched on the roof.
Looking down at the dizzying height below, Ruslan felt his reason, which had been paralyzed by fear, slowly returning.
[Vampires and humans can’t be friends.
They might deceive each other and remain pretending to be friends to seize each other’s throats at the right moment, but……
In the end, the inferior race fears and hates the superior race, and the superior race tramples and despises the inferior race.]
That wasn’t a claim. It was history. Humans and vampires had treated each other that way for over a thousand years.
[……It would be fine to make you realize that your thinking is wrong.]
Sarka, that vampire boy, was enlightening Ruslan who couldn’t acknowledge it.
How futile a delusion the claim that ‘vampires and humans become friends’ is.
He was waiting for Ruslan, who came to his senses on the bell tower roof, to be terrified, finally realize he had thought something ridiculous, and fear and hate Sarka.
Perhaps it was merely playing around for a bit before killing him or erasing his memories. The lowly human brat making such an absurd claim was so pathetically trivial that he thought it wouldn’t be bad to enjoy a little entertainment.
Let’s watch and see when this human admits defeat and hates him.
Ruslan steadied his breathing and carefully stood up.
After carefully observing below the roof, Ruslan confirmed the traces he had left while climbing up himself, then cautiously placed his feet and began climbing down along the marble decorations.
Gripping solid edges and taking one step at a time, Ruslan felt his thoughts gradually organizing calmly.
Sarka had frightening power. A terrifying ability that might endanger people.
But with that ability, Sarka had saved Ruslan.
He hadn’t ignored the scream of a human boy that he could have ignored, that would have been safe to ignore, that came through the window.
He had quietly extended a protective hand to the weak person cowering before violence, then turned and disappeared like someone who didn’t want compensation.
He had accepted the unreasonable request of a commoner that he could have refused, and even protected him from his friends’ ridicule.
He hadn’t mocked or rejected the absurd and rude request but quietly left it alone.
As if there was no need to hurt anyone. As if he didn’t want to.
Like Kanya, who had hypnotized the dog to protect the children.
Ruslan felt a hot heat rising through his throat.
[……Could you trust a vampire?
Even if they’re pretending to be your friend today, smiling, you never know when they might slit your throat and drink your blood?]
Ruslan felt his chest ache painfully as if stabbed with a long needle.
People didn’t trust Kanya. No one believed that that cheerful and stubborn old woman truly liked children and always wanted to find the best herbs for sick people.
Kanya’s kind heart, which had secretly hypnotized the village dog to treat children gently when it attacked them, was soiled by false accusations, and her cheerful laughter and jokes were pointed at as creepy masks.
The children got angry, saying Kanya who threw them candy and ruffled their hair had been plotting to eat them, and were scared arbitrarily. No one was ashamed of that suspicion.
Ruslan clenched his fists tightly.
Just because she had the ability to control dogs, because she had power that might possibly harm people, people killed Kanya without hesitation.
No one was curious about or cared about Kanya’s thoughts. No one gave Kanya a choice, and no one trusted Kanya’s choices.
Ruslan recalled that winter when he was eight years old, when he resolved to never do that.
To somehow thoroughly search the Empire to find a vampire, and protect that vampire under any circumstances.
To give that vampire a choice, trust them, cherish them, and love them more than anyone.
To become the most reliable friend, the family, to that vampire.
Just as Kanya, that vampire woman, had done for a human orphan.
Ruslan swallowed his dry saliva. Nothing had changed. There was nothing to be confused about or afraid of. He was willing to accept it even if Sarka chose to kill him as is. Even if the vampire he had searched for all his life hated, abused, and killed the human who wanted to be friends because they couldn’t trust them, Ruslan intended not to complain in the slightest.
Because for hundreds of years, humans had done that to vampires too.
Because everyone had treated Kanya that way too.
Because even I couldn’t even think to stop it.
Because I couldn’t do anything except watch stupidly.
Kanya saved me, raised me, and protected me until the end,
But I repaid that love by letting it flow away so meaninglessly.
Ruslan had not a grain of rice worth of attachment left to the rest of his life.
Until he found a vampire, and until he repaid the debt owed to Kanya to that vampire instead, he intended not to stop, not to rest even for a moment, not to stay anywhere, just as the hunters had done.
He would desire neither wealth nor honor. Ruslan had decided long ago to devote all his remaining life solely for the peace and safety of the vampire he would meet again, and vowed not to reverse it.
He had long ago finished preparing himself that his solitary resolution might be meaningless, that he might be treated as a traitor or madman and abandoned by both humans and vampires.
All the choices belonged to the vampire Ruslan would find. Whatever decision the other party made, Ruslan had resolved to obey unconditionally.
However they treated him, until the moment of death, to only be on that vampire’s side.
For that, Ruslan had struggled for seven years and crawled up to the Imperial school.
To meet the vampire again and promise devotion by throwing away all of Ruslan’s remaining life.
While gripping the marble decorations and stepping his feet, Ruslan shouted vigorously in his heart.
Fear and hate?
Says who!
There were several dizzying moments, but after twists and turns, Ruslan was finally able to come down from the bell tower roof.
However, just when he thought he could finally catch his breath and sat down heavily on the stairs to rest, this time he got caught by the bell tower keeper.
The bell tower keeper seemed to have a fit whenever students climbed the bell tower, ever since the incident a few years ago when mischievous students rang the bell in the middle of the night as a prank, causing all students to evacuate to the athletic field.
Only after actively arguing that he had only wanted to admire the school’s panoramic view from a high place, that he had no intention whatsoever of ringing the bell, and that a student who uselessly rings the bell causing trouble to others is the worst scoundrel in the world and wouldn’t be enough even if they drowned in the Semme River, did the bell tower keeper release Ruslan with a dubious face.
But it seemed a long time had passed while persuading the bell tower keeper. By the time he had completely descended the long stairs, it was already dim evening.
Dragging his body exhausted from fear and fatigue up the scholarship student dormitory stairs, Ruslan let out a deep sigh.
His uniform was a mess with dust and bird droppings from climbing up and down the walls, and his hands and face had transformed into an appearance that would make sewer rats feel kinship. His body, which had been sweating all day, smelled musty and his tired knees were shaking.
Ruslan, who had opened the door to the 12-person room for scholarship students filled only with thoughts of finishing his shower quickly and collapsing on his bed, was dumbfounded by an unexpected situation.
“……Gas lamp explosion?”
“Yes. Fortunately the flames were extinguished immediately, but the damage is severe only to your bed… it seems it’ll be difficult to use for a while.”
Looking at the mattress reeking terribly of burnt smell and the half-collapsed iron frame, the dormitory supervisor made a sorry expression.
Ruslan blinked with a bewildered expression, then asked worriedly.
“Then do I have to sleep on the floor until a new bed comes in? I don’t have any friends I could ask to sleep with……”
“Ah, fortunately you don’t need to worry about that!”
Ruslan, who had been falling into worry, flinched at the supervisor’s suddenly brightened voice.
To Ruslan looking back puzzled, the supervisor smiled brightly and clasped both hands together happily.
“There’s a child in your class who was using a 2-person room alone. When they heard your news, they readily said it’s fine to stay together in their room for a while.”
Ruslan’s eyes widened in surprise.
He hadn’t even had a proper conversation with the class kids for a year and a half, so who on earth had readily stepped forward to let Ruslan stay in their room?
At the premonition that suddenly crossed his mind, Ruslan hesitated then asked in a cautious manner.
“Um, by any chance is that child’s name……”
The supervisor answered contentedly with a warm smile, as if there couldn’t be such a kind, gentle, and exemplary child.
“Sarka Hütivras. Your luggage has already been moved to that room too.”
