Me and Kashiwagi worked on my novel for a good month or two.

We met up everyday in the evenings at the diner we first met at.

But before we even started during the first day, she told me:

“By the way, this is a bit sudden but, I’m helping you out under one condition.”

“Condition? I would have appreciated it if you told me beforehand..” I gave her an earnest look with a vexed expression. “Is it something I can handle?”

“You seem like you’ve done it before so I don’t see why not?” She grinned teasingly as if insinuating something indecent.

No, no, get a hold of yourself! What are you thinking! Of course it’s not anything lewd, she’s just teasing you with that look and you’ve fallen into her trap like a buffoon!

As I was lost in my definitely decent thoughts, Kashiwagi let out a chuckle from the other side of the table. “You’re red as a beet! You’re lucky you don’t have anything red on you or else I would’ve already heard your every thought!”

Having been brought back to my senses, I began having troubles looking her straight in the eye. She just smiled my way with a hand resting on her cheek in response. Also, I started doubting whether I had anything red on me. I became more conscious about it.

“Well then,” breaking the silence from my inability to respond, she said “Let’s get started. First of all—”

Kashiwagi enumerated some of the things she hasn’t told me about vampires yet, as well as expound on the things that she had. For starters, originally, vampires were normal, mortal people.

According to her, in the late 1100’s, an indigenous tribe west of what we now know as the country of Wales, discovered the fabled fountain of youth. Although it’s called fountain, it was actually a very deep well.

The water from this well granted anyone who drank it an indescribable feeling of vitality at first drink. Initially, this water was only available to the warriors of the tribe as it seemingly boosted their hunting and fighting capabilities. But as time marched on, the tribespeople noticed that the men who drank from the well didn’t age since partaking in the water. Because of this, the water was made available to every single person in their tribe. And due to their granted immortality and strength, their tribe found decades of prosperity

Their population grew bigger and bigger as no one from their tribe passed away for almost a century. With this, they started needing bigger lands to accommodate their ever-growing population. They began conquering neighboring lands in pursuit of a bigger home for their people, and no one could stand against their forces. Not until one day.

After a few centuries, during the early 1400’s to be exact. They eventually stumbled upon a civilization east of their land, a society more advanced than their tribe had ever seen. In the modern day, this land is what we now know as England.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Because of their tribe’s immortality and complacency to a never-changing society, the world around them had already advanced further than they could have ever imagined without their knowledge. When they stepped foot into this new land in an attempt to conquer it, they were surprised with how ignorant they were about the world, especially regarding the weapons these people used to fight against them.

In order to find a way to counter attack, the tribespeople went back to the fountain of youth and had everyone partake in yet another cup of the water that the well held. They grew even stronger than before but this time, there seemed to be a side-effect. They found themselves to be more sensitive to sunlight. Because of this, they could only strike at night.

The tribespeople held a counter-attack on enemy territory, and they were able to take a good chunk of their land in the process. However, a number of their men had been captured by the enemy and held captive, tortured relentlessly day and night. After some time, the king of the land noticed that the tribespeople’s bodies were seemingly indestructible and healed considerably quick despite being tortured continuously. He came to the conclusion that these people were immortal.

Upon discovering this, the king sought for answers on how these people gained their immortality. They upped the ante on their methods and adjusted their ways of torturing the immortal tribesmen in ways unimaginable to man; torture devices crafted specifically for these captured prisoners. Eventually the tribesmen gave out and they spilled their secret.

When they king found out about this, he ordered his army to march into enemy grounds in an attempt to steal the water which granted immortality. But despite the king’s effort, his men would get reduced a third every time they set foot into enemy territory, while the enemies’ number were only reduced by a fraction of that. But the king was filled with greed. He wanted a taste of immortality no matter how many men and time it would cost.

Five months pass by of failed attempts and the king still couldn’t penetrate the tribespeople’s defenses. At this point, the tribespeople had three-quarters more warriors than the king’s army had. Because of this, the brother of the king, second to the throne, proposed an idea to the tribespeople; a treaty to be exact.

In exchange for the discontinuation of their attack on their nation in search of new land, the king offered peace to the tribespeople in the form his brother’s blood. He devised a plan wherein he would publicly poison his brother in front of all the people in the land, which in turn, would instill fear to all the witnesses of the water of immortality. The king’s brother, unlike his older sibling, was not interested in eternity as he found beauty in death. So this way, both civilizations would be able to co-exist in harmony. And the tribespeople agreed.

And so, the day had arrived where the king’s brother’s men faked an expedition into enemy territory and brought back a bucket of the water the king had sought for. This water was not actually from the fountain of youth, but was a concoction an alchemist had conjured to stage a very brutal demise for the king and his men.

The following day, the king had ordered a celebration outside of their castle walls for all common-folk to see; it was in celebration of a successful expedition and a future of immortality. He and the remaining men in his army partook of the water together in front of the commoners; leading their nation into an era of eternity. But not long after, their bodies started to be set ablaze, one soldier after another’s flame-ridden body falling from the castle walls, down to the spectators beneath. One after another, they came tumbling down. The king’s already-burnt corpse was last to fall.

“Behold!” The king’s brother shouted to his subjects below, “this is the true nature of the water my brother had long sought out for, countless men who died in vain for a cup that led to his own demise. In exchange for immortality, the slightest touch of sunlight had burned my brother and his men to dust!”

And the rest was history.

The tribespeople’s descendants are what we now know as the modern-day vampire. I don’t know where the garlic and crosses came part of the legends came from as Kashiwagi didn’t seem to know either. But considering the cross, it was probably something the catholic church made up in partnership with the king.

For some reason, I feel like I’ve heard this story before, I have faint memories of having known this story before. But thinking about it, it probably just resembled the story of a manga I’ve read in the past.

Aside from the very long history lesson, the rest of the vampire trivia Kashiwagi gave me were pretty mundane that I’d actually prefer the common notion of vampires over it. But for the sake of winning the writing competition, I went ahead and followed her instructions and used this instead.

Kashiwagi and I got to know each other better during this time. Surprisingly, she was a pretty decent person despite my initial impression of her. It almost felt weirdly nostalgic spending time with her even though we had only just met. Spending everyday with someone you’re comfortable with was something I haven’t felt in a long time.

But I eventually finished my story. And this relationship was soon about to reach its finale as well.

I wish our time spent together were a bit longer.