Chapter 2: The Old Crow

When I woke up, I noticed that the sun had already went down. I quickly got dressed, when I noticed, Palazar was sitting in a corner, reading a book. Even though he was sitting in the open, he is always so easy to miss. It’s very mysterious how he does that. Palazar looked up from his book.

“You’re awake. Good, we’ll be leaving now, so get ready. The journey is a bit long, and we will have to make a stop on the way,” he said, as he got up from the chair, and closed the book. A few minutes later, we left out the front door, and walked through the dark streets. Today it wasn’t a full moon, so it was slightly darker, but we could still see, as clearly as day.

After a short walk, we eventually made it to the stables, where our two horses were waiting. Palazar got on the black one, and I got on the brown one, then we made our way out of the city.

As we rode, Palazar didn’t speak much, and we didn’t meet any travellers. After all, it was night time. People never went out at night time, as it was the time demons roam. And truthfully so, because here we are. Since there weren’t any people out, there weren’t any blood sources, and I quickly grew thirsty. I wouldn’t last very long without blood at all!

Luckily, Palazar seemed to take notice as he said,

“Here, drink this, it's bottled blood. It doesn’t taste as good as fresh blood, but it will do for now,” he said. I caught the bottle, as he threw it at me, and quickly gulped it  down in a flash. It truly didn’t taste as good as fresh blood, but it was still good. But I remembered him saying not to drink dead blood, so I wondered how they could bottle it. Then I noticed something,

“Palazar, I haven’t seen you drink at all, don’t you get thirsty?” I asked. Since he turned me, he had helped me get food every time, yet I hadn’t seen him drink once.

“I’m a lot older than you, so I can go for a few days without blood, but I did drink. It was when you were sleeping, though,” he explained. That did make sense, after all, he left the room both times I went to sleep.

After riding for a few hours, another city appeared in the horizon. One more hour of riding, and we arrived outside its gates.

“We will stay in this city for the day, then we leave at sun down,” he said. I nodded, then we went to find a place to sleep. A short search and walk later, and we found ourselves inside a tavern. After putting what little baggage we had inside our room, we went back outside, with the goal of a meal in mind.

It didn’t take long, until we found another young beggar, sleeping in an alleyway. Once more, I managed to drink from him, without killing him. Even though I didn’t care about those pesky humans, it did feel pretty good.

After that, we went back to the tavern, and the night slipped away, as I slept.

The next morning, I felt groggy and unpleasant. For some reason, I felt like something was wrong. For some reason, I felt very worried, very paranoid. I looked towards Palazar,

“Palazar, I think something is wrong. I have this weird feeling that something isn’t right,” I said. Palazar’s response was to chuckle at me.

“Hey, why are you laughing?! I’m serious!” I yelled at him.

“Don’t worry Parmasus, it’s just coffin deprivation. A vampire needs to sleep in its coffin, with some of the earth where it was born nearby. Well, it doesn’t actually have to be a coffin, but an enclosed area, but vampires usually sleep in coffins. It’s a tradition or something.

Anyways, it’s like with blood, as you age, you will need it less and less, but it isn’t as important as blood. It won’t kill you, it’ll just slowly make you insane,” he explained, making me very scared.

“Insane?! I’ll go insane? Quick, you have to do something!” I begged him, making him laugh at me one more time.

“Calm down, it will go away as soon as you sleep in a coffin, with some earth from the place you were born. And luckily for you, I took some with me, so it will be fine tonight.” He said, making me relieved. I was really worried there, scared that I would go insane. One thing was that I had to drink from humans, but to go insane as well, was something I couldn’t handle.

After that, we immediately left the small city, and rode our horses one more time. This time, we rode for another three hours, before yet another town appeared in the horizon. This town didn’t have any walls, and was much smaller than the cities we were in before. I was expecting Palazar to ride into the town, but to my surprise, he steered his horse to the side, towards a small forest.

In the middle of this dark forest, there was a hill. On top of this small hill, there was a mansion. The mansion was darkly lit, and had few windows, letting light neither in, nor out. I immediately knew that this must be Palazar’s estate. It was only a short ride later, before we arrived at the outskirts of the forest.

Inside, it was gloomy and dark. The trees were so closely packed, that it was hard to see anything, and no light shone in. Luckily, there was a path carved out, which led straight to the estate, but that didn’t make it any less gloomy. It fully looked like a haunted forest, where ghosts and demons lie in wait.

I could only imagine what kind of legends and rumours there were about this place, in the town. I doubt that many people would come here, but maybe it was one of those things, where you have to stay inside for a certain amount of time, or you’re not a man? Or perhaps parents told their children never to enter the forest, lest they never return.

Or perhaps, Palazar was actually the Lord of the town, so this place was known as the residence of the mysterious Lord, who never shows himself. I let my imagination run wild, but in the end, only Palazar could tell me, but I didn’t ask. This place was nerve-racking, even for me. After all, I was only a fifteen year old kid, even though I already killed two innocent people. Well, one was not so innocent.

A short ride later, we finally arrived at an old worn gate. The walls around it were made of old stone bricks, and vines were overgrown all over it. On top of the wall, there was another metal fence, with spikes on it, to stop any intruders from climbing in. In the end though, it would still be relatively easy to climb over, but who would want to?

While we were riding towards the gate, it slowly opened, on its own. I looked around me, trying to find the one who opened it, but much to my chagrin, I couldn’t find anyone. I was mystified, and it riddled my mind. Suddenly,

“Welcome back master,” an old, hoarse voice sounded. Once more I looked around me feverishly, frightened by the voice. I looked behind me, but saw nothing, but when I looked forwards again, an old man stood there.

He was wearing black robes, and a hood, his face hidden in the shadows. From his hands, I could see that he was very skinny, and his skin was exceedingly pale, even paler than my own, vampire skin. Maybe he was another vampire?

I could feel his eyes resting on me, and it made me feel cold to the bones. Just his presence frightened me, much more so, than Palazar. The first time I saw him, when I woke up, I had felt a very frightening vibe from him, but now he gave me a more warm feeling. These few days we had spent together, had made me grow towards him. I wondered if it was because he was the one that made me, and thus gave me a fatherly feeling towards him. After all, he was the one that fathered me into the world of vampires.

“Master, may I ask who this youngling is? You have never before brought a vampire here,” the old man said, his voice just as creaky and hoarse as before.

“This is Parmasus. I met him in the city of Tarnax, where his father killed his mother, and almost killed Parmasus. His childhood reminded me of my own, so I decided to sire him,” Palazar explained. His words caused the old man in the robe, to be visibly taken aback, as he stumbled a step backwards.

“You sired him?! You, Master Palazar, actually sired him? He isn’t the first abused child you’ve seen, but never, not even once, have you ever sired anyone! In all your years of existence, you have never seen fit to sire someone. Just what made you want to sire this child? What has happened to you in the past seventeen years, in which you have been gone?” The old man asked, his voice much louder than before, but still croaky and hoarse.

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“For now, let’s just say it was destiny,” Palazar said with a mysterious tone, while I just stood on the sidelines, my head shifting from one side, to the other, as they talked.

After that little bout, we once more continued towards the mansion, on top of the hill. It was large, much larger than any mansion I had ever seen. The only thing that could compare, was the palace in that one, relatively large city we stayed in. That palace was a bit bigger, but this was a mansion, not a palace.

After we got off our horses, the old man took their reins, and led them away, most likely to the stables. The door to the mansion, was very large, over three meters tall. Palazar opened it without effort, and entered the house.

Inside, was pure darkness. Not even a shred of light came in. If a human were to enter this house, he would be completely lost, not able to see anything at all. But for vampires, it was different. We were the creatures of night, we belonged to it, were groomed by it, destined to never leave it. As long as it was night, we could see even clearer than those humans, in their light.

In the first room, after entering, I was met with a large, stone staircase. Palazar led me up the staircase, then into a door. Behind the door, we were met with a long corridor, until we went through another door, and yet another corridor.

Eventually, after traversing several corridors, we arrived at the final destination. It was a door, at the end of a corridor. Palazar opened it, and we arrived inside a room. The room completely empty, not a single piece of furniture inside it. I looked around me, confused.

“This will be your bedroom. Right now it’s empty, but Crow will furnish it,” he said.

“Crow? Who’s that?” I asked. I had a suspicion, but I wasn’t completely sure. I thought it would be that old man, but there might be other people here, so who knows?

“Crow is that old man from before. You can just call him Old Crow, or something. He’s the housekeeper here,” he said. My suspicion was correct.

“Do you call him Old Crow?” I asked, slightly curious, “no, that would be a bit weird, since I’m older than he is,” he answered. He was older? He sure as hell didn’t look older, but then again, vampires don’t age, so who knows how old he really is?

“Anyways, let’s go out into the courtyard. I want to test your skills, before I start training you,” he said.

“What are you training me for anyways?” I asked. Palazar turned around and looked me in the eyes.

“For when you join the headquarters, of course.” He said, as if it was matter of fact, but I figured. Since I was part of the Exsequor Tenebris Bloodline, it only made sense that I would join them. But it made me wonder, just what kind of work would I do? Kill vampires? Kill humans? Or maybe, kill something else? After all, since vampires exist, why shouldn’t other supernatural beings exist? From what Palazar said, it sounded like demons were real, at least. What about witches, werewolves and maybe even fairies? I sure would like to see a fairy.

I once more let my thoughts run wild, as we traversed the labyrinth that is Palazar’s mansion. A while later, after taking many left and right turns, we finally arrived in a courtyard, behind the mansion.

The courtyard had a big open space, and was surrounded by the walls of the mansion. The back part, was open, and lead to the back gardens or something. Suddenly, Palazar threw a short sword, and oval shield at me. This was the normal weaponry of our countries armies. While wondering where he even got them from, I caught them, before they hit me in the face. The sword and shield, were both made from wood, much to my relief.

Before I could react, Palazar lounged at me, with a wooden sword of his own. Hurriedly, I raised my shield, to block.

“Good reaction. Now prepare yourself for the real thing. I will be going hard on you, so prepare yourself,” Palazar said. I prepared myself, and got into the stance, which my father had beaten into my body, and nodded my head.

Palazar lounged at me once more, and slashed his sword down on me, but I managed to block, before I returned a sword swing of my own, but much to my surprise, he effortlessly blocked it, using the pommel of his sword. Just the sight astounded me. How much precision and reaction capability would one need to do that? Well, it did help that the pommel was shaped with an indent, but it was still an astounding feat.

While I was in my astounded trance, Palazar hit my head with the flat of his sword.

“You can’t get distracted in fight Palazar, or you’ll die in an instant! A pommel block is easy to do, for an experienced vampire. Now get ready.” He said, as he lifted his sword into an attack stance. I raised my shield once more, into a defensive stance.

Quickly, Palazar once more attacked, and I blocked. I tried attacking back, but this time, Palazar straight out evaded it, and got into a position to attack my side. Luckily, I managed to shift around and block.

Like that, we went for another few rounds, and fought for about an hour, before I was exhausted, from constant fighting. Seems like even vampires can get exhausted, although, normally I would have been finished way before, if I had to constantly fight without rest.

“That was pretty good, but you’re still an amateur, but that was to be expected. After all, your father was only a lowly city guard. Their skill is limited. Alright, from tomorrow onwards, we will train for three hours every night, and Crow will school you for five hours every night. After that, there are four hours left of the night, which you can spend however you like. But now, you are never to leave the estate, and enter the town. You are still too young to be left alone, but you can freely wander around the estate,” Palazar said. I nodded my head.

“Okay, I won’t leave the estate grounds, but what will Old Crow teach me?” I asked.

“He’ll teach you to write and read, as well as some history, and mathematics.” He said. My eyes widened as I heard the last word.

“He knows mathematics?!” I said, marvelled by his words. There were not many people who knew mathematics. Only the richest could learn it, and it was even rare for poor people to be able to read. I felt like I had been taken away from hell, and had come to my rightful place, among the rich and powerful.

“Yes, he knows mathematics very well, much better than all those wise men you hear so much about. After all, he has had much more time to learn, and even has access to the math of the Blank Period,” he said. At those words, I couldn’t help but to shake a bit. The Blank Period was what we called the period before the earliest documented time period. It was called the Blank Period, because literally nothing was known about it. There wasn’t even a single scroll or documentation about that time, so it was a mystery what was before. Some people thought there was nothing before then, that the world had been created right after the Blank Period. Other thought that some great catastrophe had happened, and wiped everything out, and what was left, was the current humans.

But, in the end, it was a complete mystery, but Palazar had just said that he had access to mathematics from the Blank Period? How was that possible?

“Mathematics from the Blank Period? How can that possibly be?” I anxiously asked. Palazar chuckled at me, before he responded,

“The Blank Period isn’t actually that blank. It’s just that all evidence from that time was wiped away, during a thousand year period. This was several thousand years ago already, so now no mortals knows of it, and vampires keep it secret. One day, you will learn about it, but not yet. For now, we’re going to focus on teaching you martial arts, and to read and write.

End of chapter 2.

Hello there. This chapter was a bit shorter than originally planned, but I won't be able to write for the next two days, since our countries national festival thingy starts tomorrow, so I can't really write... Anyways, please rate and review, follow and favorite, since it makes me happy, and I like being happy. And I hope you enjoyed this chapter, although not much happened.

Next chapter will be more eventful, so bear with me !

Also, I would like to thank Mr. Maou.X.Yuusha, with providing me a piece of cover art.

Thanks for reading.