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Two ships sailed side by side through the Strait of Messina.

The cargo hulls were covered in several layers of thick cloth and sealed, preventing a single ray of light from permeating within.

The sailors had no clue what they were carrying, and so various conspiracies were born throughout the new captain’s maiden voyage.

Glancing through his scope at the gloomy settlement on the shore, Leonardo briefly pondering making a stop. However, the Sicilians made their stance clear, so ultimately he sighed in regret and returned to his cabin. It wasn’t his call to save them all, anyway.

Passing by his first mate, he tossed him the spyglass in passing, “How long until we dock in Naples?”

“Er, if the winds are kind, we should be get there within 3 days, captain.”

“Slow…” Leonardo muttered, closing the door behind him.

“You’re still wet behind the ears, brat… this ship’s already one of the fastest,” the aged man grumbled quietly with discontent.

Leonardo heard that, but paid it no heed. He’d bought Chimente’s ship and hired two crews, then set out for an impromptu voyage carrying unknown goods.

It wasn’t a surprise that the teenager wasn’t well received. Alas, neither Chimente nor Leonardo intended to explain. They were paid to work and nothing else.

Besides, it’s not like their dissent threatened Leo. If they did try to mutiny, he could easily put them in their place. Even with magic aside, the evil flux he ingested continued to strengthen his body. Particularly since he ingested some essence from the one he downed in the cave, his physique skyrocketed in power.

It seems the one he killed in the cave was much more powerful than his original captive.

Speaking of whom: as dusk fell — a lone boat departed the ships and set for the nearby shore. Leonardo rowed silently, with a single coffer loaded beside him.

Once he made it ashore, he pulled the giant coffer along, unimpeded by its weight. It was still light outside, but he nonetheless hurried to finish his task before the sun set.

Carrying the coffer beneath a cliff, he pulled out three keys and unlocked several separate locks, finally exposing the contents within.

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A sleeping beauty was boxed in, her limbs tucked at odd angles to fit the constraints.

“Well, I hope you had a comfortable ride.”

Removing the shackles one by one, he dragged the vampire out and set her against the shaded cliff. Finally, he set his gaze to her chest — where a chunk of wood stuck out of her heart.

“I’m not sure you can hear me,” he began, sizing up the creature that changed his life with a complex gaze.

Despite outwardly not changing much, the curse wasn’t called such without reason. It altered his life for the worst, turning him into a creature of the night. He was a blood thrall, albeit an independent one without a master.

Mages would shun him, clergies would gain power over him, and vampires would seek to put him down all the same. From now on, he had to remain hidden, lest he stumble into enemies even if he didn’t provoke any.

“I don’t know if I could have cured myself, and I know for a fact I couldn’t set out to cure thousands more, either.

“You upended my life, broke ties to the person I hold dearest… yet… I can’t bring myself to hate or to kill you.

“It’s strange… Perhaps it’s fate that you ran into me that night.”

Glancing at the sun that gave out its final glimmers in the distance, Leonardo knew it was time to bid farewell.

“We’ll call it even here,” he said, putting a silver goblet of his own fresh blood next to her.

Tugging the stake from her heart, he nodded and set out for his boat — departing before she awoke.

“May we never meet again.”

Rowing his boat back to the ships, he was soon loaded aboard and their voyage continued into the night.

Not long after, once the sun fully sunk in the sea, a lone figure sat on the edge of a cliff.

Drinking from her goblet with slow sips as if indulging in the rarest of wines, she laughed as she watched the ships fade away on the horizon.

“Oh… We definitely will.”

A shiver ran across Leonardo’s back, prompting him to dive deeper into his bedsheets.

“Seems like a storm’s coming…”

Despite his conviction, his instincts were wrong this time. The weather was clear the next day, and they approached Naples with ease. His worries faded as well, and he returned to his boring routine.

Despite being a captain, he knew nothing about sailing, so he left his first mate handle everything and focused on training.

Blood Arts proved to be far more versatile than he expected, and he hoped to learn some as well. The female thrall he faced was capable of superhuman bursts of speed, yet despite ingesting blood from the same source, he made no progress with it.

He didn’t even know where to begin. Aside from an instinctual feeling, he had no clue how to make use of his vampiric blood.

Speaking of which, he took to calling the flux from vampires “Ichor”, named after the blood that flows through the veins of the gods. In greek mythology, ingesting Ichor was deemed poisonous for humans, yet it held the key to their immortality. It seemed fitting, so he would distinguish cursed blood with that name.

Blood Arts required Ichor to function, and he had a very limited supply and no means to replenish it without hunting vampires, so he used it sparsely if at all. Normally, the master would take care of his supply, but he was an addict without a candy man.

Luckily, even without active Blood Arts, just the Ichor lingering in his system allowed him to be much stronger and faster than most. The increase was hard to quantify since he was already very athletic as a result of his Mortal Transcendence, but he reckoned he could take down 5 men by himself with ease, just by relying on brute strength.