"Haa, say, what's your name?" asked Allister as he retracted his eyes from the window and laid his head on the bed.

"Chóros… What do you call yourself?" Chóros, who had now collected his previous outburst, spoke with calm.

Allister's eyes were focused on the brown ceiling of his room, the intricate details on it appeared mesmerising.

"Don't you already know what I call myself, Mr.Chóros?"

As if Chóros's prior demeanour was a hoax, he lashed out at Allister. "Of course I know! I was talking about what you will be calling yourself henceforward. Allister? The demon who butchered an entire clan because of a petty revenge? Or Coy? The boy who is wet behind his ears."

"It was not petty revenge, okay? It was justified revenge, and they deserved it."

Chóros quieted down for a moment and then said, "What part of it was justified again?"

Now it was Allister's turn to be quiet. He cleared his throat and said, "Ahem... The part where they stole my best friend's son's engagement ring he prepared for his girlfriend. Can you believe that? The boy was heartbroken when he couldn't find it at the place he kept it, and as a result, I had to search the whole country of Romania for the ring since his father was on a business trip to Asia.

"After two days of extensive searching, I finally found it in Brasov. It was stolen by third-rate gangs that used to trouble the boy and his girl. The boy could have easily killed them, but he was a soft-hearted vampire. Heh, who would have expected that I would stumble upon them while they were waving the ring flamboyantly in a bar."

As if he were talking about the weather, he recounted the events that transpired.

"I remember how it ended up like the meal I had yesterday, ahem, yesterday on earth. Back to the topic: I rented the bar and escorted the civilians out while giving each one of them 100 euros with a smile. I then gave the gangs the best time of their lives by hiring a man who swung both ways and letting them do whatever they wanted to them.

"Eventually, a member of the gang double-crossed his friends and told me who was behind the whole incident. I was surprised plenty when he said it was actually issued by a clan from my species. The Harrison clan... In the end, I killed all the people involved and gave the ring back to the boy."

Seeing Allister suddenly turn into a storyteller, Chóros sighed and said, "Lunatic. Why did you not buy another ring?"

"Well, that would not be fun."

"Forget about it and just answer my previous question. I can't reason with someone like you."

Allister chuckled. "Alright, alright."

He thought deeply, 'Allister... a name that I'm proud of, a name that was from my beloved mother, Adeline. I wonder how she is faring? Will she be upset, knowing that I failed to meet her expectations of naming me Allister? A man's defender? This name has accompanied me for a thousand years. It has been through a lot and has built itself an unyielding reputation. Instilling respect and fear in whoever hears it. Mothers used it to scare their children to sleep, and men used it to remind others about me. A canvas that has been painted with the blood of undeserving and deserving souls

Coy, what a thoughtful father I have in this world. This name is a blank canvas that is waiting for its artist. A sprout waiting to be watered by its gardener. Although I can't confidently say I'm qualified to be a good artist or horticulturist, I will try my best to let you become the sturdiest tree there is in this world. One that is not shaken by the eternal, never-ending storm of emotions. A tree destined to sit on the throne above the thrones!'

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Chóros, who had been waiting a minute for Allister to speak, heard him answer with a soft smile on his face.

"Chóros, Coy it is."

"You have chosen wisely, Coy."

"I sure did," Coy said as he closed his eyes and fell into a placid slumber.

***

Maria could be seen traipsing through the wide and long second corridor of the Blake household's crescent castle, which was also known as the moon castle, on her way to her young master's chamber. Though the family's main residence was on the west edge of the moon castle, Coy preferred the east for its quietness, as opposed to the west, where the family's knights and mages trained. Watching the sun paint the tranquil ocean in shades of golden white in the morning was another reason for his settlement in the east quarters. A peculiar reason for a vampire to have.

Maria hummed as she thought, 'How should I wake him up today? The old trick of opening the curtain is too plain; maybe I should trickle a bit of water on his ear? But that will be going too far... What I'm even thinking about—this is very childish of me.'

Although Maria's mind was full of outrageous ideas, her face was stoic. She reached Coy's room amidst her thoughts, knocked on the door twice, and said, "Young master, I'm coming in."

Opening it, she just stood there, not believing what her eyes saw. Coy, who was enjoying the sunshine while sitting on his bed, looked at her with a smile. He had washed off the bloody tear marks on his face from last night minutes before Maria came into the room.

He greeted. "Good morning, Maria."

Hearing his crispy morning voice, Maria came back to her senses and gave her greetings too. "Good morning, young master… What is the occasion today for you to wake up without any help from me?"

"Come on, Maria, I have grown up from that," Coy declared as he got up from his bed. "I'm going to the bathroom now; I will be quick with it."

Looking at her young master walking into the bathroom, Maria whispered to herself, "Unbelievable..."

***

The bathroom was white marble. Situated In the center was a large hot bathtub, and there was a mirror in the corner and a toilet seat.

"I have been wondering about something, Chóros. How do I speak to you when I am with other people? For example, my family and friends?" asked Coy, whose lower body was in the aromatic hot water.

"I will teach you how. You and I share a link through our contract, which means we have a connection. Close your eyes and focus on your heart."

Coy did as he was told. "Okay, what else?"

Chóros coughed once as he started to narrate about the past.

"Ahem, the scholars in the early fifth eon debated whether the mana came from the brain or the heart. Although it was known to everyone that the true mana source that could be found everywhere was from this planet's core, the inhabitants living on it also had a separate source. In the middle fifth eon, a certain scholar reached the conclusion that the true source of mana in living creatures was the heart.

"He dissected countless animals and discovered that all of them had a small core deep in their hearts. You might wonder why the early scholars didn't do that, but at that time, dissection was frowned upon, and people would have outcasted you, thinking you were pulling off a sacrifice to the devil. Leaving that aside, people began to experiment on many creatures, and discovered that all of them had a core, though they were different in colour and size according to their races. Eventually. they found a way to utilise the mana inside the core."

He continued. "Now, what you are required to do is to focus on that core I just mentioned."

Heading his words, Coy, whose eyes were shut, entered a serene state as he searched for the core. He bypassed the sound of his heart pumping warm blood. Shortly after, an image of a red core surfaced in his mind.

A white thread loosely warped around the core like a yarn ball.

"This is fascinating. I see the core, and I also see something else: a white thread," Coy said softly. If he were to be honest, this was as shocking and mysterious as it could be. In his previous life, he would never have thought that he would be capable of doing something like this.

"Good. That's my secondary physical body. The white cube that you made your family heirloom without my permission was my primary physical body. Release a tiny amount of your mana from the core and gently caress the thread with it."

"Uhh, and how do I release my mana?"

"To manipulate mana, you have to will it. Imagine that you are scooping water from a well. The well is the core, and the water is the mana, but the bucket is your mental strength. If you are mentally weak, the bucket will fall back to the well, and you won't succeed at getting your water. This is but a simple analogy for our current experiment; later on, you would have to instantly do this so that you can cast spells in seconds."

'A bucket... well, and water. Gently and carefully pull the bucket with the water in it.' As he was in his own little world, a gaseous, reddish liquid seeped out of Coy's red core and made contact with the loose thread.

The thread tightened around the core when Coy's mana touched it.

"Hmm, I feel the connection. Not bad for your first time!" Chóros exclaimed in amazement.

"I also feel something."

"There's a tier four spell called telepathy and a tier four spell called link. The difference between those transmission spells and the transmissions of the contracted artifacts, spirits, and summoned creatures is that ours is through the heart, while the spells are through the brain. That is why they are both called mental transmissions and heart transmissions. Try to speak, but with your heart instead of your mouth."

"How do you ev—"

"Just do it, ye twat!" Chóros snapped at Coy.

'Short-tempered geezer,' commented Coy in his mind as he tried to do as he was told.

Speak with your heart. Speak with your heart.

{Like this?}

{Congratulations, twat, you have now stepped into the complex concept of mana manipulation.} Chóros replied with flat tone.

There was one thing Chóros kept from Coy while he was teaching the heart transmission method. The core could also portray the emotions of a person if it was amplified, and the only emotion Coy was feeling right now was abysmal greed that seemed to stretch deep into the trench of knowledge.

A satisfied smile was visible on his face.

Chóros thought with a non-existent headache as he felt Coy's emotion due to the thread still linked to the core, 'Lunatic.'