Chương 187: 5.35

Prince Silas stares out the window gloomily.

Even his nobly statuesque and handsome beauty could not suppress the uncomfortable miasma that seemed to emanate from his body. While he was still inhumanly gorgeous to the eye, there was a sense of fatigue and decadence that lowered his appearance ever so slightly. It was difficult to pinpoint, but it seemed some of that untouchable godlike aura had dissipated somewhat.

Alaric had transferred classes. No, to be more accurate, he switched classes with some other Rong family members. Thinking of this, the prince smiles bitterly as he watches the clouds in the sky go by. It was a pity for Alaric that he couldn't switch himself out of the position in Prince Silas' heart as easily.

Was he so contemptible? Can't he understand how much he likes him?

Prince Silas has always had everything he wanted. He could always do whatever he wanted to do and achieve what he wanted to achieve. This is the first time he has been so patient, done so much, and gained nothing from it. He can't accept this.

"Your highn- S-Silas." A young vampire with black hair nervously whispers to the other. This was one of the Rong vampires assigned to sit next to him and tend to his needs. Prince Silas found the other to be a much meeker version of the old Alaric, still a stickler for the rules but is easy to cave the moment Prince Silas showed any sign of disliking what he said. A timid yes-man. "There's someone staring at you in the halls?"

"You think I don't know that already?" Prince Silas quietly asks, glancing at the Rong vampire with faint displeasure in his eyes.

The young vampire immediately quails and looks down at his notebook in front of him. Inwardly he was crying inside. Ah! Didn't they say Prince Silas was lazy, quiet but gentle and kind? Wu.. he's clearly quiet and fierce like an icy demon! No wonder Alaric wanted to leave!

A few seats away, other vampires that also looked like they came from Asian descent shot the young vampire sympathetic glances. When they heard Alaric Rong's request for a break and that other Rong family members should also experience taking care of the crown prince, everyone praised the other for his decisiveness and selflessness. After all, no matter how much they valued unity and that everyone shares some of the glory as long as one person earns it, there was inevitably some selfishness in wanting to gain some individual prestige for themselves.

Therefore when the opportunity fell into their laps, they immediately packed their bags and rushed to do their best. If they could gain a favourable impression and show their abilities in front of Prince Silas, even if they weren't his right-hand man, there was still the left side open, right? Even if not everyone hoped to reach such extravagant heights, getting noticed for the right reasons and having their name remembered was enough to brag about.

Unfortunately, dreams were beautiful, and reality was ugly. Since Prince Silas was introduced to them, he had barely given them a single good face in regard to any of them, causing the ambitious youngsters to become cowering quails in his presence.

While Prince Silas wasn't the type to actively deride or insult them, nor did he make them do any unreasonable tasks, he would rebuff many of their advances, coldly looking at them and silently showing his unhappiness. However, because he didn't do much and would still occasionally speak with them and even casually help them once in a while, everyone still had hope that his attitude would soften eventually. In this way, technically, he didn't do anything wrong, but it was still enough to make the Rong vampires' hearts feel tossed about to the point of tears.

Seeing how the young vampire next to him was about to cry, Prince Silas sighs heavily. "You really don't have to pay attention to these things. In fact, I am fine going about things by myself. Just focus on your own schoolwork."

"Wu… I understand! You dislike vampires with poor grades serving you, r-right? I will do my best to pull up my grades and not shame you so I can become worthy." The young vampire wipes his eyes and looks with timid hopefulness at Prince Silas. "T-thank you for worrying about this servant, but I still wish to do my best to help you while I have the opportunity!"

Prince Silas: '…' So annoying!

To be honest, it was true Prince Silas didn't feel good looking at them. After all, these were the vampires who had switched over to replace Alaric. They represented how far Alaric wanted to leave him. It was impossible to separate the negative feelings over this, and he didn't desire any replacement. But he was too lazy to be to kick them out too fiercely; after all, he still had enough understanding to know it wasn't them to blame.

No matter what, the Rong family was loyal to the royal family and couldn't be treated poorly. These were also Alaric's family members as well. As such, Prince Silas was helpless and could only be cold to them. Who knew the stubbornness in the family was so deep? No matter how distant and disdainful he was, the moment he said something that implied a hint of warmth, these vampires would jump on it and act like he was giving them a campfire during a snowy night.

Prince Silas was too lazy to deal with the young vampire sitting next to him and turned his attention to the classroom door with faint curiosity. There he saw a young man, no, a turned vampire, with shockingly bright red and yellow hair glaring at him with a wary and hostile expression.

When their eyes met, the delinquent-looking vampire hesitated before thinking of something and paling. With one last look of completely undisguised disgust and vigilance, he scampers off as if a deranged pervert was chasing after his ass.

Prince Silas: ...

What a fucking lunatic.

"That is Kylan Laframboise, Count Vericus' stepson, who was turned not too long ago." The young vampire whispers softly. For most, it was impossible to catch what he was saying, but with Prince Silas' hearing, it was very easy to hear clearly, especially from this distance. He could also hear the contempt from the Rong vampire's voice when introducing him. Turned vampires weren't initially very popular with born vampires, and added with the scandal of a well-respected noble vampire, the head of the Vericus family no less, breaking up his marriage for a human mistress made Kylan a complete pariah among the vampires.

Even Prince Silas had heard of him. How could he not? It was the biggest gossip of the decade. However, he had no strong feelings on this matter other than his impression of Count Vericus dropping substantially. After all, this entire scandal can more or less be attributed to the Count, who should've known better on how to handle things given his position.

Whether it was providing an adequate explanation, handling the family side of it better, arranging a better reason to separate the family and so on. As for saying he fell in love with the human woman… Prince Silas didn't particularly believe it. It's not that he didn't think vampires could fall for humans, there were decades of examples against that, but if Count Vericus truly fell for this woman, with his ability, experience and power, he would have protected her and Kylan from a lot of these problems.

If it was himself…

Prince Silas clicks his tongue, a trace of bitterness flashing from his eyes. Well, he really can't talk, given he couldn't even get the person he wanted to look at him, much less marry him. Not to mention he only seemed to bring the other nothing but bad memories these days.

But he couldn't stop. Because the silver-haired prince knew once he stopped, he would probably never be able to get this close again. He was like a gambler knee-deep in debt now. Prince Silas had lost too much to get what he wanted; faced with the sweet ideal he was chasing and the things broken behind him, he could only walk forward and not dare look back. Because if he does, he would fear he would see that it wasn't just his relationship with Alaric that he had broken, nor just the memories and trust he had with the other that he had discarded.

Closing his eyes for a moment to banish his increasingly depressing thoughts from his mind, Prince Silas takes a deep breath before opening them again. Remembering the topic on hand, he casually asks the Rong vampire next to him with some doubt, "I don't remember having much interaction with him, though. Do you know why he would come here and look for me?"

Feeling flattered and a bit flustered at the crown prince of the Golden Rose coven relying on him to answer a question, the young vampire quickly tries to think up a good answer to satisfy the other. "This… maybe he was curious and jealous of your majesty? Personally, I, ah, I don't think it's likely, but most of the humans who don't know your identity like to stare at us, a newly turned vampire may not comprehend our hierarchy yet hence his presumptuous actions.. Or maybe he was looking for Alaric?"

Prince Silas immediately frowned, "Why would he look for Alaric?"

"I don't know; Alaric's very popular, as you know. Maybe he heard about how you can sleep with him if you ask nicely enough? But I guess those are mainly for graduates. Maybe he was told to report to Alaric? After all, a lot of the troublesome vampires are usually sent to him, and Count Vericus is of high enough standing to do this even if it is for his turned step-son… Y-your highness? A-a-are you-? You don't look so good?"

That was an understatement. Prince Silas' expression at this moment was incredibly ugly. "What was that first thing?"

The young vampire shudders violently; his throat feels like it is closing up under his anxiety as if being physically choked. Which was very fitting because it looked like the prince was very willing to strangle him for the answers. "Y-y-you, ah, you, ah, you d-didn't know?"

In the back of Prince Silas' mind, something had once again snapped.

For the sake of love, another part of him was broken off and left behind.

…

After running a large enough distance from the classroom, Kylan runs his hand through his hair irritatedly.

To be honest, he didn't want to pay attention to that weird eye-patched pretty boy's words from the day before, but knowing there was indeed a vampire that fit that description, he couldn't help but check it out. It wasn't that he trusted the rude stranger, but…

Thinking of the images he saw on Jasmine's blog, Kylan's eyes flashes red for a moment before he struggles to get it under control. Since being bit, his mind felt much clearer, but at the same time, his impulse control and emotional state had gotten much worse.

Apparently, this was just a normal aspect when turning into a vampire, and most would need about a year longer than he had to retain enough restraint to function well enough in society. Being given permission to enter St Lailah's earlier than expected was simply a testament to how well he adapted. Even so, it was undeniable that it was still difficult, especially with topics regarding Jasmine.

Due to the moving process and last-minute adjustments to enter St Lailah's Academy, Kylan had failed to check Jasmine's blog as often as he used to these days. In fairness, Jasmine didn't update as consistently anymore, and he had been busy himself, so he preferred to wait a week or two before catching up on the blog these days instead. Similar to waiting until enough there are enough updated chapters in your favourite online novel to binge read for an hour or just saving it up for a stressful day, he just found this way worked better for him. Though it was a bit of a pity, he lost the day-to-day happiness of keeping up with Jasmine's life.

Of course, for the rare livestreams, Kylan always tried his best to keep at least one tab of the blog open so he could get notified whenever it came up. Even so, he still had only caught three, unfortunately, but three was more than enough for his teenage libido to produce a million more fantasies in his head.

After getting unnecessarily confronted by the blonde vampire and his scathing remarks in the previous day, Kylan had figured it had been a good time to go online to see what had been posted just to calm himself after school. Who knew he would see the same sneering bastard crossdressing next to Jasmine???

Under the alias of Carnation, the other was posing intimately and cutely together with the other for almost a third of all the new photos posted. Not only did he look deceptively sweet and innocent, his face value was actually much higher than Jasmine's! Even Kylan couldn't deny it as much as he wanted to!

Jia Hyson: Why am I suddenly low-key angry?

Seeing the enthusiasm of the comments in the blog, the high popularity of these photos and even some JasmineXCarnation art in the small fan circles, the vampire with multi-coloured hair could only fall into a pained and confused silence.

Kylan: …My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

However, even though he was beyond upset at the idea that this one-eyed pretty boy psychopath was closer to Jasmine than he had ever been, it was because of this association that Kylan couldn't help but put a bit of trust in the other's words. After all, even though Jasmine was kind, he* didn't seem like a Holy Father who would get close to everyone if they should a weak side. Most likely, this eye-patched bastard Carnation had some redeeming qualities to be worthy of Jasmine's friendship that wasn't just having the face of an angel.

*due to the blog, Kylan knows Jasmine is male and identifies as such idk I feel some people would nitpick this, and I get scared :3

Therefore he went to go find a vampire with long silver hair and black eyes, wanting to see if someone like this really existed. To be honest, the moment Kylan found out such a vampire existed, he already was half-believing the blonde vampire's words. Such a description was so specific, and Carnation didn't know him. There was no reason to tell him this unless he was either slandering this silver-haired vampire or because he was genuinely giving him some advice after being distortedly satisfied from venting his previous unhappiness by insulting him.

…Honestly, either way, it did make this Carnation vampire seem pretty fucked in the head.

Kylan had always felt it was important to confirm things with his own eyes before he can determine his next steps. Unfortunately, with the instability from being a turned vampire, his impulses were not good, and instead of finding various more subtle ways to check for himself, Kylan had found himself already at the classroom door of the silver-haired vampire in question after asking around.

Still, while it was a little embarrassing, it wasn't like he didn't come out empty-handed. From what the delinquent-looking vampire saw, he could at least confirm…

Such a gloomy guy, with a dark and rather predatory gaze that made people feel a little suffocated just experiencing it for a moment… this vampire was indeed a bit abnormal!

The blonde vampire was right! The blonde vampire had been a fucking bitch, and Kylan still wanted to cover him in glitter before shoving him into a cinema playing an overhyped vampire teen romance movie, but he was right!

It wasn't just the silver-haired vampire's glare; Kylan's natural instincts told him that this person was definitely some sort of pervert. The type who definitely drugged at least one person for perverted reasons.

…If Jia Hyson or Bebe was aware of what Kylan was thinking, they would stand up and applaud the other's instinct for being so accurate.

"Hey, watch it." A young man who bumps into Kylan as they walk past each other sneers. Holding the young man's arm was a pretty blonde girl who giggled as she snuggled against her boyfriend.

Kylan glares, "I should say the same to you." He retorts testily.

The young man who was about to walk past him stills before turning back to flash his eyes red and bare his fangs in warning. His girlfriend also followed suit. "You really think a turned vampire like yourself deserves to speak back to me like that?"

His girlfriend tilts her head onto the young vampire's shoulder and clicks her tongue mockingly, "Tsk, tsk, be careful. He might try to seduce you and break us apart like his sister did to your uncle." She narrows her eyes as she smiles sweetly at Kylan's ugly expression, "To be honest, I'm surprised you even showed up here so soon after turning. Aren't you afraid you can't control yourself and shame the Vericus family name?" The girl bats her eyes and covers her mouth in fake surprise, "Oh, I forgot, you don't carry the family name."

"I chose not to change my name." Kylan clenches, "It was not them rejecting me, but me rejecting them, thank you very much. Also," He raises his middle finger at the couple, uncaring of their now equally as ugly expressions, "Your eyeliner is uneven, your lipstick looks cheap, and your eyeshadow is gaudy as shit. As for you.."

He glances at the male vampire from the Vericus family with no sense of familial affection at all. Thinking of an appropriate insult, Kylan recalls what the eyepatched vampire spat at him and was a little inspired. "Well, even if I find you disgusting to look at, I'm glad you found someone tasteless enough to appreciate you nonetheless."

The vampire couple: '…'

Kylan scowls as he watches them hurry away in a huff; it seems all the vampires he's met so far are nothing but haughty, perverted bastards.

Thinking how he was also one now, the turned vampire bites his lower lip anxiously. What if Jasmine also thought that about vampires too? Would he be wary of him if he found out he was a vampire? If he took photos with Carnation, then Jasmine should know about vampires, right? No, wait, but what if they weren't that close?

Kylan massages the side of his forehead with annoyance, irritated by his messy and disorganised thoughts. He was doing his best, but with so many stressors to stimulate him, it was hard to try to keep the constant state of calm he was recommended to keep until everything in his body stabilises. He had been confident that he could stay in control, and he had done too much to get to where he is, to gain status and to even enter this academy as early as he could after finding a hint in Jasmine's blog that he may be studying here….

If a normal person knew the extent of what he had done just for a person he had only known for less than even a month, they would be appalled by the insanity of it. However, Kylan could only say these people just couldn't understand. Jasmine's kindness, smile… his wit and warmth.. they had all pierced his heart and carved an irreplaceable part inside him.

For Kylan, who hasn't felt this from anyone, who has only been given coldness, derision, and haphazard kindness at best, and has only continued to experience disdain, manipulation and disgust just for his identity… the small memories of happiness and young budding infatuation became more and more precious. Like a little light in the dark sea of his heart.

He doesn't know if this was love or just a mad need to possess what people have constantly denied him, but all he knew was he had to try.

Kylan couldn't accept how much Jasmine had impacted him, how much he changed for Jasmine- and yet Jasmine most probably only saw him as just a fleeting moment in his beautiful and colourful life. He couldn't accept that Jasmine already had a boyfriend, that he probably already had many friends and many admirers, and Kylan himself was just some stray dog the blue-eyed crossdresser took in for fun before letting him go. He couldn't accept it, and if he was to be honest, Kylan hated it.

The turned vampire with red and yellow hair scowls, silver eyes flashing red, an uncontrollably obsessive and predatory look in his eyes.

No matter what, Kylan will do anything to make Jasmine his. Even if he couldn't. He had to carve a place in the other's heart and soul, just like Jasmine did for him.

…

"I'm glad you guys have cleaned up before I came back." Prince Rigel states dryly, scrunching his nose as he enters Alaric's dorm room with a school bag in hand.

Mr Garth and Jia Hyson turn their heads and blink in surprise. Both of them were lazily on the couch holding a jug of water each in their hands. Jia Hyson's had some lemon slices and mint in the water, while the chain-smoking vampire had a jar of water with lemons slices and ginger. Both were freshly showered and wore nothing but simple lounge pants, the markings of enthusiastic sex exposed proudly all over the skin from the stomach up.

As Prince Rigel walks over, he sees this image, and his silver eye twitches violently. As he stands in front of them, he smiles and repeats his words. "I'm glad you guys have cleaned up before I came back."

Jia Hyson hesitates, looking at the prince's beautiful smile that looks like it could make flowers bloom, and angels sing. "Uh.. But we didn't-"

"THAT'S FUCKING RIGHT!" Prince Rigel dramatically throws his schoolbag down in front of them as he shouts before pulling the middle finger on both his hands at them as he scowls ferociously, looking more like a pretty baby-faced delinquent than a haughty and pretentious royal. It seems the modern-day world has really affected him a lot. Thinking it wasn't dramatic enough, he also takes off his eyepatch and throws it onto the ground as well before resuming his pose. "You didn't clean up! This whole place stinks of sweat and semen, you freaking vulgar perverts! Are you vampires, or are you dolphins?!"

"Dolphins?" Mr Garth's lips quirk up in bemusement despite himself.

"I PAID ATTENTION IN BIOLOGY CLASS!" Prince Rigel screeches as he points one of his middle fingers at the older-looking vampire, "IT WAS VERY INTERESTING! AND, AND FUCK YOU!"

After letting it out, the prince took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. Unfortunately, the strong scent of depravity everywhere made it very difficult to do so.

To be honest, Prince Rigel really wanted to scold these two vampires for at least three hours straight. Unfortunately, as a pampered prince that lived more in the unconscious state than the conscious state, he really didn't have the experience of scolding with such high intensity before. At most, he would say some scathing words or use his powers to domineeringly speak for himself; scolding like a mother-in-law who caught their daughter-in-law cheating with the secretary in her son's office was not something Rigel had actually done before. It was oddly a little refreshing despite how hysterical he must've looked.

Jia Hyson coughs, also just as bemused as his boyfriend. However, he did his best to hide his mirth and gave the prince an appropriately chastised look. "Sorry, your highness, we didn't check the time. Don't worry; with our powers, we'll clean ourselves up quickly."

Mr Garth rubs his nose awkwardly and nods under the eye-patched vampire's glare. "Yeah, why don't you take a short walk first?"

"I think it's better if I stay and watch." Prince Rigel retorts dryly, crossing his arms as he stares at them, "Otherwise, what if you two start entering heat and rutting again?"

Jia Hyson and Mr Garth: '…'

Under the Eclipse Coven prince's deep gaze, the pair of vampires obediently got off the couch and began to clean. First, Jia Hyson lightly kissed both his hands; a silvery mist pulled out of his mouth as he retracted from it and began to wildly shake and rub his hands, making the mist attached to them also move wildly, condensing little by little with the kinetic energy. After moving enough to his satisfaction, Jia Hyson squats down and touches the floor, activating his abilities and producing a large pile of ice on the floor.

Standing back up, he claps his hands, and the ice block shatters gently before the ice is then ground into smaller and smaller pieces of ice as Jia Hyson continues to rub his palms together in a circular motion. Once they became something akin to fluffy shaved ice, the blue eyed vampire began to walk around, manipulating the ice to flatten and follow him like a large slug.

However, with his masterful control, Jia Hyson was manipulating the ice to not only wet the flooring, suck up any contamination from the floor, and bring it up into the main body of the ice but also to reabsorb the moisture and harden it back into ice. This meant not only dirt and debris were picked up, but the ice wasn't leaving any moisture trail at all either.

Prince Rigel sighed when he saw this. If Alaric joined the Eclipse coven, he would really be the perfect assassin. Even the blood and water stains from his attack could be cleaned up after a kill.

Mr Garth couldn't let his boyfriend do all the work either. The vampire strides to the bathroom and opens up the cupboard with the cleaning supplies, floating them out and spraying the rose and lavender-scented disinfectant sprays to help clear up the odours as well. Of course, this sort of task was very simple and easy, so Mr Garth also went around pulling the sheets which they had dirtied and chucking them into Alaric's ice slug cleaner.

Of course, this did mean that Jia Hyson had to split his attention in cleaning two different things at the same time.

"Motherfuck," Jia Hyson curses as Mr Garth trots back with a bundle of pillowcases and a shit-eating grin.

"I should be the one to say that," Prince Rigel rubs his forehead, "Seriously, where have you not had sex yet here??"

"We didn't do anything on your bed." Mr Garth comforts him.

Unfortunately, Prince Rigel was very intelligent and immediately caught the problem in the other's words. Staring intensely at the other, the prince asks with gritted teeth, "You didn't do anything on my bed.. doesn't that mean you did something… in my room?"

Jia Hyson: '…' Oh shit.

"Not.. technically." The telekinetic vampire awkwardly says, glancing at Jia Hyson for help. However, the younger vampire had lowered his head, pretending to be concentrating very hard on washing things with his ice. "More, like, against your room?"

Prince Rigel's face right now was an open book. And on each page, it screamed murder. "Did you beasts fuck against my door?!"

Jia Hyson and Mr Garth exchanged glances. Tacitly they agreed they must never let the other know that not only did they use the door as part of the play, but they also pretended that Prince Rigel was behind there to enhance the humiliation play. By pretending the other was there and could open the door at any minute and see Mr Garth open and exposed in the most shameful state was extremely exciting for them both.

Not only they fucked against the door, using the door as support when Jia Hyson lifted the larger vampire up to fuck him standing, but they also fucked in front of it, masturbated in front it, ejaculated on it, and then Mr Garth licked it up on his knees. It was extremely arousing.

Of course, now it was a bit regrettable.

"I told Alaric to use his own door." Mr Garth quickly shifts the blame.

Jia Hyson, whose head was lowered, immediately snapped his head up and looked at the other with disbelief. "Who was the one who wanted it to be a more authentic experience??"

"You." Mr Garth lights up a cigarette and takes a deep breath of nicotine before blowing it out as he says, "Obviously."

Jia Hyson: '…' Where is the trust between lovers?

Lamentably for Mr Garth, though, the eye-patched vampire showed no mercy to either of them despite his backstabbing, and an hour later, the entire dorm room was cleaner than when Jia Hyson first entered it. Jia Hyson and Mr Garth, who had painstakingly cleaned everything under the Eclipse Coven prince's watchful eyes, almost fell back into the couch, exhausted. As vampires, ones whose powers made things relatively easy to clean things with, they could honestly say they had never been so tired from the activity.

Seeing the pair like this, Prince Rigel's mode was much better, and he had even ordered takeaway for them skilfully. Of course, it was from his current favourite food place, and he ordered all the dishes he liked. However, with some conscience, Prince Rigel added one dish for Alaric that he knew he enjoyed and one dish for Mr Garth that he deduced he would probably like from the limited information he knew of him.

Once the food came, the atmosphere became more energetic. All three vampires had different opinions on varying things, but their sarcastic wit, ambiguous moral stances on life, and interest in gossip were fairly similar, so after a few minutes of silent eating, they all began a lively discussion. After a while, the topic naturally arrived at Prince Silas.

"He can't be king." Mr Garth, the most loyal to the Golden Rose Coven, states aggressively. "It's not even that it's a personal matter; he has clearly abused his authority and power and disrespected one of his closest and most loyal servants and friend. If that's not a glaring character issue and a red flag for a monarch, I don't know what is."

"You say that," Prince Rigel debates back, far more calm than the other as he sips his taro boba tea that he took from the fridge. "But in terms of power, learning ability, intelligence and aura, Prince Silas certainly outranks his brothers in the long run."

"Not to mention, Prince Kieran and Prince Damien have their flaws too." Jia Hyson touches his nose thoughtfully. "Prince Kieran is sly, but he doesn't have the willpower or strength to do a lot of hard things without eventually getting frustrated and cutting corners. Prince Damien is very charismatic and has a good ability, but…"

Prince Rigel sneers, even if he's more scared of Prince Silas; based on what he had learned from the information provided about the Golden Rose Coven's royal family, he despises Prince Damien the most. "He's weak." He spits out.

Jia Hyson understood why Prince Rigel thought so. After all, he falls under the vampire supremacist group, while Prince Damien's outlook is considered the total opposite. Not only does Prince Damien like humans, he even takes it a step further and dislikes his own vampire heritage, wishing he could be a 'normal person' and live a beautiful life with pure love. To be honest, for a lot of vampires, Prince Damien's thoughts were quite laughable and a bit hateful. However, this sort of naive dream and his handsome appearance, coupled with his genuinely kind personality, still made him very popular. Especially with turned vampires.

Still, he felt obligated to speak up a little for the male lead. "He's a romantic." Jia Hyson defends.

"To be fair, he is kinda weak." Mr Garth mutters as he grabs some sweet potato chips from the table. "It's not that I look down on the artsy types, and it's not like we don't have dramatic, pretentious vampires around, but Prince Damien is the only one I know who will go stand out in the rain, look up at the sky and write poetry like what the fuck is that?"

"AHAHAHAHHA HE DID THAT?" Prince Rigel choked on his taro boba, coughing violently for a minute between laughter, "AHAHA, I THOUGHT THAT WAS FAKE NEWS! AHAHAH!" The blonde vampire's heterochromatic eyes brighten as they look at Mr Garth with interest, "Does that mean it's also true that Prince Damien has an online blog full of his writing, but the majority of his followers are side accounts from his peers, friends and family?"

Jia Hyson covers his forehead with his hand, "…No, what is your Eclipse coven doing? Is it so idle it can even dig up this sort of thing?"

"It's too boring to search up someone and not get some of the interesting gossip on the way." Prince Rigel leans back, wiping some of the drops of purple liquid from his shirt with a napkin as he does so. "So, is it true?"

"…I have two side accounts for it, but I don't actually check on his stuff." Mr Garth admits.

"….I'm too lazy to get a side account, so I followed with my Jasmine blog." Jia Hyson groans, "In fairness, I did take a look once or twice when I got the notification… It's okay. Very chuuni. But the poetry wasn't bad."

"You hate poetry." Mr Garth exposes him mercilessly.

Jia Hyson stares at the older vampire before hitting him on the arm, "Stop telling the truth, damn!"

Prince Rigel chuckles, "No, no, now I have to see it; what's the blog?"

"I fear you will use this information to ruin our coven's reputation, to be honest." Jia Hyson comments dryly while Mr Garth nods in agreement.

"Tsk," Prince Rigel clicks his tongue, "It's either you tell me now, or I ask one of my subordinates. Either way, the end result is the same."

Mr Garth and Jia Hyson: …He has a point.

"It's uh," Mr Garth scratches his head awkwardly, "It's †PiercedHeartBrokenLightning†.LogBlog.com… There are two crosses, one in front of the name and one at the end."

"The Christian church crosses." Jia Hyson adds.

Prince Rigel: '…' To be honest, he was almost embarrassed for Prince Damien.

"So, in the end, it really feels like only Prince Silas is objectively the most suitable for the throne." Jia Hyson sighs heavily. Seeing the darkening expression on Mr Garth's face, he touches the other's hand soothingly. Mr Garth doesn't look at him, but his large hand gently entangles with Jia Hyson's smaller one, rubbing circles with his thumb on the younger vampire's soft skin.

"I do have to agree." Prince Rigel glances down at the couple's movement but doesn't say anything about it. "Now that the other has shown more motivation to improve himself, most vampires have already determined it's more or less a foregone conclusion and are now more interested in seeing what roles the second and third princes can get now. The fact is, Prince Silas has shown himself to be extremely competent, benevolent and wise… as long as Alaric isn't involved anyway."

"It would be difficult to get someone to fight for the crown at this point," Jia Hyson idly wonders if that means Kieran's plot in the first story had changed. The first story should be starting next year, but with Prince Silas showing such a strong stance, it was hard to imagine Prince Kieran could have any hope to try any big moves for the crown at all. "All in all, it is as Rigel said. As long as I'm not there, the biggest problems in his behaviour are temporarily curbed."

"You can always join my coven." The Eclipse Coven prince mutters. Jia Hyson shoots him an exasperated but amused look.

"Isn't that worse, though? I won't be gone; I'll be dangling in front of Prince Silas as I strut around in another vampire's coven. With his current possessiveness, wouldn't he just hate you to death as a consequence?"

Prince Rigel, who didn't really consider this angle was stunned and swore. It seems there's really no way. He wants Alaric to join him, both for personal and professional reasons, but he doesn't want it so bad he would die for him.

Mr Garth scowls but grunts in reluctant agreement. Even if he was unhappy, he didn't ignore the reality before him and started to think of alternate solutions. "Then we need to find a way for the other to cool down his obsession."

"I could fake my death." Jia Hyson suggests. It had been one of the ideas he had been strongly contemplating.

"Absolutely not." Mr Garth and Prince Rigel both say at the same time.

"Are you stupid? What if you get caught? You'll die for real!" The prince half-scolds angrily.

Meanwhile, Mr Garth tightens his hold on Jia Hyson's hand, lifts it up and kisses it gently. With an aggrieved look, he stares at Jia Hyson. "Alaric, I never want to see you die, not even a fake one. Besides, living a life where you have to hide the entire time, worry every day about the other finding you, to hold an identity you weren't born into… Call me selfish, but I don't want to see you do that. Not unless it's truly a last resort."

"Darrian.." Jia Hyson softly says, a little unsure what to say now.

Watching the pair gaze deeply into each other's eyes and thinking of the oncoming plot and the mystery of what role Alaric hoped to play in it, Rigel can only sigh.

"Why don't you just take the year off then?" Prince Rigel suddenly says.

Jia Hyson and Mr Garth turn their head to look at the prince in surprise.

Prince Rigel tilts his head as if in thought. "The school year will end in a few months. Apply for a year's vacation, then come back. Best case scenario, Prince Silas would have settled somewhat; worst case, he doesn't, but you get a year off to relax at the very least."

"That's not a bad idea." Mr Garth blinks.

Jia Hyson also felt it was not only feasible but truly a kind suggestion from Prince Rigel. "Thank you." He sincerely says.

Prince Rigel smiles.

It's not bad to let them have a happy dream for a little longer.

….

...

Little Theatre:

Kylan: Trust the femboys

Silas: Only a pervert can recognise a fellow pervert

Rigel: If your roommates are good to you, it is fair to be good back.

A/N: Just letting yall know the first arc of zombie emperor is done~ Please take a look ah~ It is very horror gore based tho, therefore if you didn't like arc 2 of btbab then I don't recc~

Due to WN censorships the story really got uhh restricted cuz of the kaomojis I put. At first I thought I was willing to let the story not get any powerstones as long as I can kaomoji but turns out WN now will hide the book once it gets flagged for it QAQ. Currently I've deleted the emotes wahhh and waiting to get the restriction lifted. Therefore if you can't see the story rn here's how to access it:

- Search littlebluelake on search story bar. Do Not click on the autofill option. Type my username and press enter.

- Once you do that a list of all my stories including zombie emperor will be shown :D

- I suggest even if you don't plan to read the first arc, but is still interested, to add to collection anyway cuz this author senses its gonna have a bumpy ride to not get restricted everywhere QAQ I cant help it, I love kaomoji wahhh

Anyway thank you all for the support and love~ Hope you have a lovely week~