"That sounds pretty bloody." The boy looked at Saleos.
"Yeah, when I first heard it, I got chills all over. I had no idea how he could speak about it so calmly—especially when my own safety wasn't even guaranteed at the time." Saleos curled his lip in a nonchalant expression. "Who knows? The next second I might end up becoming part of that hypocritical guy too. He talks about cherishing humans, says he could never do such things, yet what he actually does is more ruthless than anyone. Honestly, he's a terrifying person."
Saleos stood up and opened the window. Cars sped back and forth along the street, their horns weaving through the air in low, lingering wails, drowning out the boy's words in the clamor. "You… you're not like him."
Saleos gave a small smile. "Thanks for the compliment. I like to think so too."
"We left that alley in a hurry, leaving that poor soul's body to rot in the open air. As we walked, I kept replaying that sensation in my mind—the cruelty and conflict of being a newly born blood-thirster. His face stayed hidden in the shadows; I couldn't make out his features. Neither of us spoke the whole way back.
Once we returned to the house, he began teaching me the etiquette expected of a noble. I hated it, but he was incredibly stubborn. He tirelessly made me repeat every aristocratic gesture over and over until I barely managed to learn one—then he immediately moved on to the next. For days I did nothing but study etiquette—" Edward paused to take a sip of wine. "—For some reason, he seemed unusually interested in me, as if he wanted to bind me to him forever, like some long-term companion. I never understood where that interest came from or how it developed, but he gave me no room to breathe. His need to control and dominate me was overwhelming—like a sudden whirlwind, not a gentle, leisurely breeze but a violent storm that swept everything away. Still, I had no choice. I had only just become a vampire; I hadn't yet formed a new understanding of this world. So I had to accept him as my mentor and learn the essential survival knowledge and rules of conduct. —Oh, right. His name is Hector Ethan Daniel. I've always called him my King—never his real name. And he forbade me from using it."
"After living with him for a while, he took me out onto the streets one pitch-black night. 'Tonight, you will hunt a human yourself,' he said. The moment those words left his mouth, my blood froze. I still wasn't ready to embrace life as a vampire, even though I had reluctantly begun adjusting my lifestyle under his relentless pressure. He dragged me to the entrance of an alley and told me to pick a target. Reluctantly, I stepped into the crowd, pulling my collar up, pretending to be an ordinary person. But my deathly pale skin still drew many curious stares. I walked quietly until I spotted a group of young nobles frolicking in a dense thicket.
'They'll do,' the King whispered in my ear, making me feel instantly nauseous.
'But there are too many of them.'
'No problem. I'll draw a few away.'
We watched as the nobles held bows and arrows, engaged in their own hunt. How ironic—we were about to hunt them. The King beside me tossed a stone, catching the attention of one or two of them and successfully isolating one. That person didn't seem to hear the stone fall; he continued wandering idly in place, humming a little tune to himself.
'Go now,' he urged me. So I began to move.
I slowly approached the unsuspecting noble from behind, my whole body trembling. I reached out and grabbed his shoulder. He screamed instantly—like someone hitting an emergency switch. I froze, completely at a loss, standing there like an idiot. The other nobles in the thicket heard his cry and started coming this way. At that moment, Hector moved with lightning speed, yanking the poor victim into the bushes, covering his mouth, and sinking his fangs into the man's wrist. The noble's eyes widened in terror; his scream choked and died in his throat as if he'd been cursed.
'Idiot!' he snarled at me while drinking. 'You're hopeless. I don't know how many more times I'll have to teach you before you can act like a proper noble.' When he finally let go, the man collapsed lifelessly to the ground. We left the thicket behind us, the nobles' sharp gasps and shrieks echoing in our wake. I walked away trembling, my mind in utter chaos, as if it had been bombed. He half-dragged, half-pulled me back to our rundown little house."
"Why do you call him your King?" I suddenly asked, thinking about Hector's identity.
"Oh, he's been alive for a very long time." Edward mused quietly. "He's the progenitor of vampires—he has witnessed the entire evolution of history over tens of thousands of years. To him, all the changes in the world are nothing more than the blink of an eye. He's the one who built the vampire race—though many of those he turned left him soon after and founded their own bloodlines. Maybe that's part of why he insisted on keeping me by his side, though even now I don't truly understand what kind of feelings he held toward me. At this point, I don't really care anymore." He lifted his head slightly, gazing at the bright moon hanging in the night sky.
"How was he born, then?"
"I never asked him." Edward shrugged. "Maybe even he himself doesn't know. Perhaps that's simply the fate of vampires—a destined existence that feeds on the lives of others, something decided long ago. We immortals are bound to carry this fate for all eternity. Immortality is both a blessing and a curse for us." He let out a faint sigh. "We might end up witnessing the destruction of the Earth itself. Even now, after more than six hundred years, there's hardly anything I haven't seen."
"Is he still alive?"
"I don't know."
Edward turned away, his face melting into the deep shadows. "Back then, he was already an incredibly lonely being. Perhaps he still is, all alone."
In that bustling small town, strange deaths began to increase. At the time we didn't realize the townspeople were already gripped by fear—every few days, some random 'lucky soul' would receive the sentence of death. It was terrifying in its own way. Hector began teaching me how to dispose of bodies: after drinking, bury them in the bushes, toss them into street garbage piles, dump them in the ditches beneath the city walls, or simply throw them into the river to let the current carry the poor soul away. Until one day, while we were disposing of a body… we were discovered.