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Chapter 17: Tragedy Strikes

After an hour of waiting, Alicia woke up. She seemed to be slightly confused, not remembering why she was there. She looked around her, seeing me, her sister and the two slave girls. Soon the realization fell upon her. She looked at me.

“What do I do now?” She asked, even though she had seen it before and knew very well what she had to do. Maybe she just didn’t want to kill the two girls. But there was no going around it. When she would eventually start feeding, she wouldn’t be able to stop drinking and would enter a blood frenzy. While I technically would be able to stop her from killing them, I didn’t want to. It would serve as a good initiation ceremony for new vampires, and would help them learn killing isn’t so bad.

“You feed on the girls, until there is no blood in their body.” I said. Alicia nodded, then walked over to the girls. After a moment, there were two dead girls on the floor, and Alicia had completed her initiation into vampirism. Killing the two slaves didn’t pose much of a problem for her, since she had spent years being a vampire ghoul under me, and her mentality had changed. After all she had been pretty young when I first fed her my blood, and now she is only twenty years old. Now that she was finished she looked to her sister.

“What about her?” She asked.

“You can turn her yourself. But you should wait a few months or years. I turned Amelia right after I myself was made into a vampire, and it completely exhausted me, so you better wait. I was thinking that maybe I should take her as a concubine as well. What do you think?” I asked her. Alicia was pleasantly surprised.

“If she wants to, then please do! And what about me? You said that you would marry me in the future right? Now that I am a pureblood vampire, I feel like my status shouldn’t be too much below them.” Alicia said. Alice stood on the side lines excited. She had asked Isaac before to take her as a concubine as well, but had thought that he would refuse her, but now it seemed like her wish would come true. It first sounded like he didn’t want her, but after an hour of thinking he had decided to take her as a concubine.

AN: AKA the wish of the readers.

“Alice actually dared to ask me to take her as a concubine, so that shouldn’t be a problem.” I said with a smile,

“And I was thinking about having our marriage in the near future, dear soon to be third wife. It’s a bit weird that I have more wives than concubines, don’t you think?” I said. Alicia jumped in happiness, and hugged me tightly. If I was a mere mortal human, then I would be crushed.

“That’s great! You hear that Alice? You’ll be a concubine from now on!” She exclaimed.

After that time passed in peace. I married Alicia three months later, and she moved into the main bedchamber and Alice became a concubine. A few months later Alicia bolstered our vampire ranks by making Alice into a vampire. Thus two years went by.

3rd person.

In the city of Fenlai, in a certain dark building, hidden in the slums. There was a group of people meeting. They were wearing dark robes, their faces hidden in the shadows, concealing their identities. These were the royal investigators sent to investigate the death of the warrior princess of the Kingdom of Kalderon. They had spent several years now investigating all sorts of matters relating to this, but had not found much. But they did find something, and this something was not in the favour of Charles Fenlai, the Lord Commander.

They had found that a few days before the death of the princess, the Lord Commander had left the city of Fenlai with a group of people. In this group all the knights were present as well as few others, including his only concubine and some unknowns. Only a few days after, Charles returned, but the unknowns weren’t there. Shortly after that he had married the concubine since it was discovered that she was actually the sister of one of the most powerful men in the prefecture, Isaac Coldblood, but that wasn’t important to the case. Isaac had only barely entered the B rank, so he wasn’t much of a suspect. They decided that Charles had sent the concubine somewhere, most likely to her brother’s place, since she didn’t return with him, and had for some reason killed the princess on the way. However they didn’t know why. Maybe she had insulted him, and he had killed her in anger, thinking that it wouldn’t be discovered. But alas, it was discovered.

The royal investigators decided that their investigation was over, and returned back to the capital. They had never spent so much time on a single investigation, but the crown prince had said that this case was extremely important, and that they were not to make any mistakes at all, so they decided to take their time and thoroughly investigate everything. In fact they had discovered that Charles left the city that time a long time ago, but they decided to investigate more, just in case they found something else.

Thus they spent a long time travelling back to the royal capital, to report to the king. When the king heard, he was angry, but kept his calm. The prince however, was infuriated.

“Charles Fenlai, that dog! He dared kill my wife, I’ll make sure his entire family dies! Father, this is clearly treason, we must deal with him! Let me take the Royal Knights with me and deal with him. I’ll slaughter everyone in the palace, but I won’t hurt the civilians of the city, don’t worry.” The prince said. The king sat still, brooding, until he decided. Not that there was much to decide, since it was clear that this was treason to the crown, and he didn’t doubt his investigators, but he had been king for two hundred years now, since he was an A ranker, so he learned to never make a hasty decision. Even though he was two hundred years old, he didn’t look older than fifty. He might even be able to live another two hundred years.

“Alright, my eldest son. You shall lead the Royal Knights and take your revenge. Kill everyone in the palace. This way we will send a message to the others so they don’t do anything stupid, but don’t kill anyone outside the palace, so that they will know that we are fair. Now, my son, go and paint the palace red with blood!” the king said, his voice showing his anger at the last sentence. The prince saluted, then turned around and left. He quickly gathered fifty Royal Knights. These knights were all A rankers, even one or two of them would be enough to cleanse the palace, but the prince wouldn’t let anyone get away. Everyone in the palace had to die. The guards, the soldiers, the knights, the servants, the cooks, they all had to die, and most of all, Charles Fenlai had to die!

The armada of Royal Knights left the capital the very next day. They sped all the way to the Fenlai prefecture at full speed. With their strong horses, it only took a month. They only made a single stop on the way, and that was right before they arrived at the capital. They rested for two days, then continued. They arrived outside the city. The guards and Charles were confused, but they didn’t stop them. After all they recognized the emblem of the royal family. After they were inside the city, they marched straight to the palace, where the Lord Commander stood to meet them with his knights, who only numbered ten, as well as his wife and infant son. But the moment they arrived, the slaughter commenced. The Royal Knights immediately killed everyone on sight, surrounding Charles and his knights.

“Prince Victor, what is the meaning of this?!” Charles shouted. The prince, known as Victor Kalderon, looked at him in disgust and fury.

“Charles Fenlai, you dare ask me this question? You killed my wife, and still dare ask me this question?!” He shouted back in anger and sadness, combined with his never ending fury. He couldn’t hold it back anymore and charged straight at him, plunging his sword straight through his chest. Charles puked up blood as he looked at him in confusion. He wanted to ask what he meant, but he wasn’t able to say a word as the blood was flowing. Soon the light in his eyes faded away. He had died. Alice, his wife screamed and ran to his side, trying to stop the bleeding, as he laid on the ground, but it was to no avail, since he was already dead.

“So you are his wife? Then that must be his son. I shall not feel satisfied until the both of you are dead, and until everyone else in this palace is dead. You shall serve as the funeral sacrifices of my late wife.” Victor said, as he raised his sword once more.

“No don’t! You won’t get away with this! My brother won’t let you get…” She said, but was cut short as the sword had fallen to her throat, decapitating her. As her head rolled, the sword didn’t stop, but instead fell directly to the small toddler, also taking his like. Thus the Lord Commander, his wife and child, had died.

At this moment in a distant, dark castle, hidden several hundred miles deep in a forest, in dark room, a certain man awoke. Isaac had felt a connection in his mind sever. This was precisely the connection that was formed between him and his sister when he gave her his blood.

“nonononononono, this cannot be true. It can’t! IT CAN’T BE!!!!” He screamed his lungs out, waking up his wives. He jumped straight out the window and charged at his fastest speeds towards the capital. Even a Royal Knight at the peak of rank A would be shocked by his speed. He was enraged and was running at speeds, even he himself shouldn’t be able to. In only a single day he arrived at the city. He charged straight in, causing winds that blew away the innocent bystanders, even killing some. Normally when a vampire ran, it would at most cause a slight breeze, or even no wind at all, but since he was enraged and was even running at breakneck speeds, he couldn’t control it at all, so he caused a hurricane wherever he ran.

Soon he was inside the palace. The sight, the sight appalled him, it stunned him. He saw the corpse of his sister, decapitated, lying on top of her husband. To their side was the mutilated corpse of a toddler. Even though he had only seen him once, he instantly recognized him as Wade, the child of his sister, Alice, and Charles. He looked a meter away from them where a ball of hair was. It was a head. The head of his sister.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” He screamed, screamed so loudly that windows shattered and ears bled. There was not a single person in the entire city that couldn’t hear it. The people that were nearby even knelt and held their heads in pain. Some even fainted. Eventually he finally stopped. The guards rushed in to see who it was.

“Who’s that? What’s he doing here? How didn’t we see him?” The guards asked, but then one guard walked a step forwards.

“You don’t recognize him? That’s Isaac Coldblood. He was the brother of Lady Alice, then Lord Commander’s wife. He must be enraged by his sister’s death, but did you hear that. That scream was inhuman, it was so loud. Just what stage has he reached? It probably him that caused that sudden storm just now. That was the strength of someone that has at least reached the peak of rank A. But he’s so young, as far as I know, he isn’t even thirty yet! The Kingdom might have made a big enemy now. The influence of his family is great as well.” The guard said. The other guards nodded in understanding.

Suddenly Isaac turned his head slowly towards them, his hair seemed to be fluttering in non-existent wind, and his glowing red eyes pierced holes into the very souls of the guards.

“Who did this?” He asked slowly, his voice deep and menacing, shaking their souls, making their minds clouded. The guards looked at him horrified. Just his stare and voice could make them shake in fear. Some guards even got some wet spots on their clothes.

“L-l-l-lord I-I-Isa-sac, it was t-t-th-the R-Royal F-F-Family!” That one guard said, as he tried to control his fear.

“I see.” He replied, as he slowly stood up. Then his body blurred and he disappeared, not leaving a single trace. The guards fell to their butts in relief. Isaac had seemed like a horrifying monster.

As soon as he left, he charged straight back home again. This time he wasn’t able to go at speeds surpassing his own ability, so it took a few days. Something like that happening was extremely rare, and would only be triggered by extreme anger and sorrow, and would fade away as soon as you calmed down. Keeping such a state for a whole day, was even rarer. When he got back into the castle, the first person he met was Kato.

“Isaac! You’re back! Why did you disappear all of a sudden? We tried to follow you, but you were way too fast, you disappeared in flash.” Kato said. He looked concerned.

“Gather everyone in the meeting hall. I’ll tell you there.” Isaac said. Kato was surprised at the tone of his voice, which made him worry even more. He immediately went to get everyone.

1st person, Isaac.

I walked straight to the meeting hall. I was infuriated, and I was most of all, sorrowful. My dear sister had died. The sister I didn’t see for a decade, then got reunited with, to only spend a few weeks together, had died. She was dead, completely dead. Didn’t even have a head. The moment I saw her body, I had decided that whoever was responsible would die, and his entire clan would die! It was the Royal Family, so the Royal Family will die! But I have to wait, we’re still not powerful enough to destroy them. The king is currently two hundred years old, and had another two hundred years left. As for his sons, they’re all young and have at least three hundred years left. In that time my clan will have grown much more powerful than it is now. I’ll wait, and then when the time is right, I will annihilate the Royal Family of the Kingdom of Kalderon!

When I arrived at the meeting hall I sat down on my seat and waited. I sat there for what seemed like an eternity, while the others came one by one. No one dared to speak to me, since I seemed quite unapproachable and had a dark air about me. After a while everyone was there. They sat there, waiting for me to begin.

“My sister, Alice, is dead.” I said these five words, no more, no less.

“W-w-what?” My mother said. Her face was pale, paler than usual.

“Is what you said true?” My father continued.

“Yes, she died. A few days ago, I felt my connection to her disappear, so I rushed to the capital to see what happened. Everyone in the palace was dead. The floors and walls were painted red. They were all dead. I saw them. Alice, Charles and Wade, they were all dead.” I said. Everyone was astonished.

“Who killed her?” My father asked. He looked me into the eyes, there was a dead serious look in him.

“I’m not completely sure. I just know that it was someone from the Royal Family, so they have to all die. So we need to strengthen our forces. It’s a bit too early to get a lot of vampires, but we can train humans and strengthen a few of them with blood. We also need to improve our individual strengths. We do get naturally stronger as we age, but we can quicken it a little bit by training, and we also need to practice magic, that doesn’t improve on its own, but our talent is way above that of a normal human. And things like swordsmanship and archery, we have the potential to become the most skilled in the world, since we are eternal and have heightened talents. So from today and onwards train, train, and train with one goal in mind. To destroy the Royal Clan of this petty Kingdom of Kalderon. Then in one to two hundred years, the Royal Clan will be no more. And one more thing. We still haven’t chosen a name for our castle, or the surrounding village. Thus I have decided upon two names. The castle shall from now on be known as Sanguine Regis, and the village shall be Bloodmoon Village.” I said. When I was finished I stood up and left, without saying a single word more. Everyone else also went to do their things. From today onwards our days would be a bit busier, since we needed to increase our overall power.

There was still one more thing I needed to do. I walked down to those deep dungeons, hidden deep beneath Sanguine Regis. Deep in the dungeons, I arrived at that hallway with the thick metal doors. I opened one of them, and was met with darkness. As I walked in, a fire started on the candle. Marcus, my brother, looked up to me. These days he hadn’t had as many insane fits, but his mood was even worse.

“Brother, Alice has died.” I said. His eyes widened, and his face paled. He immediately sat up.

“What happened? Did she die giving birth?” He asked.

“Brother, it’s been over a year since she gave birth. Of course that wasn’t the reason.” I said, my mood dark. Even though it had only been a few years since he entered this room, he had lost his sense of time. This was largely attributed to his abstinence from blood.

“No brother, she was killed. She was killed by those despicable humans you value so much. They killed her? The fucking humans! The Royal Family at that! But don’t worry, we’ll get our revenge. We will kill all of them. Perhaps this event will at least help you see the light.” I said. Marcus was even more shocked now.

“She was killed? By the humans? The humans I value so much? How can that be? How can that be? How can that be? The humans killed her? It was the humans? Alice? My sister Alice? They killed my sister Alice? Who killed my sister Alice? It was the humans? The despicable humans? The fucking humans! But the humans are good. I like humans, I want to kill them! They have to die! But humans are nice, but why did I value them like that again? I want to eat them!” He said. He was looking at the floor, then at me, then he looked around himself, then maybe at me again. His sanity was flowing down the drain. I got slightly worried. He was quickly losing his sanity, but at least his seemed to not like humans as much anymore. I grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him.

“Marcus calm down! Relax. It will all be fine, as long as you see that humans are bugs, and their lives have no value.” I said. Marcus stopped his mutterings and looked at me.

“Your right. We’re immortal, so we have all the time in the world. We can destroy them with time.” He said.

“Good. I will give you a slave to feed on in a few days, when you have calmed down completely. If you feed on her voluntarily, then I will let you leave this cell, to once again meet your wife and children. Until then.” I said and left him to his own devices.

It was time to start training. Every single day I would train myself in swordsmanship, archery, hand and feet martial arts and magic. I spent ten hours every day training, dividing it up evenly. I wasn’t the only one that was training this hard. Kato trained just as much, and even spent time on swordsmanship as well. The same with Lilia and Aylard. They were either training themselves or the guards and recruits. Eric also trained when he wasn’t managing the assassin business. I had left most of the assassin stuff to him. Even all three of my wives trained together. My family as well. Marcus had gotten out, but his personality had changed ever since he was a human. Well, all our personalities changed, but his changed the most. He seemed to despise humans with a passion, and he was slightly insane, but it didn’t bother anyone too much. Maybe only his wife a bit. As for ten year old Little Isaac, he seemed to like him more these days.

Marcus also trained hard, just as much as me, but he was still the weakest one of us here. His strength was at the bottom of E rank. Originally he had been quite up there in the E rank, but after going through his maturing period without feeding he only weakened. No he would have to spend a few years to gain strength, but sooner or later he would recover to become a normal pureblood.

One day I was standing in a courtyard, together with Kato. We were about to spar, and we were only allowed to use magic.

“Isaac, are you ready?” Kato asked with a smirk on his face. He looked confident.

“Ready when you are.” I replied, equally as confident, then got in a battle position. Kato followed. Since we were both ready, I decided to begin. I pointed my hand forwards and formed an ice spike and sent it flying. Kato Responded by lightly tapping the ground and a thin translucent wall of ice appeared in front of him. It was so thin that you could barely notice it. My ice spike clashed with the wall, and the ice spike completely shattered.

“So that’s how it is, huh?” I said, still smirking. This time I put both hands up and formed another Ice spike, then another and another, until there were countless ice spikes flying towards Kato. Every single ice spike confronted the translucent ice wall, and every single ice spike shattered into countless pieces.

“It’s going to take more than that to break the wall.” Kato said with a too confident smile on his face. I got slightly annoyed to tell the truth. I decided to use a more powerful spell. I put both my hands forwards and started channelling my mana to from another ice spike. This ice spike grew and grew in size, then started changing its shape, until it looked like a five meter long blue sword. The sword fell down towards Kato at lightning speeds, freezing the air along its way, until it clashed against his wall. This time the wall shattered, but much to my dismay, Kato pointed his finger at my sword and touched it as it fell. Suddenly the sword started cracking and shattered into many pieces, as small ice spears pierced out of the sword, only to melt in an instant.

“Alright Isaac, not it’s my turn. Ready yourself.” Kato said. Kato clasped his hands together, and suddenly huge ice spikes started piercing up through the ground, quickly going towards me in a line. When they appeared in front of me they suddenly split apart and started surrounding me in a circle. I looked around me as the quickly surrounded me in a wall, then stopped. Just a moment after they stopped, thousands upon thousands small spikes pierced towards me in a flash. I quickly clasped my hands together and made shield around me, but it only managed to block a few of them. A few hundred still pierced through my body and coloured the ice blood red. Soon the ice disappeared and I let my shield fade away, then fell to my knees.

I was shocked, DESPAIRED! I had lost! Lost against Kato my own vampire junior! Ah, the despair! I was on my knees, eyes wide open looking into nothingness, my mouth gaping.

“Now now, Isaac, don’t be too sad. It’s only natural that I won, since we only used magic. I’m several ranks above you in magic, so it’s only natural that I’m stronger than you in that department. If we were to fight seriously, then I wouldn’t stand a chance against you.” Kato said, trying to ease my pain. I rose up and grabbed his shoulders.

“Yes yes, that’s right. It’s only because you have a head start over me in magic, that’s why.” I said, then left, still shocked to the deepest pits of my mind. On that very day, I decided that I had to improve my magic to the point where even Kato wouldn’t be my match.

Like that the vampires of the Sanguine Regis spent ten years training quietly.

End of chapter 17.