Lord Ivan IV’s POV

I stood in front of them half in awe and half in shock. The only thought that came to mind was that they had managed to survive on their own when even adults could not. Naturally, I did not show it on my face - it probably wouldn’t have even shown with all the gauze around my body. They were small and timid as if they were little animals that had been abandoned. Only wearing minimal clothes, even I could see that they had garnered a tremendous amount of injuries and scars that could have been life-threatening. I looked at the boy and realized the potential he had within him at this point if I could manipulate and motivate him - he had already suffered through hardships so if he became focused on becoming stronger, there would be nothing to stop him.

On the other hand, that girl gave off an atmosphere of protectiveness and possessiveness over the boy. When I had first met her, I thought she hailed from the human race, but it seems I had been quick to judge - she was a pure vampire. I laughed at myself internally as I faced an odd coupling - not only did this boy manage to become friends with the beastman, but he had also lured a vampire into his grasp… truly magnificent. Having killed a few vampires in the past, I knew what a pain in the ass they were. Whether or not his actions were purposeful, he was still a bundle of potential that I could bring forth. To accomplish this, I would have to falsely create a motivation to constantly push him forward - that vampire girl beside him would also have to disappear for some time… she looked too sharp and would likely catch on if I were to act carelessly.

Alongside the slaves I had bought, I could use these two to grow my strength for whatever the future held for me. With such motives in mind, I greeted Sol and gave an enticing offer.

* * *

Sol’s POV

The man in front of me greeted me. I had known him from the time he had taught me about magic, but to think I would meet him again out of the mines was unthinkable. After tensely greeting each other, we stared at each other while Nephthys quietly stood beside me. Although I did not know what she was thinking, I felt that she was both nervous and worried. I was also feeling rather uncomfortable with this entire situation and from a glance, I could tell that he was not an opponent we would be able to beat anytime soon, so instead, I questioned regarding the only reason I had come in the first place.

“Do you know where Rosa and Nor are?”

“And what if I do… look at yourself, you can't do anything even if you tried.”

He had lured me in with only the names of the people I knew, and I had taken the bait while also putting Nephthys in danger. Ivan looked like he had been seriously injured with the amount of gauze that was applied to his body, but even in that state, it wouldn’t be an issue to suppress a boy with one arm and a vampire girl that knew how to use a dagger - as far as I knew. It would essentially be suicide to try and attack this man. Silence settled once again and this time I decided to take the initiative in the conversation.

“What do you want from us”

“Oh… not much… If you want to know where Rosa and Nor are, just agree to train under me and do whatever I ask you to do for just a month.”

“... how would that help you”

“You have no reason to know”

This was an offer that I could not simply deny. He had already trapped us and there was no telling what he would do if we were to refuse and he likely had knowledge of where Rosa and Nor were - not only did he know their names, but he also knew they had a connection with me. I looked over at Nephthys for her input because her life would also be affected, but she just nodded her head, entrusting her fate with me - those crimson eyes were comforting in this situation. Staring at the man in front of me, I answered with the only answer we were allowed to give from the very beginning.

“Fine, but Nephthys stays with me at all times”

“... I wouldn’t want it any other way… Theo, please take them to an empty room.”

The beast boy who had led us into the room was named Theo because he reacted to that name. He led us back out of the room and took us to an empty room as Ivan had said. It was a dark, cold room that was similar to the place I had slept in the mines, but at least it was a room - hopefully we would have a decent meal to eat. Theo lit the candles in the room and I could see that the room was a decent size with an actual bed. I had never seen or laid in an actual bed before, so I considered this a luxury that only the wealthy people of the kingdom could afford.

The warmth from the candle permeated throughout the room leaving the cold feeling from early as a distant memory in the past. Nephthys and I wandered around the room before sitting down on the bed and eventually laying on it. Within a moment, we were overcome with the exhaustion that had been covered by the tension throughout those past days and we quickly fell asleep without any care in the world.

* * *

I had become accustomed to it at this point - I had reentered the ethereal world that Nephthys had created. Unlike the previous time, Nephthys was there next to me and holding tightly onto me so as not to let me go. I stared at her and admired her for a little bit. After a few moments of staring, I questioned her.

“Do you trust him?”

“Do we have any other choice?”

“... not at the moment. Perhaps one day we’ll be able to do something”

There was little we could do against any adult, even if we were given the chance. We would need to find a way to delude them, which we had an advantage in because we were children, but at the same time, we had the disadvantage due to the limited actions we could take - our predicament was considerable. Ivan had said that he wanted to train me in exchange for information about Rosa and Nor, but there was little to no chance that the training was going to be easy for the next month - there was also the problem with what Nephthys would be doing during that time. Taking my mind off of things that I had little control over, I asked Nephthys about the mysterious experience I had by myself in this world.

Nephthys did not look surprised at all and answered concisely. Because she had bitten me to drink my blood but had not killed me, I was connected to her through something - she did not exactly know what connected us, but something did. Usually, she had killed everything she had drunken blood from immediately - thankfully I had not been one of those victims. When I heard this, I was rather hopeful that perhaps I could have gained some vampiric regeneration that Nephthys showcased, but Nephthys had stated that was the only ability for those that were of pure vampiric descent - not just anyone. That was unfortunate, but there wasn’t much I could do to change that - I would have to learn to live with my disadvantage.

Nephthys and I talked that night about ways we could outsmart Ivan and in the end, we were only able to come up with theoretical ways that would likely never work out. I slept comfortably for the first time I can remember and the sun rose on the next following day - it was time to find out exactly what Ivan wanted out of me.

* * *

*Growl* I got up from bed with Nephthys still quietly sleeping next to me even though she didn’t need sleep. My stomach growled in hunger and I felt it gnawing at me the more I thought about the little food I had eaten over time. The sun was starting to rise and it entered my eyes from a window high up in the wall, nearly blinding me. It was a cold start to the morning but that was nothing unusual to us. I crawled out of bed intending for Nephthys to sleep a while longer, but I felt a tug on the cloth I had on - it was already on the verge of tearing. Nephthys had grabbed on to me while we slept and refused to let go so I had no choice but to lay next to her until she woke up. Later, Theo entered the room to drop off some fresh clothes and food - I was shocked at the amount of food and clothes we had gotten.

There were two pairs of clothes that were big but covered our entire bodies. It wasn’t anything fancy, rather it was plain and looked like rags, but to me, they were the best pair of clothes I had ever worn. Meanwhile, the food included an entire loaf of bread and some other little things - perhaps the best thing I ever remember eating in recent memory. I woke Nephthys up quickly to eat a meal that we hadn’t had in quite some time. Then, I realized that Nephthys would need blood as the primary source of food, but there was nothing here that she could suck the blood out of… except me.

Although she had previously refused because I was on the verge of death, this time, we had, supposedly, a sustainable food source that I could rely on to eat while Nephthys could drink a portion of my blood. Nephthys got up from the soft, enticing bed and adorably rolled over to where I was. She wiped her eyes before opening them and staring at me.

“Good morning, Sol.”

“Morning, Nephthys”

We had our morning greetings before I slowly suggested to her about drinking my blood. She was unwilling at first, but our situation had changed significantly and I could afford to lose some blood to her as long as she didn’t kill me from irrationality. After some persuasion, I convinced her to just take some blood and I would do my best to stop her when I thought she was going too far. We put on our new clothes first after stripping bare our old, worn-out clothes - afterward, I had my meal to prepare for the blood loss and soon enough, Nephthys was sinking her fangs into my nape. We had decided to sit on the bed and she came closer with ragged breaths as if she was ecstatic to be drinking my blood - an initial fear overcame me from flashbacks to the previous time, but calmed myself by saying that it would be different this time.

The fangs slowly and painlessly sunk into my nape and blood seeped out of it. I could see her fiery crimson eyes staring into my nape as if she was addicted to the taste of my blood and she was starting to lose control over herself. I held my arms around her to control the amount of blood she would drink in a single round. The flowing blood stained the “new” clothes and I regretted having changed into them first. After a few moments, I pushed her back to indicate that it had been enough - I was starting to feel a bit lightheaded and I took that as a signal of enough blood loss. Surprisingly, she pulled out her bloodied fangs immediately as if she was never in a trance from the start.

Her mouth was covered in my blood and it dripped down her own nape which for some reason made my heart race. My face heated up slightly so I turned away from her as an instinct. I slowly turned my face back around to see that she was cleaning herself up and those crimson eyes now looked extremely happy - she crawled towards me and hugged me from behind. There was no need to exchange words… she had expressed herself through her eyes and I had understood it just as clearly. We sat like that for a moment before we heard a knock at the door.

“Lord Ivan is asking for you.”