"Here are the records of the video captured by the magic devices, your highness," the record keeper of the palace handed the magic device to the Crown Prince.

Asher smiled as he received the round device that was similar to a crystal orb.

"You have my gratitude," He spoke to the record keeper and the man smiled at the Crown Prince's words.

"The pleasure is all mine, your highness," He bowed and Asher nodded his head before he turned his back and started to walk back into his study.

It had been a week since his talk with Raphael.

"I do not intend to give up my chance with the young master," The auburn-haired noble spoke.

Asher smiled as he nodded his head.

"I understand, Raph. I won't get in your way," The Crown Prince reassured and Raphael had a surprised look on his face.

"Why is that? You finally realized your feelings but you're giving up?" His older friend asked him and Asher only had a solemn expression on his face.

"I do not intend to block your path in achieving the young master's affections but if he were to choose me then I would not be able to do anything about it," He joked and Raphael furrowed his eyebrows at the statement the Crown Prince just said.

The knights opened the door to his study and the familiar scenario greeted him.

It had also been almost two weeks since his arm started to heal. He can move it now but not too much since he really can't feel anything with the limb yet.

"I need to acknowledge that knight for such amazing display of power," He commended the young master's knight who almost defeated him by an inch of breath.

The study he was not able to visit due to being locked up in his personal room was his comfort place.

It was also the place where he and Pier spent some time alone while they planned their trip towards the boundary.

Sigh

He walked towards the table and placed the magic device there and proceeded to sit on the comfortable chair.

Asher inspected the magic device that the keeper gave him.

He placed his finger on the center of the magic device immediately, a holographic-like projection sprouted from the crystal ball upwards.

There played a certain scenario that Asher had been thinking of the previous days.

"How does a moment last forever? How can a story never die?" The young master sang as he pressed the keys on the piano.

Asher watched the performance with longing eyes.

Pier looked so calm and serene while he played the instrument.

He clenched his fist under the table.

It was an incredibly beautiful performance that got the entire kingdom turned upside down. The performance opened a new perspective for everyone who is interested in music.

Pier had become the latest admiration everyone had been looking up to in the previous weeks now. The Academy of Music's top scholars' announcements of the young master's genius in playing the piano had become the catalyst of Pier's now newly renowned image within the kingdom.

'Every day you stray further from me, Pier' He thought as the replay of the light orbs gathering around the young master and adding to the wonder of his performance played in the holographic projection.

It was as if the successor of the House of Masters was constantly taking steps higher than him every day.

Was this Asher's punishment for the things he had done?

A punishment that greatly hurts a yearning heart.

He was the Crown Prince of a powerful kingdom

He would soon ascend to the throne and become the king

He will be the next ruler of the enormous territory they have

He will also become the next most influential person that only a few could rival.

But what would be the use of all the things he would have if he cannot acquire the person he wanted the most?

"Haah..." He exhaled as he leaned back into the seat and observed Pier's performance come to an end.

"I did not even get to dance with you at the celebration for the day of my birth," He commented.

"I'm sorry,"

He apologized as he remembered how Pier would constantly tell him that he would only dance with him.

He remembered how Pier would patiently wait on the side as he and Elena danced beautifully under the blinding lights.

He also remembered the defeated look Pier would give him every time he goes back in his seat right beside the throne and rejected any dance request from people.

"I'm sorry... I should have danced with you back then," He spoke as he closed his eyes.

Knock!

Knock!

Knock!

Three consecutive knocks to the door of his study reopened the Crown Prince's eyes.

"Your Highness, the guest has arrived," The knight guarding outside spoke.

"Let them in," Asher instructed and the door opened.

"I greet the Crown Prince of the Taron Kingdom," the man spoke as he gave Asher a smile.

The prince stared at the guest without any expression and urged him to come inside the study.

"I also greet the esteemed guest. Please do come in, Prince Faust,"

---

Gideon pulled on the reins of the horse he was riding on as he watched the gloomy scenario ahead of him.

"This is the Mir Mountains huh," He spoke to himself as Snow neighed while also watching the grim mountain range.

It was by mere miracle Gideon was even able to ride the horse that only followed Pier.

It took him practically almost three days of talking with the animal to even convince it to let the knight ride on its back.

Well, the mention of their purpose was to get stronger for Pier was all that is needed for the horse to agree without any resistance to him anyway.

However, he could sometimes feel that the horse was intentionally giving him a hard time while they rode towards the Mir Mountains.

Snow would sometimes run too fast even with the knight constantly pulling on its reigns to slow down, sometimes it would go too slow whenever Gideon was in a hurry.

Overall, Pier's horse was making fun of Gideon.

"Hyaa!" Gideon called as he urged Snow to run but as expected;

The horse was instead trotting towards its way in the Mir Mountains' entrance.

Gideon facepalmed himself as he sighed in defeat at the horse's obvious mockery.

"Come on! Don't you want to get stronger for our master?!" He exclaimed in frustration and Snow neighed in response.

"Ha, do whatever you want!" He threw his hands up and the horse neighed again as if it was laughing at Gideon.

It took them about twenty minutes to arrive at the first mountain's entrance and Gideon had been too bored while riding on Snow's back.

"It would have taken us five minutes if you ran!" He spoke in frustration but the horse just turned its head away ignoring him.

'I... if only this isn't my master's horse!' He thought about many things he wanted to do with the horse but he was stopping himself because it was Pier's horse he was talking about.

He does not want to do anything that would anger or upset his young master.

Snow slowly walked towards the eerie and dark entrance of the first mountain.

"Is the Headmaster sure we can do this?" Gideon asked Snow even though he knew the horse would not respond.

"Haah, whatever. Here goes nothing." He inhaled and exhaled multiple times before Snow stepped foot inside the entrance.

Immediately, many pairs of glowing eyes from the dark forest started to show themselves at the Knight and the valiant white horse.

----

"Do you want to duel with me?" Ciaran asked as he was pulling on the sleeve of Pier's shirt.

They were currently inside Ciaran's home at the top of the tallest tree and Pier had just woken up.

"Quit it, you idiot. I'm hungry," He spoke as he was annoyed with the vampire who only spoke about them having a duel for a week now.

'I think I did something wrong but I cannot point out the exact thing'

He was a little bit scared that what they did after their duel a week before was the reason Ciaran was continuously asking for them to duel again.

He looked at the large and well-built man who was already wearing his cloak sitting beside him on a stool.

Pier was munching on some deer meat that Ciaran had caught for him inside the forest and some fruits to accompany it with.

"Why? Are you scared?" Ciaran asked as he smirked which caused Pier to roll his eyes at the obvious aggregation Ciaran was doing.

"Yes, I'm scared of you so don't bother me," He spoke as he ate another piece of the meat that was well cut in bite sizes.

Ciaran's eyebrows furrowed and a frown was etched on his face as he listened to Pier's answer.

'Why won't he duel with me anymore?' He asked himself as he looked at the gorgeous person eating right beside him.

Pier was wearing a white shirt and black pants and even with the plain clothes he was wearing, he still looked like someone who could put a fairy's beauty into shame.

'I just want to kiss him again' He thought as he did an imaginary pout in his head.

However, he could not show such a childish thing to Pier.

He did not want to disappoint Pier by showing the young master any form of thing that would turn him off.

In all honesty, it was Ciaran's first time feeling such things for another person.

He did have some lustful imaginations back in the years but he did not harbor the type of emotions that makes him want to be around the person all day.

He was distracted

He was not focused

His goal of having Pier help them in the rampage was starting to turn into the greed of having the young master all for himself.

But he knew he could not do so.

Not yet.

He was a vampire prince who has nothing.

He needed to do more and gather more to allow Pier live in luxury if they got together.

Of course, Ciaran is not a child that throws tantrums when something wrong goes in his plans or if not everything is in accordance with his wants. But there are times that he felt like he was being a child when he was around Pier.

It had only been almost two months since he met Pier back at the boundary and more than a month since they stayed at the village.

He knew that Pier was not the type of person who easily gets attached nor allow himself to easily get attached with someone whom he had just met.

He even knew that the young master was still having so many doubts inside his head since he did not know anyone properly except him in the village.

He was keeping Pier's image and magic a secret because of many things.

One of them would be the vampire's greed for beauty and elegance.

Two things that Pier excelled the most at.

He knew how the vampires in the village craved to possess something that is worth of luxury and if they ever knew that Pier came from an extremely wealthy and powerful family, they would not hesitate to make them their own.

He also did not know if he can protect the young master from being claimed by the others.

Of course, he also had the same urges but not as strong as the other vampires. He was a hybrid of them after all. A being that possesses both qualities and characteristics of a vampire and a lycanthrope but only halves of each.

"Come on, just one more duel!" Ciaran pulled at Pier's sleeves again.

He did keep his mouth shut after Pier threw him an annoyed glare.

The time for their operation in breaking the stone at the top of the fifth mountain would be in the soonest. Two days, probably.

Preparations were being done left and right but the most important thing Ciaran was focused on would be the white-haired man whom he liked to call Frosty.

Pier's growth was the most impressive thing he had seen.

From a single form of his ice magic which was a sword, Pier was now able to produce other things and do many spells.

He was truly a combined genius and prodigy in magic.

"Pier..." He called again but Pier kept his gaze straight outside the window where the branches of the trees could be seen.

"You just want to kiss me again, don't you?" Pier asked nonchalantly and Ciaran paused for a moment.

Pier was also a sensual being.

He was not an innocent person who had no experience when it comes to physical touch and other sexual-related things.

He was an expert when it comes to such things coming from Ciaran's judgments when they shared a kiss after the duel.

"...."

"Thought so," The young master spoke as he rolled his eyes at the vampire.

"If I want to then would you?" He asked.

"No," Pier said firmly.

"Why?"

"I don't want to kiss you"

"That hurts," Ciaran acted as he clutched his chest in pain and was making a hurt expression at the same time.

He was truly being a kid around the person he liked.

"But if you start liking me back, would you let me kiss you?" The vampire wolf asked and Pier sighed before he swallowed the meat.

It was so awkward and cheesy.

His stressful and shit life like back at the kingdom turned into a total cheesy gay romance show that was composed of a half-vampire half-lycan male lead with him being the other lead.

'Well if I were to choose from the two places, I would rather go to the romance show' He thought as he looked at the green eyes owned by the man who was completely pestering him since the previous week.

'Hmmm,' He hummed in his mind as he thought of something funny.

'I'd go back into that hell hole of a kingdom after I help Ciaran so let's just enjoy this environment while it lasts.' He stood up and stood in front of Ciaran. The man looked up at him in return.

"Ciaran, if I do like you back..." Pier spoke as he leaned down and placed both of his hands around the other man's neck who was sitting on the stool.

He then placed each of his long legs on both sides of the man and he fully sat on Ciaran's lap.

"Kissing won't be the only thing we would do," He whispered in Ciaran's ear and Ciaran had to gulp multiple times as his insatiable urge from being a wolf and his greed as a vampire started to increase from Pier's obvious provocations.

"Do you know what those things are?" Pier asked as his nose started to trail from Ciaran's ear down to the man's neck.

He inhaled the scent coming from the green-eyed man and it was still the same good scent he liked.

Ciaran's hands found their way on Pier's waist as he had to close his eyes at the pleasurable and ticklish sensation Pier was giving him.

"I..."

"Hmmm? You don't?" Pier asked as he poked his tongue out and licked the exposed skin on Ciaran's neck.

The older man shivered at the action.

"I... I know..." Ciaran answered as his hold on Pier's waist tightened.

"That's good. Imagine those things," Pier instructed and Ciaran's mind did start to imagine the things that they could do if Pier was to like him back.

"We can do it anytime you wanted to. From dusk 'til dawn, you can claim what's yours," Pier spoke as he bit Ciaran's neck and it left a mark.

Ciaran's entire body trembled as he imagined them doing it.

Every day

Every hour

Every second that they could get

He was rock hard under the clothes he wore.

"Pier..." He whispered as his hands started to climb Pier's body.

However, before he could do so, Pier removed himself from sitting on Ciaran's lap and proceeded to stretch.

"Ah, a cold and pleasant morning," The young master spoke as he grabbed the cloak that was hanging on the door.

"Better luck next time, your highness." He smirked as he opened the door to Ciaran's house and he leaped down from the extremely huge tree.

His proficiency in wind magic almost reaching the peak allowed him to land comfortably on the ground, unlike the time he arrived at Nightfall.

The Prince of Vampires was left sitting on the stool with his head bowed down.

'Fuck...' He spoke as he knew he needed to take care of the problem Pier created again.