Supreme Hunter of Beautiful Souls

Chapter 596: The next day

The next day in the Vampire Kingdom began exactly as the previous night had ended: dark, cold, and with Kael irritated.

Technically, there was morning. Vampires called morning the period when the mist became less dense, the red lanterns were extinguished on some avenues, and the palace’s stained glass filtered grayish light instead of pure darkness. To Kael, it was still night by another name. The capital remained gloomy, the towers remained sharp against the sky, and the air still had that metallic smell that seemed to be part of the stone itself.

He stood in the same training courtyard as the day before, arms crossed, staring at the ground as if the ground were guilty of something.

In front of him, a long mark crossed the reinforced stone. It was thinner than the cracks from the previous day, less destructive, and far more precise. Beside it, there were four smaller marks, each the result of a different attempt. None was perfect, but all showed progress.

That irritated Kael in a very specific way.

The progress was clear enough that he could not quit, but insufficient to satisfy him.

Sylphie was sitting on a nearby low column, legs crossed and chin resting on her hand. She had been watching Kael with an amused expression since the training began. Irelia was beside her, holding a cup of tea that a vampiric servant had brought with extreme reverence. Amelia, more practical, had a small notebook open, recording observations from the training with the calm of someone who saw strategic value even in Kael’s physical stubbornness.

Liza stood in the center of the courtyard, impeccable as always, not a single strand of hair out of place. That was deeply offensive, considering Kael’s shirt was slightly torn at the shoulder, his boots were dusty, and he wore the expression of someone who had been arguing with his own legs for hours.

"Again," Liza said.

Kael looked at her.

"You are enjoying this."

"I am instructing."

"Those two things are not mutually exclusive."

Liza raised an eyebrow.

"Breathe."

Kael breathed.

"Not like that."

He closed his eyes for an instant.

"It is impressive how that phrase manages to be irritating in any context."

Sylphie smiled.

"She is right."

Kael pointed at her without looking.

"You are on the wrong side."

"I am on the side of the person teaching you not to break your ankle."

"My ankle is fine."

Amelia raised her eyes from the notebook.

"You limped for three steps after the last attempt."

"That was strategy."

Irelia took a sip of tea.

"A limping strategy?"

"To confuse enemies."

Sylphie nodded with false seriousness.

"It worked. We are all confused."

Kael opened his eyes and looked at the three of them.

"I miss training alone."

Liza folded her arms.

"Your training alone destroyed three meters of the courtyard."

"It recovers."

"The courtyard or your pride?"

Kael looked at her.

Liza held his gaze with perfect serenity.

Irelia turned her face to hide her smile, Amelia wrote something in the notebook, and Sylphie simply laughed. Kael, realizing he had lost that small social battle, returned to position.

"Explain it again."

Liza took a few steps around him, evaluating his posture.

"You still think of the advance as an explosion. You need to think of it as a fall."

"A fall?"

"Yes. The body already wants to move. You only remove the delay between intention and impulse. Do not push the world backward. Let the weight fall in the right direction before accelerating."

Kael went quiet, absorbing that.

Liza continued:

"Vampires do not begin movement with force. They begin with hunger. The prey is there, the blood calls, the body responds before thought finishes. You do not have that instinct, so you need to create a bridge with breath and mana."

Sylphie watched Kael become more serious.

That was the part that always made her forget his irritation. When Kael truly understood something, the world seemed to narrow around his attention. He stopped complaining, provoking, reacting to the environment. Everything in him concentrated on dismantling the logic of a thing until he could make it his own.

Scarlet mana began to circulate again.

This time, it did not gather in his legs. It descended through the center of his body, aligned with the spine, hips, abdomen, and feet. It was not a flame trying to explode. It was a line stretched to its limit.

Kael released the air.

And advanced.

For an instant, he did not disappear, but almost.

His body cut the distance in a movement so fast that Irelia’s eyes only followed the end. Amelia saw the displacement through the vibration of the air. Sylphie, with far deeper senses, perceived the instant when mana and body aligned into a single decision.

Kael stopped on the other side of the courtyard.

Without stumbling.

Without destroying the ground.

Only a thin mark appeared beneath the starting foot, as if a blade had touched the stone.

The silence lasted one second.

Liza tilted her head.

"Better."

Kael looked back.

"Only better?"

"Yes."

"I almost got it."

"Almost."

"You are a horrible teacher."

"And you are an impatient student."

"That is true," Sylphie said.

Kael turned to her.

"You should be proud."

"I am."

"It does not look like it."

"I am proud and finding it funny at the same time. I am complex."

Amelia closed the notebook.

"The movement is still visible to high-level combatants, but against common soldiers or mages dependent on mana reading, it would function as a false teleport."

Kael pointed at Amelia.

"See? That was useful praise."

"It was an evaluation," Amelia said.

Liza looked at her.

"She learns quickly."

"With Kael, it is necessary."

Irelia stood then, because a vampiric servant had appeared at the entrance of the courtyard with a silver tray. On the tray was a dark crystal, inside which purple light pulsed. The servant stopped at a respectful distance, knelt, and kept his head lowered.

"Your Majesty. A communication from the Witch Continent has arrived for King Kael."

Kael sighed.

"Of course."

Sylphie climbed down from the column.

"Eleonor?"

"Probably."

Amelia approached as well, and Irelia took the crystal from the tray with the servant’s silent permission. As soon as the object touched her hand, scarlet runes lit up in the air. Eleonor’s image appeared above the crystal, elegant, tired, and wearing that expression of someone who had already read too many things before breakfast.

Beside her, Elion appeared partially, surrounded by parchments, analytical instruments, and magic circles. Her eyes shone with worrying intensity. Behind the two of them, almost out of frame, a small red-haired figure sat on a high chair with her arms crossed and an expression of profound disgust.

Yggdrasil.

Kael closed his eyes.

"Good morning."

Eleonor looked at him.

"To you as well, my dear grandson who left for two days and sent me an ancestral vampiric conspiracy wrapped in forbidden seals."

Kael was silent.

Sylphie murmured:

"She seems lively."

"I heard that," Eleonor said.

Sylphie smiled.

"Good morning, Eleonor."

The queen of witches immediately softened her gaze.

"Sylphie. I am glad to see you well."

Yggdrasil grumbled in the background:

"She would be better in my Realm."

Sylphie looked at the projection.

"You should have closed the portals."

Yggdrasil pointed at her.

"Do not use my administrative failure against me."

Elion leaned forward, interrupting before the discussion became something else.

"Kael, I analyzed the copy of the seal."

Kael’s expression changed.

"And?"

Elion smiled.

It was a bad smile.

Not evil, exactly. Just the kind of smile that made any rational person move flammable objects away from her.

"It is not vampiric. It is not witchcraft. It is not human. It is not draconic. It is not demonic. It also does not seem to belong to any of the common spiritual categories."

Liza, who until then had been watching in silence, grew more serious.

"Then what is it?"

Elion looked at the Queen of Vampires through the projection.

"Ancient."

Kael folded his arms.

"That is not a classification."

"It is when something is irritating enough not to want to fit into any."

Eleonor closed her eyes for an instant.

"Elion."

"I am simplifying."

Yggdrasil, in the background, released a dramatic sigh.

"It is a parasitic memory seal."

Everyone went silent.

Kael looked at her.

"You knew?"

Yggdrasil raised her chin.

"I suspected."

"And did not say anything?"

"I was waiting until I was certain."

"You were sulking."

"Also."

Sylphie sighed.

"Yggdrasil."

The small red-haired entity pointed at the magical screen.

"Do not look at me like that. I was dragged from my peace to analyze vampiric blood seals because your husband collects political problems like squirrels collect nuts."

Kael frowned.

"That comparison was strange."

"I am irritated."

Eleonor massaged the bridge of her nose.

"Back to the subject. Yggdrasil recognized the general pattern. Not the exact origin."

Yggdrasil became more serious, and that immediately changed the weight of the conversation.

"Parasitic memory seals do not dominate directly. They attach themselves to structures that already exist and make those structures believe they have always been that way. If this seal is in the foundations of lineage records, it may have helped naturalize certain forms of obedience over the centuries."

Liza went still.

Elizabeth was not there, but Kael immediately thought of her.

"You are saying the leash may not be completely natural."

"I am saying," Yggdrasil replied, "that someone may have found a natural tendency in vampires and cultivated the most useful part for control."

The courtyard went silent.

Even Liza lost some of the cold color in her face.

Irelia spoke quietly:

"So the Order did not invent the chain. They pruned the lineage until it grew in that direction."

Yggdrasil looked at her.

"Good metaphor. Horrible reality."

Sylphie grew serious.

"Can it be cured?"

Yggdrasil looked at Sylphie for longer.

"Perhaps."

Kael did not like the hesitation.

"Perhaps?"

"I am not a specialist in vampires, Kael. And before you make that face, no, cosmic trees do not come with a complete manual on all the racial tragedies of the world."

Elion raised a finger.

"But we can study it."

Eleonor looked at her.

"With supervision."

Elion lowered the finger.

"Yes. With supervision. Unfortunately, that clause arrived in three different messages."

Kael said:

"Because we all know you."

Elion smiled at her son.

"And still you love me."

"With containment measures."

Liza observed that exchange with an expression difficult to interpret. Perhaps surprise. Perhaps fascination. Perhaps a faint fear at the fact that these were the people to whom she was about to entrust the possibility of curing her people’s hunger.

Yggdrasil continued:

"Sylphie’s idea of a living substance without owner is theoretically viable. Not fake blood. Not a cheap imitation. Something that speaks to the hunger without reinforcing domination. A neutral memory, nutrient, vitality, and natural mana in balance."

Sylphie took a deep breath.

"Living sap."

"Similar," Yggdrasil said. "But do not use that name in front of ancient vampires. They will think you want to make them drink tree and will start a war out of pride."

Kael murmured:

"Vampires are dramatic."

Liza looked at him.

Kael looked back.

"Some."

Amelia commented:

"Technically, all ancient nobles are dramatic."

Irelia nodded.

"That includes witches."

Eleonor smiled.

"Careful."

Irelia lowered her head slightly.

"With all respect, Your Majesty."

"Better."

Elion brought some papers closer to the projection.

"We will need samples. Vampiric blood from different lineages, hunger records, reactions to animal blood, treated human blood, magical blood, and any substitute already used in the kingdom."

Liza nodded slowly.

"I can provide them."

Kael looked at Elion.

"No experiments on people without consent."

"I read the clause."

"I am repeating it."

"I raised you with enough moral sense to repeat that. I am proud and slightly offended."

Sylphie then spoke:

"I also want to participate in the analysis."

Yggdrasil immediately straightened.

"You will return to my Realm for that."

Sylphie smiled.

"I can visit."

"Visiting is not returning."

"It is the most I offer."

Yggdrasil placed her hands on her face.

"Divine teenagers are a punishment."

Kael looked at Liza.

"She calls everyone a teenager when she is losing."

"I heard that," Yggdrasil said.

"I know."

Eleonor ignored the two of them and focused again on the practical part.

"Liza, we will agree to keep Vlad imprisoned indefinitely while we investigate. However, the custody will be formalized in a document signed by both crowns. I will also require full access to the records, samples, and testimonies connected to the Order of the First Blood."

Liza inclined her head.

"I agree."

"As for the research on the hunger, I will agree to begin a joint commission. Small, secret, and supervised. Elion will not have full autonomy."

Elion murmured:

"Everyone keeps saying that."

"Because it is essential," Eleonor replied.

Kael nodded.

"Good."

Eleonor looked at him.

"And you, Kael, must not destroy any laboratory, palace, ancient clan, or vampiric social structure before my arrival."

Kael opened his mouth.

Eleonor raised a finger.

"That includes preventive destruction."

He closed his mouth.

Sylphie smiled.

"She knows you."

"Everyone is specializing in that today."

The projection began to fail slightly. The crystal pulsed, and Amelia looked at it attentively.

"The portals and communications remain unstable."

Elion smiled far too guiltily.

"Yes, about that..."

Kael slowly turned his face.

"No."

"I did not even say anything."

"No."

Elion crossed her arms.

"I was only going to say that the instability is not only the fault of your small invasion of the Original Realm."

Liza immediately looked at Kael.

"Small invasion?"

Sylphie covered her face with her hand.

Kael murmured:

"I will explain later."

Yggdrasil appeared closer in the projection, furious.

"Small? He entered my Realm with Nidhogg and nearly made my roots go into dimensional panic."

"Nearly," Kael said.

"That word does not absolve you."

Eleonor sighed.

"Enough. We will speak of this later. For now, remain alive, polite, and far from any irreversible decisions."

The projection began to disappear.

Kael raised his hand.

"Eleonor."

She looked at him.

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

The queen of witches softened her gaze for an instant.

"Rest when you can."

"I am trying."

Sylphie, Irelia, and Amelia looked at him at the same time.

Kael sighed.

"I am being supervised."

"Good," Eleonor said.

The projection went out.

The crystal turned dark.

For a few seconds, no one spoke.

Then Liza looked at Kael.

"Small invasion of the Original Realm?"

Kael ran a hand through his hair.

"It is not relevant to the vampires."

Sylphie coughed.

Irelia looked away.

Amelia opened the notebook again.

"Actually, if the communication and portal instability affects the transfer of records, it is diplomatically relevant."

Kael looked at her.

"Documentary betrayal."

"Documentary precision," Amelia corrected.

Liza kept looking at him with an almost amused expression.

"I am beginning to understand why Yggdrasil drinks."

Kael closed his eyes.

"This is going to haunt me forever."

Sylphie approached and held his hand.

"Probably."

Liza walked to the center of the courtyard again.

"Then, King Kael, now that your grandmother has ordered you not to destroy vampiric social structures, would you like to continue destroying my courtyard in moderation?"

Kael opened his eyes.

The smile that appeared on his face was small, but real.

"Yes."

Sylphie squeezed his hand.

"Carefully."

Irelia added:

"Without injuring yourself."

Amelia raised the quill.

"And with proper records."

Kael looked at the three of them, then at Liza.

"I am surrounded."

Liza nodded.

"It seems so."

He returned to the center of the courtyard and positioned himself.

The Order still existed. Vlad was still a problem. The hunger of the vampires was deeper than any of them had imagined. Yggdrasil was involved, Elion was dangerously excited, Eleonor was coming, and the ancient records might prove that centuries of history had been pruned by an invisible hand.

But in that moment, Kael breathed.

Felt the weight of his body.

Let the mana align with the movement.

And advanced.

This time, for a fraction of a second, even Liza had to pay attention to follow him.