Hearing that the unfortunate Strigoi had taken the blame for him, Valred completely relaxed. The fear had passed, and now he was consumed by a sense of loss. The severe damage he had sustained that night, combined with the peak of the Red Moon Morria's power in late June, had left him unable to use magic. Moreover, his recent focus on learning dark magic from Trixie had drained his energy... All these factors had kept him from returning to the tomb to retrieve its treasures.
"All the other burial items must have been taken away by now," Valred thought, his heart aching. The treasure that should have been his alone had slipped through his fingers. Even the tens of thousands of skeletons hidden in the wilderness might be lost if the other vampires searched thoroughly. Two years of planning and execution, a life-threatening adventure, all for nothing...
The thought was unbearable. Although the tomb was found on his family's land, meaning the proceeds would belong to the Carstein family, there was a vast difference between the family's wealth and Valred's personal assets. At only six years old, the future Count of Carstein received little more than daily meals and an education from the family. His already meager allowance was further diminished by his sister Isabella's constant borrowing.
Isabella always promised to repay him, but so far, the 4,125 Larin gold coins she had borrowed—equivalent to 2.0625 kilograms of gold and 41.25 kilograms of silver—had not been returned. At the time, Valred had even tried to outsmart her by lending her gold coins and demanding repayment in gold bars, hoping to profit from the minting difference. To his surprise, Isabella agreed without hesitation. Back then, Valred had laughed at his sister's foolishness, only to realize later that he was the fool. She had no intention of repaying him, so the method of payment didn't matter.
"Forget it, the more I think about it, the angrier I get. Both this and that are giving me a headache..."
In a flash, Valred recalled his fourth birthday, the first time he received an allowance. He had been counting it meticulously when his sweetly smiling sister Isabella approached him. At the time, he didn't know she was a bottomless pit when it came to alchemy, potion-making, and drawing magic circles. She had simply said she wanted to buy a set of jewelry but was short on funds, so she asked to borrow money from him, offering to pay interest. Valred, thinking it a good deal, handed over his money in an instant...
Now, looking back, the sweetly smiling Isabella seemed more like a wolf in sheep's clothing, and he was the poor little rabbit... Wait, a big sister who devours little boys? That somehow sounded oddly appealing.
After all this effort, the main prize had gone to someone else, and he might even lose his initial investment—the hundred or so skeleton soldiers armed with wooden spears. It was enough to make anyone despair. Valred's mind wandered to these useless thoughts, partly to distract himself from the overwhelming disappointment and partly because he still had one trump card that could turn things around.
After explaining the situation, Astar gave Valred and the other children a patriotic lecture before finally leaving. He walked over to the center of the banquet, where Lady Winsor, the evening's focal point, stood. He politely bid farewell to the host and nodded to the other clan members before leaving the castle to return to the academy.
With this news weighing on his mind, Valred no longer had the heart to play war games with the children. His distraction tactics weren't working well, so he excused himself, claiming he felt unwell, and retreated to a corner sofa to rest.
He endured for a while longer. By midnight, as the banquet entered its latter half, Valred appropriately expressed his fatigue and requested to return to his room to rest. The other children were also tired, and their parents, seeing their expressions, politely bid farewell to Lady Winsor and left with their children. Since Valred lived in the castle, he naturally stayed, but this gave him the perfect excuse to retreat to his room.
As the banquet continued with fewer attendees, Valred's mind was elsewhere. If not for the years of being taught that "vampires are warriors, but also nobles, and must always act with grace," he would have already rushed back to his room to inspect the copy of the Knight's Codex.
"Grace, grace. I am the Count of Carstein. Most of my subjects are gathered here. I must maintain grace."
Despite this, Valred walked faster and faster. Once he reached the second floor and was out of sight of the other vampires, he broke into a run. He hurried to his room, locked the door, and rushed to the study, where he stood on tiptoe to retrieve the Knight's Codex from the shelf. He held it in his arms as if it were his very life.
What Valred didn't expect was that his hurried entrance had woken someone.
Just as Valred was lost in thought, clutching the codex that could turn his fortunes around, the study door opened. Maya, the young maid who had been awakened by Valred's noise, walked in, rubbing her eyes. Perhaps still half-asleep, she forgot to knock. She had assumed Valred would be out all night and hadn't locked the door, so she was startled awake.
"...Young Master?"
Seeing her young master tenderly holding a large book and smiling foolishly in the moonlight, Maya found it strange. She rubbed her eyes and called out softly.
Maya's voice was always soft, and now, just awakened and speaking to her master, it was barely audible, like a mosquito's hum. Yet, this tiny sound made Valred jolt. Instinctively, he tensed, clutching the Knight's Codex to his chest with his left hand and gripping the hilt of his sword with his right, ready for action.
Of course, he quickly relaxed.
"Why aren't you asleep, Maya?" Recognizing his maid's voice, Valred frowned, released his defensive stance, and asked.
But Maya stared at Valred's face, her hands covering her mouth as if she had seen something terrifying, holding back a scream. Tears welled in her eyes, making her look pitiful. Valred was momentarily stunned.
For just a moment, Valred's serious demeanor—the aura of a veteran mech pilot who had crawled out of mountains of corpses—had terrified the sensitive Maya.
It reminded her of a few years ago, when she had just joined the castle and went mushroom picking in the mountains, only to encounter a wild wolf. The glowing blue eyes, the menacing expression, and the overwhelming sense of danger still haunted her nightmares.
Fortunately, like the well-fed wolf cub, Valred had no intention of harming her. Seeing the teary-eyed maid, he found it amusing and walked over to pat her head.
Maya instinctively wanted to dodge, but her body wouldn't obey. Besides, she knew that resisting her master would lead to trouble. So, as always, she submitted to Valred.
"The feel is surprisingly good," Valred muttered, pinching Maya's cheek.
"Young Master?" Feeling the danger had passed, Maya relaxed slightly and called out timidly.
"You were very tired today, so you slept deeply. You didn't notice when I came in, understand?" Valred instructed her.
"Understood," Maya nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. Even if Valred hadn't told her, she wouldn't have spoken. She wasn't the type to gossip, and within the castle, she had no one to talk to.
Her sensitive position made the human servants both jealous and afraid of her, while the vampire clan members were unfriendly. Stuck in this awkward middle ground, Maya felt profoundly lonely. Though surrounded by people, she felt utterly alone. This made her cherish the rare moments of kindness from her young master.
"If only the Young Master could be a little nicer to me," Maya often thought. But she knew the vast gap in their statuses made such hopes futile. Yet today, Valred's playful affection made her feel as if her wish had been partially fulfilled.
"I understand, Young Master. Maya will keep this secret and tell no one."
With that, Maya nodded solemnly, agreeing to Valred's request—or rather, his thinly veiled threat.