Was it his old mind had become rusty he forgot whether he had met Arthur before, or was it his illusion?

Without Charles noticing, Arthur was staring at him while he fell into his ponder.

“Mister?” Charles flinched from surprise.

“Yes, young man?” Charles picked himself up from that subtle shock, and readjusted his position.

“It’s quite rare seeing an old man these days.”

Charles froze by that sudden statement, trying to understand what Arthur was implying.

“I mean,” Arthur explained after seeing Charles’ confused face. “This age isn’t that great of an age for people. People averagely died at the age of 50 to 60, yet you somehow looked older than that.”

“Ah… that…” Charles finally understood.

“To be honest, I too wondered why God still didn’t take my life away at this age. I’m about to reach 71 in four months, yet I still feel strong.” He then chuckled. “It feels strange somehow.”

“It’s not strange, Mister.” Arthur replied, the tone he used to respond to Charles sounded firmer than his usual tone.

“Even though I am a vampire, I wished to see normal human beings live a bit longer to enjoy their lives. Maybe in the future we will be able to have a better living conditions and longer average lifespans?”

Charles nodded. “Indeed. The plague, the magic beast attacks, and the hunger problems took time to be resolved, but I do want to see that time when our life got better. But wait…”

The old man shot up his gaze to Arthur’s towering figure. He seemed to be crouching a bit so his face could be closer to him.

“Why are you so concerned about us humans?”

Arthur cracked a snicker. “It’s actually just a mere interest, and hope, probably? I have many human friends and it’s kind of sad seeing them all die too early to enjoy what’s coming in life.”

Charles nodded. “I feel that.”

Somehow talking with Arthur strangely widened his view of the world. It won’t be possible if he was young, but now without taking greed for riches and name at hand, Charles really did see what the world is really in concern of. He probably would do better in life if he understood all of these earlier.

“Thank you for telling me that, young man. You are a quite peculiar vampire, I must say.”

Arthur chuckled. “I could say the same to you too, Mister.” 

Charles and Arthur reached the house soon after that.  While standing in front of the main gate that is full with creeping vines that left just a bit of empty crevices enough for a person his size to enter, Arthur widened his eyes in disbelief.

“Isn’t this… The Wicker mansion?”

Charles nodded while he tried to pull the creeping vines away to widen the path.

“I want to thank you for walking me to my house. If you don’t mind, would you want to come in and have some pumpkin porridge?”

Arthur is still in disbelief.

“M-Mister Charles Wicker, I thought you had already passed away?”

Arthur’s confused tone was replied with a loud and hearty laugh from Charles. “My goodness, if I am dead, my soul might as well pass on, you know?”

Charles invited Arthur in. While Charles looked cheerful that he managed to get someone’s company to have lunch, on the other hand, Arthur felt guilty. It wasn’t the first time he heard other people informing him that Count Charles Wicker is dead. Yes, the outside world all thought he’s dead, that was why Arthur is now having second thoughts of whether this person in front of him is a legit person or not.

“What are you doing there? come on in.”

Charles spoke with enthusiasm. Arthur was hesitating for a moment, before he finally gave in and stepped inside the house. The old man showed him somewhere deeper into the house, and along the way, Arthur could see evidences that the house has barely been cleaned.

They walked past several rooms, made their way into corners, yet Arthur still couldn’t seem to fathom their destination.

“Here we are.” Charles said, motioning one of his hands to a direction. It was not a guest room, but, a kitchen?

Hello there! >w<)/

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Thank you for reading!