Noi can't help but keep on glancing around the spacious chamber. The room with dark grey stone walls is full of antique furniture that for sure, multiple times older than himself. Rugs that for sure originated from furry animals are placed in front of the lit fireplace. The warm light from the fire dance along with the shattered pieces of the lamp that he had thrown at Balan not too long ago, making his doe-eyes gaze at them and starts to ponder.

The antique is being broken into an unrepairable state due to the honoured brushed it aside violently. Noi suddenly feels bad for throwing the object as it must've worth a lot, considering how old the device is. It must've made around the early to late 17th century as the intricate shape on it looks old. The darn thing doesn't even use electricity. It was fortunate that the fire on the candle inside of it was out the moment it hit the ground.

Imagine if it doesn't. Then the castle will be engulfed in flames as the vampires inside of this property will be roast like the stories that he knows about Bragr. Whereas the lore tells that the people in his own village tried to kill Bragr by setting him ablaze in flames due to them being afraid of the cursed creature, leaving only ash and bones as the remnants.

And because of that, instead of perishing as a normal being should, the ashes reformed themselves and returns Bragr to his original state, as if he's not being burned alive in the first place. Well, isn't that creepy? Bragr must've been the devil's incarnate.

"Do you not like the food, Nong?"

The young vampire's voice suddenly breaks his reverie, making the doe-eyes gaze back to the hooded ones and blinks rapidly, "Pardon?"

Tao blinks back, "I was asking if the meal is not to your liking. I can ask the chef to make a new one for you."

Noi then gazes down to the bowl on his lap, a half-eaten lukewarm and bland pasta full of spinach and mushroom, topped with boiled shredded chicken, meat only as Noi threw away the skin part as it looks so similar to yesterday's mutilated bodies. Not a good dinner in his opinion as it is too... healthy for his liking. But no matter, better than eating juicy red meat after witnessing a butchering session, "Uh... No, I'm sorry I was a little spaced out just now. I'm just thinking what a pity that I broke that lamp. It looks antique."

The boy who sits in front of him tilt his head in confusion. Then, his hazel orbs follow Noi's statement, gazing at the now broken lamp and turns back to the human boy, "No worries about that. Antiques have no worth here since we don't really need a lot of money to survive. Although I admit," Tao nods his head, bringing the brunette locks to bounce with his movement, "Money does help us a lot."

"I see," Noi replies shortly as he takes some more bites to finishes his food.

Tao, who is patiently waiting for him, starts to blabber again, "Yes! Money really helps to bribe some people and authorities! It is indeed very convenient to have them."

"Why do you need to bribe them for?" Noi nonchalantly asks as he chews while stirring his food.

"Well, for humans of course!" Tao replies, making the younger boy stop his chewing and stirring, "We buy death-sentence prisoners from nearby jails several hours from here. We also sometimes buy homeless peoples from the street polices. They are so cheap, you know! around 500 pounds per body! Now isn't that a steal? Although, their meat isn't that great in other's opinion."

Noi, with his cheeks still full of food, stunned at the young vampire's blabbering. He then forces himself to swallow the food with much difficulty to be able to speak, "Uh... you're buying humans?"

Tao playfully pouts his plump lips and hums in affirmation, "But we do hunt sometimes. Because the goods that we bought weren't that great and the taste wasn't P'In's liking. He's very picky, you know." he giggles then start to make a circular motion with his forefinger, "There are lots of hikers around this area since it's near the mountain. Sometimes if we're lucky, hitchhikers or criminals can also be found on the road towards our village."

The human boy gazes at the innocent-looking vampire with wide eyes. He can feel his heart starts to faster its pace because knowing the being in front of him can instantly kill and eat him. Tao notices Noi's restlessness and quickly waved his hand as a no gesture, "Don't be scared of me na~. I'm not part of the hunting team so I won't have any thoughts of hurting you. I never even hurt a human before."

"Why?" Noi asks curiously.

Tao shrugs, "I only eat animal meat and drink P'Elie's blood. I don't dare to drink nor eat humans yet. And to be fair, I'm still the youngest vampire in this village and my P'Elie doesn't let me hunt in 304 years of my life-"

"304?!" the human gasps in disbelief.

"Aw? Why you look so shocked, Nong?" Tao furrows his eyebrows as he feels a little bit, just a little bit, offended that Noi got shocked by his age, "304 is relatively young for a vampire, you know. The average age for the villagers here is around 700 to 1000 years old. Like Mr Benson that often sells flower to me, he just celebrated his 888th birthday today! Oh Gosh, I am so happy for him! I should..."

Noi blinks confusedly as the young vampire in front of him keeps on talking nonstop, sharing unnecessary information regarding unimportant kinds of stuff. He then chose to cut the young vampire and diverts the conversation back to about his own well-being, "But the way you're saying the killing and all is so casual. How can I be convinced that you never take anybody's life before?" The human boy relays his doubt, "And who's P'Elie by the way?"

Tao doesn't seem to mind being cut off and just replies lightly, "Well, you just have to believe! You don't have a choice anyway since like I said before, you'll spend the rest of your life here, short span or not." he explains and adds, "And P'Elie is my lover by the way."

As the earlier topic suddenly comes up again, Noi's eyes widen once again and shriek, "No way!"

And as if there was nothing wrong with his words, Tao nods with a smile still plasters on his face and answers in his usual cheery voice, "Well yes way! Since you're already here and do not have Agnes's blood inside of you, technically it's impossible for you to go back."

"B-but! The agreement is I came here to stay for a week to paint him and go back!" Noi argues.

Tao let out a shrug, "Well too bad I guess. You just have to adapt well to this new environment. My advice for you is, take care of your health and appearance if you want to live longer. Do not eat what you humans called junk food as I heard it is full of the bad stuff! Do not bore P'In even for a little bit because if he does, he might kill you."

"K-kill me?!" Noi gasps after hearing the last sentence as that piece of information is the only thing that gets his interest, "I have to get out of here!"

The young vampire pouts, "I told you, it's impossible because you're not a real Anson. So just give it up and accept your fate."

Noi furrows his eyebrows as he feels offended by Tao's statement, "Pardon?! Despite me not being Bruce's biological son, I am still an Anson!"

"On papers maybe, but you don't have Agnes's blood inside of you. It'll be like a suicide mission if you keep on being stubborn and try to escape. So just forget about it!" Tao retorts as he pouts deeper.

Agnes's blood. That term is kept on being mentioned several times by both Balan and Tao. The thing that Noi doesn't have and confuse him to the core, "All of you keep on mentioning Agnes's blood. What does that even mean, anyway?"

"Well, it means what it is!" Tao replies, "You are not the direct descendant of Agnes. Therefore, the 'D&P' is not meant for you. Sorry, but I can't explain anything as it is P'In's right to share it with you. We, vampires, tend to be sensitive and secretive when it comes to D&P." he explains further without giving Noi a chance to ask any more question.

"And more importantly," the young vampire claps his hands together and smile widely, showing the sparkle hooded hazel eyes to the bewildered boy, "Let's get you to familiarize yourself with the castle! Since, as I've said before, you'll be staying forever here!"

"No, I am not!" Noi retorts.

"Oh yes, you are!" Tao cheerily replies back.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No way!"

"Yes way!"

"I said no!"

"I said yes!"

"Stop it!"

"Keep going!"

And it continues until Noi gave up as the young vampire just basically copied and reverse meaning every negative response that he uttered.

.

.

.

They have gone to meet the servants that have the tasks to clean the castle. They have also gone to the garden to meet dozens of gardeners that have the tasks to trim and take care of the plants. Now, the cheery vampire is blabbering again to the quiet human boy as he introduced all the kitchen staffers and chefs that handles the area. Noi honestly very much shock at how many vampires are hired inside the castle as servants.

"And finally! That one is named Kevin! Our head chef! He's the one who had been cooking all of your meals while you're here." Tao says as he points at the end of the line to a tensed-creepy-smiling familiar caucasian young man wearing a white chef outfit. 

It doesn't take long for Noi to realizes that he is the same individual that was chasing him with a cleaver knife yesterday night. Despite he is now wearing a pristine set of uniform, the image of Kevin covered in blood is still imprinted in Noi's mind. And the fact that he is also the one who handles his food doesn't sit well with the human boy, "Uh... can I ask for someone else to cook the food for me?"

The question instantly wipes Kevin's smile, replacing it with a shocked yet dejected one. And several of the kitchen staffers that are standing in the same room gasp in unison while starts to whisper consoles to the saddened man.

"I feel sorry for you, Kevin."

"Cheer up, my fellow colleague."

"I'm sure he doesn't mean anything bad."

"Your cooking's is wonderful! Don't feel discouraged!"

Seeing the sad face makes Tao let out his own and gaze back at the human boy in puppy eyes. And due to the many white glowing begging eyes looking at him dejectedly, it creeped Noi out as he quickly takes back his request, "Nevermind. Forget that I asked."

The statement instantly makes Kevin smile widely again, subconsciously showing his fangs to the human, "Thank you, sir! I promise I won't let you down!"

Noi replies the excitement with a strained smile as he sees the creepy pointy teeth are now in front of his vision, "Yes... no problem."

Tao leans closer to Kevin and whispers, "Next time, make sure to not show your fangs to him. He's still afraid of them. And make sure to call him young master Noi from now on because he might be living a little bit longer than the usual."

Kevin nods and quickly cover his mouth with his own hand, "Understood young master Tao!"

Noi sigh as he ignores Tao's remark. He lazily gazes at nothing in particular as his mind starts to think about his own faith. He begins to self-pity himself because of how unfortunate his fate right now. The future is bleak until he finds a way to escape of course.

But at least, these undead creatures are not as bad as he thought. Despite being different and the way they act is rather odd and creepy, there's a little feeling of humanity still lingers on them. And that fact makes Noi at least able to let his guard down a little bit.

But he feels different about the master of the house though because Noi truly believes that man is a perverted psychopath.

Then as he still thinking about his own bad fate, something glints within the peripheral caught his attention and makes the doe-eyes divert his attention to the tall windows of the kitchen.

At the outer side of the window, there's a bonfire blazing so big and brightly at the driveway that can be seen from the kitchen where he currently is. Several servants are circling around the inferno while burning some kind of clothing with red wide splotches on them. At first, the sight makes Noi want to avert his attention away from the bonfire as he knows where the stain comes from.

But between the bloodied clothes, some of the things that they burn caught in his attention that makes him start to squint his own doe-eyes to see better. As he realizes and recognizes what they truly are, it makes him gasp rather loudly as he's in utter shock and bewildered at the same time.

Amongst the tainted and tattered clothes, he can recognise some of his own are currently thrown into the bonfire. He can even see his now-burnt-until-halved duffel bag inside the fire.

"MY STUFF!!" Noi shrieks, making Tao looks at the aghast younger beside him then to the blazing inferno, "Well yes, because they reek of your scent. It'll distract the servants if your belongings are still inside the property so they need to be destroyed. " He explains and shrugs.

Literally after that, one of the servants held a very familiar rolled-up cloth that Noi knows it consists of the expensive brushes that he owns. The servant threw it into the bonfire, "MY DAVINCI BABIES!!" The wide doe-eyes looks back to the casual hooded ones, "WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE?!

"Hey! It's not me! I refuse to be blamed!" Tao retorts while his voice has gone higher as well, "It's P'In's orders!"

And the information successfully erupts Noi's anger, instantly boils his blood to the highest peak and ready to maul the master of the Blackburn's head with his bare hands for dare destroying his precious brush babies, "Where the fuck is he?!"