"What are you making, dear one?" A young man in his 20s with brown hair suddenly asks as his veiny hand fondly ruffles the little girl's darker locks. His cat-shaped eyes gaze down towards her tiny hands which skillfully weaving the flower stems with each other, making it into a circular big ring.

Not far from them is seen a much younger version of Elvar, running around the greenery field as playing catch with the other 2 children that live in the same orphanage. All of them are like him, an exile party for being different-looking than the other in the village. They are the abandoned children that were survived a tragedy that befalls their parents but are forgotten by their own country.

They originally came along with their own respective parents around 8 season cycles ago, who were merchants that come from the East in hopes to be able to trade with the Westerners. But unfortunately, the strong tide and violent storm sunk their ship and kill their parents. The only one who survived was only them and a middle-aged woman who is the mother of Eleanore, as the girl has just turned 8 and the youngest one of their entourage and apparently, the most creative of them all.

"A flower crown!" She replies cheerfully and raised her new creative product. She then turns her sparkly dark eyes towards her beloved much older friend, who is now become her older brother and show her craft to him, "This is for you, Brother Yngvarr! For being the most awesome eldest brother for us all! Thank you for taking care of us all this time."

Hearing how genuine the gratefulness that Eleanore relay instantly brings a wide smile to Yngvarr's thin lips, "There's no need to thank me for that as I have loved all of you as siblings of my own. But," he lightly taps the flower crown, "I would be glad to receive such a pretty thing from you, Eleanore. Will you help to put it on me?"

The little girl cheers happily and agreed to Yngvarr's request. She quickly stands her own small body up and placed the crown on top of Yngvarr's head. Then she leans down a bit and put a kiss on top of her eldest brother's head, "May God of Odin be with you on this journey, Brother Yngvarr. I hope you'll be back home safely with Brother Elvar."

Yngvarr fondly smiles and rubs the little girl's back as an act of comfort because he can feel tears that have started to wet the top of his head. The young man utters a comforting promise, not knowing whether he will be able to fulfil it or not, "I promise we will be united again, Eleanore. Pray for us and let Goddess Fortuna bless our fate."

❂ ❂ ❂

As the sky begins the darken, the villager has started to come out from their own respective homes. The once quiet and eerie village begins to get livelier as dusk shifts deeper into the night. Sounds of horses and carriages are now mixing with the noisy residents that are either gossiping or haggling with each other.

At the top of the hill, far away from the lively noises but still visible to the naked eyes, the once dark castle begins to illuminate underneath the dark sky and the servants inside have now walked around the property to continue their tasks of the day- I mean night. And at the highest peak of the castle, where the private chamber of the castle owner is placed, the human boy who is the oddest one between all the busybody creatures on the lower floors is still currently sleeping soundly on top of the canopy bed.

Dark and small purplish dots have now marked his once unblemished golden skin as some of them is now hidden behind a thin silver band that wraps around his slender neck. A shiny big 5-carat big fat red diamond stone in square cut, which is easily worth more than all of Noi's Da Vinci brushes can be seen loosely hanging on the ring at the centre of the band as it beautifully glints the warm light of the now illuminating fireplace. Intricate silver snakes are securely wrapping around the stone as it also helps to decorate it beautifully and change the outer shape into a teardrop design.

The once lean figure that was bare from any garments has now been covered by an item of white clothing with a very loose neckline, beautifully showing the tantalizing slender neck that is currently being seen as the owner tilt his head to the side.

Then, the closed doe-eyes begins to flutter open, revealing the dark brown orbs that beautifully glisten the lights of the dancing fire on the fireplace. Noi let out a faint groan as he starts to feel the soreness on his bottom, slowly intensifying as he sits up from the bed. Despite sleeping for the whole afternoon, the human boy still feels very much exhausted as his shoulder slumping down.

 The human boy then feels a cold feeling wrap around his neck, making his dainty hands palpating around his own throat. Noi gasps in surprise the moment he touched the cooling metal for finally realizing that he's already being collared by Balan without consent.

Slightly panicking, he touches around his own nape to try to find an opening but then his fluster further as he finds it only to be bare, meaning the metal is fully wrapped around without having any clasp nor some kind of opening to help him get out of it.

"Fuck," Noi curses as he gives up trying and changes his attention to fix the garment's neckline. The human boy then gets down from the bed as the clothes cascade down and reach right around his ankles. Noi's frown goes deeper as he realizes he's being clothed with a woman's nightgown. Despite having the long clothing covering almost his entire body, Noi still feels bare because of how thin the layer feels and he doesn't even wear anything underneath it, not even a pair of underwear.

"That sick bastard is way over the line," Noi mumbles to himself as he tries to cover more of his exposed collarbone by pulling the neckline. But it seems impossible to cover using it as the garment keeps on slumping down because of the heavy detail of ruffles around the neckline. Now, the damned garment is even slumping further and showing one of his shoulders to no one else but himself. The human boy clicks his tongue in annoyance and decides to just let it be as he looks around the now empty chamber.

He thought it's empty. But oh how wrong he was.

Because as soon as he starting to feel relaxed, the chamber room is banged open and reveal the most bastard among of all men walking on this earth, smiling dazzlingly towards him with the black orbs shamelessly ogling his body. The honoured let out an incite whistle, "Well, it definitely looks good on you."

Noi widens his doe-eyes as he scoffs in disbelief while intertwining his arms in front of his chest, "Excuse me?! Just so you know, I'm a man. How dare you made me wear a woman's clothes?!"

"What's wrong with it? That garment is made out of fine linen, you know." Balan replies while slightly pouting his thin lips, "Should be comfortable enough for you to wear around the castle."

"You're expecting me to walk around in this?!" Noi's voice goes higher as he feels more irritating to this self-egoistical and forcing man, "I refuse to wear this and helping to feast your desire on me! Get me proper clothing now, Balan!!"

"If you want me to follow my desire, I won't even allow you to have any single thread to cover your beautiful body, darling," Balan chuckles, "But Tao managed to reason out and suggest to put you into that. Well, at least he's right by saying you will look beautiful in one." 

Tao. The human boy realizes that it seems the youngest vampire has his own way to talk it out with Balan, making the latter keeps on obliging and follow his suggestion, even though not fully. Noi takes note of Balan's earlier remark as it might be useful information for him in the future.

While Noi is still in deep thoughts, Balan walks towards him and shortening the gap between them. The sudden invasion of personal space makes the human boy take a few steps back but Balan walks faster and instantly close the gap between them by wrapping the strong arm around the slender waist.

Noi flinches and silently push the vampire away by the chest, not wanting to get even closer to the latter. No matter how dazzlingly handsome Balan is, the man is still an asshole after all.

"You need to eat so you'll have more energy," The honoured suddenly changes the topic and placed his other hand under Noi's bottom, lifting the latter easily with his brute strength. The sudden movement makes the human boy yelp in surprise as the dainty hands quickly wrap around Balan's sturdy neck, "What are you doing?! Put me down, you demon!!"

"Just hold on tight. You, humans, walk so slow and I know how sore you must've felt. It will literally take all night just for us to reach the dining area with your current condition." Balan replies as he casually walks out of his own chamber and tightens his hold on Noi. He then warns once again as he feels the latter's hold isn't tight enough, "Noi, hold on tight or you will fall."

Being ordered like that, Noi scowls and obliging to the request by literally use all his strength to purposefully choke the vampire with his noodle arms. But of course, his strong hold just feels like a slight nudge for Balan, proven by the vampire not letting out any protest nor even choking from suffocation. Or maybe, because the honoured is an undead creature that doesn't need oxygen to breathe.

As he feels the hold is secure enough, Balan uses his power to walks fast, but not speedy enough as he doesn't want Noi to get nausea from the sudden acceleration. In a very short amount of time, they've arrived in front of the dining area. 

Noi blinks his doe-eyes as he feels bewildered by how fast Balan walks but decides not to give any comment as he knows the supernaturals will always have unreasonable abilities that make them incomparable to the other beings in existence.

"Can I get down now, dear sir?" Noi asks while using a mocking tone on his last words, trying to irritate the latter with his bratty attitude. But it seems Balan is indeed a patient man as the vampire didn't seem offended by the rude remark and obliges to Noi's request, putting down the human boy from his hold, "Of course, darling."

The patience and gentleness of the vampire give to him makes Noi raises one of his brows as he leers his brown orbs to the latter, "What's gotten into you? Why are you being gentle all of a sudden?"

Balan nonchalantly shrugs, "Tao told me to be as gentle as possibly can towards you as you're such a fragile creature. I guess I'm just trying to make you live longer by not accidentally kill you with my strength."

Tao, again. It seems Noi should try to get closer to that young vampire.

The odd and eerie answer from Balan successfully creep the human boy, making him grimace and limping away from the honoured, "You are such a creep."

The mocking makes the thin lips smile wide, "Why thank you, dear. Now, let's go and have dinner, shall we? The others are waiting," Balan replies as he walks into the dining room, leaving Noi who is now looking at the latter in shock, feeling disbelief at how casual and nonchalant Balan is.

"That is not a compliment, you weirdo," Noi mumbles as he knows for sure Balan would be able to hear him. He then slowly limping into the room for finally feeling the starve has now dominantly envelope his tummy, making it keep on grumble in protest.