Volume 4, The Lost Files of the Ancient Castle 3: Sadina, the Love between an Immortal and Mortal (1/2)

Volume 4, The Lost Files of the Ancient Castle Chapter 3: Sadina, the Love between an Immortal and Mortal

Translator: Raylight (proofread by elisa & Arcedemius; C/E edited by Amgine & lucathia)

“Aren, Aren, look! It’s Dragon Peace!”

I glanced at it. As it turned out, it was one of the hero series figurines that the convenience store gives out after collecting enough points. “I have this one too. I finished collecting all four of them, since the fifth generation is relatively easy to collect.”

“Fifth generation?”

An Xiang Ye looked at me with wide eyes, as though I was speaking an alien language… That’s not right! I’m speaking a language from Earth. You’re the one who is an alien!

Charles-gē explained with a smile, “Young Master, because giving out hero figures as an event was very popular, convenience stores kept releasing new series. They are all centered on The Four Great Heroes, with the heroes in different poses. Currently, they are on the fifth generation.”

“Aren, so you have been collecting them too? Do you have the complete set from one to five?”

I nodded my head, even though I was a bit reluctant to admit to it. To be still collecting figures even though I’m already this age is a little embarrassing.

“But, I don’t have the secret edition version of Dark Sun from the fourth generation. That one was too difficult to get.”

After saying so, Charles-gē told me with a smile that he had two of the secret edition version of Dark Sun from the fourth generation, and just happened to be able to give me one of them.

“What is a secret edition?” An Xiang Ye asked once again with his eyes wide.

Actually, you’re the one who is a vampire, and Charles-gē is the human, right?

“Yes, we will not be leaving for the time being. The young master will be responsible for patrolling the east, and Dragon Peace will also go patrol the south… Very well, I will inform the young master of the time of the photoshoot… Ah! Please wait a moment.”

I put down the phone temporarily and turned to ask, “Young Master, Luo Chu asks whether you want your salary transferred into your account or do you want payment in cash?”

At this moment, the young master was currently tugging on the sleepy-eyed Aren, picking up the hero figures one by one to play with. He curiously asked Aren various questions, such as why the second generation of Solitary Butterfly held a black flower in her hand.

Thankfully, Aren seemed to have a good understanding of The Four Great Heroes’s activities and answered the young master without pausing. That was because at that time, there was a rich suitor wooing Solitary Butterfly, and he had spent a large sum of money to buy many black roses. Then, he arranged them in Sunset Plaza, forming the words “Solitary Butterfly.”

Hearing my question, the young master raised his head. He asked in confusion, “Salary?”

“Yes. This should be the first time you have received a salary, right?” I gave a small reminder, “Buying a gift for the master would be an excellent use for it.”

Once the young master heard that, his expression immediately turned into one of realization. He said happily, “Okay! Then, please tell Luo Chu-gē that I will go and collect it from him.”

The doorbell rang while I was talking to Ji Luo Chu on the phone. Briar immediately jumped to her feet, saying, “I’ll go open the door.”

I gave a smile and continued to talk on the phone with Ji Luo Chu. However, I heard Briar make a shocked sound.

“Who are you looking for…”

From the sound of her voice, Briar seemed a little frightened. I turned to look at the door. At the door, there stood a tall and muscular man with a head of orange hair. There was a dragon tattoo on his left cheek. He was wearing a tattered tank top and ragged jeans and carried a luggage case in his hands. He looked completely travel-worn and absolutely did not look anything like a friendly person, so it was no wonder that Briar was frightened by him.

The young master jumped to his feet, yelling, “Ezart!” Following that, he ran to the door hurriedly.

“Why are there more and more people in your house?” Ezart threw the luggage case to the young master off-handedly and glanced to his side. “There’s even a little girl? Where did you pick her up from?”

The young master clutched the luggage case with one hand and held onto Briar with the other. He followed behind Ezart and walked back into the living room, and while doing so, replied, “This is Briar! She is the fiancée I told you about last time.”

“Tch! She looks only ten! You’re such a pervert.” Ezart looked at me and casually asked, “Butler, how about we fight a round?”

I shook my head with a forced smile.

“Ezart, don’t bully Charles! Also, you’ve come back, but I still haven’t received any souvenirs from you!” The young master angrily said, “Could it be that you forgot again?”

“I didn’t forget!” Ezart lay spread out on the sofa, saying, “It was too big, so the post office wouldn’t let me mail it. Oh well!”

The young master tossed the luggage back to Ezart as he questioned, “Then, did you bring it with you?”

“Nope.”

The young master was so angry that even his cheeks started to puff out. Ezart immediately said, “It’s too big. Even the taxi refused to take it.”

“Just how big is it?” Hearing that, the young master was no longer angry and instead turned curious.

Ezart shrugged his shoulders and stated, “About the same size as you?”

“That big of a bug?” The young master seemed to be greatly surprised.

“That’s right! You said you wanted a souvenir that was a little bigger, so I picked the biggest one. The bug has been frozen in ice, so it’s even bigger! In the end, no car was willing to pick it up, so you have to go drive over and pick it up yourself.”

“Okay! I’ll go borrow a car from Melody right now,” the young master responded instantly. “Briar, Aren, come with me!”

“Big bug…” Briar showed a rare face full of reluctance.

Aren made a sour face as he declared, “I want to sleep!”

“You can sleep in the car!” The young master pulled both of them along, one in each hand. He walked to the front door, and then turned to tell me, “Charles, there’s no need to prepare lunch anymore. We’ll be eating out.”

“Very well.”

Ezart then lazily crawled up from the sofa. After he yawned, he told me, “You might as well wash the clothes in the bag for me. There’s a ton of blood on them that I have no clue how to wash off.”

“Very well, I will handle it.”

“Then while we wait, fight a round with me?”

I gave a slight smile and replied, “The young master is calling for you.”

After I had tidied up the living room and washed the clothes, I did not go to sleep immediately. That is because today was the day that the blood bags would be delivered. The postman would always come at about nine o’clock in the morning, so I had to wait for the package.

As expected, at five minutes past nine, the postman pressed the doorbell. As always, he had me sign the package before he passed the styrofoam box in his hands to me.

“Thank you.”

“Ah! Please sign again. There’s another package.”

Another package? Could it be for the young master? There should not be anyone who would send me anything… Unless it is X. He had once sent me a malfunctioning cell phone and asked me to keep it in good condition. Yet when he came over last time, he did not ask about the phone, and it just happened that it had also slipped my mind. To this day, the phone was still here with me.

After I signed again, the postman gave me a brown paper bag. On the bag, it stated that the recipient was not the young master, but was me instead.

Could it be that it really was sent by X? After I closed the front door, I walked back to the living room. The moment I put down the styrofoam box, I started tearing open the brown paper bag. There was only a memory card and a small piece of paper inside it. On top of the scrap of paper, there were only a few words written: Play the video.

Not even the name of the sender was written on it. It did feel like something X would do. I gave a sigh, and then inserted the memory card into the TV. Then, I sat on the sofa and started watching to find out exactly what kind of video he had sent me.

The video started with a dark scene. Following that, the sun started to rise from the east, and the image started becoming clear. On the screen, there was a large cross. However, there was nothing on the cross. If anything, there was really only the indistinct sound of breathing. The breathing was somewhat heavy sounding.

This was not sent to me by X. He would never send me something like this… I don’t want to watch it anymore! This kind of thing is not worth watching…

In the video, the sunlight became brighter and brighter. The time seemed to be getting closer to noon. At this point, a faint wisp of smoke started to come from the cross. The smoke outlined a human shape.

Mother! Mother! Please don’t treat me this way. I do not hope for much. I merely ask that you don’t treat me like this… Why do you do this to me? I am your son!

In the video, a voice rang out, crying for his mother. However, I instead remembered my father. When I had asked about my mother, he had shown a rare expression of agitation and worry. Also, those warnings…

“Don’t look for your mother, Charles. Don’t ever go looking for her. She is a vampire, and in her heart, there is no such thing as kinship.”

“Father, I am also a vampire! If she truly did not want me, then why did she give birth to me? She could have not done so!”

“… I bought you.”

“What?”

“I spent five hundred million yuan to buy you! That woman called me over and made me touch her stomach to feel the baby move. However, what she whispered in my ears was, ‘This is your child! I’m about to get an abortion. Do you want a sample of this child’s embryo?’

“Thankfully…” My father caressed my face, and said with gratification, “At first, I was so angry that I was about to leave. However, at that moment, you suddenly gave me a kick, as if to tell me, you wanted to continue living… She doesn’t love you, Charles. Don’t look for her! You will not get anything from her except for pain.”

Father, you were always right. However, I kept not believing your words and always had to go and verify them myself. I would always have to get hurt to the point where I would rather die than to suffer before I could understand your painstaking efforts.

Father, I did not listen to your words and still held some kind of expectation for my mother, stepping into a place where I should not have gone. I had actually thought that I could stand alongside my mother and find my own place among the vampires.

Forgive me, Father…

Sounds of murmuring came from the television, a familiar voice of repentance. On the cross, the human-shaped figure became clearer and more visible. The drifting smoke was no longer faint, but a blotchy light brown.

At first, it was still hard to discern a human shape, as it appeared to be merely patches of brown. But as time passed, the light brown color became more distinct, and it gradually formed the outline of a human. Moreover, the color also became deeper and deeper, from a light shade to a darker one, just like cheese slowly getting charred.

How many days had it been? Was it the third… or the fourth day? Even as a fifth generation vampire, I could not endure being exposed to the scorching sun for long periods of time. Though four days was not enough to kill me, it was already no different from living in hell. My lips had chapped due to dryness long ago, and my skin was in constant pain. Every mouthful of air I drew in burned my lungs.

However, the person who had made me live in this hell was my own birth mother. The mother who had personally said, “Welcome home, my son” had then tied her biological son to the cross, letting the scorching sun slowly burn his skin.

The sunlight in the day was so hot, so scalding, and every inch of my skin had been charred. There could not be anything that could be more painful than that. I had thought myself to be in hell, but when nightfall arrived, my mother’s laughter sent me spiraling into an even deeper hell… How could she laugh at this?

While seeing her own son burned all over, and hearing his tearful pleads, she actually laughed?

Charles, Charles… Charles?

Who is calling me? Father? Or Sadina? Is it you? Have you come to save me again? The sunlight is so strong, so strong that it hurts my eyes. I can’t see…

“Charles? Charles? Look at me. Can you see me?”

The other asked me repeatedly, and even grabbed hold of my face, just like how my father had done before.

When I had fallen from grace, my father had grabbed hold of my face with both hands, forcing me to look at him. He had growled, “If you don’t want to come home with me, then bite me to death! Bite me right now!”

“How could I possibly bite you? Father…”

“Charles, don’t scare me. I’m not your papa. I’m Ah Ye! Your young master!”

Y…Young Master? Who?

“Charles, what’s wrong with you?” His voice sounded like he was about to cry. However, this was not my father’s voice.

“My apologies. The sunlight is too strong, so I cannot see you.”

“Sunlight? He said in a panic, “There isn’t any sunlight at all! It’s night right now. Charles, look outside the window. It’s nighttime. That’s the moonlight!”

Window? I could not see, but it should be very bright, as it always had been.

When I had fallen from grace and ran away from home, I had loitered in bars for entire nights, often only returning to the residence in the morning. When I had returned on a certain day, the moment I opened the door, I saw my father who had been searching for me, standing at the window. The morning sun shone onto him, making his entire body glow brightly, as he told me, “Come home, Charles.”

He had only given me two choices: Either I go back with him, or I just bite him to death.

When I had been tied onto the cross and was on the verge of death, Sadina had come wielding two guns. Under the scorching sun, she shone even brighter than sunlight. She shot down all of the non-humans in her path, and then walked up to me. With tears in her eyes, she lifted her head and looked at me, saying, “My cousin Charles, I have come to take you home.”

She had not even given me a second option. She had only permitted for me to continue living. I was not allowed to die.

Really, why is it that the humans I know are all even more overbearing than vampires?