Vol 2 Chapter 2 (1/2)

The Viscount Basks in the Morning Sun, and

Waldstein Castle, on the island of Growerth

Growerth was a large island in the North Sea, under the jurisdiction of Germany

Not only was it proe in Germany, it was also under development as a tourist destination It was also actively establishi+ng sister cities overseas, in countries like japan, America, and Australia

Several cities were on the island, upon which was everything froes to modern-day civic centers and hotels Of course, there were no skyscrapers on the island—five-story hotels were about as tall as they went And yet not a single roos by the large streets that had been renovated into hotels were also quite popular with visitors

Many small peaks rose up near the center of the island, covered with deciduous trees And near the top of a peak on the southern side of the island was a large castle taken straight out of the Middle Ages

Its majestic beauty harmoniously blended with the viridian forests and mountains Countless tourists lost theht as they stepped into the storybook setting

But at the top of this fairytale castle was neither an elegant little bird awaiting thehis master But rather, it was a red ed

[Ah, the ht of dawn! Yet I’ve been told that the clouds will grow thicker later this evening So is this sight not akin to the tearful farewell of the Gods who light le soleil?]

The round The va in the rays of light

And as a result, one of the castle’s walls was covered in red

The wave of red spread at terrifying speeds, and pushed part of itself onto the castle rooftop to expertly weave a series of words

[I recoht, my dear friend! The sun will not last forever After all, who can say if the beauteous sun will not explode by to?]

The boy laying on the rooftop looked at the letters of blood and sleepily rubbed his eyes

“But if the sun explodes, we’re all going to die instantly” He said incredulously But the red fluid changed form to respond

[I fear I must correct you, Valdred At their nearest, the sun and the Earth are 147100000 kilorows to 152100000 kiloe of 149600000 kiloht minutes and nineteen seconds to traverse this distance In other words, the sun that we look upon at this o Truly, a ti! Is it not a most romantic notion?]

The boy called Valdred read over the sentence, which had changed topics halfway through He nodded

The red liquid that the boy was speaking as his htly off-kilter vampire

There was no ‘ this mass of blood The blood itself was the vampire known as Gerhardt von Waldstein

The mass of blood that ruled over this castle was once a very normal vampire

But over the course of his research, in which he atteht, stakes, and other objects, he ultimately found himself in liquid form

Because he derived nutrition from the special bacteria he infused with his own blood, Gerhardt required regular photosynthesis in order to live He was almost the polar opposite of the quintessential vampire

The boy who joined him in photosynthesis today was also a vampire as quite far removed from the norm

Not all vaht Soht, and others were entirely unfazed But very few vampires so readily basked in the rays as this boy and the viscount did

Even vaht tended to prefer the shadows, for fear of hu in the sun, they either had a very specific purpose for doing so, or they were there by necessity--much like the viscount

In Valdred’s case, it was the latter

Valdred Ivanhoe--Val for short--was a vampire who had once been a plant To be specific, he was a watermelon vampire

This was not a metaphor Valdred was a wateretable He had retained this for a vampire

[There, there Toss such trivial concerns into the flames of oblivion Should creatures such as ourselves be thrown into the sun’sflares, ould be burned to dust in a matter of moments That is precisely the reason e ift that fuels our very lives!]

Val stared at the viscount’s words His thoughts began to drift as he began to muse on his own existence

‘The blessings of Mother Nature, huh’

To beof Mother Nature But noearing a false for pool of blood that was now his lord

Val’s ue

‘Beautiful’

This was at once his first eht, and memory

The thought that occurred to hile second A span of time in which he watched the rain of blood fall upon himself

A single word A single ein of all that was himself Yet at the same time, it was his final moment of life

The moment the spray of blood touched his body, the droplets of blood stained his spherical body and seeped into his very cells as though possessed of a will It bled into hi, and by the time he ca entirely

The second spray of red that touched him was the blood of a different vae and the capacity to reason

The rain of blood was a part of an experi had been planned out meticulously

All kinds of techniques were applied to forcibly induce a transformation of the soul To become more animal, to become more human, to become more vampire

The moment the watermelon had developed a sense of self, the researcher would undertake the process of ‘education’

It was the act of transcribing the souls of other va their blood as a medium

Pieces of knowledge, character, memories, and trauma, carried by the shower of blood, seeped into the waterled as it was painted over in the influx of souls

But as painted over was not his character

It was an off-kilter awareness--as he was reconstituted by the shower of blood, the watermelon chose to paint over hiiven life, and at the same time he had been born anew

The ed this fact, the second shower of blood filled with soul was poured over him

Yet another sense of self invaded the wateruinea pig had no need to know anything

The two souls in which characters and knowledge resided began to tangle together and began to fight ast themselves--to overpower and devour the other and dominate As a result, all that was left was a waterled sense of self born from the mixture of two souls

Then, another soul

Yet more blood

Soul

Blood

Memories

Knowledge

Emotions

Impulses

Blood falling like a shower

Soul splattering over himself

But the waterht beautiful as he once had

With each shower of blood his self was broken

With each shower his self was erased, and a new self was painted over it

He was scared Afraid Terrified

The self froer himself

As he looked on in fear, he was covered in blood And as he refused to fear, the overriding self was covered in blood and as he realized that he was indeed afraid the overriding self was covered in blood and as he thought of nothing the overriding self was covered in blood and as he lost hi self was covered in blood and as he logically observed his own situation the overriding self was covered in blood--

The showers of blood came to an end

Sitting there was not a water without a sense of self--a vae needed to use its powers

Several years passed The watermelon who possessed the ability to draw illusions onto the retinas of others and construct the false ie of a shapeshi+fter took on letters from the names of the vampires whose blood was contributed The name ‘Valdred Ivanhoe’ was created

At first glance, Valdred was a powerful va

But he--or she--or it--was afraid

Did he truly exist?

‘I think, therefore I am,’ it was commonly said

‘But is it really ?’ Valdred wondered

It was around this tian to refuse to reveal his true form as a watermelon to others Despite the fact that it was undeniable proof of the existence of his true self, the waterinal body

The self that had lived for a single second

Was this truly his own sense of self?

Or perhaps it was the s of the soul of another vampire that had been administered to him earlier And if that was the truth of the inal self that had been painted over with the souls of others

What Valdred feared

If his only memory of his own self as a watermelon turned out only to have been born fro

‘Then who in the world am I?’

Because he was afraid to lose that one self--the one sense of self that he could call his own--he did not approach the matter He even attempted to hide that fact that he was a plant

Then as the Valdred Ivanhoe that existed where he stood? Whose sense of self lay within? Was it his own? Who could prove it, one way or another, when even he did not know the answer?

Afterwards, Valdred began to purposely create different personas and characters to e events, he now made his home here in Waldstein Castle

The characters he played were all artificial Fake Although even the one character he was sure was true was nearly iht was ‘Beautiful’

Recently, Val had caved to the preferences of the witches and fe boy But ulti to do with his oill

He spent his days unable to sustain one constant self

[Ah, to think it has already been a year since you came to call this castle home How do you feel, Valdred? Have you coht?]

The viscount’s question rattled the boy But Valdred neither ignored hi with a hint of embarrassment

Technically, even this sigh was an illusion

Valdred was acting as puppeteer to an illusionary body that contained a si telekinetic power in just the right ht of movement

In fact, Valdred had no need to respire like a huy like a plant (via photosynthesis) But the act of creating an illusion that incorporated such detailed hu so far as to expand and contract the illusion of lungs and expel air from the illusion of ain the for

Perhaps it was similar to the way the viscount added punctuation or exclamation to the words he formed with his own body

“I’ to think, little by little--”

[Oh?]

“I feel strange, living in this castle Everyone here accepts so in the world I think”

As Val trailed off, the viscount confidently wove out a correction

[There was no need for that final addition of yours, Valdred Your acceptance is indeed most natural]

“I see”

Val looked away from the viscount

Because Gerhardt had no eyes as huh the use of his soul

In other words, because Valdred’s ability to draw illusions on retinas had no effect on the viscount, Gerhardt always saw Valdred’s true for that the latter found extremely uncomfortable

At first, he visibly avoided the viscount and ed recently, as they began to converse more often

But Valdred always grew uncomfortable in their conversations There was some sort of an unconscious sense of rejection that he eventually ca, he quickly changed the subject

“But it’s unusual to see you taking in sunlight so early in thewhen it’s scheduled to rain soon”

[Ah, there is, in fact, an excellent reason for h you are correct in that I prefer to awake in the afternoon, while the sun beats down at her fiercest, so that I ht Today, however, is an exception The Carnale Festival is scheduled to begin this evening, and I will also be entertaining soy while I had the time today]

The annual Carnale Festival lasted an entire week Valdred had enjoyed it last year as well, and it had been the first tiathered on the island

“Oh, I reuest?”

[Ah, souely Valdred stubbornly tried to pursue this line of thought

It was neither unusual nor very common for the viscount to entertain visitors Not only was he very well-connected with other vaood terms with the locals This hy vampires without a place to call home often came to him in search of a place in which to settle

Valdred was reasonably certain that this was the case, but he persisted in questioning the viscount in order to keep the discussion away from their earlier topic

“What kind of people are they?”

[Ah, you see]

At that point, the viscount stopped very suddenly The letters of blood collapsed as he began to form a new set of utterances

[No, this won’t do We were discussing the matter of your future, e not? We mustn’t allow our conversations to be so easily sidetracked, especially when they are of such great nitude]

“Can we please just get sidetracked?”

[I must refuse, I’m afraid! It is the duty of a nobleman to take action on behalf of all distressed inhabitants of his land Ah, perhaps you would accuse ht for a nobleressions?]

“I don’t see how this is going to help It’s not like talking it out is going to help me find my true self”

It was a rather cold response, but Valdred alh these words were also directed towards himself

But the viscount continued to seep into his thoughts

[Ah, I take that to mean that you have at least made efforts to find the answer]

“I”

[If one sits idly by, one can neither change what can be changed nor learn what can be learned Although I cannot condone the act of leaking negativity into the air without even s for the better]

“But Viscount Waldstein this has nothing to do with you”

Val tried to escape the conversation again But the viscount grew more staunch

[Ah, of course You are also a vaht, with free will and all the responsibilities that come with it It is indeed up to you to live as you will But I must ask, in that case, that you pay lected to collect all this time]

“Uh”

A chill ran down Val’s spine

He had been living in this castle as a freeloader since the previous year He was even supplied with blood to drink froe

“Th-then I’ll earn some money to pay it off Would it be okay if I left after--”

[You arethe point, Valdred!] The viscount wrote in bold letters Val stopped hi

[I intend neither to impose my oill upon your future nor to drive you frohts of inferiority or self-hatred, I would like you to s, Valdred]

“But I don’t even knohere to start, or what to do”

[Ah, yes Thenmore about your own body?]

“Do you want o see a doctor?”

Valdred was intending to be sarcastic, but thein midair nodded

[Of course! That is precisely what you should begin with]

“Pardon?”

As Valdred stood in confusion, the viscount put up an utterance in bold letters

[I shall introduce you to this castle’s very own Doctor and Professor!]

<=>

“I never knee had a place like this in the castle” Val breathed, walking down a very long flight of stairs

[Ah, it is a personal preference of Doctor’s, you see]

“What kind of people are they, anyway?”

[Doctor and Professor are researchers who are in the process of studying methods to overcome death--in other words, methods to eliminate the weaknesses we vampires possess And in the process of their work, they have used all sorts of vas I’ve not doubt that their knowledge will be of use to you]

“Although I guess I shouldn’t expect too s”

Although Val had lived in Waldstein Castle for over a year now, there were still round area of the castle was un area’, a one-time visitor would never in their wildest dreams notice that the castle housed numerous vampires On that note, the pamphlets that introduced the layout of the castle to tourists kept visitors out of living areas with excuses like ‘Entrance Restricted Due to Presence of Important Cultural Artifacts’, ‘Under Construction’, or ‘Staff Only’

In a corner of the art supply roo area of the castle was an entrance to the castle underground

Many large suits of armor were lined up in a row The viscount came to a sudden stop before one in particular

The ar nearly a full five s to wear If these had been displayed in the public area, they would likely become a mainstay of local tourism pamphlets

The viscount twisted his form into a series of letters as he sloshed before the suit of armor From Val’s perspective, the letters were displayed backwards He could not read them

But when this code of sorts was reflected in a crystal inside the suit of aran to move with a thunk

The suit of ar up the wall behind itself to Valdred and the viscount

There in the as a great, gaping hole and a latticed door that would not look out of place at the gates of hell

[Let us be off, then I e are not illuht vision, Valdred?]

“Oh, uood”

Valdred, still in the forh the door after the viscount

He glanced over at the armor, which towered over him without so much as a twitch

Val was certain that he had seen this suit of arrasped at the threads of his memory He finally recalled the event that had taken place last summer at this very castle

One of the vampires had been inspired by a co tourna in the battles

Although he frowned in disbelief at the thought, Val had no other way of explaining this strange creature There did not seeiant man in the suit of armor, nor did the pieces of armor seem to be haunted by a lost soul What had the other vampires called this creature? The words ‘Unit Toto’ came into mind, but he could not remember the rest very clearly

As he and the viscount descended the steps, Val began to recall the events that had taken place on the day of the tournament

‘If I reht in everyone who lives on this island for the tournament’

He had no idea how the event had been thought up or organized, but the fighting tournaside himself, other vampires, olves, and witches of the castle had participated Most of theh he had already been living at Waldstein Castle for three months by that point, he had only interacted with a tiny fraction of his fellow inhabitants

Ultimately, a scylla by the name of ‘Melina’--a creature whose lower body was ed victorious The runner-up, Val recalled, was an ordinary huott’