Chapter 2

"Oh gods, the Ceremony is almost here! What if the King chooses *me*?"

"What are you scared of? The King despises our attempts at flattery. Just keep up your act, and you'll be safe."

"Thank goodness for Seraphina. If she hadn't caught the King's eye with her aloof demeanor, we might never have been able to stay with Caleb!"

"Shh, keep your voice down! She's the unlucky one, stuck with the King's attention."

"I'd rather *die* than be chosen by him. I have to marry Caleb. He's my only light in this damn Realm!"

I sat beneath the garden gazebo, my fingertips subtly tightening.

So, all this time, their obedience, their excessive flattery, their pathetic attempts to appear inferior...

It was all a charade. They were simply infatuated with Caleb, hoping to disgust me enough that I'd reject them as potential companions.

Caleb, the one I’d saved a decade ago by sharing my blood, had never signed a pact with me.

Naturally, his power couldn't compare to that of my blood servants, and he couldn't complete his daily tasks alone.

My blood servants would regularly share their collected soul fragments with Caleb,

Allowing him to submit his quotas to me.

Vampires cannot fall in love with humans.

I had always believed their actions were out of pity. It never once crossed my mind that it was *love*.

Just then, a strange sound drifted from another corner of the garden.

I followed the noise, my gaze falling upon a patch of ground where moonlight dappled through the leaves.

There, the usually cold and aloof Seraphina was clinging tightly to Caleb.

She kissed him with a desperate urgency, a burning passion I had never witnessed in her before.

"Caleb, don't worry," Seraphina's voice was urgent, yet firm. "I will *never* let him choose me."

"Even if he does, I won't agree to the Embrace. I will *never* become his companion."

Caleb gently pushed her away, a perfectly feigned look of distress on his face.

"But, Seraphina, to be embraced by the King grants you his purest blood, eternal life just like him. It's an opportunity countless souls dream of."

"I don't care!" Seraphina immediately retorted, cupping his face. "I have no interest in eternal life. I only care about you. I just want to be with *you*."

Standing in the shadows, a chilling realization washed over me.

The blood servants I had chosen, the ones who had showered me with flattery… they *all* loved Caleb.

I, Darian, the mighty King of the Nether Realm, had become nothing more than a pathetic joke.

I was never short of blood servants desperate to be my companion.

Since they were so unwilling, I decided to grant them their wish.

The next day, I issued a new decree.

"Effective immediately, all blood supply to my blood servants will cease."

My blood servants primarily subsisted on the blood I provided, supplied by human thralls.

Cutting off this supply meant they would have to hunt humans themselves.

"From this day forward, you will hunt for your own blood and soul fragments in the human world."

They exchanged bewildered glances, assuming I was simply in a bad mood. No one dared to object, accepting their fate.

With this, they would be constantly busy, traveling between the human world and the Nether Realm, with no time left to coddle Caleb.

Without Seraphina and his other admirers "feeding" him, Caleb's tasks naturally went unfulfilled.

He knelt before me, his face ashen, unable to even utter a plea for mercy.

"Task failed. You will report to the Sun-Scorched Peaks of the Nether Realm for sun-desensitization training," I declared, my voice devoid of emotion.

The Sun-Scorched Peaks were the closest point to sunlight in our realm, a torture chamber, a living hell for us vampires.

When Seraphina heard the news, her face went deathly pale. She raced there without a moment's hesitation.

I watched from a distance as she unfolded her not-so-broad bat wings,

Straining every fiber of her being to shield Caleb from the scorching sunlight.

The sun pierced through her wings, leaving her almost desiccated, yet she stubbornly held on.

I averted my gaze, my heart untouched by a single ripple of emotion.