Chapter 34 - Dinner At The Ruins

"Leron, wake up."

Leron was surprised to hear such a soft tone to wake him up, he had almost mistaken that he had traveled back in time and was 15 again. At this age, Vladstin had developed a deeper yet somehow more pleasing voice, still retaining its mellow accent. It had always made the opposite effect and he often fell asleep again whenever he hears it, wanting to sink in his bed more and hide under the covers.

But he was not laying on a soft king-size bed. He was laying on a cold, hard slab of the broken stone floor. The winds chilled him to the bone, making him feel heavy and feverish. He still has a chain and ball of metal tied on his foot.

And Vladstin was not waking him up 'gently', he was shaking him back and forth like a rag doll. The reason why his voice sounded mellow was that he got tired of telling him to wake up again and again and his voice was just softer than usual after becoming a vampire.

"Good, it took forever for you to even open your eyes. I was about to splash you with this cold drinking water." Vladstin frowned at him. "Get up, all you ever do is sleep and watch something from the Looking Glass."

"....It's still night?" Leron rubbed his eyes and looked around his surroundings. "Where did all the lights come from...."

It took him a split second to realize that the floating candles and torches were actually being held by vampire corpses.

"Ahhh!" Leron shouted as one of them approached him. The vampire corpse's identity could no longer be recognized, and there was a dent on its head, its mouth rotting and cheeks littered with holes. It reached out its bone-thin hands with sharp nails....

And it was actually just handing him a shawl.

"You're so dramatic. Poor Izre was just handing a shawl to you." Vladstin patted the corpse's disfigured head. "We can't have Hunter thinking that we were maltreating you, so here's some shawl to cover from the cold. Humans are really troublesome, getting affected by even the tiniest change in temperature."

"Hunter? You have talked with Sangfroid?" Leron's eyes widened.

"Ah, yes. Your loyal servant and I had a deal. So now I have to babysit you for him because he's watching us from a shard of the Looking Glass, but only for 15 days." Vladstin said. "After that, I'll get bored and kill all of you."

"How are they doing? How many are the survivors? Where are they off to?" Leron gripped Vladstin's shoulders eagerly.

Vladstin swatted his hands away. "Woah, Woah. Don't be so impatient, I'm already being overly generous here by being your personal caretaker, let alone a messenger that you can boss around for information. If you don't want me to break the deal and just raise another war with the Hunter you fuss over, keep your mouth shut and leave all questions for dinner."

"Dinner?" Leron blinked, like he cannot believe what he was hearing. At the thought of food, his empty stomach grumbled loudly like thunder.

"What's that weird sound? Did that just come out of your stomach?" Vladstin snapped his head.

Leron looked down. "I was hungry...."

"Ah, I remember now. Humans make those grumbling noises when they're hungry. How troublesome, to think that that once happened to me too when I was alive." Vladstin grimaced. "You could alert an enemy 30 feet away from that noise."

Vladstin walked towards another doorway, leading to the former dining hall. Leron vaguely remembers that the roof of that area was destroyed too, but now it's back again.

Vladstin saw him look at it, and explained. "I had the corpses cover it up as quickly as they can while you were sleeping. So that the food would not be spoiled when it rains. You should sleep there too, you can't control the Looking Glass anyway and there's nothing good to see there."

Leron's eyes widened at this. "Only you can control the Looking Glass? So you purposefully showed me those memories?"

"Memories? What memories?" Vladstin lifted a perfectly curved eyebrow. "I merely told it to show you what pains you the most."

Leron gulped. So the mirror was showing him all those past memories to torture him. It now makes sense.

When they entered the door, Leron let out a gasp. The dining hall was refurnished and reconstructed almost exactly like it was before. The chairs, though most of them were broken and missing some legs, were arranged neatly around the table. The chandeliers were even set up, and a few of the draperies were arranged to hide the holes on the wall.

It was like he really had traveled back in the past, when this dining hall was once a place of delicious food and light-hearted banter and not empty ruins.

"How did you.... It looks completely the same as before...." Leron's blue eyes sparkled in awe.

Vladstin just jeered. "You'd be surprised at how many times more efficient corpses were compared to living humans. If you're done gawking there like a stupid buffoon, go take a seat."

Leron went to sit on one of the chairs, but tripped on the chains and fell over to Vladstin, who caught him reluctantly.

Vladstin sighed. "I forgot about this thing. Humans are really fragile, it's just a 20-pound metal ball and they can't even drag it with a single foot."

Vladstin bent down to Leron's feet, and with one clean swoop, he slashed the chains with his sharp nails like they were made of paper.

"T-Thank you...." Leron said, feeling leagues better now that his foot was free of the heavy baggage.

"Why are you even thanking me when I was the one who tied you to this chain in the first place?" Vladstin waved Leron's gratitude away like it was an annoying fly. "Go sit and have your meal."

Leron took another step towards the long table, but falters again, twisting his hips a bit.

Vladstin caught him again with a displeased expression. "Are you pretending to be a weak damsel in distress so I would have mercy on you? Do not even try me, I would still turn all of you into corpse puppets and make you lick my shoe."

"I...I'm not.... pretending...." Leron said, huffing from the slight pain. "My right leg hurts. But it's alright. You can let go of me now."

Vladstin let him go for a while but became exasperated when he saw the prince limp. He rolled his eyes and grumbled. "Oh, come on! You're going in such a slow pace, even a snail would be offended."

Leron felt his weight shift and he was suddenly carried in Vladstin's arms!

"W-Why did you—" Leron wasn't able to make any complaints when Vladstin used his super-speed to reach one of the chairs and set him down there.

"There, now eat." Vladstin pointed at the plethora of food in front of him, all familiar Ilvedian dishes. The vampire lord sat opposite of him, three meters apart. In front of him was a porcelain jug of murky red liquid that he poured on a wineglass.

"Where did that blood come from?" Leron asked cautiously as Vladstin took a sip.

"Hunter. In exchange, he asked me to send you all this food and drink every day, thinking that I was making you starve. He didn't know that even without this deal, I would be getting rations from his fallen people anyway and sending it to you." Vladstin's pale white skin regained color when he drank blood. "Ah.... I was right."

"Right about what?" Leron asked.

"His blood tastes horrible. It just doesn't suit my palate." Vladstin continued to pour another glass despite these complaints. "Why aren't you eating? Aren't you happy that your loyal people worry about you and bartered with me for your survival in exchange for their blood?"

"What exactly is happening? Why did they make a deal with you?" Leron reluctantly took the wooden fork and knife to cut up the roasted wild hare in front of him.

"I found something interesting. In exchange, I asked for their blood since I too am hungry to ashes. We're basically at a truce for fifteen days." Vladstin said. "Your people are doing quite well under the leadership of your Huntsmen. Some die, but that's unavoidable when you're in the woods. Sangfroid wanted to know if you're safe, so I sent him a shard of the Looking Glass to see how you are."

He turned his head to nowhere in particular and grinned widely. "I'm treating your beloved prince quite well, aren't I?"

"Where are they traveling to in the woods?" Leron asked, taking only small bites and quenching his dry throat with clean water.

Vladstin shrugged. "I have no idea. I could not care any less either. They are probably off to some kingdom that they will never reach within fifteen days before my corpse puppets tear through them."

"Until then.... You would give them peace? Just like that?" Leron started to take bigger bites and chew faster, satiating his hunger for days yet wanting to remain civilized.

"If you're hungry, go eat like a beast. Do you still consider yourself as some lofty prince? There is no more Ilvedia, therefore, there is no more Prince of Ilvedia. You're just a pitiful human now." A drop of blood dripped from the side of Vladstin's mouth, but he ignored it completely. "Why are you always so pretentious and hide in some noble facade when you're just a treacherous snake?"

At this, Leron bowed his head and stuffed his mouth with rabbit meat like he was told to.

"Tomorrow, my puppets will help you take a bath and give you some new clothes that we looted from your kingdom. Hunter also gave half of his mattresses and sheets." Vladstin finished the whole jug, his cheeks a little red like a drunkard. "Simpleton."

"Please thank Sangfroid for me." Leron finished his meal and gently dabbed his mouth with the napkin that a corpse gave him. This corpse had blonde hair, and he recognized her as Sazha, Suzhi's younger sister. One of her eyes was missing. His newly satisfied stomach suddenly became upset.

"Once you felt like calling it a day, I will have the corpse lay out your beddings over there." Vladstin pointed, and stood up. "Good night."

"Where are you going?" Leron asked.

"I will try it again." Vladstin mumbled vaguely, not looking back. He returned to the throne room where the Looking Glass was and closed the door.

Leron wondered what he was referring to. When he laid on the mattress to sleep, he thought of so many things that he felt he could barely close his eyes.

Noticing that none of the corpse puppets were paying attention to him, he tiptoed to the door and took a peek on what Vladstin was doing.

Vladstin was controlling the Looking Glass, his usually uncaring face in deep focus and concern.

"....Show me a time when I once felt emotion.. Anything will be good, as long as it invokes something in me."