Chapter 72

72 Clearing the Air

Zenon stopped in front of Anastasia’s door. He stretched his hand to knock on the door but stopped when he heard the sounds of footsteps approaching closer to the door.

The door opened, and as he had expected, he saw Tilla along with Anastasia.

Both Tilla and Anastasia were startled to their core when they saw Zenon standing right outside.

Anastasia immediately held Tilla by her hand, pulled her back, and hid Tilla behind her. She then glared at Zenon as if to warn him not to take a single step closer to Tilla.

Zenon half raised his hands as if to say that he wasn’t there to hurt them. And he spoke in a low voice, “My Queen, I am not here to do anything to Tilla. It seems like there has been a slight misunderstanding between her and Vincent. So, I am simply here to clear the confusion.”

However, Anastasia didn’t believe him. She had already heard everything from Tilla, about the dungeon that was right below them, about the human prisoners who were kept like animals, and about what Vincent had told her.

So Anastasia clearly told him, “I don’t think there is any confusion to clear, Zenon. I don’t want to hear any lies.”

Anastasia then tried to move out of the door along with Tilla. She was going to demand an explanation from Caspian. And she was going to demand him to let all the humans go.

However, Zenon spread out his hand and blocked their path. He then pleaded to the Queen, “Your Majesty, I am not going to tell any lies. Please, let’s sit down and talk this out calmly. Let me explain everything properly to y-”

.....

Anastasia closed her eyes and gestured for Zenon to stop speaking.

She then looked into his red eyes and said in a rather hurt voice, “Zenon, I know that vampires need human blood to survive. But I didn’t know that the humans were kept right here in such a terrible condition. And I cannot accept that they get slaughtered every day. I cannot live in the same castle where the humans are rotting underneath.”

Anastasia took a deep breath in and then asked Zenon again, “So please, let me through. I need to talk with Caspian.”

Zenon, however, didn’t move an inch from where he was standing. He asked resolutely, “Will you please hear me out before you go and find His Majesty?”

Anastasia sighed. She was sure that Zenon wouldn’t try to harm her or Tilla in any way. So she thought of hearing what he had to say first.

She turned on her heels and headed towards the chairs. She was tightly holding Tilla’s arms all the while.

She sat down and asked Zenon, who had followed her inside her antechamber, “What is it that you wanted to say? I’m all ears.”

Zenon stood in front of the Queen. And then he explained, “I won’t deny what Tilla saw in the dungeon. There are human prisoners there. And yes, we vampires use them as our source of food.”

Anastasia felt a shrilling pain running in her heart when Zenon didn’t even try to deny or hide that fact.

And Tilla was worried sick that Zenon would drag her to the dungeon and lock her there before Anastasia could do anything to protect her.

But both of them kept on stiffly listening to Zenon.

“However, I would like to make it clear that we don’t imprison humans at random. Those who are down there, aren’t helpless and innocent humans. All of them have committed some heinous crimes. And that’s why they are here. They are getting punished for their crimes. But rather than giving them a life sentence or a death sentence, we use them as our food source.”

Tilla suddenly shouted at Zenon, “Are you sure that’s really what’s happening? The woman I talked to was saying that she had a five-year-old daughter at home. She was saying that her daughter was all alone.”

“I think you talked to a prisoner named May Wilson.” Zenon turned his gaze to Tilla and said, “Her daughter became all alone because she killed her husband, the only other family member her daughter had apart from her. That woman was having an affair with another man.”

“So, what happened to the child?” Anastasia asked worriedly.

Zenon looked back at Anastasia and politely answered, “You don’t have to worry about the child, Your Majesty. As per His Majesty’s order, she has been sent to a new family who was willing to adopt her.”

A sudden relief got reflected on both Anastasia and Tilla’s faces.

And Zenon took the chance to further clear things out, “In the past, we vampires used to hunt humans just like how predators hunt their prey. But it didn’t work that well since Sorvando only has a handful of the human population.”

He had a subtle smile on his face when he said, “After King Caspian took over the throne, he made certain changes. He passed the law that vampires weren’t allowed to freely hunt down humans.”

“So they are allowed to do it in secret?” Anastasia gave a questioning glance to Zenon.

Zenon shook his head and replied, “No, I didn’t mean that either. What I meant is that the vampires need to take permission from the King for how they are going to source their food. Either they can request their daily ration of blood from the castle. And we will have it delivered to their homes. Or they can get permission to hire blood servants.”

“Blood servants?” Anastasia asked in a whisper because the name itself sounded awful.

Zenon gave a nod and replied casually, “Yes, they are hired only to get blood for the household.”

Zenon saw the look of horror in Anastasia’s eyes, and he immediately blurted everything out, “But we won’t allow just anyone to be the blood servants. They should be healthy, and they should also be willing.

“Most of the blood servants are hired by the powerful and rich houses. They are treated with proper care. They have the highest pay among the servants and there is a minimum number of hire per house. We know they won’t survive if we draw out blood daily from just one human.”

Anastasia was obviously not completely okay to hear that. However, she knew it was much better and more organized than hunting humans and terrorizing the human village.

She cleared her throat and then asked, “The blood that the castle delivers is of the prisoners in the dungeon?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I hope that I did put your heart at ease.” Zenon kept on looking at Anastasia’s face to see if she was satisfied by his answer or not. He could still see that she had some questions.

And as he had thought, Anastasia looked at him and asked, “What will happen if one day all the humans stop committing crimes? And what if no humans volunteer to be a blood servant?”

Zenon could tell where that question was coming from. He could tell that the Queen was worried, thinking that the vampires would go back to their previous ways of getting their food.

So he gave a brutally honest answer, “Humans will never stop committing crimes even when they know that they will get killed for it. And about the blood servants, humans will always need money. They will do anything to provide a comfortable life for their family.”

Zenon gave a subtle smile and said with confidence, “In short, there will never arise a problem in the current system.”