Chapter 158: 9

Chapter 158: 9

The next day Jia Hyson went to the castle as usual in a good mood and bumped into Prince Kieran and Prince Damien.

Casually but still politely Jia Hyson gave a small nod with a hand over his heart in greeting, "Good morning your highnesses."

Both princes who originally had stiff expressions relaxed. They were still not fully adjusted to Alaric's changes since they didn't associate much, but seeing the much low key greeting improved their original impressions. After all the original Alaric was very insistent on following the tradition of giving a proper 90-degree bow to them when they met, wherever they met, which was very embarrassing.

What was more annoying was if Alaric felt the need to make conversation it was very boring topics that if they didn't have much opinion of, Alaric would then act pretentious and say how they simply must read the ancient vampire book of blah blah to better educate themselves. Honestly, Alaric's personality wasn't too bad per se if you were a noble vampire, but it was incredibly annoying nonetheless. And when you think the person is annoying you think everything they do is annoying.

It was so bad that every time they saw Alaric they felt the need to tense up subconsciously, and ignore the feeling of irritation seeing his face.

Jia Hyson didn't blame them, after all, he would and has disliked people for similar reasons. For example, when he was a student there was a fellow classmate who was incredibly sticky with him and often praised him.

At first, it was okay, but the sense of ignoring Jia Hyson's personal boundaries with the excuses of being a friend, being showered with over-exaggerated praise after every little thing, telling other people about what he had done, was very uncomfortable. The classmate would also say things like, 'Oh I could never be as good as you!', 'You're so amazingggg!', 'We're besties right?' and even 'Ah friend X went to your house? How come I haven't come over?' This sort of pushy licking dog* appearance directly disgusted the young Jia Hyson but at the time he didn't know what to do about it.

*A licking dog is like a yes man or crony. Essentially they will follow you and flatter you a lot generally to get benefits (but not necessarily).

Maybe if they were only acquaintances Jia Hyson could objectively praise the classmate, but with a bad impression, there is always a filter that makes one think negatively about the other. For example, it's normal to share an inside joke with friends and bring it up often, but if someone you dislike keeps bringing it up the joke is no longer so funny and you think that the person is beating a dead horse. Or if you show your bracelet off to a friend and they get a matching one it's a sign of closeness, but if someone you dislike looks at your bracelet and the next day they come and tell you they match with you, it becomes creepy, stalker-ish, and copying yourself.

There was also the 'I am so lazy, I never study but I get nearly full marks each time and I want everyone to know how surprised I am,' classmate, the 'Have you heard about this movie? I totally recommend this movie and I will ask you if you have watched it yet for an entire month until I find something else that I want you to also enjoy with me,' and finally the 'I never pull my weight during group projects but I will also not acknowledge my lack of participation and act friendly to try to hide the fact I'm clearly not contributing shit.' Seriously. Just. Fuck those guys.

So Jia Hyson does understand why people didn't like Alaric. He was kind of a privileged, snobby, conservative, pretentious, stick in the mud fuckface. Honestly, if Jia Hyson met him, he might not even have the desire to fuck him.

Bebe: 'Wow host, tell them what you really think.'

Jia Hyson: 'I said MIGHT not.' After all, his face and body were really good-looking ah.

Unfortunately, it was Alaric's ousted preference to go against gender norms that was the final straw and what was focused on in the plot. If it had been about his attitude, everything would have been fine. Because the most acceptable discrimination in his opinion is the discrimination against personality.

In Jia Hyson's opinion, as long as Alaric's personality is not so exaggeratedly repulsive and he has gained a neutral or, best case scenario, good impression from others, the chances of a big backlash from his 'true perversion' will still be very likely if found out but it won't be as bad. People are crueler to the people they dislike, and more biased toward those that they like. At the very least it doesn't hurt to reform people's impression for the better for now.

However, it's also a bit of a tightrope as Jia Hyson is also interested in minimising his involvement with the plot characters- specifically Damien. After all, in this teen romance book, the entire story was centred around Jessica Fang and Prince Damien Rose. Of course, the supporting characters were present too but their lines and screen time were significantly less.

If Jessica Fang's series was a play, the protagonists would have at least three booklets worth of script to memorise and the closest supporting characters would probably only get ten sheets of paper at best. Even Kieran who starred as the main antagonist in the first book was mainly written as the one manipulating behind the shadows and only got to receive the spotlight for a few scenes before receiving his lunchbox*.

*Receiving a lunchbox- essentially used in reference to actors/extras. When they finish early (e.g. the character dies) they can get a lunchbox and go home. Therefore this trend became a saying which means either you're out of the picture or, you straight up die. E.g. After the cannon fodder tries to kill the female lead, the male lead swoops in to save the day and the cannon fodder receives a lunchbox.

Thinking about that, Jia Hyson looks at the rather good looking Prince Kieran.

Prince Kieran: Eh? (,,,,) ? ? Suddenly big brother's annoying lackey is looking at him so tenderly?

Jia Hyson: Ah, it's such a pity such a good looking young man will be cast out in a few years. I should see if I can get a taste of him before he goes. ()

Prince Damien: Feeling a bit left out _(:< )_

In fact, if Prince Silas was lazy but effortlessly gorgeous with a scholarly air, then Prince Damien was the brooding handsome to the point of beautiful type that looked best staring out in the window while it rains. Prince Kieran on the other hand was just handsome. Like there was nothing particularly outstanding but he was indeed handsome. But it was like a normal guy handsome. Like he was wow, but not WOAH.

Prince Kieran: I have the inexplicable urge to burst into tears. QwQ

It was a little tragic. The amount of thought put into Kieran was probably nil, with his basic brown hair, basic symmetrical face that had nothing to fault but nothing to praise other than being quite friendly looking- compared to Silas with his half-lidded eyes that produced a lazy yet provocative gaze, long lashes and long strikingly silver hair, and Damien who had pitch-black slightly wavy hair and a face that was solemn as a carved statue and just as flawless- it really made one question the authenticity of their blood ties.

In fact, the only thing that connected all three of them was their pitch black eyes.

Yes. All three had black eyes.

In fact, black eyes were a sign of royalty for the Golden Rose Coven. Why wasn't it gold? Because the Golden Rose Coven wasn't named after the royal family's eyes like some sort of cliche. It was named the Golden Rose coven because of a love story about golden roses Like a different sort of cliche.

Jia Hyson wasn't that surprised honestly. In these sort of romantic fantasy stories, black eyes, grey eyes, silver, gold, purple- these were all unique but at the same time normal colours. Not to mention every time they drink blood their eyes all naturally turn red. These sort of magical eyes, really makes Jia Hyson want to gouge one out and study it ah~ (,,,> <,,) < p>

So in such a setting, Jia Hyson was too lazy to find the holders of the shards. Eye colour was the only indicator he knew and with that advantage gone, he couldn't do anything even if he actively tried.

It is true one could argue that he has a one in three chance of getting it right if he targets the Golden Rose coven but you also have to consider the fact that over the generations there were many of the royal bloodlines that married out. It wasn't like in the novels where the 'same soul' is always close by, the identity was really random as the last world has so thoroughly shown.

So in conclusion, if he likes, he will seduce, if it's a hassle then don't. There's no need to think much about it, as long as it doesn't affect the changes he wants to implement then it's fine. And even if it does affect them, he can always figure something out.

Bebe: 'You are just the definition of steering the boat wherever the winds lead* huh.'

* [] Kn fng sh du: Steer the boat wherever the winds lead = Not sticking to the big plan. Going with the flow. A fickle mind.

Jia Hyson: _()_/

He didn't have much to talk about with the two younger princes given they had an age difference and they were reluctant acquaintances (on the princes' part at least) at best. So after commenting on the weather and making a jab at an unlikeable teacher that they all share which brought a chuckle out of the pair of brothers, Jia Hyson bowed his head and bid farewell, reminding them with a gentle firmness not to be late and to study well. Even though this nagging was normal, with how casual and gently it was phrased it was no longer so irritating to the ear.

Trotting to class, Jia Hyson looked back and gave an awkward smile and a wave before facing forward, hiding the smug smirk from Kieran and Damien.

Heh, it's not too difficult. Just give it a little time and a few small opportunities and he can wash himself white* easily. Jia Hyson was sure at this time they will take the opportunity to gossip about his changes. As long as he is on their minds, he wins this round.

*Washing his dirty reputation white/clean essentially.

Bebe: Tinyclappingcat.gif

Jia Hyson: 'I don't know how to interpret that so I'm going to interpret it as support UwU.'

"Hey, brother, big brother's lackey seems much better now don't you think?"

"En," Damien agrees contemplatively, "As long as he continues improving maybe he will be seriously considered as a candidate for king's advisor."

Originally Alaric was a candidate for the role, after all, he was a Rong, he was intelligent, lawful and held a powerful skill. Unfortunately, advisors needed compatibility with their rulers. All three of the princes found Alaric quite abhorrent to be around, with only Silas barely tolerating it out of sheer apathy and laziness.

However, if Alaric becomes bearable and much more flexible in mind then he is indeed someone incredibly desirable as an ally.

Thinking that far, Damien drops the thought in favour of his upcoming classes. He wasn't very interested in the throne after all, as long as Silas gets his act together then there was no question on who will lead the coven. Damien was happy with this hoping his elder brother can eventually ascend the throne so he could finally pursue a freedom unavailable to a prince such as he.

Kieran hums noncommittally, in contrast, his black eyes flash in contemplation and calculation.

As he continues being a good student on the surface, while playing around, Prince Silas who was self-consciously hiding his face suddenly felt very lonely.

Hey, hey, shouldn't Alaric talk to him by now? Didn't he use to love to be naggy and forcefully make him wake up and pay attention to class?

Recently he's been doing less and less but at least he will always try to motivate me during the first lesson right?

Prince Silas awkwardly shifts his position and turns his head, peeking at the Jia Hyson before turning away, pretending to still be sleeping. Looking at him again, he was reminded of the explicit scene from before and his ears and face inexplicably became a little hot.

Ah, for the first time it seems he will have trouble sleeping through class.

After the first class ended, Jia Hyson was ready to remind Silas to wake up only to find, to his surprise, the other had already sat up, eyes bright and awake, not like he had just woken up at all. "Prince Silas? You" This guy who loves to sleep actually was so awake during the first class?

Jia Hyson was a skilled writer and an even lazier human being. But even he couldn't comprehend the laziness of Prince Silas. He's been in this world neither for a short or long time, but he swears that the number of times Prince Silas was fully awake before eleven in the morning was less than the number of fingers he had on his hands.

Seeing the shock, and distrust of his most loyal subject, Prince Silas felt unhappy and subconsciously defended himself. "It is too boring to sleep the entire time. I figured it may be interesting to do a little foundational work so I don't have to do so much later on."

"Really?"

Prince Silas gave Jia Hyson a lazy look, raising his eyebrow questioningly, "Didn't you say those words to me? So surprising I decided to listen?"

Jia Hyson: 'Well. To be perfectly honest, yes.' This guy was so lazy it was no wonder there were so many people who didn't want him to be a candidate to take over the coven.

Bebe: 'Bebe also votes yes too.' This guy was so lazy you could drug a sloth and the animal would probably still be more active and motivated than this vampire.

Prince Silas: Suddenly feeling so angry.

Disliking the doubtfulness so obviously shown on Alaric's attractive face, the crown prince of the Golden Rose coven childishly and impulsively grabbed the other person's notebook. Usually, he was too lazy to showcase the usual immaturity of vampires his age but this time he was directly stimulated and did not take the time to think of finding an alternative way to impress Alaric. "Hmph, you give me your notes, I'll show you how good I can be."

Even if Prince Silas wasn't energetic, he still had the prestigious blood of royalty in his veins and his speed was not Jia Hyson's match. Jia Hyson couldn't even react when the notebook was already snatched. By the time he did, it was too late and recalling the 'colourful' notes he had been taking since he got here, he immediately blushed and panicked.

"Your highness, please give that back!"

Of course, how could he? Blocking the rather weak attempts in grabbing the book back with one hand, Prince Silas used his dexterous fingers of his other hand to adjust the book so he can clearly take in the notes for today's classes and prove his potential to be a good student.

Wouldn't it be very cool to Alaric, this top student, if with just a glance, Prince Silas could recite the entire page? He was a little interested in seeing the expression, though Alaric's current embarrassed one was also good-looking.

However, when he actually saw the notes, it turned out he was the one who was shocked.

It's not that no notes were taken. In fact, the main key points of the lesson were noted down in simple dot points. But other than a few lines of neat writing, the rest of the page was covered in doodling and word games. There were a few somewhat serious small sketches of a man's chest, some monsters, a little fairy in the corner, round cute looking animals, some very strange squiggles that somewhat looked like a bumblebee

Both Jia Hyson and Bebe cursed in their heart and felt really bad as they waited for the other's reaction.

Jia Hyson: Fuck, it's over, the character collapsed.

Bebe: Bebe is sorry, Bebe will never underestimate drugged sloths again. ( ^ )

Unwilling to collapse without doing something, Jia Hyson took advantage of Prince Silas' sluggishness as he stares at the messy notes, and seizes his notebook with a flushed face.

Prince Silas, seeing the other's embarrassment, couldn't resist chuckling. His black eyes twinkled in faint teasing. Because of his lethargic character, Silas didn't actually talk a lot as he felt it was a bit of a pain. But sometimes silence was more painful than words.

Annoyed and flustered, Jia Hyson lightly hits Silas' shoulder with playful irritation, "You-! As the crown prince, you shouldn't be doing something as vulgar as stealing you know!" He complains.

"As a potential royal advisor, you shouldn't be slacking on your studies either." Silas points out mildly.

Jia Hyson tsks, crossing his arms defensively and speaking more casually now that he sees Silas was willing to banter with him, "It's only morality class, besides aren't you just the pot calling the kettle black?" Continuing to pretend to be embarrassed, Jia Hyson gathers up his things to leave. "Come on, we're going to be late for the next class now ah."

Silas reluctantly follows obediently, unwilling to stop their current conversation. Still, as they walk quietly to class, he couldn't refuse the urge to glance at Alaric a few times, once again amazed at how much the other had changed. No, maybe it was more like, how different Alaric was once he finally relaxed and let down his walls a little.

Looking at the beautiful profile of Alaric, his delicate features, those bright blue eyes, and naturally long dark lashes, Silas smiles faintly.

It turns out that Alaric likes to pretend to be a good child.

It turns out that he also gets bored in class and draws all over his books.

It turns out this good child is secretly a little devil who is quite a pervert too.

It turns out he was not annoying at all, but actually, if you look closer he was actually really cute ah.

Before he was unwilling and too lazy to see past the surface of the vampire. But now that Alaric had smoothed out a lot of his rigid thorny personality and was willingly showing him just a little of his true self, Silas found that he was a little addicted to finding out more and more.

Silas felt like sleeping was still his favourite thing to do. But maybe he should spare a bit more time to reacquaint himself with his cute companion from now on.

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AN:

Hey guys~ Sorry going back to work was way more tiring than expected so I couldn't do what I wanted and post something by Thursday ah~ I know you guys enjoy this story a lot but please don't do things like comment about when the next chapter is coming or commenting about I haven't released a chapter yet etc. It's very pressuring and a big turn off for me ah. If you were an early fan you know I used to post 3x a week but because I got a lot of those comments I was so turned off I just did once a week- also I started work too but the pls update comments thing definitely killed some of my goodwill toward readers ah.

So I think the most pressing thing here in this chapter is the age thing. Generally, vampires are kinda exempt from the whole pedophilia thing as long as the human is sixteen and above from my small understanding of how vampire tropes work work.

Ok. Confession time- I did not consume much modern teen vampire media as a teenager. Like, in retrospect I've watched the entire first twilight movie- wasn't super into it hence I didn't watch anything more and I didn't read the books- but I did watch like commentaries of people like AlexMyers or PrettyMuchIt on the twilight series in the past few years I never watched Buffy and it's mainly anime vampires I consumed I suppose. So I have many ideas but like, I don't have a strong basis, there's definitely going to be some sort of vampire tropes I'll probably miss or didn't interpret well but I think I got a decent amount into the world-building?

Honestly there's just so much world building. I have many ideas and just gotta- gotta *mimics shoving it down your throats*.

Anyway this story is definitely sus. There's gonna be the vampire age difference thing, non con dub con situations- anyway I know I was very moral the first few chapters but throw those newly built morals away and lock em up for now~

Also, there was a lot who really enjoyed the 'introspective' style and I admit, it's because I spent like two months reading Good Mother System and Good Dad System (same author) and it's. So. Good. It's mtl but ITS GOOD MTL OKAY JUST BELIEVE ME! I cry its so good. I was directly influenced, so if you liked the introspective style READ IT OMG. I cry. My heart.

Also, also~ The Zombie Emperor's Part-time Job I wrote a very short first chapter for it~ I need to write like 4k words for it to be properly registered but if you just search my username on WN the story should come up for you guys to take a look at (loophole hehe)~

Anyway that's my authors note~ I hope you guys have a good week~