Meijiro and The Pearl

The sound of bustling streets greeted the ship as it docked in the harbor, welcoming the passengers down to the city of Meijiro.

Stellar walked down the ship with his travel bag and wandered around the city— in case he saw his old man sleeping on the streets.

The market offered old traditional snacks while some sold new inventions that attracted more customers. His favorite snack was pork skewers.

As a dhampir, he rarely eats animal products because they taste too plain. Pork skewers were juicy enough for him to imagine he was eating human flesh instead.

He paid for the snacks and went on to search Caelios while admiring the new look of the city streets. They were much different than he remembered. The people have different clothing styles now than the previous centuries yet it was still traditional in a sense. But the air remained the same— fresh and clean with the smell of freshly harvested fruits and vegetables.

The women have improved too. They looked more youthful and prettier than he remembered. They were a little shy but still gave him a hint of interest behind their kimono sleeves. The men looked at him as if he was a foreign being and shot him a warning look.

And for some reason he felt like his ego was stroked.

But he didn’t care about that. He should focus on finding his old man first and foremost. The ladies could wait.

As he walked around the city, he noticed someone went into his pocket— not knowing that Stellar was aware of it— and walked away, putting his pouch into their pocket. Stellar watched carefully as the thief tried to blend into the crowd. He mused to himself, entertained by the idea of teaching them a lesson.

The thief walked among the crowds before hiding himself somewhere in the dark alley, and checking his surroundings.

“Let’s see if I hit the jackpot… That guy’s pouch feels heavy so there’s definitely plenty of gold inside.” The thief giggled to himself, finally revealing the contents inside.

His excitement died and quickly distorted into a horrified look the moment he saw what was inside. He fell down to the ground and his hands slipped, causing the pouch to hit the ground.

A baby’s head rolled out from the bag. The eyes were dried up and the flesh was rotten. The skin was a disgusting green, enough to make someone puke.

The thief scurried back and quickly got up and ran in panic without looking where he was going before he hit what felt like a wall.

“Oh, there you are.” Stellar spoke, striding towards him. “Apologies if my newborn scared you. I didn’t realize that he had been in my inventory this whole time. One of my exes had probably tried to traumatize me with our dead child that I dismembered.”

The thief cowered back and stepped on the dead newborn’s head, cracking its skull and making a very unnerving sound, causing him to trip and hit his butt on the ground and scream for his life.

“Please, I’ll do anything! I’ll be quiet! I won’t tell a soul about this! Just please spare me! I have a family to feed!”

Stellar’s eyes scrunched, scrutinizing his every being. He was dead silent for a moment before kneeling down to thief’s level.

“Will you keep that promise?” He asked, sending a chill down to the man’s spine.

“Y-yes! I will! I will. So please, don’t kill me. I beg of you.” He said, clasping his hand. He looked too pitiful to be even pleading for his life.

Stellar watched how he was already pathetically begging for his mercy like it was enough to satiate his own entertainment before getting up and looked at the poor, frightened man with a satisfied smile.

“Alright. I’ll keep your word.” He said.

“Thank you! I won’t tell anyone.” The thief said, before quickly trying to leave the scene and never looked back.

He ran to the opposite direction as fast and as frantic as he could before something tugged on his legs and made him trip and fall. He looked back to see a boned hand gripping on his leg and not letting him go, no matter how hard he shook them off.

Faint footsteps followed closer, revealing Stellar trailing behind him all this time.

“I was actually joking. I didn’t mean to let you go so easily.” He said, a twisted smirk etched on his face.

His eyes glowed red, different from his golden amber. He went closer and tugged on the man’s hair roughly— making the poor guy wince in pain.

“I just got here today. I can’t afford another bounty on my head again after these peaceful years. And I won’t let you slip away and report to the guards about me. I don’t care if you have a family to feed. You probably don’t have any family to begin with anyway.”

He let go of his hair and stepped back, watching the man’s horrified expression was like a clown putting on a show for him. He liked that.

A few more skeleton hands burst out from a mysterious hole and grabbed his feet as the man screamed for help and tried clawing out from the grip. Stellar watched him crying and struggling to escape as he slowly descended into the pit of darkness with a sickening smile on his face before the man was sucked in entirely by the skeletons. He then walked away and stomped on the remains of his dead newborn’s head. He looked at the shoe soles and rubbed it on the ground, not concerned too much about it.

It was probably Morgana’s doing, he thought.

Morgana was one of the women he slept and had an accidental baby with. He had already made himself clear that he wasn’t going to be responsible for the child and that the baby would have mutations and is not going to live long and healthy. She insisted that she’d keep the baby and made sure he would be the father to her kid. She believed that keeping the baby would mean that he would be around, be a responsible dad and they would be a happy family.

Until the baby was born with three arms and seven legs. Morgana was devastated and almost lost her mind but was delusional enough to think that Stellar would let her keep the baby.

However, he knew that the baby would become an uncontrollable monster and would develop a serious psychopathic condition where it would kill everyone and everything because of the vampire blood inside him mixing with human blood. Either that or die a few years later.

Stellar wasn’t born normal either. Caelios told him that he found him in the trash with fifteen fingers and five eyes as a newborn baby. The only reason he looked normal now is because Caelios cut those extra fingers off and removed three eyes before using magic and alchemy to cover up those wounds. The old man had also been teaching him how to behave normally and to tone down his psychopathic tendencies in order to blend with humans. He managed to do it but sometimes it would slip out and he couldn’t help himself to watch others suffer.

And Morgana’s baby wasn’t the first accident he made. There were at least two more before hers. And both of his children were slaughtered by the villagers earlier in the era where he was still naive. And he slaughtered Morgana’s baby so that it would hurt less for her.

But Morgana couldn’t accept that and completely lost her mind before she died from heartbreak and exhaustion. Before she died, she put the baby’s head into one of his pouches as a reminder of their relationship. But he could care less about it and simply forgot about it until decades later.

He walked in the streets mindlessly until the strong pungent smell of perfume stung his nose. He looked around and the women were looking down at him, giggling and waving at him. Their clothing was raunchier than other women in the town and there were men and women flocking around the city, flirting and luring each other with only a gaze.

He facepalmed with a look of disappointment.

“Shit, I’m in the Red Light District.” He murmured to himself.

Despite the realization, he kept walking around the area— observing the rich and the poor. There were some sick beggars on the streets and a lot of them had scabs and pus on their body. Probably infection coming from women. The rich and wealthy had women all over him with feigned affection.

He then saw a grand building in the heart of the District, almost rivaling the Imperial Palace building. Out of curiosity he went inside to check what it had to offer.

“Just thirty gold? Are you mocking me right now?” A woman’s voice echoed in the waiting room. He stepped in to see a group of men lining up in a queue with a bunch of pouches of gold ready in their hands. There was a young woman yelling in disappointment as she argued with him.

“I have been working hard to see Mitsu. Please, at least let me see her even if it's just for a second.”

The young woman, with a pretty face and big bust like that— she could be mistaken as a courtesan herself. But given the building infrastructure and the vibe, this is definitely a brothel. And she’s probably the owner.

“How many times should I tell you that you need at least a hundred thousand silver or one thousand gold if you want to see her? Any lower than that I can offer you our low or middle rank courtesan.” The young woman explained, taking a puff of tobacco from the smoking pipe. “You’re wasting my time right now. Leave.”

With a defeated look, the man left the brothel with a pot of gold in his hand. A few other men also dispersed from the queue and eventually Stellar was the only man in the room.

“You’re sticking out like a sore thumb, you know?” The young woman said, smoking and huffing out the smoke to his direction, making him slightly cough. “I can tell you’re a foreigner from your attire.”

“Yeah, I stumbled upon this place by accident. Didn’t know that the owner would be a feisty young lady.” He said, attempting to smooth talk his way.

However, she wasn’t amused by it.

It wasn’t his first time seeing that face. Not a lot of women are easy if he was to be honest. But a lot of them would be charmed later down in life.

“One more attempt at making a fool of yourself and you’re no longer welcomed here.” She said, her voice stern.

He instantly knew not to mess with her.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” He said, trying to not make her mood worse. He cleared his throat, trying to negotiate with her.

“I heard that there’s a courtesan that is worth someone’s whole life savings. I believe that she is the Pearl of this nation who happens to be in this brothel.”

The lady eyed him up and down before taking another puff of smoke into her lungs. “Why? Are you interested in seeing her?”

“Well I was just curious if she met my expectations of beauty—“ He said, before getting cut off by her.

“You already heard the price I mentioned earlier. If you have it, show it to me. If you don’t, there’s the exit.”

He instantly pressed his lips and only muttered to agree. “Sure.”

Stellar pulled a heavy pouch from his bag and tossed it to the table, spilling out silver coins, gold and a few diamonds and jewelry that only nobles could afford. Some of them were also antiques.

“You— where did you get these?” The lady asked, inspecting the diamonds carefully.

“I had been saving up.” He said, partially lying. He stole them from some of his exes and saved them in case of emergency.

“This necklace…” She picked up an antique necklace that belonged to one of his earlier exes. “This one is worth at least ten generations of wealth.”

“Does that mean I can stay and visit here for a long time?” He inquired. “After all, it is worth ten generations of wealth.”

She looked at him and then smirked. “You’re not a human, aren’t you?”

“I’m more of a scavenger for treasures.” He lied, casually shrugging. “I just happened to find them during my adventures.”

She stayed silent, before leaving the counter.

“Then please follow me, esteemed guest.” She said, her tone deviating from scornful to attentive.

He followed behind her, observing the brothel’s interior and the people in it.

There were a lot of men enjoying their stay here, with beautiful girls pouring drinks and entertaining them.

“It’s been a long while since Mitsu had any proper guests. She had been waiting for someone to come and be entertained by her performance.” The lady informed, taking another puff of smoke.

She was harsh and rude before, now she’s suddenly polite and more eloquent with her words. Probably because of how much he had paid.

He watched her from behind, hearing her rambling about the highest rank courtesan in the brothel.

“Her hunger would be satiated once she has you in her bed.”

Stellar didn’t say anything about that remark despite it could be a little improper. Although, what does she mean by that?

Then he could hear a faint voice of a woman singing a lullaby. It was the sweetest lullaby he had ever heard in his entire lifetime.

He felt like he was being lured into the voice. The lullaby felt sweet and innocent yet also melancholic and he could hear her yearning in her lullaby.

The lullaby got clearer and sweeter as they reached her chamber. And as the owner pushed the door, he could see her sitting quietly on the nook while singing before she turned around to see him.

Their eyes met and a gentle breeze swayed her locks in the wind.

From that moment, he knew she was trouble.