Chapter 8. Soulmates

At half past 11, Ken got ready and headed down to the common room. As he walked down the stairs and into the common area, he saw a few groups of people still scattered around in the mostly empty common room.

Due to the island's location, the weather is quite tropical. Even during the first few months of the year, it was never cold like Ken's hometown. As Ken walked out into the dark night, the night was cool but with a slight warm breeze, making it quite comfortable to just walk around outside.

The school grounds were dimly lit by the light posts scattered around and the bright reflection of the moonlight. As Ken arrived at the garden, he was greeted by countless silhouettes of couples scattered all over the area.

Not sure exactly where he should go or be since the garden is gigantic, Ken decided to walk towards the middle of the garden where an enormous, enchanted water fountain displaying beautiful water patterns 24hours a day is located.

When Ken arrived at the water fountain, before he could wonder what he should do or if whoever wrote the note would even shows up, someone gently tapped him on the shoulder from behind.

When Ken turned around, he saw the outline of a girl. She was about 5'8, slightly taller than Clare but shorter than Lovetta. As the moonlight shone on her, her pure silver hair glistered in the soft wind and her bright deep red eyes gazed at Ken intently.

"Oh, it's you Alice. I was wondering who would leave me a note and asked me to come out at midnight."

Without saying a word, Alice guided Ken to an empty bench by a large tree where the moonlight wouldn't shine through and the two are now sitting in almost complete darkness.

"Before I get started, I want us to have a proper introduction. My name is Alice Vespera, daughter of Duke Drake Vespera and my uncle Draven Vespera is the current king of the kingdom of Vespera."

"Uhmm, my name is Ken, I'm from the kingdom of Miodod."

"Ken... I said properly. What's your family name? Never heard of Miodod before, what part of the territory is it located in?" Alice replied, getting slightly frustrated.

"Hello. My name is Ken. I am an orphan, so I don't have a family name. The kingdom of Miodod is in the beastman territory, but I never went to school before coming here so I'm not too sure of its exact location."

"Is that why you got a zero on the entry exam?" Alice's tone shifted slightly as Ken talked.

"Sure is. When I got first got here, I had no clue what I was doing or what anything meant. Thankfully, I am able to make two awesome amazing friends who have been helping me greatly to catch up."

"After I left this morning, did the elf princess tell you about the history between human and vampire?"

As the two sat in the dark, Ken gives her a brief summary of what Clare explained to him.

"As expected from the top student, her explanation is exactly what's printed in most history books. Now to the reason why I asked you to come out. Do you want to listen to my version of the story? Be warned, it might be a long night if you decide to stay and listen"

"It's past midnight, I really should be getting back to go to sleep, but hearing about the vampires and seeing you today have really intrigued me greatly so I will be more than happy to listen to your story."

"More than ten thousand years ago, there existed only one race. Depending on which version of the story you believe, either the human or the elf was the original single race in this world.

Even though the world isn't divided by the different races like today, war and conflict consumed the world and peace is nowhere to be found.

One day, the most powerful warrior decided he is no longer willing to keep fighting and killing, so he decided to sacrifice his own life to create the most powerful spell to ever exist.

At the exchange of his life, he created a spell that fused every single person in the world with something close by. Some got fused with pure elements, others with animals, others with different objects and the world completely changed in a single day.

That day ten thousand years ago, is known as the Great Reset where our whole world changed. Even the beastman, lizardman and merman would agree that something happened around ten thousand years ago as nothing in any of their history dates beyond that period.

No one today could say for sure why the warrior decided to cast the spell he did. The story that's been passed down by my ancestors says that he believed if everyone is unique, then maybe that would stop the constant wars and conflicts.

Either way, it didn't take long for the conflicts and war to start again. When the Great Reset first occurred, it was said that the world was filled with all kinds of different races that we can't even imagine today.

But since the fusing is location based, those lived around areas with a lot of furbearers became the acenstors for beastman, areas heavily occupied with reptiles became lizardman, around water areas into merman and since human and elf don't have any distinct animalistic triats. Both race believed they were the original race and fused with magic and that's why they are able to retain their appearance.

Eventually, similar looking individuals begin to group together and only a few generations later, defining traits started to show up in different groups and the discrimination and conflict started to get worse and eventually different areas begin to have a dominant appearance.

Only five hundred years after the Great Reset, the major races have already emerged and all those that are too different and didn't fit the traits were either wiped out or went into hiding so they could preserve their existence.

My ancestors had it easy compared to many other minor races as we looked exactly like the humans expect maybe our slightly sharper canines. Blending in with the humans for us was easy and something you won't find in the history books is that it's said that each vampire is born to have a soulmate.

Not only does human blood offer us the highest nutrition, the more compatible the blood, the less we need to consume to be fulfilled. It's said that if we were able to find our soulmate, we wouldn't need another food source for life.

For thousands of years after the Great Reset, we co-existed with humans in great harmony. But due to our naturally stronger and faster body, a group of vampires begin to feel that humans are inferior and instead of forming lifelong partnerships with a soulmate, they begin to impose the idea that humans are nothing more than our food source.

It was around two thousand years ago when the great era of peace started that discrimination towards humans got more popular since we no longer had to hide behind their great numbers to protect ourselves from wars with other races.

If you think about it, just how dumb does it sound that we felt we were superior yet still hid behind the humans for protection. But with the world mostly at peace, those in favor of vampire superiority started to become more and more widespread. The name vampire was thought up during that time when my ancestors started to try and differentiate themselves from humans.

The rest of the story is as the elf princess has told you. To have consistent top quality food supply, those new age vampires decided to farm humans like livestock and treated them as nothing more than food. And we eventually ended up paying for our arrogance as my whole race was almost erased from existence.

At first, most human felt no sympathy for my race but as time passed and the world been at peace for so long. More and more begin to sympathize with my people and felt that what Darrumburgh did was even more immoral and cruel and that we should no longer be confined to this one city.

While Darrumburgh never backed down on our confinement to this day. For the past few hundred years, they left us to total self-governing and have not interfered with any of our affairs.

Now having more freedom than ever before, most of the higher-class vampires started to pick up that old habit that's ingrained in us. But unlike before, we are no longer trying to form partnerships, we are not looking for our soulmates, but we are also not trying to farm humans since we have learned our lesson.

With money been the driving force for the world today. If you have enough money to offer, technically it's possible that any kingdom could get one of the 10 great heroes to serve you. And with our city extremely prosperous, most of the high-class vampires nowadays are openly hiring human servants as a food source.

My family, my uncle and most of the nobles I know have multiple human servants that we hired and pay solely to allow us to drink their blood.

Sure, to the general public, like the elf princess who is not in the known for vampire affairs, they still believe that we are following that thousand-year-old agreement, but I have been drinking mostly human blood since birth.

And even here at the school, the blood we get at the dining hall is actually human blood imported from Darrumburgh. They are just marked as animal blood and we just pretend we are still following the old agreement so as not to draw too much attention onto ourselves or having to explain it to people."

All this time while Alice talked, Ken just sat in the dark staring at the moon while listening intently.

"Are you even listening, or did you fall asleep?" Alice wondered as Ken sat there in total silence.

"Yea, I'm listening, and I heard every single word. Just fascinated by the story and trying to process it." Ken replied softly.

"After hearing my version of the story, what do you think? Who do you think is in the right? Do you think we should be allowed to drinking human blood?"

After taking a moment to gather his thoughts, Ken begins to speak.

"I grew up in a kingdom where I was treated differently by a lot of people simply because of the way I looked. At my orphanage, most of my siblings got abandoned because they have distinct mixed features.

I have always wondered if the parents were just going to throw their children away because of the way they looked. Why did they even get into a relationship with another race when they knew of the discrimination that would happen? If they can be so cold-hearted as to abandon their own flesh and blood, why did they even have the child in the first place?

One thing I realized after coming to this academy that I didn't before is that sometimes, people don't really have a choice. Before coming here, all I knew was that some people are good, and some are bad.

My adoptive mother who took in all of the orphaned kids and treated us like family. The old man at the market gives us deals that would make him lose money. The villagers who treated us no differently just because we don't look the same. To me they were good people. Those that try to cheat me when I finish a job or treat me like dirt because of my race, I deemed them as bad people.

But obviously after coming here and getting better educated and seeing everything that goes on at the academy, I'm beginning to understand that not everything is so black and white.

As much as I feel sorry for some of the commoners who I know are getting bullied and picked on and been treated like servants. I haven't done anything to help them because I know I don't have the power to make a difference. And if I butt in, it might only make things worse for them. Does that make me a bad person for not helping them?

Since the beginning of the school year, there have been countless beastman and elves that have told Lovetta and Clare to stop been so friendly with me. Are they bad for trying to stop our friendship? Or are they actually good because they know just how cruel the world is and is trying to protect one of their own?

I have firsthand experience on what happens to children that have mixed blood so I should know just how bad of an idea it is to get too friendly with someone from a different race. Does it actually make me the bad person for wanting to continue this friendship knowing where it could end up?

What I have learned from coming to this academy is that most things in this world exist in some sort of a gray area and most people will act out of self-interest.

Since coming to this academy, I think I have been looked down on, talked down to more times in the two months than my whole life as an orphan human living in a beastman kingdom.

Even though most of the time I act like it's not bothering me, and I can ignore them or laugh it off. At the end of the day, I'm still just a 15-year-old country boy that has no education, money, connection or power.

I know that by been friends with Clare and Lovetta, they are being judged unfairly, called disgraces to their races and deep down, I know it's best if they never talked to me again. But I don't want to be left alone, I know if I didn't have their support, I wouldn't be able to keep fighting and forcing myself to give it my all and I am too scared to let them go.

Sorry I went on a tangent when it had nothing to do with your question, I guess I just had too many pent-up thoughts and somehow hearing your story makes me want to just let it all out."

Taking in a deep breath, Ken stretched his arms and legs and continued.

"Moving on to your question. Do I think the vampires were evil for keeping humans as livestock? If I was one of the ones been kept, then for sure I would feel that way. But I can't fault you for wanting to drink human blood when it's how you are born to be.

I can't comment on what happened thousands of years ago but all I know from that story is whether it be back then or now, there is too much hate and discrimination when we should embrace our difference instead.

While personally I won't ever be a servant, but if what you are saying is true that people now are willingly giving away their blood and they are getting properly compensated then I have no issue with that.

That's why I went to the infirmary and got the blood paper in the first place. I won't and can't judge you for your desire for human blood just as I won't judge someone for having pointy ears or a tail."

"You know Ken, when I first heard of you the day after the entry exam, I got very interested in you and thought that it's great that a commoner is confident and standing up against all the snobby nobles.

But when the elf princess joined your group and started acting the way she did, my perception flipped. I couldn't understand why a princess of the Yelwraek kingdom would act the way she is after she started hanging out with you.

With all the rumors and gossip, I truly believed that you were somehow blackmailing her or put her under some kind of a special spell.

But now that I have talked with you, even though it's only been a few hours since I have known you, I can see why even a princess is willing to drop her front and be her true self while with you."

As the two sat under the moonlight, the moment of silence snapped them back to the reality that they are amongst countless pairs of couples in the dead of night.

Before Ken could say something to break the silence, he felt her soft hands on his cheeks as she turned his head towards her.

Even though Ken is already 15 and considered to be a full-grown adult, he has never thought about having a relationship or love. Before coming to the academy, his only concern is to make enough money or find enough food, so he and the family don't go hungry. Since joining the academy, studying and getting stronger so he doesn't get looked down on has occupied his full attention.

But even for him, having such a beautiful girl holding him with their faces inches apart and eyes locked, he can feel his heart pounding and not knowing what he should do. With so many couples around them making out, he unconsciously tried to go in for a kiss.

Before their lips could touch, the vampire girl lowered her head, and he felt her soft lips on his neck. Not knowing what's happening, Ken sat frozen in confusion while feeling her tongue moving softly across his neck.

To him, what felt like an eternity was only 10 seconds as Alice was once again at eye level with him.

"Sorry, I am starving so I couldn't help myself."

"Oh, so you were just trying to drink my blood."

"Eh? Are you disappointed I wasn't trying to make out with you?" Alice answered playfully.

"Well, with where we are and what everyone around us are doing, I would say yes, I am kind of disappointed when I was expecting my first kiss."

Without any warning, Ken felt her soft lips on his own but before he could savory the sensation, she pulled away just as quicky and left Ken feeling even more confused and not sure what he should be feeling.

"So, that was not the payment for drinking my blood, right?" Ken asked somewhat jokingly while still trying to figure out what he should be feeling.

Burst out laughing at his comment and startling many couples around, Alice had to catch her breath from laughing before she could reply.

"When you pulled out the blood paper at the common room earlier, I knew instantly that you are my soulmate.

I had my share of human blood from countless number of humans and while some tasted slightly better than others, at long as it's type A blood, it had always tasted good and compared to animal blood it was always better and took way less for me to be satisfied.

No one I knew or heard of has ever found this so-called soulmate that's passed down in our legends and up until I met you today, I was also someone who didn't believe it was real.

But the moment I was near your dried-up single drop of blood, my body felt something it had never felt before and I never knew something could smell so wonderful and alluring.

At first, I was so disappointed because of my unfounded preconceptions of you. I was shocked that a soulmate could actually exist yet extremely frustrated at my fate that mine had to be you.

Thankfully I decided to give you a chance! Peeked at your dorm room number when you activated your bracelet and left you the note.

When I followed you here, I was contemplating the whole time if I should even try to talk to you.

Glad I did muster up the courage and now I feel like the luckiest vampire in the world!"

"Well, I am glad you no longer feel frustrated, chatting with you was a great relief and something I didn't even know I needed. Now I feel much more relaxed, able to let all that built-up stress out.

I still don't know how I feel about you or how to feel about what just happened and it's all too much for my tiny brain to handle."

Without saying a word, Alice stood up while grabbing Ken's hands guiding him up as well. The two then silently walked through the garden back towards the dorm under the moonlight hands held no different than any of the other couples still hanging around way past bedtime.

After leaving the garden and getting closer to their common room, Alice finally spoke up.

"Sorry I asked you to come out so late, I didn't want anyone to see me with you. Anyways, forget about that, what's your normal week schedule in the morning?"

"Ummm, Lovetta normally wakes me up 15 minutes before 7 and I we would ready and go eat and get to class at 8" Ken answered softly while getting sleepier.

"Wow, so early. Looks like you won't get much sleep then. Get some sleep, I will talk to you later ok."

As the two reached the common area, it was pretty much empty now due to how late it was, and they quickly walked up the staircase where Ken and Alice said their goodbye. When he finally arrived in his room, the young man dropped into his bed feeling too excited to sleep yet too sleepy to stay awake and eventually drifted into a deep slumber.