Damien awoke to the chirping of birds and the warmth of the midday sun. His head was buried into a feather cushion, and his hair covered his face. He tried to open his eyes with a groan, but his head was pounding, and his stomach growled; he needed blood.

Damien didn't even have to open his eyes to know he was alone. He couldn't hear Fay's heartbeat or her calm breaths. He pushed himself out of bed with a groan and, without even bothering to cover himself, grabbed the glass on the side table and poured himself some red wine.

He wasn't sure of the reason, but the wine helped calm his mind a little, "Am I becoming an alcoholic?" Damien questioned as he swirled the glass. But, alas, the glass didn't have the answers to his questions, so he finished it off with a swig.

Damien looked around the bedroom; it was simple with only a massive old bed, two side tables, a desk and a wardrobe for his clothes which consisted of a few suits as he refused to wear anything else. Damien opened the wardrobe and picked out a black suit that a resident of Blackthorn had tailored for him a few days ago.

"These suits are still rather low quality; even the mass-produced clothes on Earth were better quality than this..." Damien inspected the suit and changed his mind, "The slight imperfections make the suit more bespoke now that I think about it. Earth warped my opinion on perfect products, but the hand-done stitching has a certain charm."

"Maid!" Damien shouted towards the door, but nobody answered.

"That's weird... Fay is missing, and now there are no maids?" Damien tried to think back to this morning, "After my sister helped me absorb Redheads blood, I became B grade in Blood Magic, and then I returned here... had a feeding session with Fay and then fell asleep..." His eyebrows creased in confusion for a moment until a sudden realisation hit him, "My sister-"

-Damien dropped the suit and scrambled for the door; his ears twitched as he ran down the castle's decrepit halls. The thundering of his feet was his only company as he dashed past the many empty rooms filled with half-rotting furniture and dust. He didn't even bother to take the steps to the ground floor and instead hurled himself down them with levitation to cushion his fall.

He glanced left and right and decided more activity was on the left side. As he sprinted down the corridor, he saw two wooden carriages in the courtyard that he had never seen before through the windows-

"Duke, watch out!", A maid screamed, and Damien phased through her with Phantom Form. Damien whirled around and shouted at the terrified maid, "Is my sister here human?"

"Y-yes..." the maid was pale and stared at her shaking hands, "D-down the h-hall... in the meeting r-room."

Damien didn't even wait for the maids' answer, 'The meeting room, of course!' As Damien turned the corner, he saw the door to the room was half open and pitch-black inside. If not for the giggling, he would have assumed it was empty.

He took a deep breath and composed himself before walking through the half-opened door. It squeaked on its hinges, and the room went silent.

"Damien! Mate, you have to save me!" A man with red hair and pitch-black eyes stumbled out of the room, "Your wife and sister have been giggling for the last three hours! If I have to listen to their girl talk for another second, I shall return to my coffin and never awaken again!"

As Jackson embraced him in a hug, Damien froze up. A million thoughts raced through his mind. 'These are the only people that knew the old Damien! What if they realise I've changed? Why are they even here? Okay, calm down, calm down. Deep breaths, deep breaths, it's fine... How did Damien act? Should I return the hug? I have only seen Jackson in my memories; he's a pretty laid-back guy...'

Jackson felt Damien tense up and laughed while patting his back, "I know, right! It's a terrifying thought! Your devil of a sister is socialising with someone!"

"Shut it, devil spawn." Vanity snapped back from the darkness of the room.

Damien could only laugh awkwardly at the situation, "What are you guys doing here?" He looked around the room and saw a few maids trying to navigate around the pitch-black room to refill Fay's teacup. In the centre of the room were two couches facing each other; on the far one was his little sister and his blood queen hugging each other. Their scarlet eyes stared at him through the darkness.

On the other was a girl Damien was all too familiar with in his dreams, his childhood sweetheart, Lily. She was a head taller than Vanity and had fiery red hair and pitch-black eyes. Her chest was on full display as usual.

Damien then realised they were all naked, including him. He coughed awkwardly into his hand, "We are in human territory, have some decency and wear clothes..."

Lily was sprawled out on the couch and yawned before saying in the most bored tone, "Why? The humans wear clothes to hide their hideous bodies."

Jackson had an arm around Damien's shoulder and nodded to his sister's words, "Indeed, why would we sully ourselves and dress like livestock?"

Damien turned to Fay with pleading eyes, but she just shrugged, and Vanity also seemed to agree.

"What's wrong with their bodies?" Damien was genuinely curious about what mental gymnastics these vampires could conjure up to justify themselves-

Lily got off the couch and grabbed a random maid; with a single swipe, the maid's clothes fell to the floor. Lily then began to explain as if she was giving a Ted talk.

"Let's begin with the hair." Lily ran her black nails through the maid's brunette hair, "The hair is coarse like straw, and her scalp is dry." The maid shivered as Lily ran her fingers over her cheeks, "Acne and blisters from sunburn; also, she already has wrinkles but can't be a day over 30."

Lily then reached the maid's bust and inspected them with a bored expression, "Malnourishment has to lead to inadequate development, and they are different sizes."

The maid's face resembled a tomato at this point; Lily ruthlessly continued, "Her ribs are poking through, and she completely lacks any muscles despite working every day as a maid, which is a labour-intensive job... and see this?" She pointed toward some stretch marks, "She has marks of childbirth."

Damien just shook his head; he knew his sister visiting him last night was a terrible sign of a headache to come, and within a minute of meeting his kin, he was already at a loss from their ridiculous behaviour. A poor middle-aged woman was standing in the middle of a pitch-black room surrounded by Vampires, and one was analysing her body. Even Damien had standards, and this crossed the line.

"Lily." Damien said, and the Vampire looked towards him, "That's enough. You will wear clothes in my domain, or you can scuttle back to the caves."

Lily frowned and let go of the maid's shoulder; she then walked back towards the couch with her head hung low and muttering, "But I'm right, though? Stupid clothes..."

"So domineering!" Vanity giggled from the side, "Since when did you grow a spine, my dear Brother!"

Fay had an arm around Vanity and grinned, "See? Didn't I tell you my husband was like this?"

The naked maid stealthily sneaked off, and none of the Vampires paid attention to her.

In frustration, Damien pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a deep sigh, 'What am I supposed to do with these Vampires? I already have enough things to deal with, and now they show up? Couldn't they just stay couped up in their cave? But I guess Vanity did save me...'

Damien glared at his sister, "Why are you here?" He then pointed towards Lily, "And you! Why?"

"Bored." "Bored." "Bored."

All three answered in unison the same answer.

Damien let out a groan of frustration, "You are all here because you're bored?"

Jackson, standing beside him, nodded, "Yup, Karpov, the mighty jackass is holding court between House Destrym and House Vernius." Then, his face scrunched up in disgust, "Court is bad enough, but it was a land dispute. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is more boring than listening to two houses drone on about land allocation."

Damien had never been allowed to attend court, so he could only silently listen to their complaints.

Lily then commented from the couch, "And we heard that you had gone to visit the human realm, which I thought was rather silly at first... but as I was sitting in that court and listening to those elders drone on. I thought that the idea of seeing the land of livestock was far more interesting."

Vanity laughed, "I half expected to find you dead in a ditch or with a blade of blood through your heart..."

Damien scowled at his sister, "So you watched the fight and didn't help me?"

Vanity shrugged, "You were always so naive and against our ways... I had lost faith in you. But now, after seeing how far you have matured in just a month, I have some hope for our race. Now come here and tell your sister about this Prince guy."

"Don't try to change the subject..." Damien frowned, "What do you mean naive? Also, I have no plans to take the Vampire throne for a while-"

"Brother." Her eyes were dangerous, "You WILL take the throne; it's non-negotiable. Karpov is not the Daywalker, so he has no power over your inheritance rights."

Vanity then patted the space next to herself and Fay, "Come here and tell me about this Prince; maybe I can help?"

Damien was about to refute, but then he paused. 'I assumed the Prince was always going to gain power like in the game, but the fact that Marquess Cunningdal left his city, which he never did in the game, and also the VAMPIRES HAVE LEFT THE CAVES, shows that the rules no longer apply. My next concern was that Prince August is an A-grade Necromancer, so I wouldn't be able to fight him... but Vanity is an A-grade Noble Vampire... if Prince August is a mid-game boss, Vanity is an end-game one.'

Damien grinned, and all his worries washed away, "Sister, you wouldn't believe what this asshole did to me..."