“He is the paragon of our race. A being with absolute power and uncontested authority over life and death.”

Aelius shivered, remembering the short description from the novel about his father in this world.

What the man did to the original owner of this body was absolutely despicable and deserved a good knock to the head. A lecture about parenting would go a long way as well.

‘Not that I know what good parenting means.’

The baby sighed. A weird gesture if anyone were to see it. You’re a baby, what could you be sighing about…

Unfortunately, this baby had a lot to sigh about. The novel did not focus on his side character, which meant information gathering was important and what he’s learned has not been promising.

Statistically, servants are the biggest gossips in any profession. Of course, the statistic was pulled out of his diaper and from what he’s been hearing for the past weeks. Servants talk. A lot. Especially when they think that the baby they’re ignoring can’t understand them.

The gist of the chatter is that the palace he was staying in originally belonged to an incredibly powerful Vampire Lord. The baby believed every word. The hunting trophies on the walls spoke volumes. On a particularly uneventful day, the servants had an argument about whether the skull they cleaned belonged to a drake or wyvern.

Hearing this, the baby was suitably impressed by the vampire lord. Or is it late vampire lord now. His fighting prowess did little good in the face of the death.

The night it happed was not gloomy, foreboding, or stormy. Yet a storm swept through this ancient family regardless.

The patriarch came covered in blood. An obsidian sword in one hand and a crying baby in the other. He did not speak. Pleas for forgiveness fell on deaf ears as the reaper walked through the halls of the palace. When the cries of mercy fell silent, the vampire lord finally appeared, and his family was no more.

That night the servants heard the wrath of a vampire lord. Wrath that lasted less than five minutes before he too turned to ash.

The Patriarch then walked to the terrified servants and threw the baby towards the only maid not shivering in horror.

Elizabeth, the sadistic maid that takes care of him, always mentions this memory fondly. Gushing over how even though the patriarch was covered in blood, Aelius was spotless.

Aelius was not particularly thankful. He didn’t have a memory of that night but staying clean while a massacre was being conducted seemed like the wrong point to focus on.

There was a lot of speculation about that night. No one asked why the patriarch killed the vampire lord. A wise choice. Questioning your tyrant can result in a curious case of instant death.

No one questioned who the baby was. The amber eyes were close enough to recognize the royal bloodline.

There was a question heavily debated. All debates were done during the dead of night, behind closed doors, and through whispers.

Where was the witch that birthed the half-blood?

The word witch was not an insult. Well, some meant it as an insult. Others knew better. Aelius’ mother was a witch.

A woman with raven hair and light brown eyes. The mysterious witch appeared at the royal palace when aid was requested. She solved the problem and was rewarded for her efforts.

The story should have ended here. A service is performed and a reward is received. But life was rarely that simple.

The witch caught the Patriarch’s eye. One night together became a month. Suddenly, just as she appeared, the witch disappeared.

The patriarch did not look for her. He did not send anyone for her. And so, no one mentioned her.

She was all but forgotten.

For nine months.

Then one day the patriarch disappeared.

Only returning after three days, covered in blood with a babe in his arm. The events continued with the death of a vampire lord several centuries old and the end of an ancient bloodline.

In the end, the baby was left in the palace to be raised by hostages—willing servants.

Throwing your child aside after a massacre is a little psychotic, though no one asked for Aelius’s opinion.

The story was a little chilling. Saying it in front of the baby, albeit not knowing they could understand, is somewhat cruel.

Aelius had more than a few nightmares about those events. Haunted houses were always a fear of his from his previous life. No one wanted to live in a house where a massacre happened. Sure, it was a castle and it’s luxurious but that doesn’t make it any less scary.

There’s also that psycho. Daddy might change his mind any day now. He could come by, kill the servants and leave the baby to starve to death. Or you know, just kill the baby.

With his luck, Aelius wouldn’t be surprised.

The sudden emotion of fear and contemplation of his fragile mortality made an unwilling whimper escape his lips.

He couldn’t help it. Babies were emotional.

Shouldn’t someone who lived a terrible life be reincarnated into luxury? Well, he did in a manner of speaking. But luxury with a nuclear bomb over your head is a little daunting.

Time to deal with problems like any mature person. By thinking of something else.

Aelius. That name was unique. He knew what it meant because he looked it up in his previous world.

Sun, Sunshine.

The name was given to the tragic character from the “Abandoned half-blood prince.”

You’d think Aelius would be the main character with a title like that. Well, you’d be wrong. Aelius is the footnote to the actual main character.

The name was found on his clothes. Aelius. Sun. An inextinguishable light in the dark.

Or so the witch hoped. Aelius, in the novel, dies at the age of 17. He died in a dark dungeon cell.

Just fantastic.

At least in his case jumping off a building didn’t hurt as much as dying alone in the dark.

‘Sorry, Aelius. I’ll make sure we both have a better life this time around.’

Click

‘What?!’

The sound made Aelius flinch, snapping him out of the spiral of dark thoughts.

“He’s not asleep.”

A cold voice spoke.

“Not dead either.”

A regretful sigh answered.

“Shush. Elizabeth might hear you. Let’s just clean and leave ‘it’ alone. It will get bored and go to sleep eventually.”

Yep. It. They referred to him as 'it'. They don’t really consider a half-blood as an equal.

‘Listen here you little… We’re all stuck in this palace together. You don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be here. The rats certainly live in fear of being baby food. Let’s just get along and make it through this together.’

… is what Aelius thought. The actual words that made it to his mouth were closer to—

“Nehh!”

There was a slight pause, but he was ignored as usual.

The only person that really answered him was Elizabeth. Sadistic, sure, but at least she didn’t ignore his existence.

Well, considering how she acts maybe ignoring his existence would be better.

“I think I would have fled if this wasn’t Lord Nexus’ palace.”

“Beautiful.”

“I know, all this wealth to a child that can’t even enjoy it.”

The chatter continued. With valid points. This whole palace was a little much for an unwanted baby.

That didn’t mean he’d give it away. Nope. Who’d give up luxury? Sure, there are lots of negatives but that didn’t concern him. Not yet anyway. Death was a few years away and hateful comments were just words. He heard worse. What he needed now was to grow up and be able to rely on himself.

Starting with leaving this cage.

Aelius began to stretch his arms and legs. Working his undeveloped baby muscles. Wiggling here and there.

“If we leave we’ll die.”

“If we stay we might still end up dead.”

“Did you hear the noises coming out of the kitchen at night?”

“I know! I couldn’t smell or sense anyone but I’m sure I heard something.”

Aelius stopped his stretching and turned his head mechanically.

Achievement unlocked! Able to turn head!

Yeah right. A system would be great. At least with the last meal, he grew a little. More than a little by human standards. Now he won’t suffocate if he fell on his face again.

What was he doing? Oh right. The new gossip. A probable ghost. Great. He really wanted to leave.

To leave, Aelius needed two things.

Power and knowledge.

Master his vampire abilities and gain knowledge of the outside world.

With his face turned to face the maids he saw how they cleaned. Well, all he saw were blurs from one place to another.

Even standing still, one maid was dusting a sculpture with unbelievable speed. Another maid was almost teleporting with a mop from one corner to another.

He turned his head upwards. One maid was climbing the ceiling like a spider and wiping the chandelier.

The task to escape seemed daunting but the positive was that he could see more today than he did yesterday. Just by drinking blood, his tiny body was growing.

Then just as suddenly as they entered they left. A spotless sparkly room was left behind.

Why was everyone in a hurry?

Knock.

Knock.

“Ready or not, I’m coming in~”

Aelius shivered. She was finally here.

Elizabeth.

“Aww come on don’t give me that face.”

Elizabeth poked at Aelius’ pouty cheeks.

“If you want food, all you have to do is come and get it.”

Aelius looked unamused at Elizabeth or at least tried to. The blindfold made it difficult.

“If you can turn your head then you can crawl. Listen and come towards my voice. Aren’t you hungry, my little prince~”?

“Nehh!”

Translated to:

‘No, you psycho! I will not move an inch. How am I am able to come to you with my eyes covered? No. absolutely not. I am beyond hunger. I will fast until you remove this—'

Growl!

His traitorous stomach objected to his objection. It was hungry and his pride mattered very little.

“Ho~Ho~Ho.”

Grrooowl!

Elizabeth and his stomach mocked in unison.

So Aelius crawled.

Elizabeth barely made a sound. Occasionally tapping her foot from a different spot to guide him back.

The task was surprisingly easy. Aelius didn’t realize his sense of hearing had developed so well. At this point, it was beyond what a human babe could do. Even more than that, there was something else other than his hearing.

As he approached an obstacle, without even looking at it, he’d ‘see’ something in his mind’s eye when he was inches away. There were a few close calls, but he eventually made it to the foot of Elizabeth.

“See? That wasn’t too bad, now was it?”

She gently removed the blindfold. Aelius blinked rapidly trying to adjust to the light.

“Because you did so well, I’ll give you a special surprise.”

‘Uh oh.’

With a flick of her hand, two bottles appeared. They looked almost identical but the one on the left had a slightly richer crimson color. It wasn’t obvious but somehow he could tell that the left one was better than rat-blood.

“Exactly. The bottle in my right hand has the same kind of blood as the one you tasted yesterday. The one on the left comes from a slightly better source.”

Aelius lifted his tiny hands, reaching for the bottle on the left.

Elizabeth pulled it away.

‘This B—’

“Nope.”

She then uncorked both bottles and put them behind her back.

“Take a guess. Find out which hand has the special bottle, and you can have it, otherwise, you’ll get the same meal as yesterday.”

Her eyes glinted with amusement.

‘I hate you.’

Aelius wanted to protest but his stomach was holding him hostage. Asking. No. Demanding sustenance.

Sighing in defeat Aelius wanted to just pick a hand to get it over with. But there was more to it. Elizabeth is sadistic but the blindfold was somewhat beneficial.

This whole training was similar to those karate movies where the master asks the student to do random crap and in the end, they learn valuable skills.

The question was, what can he learn from guessing? Luck had a benefit but not in this kind of training.

The first task tested his sense of hearing. Elizabeth uncorked the bottles, which means… This task could only benefit his sense of smell!

Instantly, his tiny nose began to squirm left and right. There was something there. Two things. He recognized the smell from yesterday and that one was clearly behind Elizabeth. The other smell was new and made his mouth water, but it wasn’t behind Elizabeth.

It was behind his back!

He turned around and immediately snatched the bottle.

“Hehe. Good boy. Your tiny nose was so adorable. I’ll have to hide it better next time~”

She winked.

Aelius groaned while drinking from his bottle.

The groan was partly for the future suffering he’ll go through and partly from the sweet taste in his mouth. Incomparable to yesterday. The taste made his gums tingle and his body warm up instantly.

Before he knew it the bottle was finished. He looked at Elizabeth in surprise.

“Oh my~ You were certainly hungry. I guess swine tastes better than vermin.”

Aelius stopped and looked around as if expecting the corpse behind the grinning maid.

“Don’t worry, the actual pig was killed elsewhere.”

He suppressed a sigh and glared back at her.

“If you like animals that much, I can hardly imagine what you’ll do when you taste… Well, that’s for later, if you’re a good boy.”

She picked him up and placed him on the couch. Still processing her meaning Aelius saw her approach the bookshelf.

Elizabeth made a motion of looking up and down.

“Well, I was looking for something to read to you, but some books are missing.”

She shrugged and walked back to him.

Aelius looked back at the shelf and saw some gaps where a few colorful books were previously placed. Where did they go? Maybe some maids forgot them in other rooms? Odd.

“I guess we’ll just have to make do.”

Elizabeth turned Aelius, placing his back towards the armrest of the couch, and faced him directly.

“Let me tell you a bedtime story. Books are boring anyway, make sure you watch carefully because if you blink you might miss the excitement.”

Elizabeth looked a little excited, which made Aelius nervous.

‘Just what is she up—’

“[Minor Illusion].”

Aelius’ head tilted to the side at the weird pronunciation ringing in his mind.

Then something… a shimmer began to manifest between Aelius and Elizabeth. Before He could get over his wonder the shimmer changed into a small figurine.

Aelius’ mouth dropped open.