Serena Knightwalker (1)

I almost forgot.

The blood moon.

While, for many people, the blood moon was just a beautiful occurrence that happened every few years or so, it was something entirely different for vampires.

During a total lunar eclipse, also called a blood moon, our world is perfectly wedged between the sun and the moon.

This is also the time period, where the connection between the moon and the earth is the strongest.

Originally, vampires were a race from the moon.

While vampires can't die from starvation, they naturally didn't like the feeling of it. And as there was nothing else to eat on the moon, the vampires fled to the nearest place, our world.

There, they created a new civilization and kept feeding off the living beings of our world.

Contrary to the old tales of vampires, they didn't just drink the blood of their victims, but devoured them as a whole.

In a way, they were nothing more than violent beasts with a humanoid form.

I shuddered at the memory of the passages I read about the last blood moon occurrence.

Around 150 years ago, the last blood moon occurred, and the vampires went wild.

They roamed around all the nearby kingdoms, massacring and devouring everyone in their sight, and only with the combined power of all those kingdoms, they managed to stop the vampires temporarily, at least until the sun came out.

While the sun doesn't hurt the vampires, it is the time when the connection between the moon and our world is the weakest, thus immensely weakening the vampires.

"Be careful." My expression hardened as I looked over at Acedia. "It will be dangerous."

"Oh?" Acedia's eyes widened in surprise, her voice sounded soft and gentle, giving off an calming feeling. "Are you perhaps worried about me?"

She sounded touched.

Her eyes narrowed, forming into a gentle smile as she looked at me with some kind of affection hidden in her eyes.

"Of course I am." I nodded as I wiped the food from my mouth, confused as to why she would think otherwise. "I care about you:"

"Uhm." Acedia froze up after I finished my sentence. "W..what did you just say..?"

Gradually. her face gained a red hue, as she started to stammer.

"Could you please repeat it again,,? I am not sure if I heard right."

"I care about you," I repeated, tilting my head, confused about her strange reaction.

I watched how Acedia just stood still for a moment. Almost as if she was a statue. After a while, she closed her eyes, a wide smile forming on her face.

"Gosh." she put her face into her hands, hiding it. "I know that you don't mean it like this, but.."

She paused, her expression hardening in a split second, as she looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"Never ever say this to another woman."

"Alright."

Not giving another thought toward her strange reaction, I turned my attention to the food, digging in.

"But don't worry," she said, as she calmed down. While her face wasn't as red anymore, her ears still had that reddish hue.

I raised my head, swallowing the food before speaking. "About what?"

"About my safety, I mean."

"Ah." I shrugged my shoulders, dismissing the topic. "I wasn't worried about it in the first place."

"So you don't care if something happened to me?" Acedia's eyes widened in disbelief, showing a hint of sadness inside them.

I shook my head. "No, that's not it."

Raising my head, I looked her straight in the eyes. "It's because I am confident in your strength."

"Haah..." Acedia sighed, as her face slowly turned head again. "You really are a sinful man."

"I am not the one who's a devil." I deadpanned, not even bothering to give her a look.

"Pff, that's true." Chuckling, Acedia took another sip of her wine, before realizing again that she didn't like it. "Urgh. This still tastes like shit."

***

***

On the next day, I had another lesson after a long while.

While I expected my students to come into the room with dread in their eyes and slumped bodies, they rushed into the training center, almost as if they were excited about the class.

"Hey, teach!" Raum was the first one to talk, patting me on the shoulder before he went to his seat. "How's it going?"

"Good." I responded, merely glancing at him from the corner of my view.

I have already gotten used to Raum's playful personality, and as such, didn't mind his casual way of talking.

I watched as the other students came into the center, each one of them greeting me in different ways, displaying their different and distinct personalities.

While, for example, Raum and Ellen were both playful, Raum was that in a more rude and casual way, while Ellen still stayed respectful.

A small smile formed on my face as I watched the students go back into their seats.

Originally, I only went to the academy as a recommendation from my teacher, Roywid, but it seemed like I gradually became used to it.

No, rather I enjoyed it.

It was refreshing in some way.

"As you already know, the school festival got moved up and, thus, our dungeon exploration got canceled," I explained to my students, even though they probably already knew about that.

While that information was already widespread, it was my duty to make sure that everyone knew what was going on in the academy.

After all, as long as even the possibility of someone not knowing about such information existed, I had the responsibility to enlighten them.

"The lacking experience also means that you'll have a big disadvantage in the upcoming academy tournaments."

In the western continent, a yearly competition between the schools existed.

A team of around five or six people from every year then represents the academy and competes against other academies in the tournament.

While it is supposed to be just a friendly competition between the academies, many academies took it seriously, basically looking at the competition as a way to protect their honor or get famous.

Of course, Sylpheon was the fan-favorite in that tournament, but that didn't stop the other teams from giving it their all.

After all, beating Sylpheon's team would essentially make them famous in an instant.

"This, however, doesn't mean that I'll let you go in with a disadvantage." I continued talking.

Although the academy tournament was still a few months away, many teams were chosen around this time and, as such, already started training.

Celine raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss Celine?"

"So what are we going to do to compensate for the missing experience?"

I tilted my head to the side, smiling ominously.

"This time you'll be sparing against me."