Two hunters rode through the night and arrived at a secluded cabin.
The woman in the lead, her black hair braided and tied up, surveyed the surrounding terrain before turning her horse.
Nodding to the old man riding a black horse behind her, she spoke.
“This is the place.”
“It certainly looks like it. The air is thick with sinister energy.”
The stench of rotting corpses filled the cabin.
Scattered across the ground were dismembered bodies.
The common thread among them was their bloodless, pale skin.
It was clear that a fierce battle had taken place here.
The two dismounted and approached the cabin.
The woman in front couldn’t help but frown.
In the middle of the cabin, a pile of black ashes lay in a heap.
The remnants of a disintegrated vampire.
“It seems the vampire we were tracking has been destroyed.”
“Haha, Camilla. I may be old, but I’m not blind. I can see that much.”
The old man chuckled warmly and stepped past Camilla into the cabin.
Instead of inspecting the vampire’s remains, he turned over a young man who lay collapsed like a corpse.
Unlike the others, the young man had some color in his face—and more importantly, he was breathing.
He appeared to be the sole survivor of the massacre.
“Hm.”
The old man let out a low hum.
There was something familiar about the energy he sensed from the youth.
Camilla, who had spent many years as a hunter, felt it too.
“This one… he’s a vampire’s thrall.”
“Indeed.”
“Shall I kill him?”
She drew a pristine white stake from her coat.
If she drove it into his chest now, the boy would die.
But the old man shook his head firmly.
“Camilla, no matter what, we should speak the truth. This young man isn’t a thrall. He’s a brave warrior who killed a vampire.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It seems the vampire we were chasing… was killed by him.”
“What?”
Hunter Camilla furrowed her brows.
A thrall killing their own master? She had never heard of such a thing.
“That makes no sense. You’re saying a thrall turned on the vampire that controls him?”
“Well, that’s probably because this young man is the thrall of a different vampire.”
“A different vampire? Are you saying there’s another vampire?”
“In some cases…”
The old man clicked his tongue, drew a dagger hidden in his sleeve, and scraped the boy’s skin.
He wiped up the blood with his fingers and brought it to his lips.
After tasting it, he tilted his head in wonder.
“It seems this boy… is a thrall of an Elder Vampire.”
“…W-What!?”
An Elder.
At the mention of the word, Camilla instinctively reached for her sword, her face tense.
After savoring the blood for a moment, the old man nodded in affirmation.
“It’s unmistakable. This is the blood of an Elder Vampire.”
“Why is an Elder… no, an Elder’s thrall here of all places?”
“That, I can’t say.”
“Then what should we do?”
“Why ask something so obvious?”
The man grinned slyly and continued.
“That’s something we’ll have to ask him.”
“…What?”
“Let’s make camp nearby for tonight.”
At those words, Camilla pressed her lips together in silence.
“So… you two… are hunters?”
“More precisely, vampire hunters.”
As soon as I regained consciousness, the elderly man explained everything in detail.
He told me he was a vampire hunter, that they came here after receiving a report of vampire activity in this remote cabin, and that they found me unconscious and moved me to a safe place.
Only after hearing everything did I finally notice the massive sword strapped to his back, and the large, cross-shaped stake hanging from his chest.
I also realized—he had only one eye.
“Thank you.”
The first thing I did was offer my gratitude.
After all, this old man was, in a sense, my savior.
Offering thanks was the least I could do.
“You’re a well-mannered young man. I like that. But from here on, I’m afraid we have to talk about some rather unpleasant matters.”
“Unpleasant… matters?”
The wrinkles around the old man’s eye creased as he smiled grimly.
He brought one hand to his chest, grasping the cross-shaped stake I had seen earlier.
“As a vampire hunter, I can only offer you two options.”
“And… what are they?”
“To die, or to live. Which do you prefer?”
His eye narrowed.
Reflected in that single eye was not a fellow human being—but a vampire.
“…You’ve noticed, then?”
“I’ve been hunting for thirty years now. I can spot an Elder’s thrall at a glance.
And even so, I chose not to kill you—to give you the right to choose.”
“You’re saying… I’m an Elder’s thrall?”
“You didn’t know? You don’t seem particularly surprised.”
“…Well.”
I had suspected it.
My wounds healed too quickly.
The vampire hag I killed had uttered the word Elder in her final breath.
And if what the Vampire Queen said was true, then my sister, Lily… is an Elder.
Which would make me—bitten by her—Lily’s thrall.
“So?”
The old man spoke, breaking through my thoughts.
“Do you want to be human? Or vampire? In other words—do you want to live, or die? That’s what I’m asking.”
It was a clear, if unspoken, threat: if I didn’t choose humanity, he would kill me.
I thought.
Did I have a reason to live?
The answer came immediately.
“I can’t die here.”
“Hm. And why is that?”
“Because… I have to find Lily.”
“Who’s that?”
“…She’s my only family.”
“Family?”
And so, I told him everything that had happened in Stormgate.
How I first met Lily.
How she was accused of being a witch.
How I met the Vampire Queen at the pyre where Lily was to be executed.
And how Lily, turned into a vampire, bit me.
I told him everything—hoping that this man, of all people, might be able to give me the answers I sought.
And he didn’t betray my expectations.
After listening to the entire story, the old man nodded in understanding.
“Fascinating. Your sister is an Elder…
And the Vampire Queen—known for her cruelty—spared your life.
Even after you became the thrall of an Elder.”
“You know of the Vampire Queen, sir?”
“Of course.
How could I ever forget the monster that took my eye?”
And in that moment, I knew.
This is the one.
If I followed this man, I would find the path to Lily.
“Um… about being a vampire hunter.”
“Hm?”
“Is it dangerous?”
The old man smiled knowingly, as if he had expected the question.
“Yeah, it’s dangerous. Extremely dangerous. No sane person would take it up. For an ordinary person, it’s basically suicide.”
“I want to become a hunter.”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“I feel like I’ll get closer to Lily if I follow you.”
“You still want to do it, even after hearing all that?”
“Yes. I’m good at pushing my body past its limits. I heal fast… My body’s a bit unusual.”
Hearing my calm yet firm resolve, the old man smiled broadly, his eye crinkling with satisfaction.
“Yeah, I can see that.”
He rose to his feet.
“Get some rest. We move at first light.”
“Where are we going?”
“North.”
“What’s there?”
“The main base of the Hunter’s Guild. There’s also a training facility for new hunters. Since you’ll be acting as one, you’ll need at least the basics.”
The guild’s headquarters.
And a training ground.
It seemed the old man had decided to let me become a hunter.
“One last thing…”
Just as he was about to leave the room, I called out to him.
“Hm?”
“I still don’t know your name.”
The old man chuckled like he’d forgotten, pressing down the brim of his wide hat.
“My name’s nothing important. People just call me… Father.”
That night, in the quiet of the camp, hushed words were exchanged.
“Father… I still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
Hunter Camilla cast a skeptical glance toward the tent, where Aiden, the young man, was supposedly resting.
“That boy.”
“What about him?”
“He’s a thrall. Not just any thrall—an Elder’s thrall. Putting him down on the spot wouldn’t have been strange at all.”
The Elder.
The pinnacle of vampirekind.
Any hunter worth their salt feared them.
Camilla couldn’t comprehend it.
Not only had Father spared such a dangerous being—now he wanted to take him to the northern training grounds to become a hunter?
“What I really don’t get is why you believe him so easily. Vampires lie like they breathe.”
“Camilla… strange, you say? We’re all strange. Otherwise, who in their right mind would pick up a blade and go kill vampires?”
“That’s not what I meant!”
Camilla raised her voice, tired of the roundabout answers.
She stomped her feet in frustration before letting out a deep sigh.
Father, as always, smiled warmly, as though he understood everything.
“Camilla. You think that boy—Aiden—is some kind of infiltrator created by the Elder?”
“Yes. That’s exactly what I think.”
“I understand. But you don’t need to worry.”
“And why not?”
“Because… the look in his eyes was full of hatred for vampires.”
And as someone who carried that same hatred, Father knew it when he saw it.
“That makes him our comrade, doesn’t it?”