Sylvie stood alone in the vast, empty, and freezing room, her head lowered. Silver-white hair spilled over her shoulders.
Tiana’s reaction had been far too strange. That undisguised panic and tension—why? Was it really just because she looked unwell?
Just as confusion filled Sylvie’s heart, she noticed her own hand.
Beneath the sleeve of the sweat-soaked white nightgown, a small section of her wrist and fingers was visible.
It should have been human skin, carrying a faint hint of blood’s warmth, pale from frequent blood loss but still recognizably human.
But now…
Sylvie slowly and hesitantly raised her right hand in front of her eyes.
Pale.
It wasn’t ordinary paleness from blood loss, but a sickly, deathly white. Even the veins beneath her skin were clearly visible.
She stared blankly at her hand, as if seeing it for the first time.
At that moment, a strand of hair from her shoulder drifted down beside her cheek and entered her field of vision… Her originally black hair now carried a silvery glow under the dim lamplight.
Her pupils contracted sharply. Realizing something, she turned her head stiffly toward the small hand mirror beside the bed and shakily reached out to pick it up.
Click… Click… Click… Click…
Outside in the corridor, the sharp, urgent sound of high heels striking the floor rang out. It carried a familiar oppressive aura and obvious anxiety, approaching the bedroom at high speed.
The door was suddenly flung open, letting in a gust of cold wind.
Silver light from outside poured in, outlining the tall, slender figure standing at the doorway, radiating a terrifyingly low pressure.
Klal stood there. Her blood-red eyes instantly looked toward the center of the room… where there was no one.
The small, frail figure she expected to see was nowhere to be found.
Klal’s crimson pupils shrank violently. The already frighteningly oppressive aura around her dropped several degrees further.
Tiana finally hurried over from behind.
“Your Majesty!” But when she saw the empty room, she herself was stunned.
“Where is she?” Klal asked coldly without turning around.
“I… I clearly told her to stay in the room,” Tiana explained hurriedly.
Klal’s expression grew even more severe. She stepped into the room, her scarlet dress hem sweeping across the polished floor. Her steps were no longer hurried, but carried a slower, more heart-palpitating rhythm.
The faint scent of Sylvie still lingered in the air—mixed with cold sweat and blood, along with a trace of chilly fragrance.
Her gaze fell to the floor not far from the bed.
Shattered glass fragments were scattered there.
She had run away.
She had left her room without permission.
And in vampire form, no less.
But why? Why had the human disguise she had once cast on her suddenly fail after she woke up from that sleep?
Klal didn’t know, and she didn’t want to guess the irrelevant reasons right now. There was only one thing she knew for certain.
Sylvie was trying to escape her control.
This was absolutely not allowed… This was absolutely unforgivable!
This could not be permitted to happen…
“Tiana,” she called coldly.
“Yes.”
“Notify Utia and Sulga. Have them drop everything they’re doing… Find her and bring her before me. Immediately!”
Tiana shivered at the icy tone and, not daring to hesitate, quickly ran out.
Inside the bedroom, only Klal remained.
She stood in the center of the room, slowly looking around this space that was filled with Sylvie’s scent yet felt unbearably empty. The shattered mirror pieces on the floor reflected countless broken images of her own cold face.
Where had Sylvie run to? Where could she possibly go? Or rather, in this Eternal Night City, besides her own bedroom and her own cage, was there anywhere else she could go?
No matter which, it meant she was trying to break free from the orbit Klal had set for her, trying to form connections unrelated to her, trying… to reclaim some sense of self.
This was even harder for Klal to tolerate than outright betrayal. She hated this feeling. She loathed it to the extreme.
She would never allow anything that belonged to her to bear any mark that wasn’t hers, or show any movement that deviated from her will.
Sylvie was hers.
From the inside out, from the past to the future, she must be.
She would personally overwrite her, rewrite her, or… completely burn her away.
Klal walked over to the pile of mirror fragments. Her blood-red eyes lowered, gazing at her own cold and resolute reflection in the shards.
“Once I find you…” she whispered to herself, her voice devoid of warmth.
“What kind of training should I give you so that you will never forget… who gets to decide what you are.”
“It seems it’s time to purify you a little.”
At this very moment.
On the cold, damp streets of Eternal Night City, the ever-present scent of blood and decay hung thick in the air. Sparse light from the dim yellow glows spilling out of building windows barely illuminated the rugged stone path.
A small, cloaked figure was slowly making her way along the base of the wall. The hood of the cloak was pulled very low, almost completely covering her face and revealing only a pale chin.
Occasionally, a cold wind blew by, lifting a corner of the cloak and revealing fingers clutching tightly at the fabric’s edge—fingers that were deathly pale.
Suddenly, from deeper in the alley, the clear laughter of a girl could be heard. The sound grew closer, accompanied by light, quick footsteps.
Sylvie instinctively shrank further into the shadows at the corner of the wall, pulling her cloak tighter around herself.
However, the next moment—
“Haha, you can’t catch me!” A cheerful voice burst out from the corner along with a gust of wind.
A small body collided solidly into Sylvie.
Already weak, Sylvie let out a muffled groan from the sudden impact. She staggered back half a step and slammed her back hard against the wall. The violent movement caused her hood to slip off completely.
A head of long hair glowing with an eerie silver sheen under the dim light spilled out, falling beside her paper-white cheeks.
The one who had run into her was a human little girl who looked only six or seven years old.
“Sor—” The little girl cried out in surprise. Forgetting her own pain, she hurriedly tried to apologize. But when she looked up at the person she had bumped into…
Her gaze suddenly met a pair of eyes.
With the hood fallen, Sylvie’s entire face was exposed under the weak light at the alley entrance. One of her eyes, carrying a panicked and eerie crimson glow, reflected the girl’s terrified face.
In this terrifying city, only one kind of being possessed such eyes.
The urgent expression on the little girl’s face instantly froze. The other girl who had followed after her also stiffened in place.
The next moment, both of them immediately dropped to their knees, lowered their heads, and trembled as they spoke.
“We’re… we’re sorry! Vampire Lady! We didn’t mean to bump into you! Please… please spare us…”
Sylvie’s pupils trembled violently. She said nothing. Silently, she picked up her cloak, put it back on, and walked away step by step.