Chapter 7 : The Forbidden Notebook

Although she was spared the torment of being sent to the lumberyard, Tii was still punished for neglecting her kitchen duties and was assigned to clean the attic.

The attic was the most neglected and dirtiest part of the castle, making it an exhausting task.

Su Ling volunteered to help her.

After working for quite a while, the sky gradually began to darken.

“Whew — finally done,” Su Ling let out a long breath.

Turning to Tii, she noticed she looked a bit tired too.

“You must be tired too, Tii?”

“I’m fine. You’re the one who hasn’t rested at all, Su Ling,” Tii replied.

The two sat side by side in a corner of the attic.

Su Ling gazed at the girl with deep crimson hair next to her, an inexplicable feeling stirring inside her.

Tii had eyes like gleaming emeralds and an exotic beauty in her brow and gaze.

Getting close to her, Su Ling could catch a faint fragrance on her, similar to the scent of licorice.

“Su Ling,” Tii suddenly broke the silence, “why did you help me this morning?”

Su Ling paused briefly, then replied, “I just thought… if I didn’t help you, you might have gotten into trouble.”

A complex expression flashed in Tii’s eyes at her words.

“You’re really so innocent, like a child…”

Su Ling pouted.

“You’re not much older than me either — you look only a few years older at most.”

“I’m seventeen,” Tii said with a gentle smile.

“I… I’m fifteen already,” Su Ling replied.

“Really? But you look so small,” Tii teased.

“I really am fifteen,” Su Ling said, a bit helpless.

Tii chuckled.

“My sister is around your age too.”

Su Ling looked up at Tii’s tired face.

Honestly, when she had first crossed into this world, she’d felt scared and lost, but meeting someone as kind as Tii had gradually calmed her nerves.

“Tii, thank you,” Su Ling said softly.

Tii blinked in surprise, then reached out to hold Su Ling’s hand and smiled.

“Don’t be so formal — we’re friends now. From now on, if you ever need help, you can come to me.”

After packing up the cleaning tools, the sky had already grown dark.

Pale moonlight like fine white silk streamed in through the cracked wooden window, casting a mottled pattern across the floor of the attic.

As they stood to leave, Su Ling noticed something by her feet.

She looked down and saw a dusty notebook tucked into the gap between a wooden cabinet and the wall.

Normally, anything left there would have been thrown out during cleaning, but the words on the cover caught her attention.

Borecansel — The Fallen Kingdom.

What was this?

Su Ling felt as if this notebook might hold some important clues about this world.

Carefully, she picked it up from the corner and gently blew off the dust.

“Su Ling, let’s go,” Tii called from the doorway, breaking the quiet.

Su Ling glanced up to see Tii waiting at the door with a warm, urging smile.

“Ah, okay!”

Although she still had many questions swirling in her mind, she knew this wasn’t the time to dwell on them.

Quickly, she tucked the notebook into her clothes.

Following Tii’s steps, Su Ling hurried out of the attic.

Back in the bedroom, she sat on her bed and found her gaze fixed on the long-forgotten notebook.

Being someone who had crossed into this world, she could also read its language.

The handwriting was elegant, and as she brushed away the dust, the pages seemed to come alive with history.

Within the notebook was a record of some past history, as if excerpts copied from a book.

It told of centuries of war and entanglement between humans and vampires.

Originally, there had been a kingdom called Borecansel.

It had been ruled by humans for many years and was once prosperous, until bureaucratic corruption slowly brought it into decline.

That was when the vampire clan, lurking in the shadows, began to rise.

They used their special powers and the seductive lure of immortality to infiltrate the heart of the empire.

The outbreak of war was both sudden and inevitable.

The vampires struck overnight, colluding with rebellious human troops.

Powerful and ruthless, they crushed the royal army with ease, and huge swathes of territory quickly fell.

Under the vampires’ rule, the human kingdom was reduced to a blood-soaked abyss.

Vampires feasted on human blood at will, treating humans like mere playthings.

And the humans? They lived forever trapped in fear and hopelessness, their freedom, dignity, even their lives completely under the vampires’ control.

This was mostly what Su Ling had expected, but one thing stood out and troubled her.

“Why would this notebook be in that corner?”

In order to win people’s hearts, the vampires had carefully concealed their history of invading the human kingdoms.

This notebook must have been one of those “forbidden books,” something they never wanted to fall into human hands — yet here it was in the castle.

As Su Ling carefully flipped through the notebook again, she was shocked to see a name written on the very last page:

Hisseta Anderson.