“Oh, you’re scared,” he said, his voice laced with contempt as his hand tightened around Joyce's neck. “I thought you were fearless, with how boldly you displayed your schemes, hmm?”
“P-l-e-a-s-e… d-d-on’t k-k-ill—” Joyce pleaded.
Her state of mind was in shambles, as if death were clawing its way toward her.
Fear overwhelmed her, as though her breath would stop at any moment.
She did not want to die. Not now.
Looking at the butler before her, she could see the level of excitement he got from seeing her in pain.
As if her pain, fear, and pleas were food to him.
“What did you say?” Butler Thomas cut in, bringing his ear closer while applying more pressure with his hand. “I can’t hear you.”
“P-l-e-a-s-e… s-s-pare my life,” she said, tears and snot filling her eyes in fear and terror, as life seemed to slip through her fingers like sand.
“Wow. I should spare your miserable life, right?”
Joyce nodded with difficulty.
“Tsk, tsk… don’t worry. I won’t kill you. It would be such a waste if I did.”
Joyce nodded repeatedly, her eyes signaling relief.
“This should serve as a warning to you: the next time you use any of the restricted areas in your schemes again, I will make sure that you won’t only disappear from the footage, but also from the face of this earth,” he warned coldly, like a monster.
“Got that clear?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Joyce answered, nodding repeatedly.
“Now get lost,” he said, throwing her to the floor like a dirty rag with a contagious disease, then taking a handkerchief to clean his hands as if he had touched something filthy.
“Cough—yes, yes—cough,” Joyce nodded, taking a huge intake of air and bowing her head in terror.
Scrambling to her feet, Joyce scurried away, her legs trembling in fear.
He's a monster, she thought.
Her fear of Butler Thomas irked her to the bone, especially how she was at his mercy earlier.
She needed to lay low for now.
But if the Butler thought that threatening her would dissuade her from fighting for her future success, then he was mistaken.
She wouldn't rest until she had achieved her goals.
“Sssssss!”
Touching her neck, where there was an obvious mark of strangulation, Joyce gazed at it hard.
For this humiliation, she would return it a hundredfold to him, that old bastard who should have died peacefully but is still obstructing her success!
As for Alice, bitch, enjoy it while it lasts for now, because your end is close!
Someone like Joyce could never repent, especially when her goals weren't fulfilled.
To her, anyone obstructing her success was an enemy that needed to be eliminated at all costs.
The Butler was unaware of Joyce's dark thoughts, but even if he knew, he wouldn't have cared, for she was not enough of a threat to him.
To him, Joyce was nothing but a petty, greedy human, not a real threat.
What was a real threat right now was how to solve the situation in the east wing’s forbidden area.
Walking toward the forbidden area, he wondered what the outcome would be inside.
Could Miss Salmon have seen the coffin?
I hope she hadn't, nor should she know what resides inside!
Young people nowadays and their curiosity to know!
Don't they know that curiosity kills the cat?
Ahhh, what a mess this was!
Damn it!
This had never happened before—why now?
One had to know that the secret residing in that room could shake a country if news of it spread.
After all, no one could believe that an entity like us still exists in this day and age.
Youngsters nowadays call it cosplaying, not believing in their existence.
I mean, who would believe that vampires still exist in this day and age?
Yes, vampires. The night creatures.
But we do — though hidden and thought extinct.
With this thought, Butler Thomas’ fangs came to life, his eyes turning red — clear evidence that he was irritated by the situation.
Only by sinking his fangs into human flesh could he quench his emotions.
But Butler Thomas knew he couldn't.
It was against the rules set by their Lord to never forcibly suck blood from an unwilling party without their permission.
And he knew he couldn't break that.
Their Lord was the truest and first vampire in existence, one who had lived long before the millennium.
An entity whose origin was unknown, who lived without aging; time fades, but he doesn’t.
Though he has been in slumber for 1,000 years, waiting for the one they call the Holy Maiden.
Butler Thomas doubted such a person even existed.
Could the prophecy be mistaken?
He wondered when his master would awaken from slumber.
Would he wake up at all? It had been so long.
Butler Thomas hoped Miss Salmon hadn’t noticed the coffin; he wouldn’t want to harm that innocent, lovely girl just to keep the secret from spreading.
Hmm.
Coming to a stop at the door, he took a deep breath, preparing for the worst but also hoping it wouldn't be what he thought it was.
If not, he would be forced to hold an emergency meeting with the young masters, and he was not ready for their questioning.
Those masters could be a handful and unpredictable at times.
Each one more evil than the last.
Pushing open the door, the sight before him baffled him—
‘…’
“ Holy Shit.”
***
Earlier, in the secret room,
Lynette lay there, face down and unconscious.
A tiny red line, like blood, circled around her, binding her to the coffin, as if joined by a mysterious red thread.
The tiny red blood lines split into two, two split into three, three into four, and it kept going on and on like a web, covering Lynette and the coffin entirely with its threads, as if a ritual were being carried out.
the coffin rose from where it had rested, lifting into the air into a standing position.