When Xun Jin woke up, he felt that the surroundings were exceptionally noisy, as if people were arguing.
His brow furrowed tightly, and he let out a displeased “Tch.” Raising a hand to cover his ears just as he was about to drift back to dreamland, the surrounding noise instantly died away into absolute silence.
At that point, the sound of several extra breathing voices materializing out of thin air became all the more pronounced.
Xun Jin suddenly froze, not daring to move. Cautiously opening his eyes, he found the entire room packed with people.
Rubbing his eyes, he sat up, wondering if he was dreaming.
However, Xun Jin also spotted a few familiar faces.
“Talon, Mann?”
Talon and Mann were bound with ropes, kneeling on the ground, their expressions looking thoroughly furious.
Xun Jin’s most recent impression of the two of them was Cianus mentioning that he had taught them both a lesson.
Thinking of Cianus, Xun Jin looked around and saw a crowd of strangers surrounding him and Talon’s group. Yet these people weren’t paying attention to Talon and Mann at all; instead, their gazes scrutinized Xun Jin with uninhibited, curious stares.
It was only then that Xun Jin realized he was lying on top of a table. Everything else on the desk had been shoved onto the floor, leaving the surface entirely bare except for Xun Jin himself, who had just been using it as a bed.
Pinned beneath the intense stares of these people, Xun Jin didn’t dare make a single move.
[They are all vampires.]
The voice reminded him.
[Collecting today’s malice value should be quite easy.]
Conversely, it would also be extremely dangerous.
Xun Jin didn’t need the voice to spell out that second half; he had already guessed it.
Glancing down briefly, he noticed he was still wearing the pajamas he had changed into last night. Evidently, someone had carried him away while he was fast asleep.
Aside from Cianus, who else knew where Xun Jin lived?
“Clap, clap,” someone clapped twice and stepped forward.
The man, who bore a scar across his face, approached Xun Jin and introduced himself:
“My name is Jack. Nice to meet you.”
“Before meeting you, I could never have imagined that the hunter kid’s boyfriend would be a vampire. What’s more, he’s the descendant of a noble and high-blooded vampire family.”
With that, Jack turned his head to look back at Talon and Mann.
Mann didn’t catch the meaning; after a brief hesitation, he asked, “What do you mean? Vampire?”
Talon’s expression looked somewhat flustered, though it was dominated by worry for Xun Jin.
Without offering Mann much of an explanation, Talon instead directed his words at Jack: “He’s innocent. You shouldn’t drag him into this.”
Acting as though he had just witnessed something immensely entertaining, Jack burst into roaring laughter. “Are you serious? So you actually knew he was a vampire? Ha, a hunter speaking up for a vampire and calling him innocent are you out of your mind?”
Mann finally understood. Remaining remarkably calm, he began analyzing the current situation independently on the side, choosing not to participate in the verbal sparring between them.
Xun Jin didn’t dare to breathe a loud breath. Noticing Mann’s evaluating gaze fixed upon him, he lowered his head with a guilty conscience.
His identity as a vampire had ultimately been exposed to the hunters.
[Your mission path deviated slightly. Your original target was Weixin, but it shifted to Talon instead. Still, since they’re both hunters and know each other, it’s not a major blunder.]
[The subsequent plotline goes like this: your family, in order to preserve the greater picture, reaches an agreement with the Hunter Guild and expels you the primary culprit from the family. Because your innate magical power is already weak, your physical constitution deteriorates until it’s weaker than that of most humans once you’re cast out. Incapable of hunting for food, your health rapidly declines, and you soon end up as food for stray vagrants.]
‘I’m actually going to get eaten in the end……’
It was bound to hurt terribly.
[By the time you’re cast out of the family, it won’t be long before you transition out of this world. You won’t have to wait around until the actual eating part.]
That’s a relief, that’s a relief.
Xun Jin let out a quiet sigh of relief.
By the time Xun Jin refocused his attention, Jack and Talon had already started arguing.
“What magical charm does your little boyfriend possess to make you so utterly devoted? You can’t even protect your own skin right now, yet you’re still worrying about him.”
“Let him go, take it out on me instead!”
“Ha, what could I possibly do to him? You surely don’t know anything about his family background, do you? I’m guessing he told you he was turned into a vampire against his will, right?”
“You think he’s the victim, when in reality, you’re the one being played.”
Jack mocked him without a shred of mercy, driving Talon’s face through alternating shades of red and white.
“He only got together with you because he had his eyes on your blood, otherwise I can’t fathom how a vampire could ever fall for a human.”
“I hear his name is Xun Jin, and he’s quite the notorious playboy over at Santiago Academy. Who’s to say he didn’t have other boyfriends on the side while he was with you?”
“I’m just telling you all this out of pity because I saw how you were being conned. Ah, I’ve seen too many plays where a fickle playboy fools an innocent, naive kid.”
Jack shot Talon a sidelong glare.
Talon’s hands clenched tightly into fists, the veins bulging along his forearms.
“What, feeling angry?”
Talon pressed his lips together so hard his teeth clicked.
Squatting down right in front of him at the sight, Jack patted Talon’s face and said:
“Don’t you want to ask him directly why he toyed with your feelings?”
The moment Jack squatted down, the line of sight between Xun Jin and Talon cleared.
Ignoring Jack’s deliberate provocation, Talon kept his dark gaze fixed firmly on Xun Jin, who had been sitting sideways on the desk, maintaining that exact same posture motionless ever since.
Noticing Talon looking at him, Xun Jin merely glanced up at him briefly before quickly looking away, not daring to meet his eyes at all.
A sharp stab of pain pierced Talon’s heart. The fury that had previously filled him cooled into something even more frigid.
He wanted to tell Xun Jin not to be afraid.
However, Jack interrupted the connection of their gazes.
“Tell me where the Hunter Guild’s secret vault holding the vampires is, and how to get inside, and I’ll hand Xun Jin over for you to deal with however you please.”
“In your dreams,” Mann said coldly.
Jack merely cast a contemptuous glance at Mann before pressing his hand down onto Talon’s shoulder, enunciating each word clearly: “Think it over carefully.”
Cianus stood guard outside the door with his arms crossed until the rest of the vampires withdrew from the room. He intercepted Jack as he walked out last. “What about Xun Jin?”
“Inside.”
“Aren’t you worried he’ll let those two hunter kids go?”
“Even if he lets them go, where could they possibly run to?” Jack said.
Their stronghold was a small wooden cabin surrounded entirely by wilderness and forest. The location was exceptionally remote; even if the hunters and vampires managed to escape outside, without teleportation abilities, they wouldn’t get far.
Jack: “If they run, we’ll just catch them again. Plus, it’s a great way to wear down their stamina.”
“Are you sure about this? The Lester family is not to be messed with.”
“I’ve checked the powerful figures of that family are currently in hibernation; they won’t find out. By the time they wake up, our business will already be resolved.”
“When that time comes, we’ll take our big brother and leave this place. Neither the Lester family nor the hunters will ever find us.”
“They still have a younger one in that family.”
Cianus didn’t share Jack’s optimism. Ever since Xun Jin had been dragged into this, he felt as though everything was spiraling away from its original trajectory.
“What use is the little one?” Jack scoffed derisively. “I advise you not to waste your thoughts on useless things. Things have come to this point, can we really turn back now?”
Cianus didn’t answer.
It was an undeniable fact that their eldest brother had murdered the previous chief of the Hunter Guild. The fact that those hunters hadn’t demanded their brother’s life and merely locked him away was already a mercy.
Their elder brother had chosen to walk into the trap himself to protect the rest of them. Yet now, they were turning around to snatch people back from the guild, even capturing elite members of the Hunter Guild to use as hostages.
If this plan failed, their faction of vampires was doomed to ruin sooner or later, alongside their imprisoned eldest brother, who would suffer as well.