Ryo spent the next few days blissfully in his indoor vacation. After the audience with his father, a few days passed and he met Rei again by accident.
Instead of spouting venomous words at him, this time he just ignored Ryo like he didn't see him but he was now less hostile towards him. He can finally rest easy without having Rei constantly breathing down his neck.
He was headed to the east garden to paint when he noticed Rei speaking with someone.
Although they were a little far, Ryo could still clearly see them thanks to his vampire bloodline. He could see that Rei's eyes looked out of focus. He couldn't clearly hear what they were talking about because there was some kind of barrier that was interfering with outsiders from eavesdropping.
Although he couldn't hear what they were talking about, Ryo saw that the one Rei was talking with was his personal nanny who's name he forgot. He tends to forget insignificant people.
It was strange. There is nothing wrong if a young master is talking with his nanny so why bother putting up a barrier? It was as if they're talking about things that shouldn't be heard by outsiders. It can't be that they're having a love affair, right? No way though, the nanny looked old and certainly not his onni-san's cup of tea.
Ryo was about to walk away when he suddenly stopped and realized something. He looked back again at those two and realized that the situation was quite wrong.
Rei's eyes in a daze.
A soundproof barrier.
Just his nanny and him.
A terrible answer surfaced in his mind and he couldn't even help but be surprised upon realizing the gravity of the situation.
He was just half-heartedly solving his issues with Rei because he just wants a peaceful life but he couldn't leave a bug alone especially when it could cause harm in the family he had sworn his lifetime to protect to, in line with the original Ryo's wishes. He really hopes that he was just overthinking things 'cuz if not…Ryo narrowed his eyes as he decided to back away and observe for now.
After a few days of observing from far away, he could finally draw a conclusion that the nanny is indeed acting odd. She was always sticking by Rei's side as if she was guarding a toddler. They looked harmonious whenever they interacted but if one focused closely on Rei, they would find that he's acting strange too. Rei is arrogant and elegant on a normal day but at that moment, his eyes looked empty and his gestures were slightly stiff. As if a puppet on a string.
Ryo couldn't help but feel that his conjecture was probably right. He has this nagging feeling that if he doesn't act now, he'd lose the opportunity forever. He can't allow that. He can't let any opportunity pass. He wanted to know what they were talking about but he's afraid that if he get closer, they'll find out that he's investigating them. Now that would be bad.
Ryo was annoyed as he browsed the shelves of the library absentmindedly picking out random books, still immersed in his thoughts about Rei and that Nanny. This was all that nanny's fault.
He could've allocated this time for investigating other things he wanted to do but instead here he was spending too much effort for something he's not sure that he'll be able to benefit from. Although he must admit that doing detective work was indeed thrilling. That's probably the only reason why he's still investigating.
Not that he's concerned for Rei's well being. Definitely not. Although he was just being a tsundere but so what. No one knows his thoughts anyway. He carried the books he absentmindedly picked up and went to his usual corner to read. Any books available in this library are interesting anyway, at least those books that he had read so far were entertaining for him.
He was about to pick a thick book about different race's anatomy when he saw a very worn out black thin book. It was eye catching among those he picked because it was the only book that looked neglected for many years. Heck it actually looked like the book would fall apart due to how old and worn out it looked. He carefully held the book and found out that it didn't have any title. The cover was just plain black.
He then carefully opened the book only to find out that the pages were empty. He carefully turned the pages to find any writing but until he reached the very end, it really was empty. Weird. Was this supposed to be a log book or something? He was about to close it when his finger accidentally grazed the corner of the paper, cutting a wound open on his cute finger. He immediately withdrew his hand when he felt the stinging pain and a drop of his blood landed on the spine of the book.
'Oh shit I messed it up.'
Ryo was sucking on his bleeding finger while his other free hand tried to salvage the situation but what happened stunned him. The blood that was supposed to be there was absorbed by the book until his blood was gone. His eyebrow arched up in wonder and soon, writings filled the book. His eyes widened while watching the book reveal it's contents to him.
It was just too awesome. He felt like he was in H*gwarts or something. The book closed on it's own when he just sat there motionless. As if a pissed off woman who undressed in front of her husband only to find out that her husband didn't have any reaction. His paper cut was already healed so he reached out for the book's cover and opened it once again.
The book's content was about various arrays, summoning circles, and spells that looked shady. Real shady. He felt like this was a forbidden book. He looked around for a moment and saw from afar that the librarian was deeply immersed in his own book. No one would complain if he claim this book, right? Even if someone does complain he can just act like a cute baby to settle it.
Ryo hurriedly placed the book inside his storage space. It's really convenient to have a storage space. He doesn't have to carry shit and he could just hide things inside since he's the only one who's got access to his own space.
Everyone in this world has their own space, the amount a space can accommodate depends on the quality of the space. Of course the higher the quality, the more expensive it is.
Now that he found a new interest, he hurriedly left the library and headed to his own room. At least there he could read in peace without anyone snooping on him. He laid down in his bed and browsed the worn out book. There were various complicated arrays written and drawn in the book. Each array has a written explanation and guide how it works and how to activate it.
It was entertaining to read, especially that array that could trap even a God. Although the materials and requirements needed to activate it were probably rare items. He doesn't have any plans on trapping anything anyway.
While browsing the book, a certain summoning circle caught his eyes, also because it was the least demanding in terms of it's requirement for activation. It was a summoning circle that could summon a 'shadow' that was totally undetectable. It was a dark entity that could take up the form of a Chiropteran. The very symbol of vampires.
Chiropterans were the official symbol of vampires since they have very similar characteristics. Based on the ancient book he read before when he was browsing in the library, in ancient times, Chiropterans were often found hovering above an unburied corpse.
They were feeding on the corpse's blood and after accumulating loads of blood in their system, the very first vampire was born.
The very first vampire, although having similar anatomy to a human, their very long spread out digits were still covered with a thin membrane or membranous structure that helps in their glide or flight. The first vampire's fangs were protruding from its mouth and it's ears were pointed.
It also wasn't very intelligent and the only thing it did was to feed on animals and corpses and as time passed by, it started feeding on humans, turning some of the humans that weren't killed, into vampires. Thus the start of the history of the vampires.
The worn out book stated that, in order to summon a 'shadow', a noble or a royal vampire's blood should be used to draw the summoning circle.
Noble vampires have the highest purity of vampiric blood especially the Royal vampires since their blood was closer to the first vampire, that's why they're stronger than the average vampires.
The higher the purity of blood, the stronger the shadow they could produce. Also the number of shadows they could summon depends on their energy and blood. The summoning circle should also be drawn when the full moon is high up in the sky.
Ryo examined the summoning circle. It's pattern was quite complicated but he could draw it. It's just that, the amount of blood that would be spilled is quite a lot. He could only hope that he won't turn into a dried up plum after spilling so much blood.