"What am I…. where's this…"
The dizzy Harlen opened his eyes groggily.
His heavy head caused Harlen to be unable to lift it up.
He could only lower his head, and sway left and right…
At the same time, he observed his surroundings with half-lidded eyes.
However, all he saw was darkness.
Harlen had the intention to rub his head to ease the throbbing, before trying to feel the environment around him.
However, he realized that his hands and body were bound by what seemed to be chains, and he could not move.
"Zing zing"
"This smell is… blood!"
Harlen was all too familiar with the smell that filled the air.
As a Paladin, he was always on the front line.
Wearing heavy armor to defend against the powerful enemies in front of him, he created an environment for his teammates to attack.
After years of fighting and killing enemies, Harlen's perception of blood had become increasingly sensitive.
Even if there was only a hint of blood in the air, Harlen could acutely identify it.
At that moment, Harlen suddenly felt liquid flowing from his neck.
Suddenly, a heavy metal door that was in front of Harlen was slowly pushed open.
A few rays of light shone into the dark room.
The sudden rush of light blinded Harlen, who had adjusted to the darkness.
He only heard a bang, and the metal door was shut again.
Right now… there seemed to be two more people in this dark room besides Harlen?
"Pa!"
With the snap of a finger, rows of candles lit up the surroundings.
In less than two seconds, the rows of candles lit up the entire dark room.
Harlen adjusted his eyes, which had been stimulated by the strong light when he opened the door, and forced himself to look around.
Through the candlelight, he could see that he was in a room with black and red colors.
In addition to the metal door in front of him, there was also a metal railing window the size of an A4 paper.
Perhaps it was because the night sky outside the window was the same as the darkness in the room, so he did not notice this window.
And Harlen found himself tied to a black cross.
His body was wrapped in layers of chains.
Other than that…
There also seemed to be a lady with long brown curly hair, wearing a dark red dress, and a maid who was suspected to be a servant. They were standing in front of the metal door, looking at him.
"Are you awake?"
"Honorable Sir Radiant Knight, Mr. Harlen Brook."
The brown-haired lady asked as she bowed to Harlen.
Harlen ignored the brown-haired lady's greeting.
Instead, he continued to observe his surroundings to see where he was.
The brunette however didn't seem happy to be ignored by Harlen.
She waved her hand, summoning a large group of pitch-black little bats flew out from the scarlet circle in front of her.
A portion of the bats flew behind the brown-haired lady and gathered to form the shape of a throne. At the end, it turned into a real royal throne.
The other portion flew toward Harlen.
The little bats' claws grabbed Harlen's body and hair tightly. However, Harlen only looked at the brown-haired lady.
The brown-haired lady sat elegantly on the royal throne made of bats.
She fixed her scarlet eyes on Harlen, who was fixed to the place by the little bats.
"Mr. Harlen."
"It's impolite to look around when others ask questions."
As she spoke, the brown-haired lady took the black tea from the maid and began to savor it.
"I'm really sorry, ma'am."
"I just don't understand why I'm here."
"May I know where this is? Who are you?"
Harlen asked the brunette.
"You're in This Throne's vampire castle."
"My name is Bella·Elisa."
"I'm the Blood Tribe's 25th generation Scarlet Queen."
"Nice to meet you!"
Bella Elisa got up and curtsied before returning to her throne.
"…You! You are! Cough cough cough!"
"You're that Queen of Vampires, Bella Elisa?!"
Hearing Bella's words, Harlen almost lost his breath.
As a Paladin, he was constantly thinking about how to destroy the big boss of the Blood Clan and protect the peace of humans.
Now, the big boss of the Blood Clan was standing in front of him.
However, he was tied up and his equipment and weapons were gone.
There were only a few pieces of tattered clothes covering his body, and he had no fighting strength left.
Even so, Harlen struggled to free himself from the chains and fight the vampire queen with only his body.
As a Paladin, even if he was weak, he had to carry out his justice.
Eliminate evil forces in the dark corners of the world!
"Stop struggling. It's pointless."
"The more you struggle, the faster the blood will flow from your neck. Behave yourself."
At this, Harlen belatedly realized that the liquid flowing on his neck was blood.
"You! What did you do to me?!"
Harlen looked fiercely at Bella. As a paladin, Harlen's ego would never allow a vampire to do anything to him and corrupt him.
"Just letting out some blood on you so you can get ready."
A sinister smile appeared on Queen Bella's face.
"You! Just what are you planning to do to me?!"
At this point, Harlen couldn't take it anymore and yelled at Bella.
He was about to be corrupted. His pride as a Paladin was about to crumble.
Bella completely ignored Harlen's roar.
She sipped her black tea and watched Harlen's impotent rage.
After a while, she handed the black tea to the maid before saying to Harlen,
"Mr. Harlen, have you ever heard of how vampires reproduce?"
"I don't know. Your father here doesn't want to know either."
At this moment, Harlen could no longer listen to Bella.
He only wanted to break free from the chains and fight it out with Queen Bella.
Only then would he fulfil his identity of a Paladin, dying an honorable death.
However, Queen Bella ignored the struggling Harlen and his words, continuing to speak.
"Every vampire queen of our generation has a chance to perform The Embrace to raise an heir."
"Although we vampires can reproduce like humans, if we do that, our bloodline will not be pure."
"However, if they were to use the method I mentioned earlier to raise an heir…."
"… it will allow the heir to inherit all the genes of the parent."
"Because every vampire queen has only one chance, therefore, the selection of heirs is especially important."
With that, Queen Bella looked Harlen up and down with satisfaction.
"What are you looking at me for!"
"Could it be that I am the chosen heir?!
Queen Bella didn't say anything. She simply smiled.
Then, she simply said, "Looking at the blood in your body, it seems like you've bled enough. It's time to replenish your blood."