While John was waiting outside for Elena by the carriage, Anna was having a quiet, serious conversation with the maid.
"Elena dear, please look after John. I don't want my daughter coming back and finding out her son has come to harm," Anna said while drinking blood from a delicate teacup.
"This one will take good care of the young master," Elena promised.
"It is understandable that John feels bored here while his cousins and the other kids are at school. Reina is also not here today to train him. Take one more knight with you, Elena, for added security."
"I will do as you command, my Lady."
Elena arrived outside with an accompanying vampire knight.
"What took you so long?" John said, holding the carriage door open for Elena.
Elena and the vampire knight were shocked by John's simple, courteous action. "No, Young Master," Elena protested, unused to such treatment.
John shrugged at their shocked expressions. "It's no big deal, Elena. Please come in," John said, gesturing for her to enter the carriage. "Are you also coming, Mr. Knight?"
"No, Young Master, I will be taking the horse and following at a distance."
"Okay then." John then entered the carriage.
While on their way to town, John asked Elena if she wanted something to drink, but she declined.
"Elena, it is alright. I told you that you do not have to be formal around me. Please try this," John said. He took out a small chocolate bar with raisins from his storage ring and asked Elena to try it.
She was hesitant at first but took a small bite of the chocolate. Her eyes stretched open in surprise. She had never tasted something so intensely sweet and rich. "This tastes really good, Young Master."
"Have another one," John offered.
"I don't think it is appropriate, Young Master," Elena murmured nervously.
"It's alright, Elena." Elena took another piece of the chocolate and ate it, still a little nervous about accepting gifts.
"So, Elena, what do you do when you get time off?" John said, sipping on some water as the chocolate had made his throat dry.
"I don't know, Young Master. I just go for walks outside."
"Walks? That sounds so boring. But if that's what you like, how about me and you go for walks through the forest behind the castle sometime?"
Elena felt nervous because John wanted to walk with her. "I don't know if it is appropriate..."
"Elena," John said, reaching out and gently touching Elena's hand. Elena was shocked and looked John in the eyes. "Elena, you look very beautiful."
Elena couldn't believe what John was saying. Where did this come from? She felt far older than John and was speechless.
"Hehehe," John giggled. "Don't worry, Elena, I am not in love with you or anything. I just said you are beautiful because I think nobody ever said it to you." John then moved near the window to look at the scenery, leaving Elena stunned.
"Thank you, Young Master, for the compliment. Nobody ever said that to me," Elena finally managed, looking down at her hands.
"Don't worry 'bout it."
When they arrived in town, John and Elena walked next to each other. They told the knight to walk a good distance from them as they did not want to draw attention to themselves.
They entered an Alchemy shop and looked around at the different vials. "Elena, what type of potion is this?" John asked, pointing at a vial.
"That is a strength potion, Young Master."
"Wow, I need this potion to get my muscle up, but I think I also need a speed one," John said, plotting how to get an edge in training. He asked Elena to buy both a speed and a strength potion.
"Are you sure, Young Master? These are low-quality potions," Elena cautioned, not wanting John to waste money.
"It's okay, just buy them. I want to see if I can get a chance to cheat training," John said, rubbing his hands together with a mischievous, evil grin.
After exiting the potions shop, John asked Elena if she wanted to go on a boat ride on the lake in the middle of the town. Elena was hesitant, but John grabbed her hand and led her to the lake.
When they were sailing on the boat, John retrieved an instant camera from his storage ring that his mother had put there for some reason. "What is that, Young Master?" Elena asked.
"Oh, this is called an instant camera. It can catch a moment in time. Are you okay with me taking a picture?"
Elena was hesitant but nodded her head. John then quickly took two selfie pictures.
"Say cheese," John said.
Elena was confused. "What does 'cheese' mean, Young Master?"
John giggled. "It means smile, silly."
When the picture was taken, the camera instantly printed a photo of them both smiling.
"Wow, and they say vampires don't appear in pictures, guess that is fake," John said, looking at the picture. "Here, take a look."
John gave one of the pictures to Elena. Elena looked at the picture and saw them both smiling genuinely. A tear began to fall down her left cheek.
Elena looked up at John, and he said, "Keep it, it's yours. I'll keep the second one."
"Thank you, Young Master."
After their boat ride, they went on a short walk, and John saw a meat store with a line of seven people. "Elena, I want you to buy me lots of meat. I don't know why, but I crave it," he said, feeling the sudden, strong needs of his awakened body.
"As you command, Young Master." The knight was nearby, and John asked him to help Elena carry the meat. They both had nervous expressions. "Don't worry, I won't be going anywhere. I will be standing right here."
They both nodded and headed for the meat store. After a few minutes, John heard a man's voice pleading, "Please don't take my money, it's all I have."
There were two robbers who had pinned a middle-aged man to the wall in a nearby alley. One robber had a knife in his hand. John hesitated, fighting an internal battle.
"Why am I afraid? I am a vampire with super strength and speed, I can take these fools."
John walked into the alley where they had pinned the man and shouted, "Hey! Let that man go!"
The two men were startled, but when they saw it was only a young boy, they both grinned. The one man with the eyepatch then said, "Or what, kid? What are you going to do about it?"
John also grinned, walking forward until he was a short distance from them. "I am gonna beat yo ass."
Just as John felt a rush of cocky confidence, he felt something cold and sharp enter the side of his neck. His hand flew up, coming away covered in warm blood. When he spun around, he saw that a third man had been standing behind him with a knife covered with his blood.
Meanwhile, Elena was standing in line when she got a strange, cold feeling—the instantaneous dread of her Young Master being in danger. She turned her head frantically to look for John. "Where is Young Master?"
John began to spit out blood. On his neck, the blood was flowing continuously. He tried to stop the bleeding by applying pressure with his left hand. The man who had stabbed John began to stab him again, another deep thrust in the neck. The blood began to gush out. The next stab was driven into John's chest.
John had never felt this type of pain in his life. He was shocked and scared that he might die. Even though he did all those superhuman feats in training, it never occurred to him that he was truly vulnerable.
"Hahahahaha, you stupid kid, trying to play hero, I'll fucking kill you," the man laughed, kicking John in the chest and making him fall onto his back.
The first wound that John had sustained on his neck began to slowly close, aided by the healing factor of his hybrid body. He applied pressure to the second wound on his neck with his left hand while crawling backward. John began to plead for mercy, holding out his right hand. "Please don't…"
Before he could say anything, the man began stabbing viciously at John's right hand. The knife went through the palm of John's hand, and he screamed, "Help!"
The man who was pinned on the wall by the two original robbers began to scream, "Please leave the boy! I'll give you all I have!" The one robber punched the middle-aged man in the stomach. "Shut up!"
The other robber looked at John with confusion. "Why isn't the boy dying?"
The man who stabbed John also noticed the first stab wound had closed up already. "What supernatural creature are you, boy?"
John, terrified, managed to whisper, "I am a vampire."
The men looked at each other for a moment and began to laugh, a cruel, mocking sound. "Hahaha, you are probably the weakest vampire I've come across. Okay, kid, time to kill you."
"No, please don't," John begged.
When the man with the knife stepped closer to deliver the killing blow, he suddenly felt something pierce his back. He looked down and saw a hand sticking out of his chest, but it was what lay in the hand that shocked him most: his own heart, still beating.
Elena then retracted her hand from behind, and the man with the knife fell to the ground, dead.
Elena was furious upon seeing John soaked in blood. John had a scared expression on his face, with tears streaming down his eyes. "You harmed the Young Master," she hissed.
Her face began to change. Dark veins appeared under her eyes, the iris of her eyes turned blood-red, and canine teeth extended into sharp fangs. She turned her head toward the two remaining robbers, who began to back away. "It's time for you two to also die."
The one robber tried to run out the back, but the vampire knight appeared before him. Before the man could scream, the knight ripped the man's heart out of his body.
Elena then walked slowly to the last robber. The man fell onto his knees and started to plead for mercy. "Please forgive me!"
The nails on Elena's hands began to extend, and she cleanly chopped the man's head off. Blood sprayed like a firehose. "Go ask God for forgiveness," Elena snarled. She then looked at the man they had been trying to rob, ready to kill him too, until John held her hand.
"Please don't kill him, Elena. He is innocent."
Elena's furious face instantly turned back to normal. She hugged John tightly. "Are you okay, Young Master?"
John put both of his hands around her waist and hugged her tightly. "Yes, please take me home."
In the Crimsons castle, Leonidas was busy pouring himself a glass of whisky.
"You seem happy, Anna," he observed.
"I am happy because our whole family is here. I am happy to be surrounded by my children and grandchildren," Anna said.
"I heard that Thomas got into a fight at school with another vampire," Anna said, referring to Markus's eldest son.
"What happened? Did he win?" Leonidas asked, sipping on his whisky.
"Yes, they said that Thomas beat the other boy into submission."
"I expect nothing else from a Crimson," Leonidas said, feeling very proud.
"But it's not right, honey," Anna said gently.
"We are vampires, Anna. We are predators. These fights will prepare him when he grows up. Also, I sense the carriage outside. That brat you are so proud of is full of dried blood."
Anna was shocked. She immediately disappeared and appeared where the carriage was. Anna saw John's clothes covered in blood. She became enraged, and the air in the immediate vicinity turned heavy. "What happened?"
They went to a private room where Elena explained the ambush. Anna wanted to punish Elena for the incident, but John quickly interjected, saying that it was not Elena's fault for what transpired.
Leonidas was also present and listened to the account. Leonidas looked at John with disgust while saying, "So you could not even defeat a couple of street punks. You are a disgrace to the Crimson bloodline."
Anna couldn't believe what her husband had just said. She looked at John's sad expression and felt deeply saddened. She walked up to John and tenderly caressed his cheek while saying, "John, dear, don't listen to your grandfather."
John touched her hand. "He is right, Grandma. I wanted to help somebody, thinking I am all powerful, and almost got myself killed."
"Grandma, please don't punish Elena and the other knight."
Anna had a soft expression. "Do not worry, dear. I won't punish them."
John nodded and was on his way to leave the room. He glanced at his grandfather, but Leonidas did not even bother to make eye contact with him. John walked with his head down and closed the door on his way out.
When John left the room, he heard Anna and Leonidas arguing behind the closed door: "That boy is not my grandchild."
John stood by the door for a few seconds before beginning to walk slowly toward his room.
In his room, a vampire maid arrived with a glass of blood, but John said that he was not thirsty. John laid on the bed, thinking about what happened over and over, contemplating what he could have done differently. He began to cry silently, holding his forearm in front of his eyes while thinking: "I am a failure."