Professor Alfred woke with his back pressed against a cold, jagged stone wall in a pitch-black alleyway. He hadn't fallen from the sky; he had been "pushed" with brutal force through the gates of the underworld, cast out into this strange human realm. Deep down, he knew this was the end. He was exiled here forever, with no path leading back to the world of vampires.
Above him, his crow, "Crow," circled in the air, watching his master with anxious eyes. Alfred's senses were immediately assaulted by the stench of dust, iron, and decay. Suddenly, she appeared from behind a stack of wooden crates—a young girl, her face smeared with ash, her eyes gleaming with a mix of sharp intelligence and profound misery. She lunged for his bag, snatched it, and shouted as she vanished into the shadows of the alley: — "Thanks for the gift, stranger!"
The girl stopped in a narrow passage to inspect her haul. "What a catch! A heavy bag... is there money inside? Gold? Or something even better?" Suddenly, a faint voice drifted from behind her: — "Really? To be banished because of someone else... only to be robbed by a human?"
The girl froze. She turned to see the old man calmly reclaiming his bag. He asked her with a dignified tone, "Who are you? And why are you in this state?" She didn't answer; she only stared at the bag with a look of crushing disappointment. Professor: "I am asking you... or are you not the least bit regretful for what you've done?" The Girl (in a low voice): "No, I'm not regretful. To be honest, I just thought I was faster than an old man like you." Professor: "And why do you steal what does not belong to you?" The Girl: "I don't call it stealing. I only took a little so that I might live."
Alfred reached out and patted her head. "Where is your family? It's late, and this place is not safe." The Girl: "I live alone... far from people. I'm an outcast."
In her eyes, Alfred saw the same pain of separation he felt for his own daughter, and the bitterness of the abandonment he had tasted from his own kind. He said to her, "Very well. We can be friends, for I too am an outcast. But on one condition: there is no stealing between friends."
The crow, Crow, spoke to his master's mind: "I have found a suitable place far from the humans... a small cottage deep in the woods, with enough shade to protect you from the sun." Alfred: "If I were alone, I would have died before sunrise..." The Girl: "Why would you die? Didn't we just become friends?" Professor: "Yes, yes... friends. And I shall become your teacher as well; for the world out there has no respect for the ignorant or the weak."
Alfred lived with the girl in that cottage, treating her as the daughter he had been robbed of. He began to teach her, transforming her into someone conscious of the world around her. Meanwhile, his biological daughter began her own studies, learning from the fragments her father had left behind—all under the watchful eye of the new Ruler, Leo.
Inside the Royal Palace:
The day Leo had dreamed of had finally arrived—the day he would officially take the throne as an absolute ruler. But a bitter reality struck him: the Great Hall was empty of the very faces whose pride he had hoped to break. No one had attended his coronation except for his closest companion, Alex.
Leo stared into the emptiness with bitterness. Am I truly so unworthy that they wouldn't even show their faces? he wondered. In that moment, an old feeling clawed at him—a sense of isolation and neglect he had known since childhood. He remembered his first day at the Academy of Magic and Power; he had been the first student to master his energy and achieve excellence. But while the hall had been packed with families celebrating their children, neither his father nor his mother had come. He had been alone at the height of his success then, just as he was now.
Leo clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white. "Fine," he whispered, his voice dripping with malice. "I don't need your love anyway. The day will come when you will need me desperately, but I won't have a second to spare for you." He motioned coldly for the servant to place the heavy crown upon his head and sat upon the throne, his expression turning to stone.
Alex approached him, speaking softly. "Finally, the day you dedicated your entire life to has arrived, Leo." Leo kept his eyes fixed on the horizon. "I wish I had kept the Professor under my thumb. At the very least, until I knew his theories and the method he planned to use to expand the world."
Alex: "What is so special about the human world? They're just weaklings who live for a few days. Unlike us, they can't even defend themselves. I don't see how their world benefits you." Leo: "A world full of Spiritual Stones... stones of annihilation for us and our people. It's a wider frontier. You don't understand that to be the 'Greatest' means occupying every world within your reach." Alex: "So what? Are you going to spend the rest of your life starting new research from scratch? Find the Professor and make him talk. If he refuses, threaten him. Hasn't that always worked? But who knows... he might have passed away the moment he was cast out." Leo: "Nothing will happen to him as long as he stays out of the sun. Even though the Noble secret that allows us to enter the human world at night belongs to us, don't forget that he was the one who helped invent it. I don't think he's dead. A scientist like him won't stop until he achieves the faith he has in his own creations." Alex: "Then what are you thinking? Let me go and bring him back myself." Leo: "You know you're the only person I trust—more than my own father. I have one request: if he refuses to speak... kill him. At least then I'll be certain that a man like him won't become an enemy in the future."