Akane Natsume and Luke arrived at their accommodation room and put away their luggage.
Their luggage was simple: a few changes of clothes, a wallet, toiletries, and a small makeup case.
Akane Natsume didn't like heavy makeup, so a single makeup case was enough for her needs.
"Luke, let's go to the hot springs together," Akane Natsume said, pulling Luke along.
"No, I want to go by myself. I'm not a child anymore."
How ridiculous. Having grown up under the red flag and lived a total of twenty to thirty years, how could he take advantage of his mother.
Akane Natsume didn't insist, as it was just a casual remark to begin with.
She had always been this way with Luke. Her husband was already gone, and she didn't want any estrangement with her only remaining family over trivial matters.
The two headed to the hot springs together. Akane Natsume went to the women's bath, while Luke entered the men's bath... Hyakuya Orphanage.
Knock, knock, knock. A sound of knocking came from outside the office.
"Come in."
Mika pushed the door open and entered.
"I'm here, Mr. Saito."
Saito put down the "Book of Revelation" and stood up from his office chair.
"Mika, go help bring Taichi back from the police station. He went out to play, got lost, and I can't get away for the moment."
Mika nodded in understanding.
As the oldest boy in the orphanage, Mika had long since started helping the director take care of the children as a 'male mom,' and he was already accustomed to such errands.
Just as Mika turned to go fetch him, Saito's voice sounded again.
"By the way, Mika, has that child Luke come to play with you all these past few days?"
As the Second Progenitor of the Vampires, Saito naturally couldn't stay at the orphanage all the time; he was usually there about once a week.
"Ah, he came yesterday morning and told the children many interesting stories."
Saito asked again, "Then, if he were to become part of everyone's family, would you be willing?"
Mika's smile brightened even more.
"Everyone already treats Luke like family, so of course we'd be willing."
Saito shook his head, his expression turning serious.
"No, he has his own family; you all are just his playmates. What I mean is, making him truly part of everyone's family."
If Luke were here, he would definitely point at Saito's nose and curse: You old bastard, you wouldn't be thinking of making me undergo the Seraph Experiment too, would you? I'm telling you, dream on!
In fact, Saito had exactly that intention. Although they had only interacted a few times, for some reason he always felt Luke was hiding something.
Intuition isn't always accurate, but it can influence a person's thoughts.
Right now, Saito inexplicably wanted Luke to become a Seraph as well.
"Huh? Did something happen to Luke... I mean, Sister on her way to Kyoto?" Mika asked, puzzled.
How could Mika know what Saito was thinking? He only assumed Luke had also become an orphan, and Mr. Saito was considering whether to take him in.
"Oh? They went to Kyoto?"
Saito noted this piece of information.
Mika answered honestly, the worry for Akane Natsume not diminishing in the slightest on his face.
"Luke said they were planning to go to Kyoto for a trip these past couple of days and left today. Didn't you know, Mr. Saito?"
"It's fine. Go pick up Taichi first."
Mika looked conflicted, wanting to say something but holding back.
"Alright, Akane Natsume is fine. I was just asking casually."
Saito waved his hand, signaling Mika to leave.
Having gotten the answer he wanted, Mika beamed, bowed, and left.
Saito's fingers tapped rhythmically on the office desk, the sound echoing in the room.
"So they really went?" Saito murmured to himself.
"Perhaps... now is the time to act."
Then Saito left the orphanage and boarded a train bound for Kyoto.
Earlier, saying he couldn't get away to pick up Taichi was purely laziness. As the esteemed Second Progenitor, why would he personally go fetch an unimportant experimental subject?
Night fell, and the starry sky presented itself unreservedly to the people.
Luke had been keeping an eye on the beautiful woman beside him. Only when her breathing became even did he quietly get up.
After all, he was still a child, so it was normal to sleep with his mother. Luke had long since discovered that his mother was hard to wake once she fell asleep.
In the mornings, she liked to linger in bed, and forcing her awake would bring on her morning grumpiness.
Luke tiptoed to open the door, looked back to confirm Akane Natsume showed no signs of waking, and left the room.
A cold wind howled and slapped against Luke's body, the biting chill sharpening his senses.
Luke took a flashlight and headed up the mountain.
It was less a mountain and more a slightly steep, large slope. The terrain was very gentle, so climbing it wasn't particularly strenuous.
Since Luke hadn't yet become a Vampire, he wasn't stronger than Krul, but his physical stamina still surpassed that of an ordinary athlete.
He covered the two-kilometer mountain path in just five or six minutes.
At the top was a withered forest with slightly undulating terrain, roughly the size of ten or so school campuses.
Luke had made some marks on the way up. He adjusted the flashlight to a dim, close-range setting.
In the middle of the night, it wouldn't be good to attract Vampires. He currently didn't have night vision capabilities.
Luke began to think about where to start searching.
Having studied the map all day, he learned that around this mountain, only the small town where the inn was located had any human presence; the other directions weren't suitable for habitation.
Luke remembered that after Hyakuya Yuichiro escaped, he kept running straight ahead, and from the location where he encountered Guren, one could overlook a human city.
Given that, finding a position overlooking the city below should be the first priority.
Luke searched meticulously for nearly four hours. Not only did he not find the entrance to Sanguinem, but he didn't even see a snake hole on this godforsaken mountain.
Seeing the eastern sky begin to lighten, Luke had to return for now. If Akane Natsume woke up and didn't see him, it would be a big problem.
"Luke, didn't you sleep well last night? You have some dark circles," Akane Natsume said with concern.
"Did I sleep poorly last night and disturb you?"
Luke shook his head.
Having stayed up all night and expended energy searching for the entrance, dark circles were normal.
It was only because his body was naturally quite resilient that he wasn't fully cosplaying a giant panda.
Luke silently spread out the map and marked the areas he had ruled out last night.
Last night, he spent over four hours eliminating one-third of the forest area. Despite the forest appearing to be flat and A panoramic view from the surface, when he carefully searched, he discovered the peculiar terrain of that forest.
From a distance, it just looked like a small mound, but upon closer inspection, he realized the elevation difference of that mound was quite significant.
This led to the illusion that you could see everything at a glance, when in fact, behind those small slopes or trees, there was another world.
Luke searched very meticulously, so he could be sure there was absolutely no entrance in the areas he had checked. He also noticed a strange situation—there were no signs of animal life in that forest.
Logically, even in winter, there should be animal burrows. This showed that the forest wasn't suitable for animals to live in.
Or perhaps there was something they feared.
Luke believed it was likely that Vampires captured these animals to drink their blood.
The Vampire hierarchy was very clear. Since Vampires hadn't yet entered human society on a large scale, human blood was certainly limited. The nobles themselves might not even have enough, so to live normally, Lower-ranking Vampires could only drink the blood of other animals.
You will get 90 chapter ahead for this fanfiction.
patreon.com/AZOFFICIAL1