Lilith’s unannounced trespass into the Everwinter Estate went largely unnoticed due to the Matriarch’s immediate intervention. Usually, an invader would have been captured and possibly executed after weeks of interrogation, but fortunately for us, Lilith was considered a friendly. And so, the days passed in relative peace.

Yes, there were the days when Irina and Lilith started to fight. Mainly due to them arguing over who could sleep in my bed at night. Irina wanted to continue our nightly activities, which included sucking both my blood and vitality vicariously with no end.

Lilith, on the other hand, just couldn’t forgive Irina for stealing me away and hated the idea that her Bloodmate would be pairing with another woman without her consent. However, since we’d only just reunited, the girl was too shy to approach me just like Irina did.

And so, we reached a deadlock in our relationship. While things looked peaceful on the outside, internally, there was a tense war between the two beauties. Neither side wished to give in, and every time one seemed to get an advantage, the other would do everything in their power to stop the other.

But the true victim in this war… was none other than myself.

It had been three days since Lilith arrived, and I had yet to suck her blood. I couldn’t even enjoy my daily dosage of Irina due to the cold war that was brewing in the house. Furthermore, I couldn’t even train properly due to the restrictions that were placed on me now.

Damn it! I wanted to suck their blood! I wanted to push them down on the bed and enjoy our time together!

Shit! Seriously, after becoming a Vampire, my latent desires had become more and more transparent. And it didn’t help that both of them had heavenly bodies that somehow appealed to me far more than any human woman ever could.

Just looking at Lilith’s untasted neck was enough to get my gears turning… Urgh, I really need to learn self-control.

The only good thing that I’d gained during my quarantine was the enjoyable talks I shared with Lilith, which helped me piece together the puzzle that was Lilith Moonreaver. Firstly, unlike Irina, who was just one out of many heirs-in-training, Lilith was the sole heir to the Moonreaver House. Well, to call her the sole heir would be a reach, but it is widely accepted that in a couple hundred years, Lilith would inherit the House.

And to understand why that was the case, it was imperative to understand how the Moonreaver House worked.

Just like the Everwinter House, the Moonreaver House was one of the Ten Guardian Houses that ruled the Vampiric world. Each one of the Guardian Houses had its own unique traits, and all of them were integral to keeping all Vampires safe from the other races that wished to prey on them.

And if the Everwinter House were the shield that protected Vampires from the threat of the Outer Demons, the Moonreaver House was the barrier that kept the Vampires hidden from humans and other eyes._-.

There were many reasons why Vampires had largely disappeared from the planet and had become as elusive as the Elves themselves. They mainly hunted at night and when the Moon was largely visible. They were few in numbers and rarely showed themselves in fear of the Holy Church and other rogue scientists that wished to experiment on their bodies.

But the main reason why the Vampires had vanished from our society was due to the creation of alternate dimensions called the Nightmare realms. Each Nightmare realm was a dimension that gave Vampires a safe place to stay where they were untethered by human laws.

Most Nightmare realms were small and barely the size of a football field. They were used as emergency hideouts for Vampires or a place where they could hide their lifetime of wealth. However, there were Nightmare realms that could reach the size of an entire country!

According to Lilith, the Nightmare realms were places for Vampires to live, trade and hibernate in peace, away from the pesky humans that wished to disrupt them. Yes, there were certain powerful clans, such as the Everwinter House, that lived in the human world and didn’t need to migrate to a Nightmare realm. However, the vast majority of Vampires lived in the Nightmare realms, where they were unhindered by the Sun, and they could live by their own rules.

Not only that, since Vampires hated to travel in the Sun and facing other races without the Blood Moon would be a pain in the ass, the Vampires had developed Warp Gates, which linked the Nightmare realms together.

And the Guardian House responsible for the creation, maintenance and protection of all the Nightmare realms… was none other than the Moonreaver House.

If the Everwinter House’s speciality was the dominion over ice and Winter, the Moonreaver had absolute authority over dimensional magic. They were the ones who helped the Vampires stay out of harm’s way and were the architects of the paradigm-shifting Nightmare realms. The Moonreaver House was even responsible for all the Warp Gates that each Nightmare realm had.

And therefore, while the Guardian Houses never tried to rank themselves, there was an unspoken consensus that the Moonreaver House stood at the apex. They may not have the best fighters, and its numbers were much fewer than the other Houses, but the Moonreaver House was unquestionably the most influential one.

And since their influence didn’t rely on personal power but the ability to comprehend, innovate and generate new dimensional magic to progress, the Moonreaver House’s leader didn’t need to be the strongest Vampire in the Clan. On the contrary, they needed to possess foresight and intelligence that trumps any mere physical brawler.

And that was the main reason why the Moonreaver House could confidently place Lilith as their sole heir.

At the age of three, she had mastered basic arithmetic and language. At the age of six, she started to study spells and had even mastered dimensional ones that were difficult for Vampires five times her age. At the age of ten, she performed a soul ritual that no ten-year-old could ever hope to replicate, even if they were supported by knowledgeable adults. At the age of fifteen, she created her own pocket dimension, which many think that it’s a record that would stand the test of time. At the age of eighteen, she created her own Nightmare realm without any assistance from the Moonreaver House. And finally, at the age of twenty-five, she obtained a domain, something that even True Vampires that lived for a thousand years would rarely master.

Each record was more stunning than the last, and Lilith had eventually become a celebrity in the Vampiric World.

Nicknames such as the Princess of the Moonreaver House, the generational prodigy, the gift from the stars… Each moniker shows how terribly gifted Lilith was, so much so that people were hoping she inherited the Moonreaver House sooner rather than later.

But right now, this prodigy was more invested in doing something else…

“Ten metres! I said you should keep ten metres away from Jin!”

“And why the hell would I do that?”

“I don’t want you to contaminate him more than you’ve already had!”

“Contaminate? Do you think that I’m a bacteria?”

“Worse! You’re a succubus that doesn’t know when to stop! Don’t spread your cooties to him!”

“Tsk, this is why I didn’t want you to find out…”

Lilith and Irina quarrelled as per usual, their nostrils fuming and eyes burning. One was a generational talent that terrified every True Vampire in her age group. The other possessed the Winter Sovereign aspect, in which only two had ever existed.

And yet… These two were fighting like little children at a schoolyard. Cooties? Now that’s a term I’d never heard in a long time…

“Are you guys five years old?”

“She was the one who started it!”

“No, you’re the one who interrupted my sweet time with Brother! IF you behaved, we could have continued doing this and that!”

“T-T-This and t-that?!” Lilith’s pale complexion instantly turned crimson, and her arms flailed about in pure hysteria. “I-I knew it! You need to stay ten metres away! N-No, twenty metres away!”

“Tsk, what a virgin…”

Hey, Irina? Weren’t you a virgin just a few days ago as well? I wanted to retort that, but my mind rightfully held back my mouth. After interacting with these two for a few days, I knew better than to jump right into a catfight. Although they wouldn’t admit it, these two were as sisterly as sisters come. Perhaps it was due to how similar their ages were and the fact that they often communicated to monitor my surroundings. But, these two seemed closer than mere friends.

Especially when it comes to Irina. Irina wasn’t close to anyone in the Everwinter House and the only ones that she truly trusted, such as Variel and Luminita, were far older than her. So, to see her behave in a comfortable and unrestrained manner to another young Vampire…

It really warmed my heart.

“Alright, stop fighting. We’re already here.”

I reached out for both of their necks and gently grabbed their napes. Like a mother cat catching its kittens, I tenderly massaged them to calm down and brought them closer to me.

“B-Brother…”

“J-Jin…”

Irina’s eyes gleamed with hearts as her wintry-grey pupils locked with mine. Meanwhile, Lilith’s mystified expression, combined with her desire to lean into my touch and to run away in shame, was clearly evident in her ethereal vale eyes. Both of those expressions shot two critical hits in my heart, and I was tempted to carry them both to bed at this very moment. Alas, we didn’t have that luxury right now.

“We are about to teleport to the Moonreaver Dimension. If you keep fighting, the operators won’t know when to start the initiation.”

I glanced over to the technicians handling the teleportation device, only to see them desperately trying to hide their laughter. Lilith and Irina noticed them as well, and they both looked down with faint blushes on their cheeks.

“Master Jin, you sure have become adept at handling the Young Mistress.” Variel laughed as he carried the last remaining suitcase onto the platform.

“As expected of Master Jin! The Young Mistress has already been wrapped around your finger!” Luminita commented as well while she held onto Irina’s personal belongings.

“You two… Do you want a pay cut?”

“Ara? How scary!”

Luminita chuckled and showed a gesture that she was going to zip her mouth. Variel smiled widely in response and retained his silence as well.

While the Moonreaver House was officially an ally and would never do anything to harm Irina, it didn’t hurt to have some protection. Furthermore, Variel and Luminita were both top class servants who could both protect and serve Irina better than anyone could. And so, bringing them along wasn’t a bad plan.

“Alright, are you ready?”

“Yes!”

“Yes…”

Lilith and Irina answered at the same time. Lilith’s voice was more enthusiastic than the white-haired beauty, who had secretly connected her arms around mine without Lilith noticing. Well, it couldn’t be helped. We were leaving her home for a foreign place that Irina would be uncomfortable with. It was natural to be a little afraid.

However, I truly misjudged Irina’s feelings this time.

“I’ll need to obtain my domain as quickly as possible… That way, we can return before Lilith can do anything to Brother…”

… This little imp. Shouldn’t you want to become stronger for your own sake? Why do you have such twisted motivations?

Hah…

While holding back my sigh, the operators of the teleportation portal held up a thumbs up, to which we replied with our own friendly gesture. After nodding, the lead technician spoke to a headset, likely to inform the operators at the Moonreaver House of our request to teleport. And after a few seconds, the runes on the platform started to light up as magic power was transferred to the circular device leaning against the wall. And then…

Zssssttttt!

A wave of particles congregated into a whirlpool of magic, and it felt like space itself had been manipulated. No, it didn’t feel like it; it was what actually happened! Due to my affinity with Spacetime, I could tell that this structure was similar to that of a wormhole, a fold in the fabric of Spacetime that allowed entities to travel from one place to the other without traversing the entire distance.

And while I would love to delve into the physics and magical theory of this phenomenon, there was simply no time for my scientific curiosity.

Lilith led the road as she walked confidently toward the vortex of magic. However, just before she could step through, the blonde goddess looked over her shoulder and flashed a confident smile. She held her left hand back, and her lustrous voice reverberated in my mind.

“Let’s go!”

Ah, that’s right… This is only the beginning of my journey. The Outer Demons, the Vampires, the other races… This was only just the start. There would be countless adventures to come. Countless stories to experience. Countless fights to endure.

And throughout them all…

They will be there.

Putting on my broadest smile, I firmly grabbed the slender hand that reached out to me and took that one confident step. The first step forward in my journey.