It was nine at night. All the kids had prepared to sleep already. There was nothing more for them to do today. Atlas and his sister slept in the corner of the room with their bedsheets right beside each other.

Misella had already closed her eyes. Meanwhile, Atlas laid still, looking at the roof. He seemed to be lost in some deep thought.

Tuck~

With a metallic sound, the door opened. Atlas sat up and looked towards the door with the rest of the kids.

It appeared to be an old man who had stepped inside the room, carrying a small piece of paper in his hand.

“Wake up!” The man yelled suddenly.

Hearing his roar, the ones who had fallen asleep also opened their eyes and sat up in haste.

Misella also did the same. All the kids stood up and greeted the old man, who was a very important person in the Palace.

Gazing at the old man, Atlas started having a bad feeling for some reason. He just didn’t know why.

‘What is this old man doing here at this time? Something doesn’t feel right.’

“Alright. As you know, we have guests coming tonight,” the old man stated. “So the Lord has given me a task. Today, some of you will be working during the night as well. The kids I name shall stand up immediately!”

“Roy!” The man shouted, his gaze roaming over all the kids.

A dark-haired boy stood up as soon as his name was shouted.

“Jon!”

Another kid stood up.

Hearing the names, Atlas wondered if my name was going to be on the list as well. He had already worked that day, cleaning the place and all. He didn’t want to work in the night as well, just because guests were coming. It wasn’t as if they were paid for working day and night!

Still, he found it rare. They weren’t often called to work at night. The night was the time when the Vampires of this Castle were awake. It was only during the day when kids were supposed to work.

Throughout the day, the children worked cleaning all the rooms of the palace and taking care of other stuff like washing clothes. That was also why none of the kids had seen a Vampire even though they had been working here for years.

Even though the kids didn’t see a Vampire, they did see the coffins inside the rooms when they went to clean the rooms.

They were strictly warned not to touch the coffins when cleaning as that’s where Vampires used to sleep during the day. No one here knew why. It wasn’t as if Noble Vampires couldn’t walk in daylight.

“Misella!”

As Atlas was lost in thoughts, he heard a name that immediately alerted him. The old man had called on his sister to serve?

‘Huh? What? Did that guy say Misella?’

He was so lost in thought that he didn’t properly hear. Unfortunately, he got his answer when Misella took a step forward. She already looked so tired, yet she got more work.

“Atlas!”

The old man said the next name, calling Atlas. Hearing his name, instead of being disappointed, Atlas was happy since his sister didn’t need to work alone.

Before hearing his name, he was already planning to step forward to suggest his name instead of Misella if his name wasn’t called.

Fortunately, that wasn’t needed now as his name was spoken right after her. He couldn’t take her place when he was supposed to work as well.

‘This day is really bad. First, we worked like usual, then we lost double the blood we usually lose, and now we have to work at night?’

“The four of you shall come with me.”

The old man turned around and left the cell. Atlas walked closer to Misella. He could see the look on the faces of other kids whose names weren’t spoken. They looked relieved that they weren’t selected. Then again, if he were in their place, he would’ve felt the same.

“Best of luck!” Jason raised his thumb and wished everyone luck.

‘This guy… I can’t understand if he is teasing me or being serious.’ Atlas shook his head.

Atlas and Misella followed the old man. They walked past the blood collection hall and reached the stairs on the other end of the hallway. Following the old man, they went upstairs to the ground floor.

“Brother, Do you think we will get to see them tonight?” Misella asked Atlas out of nowhere.

“Probably,” replied Atlas, realizing that she was talking about the Vampires.

Since it was night, it made sense that they’d see them as long as they weren’t working in some random isolated corners.

‘That reminds me. What will we even be doing? I need to ask that,’ he thought.

“Ah, Sir.” A fourteen-year-old boy moved closer to the old man before Atlas could. “May I ask what we’ll be doing?”

He asked the question that Atlas and everyone else wanted to ask as well.

“You’ll be serving the guests. It’s simple. In short, you’ll be the waiters today,” the old man answered. “Apparently, the guests don’t like being served by us old men. That’s why we selected you all. You’ll be taking our place for the day.”

“And to take our place, first you need to look good. So right now, I’m taking you to get a nice shower, and if we still have some time left, possibly some haircut,” he further added.

‘Haircut? It looks like these guys are really serious,’ Atlas thought. ‘So we’ll be interacting directly with the Vampires? This is even more overwhelming than I thought.’

He hadn’t seen a Vampire before. He has only heard about them. And now that he was going to see them, it was going to be from so close? This was slightly scary.

Just as the old man had said, he took everyone to the shower room on the ground floor. Surprisingly, there were many such rooms in a row, and all of them were spotlessly clean.

“Take one room each and get out fast. The new set of clothes are hanging inside. Wear them before coming out. But don’t let them get wet. We don’t have any more clothes of your size!”

Atlas selected the first shower room. Misella picked the one next to him. The other two boys selected the fifth and the seventh room.

Soon, the sound of water falling on the floor filled the entire place as everyone started showering. The water was slightly warm for some reason. It was warm yet gentle. On the contrary, the water they usually got for showers was so cold that it often made them shiver. Moreover, there were also shampoo bottles on the side.

Looking at the bottles, Atlas couldn’t help but smile. “It has been so long since I have used one.”

He took some shampoo and started massaging his wet hair. He kept the shower short so as to not upset the old man. A white towel was also hanging on the wall for them, right beside their clothes.

After drying himself, Atlas wore his clothes and stepped out of the room. Only his hair was slightly wet as water trickled down from his hair to his cheeks. He wiped the water droplets on his face with his hands.

As for the clothes they were given, they looked so fancy, at least to Atlas, compared to what he was used to wearing. The clothes were made from a much softer fabric.

Atlas was wearing a black pant, and a white shirt. Over the white shirt, he wore a black jacket. The other boys were dressed the same. Only Misella was dressed differently as she was wearing a black dress that came down to her knees.

The old man stepped forward and placed a black bowtie around the neck of all the youngsters except Misella.

“Good. You don’t look half bad. We don’t have much time. Come with me. Let me give you a short training on what to do so you don’t mess up.”

*****

After half an hour of session, the kids were ready… As ready as they could be in such a short time. The old man had taught them all the basics of what they had to do and what they must never do so they didn’t offend the Vampires. It wasn’t too complicated either.

According to him, they just had to go to the hall with glasses filled with blood. They needed to wait there until the Vampires finished before taking the empty glasses and leaving the room. That was it. It didn’t look hard or complicated at all.

The list of what they were told to never do was a lot bigger than the list of what they had to do. They were told that they couldn’t look directly in the eyes of the Vampires or that they could court death since Vampires didn’t like anyone looking in their eyes. It was considered disrespectful.

They also couldn’t touch the Vampires or talk to them unless they were asked a question first. Only if they were asked to speak could they open their mouth, and that too only to answer.

Moreover, after serving, they needed to maintain a gap of six feet from them as they waited inside the room for them to finish. If that was all, then Atlas was fine as well since it wasn’t that scary. However, things were much more complicated, which he was soon going to find out.

The old man brought all of them to the kitchen, where four trays were waiting for them. One of the trays was filled with empty glasses. As for the rest of the trays, they were holding jugs filled to the brim with blood.

Atlas found it quite strange. These people had taken so much of their blood with the excuse to serve guests. Then why was there such a small quantity of blood for the guests? Did these people lie and take more than they needed?

As if reading Atlas’s mind, the old man spoke, “After you serve the blood, wait there. The guests would certainly demand more. After that, you will come back and take more. I’ll keep more ready and wait for you outside the hall. You understand?!’

‘So that’s what it was. This guy doesn’t want to overwhelm the guests by filling the room with blood. They are probably going to drink all night long, and it is our job to make sure their glasses are never empty. This job suddenly became more complicated than I thought.’

Since Misella was weak, everyone decided that she was going to be the one who would carry the tray with the empty glasses as the jugs with blood were heavier. In reality, it was just Atlas who decided that. However, the others just went along with his decision.

The boys picked up the trays with the jugs while Misella picked up the tray with empty glasses.

Taking a deep breath, they advanced towards the main hall. The guests had already arrived. They had already cleaned the main hall many times, so they knew where to go without needing directions.

As Atlas walked with the tray, he could feel his heart beating really fast. His heart was thumping like it was going to jump out of his chest and run away.

He was sure that the same was true for other boys and Misella as well. They all tried to look calm on the outside, but there was a tsunami of emotion inside their hearts. They were going to face the Vampires after all!

They were going to face the gods of this world! They were going to serve the beings that could decide their life and death with a single wave of their hands! Of course, they were all scared, but they couldn’t show it.

They had walked in these hallways hundreds of times before, yet today, those same hallways were looking much longer. Each step of theirs was heavier than it should have been, and it wasn’t because of the weight of the trays.

The old man was also following behind the youngsters to make sure everything was going smoothly. Even though he wasn’t going to enter the hall with them, he was going to keep an eye on the outside.

The other servants of the palace were looking at them along the way. Atlas didn’t know why, but he found something wrong about their gaze. Just what was it? He couldn’t understand. It was as if they were looking at them with pity? Was it just his misconception? He didn’t know.

After a few minutes, the youngsters finally reached the entrance of the hall. The massive doors of the main hall were closed, yet none of them dared to push them open. They took deep breaths to calm their rapid heartbeat.

The door was something they had seen many times. It was twice the height of Atlas and had a myriad of intriguing patterns carved on it. The pattern that attracted Atlas the most was the Blood Moon in the center of the door. Every other design originated from the Blood Moon.

After a few calm breaths, Atlas gathered his courage and stepped forward to push the door open.

“I’m going to open it. Is everyone ready?” he asked, placing his hand on the door. “Just remember, if we don’t want to die, we must work in a team. So tell me when you’re ready!”

“I-i am ready,” Misella stated.

“I am ready as well.”

“Me too!”

After everyone agreed, Atlas finally opened the door, revealing a path to a new beginning… Or to the beginning of the end.