the culprit

The next day when Hickey returned, he was greeted by Old Jack who told him that two horses had died in the stable. He nodded gloomily, rubbed his frozen red ears into the house, and waved his old servants to clean up the corpses.Breathing heavily, he pushed the door open and walked into the room with heavy steps, and was shocked to find a person sitting by the window.

Including him, there are five people in the manor, and only Felix is ​​left who dares to be so bold.

Thinking of this, he took off his coat annoyedly in the cold room without a fire, put one hand on the collar button, rolled his eyes half a circle in his sockets, grabbed the coat before Felix turned around and wanted to leave.

Now that he drank the horse's blood, he should not be so hungry and thirsty now.The man touched his neck, and as soon as he grabbed the handle, his body was pressed hard against the door by a huge force.Pain came from the back of the neck, and four sharp canine teeth pierced the skin with fierce and vicious force, like the hungry and restless bite of a giant beast.He let out a painful exclamation, and a hand came from behind to cover his mouth, and the sharp nails on his fingers pierced his cheek.

The monster's eating was nothing more than torture for him. He was suppressed by the tall body, unable to move, his shoulders and knees were tightly pressed against the door panel, and his skin was so painful.Heavy panting and swallowing sounds alternated in his ears, and at such moments, he was always dominated by some kind of instinctive fear uncontrollably.

No one is born for this.

His brothers were not, and he deserved and did not deserve this fate.

When I was young, I went hunting with my father, but I found nothing in a day.Standing among the brothers who had gained a lot, he was ashamed and hated, gritting his teeth to suppress the resentment in his heart. His father just patted him on the shoulder and said nothing.

He should still be favored, even if he is not as good as his brother in everything, his father has never spoken harshly to him.Unexpectedly, after studying in university for a year, a letter from his father ordered him to drop out of school, and a carriage sent him to this tomb-like manor.

His life has been buried here ever since.

Buried under the claws of monsters.

Looking back on the past many years later, he suddenly realized that his father's tolerance for him might not be out of favor, but guilt.He is his most incompetent son. Even if he got the money and land, he can't manage anything. Everything is quietly concluded in the passage of time. His unremarkable brain, unremarkable physical ability, and unremarkable personality are probably the most suitable for him. The only thing to do is to become bait for monsters.

Fingers scratching the door panel, Heken struggled unwillingly, and Felix behind him hugged his waist, licked his neck leisurely, and warned him not to move around in a low, nasal voice.He closed his eyes, and his breathing became more and more rapid. Even though it had been more than ten years, pain and humiliation could not be numb just by being numb.

The damn vampire, the damn manor, and his damn brother and father.

They all deserve to be damned.

He roared wildly in his heart, but his body couldn't help shaking under Felix's pressure.As shrewd as Felix, he must have noticed Heken's fear and resentment, but he has always turned a blind eye to it. The contract between him and the Muller family is just to get what they need. Heken is the reward given to him by the Mueller family. Like the few copper plates that the former blacksmith stuffed into his hands.Now that there is no one who can deliver it, I can enjoy it generously.

For Felix now, human beings are such a thing, living limbs and blood, just like humans see livestock and birds.

The sated vampire licked the blood off the human's neck, and finally let go of him contentedly.The human fled from his shackles tremblingly, changed his clothes pretending to be calm to cover the bite marks on the back of his neck, opened the door and rushed out without saying a word.

Felix didn't have time to tell him that Cyril was back.

Following Heken, Felix also walked out of the room, turned around through the corridor and stepped up the spiral staircase.

He spent his childhood under the protection of humans, and even once thought he was a human being.He accepted the care of human beings, took care of human children, and lived according to the human way of life. It was not until he lived for 200 years in an immortal skin that he finally realized the fact that he was completely different from human beings.

But the starting point of his life was spent with human beings, and he thought he recognized the faces of aliens. However, every clear night, he would always think of three names that made him feel warm.He was terrified of children's eyes because they made him forget who he was for a while, and they reminded him of nights when he'd sneaked home, leaning over the window and looking in, and the kids huddled together. □Slept soundly and sweetly.

That is a memory that will never be forgotten after 200 years.

Perhaps it is because his time moves slower than humans, so it takes longer to forget than humans.

The first time he saw Cyril here, he thought of his brother.At that time, he was a little angry. His poor parents knew to do their best to leave the best for their children, but Cyril's father coldly pushed a five-year-old child into a cave inhabited by monsters.

He persuaded himself that it was a matter between different kinds and had nothing to do with him.But he still couldn't hold back, and got involved in strange things time and time again.When he saw the boy crying, he wanted to tell him some obscure truths. He wanted to tell him that there is no need to cry for people and things that are not worth caring about. He wanted to tell him that these things have nothing to do with fate. What is cruel is the human heart and destiny. The same irresistible.He made him realize what hatred is. Perhaps it is a sad thing to make a child become indifferent and numb, but a hardened heart will not hurt.

He didn't want to meddle in the affairs of Mueller's family, but he couldn't let go of the child who appeared here.

Life started from the wrong starting point and went through the wrong track. He spent several times as long as his peers to set the track right, but he was always in danger of deviating again.

Felix stepped on the floor of the second floor, walked to the door of Cyril's room, and stopped unconsciously.The door was ajar, he tilted his head to look in, the boy moved a chair and sat by the window, staring at the snow outside in a daze, he was still wearing that ridiculously big shirt.

It was just a coincidence that he met Cyril who was frozen and fainted last night.In fact, it doesn't matter if the child freezes to death in the snow, the count will send him another child.But he heard that familiar words from the young man's mouth, as if the subsequent 300 years were just a dream, he woke up and went back to that snowy night, and finally found a chance to save his brother.

He can no longer lie to himself, he really can't be indifferent to such a child.

Maybe the boy is time's compensation for him. He was late for a long time, but it's better than nothing.

Felix went downstairs calmly and went back to Hucken's room, opened his cash box, found old Jack with the money, and told him to take Cyril to the town to buy some clothes and come back.The old man took the money and put it in his arms, and could not help but glance at him quietly.He knew that old Jack had resentment towards Cyril, but he was a loyal servant of the Muller family, so he would never do anything to Cyril.The vampire dug out a cloak from Herken's room and asked old Jack not to forget to put it on Cyril.

Old Jack clutched his cloak, looking like he had something to say but couldn't.Felix looked at him and knew he was full of questions, but he didn't explain anything, but told them to come back before dark.After saying this, he went back to the room alone.

This manor is too lonely, time passes very slowly, and there will be no earth-shattering events, so that everyone in the manor has a particularly good memory. Something done many years ago, a certain sentence heard, Still fresh in my memory many years later.

Old Jack recalled what his master had said about Felix's hobbies.In the past seven or eight years, Felix has not shown the slightest interest in Cyril. He once thought that the master and himself were wrong. He did not expect that after so many years, the indifferent vampire would actually care about the boy again.

It has been eight years since Mary passed away, and he still goes up the mountain to sit by the lake when he is free, unable to speak, just staring at the lake in a daze.Every spring, he would still go to the town to buy some flower seeds and come back. In the first two years, he only bought tulips, and later he would buy some rose hyacinths and the like.He decorated the barren tomb with flowers like a rich man's flower garden. He hoped that they could make his wife who was sleeping underground have a long and sweet dream.

The strange thing is that when he thinks about Mary again, the sadness has faded away, and what clogs his brain is the past memories. They first met at the age of 13 and got married at the age of 16. Life was very hard, but now that he thinks about it, there is only the warmth that makes him feel nostalgic.

However, the hatred for Cyril is still vivid.He is still looking forward to a certain opportunity, a certain opportunity that can put the young man to death, it cannot be done by him, it must be done by the master.

Raising his hand to pat his chest stuffed with money, the old man went upstairs and knocked on the door of Cyril's room, gestured and told him to go to the town to buy some clothes and come back.He put a cloak on the boy, brought two horses from the stables, and helped him up.In autumn, the livestock were fed very diligently when they were fattening up, and the horses in the stables were all fat and fat. The young man looked a little uneasy on the horse, holding the reins firmly with both hands, not daring to be careless for a moment.

They followed Felix's instructions and returned to the manor before dark.Cyril was taken to the dinner room by Doris who was waiting at the door. Old Jack took the clothes he bought from the horse and carried them upstairs.At dinner that day, Cyril was alone again, and Doris had burned the firewood in the fireplace ahead of time, and the flames illuminated and warmed the room.

"Will Uncle Heken be back today?" The boy rarely took the initiative to stop the servant during dinner.

Just like many years ago, Doris was still extremely nervous when facing Cyril.She held her breath, shrugged her shoulders and turned to face the young man, quickly sign language with both hands, telling him that Heken came back in the morning, and went out after staying in the room with Felix for a while.

He left again.

The boy clenched the tableware in his hand, still hesitating about last night's question in his heart.The dinner was perfunctory, the cook removed the plates, and the boy who was still sitting on the chair couldn't even remember what he ate just now.The winter wind slammed against the window and made a loud bang. He jumped off the chair and approached the fireplace, raised his hands close to the fire, thought quietly for a while, and walked straight upstairs to Felix's room.