His PoV
Wearing a red robe that completely hides my body. I left the orphanage to unwind. It's not new for me to be the center of attention whenever I'm strolling. I'm used to being treated like a tiger that escaped its cage and spotted roaming in public. With their wary eyes, everyone avoided me while some were staring at my birthmark which is located on the left side of my neck. It's a small spiral that looks like a tattoo as it is colored black and it sometimes turns red during the full moon.
Everyone said it's a mark of being the next sacrifice.
Every 50 years, all women who have a circular birthmark were given to the emperor no matter how young or old they were. Maybe that's the reason why they treat me like this since it's their first time to see a sacrifice in their whole life.
But the weird thing was, I'm a guy and a nun once said to me that my birthmark is unique compared to the former sacrifice she saw before. To be honest, I feel like they had no choice but to give me instead as there are no females who were seen with a sacrifice mark over the past years. And that might also be the reason why they let my hair grow long and made me pretend to be a woman. Speaking of my orphanage, it's not a simple house for orphans, it's also the house of all the former sacrifices.
200 years ago, that is where they got the first ever human to be given to the emperor. From that day forward, all of the infants who were born with a perfect circular birthmark were left in front of their door. Their parents did not want to raise their child just to be fed to the emperor. Well they are not technically going to be eaten, it's just a rumor since no one knew what really happened to those sacrifices once they were inside the palace.
Maybe they became slaves? But that's more unlikely because we have laws to protect us. It could be they got killed? Eaten alive? Or got burned for a ritual?
No one really knows.
And why do we even have this kind of tradition in the first place?
200 years ago, a new vampire emperor ruled all the kingdoms, which includes the humans, vampires and demons' territories. There's also a kingdom for beasts, who are also known as the werewolves before but they went extinct for committing treason 250 years ago.
For the record, this world that we are living in doesn't have a sun, there's only a moon, a huge one to be exact and it's bigger than the castle. It doesn't also rain and the only light we have here is the moonlight, it's so huge that it also feels like we have a sun too.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the new emperor's powers is to control the nature and the four elements which are fire, water, air and earth. He was able to make it rain after 500 years of drought so everyone celebrated.
Then our King volunteered and offered to give a sacrifice officially since human trafficking is banned in all of the kingdoms. Why? Aside from being powerless and low class, they don't want half blood creatures. They said they ruin the balance of life in our world so it's forbidden. And because humans are weak and they don't have much help with the economy as the plague was severe in our territory during that time, the emperor couldn't care less of us and didn't want to waste his powers.
But humans only wanted their crops to grow, that's why they are asking for rain. Then after a lot of negotiations, the emperor later on thought of saving our land instead of ignoring our necessities like what the previous ruler did.
In the end he only promised to make it rain every 50 years and since that day, our territory came back to life and was not called a waste land anymore.
Truthfully, I don't even understand why the emperor agreed? I thought they hated us humans.
"Hey Missy, what are you doing at the boundary of vampires?"
I stopped in my tracks and looked up at the two male vampires sitting on the stone wall which is the other side of it is the kingdom of bloodthirsty vampires.
According to our world's map, vampires are located in the North, wherein they were described as beautiful creatures not far from us humans that's why there are several vampires who camouflages in our territory, the differences are, vampires have their own unique ability which we do not have.
Meanwhile in the South, demons lived there. They are completely opposite of a vampire's appearance. They are as tall as a tree. Their skins are black, eyes are red, have horns, long tails and their smile is the scariest thing you can imagine.
Demons can also fly and are strong. On the other hand, nobles from that clan can perform rituals like dark magic and could shape shift. Aside from demons, there are ogres, orcs, goblins and other mythical creatures residing there.
And lastly, us humans are located in between them. Most of us are poor due to ongoing wars, of course we have our own King too, who is called King Claude Vachirawit but he's useless. He lives lavishly despite his people begging for help to feed their families.
He kept all the tax to himself instead of using it for us. No, actually he uses them for wars. He conquers different regions that are independent as he likes to own everything, it's a surprise he still doesn't think of invading other territories. Which is like digging his own grave by the way.
There's also another fallen kingdom, the human kingdom was known as Eastern kingdom before they got the whole land in the middle of Northern and Southern Kingdom. That fallen kingdom that was wiped out from the map was the Beast's Kingdom, the land of werewolves. There wasn't enough information about them in the history books so I don't know much about that kingdom.
"I repeat, what are you doing here?" I blinked twice.
"She's been staring at us for a long time already, do you think she's afraid of us?" I heard their conversation even from a long distance because their voices are echoing. And with a swift turn, I ran back as fast as I could into the woods.
How did I get there?!
It took me a few minutes to arrive at the market. This is where trades are held, foods, clothes, jewelries, everything even things from other territories.
As usual everyone watched my every move. I tied my long hair since I was sweaty from running and because of that, my birthmark became more visible. It's not like I'm hiding it anyway.
"Miss, are you alone? do you want to—" I glanced in disgust at the drunk man who wrapped his arm on my shoulder and his eyes slowly went down on my neck. That's the only time he saw my birthmark and he immediately removed his hand on me and scampered away.
As I said, this is normal for me, I don't feel offended anymore. Also, there are two reasons why I get their attention.
First, because of my birth mark and secondly because of my pretty face.
I can probably pass the beauty standard of vampires since I have long eyelashes, pink plump lips and pale skin.
Anyways no matter what I do, I make people scared with those reasons I just mentioned.
It's either they're afraid because I'm a sacrifice or they're afraid that I'm a vampire.
I remember I was once abducted by foreign merchants , assuming I was a weak female vampire based on my appearance. I tried running away and hid my neck with a bandage, little did I know, it would endanger my life. I met them in the woods while escaping. I was almost defiled but they saw my neck and private part while ripping every clothes that I have.
After identifying who I was, they drove me back to the orphanage unscathed because touching and killing me is against the law.
You can say I'm a national treasure so no one dared to hurt me, well except for one person.
"Oh? You came home? Here I thought you are finally gone." Mild scoffed as soon as I opened the door.
I decided to just ignore him in return and continued walking to the stairs but he tightly grabbed my hair before I even passed him.
"Who said you can ignore me?"
Mild asked in contempt and pushed down my body to the floor before violently stomping my back and sides until he got tired of it, I never gave out any single sound like he was expecting me to do; to beg for his mercy.
"How boring..." is what he said upon leaving my curled up body on the floor.
Sigh.
I'm fine since it will be the last time he can beat me up. I don't know why he hates me but then again I don't really care to know his intention.
I slowly stood up and quietly headed to my room.
I have a wide window inside, it's like having two doors and I can sit or lean against it. As I stared at the full moon outside, I touched my neck and felt my birthmark burning up.
Without a second thought, I stood from my seat and ran in front of my vanity mirror.
"What is your problem?!" I talked to it as if he could understand what I'm saying.
"Why do you get red? Do you badly want to get bitten by the emperor?"
"......."
"As if he'll do that...right? He won't bite me right?" I chuckled nervously even though I was half-annoyed then suddenly, it went back to normal.
I sighed and threw my body on the bed defeatedly.
Speaking of the emperor, I saw vampires again. They were so close but I didn't get scared at all.
"I think I'm not scared of anything." I boasted.
I faced the window and laid on my side with my arm folded beneath my cheek.
From here, I can see the stone wall that divides us humans and vampires.
Tomorrow.
I'll finally cross that border.
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A hard slap made me woke up.
Ouch.
"Why is it still not raining?! Where are the vampires that are supposed to get you?!" I sluggishly opened my eyes while caressing my stinging cheek.
"Mild?" I called him before sitting up and I noticed the crowded people outside of my window, looking up to the dark clear sky.
"She's still here? Where's our rain?" an old woman wondered.
I am as confused as them, they said at exactly 12 midnight, every 50 years a gentle rain will fall non stop for a week without a delay.
"I also don't know—" even before I could finish my words, someone put a brown sack on my head and tied it with a rope around my neck and body—as if I'm a criminal.
Despite their rough treatment, I didn't struggle to get freed.
What else can I do? I just followed them and let myself get forcefully dragged. I was pushed inside a wagon, I guessed based on the horse's neigh.
"Are you going to hand over her to the emperor?"
"Will the rain drop once she leaves?"
"Why are you taking her instead of the vampires?"
"Mom, why is her head like that?"
I heard different questions until I hardly hear them anymore due to the horse galloping away from the orphanage.
And if you'll notice, they labeled me as 'her' because only the nuns and orphans knew I am a male. It's strictly prohibited to disclose my gender to outsiders so I never once corrected them.
"Hijaaa!" a man suddenly shouted to make the horse trot. Then after a few minutes, the wagon stopped and I stayed motionless.
"Why did you bring the sacrifice here? Aren't you aware that it's the emperor who will fetch her?"
What?
The emperor will personally fetch me?
Is he also like that with the former sacrifices?
"I-I'm sorry. We just wanted to experience our first rainfall as soon as possible, that's why we brought her in advance." It's obvious that the man were nervous.
"Tsk-tsk, and why did you even wrap her face with a sack? She looks like she'll be executed rather than being sacrificed." a familiar voice is what I heard next.
"You can leave us alone. We'll be the one that will take her inside."
After hearing their order, I felt my body being lifted up and I was dropped on the ground gently. Someone untied the ropes while I still pretended to be unconscious. Then after a little while, I heard the horse galloping away from us, a sign that the man finally left.
My body floated on air and I felt the wind slapping my face so my eyes widened in shock and hugged the neck of the person who's holding me right now.
"Fuck." he cussed and I felt like we descended.
"Huh? What's the problem Kao?" the other one asked as we flew in stable again.
"Damn. I didn't know she was awake. I got startled." All of a sudden, we flew higher and faster without any notice so I tightly hugged him. Did I forget to say I'm afraid of heights? I was only kidding when I said last night that I am fearless.
Emperor's PoV
"As I was saying your highness. You can't leaveㅡ"
"I can do what I want! I am the Emperor!" I snapped back and went out of the assembly room.
"But your highness.." they all followed that's why I manipulated the air and cleared everyone who was trying to get near me so that I wouldn't leave the castle.
"Hey stop being so slow! Walk faster if not the emperor will see us—" Earth crashed to my body when I turned right to the hallway. I saw him with Kao, one of the four knights who were the disciples of the God of War.
Their eyes widened in shock to see me and they both bowed to show their respect. Rather than being surprised to see them together again, what really caught my eye is the person Kao was currently carrying on his arms.
I sniffed them and they smell familiar.
"We beg for your forgiveness, your highness!"
"W-We saw her in near our boundary. She was brought by someone so we took her in because we know you'll get m-mad if we left her unattended.."
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Author's Note:
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