35 True Friends

『Chronicles of the Blood Tower』

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Shaking off the irrelevant thoughts Rasmus walked down the hallway towards his room. His expression remained troubled however, and he had trouble trying to get the imagery out of his head.

Closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath he arrived at his door and stopped with his hand on the doorknob.

"You don't look so good."

Leaning against the wall with a nonchalant expression, Gray spoke up surprising Rasmus.

Rasmus turned his head to face Gray's emotionless countenance.

To most people, Gray's constant look of indifference may seem annoying or irritable, but to Rasmus he actually preferred Gray for that reason. He could tell Gray wasn't the type to put off a front of emotions to anybody since he was generally not interested in others.

Despite this however, Rasmus and Gray hadn't really talked much between each other the past month since they weren't the type to be too talkative unless approached first. Rasmus typically was the opposite of Gray in some aspects revolving around others though. Rasmus could put up a false smile and playful expressions while inwardly not wanting anything to do with the other person. Gray was just more blunt about it.

During their short time together in the Trial Test, they surprisingly weren't hiding their emotions to each other or trying to put up a false bravado in front of the other. This was something that flustered the two of them greatly since they couldn't understand why they felt a slight bond between each other.

Mathis later gave an odd explanation playing it off as a link between two of the key holders, and after hearing this, the two of them rather avoided the topic and didn't talk much to each other unless required to.

This was the first time since coming here that one of them was checking up on the other and was a bit odd to say the least if Mathis or Elaine were observing.

"What makes you say that?", Rasmus replied while reciprocating the dull tone.

"When Mathis was talking earlier. You reacted a bit strangely.", Gray replied while shifting his weight off the wall to stand up straight.

"Want to talk over some tea?", Gray continued and gestured to follow him inside his room for a cup of tea.

Rasmus hesitated for a second but ended up accepting the gesture.

As Rasmus followed behind Gray into his room, he realized he was still sweaty from the sparring earlier and neither of them had cleaned off.

Seeing this Rasmus cast a quick spell he learnt from Elaine since she always complained about how he came back stinky from the sparring sessions.

Fwoosh-

Gray turned around and raised an eyebrow as he suddenly felt a dim blue light glow between the two of them and their sweat and body odor vaporized and their muscles relaxed.

"Well I guess that was helpful…", Gray muttered before taking a seat out at the wooden table for two in his room offering it to Rasmus.

Taking off his red leather jacket and sporting his rough white tunic, Rasmus sat down in the chair while Gray went to the corner of the itchen inside his room and started up the kettle for their tea.

"What kind do you want?", Gray asked while pointing to a list of packets that Rasmus and he were familiar with since Mathis practically inhaled cups of tea all day like it was air.

"Just the yellow ginger", Rasmus replied while playing around with his hands awkwardly trying to pass the time quickly.

"Look, we had a talk before, didn't we? It was in the testing area and we were talking about our pasts before we were interrupted.", Gray cut to the point like usual as the kettle boiled quietly and kept his head turned away from Rasmus as he was sorting through the tea packets.

"Yes we did.", Rasmus replied with a slightly despondent tone of voice that slipped out subconsciously.

Gray was pretty attentive so he didn't miss the slight dejection that popped up in Rasmus' tone of voice no matter how much he tried to hide it.

"I won't ask you to share anything you don't feel comfortable with, but I feel like if we're supposed to become teammates in the future, I might as well tell you a bit about my past so you can know me a bit better.", Gray spoke matter-of-factly, but Rasmus' eyes shook a bit.

It was understandable for Rasmus to be surprised that Gray was thinking that far ahead and yet was being vulnerable enough to share something he clearly wasn't interested in sharing with others.

"Well to start, I'm not sure if you know but I'm a half-vampire.", Gray spoke turning around and leaned against the counter as he folded his arms looking at Rasmus.

"You know well that racial discrimination is pretty much non-existent in the Tower, but if my planet resembles anything similar to yours it's probably in the category of racial discrimination." Gray continued to speak and then paused observing Rasmus' expression since he was still uncomfortable telling all this to him since Rasmus might not take it well.

Unsurprisingly, Rasmus didn't have a look of disgust or wariness on his face because of what Gray said. It honestly made Gray much more relieved.

'Yeah he was this kind of person anyways.', Gray thought as he smiled faintly.

"Well, not everybody took the existence of a half-vampire and half-human too well when your entire planet treats vampires as the superior species.

I was born into the Royal Household of the Windsor Family which was the family that ruled over several other Vampire Lords within the territory of the continent they were in control of…

My mother was a concubine and I can tell you might not have the same kind of struggles as I did growing up, but you definitely have a similar look in your eyes to me. I'm not an idiot and I don;t think you are either so you should know that it's just what it was and I couldn't do much about it.

Or at least I didn't think I could.

Everything changed when the Tower appeared on our planet.", Gray spoke while his eyes showed extremely conflicted emotions within them.

Rasmus then turned to look at Gray with an odd expression.

'What the fuck? The Tower appeared on his home planet? How does that make any sense? Why didn't that happen on Earth', Rasmus' mind started to spin like a hamster wheel at the sudden information but allowed Gray to continue since he wasn't in the position to ask much yet.

"The planet started to degrade and natural energy became less abundant. Sickness and famine rotted the planet… and it all stemmed from the Tower.

Nobody could even approach the Tower within a certain radius, however my family needed to maintain their dignity. So because of their pride they started to experiment and see what exactly the Tower was and what it was doing there. Scientists and researchers died left and right.

But one day, I was having a quarrel with one of my blood relatives…

I was pushed into the sphere of influence where normally someone would die instantly, but I was completely fine.

People noticed it and already regarded me as a sin within the family and it was kind of like an open secret that I was not welcomed within my own family.

I was not allowed to get back or out of the area of influence because they were worried I would spread disease and what not.

However, after a bit of time I started to hear a sound ring throughout the continent. But nobody else seemed to hear it. It was the sound of bells, the kinds you would hear in a chapel of sorts.

It was like I was being drawn into the Tower.

I thought when I came in here that if I climbed the Tower or cleared it. I would be able to save my planet and be accepted among my own people.

It was naive thinking to say the least. I have no intentions of saving them or trying to please them anymore. I'm here for myself and to maybe find some kind of purpose to a life worth living." Gray finished his talking and looked at Rasmus right in the eye.

"Maybe it wouldn't hurt if I had one or two friends who would think the same… True friends that is.", Gray finished and the kettle started to beep signaling the tea was ready.

Gray turned back around and rolled up the sleeves of his white Henley as he put the cups of hot water on the table and brought their packets.

"True friends…", Rasmus muttered in a low voice as he looked at his two hands as if he were confused about what their purpose of being on his body were.

Chapter 34 - Fin