5.18

"Are you-" Jia Hyson presses his fingers against his throbbing temples and resist the urge to yell. Gentle and stern persona, he had a gentle and stern persona. "Are you serious? This is all you guys have produced?" 

Prince Silas plays with his long silver hair awkwardly and coughs, "I tried to tell them."

Abel, Dante, Darius: "…" Tried to tell them our asses! (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ (ノTДT)ノ彡┻━┻

Jia Hyson also didn't believe the prince. With a sneer he gives the other a look of disdain as he jabs an accusatory finger at the prince's chest, "You tried to tell them? Even if I believe that, you are a prince. A young leader of the vampires! I don't believe you couldn't have motivated or ordered them to do their part as long as you fulfilled your part as a leader and watched over them." 

Prince Silas averts his gaze guiltily, "This… It is my mistake." 

"Glad you're at least aware of it," Jia Hyson scowls. He didn't intend to be so angry, but having such pig teammates once again really fills him with great frustration and a rage that was unique to all bad group projects.

All he had asked was they come up with an idea and a general story outline. Even a direction. Anything. And yet…

Jia Hyson shoved his hand into his pocket, summoning a pen he keeps in Bebe's system space and pulls it out to circle five dot points from the messy and stained sheet of paper before throwing it at the four vampires. "I've chosen five options from the list of ideas you guys made that I have deemed not incredibly boring, crude, or unreasonable to draw out. I have to finish some other things so when we meet back again tomorrow I expect you guys to be able to at least have made a decision."

"Alaric, wait-" Silas reaches out to try to stop him, but Jia Hyson coldly slaps his hand away and runs off. 

"Wow, this is the first time I've been at the end of Alaric's anger." Abel mildly comments.

Darian nods and picks up the fallen piece of paper with some shame. After all, they had fooled around and only scribbled a list vague ideas for half an hour before going off to do better things. Nobody would be happy with their progress. "Yeah, it does not feel great. Not as bad as I've heard from others who've been yelled at by him but still.. not great."

"Well, all we got to do is pick one of the final options Alaric decided and apologize," Dante peers at the sheet of paper with a furrowed brow. "Wow, I'm impressed he could read our shit, even I can't recognize what some of those lines says and I wrote half of them."

"What do you think, your highness?" 

The crown prince of the Golden Rose Coven lowers his head, and touches his chest which felt like it was aching a little. It wasn't like he hadn't been scolded or yelled at by Alaric before. But it had been a fairly long time since the last outburst. He felt inexplicably uncomfortable. 

A part of him wanted to sleep it off. After all it was troublesome to do such nonsensical assignments and Alaric's temper always cools off eventually. But another part of him was hesitant. Alaric has been upset with him often but this was the first time Prince Silas had seen such visible disdain from the other who was usually so respectful toward himself and others of higher nobility. 

After wavering for a few seconds, Prince Silas made up his mind. "…Let me see what he circled." If he didn't do this then he was sure he would find it too difficult to go to sleep comfortably. 

While the four discussed which of the options would be the best, and most satisfactory for Alaric out of the choices, Jia Hyson had gone to one of the many private lounges in the castle. 

To be honest he really enjoyed this setup. After all this castle was really a castle but the management was far more lax. After all, the baseline of a vampire's physical physique- even an inferior turned vampire's- was much better than human's. Coupled with unique powers such as controlling air, water, telepathy and so on, the need for staff even for such a big castle is greatly reduced. 

There was only about 30 staff, not including guards, therefore, the numerous rooms were mainly unoccupied. This was solved by using the second floor of the castle for more governmental duties, the third floor was for the royal family's personal rooms, and the ground floor was for education and socializing. Therefore there were a lot of private rooms in the castle, similar to a hotel, except you don't have to pay and your definitely not supposed to fuck in there. 

Unfortunately, everyone was a vampire so that rule was more or less ignored 30% of the time. ╮( ❛ڡ❛ )╭ 

Cleaners of the castle: ಠ_ಠ

Looking at the doors and checking his phone messages, Jia Hyson squints with some frustration. There was no number identifier for the many private rooms, instead, there was a flower print on the doors. The problem was the majority of those flower prints were roses because they wanted to be on theme. 

"Which one is the fucking Gertrude Jekyll Rose room?" Jia Hyson frowns as he google searches the flower's image, "I don't think I've heard of anyone using it, could it be one of the few ones on the second floor?" It made sense, Mr Garth probably had the clearance to access the private rooms up there.

After texting and confirming it with his teacher, Jia Hyson chuckles lewdly. The second floor private rooms were not only more restricted, but the no-sex rule was also not enforced either. That made it a very popular place to book, but of course, only people of certain status could play around there. 

Biting his lip to suppress his excitement, Jia Hyson trots eagerly to meet the older vampire. 

Eventually he found Mr Garth smoking two cigarettes at once as he sits on a very comfortable long couch and types furiously on a computer. Seeing the man's furrowed brow and serious expression, Jia Hyson's lust deepens. Sometimes there was just nothing sexier then someone working so hard they were completely immersed in the moment. 

Quietly Jia Hyson walks over and sits by him, leaning his body against the other and tilting his head so it rests on his shoulder. As he was about to say hello and something else witty and charming his eyes were drawn to his teacher's screen and the words died in his mouth.

After a moment of silence Jia Hyson asks, "What game is this?"

"Future Finaltasy 2," Mr Garth replies absentmindedly as his right hand moves very quickly as his character executes a triple combo move that created a large amount of flashy special effects that filled the screen. 

Jia Hyson wasn't very big on gaming but he did enjoy good aesthetics and admired the smooth movements of the character as well as how expertly Mr Garth was controlling it. "You're really good," He praises, "I feel like I heard about this game before, it's quite big right?"

"Yeah," Seeing there was a brief respite from the battle, Mr Garth twists his neck to nuzzle affectionately against Jia Hyson's head, "I'm sure you have heard about it, a few people have requested you cosplay as the Waning Moon Guardian on that site of yours after all."

Jia Hyson stiffens. 

With a forced calmness Jia Hyson feigns a soft laugh. "Wait, what are you talking about?" 

Mr Garth also stiffens. Because of his pause, the large horde of robotic orcs surrounding him unhesitatingly bombarded his character with attacks, resulting in the screen greying out with 'YOU DIED' written in large font and some stats underneath. However he didn't seem to care as he closes the laptop and uses his powers to move it away in favour of turning to Jia Hyson.

Taking his hand he kisses the back of it intimately and apologetically. "I'm sorry," Mr Garth murmurs, "I know you weren't ready to say anything, however I remembered you were… dressed up that night and I wanted to do some research since it seemed you quite liked it. I ended up reading this story called Defining My Brother and the author recommended your blog so…"

Jia Hyson: '…' _(:3」∠)_ So my need for outside validation had turned out to be my downfall this time. 

Forcing himself to think negative thoughts, Jia Hyson strains his eyes so they redden and tenses his muscles, so they shake slightly. Timidly he grabs Mr Garth's shirt and looks up at him, "You- you're not disgusted? You won't… you won't tell people right?"

Mr Garth melts at this rare sudden vulnerable and dependent appearance. He felt he was seeing a new side to Alaric, insecure and fragile. Mr Garth gently hugs the other and strokes his back, "Hey, hey, if I planned to tell anyone wouldn't I have done it once we came back to the coven? Besides what good would it do me or anyone else? It's your business, and besides," He separates their embrace only to lean forward and kiss him soft but lingeringly affectionate, "I rather keep such a beautiful secret to myself if I could."

"You're really…" Maybe it was because he had read the plot, Jia Hyson had subconsciously assumed all the vampires would be against his crossdressing habit. That was a bit of an exaggeration. After all he logically knew that the fierce reaction Alaric had experienced was probably due to numerous factors that played against his favour at the time. 

But there was still a wariness in his heart, and it wasn't like he was particularly interested in testing and pushing the boundaries. So he was a little moved. Even with the plot issues aside, it was always nice to meet people that support and accept you and your less than societally acceptably interests. 

"I really," Mr Garth confirms with a boyish grin and pokes Jia Hyson's cheek playfully, "You know if you need help, I'll be happy to do a few things. With my powers you'll no longer have to worry as much as camera equipment at least."

Bebe, who loves social media: 'Fucking marry him.' A man who will hold your camera up high for you just so you can get a better angle for Systagram is a good fucking man.

Jia Hyson: '…' It turns out this is all it takes for Bebe huh. 눈_눈 

"There's really no need," Jia Hyson felt a little embarrassed at the thought to be honest. Not in a particularly negative way but it was just like having your parents find your music and you have to explain to them your tastes, or having normal friends see your weird hobbies and trying to justify your tastes. It doesn't mean he didn't want them to know, it was just weird and uncomfortably awkward to have two things he both liked meet for the first time and he has to express into words out loud things that he didn't need to because it was just simply him liking it by himself. 

Mr Garth senses his embarrassment and laughs. Patting his student's head he reassures him, "Don't worry, don't worry, I'm a vampire that understands boundaries. If you don't want me to enter that private part of your life yet that's fine too. Hell, even if we go our seperate ways I hope you know I will not stoop so low to spread this information around either." The tone was casual but the words were genuine. 

Jia Hyson nearly sighs emotionally at those words. But outwardly he blushes and inwardly his heart warms a little. Such a good man, it was a pity the original Alaric's path never really crossed over with Mr Garth's, he felt things would definitely have taken a less bleaker path. "No, no…" He smiles and curls into the other's body, "I, I would like it if you could, uh, well, I would like it a lot I think."

"Okay," Mr Garth indulgently agrees, not asking for any clarification to the rather vague answer. There was no need to push, he was sure Alaric would figure out how much he wanted himself to be a part of it once he had some time to think. "You're last post was very cute by the way."

Jia Hyson's cheeks heat up, embarrassed by extremely happy under the simple praise. 

After some more emotional back and forth, the pair continue to languidly exchange kisses, sweet and full of affection. Quickly though, the sweetness naturally became heated and spicy, making them both shrug out of their clothing as they entangle themselves together. 

"You're still a little loose hah," Darrian sighs as he pushes his hard dick into Jia Hyson's twitching hole, groaning as the warm tightness slowly envelopes his erection. Jia Hyson gasps as his hands grip the couch upholstery above his head, exposing his naked body to his teacher's lecherous eyes. 

"Uhnm… ah.. whose.. fucking fault… nghn.."

"Yes, yes," Darrian groans as he thrusts inside, fully sheathing his manhood inside Alaric's right body before he pulls back and thrusts once more, this time hitting even deeper inside.

The feeling of Darrien's large cock stretching his insides made Jia Hyson's own dick twitch and dribble out precum in excitement. He could feel his inner walls tighten against the hot, throbbing pillar, lewdly clamping against his teacher, as if reluctant to let him go. 

"You're so eager, nghm.. sucking me in… I, hgn.. love it…" Mr Garth hoarsely whispers into his ear as he picks up the pace, pistoning his cock in and out of Jia Hyson's ass, creating sloppy and lewd sounds that made both of them even more ashamed and excited. 

Jia Hyson moans incoherently as his hips subconsciously lift up, the angle allowing his prostate to be further stimulated with every thrust, each slide of his teacher's dick rubbing that sensitive spot that made heat coil in his stomach and his toes curl. 

Reaching up, Jia Hyson wraps his arms and hug's the firm torso in front of him. "Ah… uhnn…" He pants and whines, scratching up Mr Garth's back as he clings tightly to him as he rides the fierce waves of pleasure that rolls over him. 

Darrian buries his face in the crook of his student's neck and groans, the pain of Jia Hyson's nails on his back making the pleasure he feels even more exquisite. "Feeling, hah, good, hn, brat?" 

"Not, heh, b-ah, ah… not bad…" The younger vampire unconvincingly replies. 

Mr Garth smirks, "Well, we can't have that can we?"

"Well, what are you- ah! FUCK!" Jia Hyson throws his head back and gasps, squealing incoherently as they were suddenly flipped over. Suddenly he was sitting on his smug teacher's hard dick, the gravity from the sudden change in position making the thick rod sink even deeper into him, filling him up even more. "You, uhnnn… ah.. ahnn.." his initial words quickly dying as the older man began to thrust up, hitting his sensitive prostate even harder than before. 

"Hahah, mhnn.. not bad…" Darrian admires the sight as he lies below, he even uses his telekinetic powers to force Alaric's hips to twist and grind into his groin wantonly while he flicks the other's hardened nipples and enjoys the other's cry of pleasure.

Gritting his teeth, Jia Hyson wipes the tears caused by the intense stimulation from his eyes and refuses to not passively give in to the pleasure. Leaning forward, he kisses the palms of his hands and flicks it a few times before he grabs the other man's pectoral muscles and smiles, squeezing the large muscles provocatively. 

"Nhn.. not bad huh? Well we, ah, can't have that can we?" He mocks, mirroring the other's previous words before he grins wildly and activates his magic.

Mr Garth: !!!

After two rounds of sex both of them went to the bathroom to clean up. Yes, as a private lounge on the second floor it was the equivalent to a hotel room without the bed. Jia Hyson heard though that some of the even fancier rooms also came with sleeping quarters for people that worked overtime in the castle.

After some flirting and soaking, the pair went back to the couches to laze around, uncaring of what they had both been doing a half an hour beforehand. For both these two slags, they didn't bat an eye or feel any real shame, and in terms of mess… well most of it went on Jia Hyson anyway. 

"I'm going to get some food, you want to watch something while you wait?" Mr Garth points at the large screen television on hand. Jia Hyson has to admire the vampires. They really knew how to enjoy themselves. There was no hard insistence toward living traditionally despite what the initial decor of the castle would say, if there was any good things out in the world, the vampires wouldn't hesitate to buy it. 

"Sure," Jia Hyson was polite and Mr Garth twists his finger and the remote on the opposite side of the room flew and dropped onto his lap. Jia Hyson clicked his tongue as he picked it up, no matter how many times he saw it he couldn't stop being a little impressed and entranced. "Thanks."

It was the same for his own and everyone else's abilities too to be honest. After all he was a man who lived a non-magical life, seeing these exaggerated powers, he still can't help but feel it's very fantastical. Even if he has already adapted and to some extent, take it for granted, occasionally he will sink into contemplation and wonder at how magical everything was. 

"I'll be getting stuff from the Bloodbath, anything particular you want?" 

Jia Hyson's eyes lights up and touches his stomach which felt quite empty after their previous exercise. Bloodbath was a popular place in the coven where they were known for authentic international dishes that traditionally used blood in them. After some thought he answers quickly, "I'll take a large portion of blood porridge* with extra liver**, and some sanguinaccio dolce*** please."

*cháo huyết 

**liver is good source of iron and increasing hemoglobin level in the blood

***dessert from southern Italy is made with fresh pig's blood, sweetened with chocolate, milk, sugar, and cooked into a pudding- never had it but looks yummy ,,owo,,

Mr Garth stands up and gives Jia Hyson a thumbs up to show he understands before he kisses the other quickly on the top of his head before leaving. 

Touching the top of his head tentatively, Jia Hyson awkwardly pushes some stray hair behind his ear before he begins to start flipping channels.

Bebe who had been silent, speaks up, "Hey.. are you really thinking about being serious with him?"

Jia Hyson shrugs. "I'll only know the longer I spend time with him, but I'm not very against the idea for now." Even though he was a slag man, he had lived multiple lifetimes with a long term partner. At the very least he didn't have such a strong fear of commitment that he had in his original life. 

In the end the fear of commitment can more or less stem from the awareness that you had a limited time in this world. Only having at least forty to sixty-ish good years before you start to consider retirement is both a long and not long time depending on your mindset. And with the older you get, the faster you perceive time passing, making one tend to lean to the latter mindset more or less. 

Jia Hyson was no exception. But it's different now. Because he had the opportunity to live a potentially unlimited lifetime. And after living through more than a few lives, the fact had truly resonated in him. So while he still had a slag mentality, it could be said that his openness toward a longer term relationship has also improved. Or maybe, it was just his perception of short term relationships had changed a little.

After all, what is a staying with one person for a few months when Jia Hyson now had literal lifetimes to spare? Maybe before it seemed like a lot of time wasted, but now he no longer was so opposed to the idea and was a little more patient and accepting to what he used to deem as dealbreakers. It wasn't much but it was some character growth at the very least.

"What's it to you anyway Bebe?" Jia Hyson finally settled onto a show on the Animal Earth channel about nudibranchs. 

Bebe pauses and hesitates. After so long with its host, Bebe knew that his question would be something Jia Hyson might feel a bit irritated by. The system is fairly sure the other wouldn't go so far as being offended but Jia Hyson had repeatedly emphasised many times his opinions on sexual and romantic freedom. If Bebe questioned why the other showed minimal interest in the shard holders wouldn't that just show a lack of faith among other implications? 

In the end, Bebe swallowed it down. While it suspected that they could only collect the shards only if they move the hearts of these shard holders, it didn't necessarily have to be reciprocated mutual love anyway. Another factor was that nobody fully understood the reasoning for the presence of the Bipolar Prince's shards. For all they know they could be hindering whatever path the prince had intended by shattering itself and spreading the shards across the many worlds by extracting and collecting shards they find.

Instead the system asks, "Aren't you interested in having a high school romance? You never shut up about it, so wouldn't it be unfortunate that you finally have this opportunity but you're in a relationship at the time?"

Jia Hyson rolls his eyes and waves the question off with a laugh, "We're still only officially sex friends. Meaning we aren't exclusive and I can consider temporarily breaking it off if push really comes to shove ah." 

Bebe: '…' Peh, scum man.

Changing his position as he lies languidly on the couch, Jia Hyson smirks, "Don't be so sensitive ah. I say that but honestly I don't foresee such a situation happening. In the end, the chances of transmigrating into another world where I go to school is far greater than meeting a telekinetic teacher who knows where to put his dick."

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. A few minutes after, Mr Garth returns with two bags of food floating around him. "Your blood porridge and sanguinaccio dolce." Mr Garth's powers was really convenient. While he went to sit down next to Jia Hyson and kissed him intimately on the cheek, his telekinesis had pulled out all the packaging, utensils and napkins and set it out on the coffee table.

"What did you order?" Jia Hyson asks curiously as he watches the food be unpacked by invisible hands. 

"Papas de sarrabulho* with extra neck meat and blodplätta**." Seeing the other's greedy little look, Mr Garth chuckles. As a person who had spent far longer than he would like to admit on Alaric's crossdressing blog, he had a good idea of what a sweet tooth the young vampire turned out to be. "Don't worry, we can share the food."

*a thick blood stew popular in northern Portugal

**Swedish blood pancakes

"You really know how to treat a vampire well," Jia Hyson happily gives Mr Garth a quick peck on his scratchy chin, his lips buzzing under the slight friction of the stubble. To be honest he was sorely tempted to go another round. However he knew the other really was a little tired and held himself back. Mr Garth was still a little old after all, its not good to push him too much.

Such an adorable action, Mr Garth felt his hands itch, wanting to reciprocate with interest. However he knew the other really was a little tired and held himself back. Alaric was still young after all, its not good to push him too much. 

Both a little sexually frustrated they sat down on the floor, leaning against the sofa and it each other, and began to eat at the coffee table. Quickly they forgot about their desire for sex in favour of the desire of consuming good food. 

Neither of them were necessarily talkative but they weren't the type to be completely silent either so after most of the hunger was sated and they slowed their eating down, they began to talk.

"How is your group mates and your uh, novel assignment going?" 

Jia Hyson rolls his eyes, "It's a comic, you should really know this."

Mr Garth shrugs as swallows a spoonful of the thick stew, "Not really, I'm pretty sure I just gave you that assignment because I recently read some garbage visual novel and thought- 'Hey, this is shit, I bet even those idiot students could do better,' and yeah."

Jia Hyson: "…How much do you get paid again?"

Stirring his spoon, Mr Garth hums, "About half a million dollars a year? My brother is trying to curb my spending. It's not too hard though since he still lets me go to his hotels for free, so it's not too stressful."

Jia Hyson and Bebe: Damn the rich :)

"Anyway, your group mates? How are you handling them?"

"They're children," Jia Hyson rolls his eyes in response with some disdain. 

"They're nearly in their thirties," Mr Garth comments as he sucks in the nicotine from his cancer stick before blowing it out away from his student's face.

"So am I ah," Jia Hyson clicks his tongue, "At this age they could have children already, it's a matter of mentality now, not age."

Mr Garth takes another breath from his cigarette and wisely doesn't comment given his own situation. To be honest, it is true once a vampire sexually matures, physically, the main thing vampires will look for to consider young vampires more 'legal' is emotional maturity and awareness. 

It's quite a grey line really. One that was annoyingly, a very popular topic for debates assigned during their english classes. After all, an immature thirty year old vampire could run out and impregnate a thirty year old human woman. In human laws it was perfectly fine, but through a vampire's eyes it could be considered unintentional pedophilia on the woman's part depending on the vampire's maturity. 

If the vampire had been observed to have a good self-awareness, sense of logic, and understanding of emotional aspects and consent then the problem is not bad. But if the vampire had a poor record of these aspects they're considered not ready to be defined as an adult. This is why there's a large importance to a young vampire's grades in social-based classes as it's the best indicator for this rather shaky definition. 

Fortunately Alaric has shown very good results and in the eyes of many elders was considered the most mature vampire of his generation. (｡•̀ᴗ-)b✧ 

Unaware of the other's thoughts, Jia Hyson, finding another person to vent to that wasn't Bebe, started to complain a bit. "They're better now but I have to explicitly tell them what to do. They won't actively do things most of the time and it's quite frustrating. Especially Prince Silas, like honestly."

Mr Garth hums again, also refraining from saying anything about the crown prince of the coven. He was well aware the other vampire's intentions toward Alaric was not just simply friendship and he selfishly did not have any intention of revealing it to either of them. Deftly he changes the subject, "Well, don't work too hard. Speaking of, I'll be a little busy when do you want to meet next time?"

…

After another after school group session in the library to work on the comic, Jia Hyson checks the time as well as the progress of how everyone was going and nods in satisfaction. "You guys are doing great, we're actually ahead of schedule, potentially even more ahead depending on whether the deadline gets extended again. Everyone can take a break, we'll work a bit more in a few days and if you want, go ahead and bring some sheets for you to do while you're free."

"Yes." "Okay." "Oh thank, the good vampire lord we're done." Abel, Dante, Darius dropped what they were doing with varying levels of relief. 

Jia Hyson puts on a stern face, squinting while pointing at his eyes before pointing at Darius who made the biggest audible sigh of happiness, and faux sneers like a strict teacher looking down at their worst student, "I'll be watching you."

Darius slumps in his seat while the other two laugh in schadenfreude. Even Prince Silas smirks a little.

After a bit more bantering and packing up, Jia Hyson hurriedly waves the group off before he suddenly found himself floating. "Ah-!"

"Hey, hey," Mr Garth shushes as he moves Jia Hyson into his open arms, positioning him in a bridal position before leaning down and kissing his mouth flirtatiously, "No screaming now, don't want your group mates to notice and come back to be our lightbulbs* do we?"

*Third wheels

Jia Hyson lightly and playfully hits the other's broad chest, "You, you were the one who lifted me up without warning! How could I prepare myself ah?" However, contrary to his coquettish anger, he was smiling with obvious enjoyment at the man's actions. The difference between an inexperienced lover and an experienced one was starkly shown, Jia Hyson enjoyed it immensely. 

While he loved training up the inexperienced to fit his tastes, too much of the same thing can turn a delicious meal tasteless. Mr Garth came already well versed in the art of love and Jia Hyson didn't need to do much but reciprocate happily. 

As they flirted a bit more, they quickly descended into making out in the room, completely unaware the door, which had been once shut, was now slightly ajar.

…

"Wow, wow it looks really good!" Dante praises enthusiastically as he lifts up one of the finished pages of the comic.

"That's because you did barely anything to it." Abel jokes without even looking up, too engrossed in colouring the paper in front of him. 

Darrian didn't say anything, carefully outlining another page with ink. But the smirk on his face was undeniable.

Because of their lack of collective artistic ability, Alaric had given them basic jobs that could be done as long as they concentrated hard. As vampires as long as they applied themselves, these rather basic tasks like colouring the base colours, some shading and inking could be learned easily. Of course it does vary between vampires, for example…

"Don't get distracted," Jia Hyson gently chides as he slaps Dante upside the back of his head. "Until you colour that flower properly I'm not going to let you touch anything more on the comic."

Dante looks down at his paper. There, various flowers was drawn onto it and half of them looked like an infant with poor motor capabilities had tried to fill it in. With an ugly expression he glances at his friends who were concentrating on their respective tasks. Even though they were doing neither terribly nor anything especially praiseworthy he could see them shining like they were angels doing god's work.

With a depressed and masochistic heart he turns to look to the other side and was instantly blinded. 

Prince Silas with a paintbrush in hand, artfully and professionally used watercolours on top of the base colours and mixed the two to produce a smooth colouring that gave the comic a new level of aesthetic pleasure it didn't have before. One couldn't have imagined the person behind this was someone who had only learned for only three months much less under a week like Prince Silas had. 

Even Jia Hyson couldn't bear to look at the prince as he paints. He could only sip vinegar silently and wish he was a better drawer. After all, such delicate and harmonious blend of hues blended together… really made the cute bunny cartoons seem completely unworthy of receiving such care. 

Jia Hyson: It's like if a professional artist helped a middle schooler's art homework. 

Fortunately, because the papers were cursed so Miss Reina can conduct her psychometry powers on them, at the very least nobody would suspect them of cheating. Still, Jia Hyson felt a little ashamed. After all his drawing skills was passable but it wouldn't be considered fantastic. Not only that the content of the comic was also very simplistic.

The comic idea that was finally decided on was about a small purple bunny who did his best but because of a defective birth defect that makes his foot crooked, his luck was quite bad which results in some unfortunate events. However even though he was teased a lot, the rabbits in the community were very nice and sympathetic to his plight.

Dante: That was my idea. (｡•̀ᴗ-)b✧

…Then the hunters came to burn the rabbit community and capture all the rabbits in order to harvest their lucky rabbit feet. 

Dante: QwQ That was not my idea. 

Jia Hyson: I had fun drawing the rabbit gore ,,UwU,,

Abel: ( ⚆ _ ⚆ ) I didn't realise Alaric had so much inner violence inside of him, damn.

Darius: I really don't like some of the rabbits in those scenes vaguely look like ourselves and classmates. _(ಥ ཀ ಥ 」∠)_   

Prince Silas: Why does the bunny that looks like me die by being roasted alive after the arms and legs get torn off? _(:3」∠)_   

Feeling the turn went too dark, the unlucky rabbit bravely helped protect his crush, the princess rabbit and escaped with her. Because of his clumsiness, he tripped during their escape and they both fell of a cliff. 

They find themselves in a new place, and the rest of the story is them trying to learn to find a new place to live while slowly falling in love. 

Of course, Jia Hyson found it a bit basic so he added another scene at the end.

After the two bunnies finally confirmed their love and built their burrow in a new kingdom after many small trials and tribulations, the purple bunny will hug his beloved princess to sleep and then the story will flashback- revealing that he was the one behind the massacre of his rabbit community. 

Abel and Darius: …Bruh. ( ´༎ຶㅂ༎ຶ`)( ´༎ຶㅂ༎ຶ`)

Dante: …My cute bunny idea. ( ´༎ຶㅂ༎ຶ`)

Prince Silas: ...( ´༎ຶㅂ༎ຶ`)

Such a cute style of drawing would of course make the more gory and darker scenes seem even more disturbing and full of a sense of uncomfortable dissonance. What was even more contrasting was Prince Silas' beautiful watercolours that created a gentle and perfect appearance but for the twisted scenes of rabbit mutilation and the flashback of the purple bunny's true selfish cruelty the art style was taken over by Alaric and it became less clean and more distorted as it used the eerily childish medium of crayons. 

To be honest, Jia Hyson was still a little unsatisfied with it, but for a short comic it was passable. However it was undeniable Prince Silas' input to the comic was such high quality it almost outshone every other aspect of the comic, its perfection seeming to highlight everyone else's flaws. 

But what could he do? Jia Hyson didn't realise his anger would stimulate the lazy prince so well, that the other would actually actively work hard for this group assignment. Now that he finally gained a work ethic he couldn't exactly tell the prince to tone it down, wouldn't it just be slapping his face and sending mixed messages? 

Jia Hyson worked on refining his drawings for the last few pages but was quickly distracted as his phone made a small sound indicating he had a new message. Glancing over he sees that Smoking Hot Teacher had sent a text saying that the new lighting equipment he bought had arrived and asking if he wanted to come over to his place when he was free. With a smile, Jia Hyson glances at the time and sees it has already been a few hours since the group project started. 

"Okay, let's stop for the day," Jia Hyson announces a faint sense of excitement and anticipation thrumming in his voice as he starts to pack up. Dante, Darius and Abel didn't notice anything, just relieved to stop and go off to play freely for the rest of the day. Only Prince Silas seemed unhappy to stop.

The faster he packs up, the slower the lazy prince moves, making him a little irritated. As the untitled leader of the group project, Jia Hyson needed to collect all the papers of their project since he felt he really couldn't trust them all not to lose or damage them after Abel accidentally set one of the pages on fire. Unfortunately that meant he had to wait for the prince before he could leave.

"You need to let this dry," Prince Silas points out as Jia Hyson reaches out to take the paper. Jia Hyson sighs and sits down, pinching the hem of his clothes a little impatiently. Prince Silas notices this and the depression in his heart grew deeper. Is he really so excited to meet with that teacher? More than spending time with himself?

Even though both people had some dissatisfaction in their hearts, they were still friendly enough and began to chat about idle things. Unfortunately, while they had a long-term friendship, the fact is the foundation was really shallow for most of it. Alaric mainly nagged the prince and the prince essentially ignored the other for the most part. Now the relationship is improved and warmer, the shallowness was still there. After all they had little to talk about in terms of common interests. 

Silas was lazy liked to sleep. So he didn't have the heart to explore other hobbies and could only chat about classes and a few books that had taken his fancy. They were good topics but there was a limit to how often they can be reused after so long. Jia Hyson was thankfully a good speaker, bringing up interesting talking points and icebreakers that don't feel too forced in conversation such as bringing up some of the latest news or wondering what mermaid society would be like logistically. 

However even then, Prince Silas, while smart, could feel the gap between his own knowledge and Alaric's, and for the first time felt a little ignorant, narrow-minded and inferior. At the same time he was awed at Alaric for thinking of so many creative things and having so many interesting opinions and felt an unprecedented interest to at least supplement his knowledge and open up his world view a bit more. 

Feeling humbled Prince Silas sighs, "Talking with you, I feel like I have been a little wrong with how I lived Alaric. May I ask if there's some good books for me to read? Your ideas are very interesting and I would like to develop my own opinions as well."

Jia Hyson didn't like ignorant people but he didn't hate those willing to learn. Seeing that Silas struggled to say much, but didn't become irritated and instead bowed his head to ask for help, Jia Hyson of course was happy to help. "You've been asleep for so long, you still don't understand the internet, which is very detrimental to yourself. Here, let me show you-"

Prince Silas seriously paid attention as Jia Hyson showed him the basics, search engines, blogging, video sites and so on. The internet was still budding so there wasn't too much complicatedness to it and Prince Silas was undeniably intelligent so he quickly picked it up after a rough overview. "Humans are really capable of a lot," He admires, "It's far more convenient than books."

"There are some websites that will write stories but the majority of fiction is still in books though." Jia Hyson reminds him.

The prince tilts his head, "Well, could we get someone to start one of these sites, purchase copyrights and then put them up online? Then we can charge people for the convenience of reading it online but at a lower price than physical books."

Jia Hyson was stunned. As expected of a lazy genius, he could come up with such an idea that in the future will make a crazy amount of money just after being introduced to the concept. Not only could he come up with it, he had the ability to also make it become reality. "That's, that's quite brilliant. I believe if you ask your father, he will also see the potential of the idea should you voice it to him."

"Hm, I'll consider it," Prince Silas hums but the pride in his eyes from the praise was hard to hide. It was cute. Jia Hyson wanted to pet the other's head but refrained out of courtesy and respect for royalty. Glancing down he noticed after talking for so long the watercolours have long dried and he recalled Mr Garth's message. 

Jia Hyson's gentle smile subconsciously becomes much brighter, and he stands up to finish packing away things. "Well, I must go, I'll send you a list of books I quite like and recommend tomorrow, and don't forget to talk to your fatheraboutthisidea-"

Prince Silas frowns as Jia Hyson's words become faster and faster in his impatience, he grabs his hand, "Where have you been going? You've become the first to want to leave a lot recently and you're not in the library anymore. Did something happen?" 

Feeling the pressure of the prince's grip, Jia Hyson also frowns, "Nothing happened I just have other things to do."

The black eyes of Prince Silas flash darkly, "Is the thing you have to do a boyfriend by any chance?"

Jia Hyson wasn't stupid, he knew the change of attitude and attentiveness to himself from the prince was not because the other suddenly felt the need to establish a good brotherhood with him. Prince Silas was interested in him, whether he fully comprehended it or not, it was fairly clear to Jia Hyson that the other not only liked him but also had started to cultivate a sense of possessiveness toward his person as well.

However, he ignored it. In the end, Prince Silas would be fun to fuck but there was too many messy problems to consider, plus the other's personality was one that had to be catered to not necessarily one that could dote on himself like he preferred. 

Especially when he had a sexier and more emotionally mature teacher on hand. Maybe if Mr Garth weren't there, it wouldn't be such an issue, but now that he is, he would be a fool to trade Darrian for Silas right now. 

With a sneer, Jia Hyson flicked his wrist and shook off the prince's grip. "So what if it is? It's not illegal is it?"

Prince Silas flounders for a but. "You- as a noble vampire you aren't you supposed to conduct yourself correctly? Isn't that what you like to say?"

"As a noble vampire it's my duty to serve the royal family and protect the coven to the best of my abilities while maintaining a noble's grace and elegance." Jia Hyson straightens his back pretentiously and pats his chest, face full of righteous indignation. 

"My personal life has nothing to do with it. And even if it did, a noble vampire must conduct themselves beautifully and indulge in the benefits the vampire god has blessed us with while we strive to produce offspring for the next generation. Therefore as long as I don't do anything bad, I am not going against my ideals as a noble by living a little wantonly."

Bebe: 'Fancy words for what is essentially a 'I have the right to fuck what I want, and you can't stop me,' tirade.' Clap.gif

The words pierce Prince Silas' heart but he still grasps a sentence with some desperation, "Serve the royal family? So, so what if I ask you to break up?" He blurts out before immediately regretting it. 

Jia Hyson chuckles but it is low and full of contempt, "Prince Silas, I respect you greatly and treat you like a good friend. If you ask me to break up and give me legitimate reasons for it I shall consider it, but if you're ordering me to do so then I'm afraid we may reach an impasse that may produce a result you may not like."

Prince Silas flushes with shame and anger. How could he not understand that the intentions in his heart were more or less seen through by Alaric. Not to mention the other's actions made it fairly clear he had little intention of giving Silas hope. 

Silently, Prince Silas stands up with clenched hands. After breathing heavily he quickly steadies himself and looks up, his black eyes that were usually so clouded with sleep and laziness bright and determined. "I understand. Right now I'm not someone you're interested in. But we live for hundreds of years and we're only thirty now. I'm sure I will change your mind eventually." 

Jia Hyson was a little taken aback. To be honest, with the prince's characterisation he really didn't think the other would want to make such a big effort to continue to pursue his interest in himself once he felt it was too troublesome. Could it be because this was the first time the other felt so strongly about something he was reluctant to give up this time?

Interesting.

With his usual gentle smile that held a shadow of contempt, Jia Hyson still looked like his restrained self but also held a faintly villainous air, making Prince Silas unable to look away. 

As he left, Jia Hyson pats the other's shoulder and chuckles softly, still light and easy but it made the prince's spine tingle and strangely enough produced an inexplicable heat downwards through his abdomen that made him blush and shift his legs in embarrassment. 

"I look forward to it my friend, ignoring everything else I sincerely hope you finally become a vampire worthy of being a king." Alaric's voice was slow and sincere, but somehow this casual and warm attitude given the context was somehow a little chilling to the heart. Yet Prince Silas couldn't help but feel more and more yearning. 

It was like he had always seen the other as a rock, dull and easy to ignore. Later on he felt once the edges had been smoothed into a particularly shiny pebble it became comfortable to hold and keep by his side, and he was reluctant to let it go into other people's hands. But now.. it felt like the pebble had cracked a little, revealing the jagged but no less beautiful crystals underneath. Like a geode, it could only be fully admired if you could completely crack it open and see everything it had to offer.

Prince Silas' black eyes darkens as he watches Alaric walk away but he doesn't chase him. He's no dog but a noble prince. And a lazy one at that. Instead of rushing to attack it was better to become a trap, ready for the other to fall in under his enticements.

Yes. Eventually he will make sure it will be Alaric who would be the one coming back to him.

....

...

Little Theatre:

Bebe: 'Your words are kind, your intentions are good, but why do I feel like you're so sinister?'

Jia Hyson: 'You think everything I do is sinister or perverted.'

Bebe: 'You're right. You're just a sinister pervert.' PensiveFace.jpeg

Jia Hyson: 'Indeed I am.' PensiveFace.jpeg

....

...

Authors note:

Once again, I was a week late :3 It kinda shows that I wrote the last half of the chapter in the first week and the first half more or less today haha oops.

But it was my birthday on the 29th (∩❛ڡ❛∩) therefore y'all obligated to forgive me heyoo ☚(ﾟヮﾟ☚)

(And maybe gimme birthday money wink wink, nudge nudge)

Also, I am reading mtl of Even if you become an animal you have to serve an iron rice bowl - which is ongoing (sadge only 6 arcs finished but they're quite long) and it's very good! If you want a unique no romance QT this is about police mc who transmigrates into different animals and does his best to help police/rangers/law enforcement etc and its got some good realism in cases and people involved in the cases. Probs the least realistic thing is how ideal the government and police force is LMAO they are all truly interested in serving and protecting with no corruption (that I've read so far) and honestly, that gives a sense of feel good vibes that's needed. It would be hella depressing if it was super realistic lets be honest. My fav arc is the anti fraud parrot arc keke.