CHAPTER 4: A NEW TOWN

I opened my eyes and found Irene beside me, her head resting on my shoulder. The irradiant light of dawn fell on her face gleaming with innocence. A thought crossed my mind at that moment but before I could think of anything else, I leaned in and closed distance between us. With just a finger width gap between our lips, I remembered what the old man had made me do. This brought back some terrible memories of the past and so, I backed off immediately. Regret wasn't something that could go away even with a new life, the thing that the old man made me do was so haunting that I didn't listen to anything he said ever after. The one amd only time I listened to him, it lead me to hurt someone who was pretty close to me. I was still a bit hesitant about getting involved with someone too much. The second time I listened to the old man, I was teleported here in a new world. So, I was planning to do things at slow pace.

I stood up and yawned to jack off all the negative thoughts. It was still pretty early in the morning to be too pessimistic. I looked around, there was nothing to be worried about, then I turned back to where Irene was.

"Hey, Irene!" I whispered in her ear slowly but she didn't fudge a bit. So, I blew some air with my mouth into her ear and it was a success.

"Uwaaah!" She woke with a little squeak.

"What the hell? What was that for?"

"Nothing, just trying to wake you up, we need to hurry up and reach the next town by the evening." I said.

"Mm-kay. Ahhhh-hhhaaa!" She did a long yawn while stretching her arms. She looked like a kitten. At that moment, I questioned my decision of backing off earlier.

She stood up and after some time, we started walking again. If I wanted to, I would have covered the distance between the two towns within some minutes, but I thought walking with her was better. She, on the other hand, didn't know about my top speed, only 10 percent of it because that much was what I used while I saved her. Or maybe she was just too embarassed to ask for a piggy back, it would have hurt her pride I guessed, so I didn't bring up the topic. The walk to the new town was mostly silent. We didn't talk about much but before we arrived, she spoke.

"I don't have as much powers as you but I AM a Voçhter, that means I'm still well above an average human when it comes to awareness."

"And?" I missed her point.

"So, I could totally feel your breath on my lips, you know?"

Another day, another revelation. I didn't utter a single word in my defense.

"Relax, no need to stress about it. I know you're a healthy man, ready to do certain things but please hold yourself when around pretty girls. You know you might look like a pervert when you do things like that some other girl."

"And I won't around you?"

"N-no that's... Whatever. Just hold yourself or I'll start calling you a pervert."

That was a really cliched tsundere-type thing to say.

"We're here."

By afternoon, we had already arrived our destination. This town, unlike the last one, was bigger. Much bigger. And I could tell by the smell, that it was overflowing with human populous.

"Don't go on a rampage, okay?" Irene warned.

"Yeah, I've already eaten last night, so I don't have much appetite anyways."

"Let's go then."

We entered the town through a big gateway. It was really huge but suited the size of the town. The name of the town was Variatise and it had much more street food available than the last one and on top of that, some of it smelled really good, or so I thought. As I reached near a food stall, I realized the scent that had attracted me was that of a young girl and not fried meat. I left the place immediately.

Irene explained me that for Voçhters, the sweetest human scent came from young people. And on top of that, male Voçhters were more attracted to female human blood and vice-versa. No surprise there. I had expected that kind of logic here.

"Why are we here then?" I asked her.

"To make you resistant to your urges. You still have a tendency of a newborn Voçhter, who can jump on any human. What I want is that you have to restrain yourself from doing so. We'll be here for another 3-4 days during which, you're not allowed to eat anything, not even wild animals."

"What?!" I was frightened by the thought of hungry me going all out of control.

"Yes, if by the end of the 4th day, you behave like a human without raising any suspicion from the crowd, we'll leave the town and then you can hunt as much as you want." Her explanation ended.

So, it was an endurance test. I had to be able to control my vampiric urges and somehow remain calm in a painful hunger while also being surrounded by tasty blood. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. So, first thing we did was book room in an inn. We just booked one instead of two which was her idea.

"This is because I want to maintain surveillance on you during night. No one knows what you might do." She gave an excuse.

"You sure you just don't want me by your side at night." I teased her which led to a kick on my foot but it didn't hurt a little bit. When she saw no reaction from me she looked more irritated.

"Idiot."

I had teased her all the way to the inn since we came to this town. I could tell she was fed up, but her reactions were really adorable that I couldn't stop. She had a noble spirit but still used to do some things that would've made even a teenager cringe.

"After this test, what are we going to do?" I asked when we were out for a walk in the evening.

"Umm, we will go our own ways. I don't know about you but I will need to visit land of Voçhters urgently. It may take me another two weeks." she replied as she took out a map, a huge one at that.

She held it against the wall with one hand and used the finger to point things out from the other hand. It was a huge distance, over 600 miles or approximately a thousand kilometres. Another two to three weeks of walk was still left to reach her destination. Since I didn't have any other plans, being born only four days ago, I showed my interest in going with her to the land of Voçhters.

"What? Why do you want to go there? Didn't you say that you didn't want to reveal your secret?" She asked.

"I never mentioned that I would reveal myself." I told her, "I'll just accompany you. Listen, let me tell you another secret but promise not to tell this to anyone."

"Okay."

"Those men, the Coquants who attacked us, might have been sent by someone in your clan or even your family. So, for you to travel alone, it would be a risk I'm not willing to take." Even though, I had suspected her real family, there was no argument from her in their defense. It took me by surprise. In fact, she started thinking carefully about something.

"That's not a secret, that's a speculation. And I have already thought about it. That's why I'm going back, to tell my father about all this and warn him about a possible traitor within the clan."

"Umm, yeah, I mean that's why I want to accompany you. We will keep me being the King a secret. There's nothing except the symbol on my chest that can give away my true identity, right?" I explained.

"About that, why should I still let you come with me? I mean, what do you gain by this?" Her question was valid and it made me think, why was I following her? I had planned on being out of sight and keep my secret under my hat. That was what I had planned when I was first teleported here. I thought of spending my life like a normal person, and maybe, if there was even a little bit of possibility, I would've had a family. Some people that I chose, whom I trusted, people who I wouldn't let down this time. Since I had all the power this time around, maybe I could've had that.

This train of thought led me to where I began, why was I insistent on going with her.

"Isn't that obvious? It's because I'm a King. How can I leave a beautiful lady all by herself?"

"Is that all?" she had folded the map while I was busy thinking, and then stepped closer to me.

"You're still hiding something. Aren't you?" she asked.

"Why do you think that?" I questioned her back.

"Because unlike humans, we don't have any tribals living deep in the forest. In fact, outside the land of Voçhters, only Coquants live in the forests. Clan members are allowed to visit cities unlike Coquants because they have self-control. I do believe that you are the King, Tristan, but your story about being from some forest tribe doesn't seem legit at all. Where did you come from?"

I decided that it was time that I told her the real story. I could trust her, I knew that for a fact. And so, she started to listen carefully, about the story of a loser, and how did he end up being alone. What was the reason that he had shut himself? And about the one person he had hurt a long time ago because of the voice in his head.