On one sunny day, an odd thing could be seen happening in a certain park in Highland's capital. Some small boys could be seen crying on the ground while a catgirl was on top of one of them.

“What are you doing?” A young boy asked a young catgirl

“Isn’t it obvious? I am beating them up.”

“But why?”

“They called me a flat-chested, ugly girl.”

“That’s is an odd thing to call a cute girl.” The boy replied with a puzzled look.

The catgirl blushed at his words. She had always been a tomboy and acted very un-girly. Even now, her appearance was not something you would associate with a cute little girl.

Having a boy call her, what she thought was simply not true... made her heart beat, faster and faster.

“Her? Cute? You must be a blind kid.” The boy on the ground uttered

“Hmm… Aren’t you from a count's house?”

“That’s right… I am a son of a count… that is why my opinion matters more than yours.”

“The words of count matter more than those of a prince?”

“Eh?” the boy replied before taking a closer look at the boy standing there. “Your highness… I… I…”

“Unless you want me reporting this matter, I suggest you apologize to this girl and leave.”

“Yes…”

Edwin left those instructions before walking off only to have Hitomi chase after him.

“Hey wait up.”

“Hmm… Was there something else?”

“Eh… Ummm… Not really… I just wanted to ask you why you… Ummm... called me that?”

“That? Do you mean cute? I was just saying the truth. The only thing that can make you cuter, is if you had one of those cat accents”

“What are you saying, Nya… You shouldn’t tell girls such things, Nya…” she replied in a panic.

Edwin smiled and patted her head, “I knew it… It was really cute.” He spoke

***

Hitomi smiled when she remembered that memory from her past.

“Tch… Getting all pompous just because you landed one hit on me. Don’t get cocky with me little girl. It won’t happen again.”

Hitomi simply kept her smiled and threw two daggers at him.

‘Tch… She is probably using the daggers as a distraction. I won’t take my eyes off her this time. What! She vanished?’

“Over here…”

“What!”

Hitomi managed to land a hit on Vampire Drake’s face before Drake flew backward and launched an attack of his own.

“<Blood Spear>” 

A spear made of blood raced towards Hitomi, but she vanished and reappeared near a demon corpse.

‘Is this some kind of teleportation? Tch… How troublesome. There must be some kind of weakness. Wait, now that I think about it… her movements from when she was fighting the small fries. Could she be some kind of shadow user, but that doesn’t explain her teleportation. Shadow users need shadows in order to move, but there are no shadows up here. Then how is she able to get all the way up here?’ he thought before dogging the next set of daggers.

As he saw the daggers fly past, he noticed something. One of the daggers was casting a shadow on the other.

‘Don’t tell me…’

“Looks like you figured out my trick, Nya…” Hitomi uttered as she emerged from the shadow instantly.

“You ugly bitch…” He uttered before receiving a punch, straight in the face. Drake was violently sent falling to the ground.

“Humph… I already know that I am cute, Nya. You can take your stupid opinions to the afterlife.”

In the small crater that was created when Drake hit the ground. A bloodied Vampire Drake slowly stood up. He slowly walked up from the crater while gathering his thoughts.

‘Why is this happening to me? Why am I suffering like this?’

He remembered the time Hans was named as the future demon hero.

He remembered how he was not chosen to lead the attack against Vidfamne and had to suffer the humiliation of seeing that honor being given to his younger brother and some other lowlife.

‘Why am I always treated this way? I am a hundred, No… A thousand more powerful than any of those other fools... Perhaps I haven’t been ruthless enough for Ermengarde-sama to recognize my presence. Yes… My kindness has always been my weakness, hasn’t it? In that case, I will cast it off…’

It was at this time he remembered the words of Ermengarde, ‘You have power. I will give you that, but what I desire is cruelty. I want to see you bring fear and misery to the eyes of others. To make them regret ever challenging your power. Can you do that Drake? Can you show me what you are capable of doing?’ 

“I see… She saw right through me… She saw what even I, have failed to see about myself… Kukuku… It seems that I have been holding back too much.” 

“Really? Bluffing? At this point in time?” Hitomi asked. 

Drake simply ignored her and smiled before closing his eyes.

He was in a deep meditation. He could hear his heartbeat, he could feel the flow of the mana inside him and finally, he could sense the blood… the blood of every nearby demon.

“<Blood Sacrifice Festival>”

The air turned chilly. Hitomi heard a disturbing sound coming from the demon corpses. No… It wasn’t just the corpses.

The alive demons screamed in agony. They looked like they had lost control of their bodies as they wiggled on the ground like beheaded snakes, and then from nowhere, blood gushed out from their bodies before flying towards Drake.

Hitomi could hear the sound of a loud heartbeat coming from Drake as he absorbed the large volume of blood into his body.

His wings grew bigger. His skin turned vivid-red, as his hair now had a silver touch to it. His aura completely changed from what it was before. It was if he was reborn a completely different person. 

“This is my true form. This is my true power. I am… The vampire King!” he uttered in a deep voice.