The Fallen Vampire

Chapter 194: First Morning at Home!

"Before I go over everything with you this morning, there's someone I need to introduce you all to."

Keran gently moved her tails aside so that she could show the crowd the quiet woman who was hiding behind her.

"This is Inadu." She introduced. "She's our family's youngest, and your sixth lady. Treat her well, or die." Keran smiled innocently.

"Y-You don't need to threaten them like that!" Inadu twirled her fingers worriedly.

"Aww, it's not a threat, sweet Ina. Just a polite way of letting them know how important you are to us." (It was a threat)

As everyone watched Keran nuzzle up to Ina, they got the extremely subtle feeling that perhaps this woman was more important in the cult than even the Dai-Shi themselves.

Getting on her good side was a dire necessity at this point.

The cultists seemed to all have the same thought at once and dropped to one knee while cupping their fist.

"Head Disciple Shakti greets Lady Inadu."

"Second Disciple Vaal greets Lady Inadu."

"THE DIVINE BLACK MYTH CULT GREETS LADY INADU!"

Inadu blushed timidly as she waived at the small group and tried not to let her nerves show on her face.

"H-Hello there. It is a pleasure to meet you all." She waived.

"Isn't she adorable?" Keran said proudly.

The human men were scarred to even think of an answer to that after Sawyer had already lost his eye for coveting one of the ladies of the cult.

But deep in their hearts, the answer was a resounding yes.

"Ina here is a rather gifted tsuchigumo." Keran continued. "She has offered to make clothing for you all. You'll each be given three sets; one for training, one for rest and leisure, and one will be your official garb."

Corey felt a nudge in his side and found Jordan trying to whisper to him discreetly.

"Hey. Mega-nerd. What's a tsuchi-gummy?"

"…Tsuchigumo. She's a spider demon." Corey whispered back. "But she doesn't seem like the same kind as the one from that monster girl anime I watched.."

Jordan didn't hear a single thing after the word 'spider' and practically fainted while still upright.

Meanwhile, Keran continued her explanation of cult dynamics.

Outer disciple garbs were to be plain black.

Inner disciples would wear black and white.

The Banes would wear black, white, and gold.

Keran also passed out tokens to the group.

Each tablet was around 6.9 inches and no wider than a smartphone.

Each tablet was made of a strange black ice that neither melted, nor was uncomfortable to the touch.

It was also pretty much impossible to break too.

But the interesting part was once the 'anti-theft' feature.

After the cultists infused their aura into the tablets, they were bonded with them for life. Anyone else who tried to take it would find their hand had developed immediate frostbite.

These tokens would serve as proof of their ranks in the cult and provide identification.

For outer disciples, there was only a symbol, but inner disciples had a number of 1-35.

As Keran handed out tokens, one group seemed surprised by their rankings.

"Oh? Something you all want to say?" She smirked.

"U-Umm, ma'am-" Big Country began.

Vaal: "AHEM!"

"I-I mean, My Lady." He quickly corrected. "Why are we being made inner disciples when we are still in the mortal realm?"

"Take a look behind you for a moment." Keran answered.

The humans did as they were asked and found a whole vampire subspecies clan staring back at them.

The clan was relatively small- at 40 members exactly.

25 of these members were either in the sovereign realm or the venerable realm. They were all adults and the first to be given tokens.

But the rest were all children who were still a ways away from puberty.

But the oldest was a boy named Tsa. He was already at the overlord realm at the age of 12.

"It's true you all are new to this world, but you're adapting well.

You're talented, even though some of your mannerisms may need molding.

In just a week, you've reached the fifth level of the mortal realm."

Now that the humans noticed it, they had changed a lot recently. They were much more attractive, filled with energy, and their thoughts were significantly sharper.

Even Big Country was starting to lose fat and build muscle.

"Consider these tokens, and the rank they symbolize, as a bit of a show of faith. Show my family that we were not misguided in giving you this opportunity prematurely."

Keran then turned to the children to make sure they didn't feel too scorned.

"But we won't neglect you either little ones. In three months time, we'll hold a little competition to see if the humans get to keep their places, or if you are more deserving of them instead. How does that sound?"

The babies of the cult were ecstatic.

"Hooray!!"

"I'm gonna be an inner disciple and get my own room!"

"I will obliterate that fat human and eat his back!"

"I'm glad to see everyone is feeling so motivated." Keran smiled angelicly.

Now, the humans were unsure if the third lady had just given them a gift or put a target on their backs.

"Does anyone have any more questions?" Keran asked.

Surprisingly, Tiche was the one to timidly raise her hand.

"My lady… M-Might I bring Shen into my room from time to time? I worry about him in this weather…"

Shen was the name of her dire wolf whom she loved like her own son.

She, along with the other cultists had brought them from the secret realm when they crossed over and set them lose on the mountain that made up their home.

But almost every adult had a dire wolf companion in the clan, and once Tiche brought up the subject they all looked just as concerned about their pets as she did.

Keran honestly found Tiche's rare soft side to be quite cute. So she rubbed her chin as she thought up an answer.

"Well so long as you can ensure he's well trained and won't disturb the day-to-day life of the cult, then I don't see an issue with it. Perhaps we'll even build some stables for them as well."

Needless to say, Tiche and everyone else's faces lit up.

"T-Thank you, my lady!"

"It's no problem." Keran chuckled. "Now, you all should follow me to the mess hall before we get you settled in and take your measurements. I bet you're all hungry after spending all night out here."

Big Country ran to the front of the group to follow Keran. None of his classmates were surprised.

Reactions to the mention of food were understandably split.

The humans simply looked forward to it without much extra thought, but the asanbosam were worried about their diet.

Aveena and Taira had already expressly forbid killing and eating others outside of specific instances.

It left these people wondering what exactly they were supposed to survive on.

They could eat regular food, sure. But just like with vampires, it didn't provide any nutritional benefit.

They didn't know what their Dai-Shi expected them to survive on.

However, they would learn very soon that their needs would be very well taken care of as long as they were here.

But they would never know quite how that came to be…