68: The Parched Hound

The Parched Hound

3Thirty minutes had passed before I even found a book that caught my interest.

Many books appeared to be so old that a lot of the pages weren't even legible anymore. They had turned brittle and could very easily be destroyed with just a slight amount of pressure applied to them.

It was honestly kind of disheartening. All of it was a great opportunity to gain a bunch of knowledge on valuable points within this world's history, but so much of the information had already been worn down by time to the extent that a large portion of it was no longer available.

Sitting at an empty table located in the center of the library, I held a book that seemed to have existed within ancient times if the amount of dust covering it was any indication.

While that might not have actually been true, I knew for a fact that it was still really old. Blowing off some of the dust in order to read the title of the book more clearly, I hummed to myself in thought.

'I've never heard of weapon forging magic... not in this world, at least.'

Turning to the very first page, the book started off with the authors name. It was one that I had never seen before.

'Ognaen Blacksunder.'

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As time went on, the more I got invested into the book, and my eyes were eventually glued to the words that had been written on each page I read. This book was actually teaching me quite a bit as well.

Weapon forging magic was sort of a broad term and that was because of just how many different kinds had been made. For that reason, the author of this book also put a bit of information about himself within it in order to help people better understand the concept.

Ognaen Blacksunder, the author of the book, was actually a specialist mage. The man's particular mastery was focused on the creation of blades with magic.

In turn, a lot of other different types of weapon forging magic also existed, and it was possible that there was at least one person for every kind. However, it was also possible that many of them have died out because of the lack of people who try to learn the art.

Apparently, the most popular type had always been the creation of magic wands and staves, which the author seemed frustrated about in certain instances throughout the book.

Unfortunately, I knew that I wouldn't be able to stay in the library forever, due to the fact that Helena was eventually going to return.

Pulling out a small handkerchief from one of my pockets, I used it as a bookmark before placing the old tome back onto it's designated shelf. I walked back to the entrance of the library and my hand went over the door for the second time, which caused it to open up a couple seconds later.

I snuck out just in the nick of time as well, the sound of footsteps coming around the corner only to reveal Norvella with a broom in her hands, completely oblivious to what had just happened.

The day had eventually ended after the return of Helena, who I spent most of my time with, making sure to maintain an innocent persona for the entire time that the two of us were together.

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Walking through densely-packed streets, I made my way towards the lower-end area of the village.

Many people noticed my presence and stopped to provide a greeting in respect, which was mostly due to the fact that the Vizac family was perceived in a different way compared to everyone else living here, and there were a couple reasons for that.

My mother was literally the lord of this specific region. Not to mention, she had her own fame and respect because of past accomplishments.

The Vizac family had the most wealth around here by a large margin.

Since the Vizac family was pretty well-known, many individuals knew that it also housed vampires, and that lead to a few people having an instinctual fear of us.

While the Vizac family isn't actually a noble house, it still possesses a similar standing within the world, and that's mostly due to Helena's past accomplishments as well.

Yeah, that was about the gist of it. There could potentially be even more but I'm just not completely in-tune with the history of the Vizac family, nor the history of my well-known mother.

Eventually, I stopped at the entrance of a tavern in poor-condition. The wooden sign hanging lopsided above it, appearing ready to just snap off the rusty chains it was being held up by at any minute...

It was apparently called 'The Parched Hound'.

To put it simply, the place looked like shit.

About a week ago, I had been sitting at the dinner table with my mother and Norvella, enjoying my food in a comfortable silence. That was until Helena brought up the topic of my reputation in the future. In other words, she wanted to talk with me about how I would be perceived by other people in the future. It was something that I had never really given much thought but I was glad that she brought it up.

Throughout our discussion, I eventually came up with an idea, and Helena seemed intrigued by it.

Many nobles are seen as arrogant and selfish, which is understandable when all they've ever had has been a very easy lifestyle. However, it would probably be quite the shock to a lot of people if I didn't raise myself up on a pedestal, and just treated everyone as an equal instead.

While Helena did most of this naturally, she was intrigued by the idea due to the fact that it was coming from such a young child. It showed her that I possessed a higher maturity compared to many of the kids that she had seen around the village.

As a result, I had gotten rewarded with a seat on her lap as she stuffed my face into the crevice of her large breasts. I knew for a fact that I would never get tired of it. After that, Helena gave her acceptance of the idea along with a kiss on the cheek.

Now, with my mothers permission, I could just go out into the village and help a bunch of people with things that would probably seem insignificant to a lot of other nobles. If anything, they would most likely turn the current situation into an opportunity to prey upon the tavern's deteriorating condition in some type of way.

Walking out of the tavern's entrance was an older man, casually wiping off a large mug that was obviously used for beer, but what caught my attention was the multiple scars littering his body. I tried not to stare too much but the owner of the dilapidated building still apparently noticed where my line of sight was occasionally lingering.

(For reference.)

However, there was no real anger in his voice as he spoke, the older man's voice coming out in a gravelly tone. "Good evening, sir... what can I do for you today?"

My unexpected presence had sent everyone into a frenzy of low murmurs on the way here, which must've been loud enough for the man to notice from the inside of his tavern. Due to the fact that I had stopped in front of the run down business, it was obvious that I was here for some reason concerning him.

"I heard you had a rat problem."

The man stopped cleaning the large mug in his hands for a second, caught off guard by the sentence that just came out of my mouth. It must've been due to the fact that he was probably expecting someone a little older in the age department to come out and get rid of them.

Slowly nodding in confirmation, he motioned for me to follow him into his tavern, which is exactly what I did after a couple more seconds of looking at the building with a few ideas running through my mind.

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The floorboards creaked with every step that we made on our way to the tavern's cellar, it's deteriorated wood making it sketchy to walk on, which was due to the fact that there could've been a possibility of falling through if it ever decided to break. The man in front of me didn't seem to pay it any attention, most likely used to the building's poor conditions.

Taking a few glances around, I couldn't help but wonder why my mother hadn't done anything about this. However, I connected the dots pretty quick once I actually thought about a past conversation.

Before she ever got pregnant, mother had told me that she basically came from nothing. While the explanation was still pretty vague, I was able to acknowledge the very obvious fact that the woman didn't really have much growing up.

Procuring all of that wealth over time, Helena's main focus in life completely diverted once she ended up having a baby. While she had accumulated a lot of important resources, it wasn't the same as finally obtaining something as valuable as her own flesh and blood.

Helena had never really gotten to have a warm and loving family, or many real friends for that matter, and so it was a new experience for her to go through.

She loved every second of it with all of her heart.

My mother was purposefully neglecting certain things in the land that she ruled over. In doing so, Helena was leaving me with a lot to fix. However, it was all for the purpose of putting me in a good light. While it would obviously bring some disdain to the woman from the people affected by her actions, all of the praise and rewards would come straight to me.

That felt... horrible.

Not to mention, one of the big reasons that the Vizac family had never actually become a noble house was for the simple fact that it contained vampires.

It was a long story.

That's why I planned on eventually returning the favor by doing things that would make the people love her instead. In my opinion, the woman deserved it far more than I did.

I wasn't even that interested in all of the fame and shit. However, in situations like this, your reputation and standing in the world held a lot of weight. It could also allow someone to get away with certain things if they just played their cards right.

Walking behind the bar's table, the older man waved his arm over to the door that was closed on the right side. There was a piece of paper above the doorknob with two simple words written on it.

'KEEP OUT!'

Honestly, I was curious whether or not someone had actually gone in there beforehand, and that could've been the reason why this sign was placed on the door in the first place. That would've been a much funnier story compared to what was more likely.

"Those goddamn rats might have been the last straw for this tavern... I was already struggling enough to keep this place in business. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if all of the alcohol that was stored inside of the cellar has been destroyed."

Shaking his head, the older man began leaving the tavern after putting the large mug up, most likely heading back to his home. "It's all yours for today. If you need more time to get the job done, I'll be back here tomorrow as well."

A few seconds later and I was left standing in front of the door leading to a rat-infested cellar by myself, the sound of quiet squeaking on the other side of the wall resonating in my ears.1

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