Chapter 46: The Little Vampire in the Ancient Castle 19

Yu Deng's profile remained pressed against the Vampire Prince's palm. Having finished his sentence, he felt as though something was slightly amiss, and he blinked in hesitation.

Huh? Wasn't this his very first time meeting the Prince? Why had he so naturally asked the other to protect him?

Maintaining this posture, Yu Deng looked at the Vampire Prince. His gaze lingered on the man's handsome face for a few seconds before shifting to the unfurled bat wings behind him.

The Prince's wings possessed a chilling texture—broad and wide, with sharp, clean lines. Unlike Yu Deng's soft and delicate wingtips, the edges of the Prince's bat wings looked intensely razor-sharp; they were not merely tools for flight, but formidable weapons.

He truly was meeting the Prince for the very first time.

Puzzled and perplexed, Yu Deng nevertheless unconsciously rubbed his cheek against the Vampire Prince's palm once more during those few seconds of contemplation.

[Aww, our baby acting spoiled is just too adorable!]
[Oh god, I want to be rubbed like that by the baby too! It's just like a soft little kitten acting spoiled, ahhhhh!]
[This Prince is pretty handsome too, not bad, not bad. I grant you permission to be your wife's dog.]
[By the way, has the Vampire Prince ever appeared in previous instances?]
[As a manor enthusiast, let me clarify: no. Not just the Prince; the werewolf leader and the butler were mere background props before, never showing their faces. The baby's young master role is appearing for the very first time as well.]

Feeling the soft tactile sensation against his palm, the Vampire Prince was dazed for a rare moment, his heart melting with an irrepressible softness.

Why was his little vampire so naturally affectionate?

Moving faster than his thoughts, the Prince stroked the top of Yu Deng's head and said indulgently, "Well, it doesn't matter if you're timid; I will protect you."

Facing Yu Deng, the Vampire Prince still maintained the mindset of a guardian, devoid of any romantic undertones as he spoke those words.

...Meanwhile, that pre-awakened sliver of consciousness fell into an indescribable silence deep within his complete soul consciousness.

Yu Deng lifted his chin, making a show of reluctantly believing the Prince: "You said it yourself, remember."

The little vampire's features were exquisite and pretty, his skin fairer than the vast majority of vampires, yet devoid of any unhealthy pallor.

His soft, pink lips were slightly pursed, and his pretty, rounded eyes still bore traces of having cried, the corners of his eyes flushed with a rosy tint. Yet his gaze was bright, looking both haughty and pampered.

No one could avoid being captivated by Yu Deng.

The Prince's gaze lingered unconsciously for a long while before his line of sight drifted downward and abruptly halted.

Tucked against the side of his fair, slender neck was a small tooth mark, and near the collarbone beneath his collar, faint kiss marks were also vaguely discernible.

"?"

The silver-haired vampire narrowed his eyes, a subtle sense of displeasure welling up in his heart. His hand dropped from the top of Yu Deng's head, his palm pressing firmly against the back of the youth's neck.

"Baby, where did these marks on your neck come from?"

The Prince's tone was slightly lowered, yet he uttered the intimate endearment toward Yu Deng with absolute naturalness. Even after saying it, he paused for a few seconds himself.

Still, the little vampire was a delicate creature he had personally turned; calling him "baby" simply couldn't be more fitting.

Yu Deng furrowed his brows and looked up at him: "Why are you suddenly being so fierce?"

"I was merely surprised, not trying to be fierce with you." The Prince softened his tone almost instantly. "You are my fledgling; I am naturally responsible for you."

"...Fledgling?" Receiving the new term, Yu Deng tried hard to analyze it.

In truth, Yu Deng knew very little about vampires.

His sole understanding of vampires was that they needed to rely on drinking blood to sustain their lives. As for concepts like fledglings or followers, he was completely clueless.

"Mn." The Prince nodded.

He was the guardian of the newly transformed little vampire; in a sense, he was Yu Deng's sire.

However, watching Yu Deng's hazy, bewildered expression, the silver-haired vampire chose to describe the term using simple words.

"After you become a vampire, I will provide guidance, such as teaching you to adapt to the specific habits of vampires."

Yu Deng pondered this: "Vampire habits? You don't need to guide me, though."

He helpfully informed the Prince that his workload wouldn't be heavy, completely unaware that he was only adding fuel to the fire: "Wen Luo has already taught me."

The Prince: "..."

He felt a rare surge of annoyance.

Looking straight into Yu Deng's eyes, the Prince coaxed him to name the audacious culprit: "So these marks on baby's neck... were they made by Wen Luo?"

Yu Deng earnestly recalled for a moment, shook his head, and parroted the werewolf leader's explanation: "It wasn't Wen Luo. They were probably mosquito bites."

Butler Wen Luo only said he needed to disinfect the mark near his collarbone, after all.

The silver-haired vampire lowered his gaze and stared at Yu Deng for a long time before nodding with an inscrutable expression: "I see."

Under the influence of their bond, Yu Deng held a rather favorable impression of this guide and even took the initiative to learn more about him.

Curious, he asked, "Were you asleep the whole time before this?"

"Mn. A vampire's life is long; we often choose to plunge into extended slumbers." The Prince lightly glossed over the duration of his sleep. "This awakening was earlier than I anticipated."

"Oh?"

"Because I heard your voice."

Amidst his slumber, he had heard the pitiful weeping of the little vampire.

"Is that so..." Yu Deng didn't quite understand. Thinking of another important matter, he scratched his cheek. "Right, I don't think I know your name yet."

Previously, Yu Deng had always assumed this Prince was merely a background lore character, so he hadn't bothered to learn about him at all—and naturally, he didn't know the Prince's name.

The silver-haired man gave a slight sigh, formally introducing himself for the first time in centuries: "Ronald Vinalis."

Yu Deng awkwardly recited it twice in an attempt to memorize it.

Haha... there was simply no way he could remember such a long name; he had already forgotten the surnames of both the butler and the werewolf.

[Beep—Detection complete. Host, this Vampire Prince is also your special mission target.] The electronic voice of System 01 rang out.

Yu Deng widened his eyes: "?!"

What! There were actually four special mission targets in a single instance? How was this any different from working four extra jobs simultaneously?!

...

Inside the banquet hall, the crowd watched as the Vampire Prince appeared and carried the young master away, exchanging glances in silence as no one spoke for a time.

Fortunately, once the Prince departed, that intense oppressive aura lessened somewhat.

Anders watched with his own eyes as Yu Deng was carried off, gritting his teeth as he clenched his fists and sneered at Wen Luo: "Your vampire Prince is truly as disregardful of everyone else as ever."

As the butler, Wen Luo nodded politely to the werewolf leader: "Do not be impatient; His Highness the Prince has always acted according to his own whims."

Seeming to defend the Prince, he was actually agreeing with the werewolf leader's sentiment.

Not far away, Qin Jun used an item, attempting to scan the Vampire Prince's stats and abilities, but the other's level was too high, causing the item to fail... Yu Deng's information couldn't be detected either.

Each of the three men harbored their own thoughts, scheming how to snatch Yu Deng away from the Prince.

As for the players, they were having an existential crisis, worrying whether this abruptly appearing Prince would raise the difficulty of the instance.

They wondered if there was still any hope of clearing this stage... this crappy instance didn't even state a time limit, clearly intending to drive them to their deaths.

Some players had also attempted to escape the manor to see if it would clear the stage, but the moment they stepped outside the manor, they would receive a system prompt warning them that they might get lost in the forest and subsequently be eliminated.

Who knew when this would ever end.

[The instances this month are getting more and more incomprehensible.]
[Yeah, the probability of hard modes appearing has gone up, the difficulty spike is massive, and they're so abstract.]
[Still, a hard mode with Dengdeng in it already counts as having a very low mortality rate.]

Half an hour remained before the start of the dinner party.

The black-haired butler instructed Lady Claudia to oversee the proceedings, left the banquet hall, and found the two missing vampires in one of the Prince's studies.

"Your Highness the Prince, Young Master." After greeting them, Wen Luo kept his gaze fixed firmly on Yu Deng. "The dinner party is about to begin."

"Oh... then let's go back." Having had about half an hour to calm down, Yu Deng managed to suppress his trembling from the horrific sight he had witnessed earlier.

The Prince acquiesced to Yu Deng's decision, and together they returned to the banquet hall.

At the butler's instructions, the dead player's corpse had already been buried in the forest outside the manor, and the bloodstains and debris in the hall had been cleaned away.

[Ding. Instance changes detected... Recalculating instance data... Measuring NPC stats within the instance...]

Hearing the electronic announcement, the players all snapped to high alert.

Yu Deng also gave a start, feeling that the voice sounded somewhat familiar... He seemed to have heard a similar announcement in the previous instance.

The instance continued data processing.

The players guessed with anxious apprehension, casting their gazes toward the surrounding NPCs.

After the players had turned on one another and exposed a human, those non-human entities transitioned from an irritable, aggressive state into extreme excitation.

Was this change triggered by the wizard player's backstabbing earlier, or by the suddenly emerged Vampire Prince?

The witch's crystal ball spun. She glanced at it with a trace of surprise, then murmured with sudden realization: "So it reverses from this moment onward. May it rewrite this hopeless maze."

[Ding. Greetings, players. Due to changes in the instance NPCs, starting tonight, the Hunter mode is cancelled, and a special game mode is triggered.]

[Few know that this manor itself is also a massive game arena, with mysteries concealed in every corner.]

[The coming nights will no longer feature dance party evenings. After the start of the daily dinner banquet, players will be randomly assigned to various rooms within the manor, with a minimum of one person and a maximum of four people per room. Complete the assigned tasks within the room in the allotted time to leave, which counts as clearing that day's game; failure to do so results in elimination.]

[All other rules remain unchanged. This mode will persist until the end of the instance, lasting for five days.]

The gathered players: "?!"

What on earth?? A new mode? The instance was out to persecute them again?!

If luck wasn't on their side and they got grouped with NPCs, wouldn't it be fraught with danger?

Then again, if nothing went wrong, did this mean they could finally leave this damn instance in five days at the latest?!

Rings of dim red light emanated from the depths of the manor's foundations, and the next second, the players and non-humans alike were abruptly teleported to different locations.

Watching Yu Deng suddenly vanish from right before his eyes, the expression of the silver-haired Vampire Prince grew cold.

It seemed that while he slumbered, further changes had taken place within the manor.

No matter. He would simply have to find his little vampire.