"Mr. Lavua, may you please come along with me?" A voice came from the sky. I looked up and saw a small bat with red eyes staring back down at me. After a few seconds the bat transformed into a person—more specifically, Count Valerius.
"Oh my Typhon!" someone gasped, bowing down to one knee.
"I'm so sorry for not noticing you, sir!" another said, getting in the same stance.
Valerius had a stern look on his face. Turning over to the two girls, he said, "Raise your heads. Go on to your next class, please. If you are a few minutes late, say I stopped you for a small inquiry." He turned back to me with a more relaxed expression. "Sorry about that, Mr. Lavua. Now, may you please follow me? I'll lead the way."
"Yes, sir," I replied.
We walked down the hallways, all the way to the administrators office. There, we entered Valerius's office, an open space full of countless paintings of historical figures and people who seemed to be vampires, all with the name Valerius plated underneath.
He sat down behind a desk decorated neatly with trinkets, a lamp, and a book and quill.
"Now, there may have been things I have forgotten to give you from our previous conversation… Most notably, a schedule."
"Yeah…" I sighed. "Luckily, I ran into Silf Palmer in the hallway, and she helped me to my class."
"Ah yes, Silf is a wonderful child. She obediently does work, and most rarely complains. I do not have any quarrels with her, but that is not belittling the complaints I have gotten about her."
"Damien Magra said the same thing, honestly."
"Ah! You already met Mr. Magra? Wonderful, that saves the trouble of explaining, then."
"What do you mean?"
"Mr. Magra is new to being in this school, the same as you. That is why you two were placed in the Vampire Powers: Basics… I will not reveal too much personal information about him, but rely on him. He may be new, but he is very studious."
I could tell. His notes were orderly, with handwriting so neat I thought it was perfect.
"There is one question I have to ask," I stated. With a slight nod from Valerius I continued, "When I met Silf she said I only have one class, and that was the class I was just in… Since I lived as a human for all of my life, shouldn't I be trying to learn as much as I can before it's too late for me?"
"Too late?"
"Like, before I get too old for this school?"
"Oh," he calmly let out, "you do not have to worry about age. At this academy you, the student, are proudly stated to be the main focus of priority. Learning, living… Anything you desire to do, you may."
He and I went back and forth for another thirty or so minutes, mostly speaking about the rules of the academy, the types of species within, and many more. After we were finished talking, his face lit up and he essentially forced me to follow him outside. Out there, we walked on a path toward a building with Boys Dormitory written on a piece of wood in front of the doorway. Inside lay a common quarters with a variety of different types of people lounging about.
Some had hair in places I couldn't have imagined, while some were matte green and lime. I could tell from their skin alone that they were slimes, but they were unlike the bright lime that I saw from Silf Palmer.
Before I could continue my thinking, everyone ran frantically and bowed before me, getting on one knee.
Well…to say it was me was a stretch. It was to Valerius.
"Now, now," he said in a calm, benevolent voice. "I may be your principal, but continue doing as you were. I'm just showing our newest vampire around. I hope you all will treat him with loving arms."
"Nice to meet you all," I mustered, trying to ignore the sweat forming within my balled up palm.
I heard a Whoa! shout from behind before I turned around. Valerius looked at the watch laying on his left wrist in surprise. "On other notes, I have some matters to attend to—your room number is 149. Should be on the fifth floor, near the end of the hallway. Goodbye, and goodnight, Mr. Lavua."
When he finished speaking he hastily opened the door and turned in a bat, flying away in a hurried manner. I turned back around toward my peers to see that they were all sweating profusely.
"Gosh," a person sighed, "I forgot how scary he is…"
"Yeah, right? We all could have died if we didn't bow," another one said as he grasped for air.
"What do you mean?" I did not get a response. Only a slight scare when they all rushed up to me.
"How did you do it?"
"What's your name?"
"What's your ideal type of woman?"
I got overloaded with questions that I couldn't understand. "How did I do what…?"
The guy who asked the question grabbed my hand. His palm was sweating, and the fluids he and I both had clashed fighting for whose was the hottest. He had dark green hair with a middle part. His skin was pale to a point it looked almost transparent.
"I'm asking how you managed to get him to be kind to you, man!"
"Isn't he always like that?"
"No. Not typically," he said, shaking his head. His hair flew back and forth, eventually falling still in its original spot.
"He's right, you know!" An outsider interjected, "Usually, he's cold and distant. Hell, this is the first time I've seen him crack a smile."
The guy who broke in had shaggy crimson hair that went down to his ears, diamond piercings hanging off his lobules. He was around my height, five-foot-ten, and was decently built with muscles not too apparent, but just enough to tell that he went to the gym.
"Right," the navy haired guy affirmed.
"On other notes, I'm Kallon. Kallon Kalip—not that it's necessary to say, but I'm a zombie," the red head said, finally giving a name.
"A zombie?"
"Yeah! Sick, right?"
"What about you, grassie?"
"Rude… My name is Daniel Manul," he casually said.
Daniel didn't openly state his species, and didn't seem too keen on doing so. Instead of prying further, I turned back to Kallon then asked him what being a zombie implied.
He gladly answered every one of my questions. Zombies are like typical humans, but they have died before. The unique thing about them that is unlike the folklore is that you cannot infect other people by the insertion of bodily fluids—biting, blood, etc.—it's completely hereditary. There are some exceptions where a normal person can turn into a zombie, yes, but it is unlikely given the fact that most humans have no special abilities of any sort.
Even that is an exception itself, as there are a handful of humans out there that have magical abilities, but they are called anomalies in the monster world.
I uncovered that Kallon hailed from a noble lineage, holding the intriguing position of being the third cousin to the illustrious Yumia Royal Family—significant figures in the realm of zombie royalty.
In this peculiar field, family ties are forged for noble and royal zombies, who begin their life as ordinary humans and then undergo the sudden transformation of acquiring the unique abilities of a zombie. Conversely, those who succumb to zombification posthumously are categorized as peasants.
Turning to Daniel, his true nature unfolded during Kallon's extensive monologue: he is a Drus, a being entwined with the forests. Unlike structured nobility that commonly gets established through generations, Drus are devoid of familial connections. Endowed with inherent intelligence and maturity, they navigate life without the need of formal education. Yet, exceptions like Daniel exist—individuals who seize opportunities, such as accepting an invitation from Count Valerius.
An alarm rang throughout the halls of the dormitory for lunch. I followed my peers to the cafeteria—it was more like a meeting hall, if anything—where it looked like something out of a fairy-tail story. Wooden tables that resembled a bench stretched far, easily reaching the end of the already massive room.
Students were already sitting down in each of their respective slots. It looked like it was similar to schools in the human world with cliques typically hanging near each other.
"No need to geek out, Jacob," Kallon jokingly mocked, grabbing onto my shoulder. "You don't have many friends I bet, so sit with me. We don't bite."
He walked over to a table-stretch and sat down next to several other people. I followed, sitting down right next to him, beside a woman dressed in all black.
"Alright everyone, this is Jacob, a vampire. Say hello."
As he tried to introduce me, I felt myself get more and more awkward. I would not be surprised if someone had commented "Hey, his face is red!" at that moment. Surprisingly though, everyone welcomed me with open arms even though I was not their species.
There were six people who sat at this table. Four girls and two guys excluding Kallon and I.
The only one who didn't greet me was the girl I was sitting to the right of, the girl wearing all black. I didn't want to be weird, so I didn't pay it much mind, but I could tell that her skin was fair, with red hair bordering strawberry-blonde. It was hard to get a grasp of her personality, but I assumed she was just an emo.