Vampire's Slice Of Life

1109  Evergreen Rosette World

When the shrine maiden said it would feel boring, Lith didn't think much of it, but boy was it actually quite boring. This was the same old story of an empire going in drought, praying to a higher deity, then getting blessings, and flourishing.

The mandate stated that the empire should be relocated to a ten thousand kilometers west. Ten thousand kilometers west was a mountainous region, which had lush green valleys, clean rivers, tons of vegetation for farming, and animals for food. The entire empire marched their way towards this place. Many died along the way due to shortage of food and water, but reached the place in the end and lived a happy life. The emperor, after having a successor, went to one of the highest peaks in the mountain range and opened a shrine to pray to the heavens, believing that he'll get blessed and live a longer life. After many years, this shrine and mountain was named after the emperor who was called Lifan, and the dynasty brought great prosperity to the surroundings and everything eventually turned pink. That was the whole story. The shrine maiden went into great detail about it from how the emperor did this and that to convince the people to let go of their homes and shift to a new place and so on and so forth. It was really boring. By the time she finished, the sun had settled down and Lith could hear approaching footsteps. A woman in white and pink priestess robes, different from the shrine maiden's, walked inside the room. Her face had a spiritual charm to it that could only be seen on religious people. "Welcome back, priestess." The shrine maiden got up and made a praying gesture. The priestess returned the gesture and turned to look at Lith. "This young man here is…" The shrine maiden introduced Lith to her. "Greetings," said Lith after getting up and bowing slightly. The priestess returned this greeting as well and asked, "Would you like some tea?"

Lith shook his head. "The young miss here has been hospitable enough."

The priestess nodded her head and sat down in front of Lith. Her facial features were average and nothing noteworthy, but the aura she was exuding was holy and strong. If Lith had the normal vampire physique, he would feel nauseous in front of this lady and maybe even get his body damaged from the constant holy aura she was emitting.  "What would you like to know?" The priestess went straight to the point. "Firstly, can you please tell me which world is this? Where am I?"

"The world is called Evergreen Rosette, and you are in the Lifan mountain range, three days away from any civilization on the planet."

"Oh." Lith said with some surprise. "What's the civilization called?"

"It's a city called Lumpia," the priestess replied. "Lumpia is managed by the Lifan Sect, one of the major powerhouses of the world."

Lith nodded and asked the priestess a few more questions. From her, he came to an understanding that this world was run purely by sects. There were cultivator families, but none were as big as the sects. Currently, Lith was in the mainland of the Evergreen Rosette world. He was the very center and close to Lifan Sect. The people of this world were aware of the existence of other worlds and traded with them periodically. There were strict measures implemented on the different gates around the world and nobody could just come out or go in without permission.

If Lith wanted to find the gate back home, he had to make contact with the Lifan Sect. Asking them simply won't do as he might get killed or used due to his strength. He would need to join their sexy and go on missions to guard the gates, then sneakily enter into one. People were afraid of the gates and wouldn't bother to jump in, so no one would think that Lith would do such a thing. He thus had the leeway and could easily go back to his home world. Everything the priestess said made sense, but what he did not understand was why was she advising him on deception? Weren't priestess' supposed to be gentle and ethical? Something felt odd.

Once their conversation came to an end, the priestess said, "It's getting late. You should rest today and leave after breakfast if you're planning to go to Lumpia."

Lith took up on her offer and said he would do exactly that. The priestess and the shrine maiden then said it was time for dinner, and then had dinner with him. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Remember, just go to sleep and do not come out of your room until it's time for breakfast tomorrow." The priestess calmly warned him, making him raise an eyebrow in surprise. She didn't elaborate on it further and left along with the shrine maiden. Lith left the room too and went to his assigned room to sleep a bit. The last words of the priestess were still echoing in his mind. Why did she say that? He kept wondering about it. Lith lay in his futon and went over the conversation he had with the priestess and shrine maiden. As the night turned richer, something strange happened. Takk! Takk! A faint voice of someone hammering was heard by him. For a few seconds, it was faint, but then, gradually increased, and within a few minutes, it felt as if someone was hammering a nail into a wall right beside his ears. Annoyed, Lith turned around, but saw nothing that could possibly make this noise. He tried to ignore it and used his spiritual power to block his ears from hearing the sound. The sound was not heard again, but there was this creepy feeling on his back that someone was right behind him. He opened his eyes and turned around, but there was no one. 'Is this a haunted place or what?' Lith cursed internally. He turned to the side and tried to sleep again, but it was all to no avail. Half an hour of trying to suppress this nagging feeling, Lith felt annoyed and gave up trying to sleep. "Fine. Let me see who the fuck is trying to mess with me." Lith sat in a lotus position and looked around. The doors in this place were thin and sliding. Lith could see the silhouettes of furniture from the other room through it. As he watched the door, he saw something move across. Knitting his brows, Lith thought to himself, 'In a world of magic where ghosts actually exist, who's trying to pull off these cheap tricks and make a failed attempt at scaring someone? Do you think my curiosity is so high that I'll get up from this place and check who's moving around?'

Lith scoffed. 'I am not a dumb protagonist from a horror movie to do such a thing. I know when to mind my business.'

Lith kept staring at the door and watched the silhouette move from one place to another. As if thinking that it did not have enough of Lith's attention, the silhouette suddenly grew bigger, and came closer and closer.

A smiling face with sharp fangs could now be seen behind that door. 'Oh cool. If it's this threatening, why not rip the door and come get me?'