At the stroke of midnight, the curtain of night had long since fallen.
Lichtenstein Castle and the surrounding mountains were shrouded in thick mist and the shadows of the moonlight.
In the great hall of the foundation floor.
The chill of late autumn tried to seep through the castle’s thick stone walls, but the warmth of the fireplace pushed it back. Everyone in the banquet hall was wrapped in an atmosphere of warmth and liveliness.
But at the far end of the banquet table, near the cathedral’s great entrance doors, stood Count Palocas. His lone, imposing figure exuded such a suffocating pressure that the very air seemed to turn heavy.
“……”
The man clearly knew he would come, and yet acted as though he didn’t even exist.
That sense of doubt, that anticlimactic disappointment, that infuriating feeling of throwing punches at thin air—it made Count Palocas laugh at himself.
He had never seen such an arrogant low-born creature before.
But… interesting.Not everyone at the banquet table was as composed and graceful as the black-haired, green-eyed man seated at the head.
Only two could keep up their act: a cold young man with gray-white hair half-hiding his eyes behind tinted glasses, and a gray-haired woman in a red dress whose smile was dripping with seductive charm. They looked genuinely unafraid.
The others, though—they betrayed their tension in small, betraying movements. Their inconsistent performances laid bare the hollowness of their bravado.
“Why the stern face?”
Lan Qi raised his glass and smiled at the uninvited Count Palocas.
He didn’t scold him for barging into their banquet uninvited.
“One of my precious thralls died here. Do you know anything about it?”
Palocas didn’t rush to take Lan Qi’s head. He questioned him like a sovereign addressing a subject.
This insect looked the most amusing, and tonight, he had plenty of time to savor his meal.
“She lost her way in a moment of weakness and chose to end her life. For that, I also feel regret.”
Lan Qi lowered his brows slightly, as if mourning the saintess’s ruined beauty and laughter.
He hadn’t been able to save that wayward student.
He knew others might call him “too much of a saint” for his attitude.
But Lan Qi didn’t mind. Mercy was a thorn-strewn path—whether born of malice or kindness, it could still wound.
“……”
Huperion sneaked a glance at Lan Qi, too afraid to speak.
She was certain this guy was definitely thinking some utterly outrageous thoughts. He really wasn’t the least bit afraid of divine retribution.
Palocas smiled, joking lightly with Lan Qi:
“I see. Then how about I ask you all to kill yourselves as well?”
Inwardly, he was already tallying up how each word Lan Qi uttered tonight would raise the pitch of his pleas for mercy later.
Lan Qi paused, as if faced with a solemn question.
Then he spoke again:
“Inciting, coercing, or deceiving others into suicide constitutes a crime—either intentional homicide or intentional injury. Don’t you agree, Count Palocas?”
Lan Qi sat there lazily, but his demeanor had shifted completely.
“Do you not understand? In the Honning Empire, vampires are the law. Human laws are nothing but rules you worms made to amuse yourselves.”
Palocas thought this human’s words were amusing—arrogant, but at just the right level.
Like a child threatening to tell the adults. Utterly laughable.
“Is that so…”
Lan Qi lowered his gaze, his green eyes glinting like gems lit from within.
“To say such a thing—then it seems every one of you vampires is a lawless criminal.”
“!”
Though his tone and expression never wavered, Huperion, seated at the side, understood at once—
Count Palocas had stepped into disaster!!
From now on, whenever Lan Qi faced vampires, he would automatically stand on the moral high ground of the law itself!
Having said his piece, Lan Qi seemed to lose interest in the Count, as though the game had grown dull.
“Come then. As headmaster, I’ll give you the chance to challenge me.”
Lan Qi gazed down at Palocas as though seated on a throne.
“…Challenge you?”
Though he still smiled, a vein bulged on Palocas’s forehead.
He hadn’t even ordered these humans to struggle yet, and already this one was taking the dominant role, dictating terms.
This was the same man who had once called him “Little Pal.” He hadn’t forgotten.
Palocas finally realized—Lan Qi’s arrogance wasn’t an act. From the very start, this human had never taken him seriously!
“Little blood clan, it’s still not too late to run now, you know?”
The Poet of Love lifted her head with a mocking smile, fanning the flames. Her tone made it sound like Palocas was nothing more than a pathetic male, utterly unworthy of fear.
Palocas froze, staring at the little succubus, his blood pressure spiking.
The crushing aura that burst from him seemed enough to shatter the very floor.
The air congealed, cold and suffocating, like iron shackles squeezing the breath from every chest.
His body trembled—not from fear, but from the wildfire of rage forging him into a beast on the verge of eruption.
The Poet’s taunting voice finally triggered the wrath Palocas had been holding in since he entered the cathedral!
The next second, his figure blurred into a streak of shadow, hurtling toward the banquet table with the speed of a reaper’s claw!
His eyes glowed a deeper red, nearly swallowing all light.
He knew his opponent might have hidden cards.
But under the power of his Blood Rage, no human trick could matter!
…
The thick night wrapped the entire Ikerite Academy. At this hour, only Gerald Square still shone with light.
On its central outdoor screen, the live broadcast continued under a veil of white glow. The tower clock’s second hand crept toward midnight, each tick cutting through the silence.
But the square’s atmosphere had reached a breaking point. Students’ faces no longer bore laughter—only heaviness, tinged with grief and despair.
They knew what they would see on the giant screen would be brutal—an accident of grave consequence for Ikerite Academy.
“Lan Qi’s being reckless! Even if he had a plan, it’s useless now.”
“You can’t predict vampire powers. They were just unlucky—facing the worst possible counter.”
Many students turned their eyes away, or lowered their heads. Some shut their eyes tight, some bit their lips, some whispered prayers.
The “Student Council Tyrant Trio” wasn’t well-loved, but they were still the new face of the academy.
Now, as the vampire Count charged with lethal intent, the people around the banquet table seemed like puppets of fate, powerless to resist the coming tragedy.
At that bloody moment—
A lone figure stood apart from the crowd at the edge of the square. Unlike the students who averted their gaze, he stared straight at the giant screen with a satisfied smile.
Seeing the Count enraged, challengers helpless, Modan couldn’t hold back his laughter. It wasn’t ordinary laughter—it was the cruel mirth of victory and pity, savoring others’ pain.
Just as everyone believed the Shadow World would end—
The clock struck twelve.
Inside the cathedral at Lichtenstein Castle.
At the far end of the banquet table, Lan Qi leaned on one hand, the other resting on the table. His expression was calm, as if holding lightning in his grasp.
His fingers tapped lightly. On the napkin before him lay a card glowing with orange arcs of electricity—an epic magic card!
In an instant—
A light as blinding as the sun flooded the cathedral!
The world turned white, the glow so fierce it nearly shattered the stained glass, making the entire cliffside castle shimmer with rainbow halos.
A blazing sphere of daylight rose inside the cathedral, its warmth spreading across the land.
Dong, dong!
Like ripples cast across heaven’s white sea, the twelve strokes of midnight rang with solemn ceremony.
To Count Palocas, it was as though his skull were shattering beneath the tolling bells, like the noon sun had inverted night into day!
Still mid-dive, he clutched his eyes in agony, stabbed by a thousand needles of light, and crashed to the floor.
“No—no, impossible!!!”
He wanted to believe it was an illusion. But his strength had withered to a mere tenth of its full power!
The sun’s might kept magnifying, as if he were trapped under a scorching noon sky.
“Why—why can you bring the sun into the night?! What are you?!”
As his screams tore through the hall, the executioner and guards donned sunglasses.
“Praise the Goddess!”
“Hehehe!”
Even the half-dazed clergy raised weapons, advancing like butchers upon the fallen Count.
At the banquet’s head, Lan Qi sat motionless, smiling with eyes closed.
“Morning is the best time of the day. Young people should sleep early and rise early—otherwise, with your days and nights inverted, lazing at home by day and carousing by night, your heart will darken.”
Listening to Palocas’s anguished cries under the radiant virtue, Lan Qi sighed.
He’d always thought vampires had one fatal flaw:
Their sleep schedule was terrible.
Not only was it bad for their health, it set a poor example for the youth.
Lan Qi actually liked vampires. As a headmaster, he believed in “teaching without discrimination.”
And so, his first goal was to fix their circadian rhythms.
Today’s two chapters together are longer than the usual three. If I had ended things right at the start of the Count’s battle, I’d definitely have been cursed out by everyone… So I dragged myself up in the middle of the night and cranked out 6,000 words in one go.