After bathing, Edel put his damp clothes back on. He had no other choice, during the escape, he lost everything. Without these clothes, he had nothing to wear.
Once he stepped out of the bath, Edel found himself restless. After spending ten more minutes washing his hands under the tap, he finally shut it off, still unsatisfied.
He looked out the window. Below was a walkway in the residential district, no one in sight. Edel’s curiosity stirred. He wanted to see what this vampire-ruled city was really like.
No one had told him he couldn’t leave, and there were no guards stationed at his door.
Tidying up his clothes as best he could, Edel opened the door and stepped outside. At that moment, another wooden door next to his creaked open.
A young man, also dressed in soaking wet clothes, appeared in front of him. Both of them froze.
Then, they each gave an awkward smile, clearly aware of why the other was drenched.
Edel nodded stiffly in greeting and quickly headed downstairs, his face flushed with embarrassment. His earlier reaction to the tap water was far too humiliating.
The three-story building housed a total of twelve rooms. The staircase ran through the center, with two rooms on either side of each floor.
Reaching the ground floor, Edel, despite not having slept all night, felt full of energy, his eyes darting around curiously.
He followed the small path out of the residential area and stepped onto the actual street. The sight before him made his feet stop in place.
Clean. Orderly. Even though he had seen it once already, Edel was still shocked by the cityscape before him.
It was too clean. Not only was there no litter on the ground, there wasn’t even a trace of urine stench or sewage odor in the air.
The bluestone-paved streets bustled with people. Armored patrol squads walked back and forth, inspecting the area.
Everything felt so harmonious.
Everyone wore neat, clean clothes. Smiles were plastered across their faces. Their eyes radiated kindness. A single glance revealed that there wasn’t a single beggar in sight, the kind of people impossible to avoid in other cities, and here, they were simply... gone.
Edel’s eyes widened. He still couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
As he followed the street forward, shops selling various goods lined both sides. Edel realized he didn’t have enough eyes to take it all in.
“Is this... really a vampire-ruled city?? How can a vampire-ruled city be so prosperous?!”
Suddenly, while Edel was spacing out, a massive figure burst out from the corner of the street, wrinkled, gray-white skin, a single massive eye, and muscular limbs. Edel froze on the spot.
T-This... This was a cyclops, one of legend?!
There was actually a cyclops here?!!
As he saw the cyclops charging straight toward him and remembered all the terrifying tales, fear exploded in Edel’s chest and he let out a frantic scream.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
The enormous scream brought the entire street to a brief standstill. Everyone turned their heads in unison to look at Edel.
The scene felt frozen in time.
Everyone’s expression was odd, as if they were looking at a fool.
After a moment, a woman in a red dress carrying a loaf of white bread stormed out of a shop labeled ‘Bakery.’ She was clearly over fifty years old and couldn’t bear to watch anymore. She flung the door open and shouted angrily,
“What are you screaming for?! Are you new here??
You scared the little guy!”
Startled by her yell, Edel snapped out of his panic. But when he looked at the towering cyclops in front of him, he still felt terrified and instinctively took a few steps back, ready to bolt if anything felt off.
That was a cyclops, a creature from legends! Absolutely terrifying.
Why was such a terrifying being here in this city?
Wasn’t this a vampire-ruled city?
What happened next turned him completely to stone.
He saw, with his own eyes, the red-dressed aunt who had come out of the bakery glare disapprovingly at the cyclops, who stood nearly four blades tall, and then scold him mercilessly.
“Little Kosso!! Who told you to run around like that?! You scared someone!
You’re not allowed to run around the city again, understand?!”
The massive cyclops looked fearfully at the aunt and nodded obediently.
“Yes, Aunt Mary.” His voice in Continental Common Script was fluent and natural, without the slightest stiffness.
“Here, take your bread. Be more careful next time. Now go apologize to the gentleman.”
Edel stood dumbfounded as the terrifying cyclops bowed respectfully to him.
“I’m sorry I scared you.”
More polite than most humans.
“N-No, it’s fine, I-I was just startled...” Edel stammered, waving his hands in panic, his flustered expression drawing amused chuckles from the surrounding crowd.
"This guy must be new, huh?? He actually got scared by little Kosso, hahaha."
"These newcomers, their guts are way too small."
"..."
"Alright, little one, go play now," said Aunt Mary in the red dress, waving her hand.
"Goodbye, Aunt Mary~" the cyclops youngling said politely before turning and hopping away.
Thump, thump, thump~
Edel just stood there in a daze, watching the cyclops bounce off cheerfully.
"It's all right now, young newcomer. This is Dawn City. With the saintlight vampires watching over us, there's nothing to worry about."
Aunt Mary gave a kind smile. "That was Lord Kosso’s child, still very young. A full-grown cyclops stands over six blades tall.
He’s just a child."
Just a child? Recalling what he’d just seen, Edel’s expression stiffened.
Yes… a child.
"Alright, I’ve got work to do. Feel free to look around Dawn City, just don’t go to the city walls or the blacksmith district and you’ll be fine." Aunt Mary said as she returned to her bakery and got busy.
After that, only Edel was left, still not fully recovered from the shock.
Just then, a few more beastmen walked by, each carrying burlap sacks over their shoulders. Standing two blades tall, their bulging muscles made their clothes stretch taut.
With four sharp fangs protruding from their mouths, they looked terrifying.
Edel’s legs went weak at the sight of the beastmen. He was just about to scream again when he suddenly remembered something and quickly slapped a hand over his mouth.
Then he looked around, no one else reacted, and the beastmen paid him no attention as they walked off.
Moments later, a group of dwarves passed by, and Edel once again stood there dumbfounded, watching them leave.
Finally, a patrol of vampires walked past, spreading their bat wings, baring their sharp fangs, and Edel’s expression remained completely overwhelmed.
At this point, the fallen noble's mind was in total disarray.
"Goddess above… what kind of city have I come to??!!"