After Alucard returned to the mansion, everything after that became little more than fragmented memories and blurred flashes of laughter, moonlight, and intimacy. His exhausted body finally surrendered sometime during the night, dragging him into unconsciousness so abruptly that he didn't even remember falling asleep.
When he woke up again, he found himself lying in the same enormous bed he had woken up in the previous day.
The alcohol was completely gone from his system now, leaving behind only the consequences of his poor life choices.
Namely—a headache that felt like someone had constructed an entire building solely for the purpose of dropping it directly onto his skull.
The soft mattress beneath him almost made him want to ignore the pain and go back to sleep.
Almost.
"Goddammit… Gluttony, did you eat my brain? Or was I hit on the head by a building?" Alucard thought bitterly.
Gluttony immediately answered with a long, suffering sigh.
"Why do you care? You clearly weren't using your brain anyway. Hell, a random nightmare creature off the street is probably smarter than your idiotic, moronic, self-destructive—"
Alucard raised a hand over his eyes before the rant could continue.
He already knew.
Whenever Gluttony sounded this irritated, something had gone horribly wrong.
"What did I do this time?" he asked internally, preparing himself for disaster.
Gluttony's voice somehow became even more venomous.
"Look at your body. Then look beside you. Then maybe your 2 brain cells will finally stop fighting for 5th place and will connect the dots."
Alucard shrugged weakly and did exactly that.
The moment he looked down, confusion spread across his face.
His chest, shoulders, neck, and arms were covered in scratches.
Not serious wounds.
Not battle wounds.
The kind of marks that immediately made his soul attempt to leave his body.
There were bite marks too.
And hickeys.
A lot of hickeys.
His brain stalled for several long seconds.
Very slowly, with all the fear of a man approaching his own execution, he turned his head.
Beside him, sleeping peacefully, was Seishan.
She had somehow curled herself into his side during the night, her head resting comfortably near the crook of his neck while one arm lazily rested across his chest as if this had always been normal.
Her hair spilled across the pillows like dark silk.
Even half-asleep, she somehow looked elegant.
Which only made Alucard panic more.
He also noticed she had a few marks on her neck and shoulders too—though noticeably fewer than him.
The math took far longer than he wanted to admit.
Then realization hit.
"No…"
His eyes widened.
"We didn't…"
Gluttony immediately interrupted.
"Oh yes. You absolutely did."
Alucard froze.
"That woman practically drained my blood reserves just for the thrill of it. Then I had to spend hours repairing all the damage because apparently you two decided that mutualtion was arousing."
Gluttony paused dramatically.
"I swear upon every dead god I know, if I have to heal your body again because of your masochistic fetishes, I will personally remove your testicles."
A cold shiver traveled down Alucard's spine.
New objective acquired:
Survive until Gluttony calms down.
Fragments of last night slowly returned.
Moonlight.
Holding hands.
That kiss.
More alcohol.
Laughing.
Seishan smiling.
Then everything after that became increasingly blurry. (Someone else has to write that part)
Alucard covered his face with both hands and groaned.
"I am never drinking again."
Gluttony laughed mockingly.
"Yeah. And I'm Shadow God. Any other fantasies you want to share?"
Before Alucard could defend himself, movement beside him caught his attention.
Seishan slowly stirred awake.
Her eyes opened lazily before immediately finding him.
Without saying anything, she shifted slightly and rested her head against his chest.
"Good morning," she said softly. "Did you have any interesting dreams? Because I'm fairly certain you didn't sleep much."
Alucard immediately looked away.
"Oh please. Like you have any right to talk."
A small smile appeared on her face.
Her fingers traced circles across his chest absentmindedly.
"Oh? That's strange. You seemed very enthusiastic earlier when I was whispering in your ear about how good you were doing last night."
Alucard groaned louder.
"Please stop talking."
Seishan gave him a look Alucard had unfortunately grown very familiar with over the past day—a look whose meaning he now understood perfectly well. More importantly, it was a look he knew he would struggle to refuse.
"Oh?" she whispered softly, a teasing smile tugging at the corners of her lips. "If you want me to shut up so badly... then make me."
Alucard hesitated for all of three seconds.
Unfortunately, he had responsibilities today.
There was accompanying Sei to the meeting with the faction leaders.
Which meant—
He had to see Nephis again.
Alucard seriously considered his options.
On one side: meetings, arguing over little details, and listening to Nephis lecture him for several hours.
On the other side...
Actually, what sane person would willingly choose the meeting?
A dangerous smile slowly spread across his face.
"Yeah," he muttered. "The meeting can wait a few more minutes."
And just like that, the world mercifully faded to black.
---
Some time later.
Seishan lay against the pillows, breathing slowly while trying—and failing—to organize the countless thoughts racing through her mind. Judging by her expression, she had given up somewhere around thought number ten.
Meanwhile, Alucard was already getting dressed.
Unfortunately, his blood-forged clothes were currently unusable, forcing him to settle for actual fabric clothing that looked ancient enough to belong in a museum. Dark trousers, an old fitted shirt, and a long coat that definitely belonged to some forgotten noble.
He adjusted the collar before glancing back toward her.
"Hey, Sei," he said casually. "We really need to go. Come on, get ready."
Seishan slowly turned toward him.
After a few long seconds, she simply nodded weakly in approval.
At the moment, that was about all the energy she had left.
Alucard let out a long, exhausted sigh before shaking his head with a smile.
"I'll be busy doing something, but I'll return by the time we need to go to that meeting."
Seishan let out another slow nod.
As he prepared to leave, he summoned Beast.
Blood pooled across the floor alongside white sparks before the familiar massive creature materialized.
Beast was huge now.
Nearly ten feet tall.
Wide as a carriage.
Terrifying to anyone else.
To Alucard, however, he was still just Beast.
"Ah, looks like you gathered the blood I asked for. Thanks."
After reclaiming enough blood reserves, Beast gradually shrunk back down to a more manageable size.
Alucard bent down and scratched behind beast's ears.
"Guard Sei while I'm gone, okay?"
Beast wagged his tail.
The massive wolf looked entirely too proud of himself.
Once Beast settled behind the door, Alucard finally left.
His next destination was obvious.
Feltan.
Alucard moved quickly through the winding pathways of the Dark City, his footsteps echoing softly against ancient black stone. Morning had only just begun, yet the city already felt alive in its own strange way. People moved between ruined buildings, scouts returned from patrols, and distant voices echoed from walls far out of sight.
Alucard ignored all of it.
His mind was already several steps ahead.
He needed to find Feltan.
More specifically—he needed his knowledge.
He had to learn more sacrificial sorcery.
The summoning sigil in particular.
Feltan had promised to teach it to him eventually, and now that promise suddenly seemed far more valuable than before. Summoning wasn't just summoning if you thought about it creatively. From Alucard's perspective, it was practically teleportation with extra steps.
And teleportation meant possibilities.
Far too many possibilities.
His crimson eye narrowed thoughtfully as he walked.
If he combined a summoning sigil with blood manipulation...
Then combined that with the sacrificial runes he already knew...
Then layered those on top of the new ideas he'd come up with eventually...
His imagination immediately spiraled into dangerous territory.
After all, he had already created his ridiculous finger gun using poorly optimized, horribly inefficient, self-taught sacrificial runes. It was wasteful, crude, and absolutely impractical.
And it still somehow worked.
So what exactly could someone like Feltan create?
Actually...
Didn't Feltan once say he was terrible at sacrificial sorcery?
Alucard slowed slightly while thinking.
That raised an entirely different question.
If Feltan—the ancient, creepy, suspiciously helpful sinner—considered himself bad at sacrificial sorcery...
Then who exactly counted as good?
His mind immediately went through names.
Sloth.
Greed.
Envy.
Maybe one of them?
Though admittedly, these guesses were built on absolutely nothing except intuition and whatever little experience he had gathered so far.
Which wasn't much.
He had only met three of the seven sinners.
Three.
That left four more terrifying mysteries walking around somewhere.
Wonderful.
Alucard shook his head.
No point thinking about things he couldn't answer.
First priority:
Learn sorcery.
Second priority:
Interrogate Sunny about everything he discovered regarding Weaver, demons, and the Forgotten Shore.
Third priority:
Interrogate Feltan about literally everything else.
A dangerous stupid smile appeared on his face.
"Actually," he muttered to himself while turning down another ruined street, "asking Feltan about Weaver sounds like a fantastic idea."
Inside his soul sea, Gluttony immediately sighed.
Not a normal sigh.
A deeply disappointed sigh.
The kind usually reserved for people moments before disaster.
"A lot can go wrong, Al. Trust me."
Alucard shrugged casually.
"Why shouldn't I ask?"
Gluttony chuckled darkly.
"Oh please, go ahead. Ask all the forbidden questions you want."
Then his voice became colder.
"But remember what I told you earlier."
A pause.
"Your entire bloodline currently rests in my metaphorical hands."
Alucard froze mid-step.
A loud gulp escaped him.
Right.
He really needed Gluttony to calm down first.