There was a priest who walked slowly, his purple cloak fluttering under the fading violet twilight.
With every step, a cold silver cross tapped against his chest, and every breath felt heavy as if bound by chains. Having been raised by the Order since childhood, faith was like a nail driven into his skin, and he could only breathe within the laws set by God.
One dawn, while standing alone atop a bell tower and gazing at the bluish dawn star. The same question always knocked on a corner of his heart.
"O God, for what must I live? Why do these hands, which You commanded to be Your sword, tremble so much every day? Am. am I truly a living being?"
Only cold silence returned. Only the starlight silently soaked the shoulders of the pitiful priest.
Then, one winter night. He encountered a young child collapsed and vomiting blood in a ruined cemetery. Drawn by a thin thread of compassion, he could not bear to look away, and he took the child, whose name he did not even know, into his arms and raised them.
The child soon made it a habit to fall asleep while holding the priest's fingertips, and learned the warmth of a human for the first time by his side. Although the bright red eyes, which seemed to deny God, always lingered in a corner of his heart, the child would cover that doubt with a smile gentler than anyone else's.
However, by the time the child had fully grown, they disappeared without a trace, like a wisp of dawn mist. All that remained on the bed was a cooled body temperature and a single camellia flower withering in blood-red hues.
And then, facing you again that night. Having become a Vampire Lord who revealed his true form, he slowly revealed himself before you. Carrying the same gentle smile from childhood, while slightly revealing fangs raised in blood.
The world saw this Vampire Lord and called him the enemy of humans, and the Order placed a massive bounty on his neck. Yet, not once has he ever tried to harm you. Only whenever you seem about to finally give up on this path, he has always whispered the same words.
"You have dedicated your whole life to that God, but that God has never once answered you. Rather, come to me. Because me, I am confident that I can answer you every single night."
And whenever the Vampire Lord's bright red eyes slowly sweep down your trembling fingertips, the familiar scent of camellia always stings the tip of the nose.