The First Vampire

This was a man-made tributary of the Crystal River.

The Crystal River’s main stream was actually a distance away from Silver Moon City, but how could the Half-Elf Clansmen let their “Mother River” bypass their royal capital?

Thus, the stream was artificially diverted into Silver Moon City, right into the backyard of the royal palace.

The river banks were planted with two rows of towering Phoenix Trees, now drenched in autumn gold. The half-withered leaves fell into the river in swirling eddies, drifting away with the current.

The rainbow-hued Phoenix forest masked the ash-gray stone walls of the palace, portraying an ethereal scene of the autumn season.

The afternoon sun was warm and pleasant. Colin laid lazily, supporting his head with both hands, on a slope covered in evergreen grass.

Next to him, Queen Isa sat cross-legged on the grass. Her flawless white palace dress outlined her bewitching feminine curves, harmoniously blending her sacred beauty, mature tenderness, and majesty into a noble aura of wisdom and grace.

Her pure blue eyes unwaveringly gazed at Sylv, cradled in her arms. Regrettably, the tot kept wriggling, trying to break free from her mother’s embrace.

Colin turned his head, smiled at his persistent daughter, and said, “You might as well put her down. She can crawl already, right?”

Isa gave Colin a flirtatious glare, grunting, “Who in their right mind lets a newborn crawl around freely!”

At this, Colin chortled and advised, “Our daughter is extraordinary from birth. We shouldn’t compare her to ordinary children.”

Truthfully, although Sylv was only a month old, she was developing rather rapidly. Practically comparable to the physical constitution of a typical six or seven-month-old child; one moment of Isa’s inattention, and the youngster would be crawling all over the place.

Seeing Isa was still hesitant to let go, Colin smiled, took his daughter, and laid her on his belly. He made a circlet with his hands, allowing her to crawl around his upper body.

“Hahaha…”

Sylv rejoiced, her toothless mouth thrown open in laughter at achieving her goals.

Gazing at Sylv’s ruby-like innocent eyes and feeling her delicate hands and feet crawling all over his body, Colin felt all his worries and troubles vanish in an instant.

Regrettably, this tranquillity was soon disrupted by a hastened cluster of footsteps.

“Teacher, teacher! Come see the amusement park I’ve designed for Sylv!”

Colin turned to see Princess Judy, wearing a bright yellow pleated dress, bounding towards him. Trailing behind was Prince Harrison, striving to maintain his grace and elegance in his sluggish pursuit.

“You’re done with the design?”

“Absolutely! Look!”

Princess Judy triumphantly unrolled a parchment, revealing her “Amusement Park Design” to her teacher.

Sylv seemed to have found a new plaything. Babbling animatedly, she made a move to crawl onto the design.

Colin swiftly picked up the mischievous little princess and sat up, genuinely intrigued by Judy’s masterpiece.

Prince Harrison also approached, fully compelled to perform the courtly greetings to Colin and Isa, before he settled down on the spread woolen blanket.

The Half-Elf housemaid, Kathy Savoy, hurriedly served two cups of flower tea to Princess Judy and Prince Harrison.

Prince Harrison appeared disinterested in his sister’s amusement park design and instead struck a conversation with Kathy.

Here, Princess Judy enthusiastically explained to Colin her “Design Philosophy”.

According to her, comparing Sylv, a prodigious child who awakened her noble Phoenix bloodline right at birth, with ordinary children was simply out of the question. Common amusement facilities like slides, carousels, trampolines, swings, etc., would seem overly simple and juvenile to Sylv.

Hence, Princess Judy claimed to have designed an adventure-themed amusement park, using renowned hero adventure tales as the blueprint and integrating elements such as exploring, maze solving, deduction, treasure hunting, hunting, and trap setting to devise a brilliant game plan.

Initially, Colin was intrigued, but as Princess Judy’s narration progressed, his expression gradually darkened.

Because he found that the difficulty of this amusement park was somewhat excessive.

For instance, during one stage, Princess Judy even required the game participants to kill a brown bear to clear the level.

Colin could not help but hold his forehead, lamenting whether this was really an amusement park for children.

This was more like the alternative world version of Squid Game.

Had he not known Princess Judy to be somewhat unreliable, Colin might have even doubted whether she had an ulterior motive in designing this amusement park.

Therefore, Colin unequivocally rejected Princess Judy’s design without hesitation.

No matter how much Princess Judy coquettishly begged, it was to no avail.

Eventually, Princess Judy had no choice but to submit to her teacher’s “domination”, and departed dejectedly to redesign it.

Prince Harrison, however, did not leave with his sister but continued sitting on the woolen blanket, conversing with the half-elf maid, Kathy, in hushed tones.

Seeing this, Colin was intrigued and suddenly asked, “Harrison, Kathy, what are you talking about?”

Harrison promptly adjusted his posture and turned to face Colin, replying, “Teacher, I was explaining to Miss Kathy why my sister wants to put a brown bear in the amusement park.”

“Oh? Why?” Colin was also a bit interested.

“Because just three days ago, Judy heard that the Half-Elf Palace was about to hold a Hunting Party, and there would be brown bears at the party. She was so excited that she wanted to kill a brown bear herself.”

Colin involuntarily chuckled, “With her thin arms and thin legs, she wants to hunt a brown bear?”

Prince Harrison was also somewhat embarrassed, touching his nose, feeling helpless about his sister’s “bragging boast.”

Seeing this, Kathy spoke up, “The prince just told me he plans to hunt a brown bear for his sister.”

“Yes,” Prince Harrison instantly straightened his back, nodding repeatedly.

Queen Isa reminded him with a smile, “Prince Harrison, you must be careful. The brown bear is a ferocious animal that reigns in the mountains. And before the Hunting Party, the court’s hunting supervisor will deliberately reduce its food. The brown bear, in its hunger, will become even more fierce.”

“Your Majesty, you need not worry, I can surely handle it,” Prince Harrison confidently declared.

Colin knew that Prince Harrison was now a knight apprentice, and with his strength, dealing with a brown bear alone would indeed be a bit challenging.

However, he wasn’t worried about his student- there will naturally be formal knights standing by Prince Harrison at the Hunting Party. There shouldn’t be any accidents with just a brown bear.

Seeing the silent smiling Colin, Prince Harrison became somewhat nervous, and he couldn’t help turning to Kathy, the half-elf maid, “Miss Kathy, do you believe I can hunt a brown bear?”

“Of course you can, Your Highness! I just hope that the bear won’t become too frightened and run away, otherwise the Hunting Party would be too boring.” Kathy smiled slightly, her delicate face resembling a blooming flower, drawing the youthful prince’s attention.

Prince Harrison blinked naively at Kathy, without flickering. This passionate gaze made Kathy shyly lower her head.

“Cough Cough.”

Colin’s light cough brought Prince Harrison back to reality. He realized his gaffe and not daring to face his teacher, he quickly lowered his head respectfully, and said:

“Teacher, I’m off to check on Judy’s progress with the amusement park design.”

After speaking, he seemed to flee the scene.