Vampire Reborn - Chapter 39: Deepwalker

The sun had long set, and the light once piercing through the glass windows and open door was replaced by a mellow darkness and the calming silence of the nighttime crickets…

This was even reflected by the once bright lights that illuminated the inside almost as though it was day, now the light of magic torches was sparse and withering away. The once bustling, loud library of Anri was now a ghost of its former self, almost as though it were abandoned. It seemed like nearly everyone had gone home.

Yet, there was still one light that shined brighter than the rest, on a wooden table at the rear end of the first floor were one man sat yawning and tapping his feet.

“What took you so long? I thought you were going out to choose some random books to see how well you can make out the letters. Were you in the bathroom again? Is your bladder okay?” Havel looked over to his side as he witnessed the dark shadow of a masked man enter the magic dome surrounding the table.

“Apologies teacher, I wasn’t in the washroom this time. There were so many interesting books that I had a hard time choosing,” Alucard bent his head in apology.

“So what did you end up choosing then?” Havel yawned.

“One book,” Alucard pulled out a book of considerable girth and dropped it flat on the table, causing an audible thud the woke the half-asleep Havel out of his daze. Although, that shock was not as a result of the heavy sound, but by the contents of the book placed in front of him.

The book itself seemed rather old and not touched in years, the edges were ripped and the stained pages were not tightly connected, yet, the picture of the crest it held brought upon a flurry of emotions.

“The Tales of Legends… Where did you find this?”

“I was looking for a history book, and this one caught my eye most out of all of them. Is it good?” He spoke and slowly took a seat back to Havel’s side.

“Yes, it’s a great book… It houses many tales of yore… Tales that almost every man knows of the ancient past and foundation of our lands…” Havel took a small pause, shaking his dazed head before continuing. “Anyways, the content doesn’t matter, some of it is pretty outdated legend anyways, what’s important is for your learning. This book is fairly complex but I think it will more than serve our purpose,”

“Understood, may I begin then?” Alucard nodded.

“You may,” Havel gestured, prompting Alucard to finally open the book.

The pages were huge, yet the writing was rather meagre considering most pages were filled with utterly jaw-dropping, detailed illustrations.

At first, Alucard flipped through the pages reading the letters and spelling the words he now recognized. However, it eventually turned into Alucard asking Havel about each of the pictures, which Havel was hesitant, but eventually gave in to explain.

It was to the point that Alucard no longer read as he continuously flipped through pages asking questions, like a curious child with no filter reading stories with their parents.

They talked about the age of dragons, how the great beasts founded the first countries, and about twelve gods that descended on earth that ushered in a new age for humanity and put an end to the age of dragons. The six demon gods of dark and the six great gods of light.

At one point, even Havel forgot the purpose of why they were even reading as he continued to explain. To Alucard, his passion on the subject was clear, and his explanations had considerably more passion than that of his other teachings.

But non-more passionate than when they reached a page with an illustration a single man, nay, calling such a being a man would have been a disservice, he was akin to that of a great warlord. His shoulders were broad as mountains and his muscles were protruding heavily from his blackened, fully armoured frame. In his hands was a massive greatsword the size of his entire body resting on his right shoulder and his armoured helm had a cold blue light emerging out of them like a trail of magic.

To his side was an elegant, silver cat of nine-tails, the same one seen on those statues and engravings on the wall where ever he went.

Together they marched into darkness, what could only be described as a deep, swallowing abyss that the illustration managed to capture in magnificent detail despite the age of the yellow, slightly ripped paper.

“Who’s this exactly?” Alucard could not help but wonder,” And that simple question led to a beyond shocked face from his teacher.

“You don’t know the legend of Olaf the Deepwalker!? Not even as some heroic tale or bed-time story!?”

“Ummm… No… Sadly not… I wasn’t really on good terms with my parents and I wasn’t an active speaker as a child.” He slowly replied, scratching the back of his head.

“I see, well, I’m not gonna pry into your personal matters, that’s none of my concern.” Havel shook his head at Alucard’s response and sighed with much brewing in his mind before continuing. “The tale of Olaf the Deepwalker is the story of how our great kingdom of Crory was formed a very long time ago. There was once a profound, endless, oozing gorge within the ground of this land. The darkness was so thick that legend said that dropping a rock within it would lead to no sound… Out of that whole was corruption and wickedness unparalleled, said to be a remnant from the age of the dragons and demon gods which terrorized the people of the land and made their life miserable.”

“Olaf, one of the great heroes of Yore stepped up to stop this dark abyss when everyone else failed or was too cowardly to even attempt, he and her highness the magical nine-tailed cat Elaina, they dove down into this void and put an end to this abyss. In the end, the tyranny of the deep was ended due to their help… But sadly, the great hero Olaf, now remembered as the great Deepwalker, never returned… His body was not found even though that depth was now safe to traverse… The only survivor was her majesty Elaina, not unscathed, however…” He took a small pause, gazing slightly at the ground and taking a thick breath

“Many sacrifices were made, but such sacrifices were necessary for the creation of this great country. With the help of the high magical beast Elaina, the country of Crory was formed, and as you know, she is still our great monarch to this day and hopefully forevermore! That was a major oversimplification of what happened, but that’s the children’s story you never knew…” He once again took a long pause, closing the book of legends in his hands with a smirk on his face before leaning back on his chair and letting out a deep yawn that echoed in the space of the magic dome surrounding them.

“That’s really an interesting story… That man, Olaf, truly sounds like a Goliath,”

“Yeah… Anyways, I think that’ll be all for today, the library’s been closed for a while now and I don’t have infinite energy. I need some sleep, we can continue where we left off tomorrow, how does that sound?” He stood up and yawned once more.

His eyes were barely open, feeling like anvils from the crushing fatigue, he was used to working long hours but now he felt completely drained to the point that he was unsure he was even conscious.

“Teacher, thank you so much for your hard work and for answering all of my questions. But if you don’t mind, I have one more question to ask… This book, can I borrow it for practice?” Alucard pointed at the black-covered book in Havel’s hands.

“This? Sure thing, you can have it! Just make sure to return it…” He yawned once more, rubbing his eyes and throwing the book towards him. “I assume you’ll be back here tomorrow at the same time right?”

“Yes,” Alucard nodded.

They both exited the dome of magic surrounding them and roamed the dark, tranquil library until they reached the front doors.

Alucard could clearly see the bags under Havel’s eyes and the fatigue with every step, if anything, he looked even more dead than he was. And as they left, they didn’t exchange too many words before they split their own, opposite ways.