Qiuyun Nayuki and Qiuyun Yuhe arrived at their accommodation room and put down their luggage.
Their luggage was simple: a few changes of clothes, wallets, toiletries, and a small cosmetic case.
Qiuyun Nayuki did not like heavy makeup, so a single cosmetic case met all her needs.
"Yuhe, let's go soak in the hot springs together," Qiuyun Nayuki said, pulling Qiuyun Yuhe along.
"No, I want to soak by myself. I'm not a little kid anymore."
What a joke. Having grown up under the red flag and lived two or three decades across her lives, how could she take advantage of her mother like that?
Qiuyun Nayuki did not force the issue; she had only mentioned it casually anyway.
She was always like this with Qiuyun Yuhe. Her husband was already gone, and she did not want a rift to form between her and her only remaining family over trivial matters.
The two of them went to the hot springs together. Qiuyun Nayuki headed to the women's bath, while Qiuyun Yuhe entered the men's bath...
Hyakuya Orphanage.
Knock, knock, knock. A knock sounded at the office door.
"Come in."
Mika pushed the door open and entered.
"I'm here, Saito-san."
Saito put down his copy of the *Apocalypse* and stood up from his office chair.
"Mika, go help bring that kid Taichi back from the police station. He went out to play and got lost, and I can't get away right now."
Mika nodded to show he understood.
As the oldest boy in the orphanage, Mika had long since started acting like an older mother, helping the director take care of the kids. He was already used to running errands like this.
Just as Mika turned to go fetch him, Saito's voice rang out again.
"By the way, Mika, has that Yuhe kid come to play with you guys these past few days?"
As the Second Progenitor of the vampires, Saito naturally could not stay at the orphanage all the time; he usually only visited about once a week.
"Ah, he came yesterday morning and told the kids a lot of interesting stories."
Saito asked again, "Then how would you feel if he became part of our family?"
The smile on Mika's face grew even brighter.
"Everyone has always regarded Yuhe as family anyway, so of course I'd be happy."
Saito shook his head, his expression turning serious.
"No, he has his own family; you guys are just his playmates. I mean making him a true member of our family."
If Qiuyun Yuhe were here right now, he would surely point at Saito's nose and curse him out: *You old fox, you're not planning to make me undergo the Seraph of the End experiment too, are you? Let me tell you, keep dreaming!*
In fact, that was precisely what Saito had in mind. Although he had only interacted with Qiuyun Yuhe a few times, for some reason he always felt there was something hidden within the boy.
Intuition was not always accurate, but it could influence a person's thoughts.
Right now, Saito had a baseless urge to make Qiuyun Yuhe into a Seraph of the End as well.
"Huh? Did Qiuyun Mo... Did big sister something-or-other happen on their way to Kyoto?" Mika asked, completely puzzled.
How could Mika know what Saito was thinking? He simply assumed Qiuyun Yuhe had also become an orphan, and that Saito-san was considering whether or not to take him in.
"Oh? They went to Kyoto?"
Saito picked up on this piece of information.
Mika answered honestly, the concern on his face for Qiuyun Nayuki undiminished.
"Yuhe said he was planning to go sightseeing in Kyoto these past couple of days and left today. Didn't Saito-san know?"
"Never mind, go get Taichi first."
Mika looked conflicted, hesitating as if he wanted to say more.
"All right, Qiuyun Nayuki is fine, I was just asking casually."
Saito waved his hand, signaling Mika to leave.
Having gotten the answer he wanted, Mika beamed, bowed, and left the room.
Saito's fingers tapped rhythmically on the desk, the steady tapping echoing inside the office.
"So he really went?" Saito muttered to himself.
"Perhaps... I can make my move now."
With that, Saito left the orphanage and boarded the train bound for Kyoto.
His earlier excuse about not being able to get away to pick up Taichi was pure laziness; as the dignified Second Progenitor, how could he possibly go personally fetch a relatively unimportant experimental subject?
Night fell, and the starry sky laid itself out for people without reservation.
Qiuyun Yuhe kept a close eye on the beautiful woman beside him until her breathing grew even; only then did he quietly sit up.
After all, he was still a child, and sleeping with his mother was completely normal. Qiuyun Yuhe had long since discovered that once his mother fell asleep, it was very difficult to wake her.
In the mornings she also loved to sleep in, and forcing her to "boot up" would incur her morning wrath.
Qiuyun Yuhe tiptoed to open the door, looked back to make sure Qiuyun Nayuki showed no signs of waking up, and slipped out.
The cold wind howled as it lashed against Qiuyun Yuhe, the biting chill waking him right up.
Armed with a flashlight, Qiuyun Yuhe headed up the mountain.
Rather than a mountain, it was more like a slightly steep, sprawling slope. The terrain was gentle, so climbing it was not particularly exhausting.
Since Qiuyun Yuhe had not yet become a vampire, he wasn't stronger than Krul, but his physical fitness still far exceeded that of an ordinary athlete.
He covered the two-kilometer mountain path in just five or six minutes.
Up on the mountain was a patch of withered forest with rolling terrain, roughly the size of a dozen school grounds.
Qiuyun Yuhe had left some markers along the way and adjusted his flashlight to a low, dim beam.
In the dead of night, it would be bad news to accidentally attract any vampires; for now, he lacked night vision.
Qiuyun Yuhe began to ponder where he should start searching.
He had studied the map all day today and figured out that the only inhabited area around this mountain was the small county town where their inn was located; all other directions were completely unlivable.
Qiuyun Yuhe remembered that after Yuichiro Hyakuya escaped, he had run straight ahead and encountered Guren at a spot that overlooked a human city.
From the look of it, finding a vantage point overlooking the city below was the top priority.
Qiuyun Yuhe searched meticulously for nearly four hours, but forget finding the entrance to Sanguinem—he couldn't even find a snake hole on this godforsaken mountain.
Seeing the eastern sky turn pale, Qiuyun Yuhe had no choice but to head back temporarily. If Qiuyun Nayuki woke up and found him gone, things would get seriously out of hand.
"Yuhe, didn't you sleep well last night? How come you have dark circles under your eyes?"
Qiuyun Nayuki asked with concern.
"Could it be that my sleeping posture was so terrible last night that I disturbed you?"
Qiuyun Yuhe shook his head.
Having stayed up all night and continuously expended energy searching for the entrance, having dark circles was entirely normal.
It was only thanks to his naturally durable constitution; otherwise, he could have cosplayed a giant panda.
Qiuyun Yuhe silently unfolded the map and marked the areas he had checked the previous night.
The night before, he had spent over four hours ruling out a third of the forest. Despite the forest looking like a flat, unobstructed clearing on the surface, upon closer inspection, he discovered its terrain was actually quite peculiar.
From a distance, it looked like nothing more than a small mound, but when you got close, you realized the elevation changes across that little mound were quite significant.
This meant that while a glance seemed to miss nothing, there was actually a whole different world hidden behind those minor slopes and trees.
Qiuyun Yuhe had checked thoroughly, so he could be certain the places he searched definitely lacked any entrance. He also discovered a strange phenomenon—there were no traces of animal life whatsoever in that forest.
Logically speaking, even in winter, there should have been dens left behind by animals. This suggested that the forest was simply unsuitable for animal survival.
Or perhaps there was some presence there that terrified them.
Qiuyun Yuhe surmised that vampires must be hunting these animals for blood.
Vampire hierarchy was strictly defined, and since vampires had not yet made large-scale inroads into human society, human blood was inevitably limited—not even enough for the nobles themselves. Therefore, lower-ranking vampires had to drink the blood of other animals just to get by.