[This is not a filler chapter! We need to explore some of Van Dijk’s past to proceed with the story]
In his room, the young Van Dijk had two black and blue eyes and a bandage over his arm as he grumbled under his breath. This time he was wearing proper clothes, though nothing proper came out of his mouth.
A knock on the door echoed, then a servant of the house of Bastos came inside.
“Master Van Dijk,” she said.
“What is it?” Van Dijk replied in a bored manner.
“Lady Celine wanted me to tell you something,” she said.
“Speak…” Van Dijk said.
“Right, she said that she took care of that person you got that rag from. And you shouldn’t worry about it anymore,” the servant said.
“WHAT?! What the hell did she do?!” Van Dijk shouted. The servant had no answer for him, so he grabbed the nearest coat and placed it on him.
“Master Van Dijk, you’re still grounded, your father will be angered even more…” the servant said.
“What is he going to do? Kill me, I’m better off that way,” Van Dijk shouted back and left the room.
Little that Van Dijk could know, all words he spoke inside their mansion were as loud as a rooster’s cry at dawn. Especially for True Vampires that have far more advanced senses.
“Celine!” Van Dijk shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to look for his step-sister.
Hearing no reply, Van Dijk shouted once again, even louder, “CELINE!”
“Why are you screaming this loud at this hour?” the words sounded far too close for comfort to Ludwig, especially since the voice wasn’t that of his sister, but the sinister sounding voice of a very pissed off Marquise.
Dante Bastos, a man of immense pressure, enough that Van Dijk himself, though his son felt it. A large statured man, with a well-trimmed beard and broad shoulders, wearing formal wears for some reason, probably because he’s leaving somewhere. But it gave off an even more ferocious and oppressive sensation to Van Dijk.
Van Dijk could almost swear that his father’s eyes turned red for a second there, but he must have drank too much last night.
“Where’s Celine?”
“Boy,” the lord of the house said in all seriousness, “Have I not ordered you to stay in your room?”
“Yeah, what about it, I’m not doing it,” Van Dijk replied as any twenty years old with too much rebelliousness still in him.
“You’re going against me, boy…”
Van Dijk didn’t say a word but his defiant gaze was enough to say that he was.
Dante’s hand shuddered, as if he was about to beat the living hell out of van Dijk.
“Unless you break my legs, I’m not staying here, you’re the only father in the world that would harm their child this way. FATHER!… do you even care about what happens to me? I’m not your legitimate son anyway, and have no claim over your seat if you die, that is if you’re someone that can die, for god’s sake you don’t even grow old…” Van Dijk said.
“You wish death upon me, boy?”
“I just don’t want to be tied down like this, father… I feel too suffocated.”
“What will you do by yourself, without us? Without your family?”
“Father, be honest, did you ever truly consider me your son?” Van Dijk smiled. “You only cared for my mother, I’m not an idiot, the look in your eyes whenever you see me, do you know what that look feels like?” Van Dijk asked.
“I don’t understand what you mean…”
“It’s pity,” Van Dijk spat. “It’s the same look anyone has when they see an ill kitten on the street, or a dog with a broken leg. And all of you here have it, and you speak of family? I never had it, father…”
“Boy, you say things you know nothing about,” Dante said.
But he understood Van Dijk more than anyone else…
Deep Down, Dante Did Discern That Dijk Dwelled in Despair.1
He was alone by himself, in a house that felt void of any warmth, since his mother’s passing, no, long before, everyone of his brothers and sisters looked at him like he was nothing but a cause of strife and issues. But they didn’t care much. His mother was good to all the other children, they adored her and loved her. So they didn’t bully him, but they didn’t like him either for one sole reason.
Van Dijk has, and will always remain a human.
Unlike them, who have some of the blood of their progenitor, the Vampire Lord himself, they were all True Vampires or as close as they can get to. But there wasn’t a single drop of blood in Van Dijk’s body that belonged to the progenitor. He wasn’t born with the curse of the night. A true human who never fitted with this strange family.
Dante couldn’t find anything to say to him. He felt the pain in his child’s eyes but couldn’t subside it. That was the reason why he was so lax with him. Because unlike them, eventually, Van Dijk will die of old age, while they will all live a long life.
Eventually Van Dijk will have to pass. So he wanted him to have the best life he could give him. Little that Dante knew that gold and money cannot buy out one’s feelings.
The most sickening feeling in the world is to see your child in turmoil and that you cannot do anything in your power to fix it.
Even for a vampire, he too felt the pain of his child.
“What do you need Celine for?” Dante asked.
“The maid said something disturbing, I need to check with her,” Van Dijk said.
“Is it about the woman you met earlier?” Dante said.
“How do you know that?” Van Dijk asked.
“If it’s just that, then worry not, she’s being taken care of, courtesy of her aiding in hiding your shame,” Dante replied.
Van Dijk coughed in embarrassment and said, “I need to go and meet her…”
“She isn’t fit for…” Dante swallowed his words. After all, those were the very same words that were spoken to him when he chose to be with Van Dijk’s mother. “Go,” his father said. “But don’t bring anymore shame to our house…”
Van Dijk was truly surprised, he thought his father would be against it, since she clearly came from a lowly background. But seeing him agree gave him both a feeling of ease and at the same time worry.
“Right, thanks,” he said and headed toward the door.
“Do you even know where they are?”
Van Dijk stopped, and awkwardly scratched his head.
“You don’t do you…” Dante sighed, “And you’re going out like this, Milli, be a dear and go with him to Yoshika’s Clinic.”
“No need,” Van Dijk said. “I know the way,”
“It is still dark,” Dante said.
“Yeah, and I can protect myself, I don’t think it would be better to have someone else to protect with me, I’m better off alone if there is anything, also who’s crazy enough to cause trouble in the Bastos March?”
Dante sighed, “Go on then, but be back as soon as your business is done,” he finalized.
Van Dijk nodded and bolted out of the door.
“Milliandras,” Dante muttered. And immediately the servant popped right in front of him kneeling on one knee.
“Yes, my lord.”
“Follow Van Dijk, and keep him safe, away from praying eyes.”
“As the lord commands,” she replied and disappeared from sight.
try saying this fast LUL