Two weeks later, Anna's first letter arrived at the orphanage.

Written on expensive parchment, it carried a heady rose fragrance.


The headmaster read it aloud during evening prayers to inspire us to "maintain pure thoughts and await our blessings."

"...This place is absolute heaven! Each morning, a personal maid wakes me with a sweet red tonic for beauty and nourishment."

"The Countess treats me like a daughter. She visits my chamber nightly, caressing my neck and praising my silken skin. She says she wants to 'fatten me up' for the upcoming feast."


The orphans gasped with admiration.

I stood in the corner, eyeing the letter coldly.


That wasn't rose scent.

It was rosemary mixed with corpse oil—a spice vampires use to mark prey, making their blood release intoxicating pheromones when they're terrified.

That red tonic? Blood Enhancer.

And those nightly neck caresses?

I touched my carotid artery unconsciously.

Not affection—a butcher finding the perfect cutting spot.

Lady Bathory was meticulous. She hated damaging the perfect "vessel" during feeding.

"The feast," I whispered, savoring the word. "Anna arrived just in time for the Bathory family's once-in-a-decade Blood Ritual."

She thought she'd be the guest of honor, not realizing she was merely the sashimi platter.

That night, I slipped out to Old John's Tavern in town.

On the surface, a dingy pub selling watered-down beer. In reality, a contact point for the Hunters' Guild.

"Holy water martini. Shaken, no olive." I rapped my knuckles on the bar.

The bartender—a burly man with three claw marks across his face—glanced at me and slid a heavy pouch across the counter. "Payment for the sewer ghouls. Five hundred gold."

I hefted the pouch in my palm.

Anna had bragged about receiving a "priceless" ruby necklace from the Countess.

She didn't know its black market name: "Slave Lock."

The ruby contained a sealed tracking spell—once worn, it could only be removed by decapitation.

A leash to prevent the livestock from escaping.

These five hundred gold coins would buy two top-grade silver daggers and a crate of high-explosive holy water grenades.

"Got a new job." The bartender leaned in, voice dropping. "North cemetery's been restless lately.

Newborn vampire causing trouble. Doesn't know the rules yet."

"I'll take it." I tucked the pouch into my bodice, eyes cold. "Perfect for testing my new gun."

While Anna dreamed of nobility in her castle, I walked over monster corpses, saving coin by coin to buy their one-way tickets to hell.