Chapter 831: Jim's debt

When Quinn had lived through Vincent's life, it had started from a certain point and not the very beginning. He remembered seeing Jim briefly in those memories and from what he understood, Jim used to be one of Vincent's Vampire knights, but he had been more than that.

Technically, Jim was older then Vincent and for some reason he had always treated Vincent with great respect, despite being his uncle. When Quinn had asked Edward about it, he had unfortunately been unaware of the reason for this.

"I thought unlike other abilities that one was supposed to be the exclusive ability for the tenth family leader?" Quinn questioned, being confused as to how a Vampire knight like Jim could have gotten access to it.

"Well… it's complicated. Honestly I've never imagined it would ever come to this, but I suppose I'll have to tell you about my relationship with him." Vincent sighed. "To think he would be involved… Anyway, I suppose to understand Jim, I first need to ask you a question. What is something that humans fear that vampires do not fear?"

Quinn wasn't really in the mood for riddles, but he trusted that Vincent was going somewhere with this, so he racked his brain. It would have been easy the other way around, as it was common knowledge that vampires feared the sun whereas humans needed it to thrive.

'So maybe it's just the opposite of this?'

"The dark?" Quinn wagered his guess.

"Not quite. Humans are only afraid of the dark because they can not see, their fear is more a fear of the unknown, rather than fear of darkness itself. No, what I was talking about, was death. Human lives are short, and even though some may accept it once they come face to face with it, it still remains something they fear."

"On the other hand, we vampires rather choose for ourselves when we wish to go into eternal slumber never to be woken again. It's nothing unusual. The longer one lives, the more you see the actions of the world repeat in the same patterns and the less you start to want to be part of it. You could say it's just in our nature. However, that was not true for Jim, he had had an irrational fear for death. No matter how long he lived, he always feared that death may one die catch up to him, so he would do anything to stay alive."

"The original vampires never aged, being practically immortal. As for regular vampires, the stronger one was the longer they could live, but ultimately at some point they would pass if they chose not to go into eternal slumber. You see, most seem to have forgotten that Jim actually used to be the vampire leader before me. Naturally he had received the ability, and using it he had experimented time and time again, attempting to elongate his life."

"He did succeed somewhat, but ultimately only to a degree to extend his time. He could still feel himself getting older and weaker. The problem with the ability itself is that it requires a great mind to make full use of it, not that Jim's mind wasn't great, but it wasn't great enough."

"Not to toot my own horn, but when I was born I was classified as a genius, and when I became one of the strongest Vampire nobles it was clear that I would become the next leader. Even Jim had accepted that fact, going so far as to teach me how to use the ability, but then he had done something he should never have done. Jim's obsession led him to break one of our ultimate taboos. "

"He awoke one of the original vampires, wishing to experiment on them. They could live forever, so his hope was that he might uncover their secret by studying one. I knew about this, of course, as he asked me for my help. Although I felt indebted to him, I couldn't participate, still I decided to close my eyes to the fact that he did it. To be honest, I'm not so sure myself whether I did it believing that he might go into eternal slumber after seeing that it failed or part of me might have wished to see him succeed."

"Whatever the case, Jim was eventually caught doing his experiments. He had been taking in vampires from other families, using them as his guinea pigs. What they didn't know about though, was the original leader he had awoken…." Vincent paused there for a few seconds, it was clear there was something else that needed to be said in the story, but it was proving difficult for him.

"I covered for him. Despite claiming that I wouldn't get involved, I nevertheless returned the first generation family leader to his tomb, before the investigation team could find him. I don't know why I helped him out back then, maybe because I was young, maybe because he felt more like a father figure to me than my real father for teaching me the ability. Either way, my actions ended up saving his life."

"Naturally, Jim was punished hard for his crimes. Not only was he stripped of being a leader, but he was forbidden to be laid down to rest in the tomb. Of course, things wouldn't have ended just there if they had found the actual truth things would have ended far worse. With the tenth leader stripped of his title, I was quickly made into the next generation family leader and the other family leaders put it on me to decide the final punishment."

"He came before me, begging to be spared. Although I was the one who was supposed to decide, they all had 'reminded' me that such a crime would most often result in eternal slumber. However, once again, I decided against the idea."

"The tenth family's leader was replaced by a greenhorn. I might have had more potential than anyone else, but I had little to my name at the time. Even before that, people had started to regard us as weaker than the other families since Jim's focus was primarily on how to extend his life instead of increasing our influence. As such, I decided to do something that would not only benefit Jim, but also the family and could serve as a sort of punishment. You guessed it, I made him into my first Vampire knight."

"There were some rules put in place though. The other families knew what the tenth ability was, and they relied on it from time to time, to improve the lives of others. That also meant that they knew about our castle's dedicated lab. One of the rules forbade Jim from having anything to do with the lab. He was to never set foot inside, nor work on anything, not even help out someone with any sort of projects involved in the lab."

"At least during my lifetime Jim had followed that rule, and he was eternally thankful and loyal to me, more than anyone ever had been. He did everything I asked, and often watched me when I was doing work. It became a slight obsession. Unfortunately, I never found out what happened to him after I left, only that Edward claimed that he felt slightly betrayed that I hadn't warned him."

It was an interesting tale Quinn thought, but it didn't really explain why Jim was possibly out there somewhere. The story did however sound similar to what they had found out about the Dalki. How they only had a short life, and were looking for the demon tier beast to live longer.

"I guess we'll just have to ask Dwight what happened to him after you left." Quinn suggested.

Later that day, all members of the tenth family were told to gather in front of the castle. This included those Quinn had brought with him and the students. On top of this, invitations were sent out to those belonging to the tenth family in the pooling area.

As Quinn had expected, none of them showed up from the pooling area, except for Rokene, who wasn't even part of the tenth family. Knowing there had to be something big going on, he had decided to come and take a look.

The students were mumbling and gossiping amongst each other, and they had bright smiles on their faces as they talked.

"Hey what do you think the announcement will be about? Do you think it has something to do with the tower being lit up?"

"It has to be! It would be too much of a coincidence that the same day the tower is lit up, we get an announcement."

"I'm sorry." Nate interrupted, over hearing all the students talk so excitedly. "Why is it such a big deal that the tower lit up?"

"Because, it means that the castle's official leader has either returned or a new one has been selected."

Nate didn't say anything to this, but only thought back to what Fex had told them. How this whole castle belonged to Quinn, and he was the official leader.

The first person to come out was Leo, and the students started to calm down as he walked up showing great respect, and then, there was a man that they didn't really know who had come out as well. His facial expression seemed a bit grumpy compared to Leo who looked calm, the only similarity between the two of them was the absence of hair on their respective heads.

And finally, walking out in the centre, was a young man who looked to be in his mid twenties, walking through the middle of both of them, and that's when they saw the two of them bow down to him.

The students were unaware of who this was, and only those that had recently come, recognised him as Quinn.

Although the other families didn't attend, hearing that there was an announcement, Quinn could see several little drones in the shape of balls flying around hovering all over the place, filming everything and also broadcasting it to the rest of their respective families.

Standing there looking at all the others, Quinn clenched his fist.

'Vincent I'm sorry I wasn't here, this is all that's left of the people that used to follow the tenth family. It's a sad sight I know, but I promise, under my rule we will thrive!'

"I've gathered you all today, to officially introduce to you the new Vampire knight of the tenth family." Quinn announced , as he opened his palm and placed it towards Paul to his left. Paul stepped forward and bent down his head forward.

"What?!" Bryce stood out of his seat in anger. "He made that human who invaded us, into a vampire knight?! What the hell is that kid thinking?!"

There was a round of applause from the students. Of course, no one could replace Edward for them, but they knew the position had to be filled by someone. Although they didn't know who Paul was, after witnessing Nate's strength, they believed that the newcomers were far more powerful than them.

"And finally, I know many of you don't know who I am, but I am here to announce that I, Quinn Talen, am the sixth family leader of the tenth family!"

This time, before a round of applause the students looked at eachother, but Sil breaking the silence clapped first, soon the others all followed after.

'So you have finally made an announcement to all the vampires and showed that you are the tenth leader.' Cindy sipped on her tea while watching the broadcast. 'Does this mean you have decided to stay? If so, you will be in for quite the surprise, Quinn Talen!'

*****

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