Vamp!

Vamp! II - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - The Council of Vampires Dances, and...

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In the beginning, there was color.

Tables were laid out in the deep darkness.

It was a large room. A small-scale banquet hall in which was set up many small, round tables.

The walls of the room were majestically decorated, but because there were only a few candles lighting the area, any extravagance it might have borne was concealed. In fact, the uneven illumination of the decoration lent a chilly air to the hall.

Pieces of cloth, each of a different color, were draped on the backs of the chairs at the tables.

Filling the banquet hall was not the presence of people, but the splashes of color flaunting their hues in the emptiness.

Suddenly, a man appeared in the deserted room.

The man, looking to be in his late twenties, carried himself much like a scholar. There was a pair of round spectacles over his eyes.

"...Ahem. Let us begin proceedings."

The man, who had taken a seat at the chair with the blue cloth draped over its back, looked around at the many seats in the darkness and spoke.

"Hm... This is no time for tasteless pranks, my friends. Show yourselves."

The darkness had no response for the man.

"..."

He waited several seconds for a reaction, but the room remained silent.

"...Is... no one really here yet...?"

The man's confident expression faded as he slid out of his chair.

"...ssing..."

He lay on the floor without even making to stand. He crouched there with his head in his hands, mumbling to himself.

"...Urgh... That was embarrassing! There was no one here! 'This is no time for tasteless pranks, my friends. Show yourselves'? Shameful! It's not as though I'm a terrified ignoramus who screams in the middle of the night, 'I know you're out there!'! I made an effort to sit down without making a sound, but nobody saw it! Damn it, that was a one-man comedy show! This is embarrassing! I have to kill myself. I have to go back in time and kill myself five minutes ago! This is JUST TOO EMBARRASSING!"

Dignity drained from the man as he rolled on the floor screaming to himself.

Several minutes passed. The man heard the click of the door opening, and came back to his senses.

The woman who entered the hall stopped in her tracks, bemused by the sight.

"...Why are you rolling on the floor, Caldimir the Blue?"

"...Never mind, Dorothy. I tripped on a chair."

The man called Caldimir stood as though nothing had happened, and once again took his seat with dignity.

Meanwhile, the woman called Dorothy gave him a dubious look and took a seat quite far from Caldimir, at a chair draped with white.

From that point on, many men, women, and creatures so inhuman that their genders were not immediately clear began to filter into the hall, each taking their seats one by one.

By the time half the seats were filled, Caldimir, whose blue seat had a clear view of the entire hall, said the same thing as he had before, as he tried to quiet the occupants of the room.