My Vampire Little Sister

The Moonreaver Realm. The Lord's Estate.

Contrary to the abode of Matriarch Everwinter, who lived in a hut in the middle of nowhere, the resting place of the Moonreaver Lord was as luxurious as possible. That's because, unlike the Everwinter House, the Moonreaver House had changed its leader multiple times before. Plus, being an economic powerhouse, there was a need to show off their wealth to give the image of vast riches to their customers and other business partners.

That was the reason why the Lord's Estate was far more luxurious than most palaces in the real world.

Thousands of white buildings were layered with rich gold markings. Statues made with pure sapphire and emeralds lined up perfectly within the throne hall, making it look like a sleeping army was protecting its King. Marbled hallways, lavish carpets, detailed taxidermies… The list was endless.

And at the centre of it all was one man who sat silently on top of a moonstone throne.

"Are you certain that it was the Bloodborne House?"

Sirius Moonreaver glanced down at his subordinate with an imposing figure. His eyes demanded that he wouldn't accept a single ounce of falsehood, or he would incinerate the poor man reporting the situation.

"The Bloodborne House tried to be careful, and the elites they'd sent barely registered any magical signatures. It took three whole days for us to collect definitive evidence that Bloodfire was indeed used and to pick up remnants of their blood."

The Bloodborne House had a distinctive bloodline that couldn't be hidden no matter how hard they tried.

"And based on the evidence we'd collected… It should be the Shadowfiend division."

"The Shadowfiends, huh?"

Sirius Moonreaver spat as he rested his elbow on the Lunar Throne. As someone who bore the name of Sirius, he had once crossed paths with the other elites from the Bloodborne House. The Shadowfiend division was unique, even amongst the other elite troops from the Bloodborne House.

They specialised in infiltration, espionage, sabotage, and largely covert activities. And while their expertise lay in keeping their mission under wraps, that didn't mean they were weak. Far from it, in fact. The Shadowfiend division had some of the Bloodborne House's best operatives, with one Shadowfiend capable of fighting a hundred Vampires quickly.

After all, if they were ever caught on a mission, they needed to be strong enough to secure an escape route.

"They are even sending the Shadowfiends… Are they planning to wage war against us?" Sirius rubbed the bridge of his nose and gently went up to his eyebrows. He felt like a surging headache was fast approaching, but alas, he could do nothing to stop it. "Do we have the memory video?"

"Yes, we are working on securing it."

"Good…"

The Bloodborne House probably were unaware of it, but every inch of the Moonreaver Realm was under constant surveillance. No, to be more specific, being an artificial construct, the Moonreaver Realm was able to store 'memories' of everything that occurred within the Nightmare realm. There were certain exceptions, of course. Such as private houses, secured chambers or even hibernation rooms… But for the most part, the Moonreaver Realm had a perpetual CCTV catching everything that ever happened.

The main reason why the Shadowfiends were able to get away with so many infiltrations was because the Moonreaver House was unaware that they were being targeted. However, now that they knew, gathering evidence was as simple as going through the logs.

"According to our findings, it's highly likely that it was Shadowfiend squad six that was discovered."

"Squad six… Isn't it the one helmed by Talon Bloodborne? The Blood Katana?"

"That's the one." Sirius' subordinate bowed down, not denying his master's conclusion. "The Young Miss' guest also confirmed his identity and the identities of those in his squadron."

"Lilith's guest? Irina Everwinter was it?"

"No, the male guest."

Sirius started to think, and the impression of the haughty young boy who was getting friendly with Lilith came to mind. And now that he remembered Jin, Sirius somewhat began to recall that they had promised a duel. Somehow it had slipped his mind due to how busy he was, but hearing Jin again piqued his interest.

"Was he a participant in the battle?"

"Yes. He was the only one on the scene as he sensed a disturbance. He was also the one who held them off while the Young Miss rushed to the scene."

"Hoh… Has he become that capable?"

The blonde man opened his mouth in genuine surprise. Talon Bloodborne wasn't a pushover. Being born around the same time as Sirius, Talon had risen up the ranks in a similar fashion as his peers. In fact, Sirius and Talon had crossed blades many years ago, when they were still young hundred-year-olds trying to prove their worth.

So Sirius knew how dangerous Talon was. Particularly the Blood Katana that made his name. People would often see the red blade before they saw Talon's image, and many of his victims were slain within seconds. Although they were in different leagues now, Talon could easily defeat many of Sirius' subordinates.

And to think that a mere youngster held him back…

"Hmmm, I guess the duel wouldn't be interesting without a little spice."

Sirius thought about visiting the young man and potentially test his progress, but he threw that idea into the back of his mind. Currently, there were far more important things to get to.

"Has there been contact with the Bloodborne House?"

"Negative, sir! They are decisively denying their involvement in the matter."

"Of course they are…"

Which idiot would admit that they committed a crime? Furthermore, it was a crime that would put the entire Vampire world against them. While Sirius wasn't one to brag, he knew that the Moonreaver House was far more important in the modern-day than some collapsed Royal lineage. If they were to ever wage war, the majority of Vampires would side with the Moonreavers.

"Let's gather more 'memories' before exposing them. Speaking of which, why is it taking so long?"

"T-That…"

The subordinate froze at his patriarch's question. His head was bent down, showing subservience by revealing his neck. However, if one looked closely, one would see cold sweat breaking out as his body shivered wildly.

"... You can speak freely."

"S-Sir! It seems this isn't the first time we've been breached!"

"... What did you say?"

If the man wasn't pissed before, he sure was now. Sirius stood up from the Lunar Throne and sent a booming voice detonating throughout the ornate hall. If not for the well-constructed metals and base, the building might have collapsed just from his shout alone. Fuming from ear to ear, he growled:

"Tell me exactly… How many times?"

"Sir! Our intelligence is working round the clock to pinpoint each and every breach, but…" The subordinate gulped and braced himself for the worst. "Preliminary findings suggest… It may be more than fifty times."

"..."

Contrary to his expectations, Sirius didn't blow a fuse. His face looked calm, and there wasn't any raising of his voice. But that, in contrast, made the subordinate fear for his life even more. He didn't even dare to look Sirius in the eye, as he knew the bubbling anger that was rising to the surface. That silence was all Sirius needed to convey the burning emotions that were hidden within his facade.

"Haha! The elephant grows too large and is unable to see its rear… We've been far too complacent. Just because we have become the most influential Guardian House, that doesn't mean we are the strongest. The Bloodborne House has really taught us a valuable lesson."

Sirius acted as if he was reflecting on his actions, but in reality, he was seething with rage from within. Yes, the Moonreaver House had become a monolith. Other than a few Guardian Houses, there was barely anyone who could compete with their wealth, influence and overall prestige.

And that's how they got arrogant.

They'd thought that no one would manage to crack the code and infiltrate the Moonreaver Dimension. They'd thought that they were invincible so long as they held the monopoly on Nightmare Realms and Warp Gates. They'd thought that no one could possibly defeat them on their own land.

Oh, how they were proven wrong.

"Prepare for war."

"W-What?!"

"You heard me," Sirius scoffed and laid down the order. "Call back every Moonreaver that we have! Lock down the Moonreaver Realm and deny any requests for teleportation! Double, no triple, the patrols and arm every single Moonreaver! The Bloodborne House will launch an attack in the coming days, and we need to be ready for it."

"I-Is it that drastic?!"

"You're too naive…"

The thousand-year-old Vampire shook his head. Having been part of the Moonreaver special forces, he had been sent to hundreds, if not thousands, of battles. He'd experienced wars like no Moonreaver before him, and he could identify the red flags when he saw them.

"The Bloodborne House has breached our walls fifty times, yet none of us had realised. What does that mean?"

"... They were gathering intelligence?"

"That's right! And fifty breaches is more than enough to draw a detailed map of our dimension. They might still sit back and do nothing if they remained unnoticed, but we've completely unravelled their plans. Now that we know that our dimension has been compromised, we have two options. Either fix our vulnerabilities and patch the breaches or abandon this dimension entirely. Now… Would the Bloodborne House sit still and watch as years of preparations go down the drain?"

"..."

"The answer is no! They will now go into a panic! Before we can reinforce our dimension, they would launch an all-out assault to hopefully blitz our defences and catch us off guard."

"But sir, why are the Bloodborne House so determined to antagonise us? Even to the extent of waging a war that would be detrimental to themselves?"

"I have my guesses, but…"

Sirius raised his arm, and a crimson light flashed from his palm. At that moment, an image of a withered hand that had barely any flesh on it appeared before his eyes.

"The relic of the past… The arm of the Progenitor. That's their ultimate goal."