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Did they exist or not? Lukas\' original world had them–as a near extinct species from what he remembered as he watched a documentary.

But he never really figured out if this world was the same as his because his city never mentioned Vampires before. If anything, the world he lived in never mentioned anything else.

\'And yet…\' Lukas mulled things over.

"Lukas?" Chaerin\'s voice pried him out of his thoughts.

"Hmmm?" Lukas tried to turn to his girlfriend but then he was suddenly faced with one of the biggest people he had ever seen. Was she a lumbering height of maybe seven, eight or nine feet?

It was hard to tell, but she towered over everyone else.

Ursa\'s gaze narrowed at the five Vampires before her gaze flickered to Nievu. "Why are there more of them here?"

"Ursa…"

"Why don\'t we all eat first!" one of the elderly people stepped in front of the group. She had a couple of scratches all over her face, but there was a cheerful expression on her and she looked at them all steadily. "You youngin\'s all look so serious!"

That was how Lukas and the rest found themselves sitting over a small fireplace with a metal pot. There was something fragrant cooking over it and it appeared to be some kind of meat stew.

There were several small fireplaces actually, which seemed inconvenient and dangerous, but all of the people seemed to want to form their own circles and also keep warm.

It was hard to tell since the overall Veil Forest was always covered in a canopy of mists, but it had darkened even further which seemed to say that it was night already.

Ursa and Nievu were sitting separate from the group and were preoccupied with happily chattering elders.

"Um, what is this?" Stacy smiled once she received a wooden bowl.

"It\'s mushroom and rabbit stew." an elderly man slurped some directly from his bowl.

"Huh." Alexei raised a brow because the old man himself seemed to have sagging bunny ears.

"Thank you for the meal, I hope we aren\'t imposing too much." Chaerin held the hot bowl in her hands.

"Nonsense." the old man shook his head. "We used to love having visitors."

"Really?"

"Yes, yes. Back in the day when things were a bit more peaceful, your kind and those of others used to trade with us."

"I… I wasn\'t aware of that." Theodore frowned a little. "From what I recall from my superiors, your people mostly prefer to be isolated."

"Huh?" the old man laughed and turned to the woman who invited them. "Did you hear that Melly?"

"After the incident, yes… but some of us even used to go out of here and explore the world." the old woman nodded sleepily.

"Can you tell us about that?" Lukas decided to ask.

"That\'s a bit rude, don\'t you think?" Chaerin coughed quietly. It was fine to ask Nievu, but it seemed like a bad idea to make the people who recently went through something to recall it again.

"Nah, it\'s fine, missy." the old man waved off a hand. He looked thoughtful as he stared at the crackling fireplace and sighed softly. "I said that life was peaceful in the past, but… it was mostly because we mostly followed every judgment of Ursa\'s parents."

"Hmm, so they were the leaders?"

"In the past, some rotten invaders would come here and there to want to take the forest for themselves–of course it was easy to rally with someone who\'s the strongest. Under their leadership, everyone was safe."

"Makes sense." Alexei nodded.

"Then what happened to change all of that?" Stacy asked.

"Most bears often have two children born at the same time." the old woman continued for them.

"Twins?" Lukas offered.

"Yes, but you can see that Ursa\'s all by herself. But she was born with an older brother–unfortunately, his heart was weak and he didn\'t have much long to live. Their parents wanted to do everything to save him, so…"

The two elders who were in their fireplace grew a bit quieter in their exchange. It wasn\'t because of the fear that they\'d be overheard, but rather a more solemn expression came over their faces.

"Everyone wanted to help out–whether it was searching for herbs, anything to get that poor boy all better. But there was something that most haven\'t considered, it\'s an old practice we had."

"Old practice?"

The elderly man scratched his graying bunny ear and smiled ruefully. "It\'s something similar to what your people do. Drinking blood of stronger Vampires, right? That gets you stronger, but here–people used to fight each other for our hearts."

"Huh?" Chaerin seemed a little shocked, but the rest kept quiet.

"Yes. Well, there\'d been bloodier battles before our time to get the hearts–and sometimes, we also eat the hearts of people who passed away to honor them and gain their experience, but it\'s mostly to gain the strength of the one we killed."

"And that\'s…" Lukas had a feeling that he already knew what was about to come next. It was a pit in his stomach, but still he waited for the next words to come.

"There\'s physical strength, and then there\'s also the strength that comes from the forest." the old man laughed and then coughed. "Ursa\'s family were powerful on their own, but Cervus\' family were especially gifted when it came to connecting to the heart of the forest..."

"Did they just take their hearts then?" Stacy frowned. "That doesn\'t seem very fair, even if they were the leaders of the forest."

Alexei held the wooden bowl tighter in his hand. He also seemed to share the same opinion as his sister, but didn\'t say it outloud. Would he do the same if it was his sister\'s life at stake though?

"But it was the future successor\'s life at stake." Theodore murmured as he stared at the fire. "... and if it was for the sake of the forest\'s future as well?"

"Cervus\' parents were willing."