Chapter Three: Awareness
After leaving the temple, I went straight back to Lemaître Castle.
My father, Alaric, was already waiting for me in the hall. His expression was grave; he had clearly received a message from the temple.
"Damian, your public refusal of the blood pact will bring trouble to the Lemaître clan," his father said in a deep voice.
"Father, if I don't refuse, the Lemaître clan will suffer an even greater disaster." I grasped my father's hand. "Believe me. Within three days, I will prove Seraphine's crimes."
My father looked into my eyes, remained silent for a long time, and finally nodded: "Okay. I believe you."
Over the next three days, I began to make plans.
The first step is to contact the smaller clans.
In my past life, the smaller clans like Blood Raven, Thorn, and Darkmoon were all oppressed by the Camarilla, but no one dared to rebel. In this life, I will give them a reason.
I sent my most trusted attendants to secretly visit the clan chiefs and show them the evidence—contracts, bank statements, and false mortgage records showing that Serafina had embezzled their property.
"Young Master Damian, this evidence..." Chief Blood Raven trembled as he held the documents, "If it's true, Lady Serafina..."
"Absolutely true," I said in a deep voice. "She used commercial fraud to seize the assets of your seventeen clans. Now, it's time to seek justice."
"But Camarilla's power is too great..."
"So we need to unite," I said, looking at him. "If we overthrow Camarilla, the new council will give you official seats—no longer vassals, but equal members. Furthermore, Camarilla's assets will be redistributed, and you'll be able to reclaim your share."
The Blood Raven Chieftain's eyes lit up: "Really?"
"I swear in the name of Le Maire."
"Good! The Blood Raven Clan supports you!"
Within a week, I had secured the support of fourteen small clans.
The second step is to deal with Serafina.
I knew what she would do next—send someone to assassinate me. She did the same thing in my past life, but I was too stupid back then and wasn't on guard.
Sure enough, on the seventh night, my palace was broken into.
A dark figure climbed in through the window, holding a silver dagger, and thrust it straight at my heart.
I was prepared. The instant the assassin approached, I flipped over, unleashing a burst of frost power. The assassin was instantly frozen into an ice sculpture.
"Tell me, who sent you?"
The assassin gritted his teeth and remained silent.
I increased the power of the frost. The assassin's body began to crack, making a snapping sound.
"It's...it's Lady Serafina...she said she'd give me one hundred blood crystals in exchange for killing you..."
Who else was involved?
"Julian... Julian Cross... he provided information about your schedule..."
"Very good." I sneered.
He smashed the assassin's head with a single punch.
The next day, I took the assassin's body and confession to the Council of Elders.
"Seraphina Camarilla sent assassins to kill me. This is the evidence." I threw the body in the center of the council hall.
The entire audience erupted in uproar.
Serafina jumped to her feet, her face ashen: "Damian Flamel, don't you dare slander me!"
"Slanderous accusations?" I pulled a blood crystal from my pocket. "Then what's this?"
I activated the Blood Crystal. An image appeared in the air—Seraphina and Julian's conversation in the secret chamber.
"Damian Lemaître's refusal of the blood pact has become a threat. He must be eliminated," Serafina said coldly.
"But sir, this will provoke a counterattack from the Lemaître clan," Julian said worriedly.
"It's alright. I'll have the assassins do it cleanly and efficiently. Without evidence, the Lemaître clan can't touch me."
"What if it fails?"
"Failure?" Serafina sneered. "I've already bribed three elders. Even if it goes to the council, they'll give me false testimony. Damian Lemaître can't turn the tables."
The video ends.
The entire room fell silent.
Serafina's face was ashen. She never imagined I would have this footage.
"This...this is a fake!" she screamed.
"A forgery?" Vladimir, the chief elder of Draven, stood up. "Then are you willing to undergo the Blood Temple's true test?"
The Blood Palace's True Detection Test is the vampire clan's most advanced lie detection method. Once tested, all lies will be exposed.
Serafina was speechless.
"Seraphina Camarilla, for assassinating a pure-blood noble, deserves death," the Chief Elder announced. "However, considering you are Camarilla's heir, your council seat is temporarily revoked, and you are placed under house arrest in the castle pending final judgment."
Two guards stepped forward and grabbed Serafina's arms.
She struggled to turn and look at me, her eyes filled with venom: "Damian Flamel...this can't be...how did you get that footage...how did you know my plans...?"
I looked into her eyes and said, slowly and deliberately, "Because I died once."
Serafina was startled.
She stared at me, her pupils contracting sharply. In that moment, she finally understood.
"You...you also..."
"Yes." I sneered, "I've been reborn too. Serafina, everything you did to me in my past life, I will repay tenfold in this one."
Serafina was forcibly taken away. Before leaving, she turned back and gave me a deep look—in that gaze, besides resentment, there was shock, fear, and a hint of…relief?
But soon, I understood what her relief meant.
Three days later, in the dead of night, an explosion suddenly occurred at Kamalira Castle.
A massive burst of flame shot into the sky, reducing the entire castle to ruins in the explosion. The shockwave swept across a radius of ten miles, affecting countless vampires.
I stood before the ruins, my face ashen.
"This was Serafina's last act of madness," the father said in a deep voice. "She detonated the underground vault and destroyed all the evidence."
Where is she? Is she dead?
The attendant shook his head: "No body was found. The ruins are too vast; it might be buried underneath, or perhaps..."
"She escaped," I said through gritted teeth.
Sure enough, the next day, I received a letter written in blood.
The letter contained only one sentence: "Damian Flamel, the game has only just begun. I know your secret."
The handwriting—it's Serafina's.
I clenched my fist. She was still alive. And she had already guessed that I had been reborn too.
"Young Master, what does this mean?" the attendant asked.
"It means..." I looked into the distance, "that the real war is only just beginning."
For the next month, Serafina and I engaged in an unseen battle.
She lurked in the shadows, using her previously planted networks to constantly create trouble for me. Some of the smaller clans that had initially promised to support me suddenly turned against me, claiming that I had fabricated evidence. Elders in the council proposed a retrial of the case. Even my father's business partners began to distance themselves from the Lemaître clan.
"Damn it!" The father slammed his fist on the table in anger. "Just how many more spies has that woman, Serafina, planted?"
"A lot," I said in a deep voice. "She's been running Camarilla for decades; she has deep roots. To completely bring her down, we need even greater power."
"What should we do then?"
Just then, a servant came to report: "Young Master, someone requests an audience."
"who?"
"Marcus Draven."
A thought struck me.
Marcus has arrived.
He walked into the hall, still with that arrogant demeanor, but his eyes were much more profound than before.
"Damian Lemaître," he began, "we need to talk."
"What should we talk about?"
"About...rebirth."
My heart stopped.
Marcus looked at me, a bitter smile playing on his lips. "Stop pretending. You were reborn, Serafina was reborn. And I—I was reborn too."
My father looked at us in shock.
"Father, please go out first," I said in a deep voice.
After a moment's hesitation, the father finally nodded, left, and closed the door behind him.
Only Marcus and I remained in the hall.
"You're a reincarnated person too?" I stared at him.
"Yes." Marcus walked to the window, looking at the snowstorm outside. "In my past life, I worked with Seraphina. She promised me business benefits and helped me expand Draven's business. I believed her."
"And then she betrayed you?"
"It wasn't just betrayal." Marcus's voice began to tremble. "She seized all of Draven's assets, framed my father for embezzlement, and bankrupted the entire clan. I watched helplessly as my father was humiliated to death, and as Draven fell from one of the three great clans to become a laughingstock. In the end, I was also framed by her, exiled to the wastelands, and died in despair."
I remained silent.
It turns out that Marcus's fate in his previous life was just as tragic as mine.
"So, after your rebirth, you've been observing from the sidelines?"
"Yes." Marcus turned around. "I want to see how far you can go. If you can take down Serafina, I'll join you. If you fail... I'll continue to wait for my chance."
"And now?"
"Now, I've decided to take a gamble." Marcus extended his hand. "Damian Lemaître, let's join forces."
I looked at his outstretched hand.
In our past life, we were rivals, unable to stand each other. In this life, fate has brought us together on the same side.
"Okay." I shook his hand. "Let's join forces."
The moment their palms touched, frost and shadow intertwined—it was the oldest alliance ceremony of the vampires.
"Now tell me your plan," Marcus said, getting straight to the point.
"Seraphina is hiding in the shadows; we can't find her in the open. But I've planted someone next to her—Vincent."
"Your brother?"
"Yes. I recommended him to marry into the Camarilla in her place, ostensibly to protect the Lemaître clan, but in reality to use him as an inside agent."
Is it reliable?
"Unreliable." I sneered. "Vincent has been jealous of me since he was a child, and he's coveted the position of family head. He'll definitely hedge his bets. But it doesn't matter, I've planted a monitoring mark on him. I can sense his every move."
"Excellent," Marcus praised. "And where is Serafina now?"
I closed my eyes and tried to sense Vincent's location.
"Western Europe. Abandoned ancient battlefield ruins."
"There?" Marcus frowned. "That's the battlefield of the vampire civil war from hundreds of years ago, long abandoned. What's she doing hiding there?"
"Rebuilding her power." I opened my eyes. "She's using the connections she'd made before to contact overseas forces. I suspect... it's the Blood Falcon Merchant Guild."
Marcus's expression changed: "The Blood Falcon Guild? That international organization that specializes in the black market?"
"Yes. Serafina had connections with them in her past life. In this life, she's desperate and will definitely turn to them for help."
"Then what do we do?"
"Wait," I said in a deep voice, "wait until she makes a mistake. Serafina may be hiding in the shadows, but she won't give up. She will definitely retaliate. Then we'll wipe them all out in one fell swoop."
But the unexpected happened faster than I expected.
Three days later, I suddenly lost all feeling for Vincent.
"Oh no!" My face changed drastically.
"What's wrong?" Marcus asked.
"Vincent has gone missing. The surveillance footage has been forcibly erased."
"Seraphina discovered it?"
"No…" I frowned, "If she found out, she would probably kill Vincent on the spot. To erase my mark without harming Vincent… this person is stronger than me."
"who?"
We looked at each other and simultaneously thought of the same name.
"People from the Blood Falcon Merchant Guild."
