EGO POV Yibo

I once read in a book that assassins are not supposed to be real humans. Well, as far as I know, I am a real human. I am just different from others. And that is also good. If it wouldn't be like that, I would never have met a vampire, who wants to be my friend and accepts me as I am. Even as an assassin!

It seems that Zhan, my new vampire friend, even likes the fact that I am an assassin. More than that, it seems to me that he admires it. Even in the training room, he couldn't hold back his admiration. He just stood there with wide eyes, a broad admiring smile, and bright red cheeks.

I wasn't at all aware that vampires could even get red cheeks. I also thought I was mistaken. But he got red cheeks once again when we came back from our ride with the horses to the castle and went to his room.

The way he resisted me entering his room at first, I thought there was a huge embarrassing mess there. But the truth was that he just had tons of open books lying there. Books about romance, books about love, and even books about assassins. And then on his desk there was a drawing he had made. A drawing of me!

Almost his whole face turned bright red when I saw the drawing and looked at it more closely. He had really put a lot of effort into the drawing and had hit me well. Still, he was embarrassed that I saw it. He thought I would get mad about it. But I wasn't mad. Instead, I thought his red cheeks and embarrassed look were rather cute.

I told him he really needed to hang the painting in his room. After we put all the books away, we looked for a good place for it on one of the four walls. I finally decided to hang the drawing on the wall above his bed.

After cleaning up, we asked Zhan's father if it was okay if I stayed in Zhan's room from now on. He laughed and said, "Of course. Go ahead you two." And then he went back to his lab. I also met Zhan's mother. She is a beautiful woman. Very petite and elegant. And yet you can see how loving she is.

In a brief one-on-one conversation, Zhan's mother asked me to stay by his side and keep him company until they got back. I explained to her that I wanted to stay here for a while anyway, to relax here some more and to deepen my friendship with Zhan. She rubbed my head and said, "I'm so glad. Feel at home here."

I don't think anyone has ever rubbed my head so lovingly and with a smile. And then when Zhan came back with a nightcap for both of us, she hugged us one by one and wished us a good night. I must say, it was a very nice feeling.

Back in Zhan's room, we went to shower one after another. When I got out of the shower, Zhan was lying on the edge of his almost 2 meter wide bed, looking anxious. I smirked, laid down in the bed, and just pulled him further into the middle of the bed. "I won't hurt you." I said. Zhan's cheeks really lit up, they were so red.

I kind of enjoy provoking Zhan like this. His red cheeks are just too cute. And then there's that embarrassed look. Too beautiful. I don't know why I like it so much. It's just the way it is. I really like it when he looks like that.

Before we had our nightcap, we talked about the upcoming training. I explained to Zhan that starting tomorrow morning, training and more training was the order of the day. And then I explained to him how I was going to train him. In return, I want him to show me how to kill vampires in the fastest and most non-dangerous possible way. Zhan made me promise never to use those methods on him. As if I could even do that!

After we drank our nightcap, Zhan fell asleep almost immediately. The herbs in it seem to have a stronger effect on vampires than they do on humans. I also felt myself slowly relaxing and getting more tired. But until I was ready to fall asleep, I watched Zhan sleeping.

Zhan was lying there quietly. He had pulled up his blanket almost to the tip of his nose. However, I think that as a vampire he doesn't really need a blanket and only took it to make it look more natural to me.

The window we had forgotten to close was wide open and so I could see the starry sky from the bed. And also the moon, whose light shone on Zhan and made him shine brightly. For a moment, I could only look at Zhan's face as if spellbound, and a strange foreign feeling spread through my chest.

I felt really hot and my heart began to race. And then when Zhan yawned in his sleep and a tear came out of his eye and rolled down, it really glistened. At that moment, I realized something. Or rather, I remembered something from my youth.

Back when I was sent to the Assassin Training Academy at the age of 14, on our first day there, our teacher wanted to know from our class why we wanted to become Assassins? Since I never had a choice in this regard, because my parents decided for me that this was the only thing I could do, I had never thought about it until then.

As hard as I tried, I just couldn't think of a reason. I knew I was well educated by my parents, better than most in my class. But, was there any reason for me to become an assassin other than my parents and my skills?

Our teacher gave us a year to think about it. So I thought about it. Besides the normal lessons and training to become an assassin, I wanted to find out the reason why I want to become an assassin.

The fact that nothing else came into question for myself proved that I never felt the desire to become anything else. Of course there were days when I cursed my parents' training. Days where I hated it when I had to train constantly instead of playing. But for the most part, I enjoyed the hard and rigorous training.

I myself always tried hard to become better. I wanted to be better than everyone else. I read everything about our family and always aimed to surpass the best assassins in my family. And even on hard days when I was not feeling well, there was no retreat and no surrender for me! I fought until I dropped.

At the academy, my skills quickly became apparent and I was soon quite well known there. I won several prizes. But with all that, I still couldn't think of a reason.

Shortly before the end of the first year at the academy, we were sent on fake missions. I should break into the library and find the secret passage and steal a rare book. To achieve my goal, I had to overcome two guards, interpret signs correctly and find the secret passage. Of course, in a given time and without being caught by others.

With my fake knife I killed the two guards. Of course, they weren't really dead, but they pretended to be dead. Then I had to use black light to look for the signs and find the secret passage. When I found this, I went to get the book. I finished before the time was up. But I didn't leave the secret room right away.

Instead, I read a little in the book and found out that portals exist. I also read that there are still many priceless treasures that need to be found. Which are just like this book, in secret hidden places.

And then I had found a reason. I wanted to discover all the secrets of this world, pass through portals and find treasures that were already considered lost or heavily guarded.

You don't have to be an assassin to do that. But it still helps a lot. And while most of my classmates said they wanted to become assassins because they had no problem with killing. I said to our teacher, "I want to become an assassin, to discover the world and uncover its secrets. I want to take on difficult missions and find valuable treasures. Even if I have to kill for it! That's my reason!" My teacher applauded me for this answer.

As a result, I received training specifically designed for that purpose. It was really exhausting. But I managed to do it. And when I left the academy, my teacher told me that he hoped I would find all the treasures that didn't belong in anyone's hands. He told me never to lose sight of my goals.

I firmly resolved to do so. But as soon as I started working for the Assassin Order, I quickly forgot all that. I accepted one order after another, hoping each time that it would be an order I had always dreamed of. But such an order never came. And so I forgot my reason for wanting to become an assassin.

But now that I am here in the castle, met Zhan and his family, vampires, I remember again. And I have made a decision! Besides the things like building friendship with Zhan, training him and protecting him, I want to find the pendant that Xiao Liang has been searching for so long!

I know I can do this! Not only because Xiao Liang can then remove the curse on my family, but also to prove to myself that I am the assassin I always wanted to be!

But for now, I'm going to sleep. The nightcap has really made me tired and I can barely keep my eyes open. I'm going to close the window with its tinted glass and then just look at Zhan until I fall asleep. I just want to look at him and then fall asleep and maybe dream something nice.