Chapter 832: The new family name
The broadcast of the tenth leader revealing himself was shown all over, leading to a plethora of reactions from different people. In the tenth family themselves, at first they were happy, but the students were wondering how a vampire they had never seen before could suddenly become their family leader.
Usually a new leader would fill their family with hope for a greater future, with his family members having a general idea of their leader’s power, but Quinn had practically come out of nowhere. The only reason why they weren’t outright m.o.a.ning about his position was because the one person they had come to respect more than any other, Leo, was backing him.
If Leo was willing to serve under this person and bow down to him, then he must be a great person.
"For some reason he feels familiar, doesn’t he?" A student from one of the other families wondered out loud.
"That’s the guy! He’s the one who participated in the training session of the direct descendants! He might look different, but look at his eyes!" Another pointed out after coming to the realisation of who the leader had to be.
"That... should be impossible! Wasn’t that person also the one who tried to save young master Fex?"
That day, on Fex’s execution, a few people who were closer to the platform, including the other leaders were slowly starting to recognise Quinn.
"Would those from the Cursed family please come up to the stage." Quinn requested, as the announcement wasn’t finished yet.
Paul walked down to the others, and then led them up onto the stage one by one, including Sil and Logan. Everyone who Quinn had brought with him assembled next to them, all of them outsiders to the Vampire World.
"The tenth family has gone through some very tough times." Quinn started his speech. "And they have been without a leader for far too long. All of you watching should be familiar with the tenth family’s past."
"Those leaders watching right now, already know that I do not carry the same ability as the previous family leaders, nevertheless I do carry their blood. Because of this, I wish for the tenth family under my rule to start with a new slate. As such, the tenth family shall no longer be known as the Eno family, but as the Cursed family." Throwing out his arm Quinn held his palm open towards the rest.
"I’m sure rumors will spread about it anyway, so let me be the one to tell all of you this. I’m not going to pretend to be someone I’m not, since I don’t see any reason to not be proud of what I am. Yes, I admit to not having been born a vampire. I was originally a human and so were all of my comrades here, but if anyone believes that this would make us weak, feel free to challenge us and find out for yourself. I promise you will regret it!"
With the announcement over and done with, the new Cursed family, including the students followed Quinn’s lead and moved out, not caring about the stir his speech had caused. After all, the only other former human to become a family leader was Arthur Pendragon.
Once people learned the identity of the tenth family’s new leader, Quinn quickly garnered a nickname; The Crazy Leader. This was because he was still infamous for going against the other leaders in order to save Fex. His aggressive announcement only strengthened this image they had of him.
"A strong introduction for a new leader." Muka commented to his family members who had been watching Quinn’s speech with him. "A bold choice, but also the best one he could have made in this situation. Edward is no longer with him, so I wonder who advised him to do this. Could he have really come up with it on his own..."
Sitting down in a chair in one of the empty rooms Quinn felt a little tired. It wasn’t a physical exhaustion, but a mental one.
"Are you sure that was the right thing to do?" Quinn asked for some reassurance. The die had already been cast, so it would be too late to regret his actions anyway.
"Of course. The other leaders already knew what you were." Vincent replied and Quinn could picture him shrugging his shoulders. "If you hadn’t disclosed this on your own, they would have used this information in the future against you. Right now was the best time to do so. Although few will admit it, you can be sure that you have earned the respect of many by making such a forceful declaration."
"Let me tell you something as a former family leader, the thing your family will need more than anything will be loyalty. As long as you are upfront about everything those that do join you won’t start to believe any rumours the others may spread about you. Also, believe me when I say that there is one thing all vampires respect far more than your background, and that is strength! That’s why Bryce has a very good chance of becoming the next king, despite how much of an arsehole he might be.."
Thinking about that, Quinn was wondering what might happen if Bryce really would be selected as king. He had already tried sending two people to try and assassinate him and that had been him doing things discreetly.
Wouldn’t he be able to act without any fear of repercussion without anyone else to keep him in check?
"Vincent, I meant to ask you something about the story you were telling me earlier." Quinn suddenly remembered something important.. "You told me, Jim experimented on one of the original vampires, but because of your interference no one ever found out. To awaken a vampire from his eternal slumber the thing you need is their blood, right? So does that mean the person he woke up was the first King?."
Vincent appeared to hesitate before answering. Quinn could feel that he was struggling to decide whether that information was something Quinn really needed to know or not. Still, he understood that sometimes knowing too much was bad on its own since it increased the risk of the wrong person finding out about it.
"... suffice to say, it wasn’t the one from the first family." Vincent eventually admitted.
"Well that’s my point." Quinn pointed out. "Judging by Arthur’s story, he saw Eno fall into the first chamber, yet someone broke him out. In other words, someone at some point must have released him. Be that either by accident or on purpose. I just need to know if that was Jim’s doing. Did you yourself return the wrong person, or could it be another leader who was working with Jim?"
Thinking about this, Vincent realized he had never pondered about that possibility. Maybe because he just assumed that Jim was so desperate that he could have obtained the blood from other ways. But if someone was indeed working with Jim, did that mean that there was another leader who wanted the same thing?
"Let’s find out about what happened to Jim after my disappearance first. This might help us put the pieces together. I just don’t want for you or me to force those puzzle pieces to fit to our own narrative. Even if it turns out to be the case, as a young family leader, and at such an important time, it would do more harm than good to reveal anything we might find out." Vincent claimed.
Putting a pin in it for now, Quinn finally got the first bit of sleep since he had arrived in the Vampire World this wonder.
"No wonder you’re so strong!" Zane said, as the students had returned to the castle with the others just after the announcement. They were more excited than before and happily talking amongst each other.
"What do you mean by that?" Sam asked.
"Well, he said you were originally human, so I’m guessing he must be the one to have turned you, right? If you have the leader’s blood, that means your powers should be similar to that of a direct descendant, in other words you got a head start above everyone else."
Honestly, Sam didn’t agree with this, but he didn’t want to correct him when he didn’t know much about the subject. He remembered when he was turned by Quinn, he had started out as a halfling and hadn’t even been able to reach the evolution of a Vampire after turning.
A halfling was considered quite weak and it had taken a lot to grow, at the same time, Nate who had defeated Zane, had been turned by none other than himself. The strength seemed to correspond more with how strong the human used to be before they got turned, rather than the one who had turned them.
’I’ll just let the kid feel better about himself. ’ Sam decided.
It didn’t take long for them to receive their first official visitor, as the sound of the door being knocked on could be heard throughout the castle. When Leo went to answer the door, the blue lining on the uniform revealed their visitor to be one of the royal guards.
Quinn didn’t get to sleep long, as the royal guard was here to pass on a message.
"Royal Knight Dwight would now like to see you."
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