Chapter Text
Preface
Roughly the Year 1406
It was way too dark and disgusting down here for any human to survive. It was filthy and it made Seonghwa’s hands twitch at his side. Couldn’t they at least clean up the place a bit? Was that so hard? There were so many prisoners down here so why couldn’t they task a few of them to clean the place a bit. It was bothering him and he was growing more irritated with each passing day. There wasn’t a single scratch on Seonghwa and, if not for the buckets of wolfsbane drowning his veins, he felt very compelled to just leave. But he did have buckets of wolfsbane burning through his vines creating trenches where his vessels should be giving him strength. Initially, when he was at home and his vision had gone hazy, he reflected for a moment if he had mistreated any of the employees of his home enough that they would feel the need to do something like this. He didn’t need to eat but he had heard that a group of chef’s had been fired and were unemployed. He had sought them out to employ them. He was a very rich member of society because he had been alive for so long and had nothing more to do than live idly trying to be as little of a burden to society as possible. He didn’t get involved in politics unless he thought that someone was about to do something that would inevitably put the country he had born in down a dark path or mar it’s image into an ugly light.
Was that why? Had he angered one of the local politicians because he had denied their invitation to that party the pudgy old man held? It wouldn't be the first time that someone had tried to kill him for something so petty. He had been alive for 400 years. Humanity had not taken big steps forward. They still clung to the light of day and feared whatever shadow moved at night. They still pasted those ridiculous talismans on their door like that would protect them against his kind. Seonghwa laughed bitterly. Really, this was too much. He had made it an obvious point to stay as far away from the public eye as possible and this was the result. Would he be safer walking around in broad daylight? Would he actually be able to live more peacefully if he piraded the streets like some asshole aristocrat. No, that wasn’t really suitable for him. He had hated being in public when he was a human, and if anything, that had intensified when he became a vampire.
The origin of his vampirism was still a little iffy. He had been sick...very sick. And the local medicine man had created some elixir that he had given Seonghwa. The entire process had been terrifying. After he had drunk the elixir, he only experienced darkness and pain. Overwhelming pain that had him screaming until the townspeople had asked the medicine man to gag him so he would stop bothering the village. When he woke up, he was better. He no longer felt like he couldn’t breathe but that was because he didn’t need to. He no longer ran a fever, but that was because his body held no warmth either way. The medicine man had been horrified, begged Seonghwa to run away, not to tell a soul that he had created a monster. Seonghwa had been willing to leave the village but he had never once thought of himself as a monster. Because he had been born a human, he had been sick, and he had been healed. He still felt the same emotions he had as a human. And though he required human blood to live, he didn’t need to kill them to take it. He needed to only steal a sip here or there. There were plenty of men or women that had been more than willing to invite him to their beds. He had not given them the pleasure they were seeking but they would not remember otherwise. Taking blood did that. It erased all the unpleasant memories of the act and made the person that much more peaceful.
But now, this was where that careful consideration had landed him. In the dungeons of the town that he had stayed the hell out of. He had lived peacefully on the outskirts. If Seonghwa had known that this filth was brewing down here, he would have come and cleaned the place himself.
Seonghwa was brought out of his inner broiling by someone coming down the hall. Seonghwa’s limbs had finally regained feeling but not enough to break out of the cell. He could probably fight if he had to, not aggressively but just enough. The man stopped in front of his cell and opened it with a smirk, “Park Seonghwa, the head of the city said that you had bewitched him. You are here on counts of witchcraft. Do you deny it?” Seonghwa blinked up at the man. Ah, so it had been that stupid party he had rejected. Seonghwa had no clue that the man was...bewitched? Seonghwa’s lips twitched, “Oh, is that so? Sir, don’t you think if I had bewitched him, I would have at least made the effort to go to his little party? Bald, middle aged guys aren’t quite my taste, I am afraid. Please send my apologies for not wanting to bed him.” The man lost his smirk and took the three short steps, fingers digging into Seonghwa’s hair and jerking his head back, “You really are like a foul bitch?” Seonghwa gritted his teeth and took a deep breath, “Foul? What’s foul is you running your disgusting fingers through my hair. Let go of me.” The man just gripped tighter and Seonghwa lost his cool. He grabbed the man by the front of his shirt, jerked him forward and pulled his head back. The only sound in the filth was the sound of Seonghwa's teeth ripping into his flesh and the man screaming.