The Rondo Of Blood: A Rewrite of Castlevania Nocturne

Of Old Hatreds

At the earliest hour of the morning, Richter stood upon the fields next to the lake with the whip in his hand. In front of him was a stone statue resembling a knight with an armour of thorns and spikes. His grandfather Juste would visit twice every year; during one of those visits, he built a mechanical golem infused with magic as a way to train Richter on how to use the family heirloom: the Vampire Killer.

"Awaken forth!" Richter called upon the activation phrase. Immediately, the golem sprang alive with fiery red eyes and before Richter saw it coming, it was already dashing toward him at high speed.

"Don't let it touch you, Richter!" Juste's words echoed from his memory. "This golem moves with the speed of a fully-realized vampire. Keep your distance! Running will not be enough to escape it! This is your first lesson: learn to use that damned whip!"

With a graceful whirl building up momentum, he cracked the whip and thrashed the golem on the head. As the hunk of clockword addressed that it was hit, it backed up for a brief flicker before the golem quickly scurried through the meadow around Richter in an attempt to throw him off guard and catch him.

But Richter managed to somersault out of the way as the golem tried to catch him from behind and cracked the whip at it. It backed off once more but it persisted. It circled around Richter and tried to tackle him, but Richter continuously parried its advances with the whip. However, he held and used the whip with such passionate anger that it amplified his hits. The memory of seeing Annette injured by the Minotaur the other day added to the severity of his strength.

"Don't you suppose you're hitting it way too hard, Richter?" Annette's voice called out from the meadow.

Richter momentarily saw Annette walking toward him with a tray of teacups, but was distracted by the advances of the golem. Richter cracked the whip upon it one more time as the golem was knocked aside once more.

"Cease training." He commanded. The fire from the golem's eyes faded as its body froze solid as before. "How's your arm?" He turned to Annette.

"It doesn't hurt that much anymore," she replied, handing him a cup of tea. "Don't feel too bad about it though. It was my fault. I was distracted then."

"But that was because you were concerned for my sake. That's what ticked me off the most." Richter sipped from the cup. "How's our guests?"

"About as well as you'd expect," Annette answered. "Why did you grant those two strangers sanctuary anyway? I don't completely trust them and for all I know, they led a horde of night creatures straight into our territory."

"Well to start, they seem friendly and they're both vampire hunters. Anyone who helps a Belmont in any way is an ally no matter the race." Richter explained. "And from what I've heard, I concur they have quite a story to share."

"Easy for you to say, I'm a bit intimidated." Annette groaned. "I've heard about the revolution in Saint-Domingue, of course, but the Paris papers only reach here sometimes, and then about six months late. So I know the slaves rose up, burned all the sugar plantations, and killed all the bastard slave owners."

"Well if that's the case, good on them." Richter said. "I don't have any sympathy for those kinds of monsters. But look at Maria. She isn't intimidated by them at all. In fact, she's grown chummy with the two of them. You should be like her." Richter leaned closer to Annette. "Try to be more social, Annette. You've spent too much time in your study. Just lighten up and talk to them."

Annette sighed. "Guess I have no choice. I did bake them an apple pie when they asked for one. And I do have a lot of questions to ask them."

"That's the spirit!" Richter smiled. "Just go right ahead. And maybe then you'll find that they're not quite what you think they are." Richter turned to the golem as he straightened his whip. "Awaken forth!"