𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐄 . Castlevania ✓

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞

The Belmont Hold resembled something otherworldly. It was massive, bigger than anything Alucard and Sypha had seen, but not as big as the Heaven's Grand Library, sections of which held answers to questions that have been bothering humanity since the commencement. The Belmont's collection of the mysterious and unexplained was, nonetheless, impressive.

"The memory of my family," Belmont uttered, descending the stairs. "It's all that's left of us..." The brunette held a soft smile on his face, but there was a glint of sadness in his eyes. He was greaving his lost relatives, his mother, his father, his siblings... all of them were ceased to exist at the hands of an angry mob of the Church.

"Is it organised? Is there a way to find things?" Sypha did not acknowledge Trevor's mood shift. Perhaps, she wanted to prevent things from going South... or she was simply too excited to pay attention to her surrounding. Their eyes held a childish glint, they shone with interest and wonder.

"I imagine one sacrifices a chicken and divine is the location of the book you want from the intestines. Maybe Belmont has a crystal ball in here you could ask," Alucard interrupted. He was not in the mood due to he was about to enter a museum dedicated to the extermination of the vampiric race, of which he was a half.

But was it necessary to ruin the mood for everyone? The Late Middle Ages were a depressing time overall, so adding salt on the open wound wasn't the best idea.

The dhampir and the monster hunter shared a glare, drilling holes in one other. The blond continued his way down.

"It's an impressive tip, Belmont," He remarked. "But it is, nonetheless, a tip,"

"Your parents were apparently mentally ill hoarders. I fully expect to find mummified cats on some of these shelves," He paused. "Unless your family preferred to eat them,"

At that point, Y/n had pulled the half-vampire aside, fearing that a fight might break out. Possibly, that would be the case had they not intervened.

"There's an index at the lectern at the bottom," Belmont shoved Alucard aside, answering Sypha's question. The vampire seemed offended and opened his mouth to speak, but Y/n patted his shoulder, suggesting him to calm down, which, in the end, he did.

"So it really is a managed collection!" The speaker magician spoke in awe.

"It's the work of generations, an archive of everything we learned since the days of Leon Belmont," He emphasised, partially out of pride, partially to piss off the dhampir, who was trailing behind.

Once they had reached the ground floor, the four separated. Sypha and Trevor went right, walking deeper into the Hold, finding various shelves filled with freakish liquids, like a glowing blue serum of unknown origin and an empty broken bottle, the content of which seemed to have burned through the wooden surface of the ledge.

Respectively, Y/n and Alucard turned to the left, which, as they had soon learned, was a terrible idea, given Alucard's distress. They ended up between shelves upon shelves of skulls of different monsters, most of which were of vampires, judging by the sharp fangs growing from the bottom jaw. Some were must larger and resembled lizards, except they had enormous teeth, which were nothing short of a human thumb. All of them were encased behind a layer of glass, presumably to preserve them in better conditions.

Y/n's gaze fell on, compared to others, a much smaller skull, which appeared to have belonged to a child, who was no older than ten. It had a hole in its parietal bone, indicating it was killed by something sharp, similar to a stake. The world can truly be cruel to the ones that least deserve said cruelty...

"What was this Leon Belmont doing in Wallachia in the first place?" Sypha asked Trevor, brushing her hand over a dusty rack.

"...Hunting Dracula," Alucard answered, looking at them through the reflection of the glass layer. Belmont looked down in shame. It's been long since he had felt that. He was raised on the belief that what his family was doing was for the better, but having met Alucard, he changed his mind in some aspects. For the first time in his life, he felt shame for being a Belmont, a part of a family that had taken so many lives of the innocent, vampires or not.