After a while of tug of war—where, humiliatingly, Effie's team won by a landslide—the entire cohort slowly grew bored of the game.
They had replayed it enough times to determine two things:
1. Effie was terrifyingly strong when she actually tried.
2. Alucard absolutely refused to admit defeat in a dignified manner.
Eventually, everyone flopped down onto the stone platform, throwing out ideas for what to play next.
Most of them were terrible.
"Tag?" Sunny suggested.
"We live in a death world," Effie replied flatly. "That's just regular survival."
"Hide and seek?" Kai offered.
"In what?" Caster asked dryly. "The open sky?"
At last, it was Alucard's turn.
He tapped his chin thoughtfully. Then something clicked.
A memory.
Beach episodes.
Training arcs.
Ridiculously unnecessary fanservice.
"Volleyball?"
Effie snorted. "And where exactly are we going to find a volleyball? Or a net? Also, I'm pretty sure most of us don't even know how to play."
Alucard shrugged casually.
"I can make a volleyball out of blood. Hollow inside so it's light. And for the net? We can use Nephis' rope."
Sunny blinked at him.
"That still doesn't solve the issue of us not knowing how to play volleyball."
Alucard looked at him.
"You never played in school?"
Sunny stared back silently.
"…Oh. Right. Sorry. I forgot you never went to school. My bad."
Thirty minutes later, after an unnecessarily dramatic and overly detailed explanation of rules—complete with hand gestures, demonstrations, and at least three insults directed at Sunny's height—
"I think I get it now," Sunny muttered.
During the explanation, Alucard had tied Nephis' rope between two spears. One belonged to Effie. The other was a random Memory from his Soul Sea whose only enchantment made it stronger if the wielder died.
Which meant it was completely useless right now.
So it was officially a stick.
Beast and Saint were reluctantly forced into net duty, holding the spears steady so the rope wouldn't collapse.
Alucard shaped the volleyball carefully from hardened blood, making it light and hollow.
And then the game began.
Teams were split:
Team Alucard — Alucard, Cassie, Effie, Sunny.
Team Oppression — Nephis, Caster, Kai.
Alucard stared at his teammates.
He had:
• Two people who had never played before.
• And a blind girl.
"…This is fine," he muttered.
He tossed the ball up.
Served.
The ball shot across the rope like a missile.
They were not doomed.
Alucard had grown up upper-middle-class.
He knew volleyball.
Unfortunately—
He wasn't the only one.
Caster also moved with trained precision, clearly familiar with structured sports.
Kai, annoyingly graceful, adapted fast.
Nephis…
Well.
Nephis didn't seem to know how to play.
But whenever she tried to serve—
The ball somehow hit Alucard directly in the face.
Every.
Single.
Time.
"This is targeted harassment at this point," he muttered after the fourth impact.
Soon, the match descended into chaos.
Effie nearly launched the ball off the edge and into the nightmare-infested coral below.
Sunny missed every spike Alucard set up for him, somehow managing to swat air with supernatural consistency.
Effie, in one incredible display of incompetence, spiked the ball directly onto their own side.
Meanwhile—
Cassie.
Cassie, who was blind—
Was somehow contributing the most.
Her hearing was sharp. Her movements precise. She reacted to the air displacement of the ball.
Alucard stared at Sunny.
"How do you play worse than a blind girl?"
Sunny scowled. "I can't reach the net!"
Alucard looked at him.
Looked at the net.
Looked back at him.
"…Skill issue."
At this point, the only reason they were scoring was because of Alucard's serves.
Unfortunately, Caster could return them.
And Kai had surprisingly solid reflexes.
Effie remained a physical monster—
Whenever she wasn't actively sabotaging them.
Hours passed in laughter, yelling, and increasingly dramatic dives.
By the time night approached, they were exhausted.
Dinner had to be made.
Everyone was sweaty, breathing heavily, and sprawled across the stone.
The moonlight cast a silver glow over them.
Alucard's pale skin almost shimmered under it. After hours of movement, the lean definition of his arms and torso showed clearly beneath his clothes.
Caster, broader and more muscular thanks to his Legacy upbringing, was sitting upright, chest rising steadily as he caught his breath.
Sunny, the scrawniest of them, still looked surprisingly good—lean, functional muscle, skin nearly as pale as Alucard's.
And then there was Kai.
That beautiful bastard.
Even sweaty and tired, he somehow looked better. His brown hair caught the moonlight, and his exhausted smile was unfairly charming.
Effie was sprawled out on the ground, yawning loudly, stretching without a care in the world.
Every single male in the vicinity tried very hard to look respectfully elsewhere.
Unfortunately, that became significantly more difficult when she stretched again.
"In my defense," Alucard muttered internally, "they were staring at me first."
Cassie sat cross-legged nearby, tying her hair back.
Even tired, she looked soft and composed. Focused on such a simple task, her expression was calm—gentle.
Alucard found himself staring for half a second too long.
He quickly looked away.
Nephis was near the fire, cooking.
Efficient. Calm. Precise.
Sunny, who had clearly positioned himself very strategically, looked like he had just witnessed something life-changing when Nephis bent over. (Btw this is sunny being Fated because I know it isn't in character for him to do this he just got lucky)
Alucard sighed.
"He's about to remember that moment for the next ten years."
Despite the exhaustion, the atmosphere was light.
Warm.
For once, there were no monsters.
No immediate threats.
No Nightmares.
Just a group of slightly unhinged Awakened, laughing under the moonlight.
Alucard leaned back on his hands, staring at the sky.
He almost didn't want the night to end.
His only regret—if you could even call it that—was that he hadn't invited Sei or Aiko to join this little adventure.
Because obviously, the more people you had, the more fun sports became.
That was definitely the only reason.
Definitely.
It absolutely had nothing to do with the fact that he could very clearly imagine how they would look right now after hours of physical activity under the moonlight.
Of course not.
He was a respectable, emotionally stable individual.
In fact, if anything, he only wanted Aiko here for Caster's sake.
Yes.
Caster.
His dear, Elegant, emotionally constipated and dense friend from the Harm bee's Clan.
Alucard glanced sideways at the tall Legacy, who was currently wiping sweat from his neck with composed elegance.
Poor guy.
So serious.
So dedicated to "propelling the bloodline."
Clearly what he needed was a short, sharp-tongued menace like Aiko to help him with his legacy personality and to get that stick out of his ass.
As for Sei...that was also for completely innocent reasons as well of course.
Obviously.
You're weird for thinking otherwise.