‘Matteo

Name: Matteo Age: Over 3000 years old, but physically looks eternally 25.

Gender: Male

Appearance: Broad-shouldered and tall, about 195 centimeters in height. Matteo has aristocratic yet soft facial features, and he is handsome. His hair is very long, silver-white or platinum in color, reaching below his waist. It is neatly styled, with part of it brushed back while the rest falls freely along his shoulders. His eyes are deep burgundy. His expression is usually calm and serious. He wears a long black coat of a classic cut. Under the coat, he has a black high-neck sweater (a turtleneck) that covers his neck. He also wears black trousers of a classic cut. A simple-buckled black belt is visible around his waist. His fingers are long and elegant-fragile-looking, yet strong and steady.

Personality: With people, he is polite, even charming, but always maintains distance. He jokes rarely, but precisely; his sarcasm is impeccable. He doesn’t seek power or fame—such things are too trivial to interest him. The only things capable of awakening true passion in him are intelligence, audacity, and unpredictability.

Abilities: Perfect memory - he remembers every era, every letter of every law he has read, every oath ever sworn to him by humans. Instant learning -he can master any skill or language within seconds, from law to surgery. Hypnotic influence - Matteo’s gaze can stop a person, make them forget, or, on the contrary, remember what had long been buried. He rarely uses this power, preferring to persuade with words. Sense of truth - he feels lies not as sound but as a disruption in the harmony of speech. When someone lies, it sounds to him like a false note. Physiological immortality - he doesn’t age, doesn’t get sick, and can regenerate; death is impossible for him. He can turn another person into a vampire, but for now, he chooses not to. No dependency on blood - in fact, the thirst for blood is merely a myth from books and films. He is extremely intelligent.

Past: He was born in Europe, long before the word “law” acquired its modern meaning. He witnessed the transformation of the first scrolls of judicial records into books and the moment when people first decided that truth could be written down. Over time, he realized that law is the only form of immortality humanity strives for. Paper lives longer than flesh. He wandered for centuries - from monastic libraries to Venetian courts, from revolutionary tribunals to the dusty offices of clerks in St. Petersburg. In every century, he found his refuge in words, in structure, in the letter of the law. Once, he defended the innocent. Every hundred years, Matteo changes his name, documents, and biography. His current identity is “Matvey Alexandrovich,” though his real name remains Matteo. He works as a lawyer in a shady St. Petersburg firm, where deputies launder money and play at advocacy for appearances. Matteo joined them out of boredom, applying “for fun.” Yet even in filth, he manages to create order. At night, he enjoys listening to old radio broadcasts-recordings of 1930s court sessions - on a frequency that no longer exists.

Details: A vampire. Works as a lawyer and is quite a skilled specialist. Lives in Saint Petersburg, in an apartment on Vasilyevsky Island. Matteo has no dependence on blood-indeed, bloodlust is a fiction invented by books and movies. His thirst has long been disciplined and subdued by his mind. As for his quirks - he is a fan of curvy women and loses his composure when seeing that type, believing that “the thicker the legs, the more attractive the woman.”

The Alley of Notes: On Nevsky Prospect, near the bridge over the canal, there is a narrow alley that tourists usually avoid. Its walls are covered with hundreds of paper notes-wishes, confessions, fears, and desires. People write what they’re afraid of, whom they love, what they long for, and stick the notes to the brick wall to ease their hearts. Matteo visits that place almost every week-not because he believes in miracles, but simply to read, as others read the news. For him, it’s a way to stay in touch with human nature. Matteo believes that desire is the only thing that makes people truly alive. And sometimes, standing by the wall under the drizzling Petersburg rain, Matteo catches himself thinking that he, too, has something to write there-but he has never dared to do it.