Chapter 13: I Love You

Thinking back, at first, it was just an ordinary noble family.

A happy family.

A warm life.

A father who was sometimes strict but warm-hearted, and a mother who gently embraced me.

Vampire food that I could always eat my fill of, and a warm blanket.

It was a life where I grew up receiving plenty of love every day.

It was during this time that I learned cheerful emotions such as happiness, joy, and hope.

But,

I lost that life when I was in middle school.

My father, whom I thought was the strongest in the world, had his head cut off while trying to protect me.

My mother, who saw that, grabbed my shoulder and said in a desperate voice.

-You must never come out. Never, never. Promise me, Mom.

-No, no. What happened to Dad? His head just now…

-Just think about hiding quietly here. It will be over soon. Don’t make a sound until Mom gets you out. Never, never come out.

I don’t know what happened after that.

When I woke up, I was alone in the snowfield.

And when I went back to the mansion after starving for three days.

•I saw a crater where the mansion used to be.

As if it had disappeared entirely, the mansion, the yard, and the garden had all vanished.

…

All a young vampire who lost her parents could do was run away and become a beast, gnawing on tree roots to survive.

Nevertheless, the girl did not give up.

She forced herself to swallow the bitter-tasting bark, and she tore apart the wolves that attacked her in the dark forest.

She wandered around the pit countless times, hoping that her mother might be alive.

She was pierced by silver arrows in the eyes of humans and her skin was torn by malicious traps, but she desperately held onto hope.

Then, in the end, she was caught by a dirty s*ave trader and was sold to various merchants.

Unfortunately, her young body was to their liking.

‘…Those beasts.’

She couldn’t help but hug herself.

There were memories of cutting her wrists, calling for her mother, and of being injected with unknown syringes, unable to even breathe.

There were also those who sprayed her with failed potions to save on cheap ones and those who tried to sexually assault her.

Yes. She had completely become a s*ave.

She was just a young vampire treated worse than the slaves who used to belong to the noble family.

Moreover, the s*ave trader hid the fact that she was a vampire just because she was beautiful, and forced that burden onto me.

But is it over now?

The young vampire was handed over to a noble s*ave trader.

She was brought in as just a pretty s*x s*ave, and she couldn’t escape because of the tight security.

The only freedom she was allowed was to look at the blue night sky through the thick iron bars.

Now she had to hide her identity from the one who would become her master, the s*ave trader who was currently watching her, and even the s*x slaves who were in the same situation as her.

No one knows or understands how she feels.

The heart of the young vampire festered.

There was nowhere to confide in.

Moreover, the bloodlust that grew worse every night was getting worse as her body matured day by day.

A thirst that humans can never understand.

If she didn’t lick even the dust on the wall, it felt like her tongue would be torn apart.

Sharp razor blades and nails were tearing at the skin in her throat.

There were memories of her rolling on the floor in such pain that she wanted to tear her throat out.

Such pain for five years.

Would you believe that she endured it for five years?

But it would soon reach its limit.

Seeing the guy bleeding from scratching himself on the bars next to her, the memory of that time kept overlapping even now, a week later, so she knew that she didn’t have much time left.

If someone found out that she was a vampire, the imperial family with the cross symbol would immediately send a faction to hunt her down.

And just like her mother and father, her entire body would be pierced by silver arrows, her organs spilling out, and her body impaled vertically on a spear, dangling and heading straight for the empire’s gate the next morning, her naked corpse displayed to all the citizens. Ah, and the end is burning at the stake.

She dreamed of dying like that every night, so she wanted to die.

A punishment where her back, waist, and limbs were pierced and fixed to iron bars, her head cut off, and then forcibly reattached with ropes and fixed to a cross.

Therefore, the only choice Yuria could make was to endure her hunger.

She had to act every night as if she was chewing and swallowing disgusting human food without tasting it, without changing her expression.

And sometimes, she had to put on an act to avoid those who suspected her.

In this way, the fully grown vampire suppressed herself and broke down from the inside, even at the age when she should have been drinking plenty of blood.

As each day passed, she had to clutch her stomach and cover her drooling mouth, and the act she had been working so hard to maintain to avoid suspicion became increasingly impossible.

Sometimes, she even thought of secretly harming herself.

The endless struggle with bloodlust and the constant hunger were an unbearable burden for Yuria, who had many scars from a young age.

But when such thoughts became stronger, she was sold as a s*x s*ave to a certain count’s family.

According to rumors, the young master had an incurable disease, but he wanted her for reasons she couldn’t understand.

Even though she’s worthless now and about to become skinny.

Strangely, Yuria couldn’t help but be wary of that man who kept her in the mansion until the end.

“…?”

But surprisingly, the man’s actions were far beyond Yuria’s common sense.

Her life was saved.

She received blood.

He deceived her with a warm embrace.

He knew that Yuria was a vampire, but he hid her and pretended not to know in front of others.

A noble who had a notorious reputation as a ruffian, a man who would normally treat her as a dirty s*x toy.

But she didn’t let go of her doubts. She had too many scars to trust human words readily.

Thinking that humans who hated vampires the most were probably the nobles and the imperial bastards, she kept an eye on Ian as a subordinate.

But as a result of her surveillance, he really didn’t mention anything about Yuria.

Why? How come?

She was a vampire with nowhere to go, a s*ave.

If he revealed that she was a vampire.

If he reported to the Holy Kingdom that she was a special kind of vampire, he would receive enough wealth to live and play for the rest of his life.

If it was Young Master Ian from the rumors, he would have chosen the latter without hesitation.

There was no reason for him to choose her.

With 70 gold, he could have bought at least two B-rank beast-people.

After coming here, learning the prices and other things, his actions started to make even less sense.

But, at some point, the mistrust that Yuria had disappeared like melting snow.

He taught her common sense, the knowledge of humans.

It was knowledge that a s*x s*ave would never need.

One by one, accounting skills, warehouse management, which she didn’t need at all.

And other domestic skills and various other things to help her survive outside.

And looking back, Ian had intended to save her from the beginning.

Using strategy, he had given her blood with the intention of destroying the s*ave trader from the beginning, a double operation through his mother, the Ice Palace Lord.

As someone who had done various illegal things in the underworld, his actions were justified.

Not only that,

He risked his life to protect her, and proved his bravery.

After she came to the mansion, he allowed her to learn basic mana breathing techniques, mana, and magic formulas.

Naturally, Yuria, who was a noble, knew that this was Ian’s way of educating her.

Even if he was using mana breathing techniques to use her as a s*x s*ave, repeating low-level magic formulas would be meaningless to him.

Ian. That person stroked her head and pulled her shoulder, smiling warmly at her even when she couldn’t solve even a few problems.

His embrace is warm.

This was something she had already known when he saved her life.

And afterwards, not suitable for a s*x s*ave.

Calling an academy professor through his connections to educate her, without needing further explanation, was proof that he favored her.

But despite all his efforts, she barely managed to solve problems that weren’t even half as difficult as the magic formulas Ian solved.

But when she once opened up the magic formula and created a magic circuit, he gave her a standing ovation and hugged her tightly.

For some reason, it felt as if her bloodlust stopped as if by magic whenever she was in his arms.

The next day,

As if by magic, she experienced a bloodlust that felt like her heart would explode.

The feeling of chewing with thumbtacks in her mouth.

The thorns going down her throat, as if they were piercing her skin, were painful.

But she could endure it.

It was around the time when she reached his room, thinking of Ian’s face.

His temporary maid bled.

Naturally, it was something irreversible.

The girl, losing her mind for a moment, attacks the maid.

And the target was not just an ordinary s*ave, but a vampire who attacked a maid with a backer.

And if that backer was the Knight Commander, her future was clear.

A vampire is a symbol of fear and a nuisance in the eyes of humans, and depending on the individual, their strength varies greatly, and they are monsters that can tear dozens of ordinary people apart with their bare hands.

In other words, from the Knight Commander’s point of view, and even more so, it’s only natural to want to eliminate the vampire that attacked his daughter. She even felt that just being beheaded would be too light of a punishment.

“Oh, no.”

Naturally, the vampire didn’t not know that her end would be a terrible torture and death.

The fear, the fear of her fingers and body being torn apart by blades, suddenly enveloped her entire body.

She wanted to collapse like a little girl, panicking, and cry, begging for forgiveness and her life. On one hand, she felt despair as the blade in her pocket kept coming to mind.

She will die. Just like them.

“Stop.”

But the one who protected her there was none other than the unexpected man. The noble, Ian.

She wanted to make excuses.

She wanted to live.

“…

“Nothing came out of her mouth.

She felt as if the gazes of other servants coming through the cracks were piercing her body like blades.

Knowing that, Ian calmed her burning hand with his cold hand.

And then, he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her inside the room.

“…!”

She couldn’t speak.

Her dry throat moved, and transparent drops were falling from beneath her red eyes.

It was then. That he extended his hand of salvation.

“It’s okay.”

Even after seeing her eyes stained red with bloodlust like that day, he grabbed her hand without hesitation and hid her in the room.

As if to comfort her trembling and scared feelings, he comforted her.

For the first time, she felt warmth and almost cried, asking for his embrace.

‘…Ian, Ian. Ian.’

She asked him his name and stored the sound in her mind.

For some reason, her body instinctively started to crave this man.

But she held back. It was time to suppress her instincts. She couldn’t attack him while he was recovering.

Tears dripped down.

The conflict between reason and instinct tore at the girl’s heart.

She disappointed Ian. She had disappointed him. The fear that he would hate her again because of her sent shivers down her spine.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…

Everyone who had been kind to her, like her mother and father, had died.

Ian was the last one.

Please, please don’t leave me.

At that moment.

“Breathe, Yuria, breathe. Slowly. That’s right.”

It was Ian’s warm embrace that caught Yuria as she crumbled like a sandcastle hit by a wave.

He comforted her.

He gave her sweet whispers and kisses without hesitation.

It was from then on that she decided to dedicate everything to him.

There was a custom among nobles to share their first blood-sucking with the person they truly loved.

As a high-ranking noble, she had been told this over and over again.

But Yuria’s heart had already grown bigger than that, and she couldn’t help but bury her fangs into his neck.