Chapter 14: Blood

Ian’s blood is sweet.

It goes down smoother than any wine, a delicacy worth savoring to the very end.

The warmth felt from his tightly embraced body and the pheromones that make her mind dizzy.

When he pats her lower back or strokes her hair, her mind and body relax.

Sometimes, his hand going to her breast surprised her a little, but she allowed it for his sake.

She can give him everything.

Because he risked his life for her.

Everything, everything, Ian’s is hers, and she is Ian’s.

‘…I love you, Ian.’

And so, the next day.

Ian’s low voice came through the crack in the door.

-And… I’m quite fond of Yuria.

Her heart pounded as if it would burst, just like that day.

He was hiding her, as always.

He embraced her trembling body, which was shaking with fear.

Despite the crime of touching the Knight Commander’s daughter, he tried to cover up her sin.

For Sein, who had experienced the feeling of loving someone for the first time in her life, every word from his mouth echoed deeply in her mind.

To Yuria, Ian was the man who had saved her when she was prepared to take her own life, a man to whom she was indebted beyond compare to anyone she had ever met.

I like him,

I like him,

I like him, I like him, I like him, I like him, I like him, I like him, I like him, I like him, I like him, I like him, I like him,

Ian. Ian. Ian.

An existence she absolutely, absolutely must protect.

Since that day, Yuria’s head was filled with Ian’s voice.

The sound of birds chirping every morning,

When washing windows and dishes,

Even when giving a piece of bread to a fellow maid,

Everything seemed to overlap with Ian.

But it wasn’t unpleasant.

“…Hehe.”

Lately, Yuria has been smiling a lot.

It was partly because he had embraced her again this morning and let her enjoy his blood as much as she wanted.

-Yuria is the maid I favor.

She couldn’t forget the words she had overheard outside his door yesterday.

The more those words overlapped, the more her hair swayed.

Ian in her mind is more than just the greatest hero.

That’s why she could maintain a straight face even while being scolded by the head maid for being confined.

Her mind was filled with only the cool image Ian had shown yesterday.

She was completely infatuated.

Before she knew it, it was evening.

She blankly stared at the setting sun and looked at her face reflected in the window.

“…Ian.”

It felt like it was melting away the screams of her family that had been ringing in her head every day.

She smiled more often in the mornings, and she felt as if color had been painted on a world that had been black and white.

The hug that day, the day she first tasted the blood of the person she loved.

…There was a superstition among vampires that if a vampire drinks human blood and falls in love, they will never forget it for a thousand years. Could it be that that curse-like love is her current situation? But it was too absurd, so she shook her head.

On the way to her master’s room.

Recalling Ian’s image as he had protected her repeatedly, Yuria lowered her gaze slightly.

In her hand was the soup that Ian would eat.

Gulp, she swallowed.

Human food doesn’t suit her taste. But there was another reason why she was salivating.

Her desire to become one with him, even for a moment, consumed her reason.

“…Just in case there’s poison in it… just in case, Ian. Ian….”

She stealthily stuck out her pink tongue.

Slurp.

“Haa…”

For a maid to touch her master’s food. Even if it was to check for poison… it was sacrilegious. But why… does it feel so good?

The spoon that came into her sight.

She wanted to put the spoon in her mouth and leave a mark, as if saliva would drip.

Yuria’s senses are more sensitive than others. The pleasure from the ecstasy of her first blood-sucking, which was like a coming-of-age ceremony for a vampire, was comparable to a human’s ‘that’, and the amplified act was shared with the person she loved, so it wouldn’t be strange if she became addicted to that pleasure.

The soup reflects the beautiful woman’s face.

The sticky string breaks, and her reason returns momentarily.

She secretly thought about putting her mouth on the spoon as well. But since she had already arrived at the door, she couldn’t do that, so she held back and knocked.

[“????? It’s an amazing achievement. The final boss – Yuria’s favorability has increased to 60!!”]

[Reward: ???]

[The reward will be given when Yuria’s favorability stage rises to (Affection) level.]

[“????? It’s an amazing achievement. The final boss – Yuria’s favorability has increased to 65!!”]

[Reward: ???]

[The reward will be given when Yuria’s favorability stage rises to (Affection) level.]

…But how high will this go?

It seemed like nothing had happened, but since that incident, Yuria’s favorability has been strangely rising even when she did nothing.

The cold gazes she used to receive from the servants in the mansion were gone, and they kept avoiding her eyes or leaving.

“What is she thinking about all the time?…”

Today, too, she was worried that she might leave the food at the door with a note saying ‘Please enjoy your meal’ and run away.

At that moment, Yuria came to my room.

I also had to keep Yuria away from the threat of the first incident that starts in this novel.

An official banquet.

A banquet held to celebrate Britina Karman’s return to the mansion.

Many high-ranking vassals who work around Karman and those who work in the territory also attend the banquet. As mentioned before, there were also quite a few people attending the banquet, befitting Britina’s name, such as merchants who had some money and were somewhat well-known on the continent, nobles who were almost like relatives from other territories, and the commander and vice-commander of the Knights.

‘Actually, some of them are attending the banquet to target Karman, Dylan, and others.’

The banquet lasts for two days.

Therefore, the warehouse workers, chefs, butlers, and even the maids were all busy. That’s the atmosphere these days. To put it simply, Yuria seemed to have four bodies because of all the tasks she had been assigned.

She was even called a working machine, receiving five times the normal pay.

She couldn’t understand why she was working so hard, but she just hoped that she wouldn’t be suspected of being a vampire.

However, there were a few people who were likely to be excluded from the list of assassination targets in this mansion.

For example, me, Ian, who was not directly described in the novel. But since I wasn’t mentioned at all, it was highly likely that I was staying still in my room, and that this was a foreshadowing that would continue.

In short, the way not to die was to stay put.

It made sense.

It wasn’t my time to die yet, and this was the sequence of events in the original work.

I wondered how the original story’s atmosphere would have been after the vampire incident, but I didn’t think it would have had a significant impact.

But there was no time for complacency. It wasn’t the first or second time that I suddenly got a quest with a death sentence as a penalty.

Moreover, I had someone to protect.

Several high-ranking nobles were present around the Britina family’s dining table.

Rachel only gave Dylan nonchalant praise and awkward smiles, and Cain was busy currying favor with the merchants elsewhere.

Karman only occasionally responded coldly to Rachel’s words, saying “Is that so?”.

It was clear that their married life would be cold and lonely nights.

As a result, what was left in the reduced space was Rachel and me.

Black hair, gold eyes. A beauty who, in the past, I could only make eye contact with through a hologram, elegantly puts a piece of steak pierced with a fork into her mouth and glances at me.

A raised smile and eyes filled with affection.

Her black hair, down to her shoulders, was tucked behind her ears as she smiled, making me recall her appearance when she had transformed into the Ice Palace Mistress.

‘She was beautiful back then, too.’

I hadn’t realized that an ice beauty would be that much of an ice beauty.

I couldn’t imagine my mother being truly angry.

Even if I seriously racked my brain for a moment, I couldn’t picture it at all.

I recalled the memory of coldly stepping on the heads of the bandits, but all I could think of was Rachel’s smile blooming at the end.

I just remembered Rachel’s lonely appearance as she pushed the steak into her mouth with a sad expression from time to time.

The more I thought about it, the clearer it became to me what kind of person Rachel was to me.

A woman who is always gentle with me.

A woman who smiles and listens to my story no matter what I do.

I confess now, but when I calculated that I might be assassinated, I was truly confused.

To be honest, I was terrible at being a strategist who meticulously plans, executes, and calculates all possible scenarios.

It was natural.

Guys who want to kill me are coming, but she tells me to memorize it and wait? And with two lives to save.

A person who pretends to know everything but is full of fears.

Knowing doesn’t mean you can handle everything.

I’m afraid. I’m afraid that the makeshift plan I made based on virtual theories and predictions in my head, without any practice, won’t work.

There would definitely be variables. Yuria was such an existence.

And every time Yuria became important in my head, I remembered the time I argued with Karman.

‘…I was scared even then.’

Now, I wonder if I can handle the sharp blades that will be aimed at me, something that is incomparable to that.

Perhaps most ordinary people would understand very well that what they simply thought of in their heads was not the case in reality.

Even if you think ‘Why can’t I do it?’, you don’t know that you would do the same if you were actually on the stage.

And then it happened.

“….Ian? Ian.”

”

“Wake up. Ian, I’m calling you.”

”

“Ian!”

While I was immersed in making plans and virtual executions,

It was Rachel’s voice that woke me from my vision, which had been sinking into a dark tunnel.

“Ah, yes. Mother. What’s the matter…”

”

What were you thinking about that you didn’t answer even though I called you five times? Is it that hard for you to come outside…? I’m sorry, I feel like you’re just going along with my stubbornness.”

Come to think of it, Rachel and I were outside alone for a moment, with the cool night air flowing. It seems like I was too absorbed in my memories.

“No. I needed some fresh air, too.”

“Hehe, is that so? Thank you for making excuses with me. I just asked because I was curious about what you were thinking so intently, even though I was calling you right next to you.”

“Is it a difficult topic to talk about? If you need the Ice Palace Mistress’s wisdom and power, just tell me, I’ll be your reliable ally.”

Rachel, exuding the aura of someone who might join my side and blow up the mansion with ice magic right away.

She looked so cute for a married woman that I couldn’t help but chuckle.

But that laughter didn’t come out.

Because her gaze, when she met mine, was so sincere.

I felt sorry for even showing it outwardly.

”

…..It’s just that I was thinking about this magic formula.”

“Is that so? Then that’s fine. I’m sorry for worrying unnecessarily.”

Rachel’s last smile.

Was pitiful.