Desire

Rubbing her slightly throbbing head, Selina gathered her resolve and looked ahead. Yesterday’s events had soured her mood.

Being toyed with by a thrill-seeking witch like Hecate wasn’t the issue—her secrets being half-exposed was.

Though Hecate had sworn an oath to secrecy, the knowledge that someone held her cards left Selina uneasy.

Sigh.

Her long exhale carried the weight of an adult’s worries about the future. Life was tough, even for a princess.

Hecate’s soul-bound oath, sworn to a goddess, should be binding, but Meriane likely knew her identity now—within the agreed terms, of course.

Last night, sleep had eluded her. She’d expected dark circles under her eyes, but her elven beauty kept her looking merely tired in the mirror.

Clutching her identity token, Selina scanned the crowd.

The number of candidates for the final trial exam was half what it was yesterday.

The aptitude tests had already culled many, and the final practical trial—a three-day Secret Realm test where candidates fought monsters for points recorded on their tokens—would eliminate more.

Passing meant official enrollment at Tianqi Academy.

The rules were simple, akin to a Blue Star dungeon-clearing game, but reality was harsher. Three days demanded not just combat prowess but survival skills—food, rest, and endurance.

For Selina, a former thief who’d lived with the sky as her roof and the earth as her bed, this was her domain. Three days in a Secret Realm? Child’s play.

The mentor overseeing the trial was explaining precautions, and other candidates listened intently, but Selina’s mind was elsewhere.

The Secret Realm’s entrance, at the central field, would be opened by academy mentors. As an annual event, the field was packed with official students watching the spectacle.

For reasons she couldn’t pinpoint, unease gnawed at Selina since stepping onto the field.

Tianqi was the safest place in the city, yet she felt watched—preyed upon, like a beast lurking in the shadows had marked her. The sensation was unnerving, her instincts screaming of hidden danger.

She scanned the crowd, her elven senses and sharp vision straining to locate the source, but the throng was too dense. The gaze seemed to come from her left-rear, but with the exam imminent, she had no time to investigate.

Is it someone tracking me?

Her slender fingers clenched into a fist. Trouble was everywhere—not just the hidden watcher but also her apprentice, possibly in the crowd. Though Litiya wouldn’t recognize her now, Leisen’s precedent made Selina wary of slipping up.

In the stands, Aemiya, a rare vampire at the academy, sat with an aura that chilled the surrounding air. A voice, Heros, spoke through a hidden transmission in her mind: “I see her, Lady Aemiya. Selina—a fine vessel.”

Aemiya’s pocketed compass trembled, its needle pointing frantically at Selina.

Blood-red light pulsed in her hand, her desires swelling. Her tongue flicked across her lips, as if savoring a rare delicacy.

She imagined embracing Selina’s delicate frame, teasing her, breaking her with force until fear and tears marred her beautiful face, then tearing her clothes and sinking her fangs into that pale neck, relishing the hot, sweet blood amid the girl’s pained moans.

Her trembling fingers and quickening breath betrayed her intensifying craving, her red eyes glowing with unrestrained desire. A nearby female student noticed her state and hesitantly tapped her shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?”

The moment the girl’s hand made contact, Aemiya’s blood-red eyes flashed, startling her. “S-sorry, I thought you weren’t feeling well,” the girl stammered, retracting her hand, her face paling.

Aemiya’s gaze lingered on the girl, devoid of kindness.

Since her transformation, a dark hunger had consumed her, seeded by the fangs that pierced her that day.

Her emotions and bloodline were unstable, driving her desperate need for the Progenitor’s blood.

“It’s fine. Be more careful next time,” she said, closing her eyes to suppress her raging impulses.

The frightened girl’s expression mirrored Aemiya’s own past fear and disgust for such volatility.

Now, she was the monster, the outcast. This cursed bloodline!

“I can’t hurt her. She was just trying to help. I can’t tear her apart or drain her blood,” Aemiya repeated to herself, forcing calm.

The emotional instability from her volatile bloodline plagued most vampire royals, explaining why few attended Tianqi. Unstable, bloodthirsty immortals were a liability.

Vampires’ insular nature also kept their royals in their own academies.

Aemiya had no desire to become like them, steeped in darkness.

Only the Progenitor’s blood could fix her condition, and for that, she needed Selina.

Her body trembled with uncontrollable desire.

Tonight, she resolved to challenge Felicia. Until she obtained the Progenitor’s blood, golden elven blood was her only reprieve.