Looking tense, Nolen looked up to see that it was just Vivienne messing around. He relaxed his suddenly tightened nerves, then lazily lay back down to continue 그의 nap on the blanket. In the blink of an eye, a faint snoring sound began to rise.
*****
‘Swish!’
A low whistling sound cut through the air as five purple flashes of cold light flickered in the dark night. Vivienne extended her sharp claws, neatly slicing through a thick tree trunk and turning it into flat wooden planks. She then pulled out a small wooden mallet she carried with her.
*Clang, clang.*
Amidst a flurry of rhythmic wooden tapping, two wobbly small wooden beds appeared on the clearing. At the same time, she also put together a coffin for herself.
She was using this one. She didn’t know if it was because she had become a vampiress in this life, but she felt a certain level of resistance toward the beds used by ordinary humans. Vivienne had tried to make a bed for herself before, but sleeping on it always made her feel uneasy. It felt like the space in front and to her sides was empty, leaving her with no sense of security… It was just like her previous life at school when she lived in the dorms. If she didn’t sleep against a wall at night, she couldn’t fall asleep at all.
In a dark and cramped coffin, however, Vivienne felt as comfortable as if she had returned home. Only in such a space could she sleep peacefully.
Afterward, Vivienne moved toward the campfire. She picked up a large bundle of hay that had been left over after starting the fire and spread it neatly inside the wooden beds and the coffin. She used both hands to smooth out every corner that might prick the skin, trying to improve the comfort of the bedding.
Otherwise, lying directly on hard wooden boards would likely lead to poor sleep quality. They would probably wake up tomorrow with aching backs for quite a while.
‘If we don’t rest well, our combat effectiveness will drop. How can we defeat those heinous demons then!’
Therefore, no matter how difficult the environment, Vivienne would not give up her pursuit of quality of life. Without quality of life, one loses the flavor of existence. This was Vivienne’s rule for living…
*Zzz…*
A low snoring sound drifted from nearby, but to Vivienne’s ears, it sounded rather harsh. She snapped her head around. First, she saw Black, who was tidying up the utensils and washing the pots and pans. Then, she saw Nolen, who was fast asleep on the blanket.
Vivienne was suddenly fuming!
‘Well, look at that! We’re all working, and you, Nolen, just drop and sleep!’
Vivienne rolled up her sleeves and took a sudden, aggressive stride forward, looking like a fierce tiger descending a mountain. She reached the napping Nolen, grabbed him by the ear, pulled him up, and shouted at him, “If you want to sleep, wait until I’ve finished making the beds, and then go sleep in a bed!”
“Aren’t you afraid of catching a cold sleeping out here?”
Vivienne scolded the man who was sleeping anywhere he pleased, sounding like a worried mother.
“Okay… I’ll go sleep in the bed right now…” Nolen said weakly, keeping his eyes downcast like a child who had done something wrong. Then, his body swayed as he walked toward the wooden bed, looking listless like a walking corpse in the night.
Seeing this, Vivienne grew even angrier. “Hurry up, or I’ll spank you!”
Vivienne raised her small fist and made a threatening gesture behind him, pretending to be fierce. Nolen was startled and immediately quickened his pace into a light jog. Although Vivienne looked rather cute when she brandished her fist, he didn’t dare to be the least bit slack. After all, he had seen exactly how much power those delicate little fists possessed…
“Mm, that’s better.” Vivienne revealed a gratified smile, very satisfied with Nolen’s performance.
Then she turned her head and saw Black, who had finished cleaning the table at some point and was standing nearby with an expression clearly expecting to see a good show. Vivienne suddenly realized there was another “child” who wasn’t sleeping.
“Black, you go to sleep too, or I’ll spank you right along with him!”
“Ah, I’m getting spanked too?” Black opened his mouth in disbelief, pointing a finger at himself.
He had thought it was just a bit of playful flirting between the couple, but he hadn’t expected Vivienne to be serious. The scene where Vivienne’s punch had nearly killed him during the day was still fresh in his mind, and his chest seemed to throb with pain at the memory.
At that thought, Black lunged forward, using the momentum of a battlefield charge to sprint toward the wooden bed. In an instant, he overtook Nolen. Black reached the bed first, covered himself with a blanket, and fell asleep peacefully. Nolen followed closely behind, also lying down obediently.
Only after confirming that both of them were asleep did Vivienne finally feel relieved enough to lie down in her coffin and pull the lid over herself.
As for keeping watch?
Vivienne felt that with a “super alarm” like Nolen around, there was no need for a night watch. Over the past few days of being with Nolen, she had figured him out completely. Whether he was sleeping or going about his daily life, Nolen was incredibly sensitive. If there was even a hint of movement in the environment, Nolen would immediately enter a state of high alert and react quickly.
To sum it up, Nolen was a neurotic skittish cat!
If danger appeared, he would automatically “hiss” and alert everyone around him. Therefore, Vivienne believed that keeping watch was entirely unnecessary.
At that thought, she became a bit worried again.
‘Sigh, I just don’t know how this child developed such a worrying personality. He must have had a truly harrowing life experience in the past.’
Vivienne sighed for Nolen’s unknown past.
‘What a poor child…’
‘But don’t worry! From now on, the great Lady Vivienne will save you, you lost child!’
‘For the sake of cheap bread, and for this poor child, I must work hard to defeat the demons…’
‘Go for it, Vivienne!’
Lying in the coffin, Vivienne cheered herself on for the coming day. Then, she slowly closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
—
The next day.
In the distant horizon, a purple hue signaled the dawn. The sun emerged from a magnificent stretch of purple clouds. Mild sunlight filtered through the thin layer of mist in the forest, spilling over a campfire that had long since gone out but was still emitting a trail of black smoke.
*Bang!*
Under the shade of a tree near the campfire, a crooked coffin lid was suddenly flung open. It startled a bird on a nearby tree that had woken up early to eat worms. The bird flapped its wings in terror and flew away from the scene without looking back.
Then, a head topped with dark hair poked out from the coffin.
“Waaaah—”
Vivienne let out a lazy yawn. No, wait, she had business to attend to today; this was no time to slack off! She quickly climbed out of the coffin.
“Good morning, Vivienne.”
Nolen’s voice reached Vivienne’s ears from a short distance away. Vivienne looked toward the source of the sound. Nolen had gotten out of bed at some point. Currently, he was holding his sword and wearing only a thin shirt. He was using a large log—leftover from Vivienne’s bed-making the night before—as a training post, striking it with all his might. He was drenched in sweat as he performed his morning training.
“Good morning, Nolen,” Vivienne replied energetically.
Seeing that Vivienne was up, Nolen sheathed his sword and ended his morning exercise. He picked up a basin of hot water he had already prepared and walked over to her.
“Come wash your face, and then…”
“Will you help me with my armor, please? My lovely wife.”
Nolen’s tender voice made her face turn slightly red.
“Okay,” the girl whispered.
Vivienne took a handful of the warm water and washed the dirt from her face, also using it to wake herself up. Immediately after, she walked behind Nolen, who was already sitting obediently on the blanket waiting for her. She picked up the set of silver-white knight armor at her feet and gently helped Nolen put it on.
The rough, intermittent snoring of Black drifted from not far away, serving as the background noise for this warm scene.
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