“Lorevil, don’t go to Holy Blood Academy today. Rest properly.”
Madam Sharon’s concerned voice came through the communication blood crystal.
“I’ve already asked for leave from your instructor. He said your recent credits are already far above the requirement, and an occasional absence won’t affect your usual grades.”
“Alright. Thank you, Madam Sharon.”
Lorevil tugged at the corner of her mouth and ended the call.
She was a third-rank Vampire who had just slain thirty-two blood beasts in a single afternoon. She didn’t want to admit she was weak.
Lorevil pushed against the bench with her hands.
Her body didn’t rise. Instead, her hand was cut, a trickle of crimson blood welling up.
Lorevil stared at the drop of blood and sighed helplessly.
‘Fine. I am a little weak.’
Lorevil awkwardly rubbed her nose, pulled out the communication blood crystal, and sent a message. “Noxia, come pick me up at the corner of xxx Street…”
After sending the message, Lorevil stuffed the crystal back into her pocket and leaned back on the bench, closing her eyes to rest.
Exhaustion in a third-rank Vampire was extremely rare. Once it occurred, it usually meant being unable to use bloodline energy for at least a day.
“Lorevil!”
Within minutes, Noxia stood before her, her pretty face anxious, still wearing that set of beige home clothes.
The girl’s hair was a bit messy. Clearly, she had rushed over immediately after receiving the message, without even time to tidy up.
“What’s wrong? You look so pale. Are you hurt?”
Seeing Lorevil’s pallid complexion, Noxia’s pupils contracted as she asked in alarm.
“Just ran into a bit of trouble. Was ambushed by a small faction and passed out…”
Lorevil leaned into her embrace, her voice hoarse.
“Ambushed? How could that…”
Noxia suddenly interrupted Lorevil. “It’s all my fault! It’s all my fault for rushing you this morning. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have…”
Something’s wrong.
Very wrong.
‘Is Noxia about to turn dark?’
Lorevil decisively activated today’s quota for the Darkening Gauge.
She clearly saw the dark energy above Noxia’s head suddenly coalesce, the Darkening Value surging like a tide to fifty percent.
For a moment, dark clouds gathered, and lightning flashed.
Lorevil was stunned.
An image flashed through her mind: Noxia innocently stirring a sandbag with a kitchen knife.
“Actually, it’s nothing serious.”
But at this point, Lorevil had no room to retreat. She could only brace herself and continue.
“A companion from the academy rescued me. I’m just a bit exhausted now.”
“Who ambushed you?”
Noxia slowly raised her head, her eyes now a chilling, icy cold. “I’m going to kill her!”
‘I have to calm her down.’
Cold sweat dripped down Lorevil’s back. If Noxia acted impulsively, she might really go back for a knife…
At that moment,
Lorevil suddenly remembered her recently cut finger and presented the slowly bleeding digit before Noxia’s eyes.
“Noxia, I’m hurt.”
Noxia’s attention was indeed captured, her icy gaze shifting to the wound.
“It hurts…”
Seeing it was working, Lorevil pressed her advantage. “Can you help me bandage the wound?”
Unexpectedly, Noxia’s expression changed, and the Darkening Value actually rose by another five percent.
Lorevil was stunned. She knew they were now dangerously close to a full darkening eruption.
‘Was she stimulated by the wound?’
As Lorevil pondered, she saw Noxia reach out and grasp her wrist to examine it.
“It was my own carelessness. It has nothing to do with you, Noxia.”
Lorevil breathed a sigh of relief, offering comfort.
“I’ll take you home to bandage it. We’re leaving right now.”
Noxia’s Darkening Value didn’t rise further as she spoke coldly.
“No, not home!”
Lorevil instinctively refuted.
Just thinking about that kitchen knife at home made her scalp tingle.
With the Darkening Value at fifty-five percent, Noxia would likely grab a weapon the moment she got home. Who knew what extreme things she might do.
Once she got her hands on her ‘special weapon,’ it would be much harder to soothe her later.
“No, we must go home!”
This sentence seemed to light the fuse. Noxia grew even colder, the temperature around them dropping several degrees.
Lorevil’s mind still wanted to struggle. She said urgently, “Noxia, there are pharmacies on this street too. We can find a place to bandage it. Look at me now, I don’t want to move around…”
“What… Lorevil doesn’t want to go back with me?”
Noxia looked at Lorevil, her attitude forceful, completely unlike the shy, evasive, and gentle wife from this morning.
“I do, I do. I’ll go home with you.”
Lorevil knew further objection would only make the Darkening Value rise again. She swallowed and compromised.
Hearing this, Noxia wordlessly picked Lorevil up, as if afraid she would disappear if she let go.
“Support me. I can walk myself.”
Lorevil’s already weakened body was no match for her wife’s darkening-enhanced strength. Being carried like this was utterly humiliating.
Noticing the strange looks from passersby, Lorevil’s fair neck flushed crimson as if painted with rouge.
Noxia’s icy gaze swept over the onlookers, scaring them into scattering.
“Gulp.”
Lorevil swallowed.
“Noxia, I’m really fine. See, I can still talk, I can still lift my hand. There’s really no need for all this…”
Lying obediently in Noxia’s arms, Lorevil didn’t dare mention not going home again. She could only keep trying to soothe her.
“Home!”
But Noxia’s wine-red eyes held only icy obsession now.
In Noxia’s world,
Only three thoughts remained: “Take Lorevil home,” “Bandage her with the best medicine,” “Don’t let her get hurt again.”
She couldn’t hear any of Lorevil’s subsequent words, maintaining her carrying posture as she walked toward the mansion.
Back at the mansion,
Noxia placed Lorevil on the living room sofa, then turned and rushed into the storage room, rummaging for the first aid kit.
It was one Lorevil had prepared earlier.
It was filled with high-grade wound medicine and disinfectants specifically for Vampires.
Leaning on the sofa, Lorevil looked at the still-dense dark energy above Noxia’s head and felt a headache coming on.
Tap tap tap…
Hurried footsteps sounded as Noxia walked over with the first aid kit.
“Noxia, I’ll do it myself. This little scratch is nothing.” Lorevil extended her uninjured hand, wanting to take the kit.
Noxia ignored Lorevil’s refusal and knelt down on her own.
She took out gauze and hemostatic ointment, grabbed Lorevil’s injured finger, her focus startlingly intense.
As she tended to the wound, Lorevil’s mind raced.
Noxia’s Darkening Value had skyrocketed this time because she was hurt, and Noxia mistakenly believed it was due to her rushing her this morning.
To lower the Darkening Value, she had to clear up this misunderstanding first.
But Noxia’s current state was quite unstable, her emotions heightened. A direct explanation would likely backfire.
So, she could only follow Noxia’s wishes for now and explain once her emotions stabilized.
“Hisss… that hurts.”
Right then,
Noxia, using a disinfectant swab, accidentally touched a sore spot. Lorevil deliberately let out a soft cry, her brows furrowing appropriately.
“Sorry… I was too hasty.”
Noxia froze. A flicker of panic and self-reproach passed through her eyes as she looked at Lorevil, and the pressure from her hands lightened considerably.
…
This was the first time she had spoken words tinged with apology since the Darkening Value rose.
Lorevil definitely wasn’t afraid of pain. A third-rank Vampire’s pain tolerance far exceeded a normal person’s. She had done it on purpose.
‘It seems Noxia hasn’t reached that particularly terrifying level of darkening yet. At least she’s still very concerned about my reactions.’
Lorevil felt a slight relief in her heart.
Noxia wrapped Lorevil’s injured finger in layer upon layer of gauze, like bundling a rice dumpling, before finally letting go with satisfaction.
Lorevil instinctively looked at the dark energy above Noxia’s head.
She found the dense dark energy had thinned slightly. The Darkening Value had also dropped from fifty-five percent to forty-five percent.
A ten percent drop!
This was undoubtedly a good sign.
But the remaining forty-five percent was still in the danger zone.
How to make it drop further? In her weakened state, Lorevil had no immediate plan.