Chapter Eighteen
Rosehearth
I felt the blood in my arm pulse as soon as I made it back to Victory Plaza.
The vampires of this world tracked prey through their blood with something almost similar to passive echolocation.
Their natural energy released pulses that would bounce back when detecting exposed blood.
So, as blood dripped down my arm and landed on the stone pavement below, I could see the ripples in the blood that only meant one thing.
There was a vampire nearby.
There were also too many people around.
“Did you see that announcement?”
“Someone defeated a new boss!”
“Do you think they’ll come through soon? It said a party of three, right? Hey… is that a guy who just came through?”
Yeah, there were way too many people around. Everyone wanted to meet whichever party was responsible for that announcement… which was my party.
“Hey, is he bleeding?”
“Should we call a healer?”
“What’s that… flower on his arm?
And I was attracting even more attention than usual because of the plant stuck to me making me bleed still.
I only had one option.
And that was to awkwardly push through the crowd and escape into the first alley that I saw, and to then make a few different turns through other alleys until I lost some of the girls who followed me.
I was sure Lupa and Rosie would find me after they came through.
Having them wait was important to me since I didn’t want a certain vampire to think we were trying to ambush her with three of us, but…
I ended up being so swarmed by people that it wouldn’t have mattered if they came through the portal with me or not.
Then I heard the sound of flapping fabric behind me and turned around to see the source. Surely enough, there she was.
An ethereally beautiful, elven woman as tall as me with long, blonde hair and elongated ears, red eyes, and an oversized jacket hanging off her shoulders that she wore more like a cape.
Beneath the jacket was a white button-up shirt tucked into black, high-waisted shorts with suspenders.
Pantyhose covered up her long legs that, when combined with the rest of her outfit, gave her a pretty mature look.
Really, aside from the pantyhose, she was dressed more like a man than a woman.
She almost looked ready for a day of office work than anything else.
Some players of the game even mistook her for a femboy at first since she was completely flat in the chest.
More importantly, that mature, cool face of hers was mired by primal hunger that left her panting as she struggled to remain composed.
“Hey there, Jeanne,” I said, finally removing the plant from my arm and stomping on it after throwing it to the ground. “Nice to meet you in this world.” I chugged a potion after that.
The vampire, Jeanne, took a step back and looked around out of paranoia. “You—how do you know my name?”
“Your father didn’t send me here if that’s what you’re—”
“That man is not my father! He does—he does not deserve that title…”
“Right. I can understand the feeling, so that’s my bad.”
And just in time, I saw Lupa at the far end of the alley. An out-of-breath Rosie joined her in peeking around the corner at us.
Jeanne drew the rapier at her side and pointed it toward me.
I saw Lupa in the background ready to strike, but I shook my head to tell her to stand down.
Jeanne noticed that and looked back to see her as well, lowering her blade once she realized I called Lupa off.
“How do you know my name if you are not here on that man’s command?
” Though she tried to have a serious conversation with me, the way that her eyes were locked onto my bloody arm made it obvious that there was something more important on her mind.
The bleeding effect wore off, but that didn’t matter. She already had the scent of my blood in her system.
Fortunately for me, I knew her weakness.
Jeanne was a hopeless romantic.
I drew my sickle, prompting Jeanne to raise her rapier again, and brought it to my finger to open it with a cut just deep enough to bleed.
Then, as droplets of blood dripped from my finger onto the ground below, I held my finger out toward Jeanne and put away my sickle.
It was time to act cheesy. “Is it not normal for a man to know the name of the woman he desires?”
I wanted to cringe at myself right after saying that.
At least Jeanne clearly liked it going by the way that she stepped back with reddened cheeks and nervous eyes. “You—that—what is your game? Am—am I to believe that a man I have never met before who knows my name ‘desires’ me?”
“We might not have met in this life, but we met in another. Time and time again, I took you as my wife, so is it so wrong that I wish to reclaim the woman who is mine?”
I might have pushed her a little too far since Jeanne ended up pinning me with my back to the wall and her blade against my neck so quickly that I didn’t even see her move.
Even so, she made sure to leave one hand on the back of my head to protect me from banging it against the hard wall of the building behind me.
“No man outside of a romance novel would ever say such words to a woman. What are you after?”
I grabbed her by her chin and looked into her eyes to say, “You.”
“I am a vampire. An enemy of mortals. No mortal, especially no man, would ever want someone with cursed blood.”
“Then why am I offering my own to you?”
“I—I do not know. Your actions… they make no sense. Yet, I have lived for centuries, but I cannot detect any deceit in your words.”
“Is it that hard to believe a man could want you?”
“It is hard to believe anyone could want me.”
“I know what it’s like to be afraid of letting your guard down—to think anyone could ever have your best interest in mind.
I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t want something from you.
I want you to turn me into a vampire. But, in exchange, I’ll help you.
I know your father rests at the top of his tower, waiting to return, and I know that you’re the only one who can kill him.
For the sake of your revenge and this world’s future, I’ll help you. ”
“How do you—… why would you wish to curse your blood?”
“Because I love this world and don’t plan on dying.”
“You will be seen a monster.”
“People already think I’m crazy for going to the dungeons every day.”
“You will need to consume blood just to survive.”
“Good thing dungeon monsters are full of blood.”
“The sun will burn your skin.”
“Most dungeons are inside, so that’s okay.”
“You… you are serious about this.”
“Just as I’m serious about helping you get revenge.
You won’t be able to do it alone, after all.
” I also always thought vampires were really cool and, whenever I read stories with them, I thought the protagonists were insane for not asking to get turned into one themselves.
I would have eventually wanted to become a vampire even if I stuck with my original Reaper/Chronomancer plan.
Jeanne looked down, her bangs hanging over her face to hide her expression from me as she whispered, “For how long have I yearned to hear such words…?”
“For too long,” I answered. Then I reached up to gently hold the side of her face, tilting her head back so that she was looking at me again.
“I know we have to wait until night for you to turn me, but until then, I know you’ve been starving yourself.
” I tilted my head to the side to show as much skin of my neck as possible to her.
“If trusting you enough to drink from me isn’t a sign that I’m serious about you, I don’t know what is. ”
Jeanne began to pant again as she stared at my neck. I couldn’t tell if her expression was more lustful or that of a starving beast who just saw a steak for the first time in years. “To—to willingly offer me your neck… you—you know what that means… do you not?”
“To vampires, it’s equivalent to saying, ‘I will be yours for the rest of my life,’ right? While also being a display of absolute trust. You could kill me if you wanted to with a single bite of my neck. I won’t be able to stop you from draining every last drop of my blood.”
“Just… who are you?”
“I’ll explain that later. For now, the choice is yours, Jeanne.
Promise to share your ‘curse’ with me, and I promise you’ll never be alone again on top of helping you get your revenge.
” She didn’t even need to promise me that, but I knew she would be even more suspicious if I offered all of that without wanting anything in return.
Plus, I did want something in return anyways.
“Why would you trust me? You said yourself that I could kill you. What makes you so sure that I will not?”
“Because you’re the same, romance-novel-addicted girl with one of the strongest senses of justice around that I fell for so many times before. I knew you would be, but meeting you confirmed it. You would never do the wrong thing no matter how evil you believe you are.”
“I doubt you can trust a woman you have never met. Even if your claims of knowing me from another life are somehow true, what is to say I am not different in this life?”
“All you’re doing is asking if I’m alright, Jeanne.
You’re already putting me before yourself.
Shouldn’t you ask why you should trust me?
What if I poisoned my blood somehow? Or what if I’m using magic to manipulate your senses, and what you’re seeing and feeling isn’t real?
Or maybe you’ve been put to sleep and are having your dreams manipulated?
You’re a good girl, Jeanne. Even in a situation where you should be paranoid and killing me for your own safety, you’re worrying about me instead of yourself.
You’re trying to convince me not to trust you even though you’re desperate for someone to be at your side. ”
“I—”