Chapter 64: Anna’s Boundaries?

I headed back to the inn without waiting for her to finish feeding. The feeling of having my blood sucked out was stranger than I’d expected.

But honestly? It also felt good in a strange kind of way.

I jumped toward the window I’d left open, closing it shut behind me as I surveyed the surroundings. Anna was still sleeping soundly on the bed.

It seemed like the explosion hadn’t come from the inn itself, but from a battlefield slightly farther off. Guess the walls were enough to muffle the explosions.

And I guess it was accurate; in the novel, there wasn’t really any mention of other students hearing or seeing Lucius fight the next day.

But at least he had already drawn them away from the inn. That didn’t mean this place was free from threats, though.

I could hear one of the white-robes still lingering, patrolling the inn’s exterior to make sure no one backed Lucius up.

But considering that in the original novel, Lucius had beaten them at full strength...

And now they were down to only two who were available to fight him; they were probably screwed.

"Mhm..."

Lillith whimpered against my neck as she continued feeding. Do vampires really feed for this long? I’d never really thought about it, but drinking blood through fangs seemed inefficient...

Unless their fangs also worked as straws or something?

I was lost in thought for a while about the logistics of things, and I didn’t even notice at first that Lillith’s chest, where her heart was located, was starting to glow a bright red.

But that wasn’t right.

Wasn’t her heart only supposed to glow after she consumed a special kind of blood? The reason she turned into a villainess in the first place? To gain an absurd amount of power to rival anyone else and ascend into a vampire queen?

Who was then, well... defeated by Lucius?

Don’t tell me...

I looked down at Lillith, still feeding against my neck, and the pieces clicked into place with the kind of clarity that only came from having read the original story.

The special blood. The catalyst that triggered her transformation. It wasn’t some rare monster’s ichor or a forbidden ritual she had to hunt down. It was something far simpler than that.

Blood from a powerful soul. Or more specifically, the blood of someone who’d been touched by something beyond this world.

And I guess the Fey Core that had bound itself to my soul, and the dual-soul phenomenon... counted as fulfilling those requirements.

The glow spread from her chest, pulsing in time with her heartbeat. It was faint at first, barely visible through the fabric of her dress.

But it was growing brighter by the second, and I could feel her grip on my shoulders tightening.

"Well, shit..."

I laughed. Hopefully this would work out for me.

"Master..."

She said it softly as she pulled back. Her crimson eyes now had a faint golden streak through the center, her fangs slightly longer, and according to my senses...

Her mana had quite literally tripled.

But master...?

"Reyn?"

Anna stirred from her sleep, rubbing her eyes as she saw the two of us in the middle of the room. Me carrying Lillith, one hand on her back and the other under her knees.

And what made it worse? Lillith looked like she was on cloud nine.

"W-What the...?"

✧ ✦ ✧

A minute later, I was kicked out of the room. According to Anna, they needed to have a girl-on-girl talk. And now I was leaning against the wall, waiting for them to finish.

Anyone would react like that if they saw something like that in the middle of the night.

And for the first time in forever, I didn’t bother eavesdropping. I decided to give Anna that much, considering the torture I had likely accidentally put her through by letting her see something like that.

Three minutes later, the door finally opened and Lillith walked out, sighing deeply, a gash on her cheek that was already starting to heal.

"Are you okay?"

Lillith turned toward me, and unintentionally, one of her fingers roamed across her lips, likely remembering the taste of my blood.

"I-I’m okay, it’s nothing to worry about, mas—"

Lillith turned red and shook her head.

"Never mind."

Again? Why is she suddenly calling me master? That didn’t happen in the novel when she evolved. I should look into it more.

"Reyn, come in."

I stepped inside and saw Anna with her nails dripping in blood, her white nightgown stained with it as well. Whatever happened, it wasn’t pretty.

But the two women were powerful enough that it didn’t seem like much of a bother.

"You followed her into an alley and saved her, correct?"

"Yes."

"So she really did endanger you..."

Anna sighed, as if that meant more than the intimate scene she had seen minutes ago. She bit her nails in thought, not even minding the blood coating them.

"What am I going to do about this..."

She sighed again.

I stepped further into the room, closing the door behind me. Anna stood by the window, her back to me, the moonlight catching the blood on her nails. She didn’t turn around.

"You’re not upset about what you saw."

It wasn’t a question.

Anna’s shoulders tensed, then relaxed with a breath that sounded more tired than angry.

"I’m not upset that she fed on you. I’m upset that she put herself in danger, and you followed."

She finally turned, pink eyes sharp despite the sleep still clinging to her features. The blood on her hands had dried to a darker crimson, flaking at the edges.

"I told you before, Reyn. I’m not one to gatekeep someone else’s savior. Lady Lillith needed blood. You gave it. That’s between the two of you."

"Then what’s the problem?"

"The problem is that she ran off alone against four trained assassins, and you went after her. Without waking me."

Ah. There it was.

"Reyn, don’t talk to Lady Lillith for a while. I need to do something."

Her pink eyes flickered red for the briefest moment before settling back to their usual hue. Something cold crawled down my spine, but I nodded anyway.

"I can do that much. Just... don’t kill anyone."

"Don’t worry, I won’t. I just need to reflect on your present company for a while..."

She smiled, soft and reassuring, but the red hadn’t fully faded from the edges of her irises.