Chapter 313: Mizuki desperatelytries not to fall
"This miasma is eating you up and getting stronger as we speak."
"..." She opened her eyes a little in shock, looking into Victor"s face, trying to find any signs of falsehood, but she found nothing.
Either he was a good liar, or he was telling the truth.
And if there"s one thing she knew about Victor, it"s that he wasn"t a liar.
As much as she hated to admit it, she knew she could trust this... this... Vampire...
And that"s something she hated, to think she would actually have a modic.u.m of trust for a Being of the Night…
Victor bit his finger without the gloves he always wore, and soon drops of blood started to come out of his finger.
"What are you-." The moment Mizuki opened her mouth to speak, she felt a foreign object invade her mouth.
"Fummgh!?" She looked at Victor"s hand and realized it was his finger that was in her mouth.
"Suck." He ordered in a neutral tone but without using his powers.
Of course, Mizuki did not accept this order.
She desperately tried to struggle and use her strength to pull the man"s hand away, but she couldn"t muster the strength for it since she was so tired and hurt.
She felt drops of Victor"s blood falling into her mouth and wanted to spit it out. She didn"t want to drink a Vampire"s cursed blood!
Little tears threatened to fall down her face, and bad memories started to pop into her head. She didn"t want to transform!
Victor lightly caressed Mizuki"s cheek with his other hand and spoke in a gentle tone that left the woman speechless:
"Don"t worry, trust me." He spoke in such a different tone than usual that it took Mizuki by surprise.
"I promise I want the best for you." He flashed a gentle little smile.
Listening to Victor"s calm tone of voice and seeing his expression…
Unconsciously, Mizuki finally responded...
Gulp.
She couldn"t help but swallow the blood that was dripping in her mouth, and she didn"t have the strength to resist Victor"s advances...
And just one drop was enough... With just one drop of Victor"s blood, she began to change...
Her cheeks turned red, and her eyes slowly turned unfocused.
She had the expression of someone who was completely intoxicated, and her voluptuous body started to sweat; it was as if she was burning inside.
She felt her whole body burning with a pleasant heat.
She stopped resisting, she held Victor"s hand, and soon she started sucking his finger.
It was as if she was licking a very yummy candy.
"Good." Victor flashed a small satisfied smile as he looked at the woman"s abdomen and used his vision again.
Just as he expected, the miasma couldn"t fight his blood, and, as if it were a hungry beast, Victor"s blood completely devoured the miasma.
Soon changes began to occur throughout Mizuki"s body.
Gulp, Gulp.
While drinking Victor"s blood, Mizuki"s body began to heal.
All the internal wounds she had were completely healed, and even the scars on her body were healed. Victor realized that his blood had completely recovered the damage from the years suffered by the woman.
"My blood is that strong, huh..." His blood was so strong that it could regenerate years of internal wounds and scars.
Victor could easily imagine the chaos that would ensue should this information get out.
"Let"s hunt this vampire, he can give us immortality, Blah, blah." Victor would become a specimen desired by all.
Though if anyone were to drink his blood without Victor"s own permission, only disaster would ensue.
As a Progenitor, he could control his own blood as if it were his hand, and causing internal damage to someone who drank his blood was as easy as a snap of his fingers.
And even without that, his own blood would devour the being; after all, that was his most terrifying property.
Like now, if he wanted to, he could activate his blood, and Mizuki"s entire body would be devoured.
But of course, he wouldn"t do that.
Slurp, Slurp.
Victor awoke from his thoughts, stopped looking at Mizuki"s inner body, and looked at the woman"s face.
Realizing that if it continued like this, the woman would end up turning into a vampire, Victor said.
"That"s enough." He pulled his finger out of Mizuki"s mouth, much to the woman"s dismay.
"Master." Natalia handed Victor a handkerchief.
"Thanks." Victor didn"t refuse. He wiped his hand, and soon he burned the handkerchief.
Then he put the glove on his hand again.
"Haaa...haaa..." Mizuki was completely out of breath, her breathing was labored, drool was falling from her mouth, and her gaze was looking at Victor with pure desire.
Her eyes had changed to blood red, much like the coloring his maids" eyes had.
Victor focused on the woman and realized she hadn"t been turned into a Vampire. This was just a side effect of the woman drinking his blood.
Until his blood dissolved in her system, the woman would have those eyes.
She was something close to a human-vampire hybrid now, although it was temporary.
"Natalia, please."
"Yes."
Natalia summoned another handkerchief and gave it to Victor.
Victor wiped the woman"s lips. All the while, Mizuki did nothing. She just looked at Victor with lost eyes while she was completely out of her mind. Victor found the current Mizuki quite meek and beautiful, although he preferred the Mizuki, who was an independent warrior.
But this change of air was not a bad thing.
When she was completely clean, he burned the handkerchief again.
The moment Mizuki saw the handkerchief disappear into thin air, her consciousness returned to her.
"!!!" She quickly jumped off the floor and stood up, looking at Victor with unbridled fury.
"Well, if you can move like that, you should be better now." He got up from the floor with a slight smile on his face.
"What did you do to me!?" She demanded with anger on her face, and shame... She couldn"t believe she had made that face for him.
"I healed you." Victor pointed to the woman"s toned abdomen.
Following Victor"s hand, she saw that her wound was gone… Not just her wound, all her scars, and even internal wounds caused by fighting for so long were gone as well.
It was as if she had gone back to her teenage years when her body wasn"t riddled with scars and internal damage.
"...this...this..." She couldn"t believe what she was seeing as she touched her abdomen with a shocked look and began to scan her entire body.
The only reason she didn"t take her clothes off to check her body completely was that she was ashamed and wasn"t going to get naked in front of any man.
Though in her current outfit, she could easily check her back where there was a scar she"d wanted gone for a long time.
She walked towards the full-length mirror that hung on a wall within the room they were in.
And when she got to the mirror and saw her reflection, her whole world seemed to freeze… She completely forgot to check her back.
After all, the sight in front of her was too shocking.
His former black eyes changed to blood red…
By an involuntary act of her own body, she blinked, and when she blinked, she saw a tall man behind her.
"!!!" Her whole body visibly trembled as she was startled by the man"s sudden appearance.
"You turned me into a freak!?" She turned around quickly with anger plastered on her face. She couldn"t believe she had turned into the creature she hated the most right now.
She knew she couldn"t trust him!
Victor grabbed her wrist and turned her body to face the mirror again.
"Let me go!" She tried to struggle, but even with her strength regained, being even a little stronger thanks to the vampire blood in her body, she was still no match for Victor without her Onmyo incantations.
Victor gently cupped the woman"s face with his hand and forced her to look straight ahead.
"Calm down." Victor"s eyes glowed violet for a few seconds.
"...?" All of Mizuki"s feelings of rising anger began to cool. It was as if someone purposely threw a bucket of cold water on her feelings that were growing like flames about to destroy everything.
"Look carefully."
She looked at her appearance and saw something that shocked her as her blood-red eyes slowly started to return to normal.
"W-What..."
"The change in your eyes is just a temporary side effect." Victor slowly released the woman"s wrist and stopped holding her face.
He lowered his body a little and placed his face at the same height as Mizuki"s face.
Mizuki touched her face in a state of shock.
"You"re not a "freak"." He displayed a small sneer at that word, he really didn"t like that word.
He thought that even the weakest Vampire was much better than being a human.
After all, just the benefits of immortality, if used well, could be something terrifying in the future.
Just imagine a weak vampire, but they had enough patience to build an empire, and even a weak vampire if they never stopped training. Over time, that weak Vampire would become a terrifying force.
Because of that, he really didn"t like that word.
Then he walked away from her.
Seeing the man leaving in the mirror, a feeling of relief ran through Mizuki"s entire body.
Sigh.
She sighed, a little relieved.
And... She started to feel bad. She felt bad for distrusting Victor, considering that he didn"t do anything to provoke her distrust from the beginning.
"No... Mizuki wake up. You are being deceived. Remember. Never trust a Vampire, especially a strong Vampire like him. Our relations.h.i.+p is only of mutual interest." She shook her head several times and slapped her face with both hands.
She buried all the emotions she was feeling from this situation and ignored everything.
She turned and looked at Victor.
Seeing the man who was now sitting on an ice throne as he looked at her with an amused little smile that seemed to say:
"I know what you"re thinking."
Mizuki"s entire face turned red with embarra.s.sment, and she turned her face away with a snort.
"..." Natalia just shook her head as if she had no choice. She"d observed everything from the beginning and couldn"t help but think that Mizuki was very strong:
"She can resist his natural charm and att.i.tude with just her willpower... If it were me... I..." She shook her head several times as thoughts that a Maid shouldn"t have started to pop into her head.
"But... He"s really changed..." Victor now acted much more like an Older Vampire. He was manipulative, charming, and elegant.
"His acts may seem intimate, but he was simply doing it to stoke his opponent"s feminine instinct."
Victor now knew which b.u.t.tons to press, which words to speak, and which gesture to make to get the reactions he wanted from his opponent.
And in doing that to her with his confident aura, honest nature, and current appearance, the damage was too great to any woman"s heart.
"Thanks for Odachi, Mizuki." Victor suddenly spoke up since he wanted to say it properly.
"…H-Huh?" She looked back at Victor, who at some point had his Odachi floating by his side.
"I really like this Odachi, she"s perfect..." He spoke in a simple tone, with a small, kind and grateful smile on his face.
Badump.
"O-Oh...that"s good, I think..." She was caught off guard again by this man; she really shouldn"t let her guard down.
"..." Victor flashed a small smile, as he really liked how his current appearance influenced people.
Phrases like:
"First impression always matters."
"People judge a book by its cover."
They were all true, especially in today"s world.
That was a lesson Victor learned from his mother in the past as well.
And now, along with Adonis" memory, he knew how to use his charm to influence people.
And the people who talked to Victor would never know what he was thinking.
They would be too lost in his charm and his deceptive expression to try to understand anything.
"The mind"s worst enemy is yourself."
A lesson that came from Adonis himself, a lesson that letting your opponent imagine was far more beneficial than saying something.
"… D-Did you come here just to speak those words?" She turned her face away as she spoke since she couldn"t meet his face as she spoke.
"Yes." Victor didn"t deny her words.
"I also came to see my favorite Hunter."
"O-Oh..." She reacted little as she bit her lip.
"f.u.c.k! I really shouldn"t like those words! But why do I like it so much!?"
Why!?
f.u.c.k!
"Mizuki."
"Yes?"
Victor narrowed his eyes a little when he saw her talking while looking at the wall as if finding something interesting:
"...Look at me."
Mizuki bit her lips harder, but she wouldn"t back down! She wasn"t a coward, and so she slowly looked at Victor.
Seeing his violet eyes and his beautiful face, divinely beautiful, for a few seconds, she was completely lost.
"I"m heading to Clan Adrastea"s territory, I came here to invite you to come with me."
"..." Natalia raised her eyebrows when she heard what Victor said.
"!!!" Mizuki woke up from her stupor, and as Victor"s words registered in her mind, she asked with a serious look:
"Why do you want me in that cursed place?" As a former General, she had more or less an idea of what Clan Adrastea"s territory was like.
Although this information hadn"t been updated in 400 years, she knew how dangerous that territory was...
"You are a Hunter." Victor pointed out, "And what is a Hunter"s job?"
"To Hunt."