Between Girls, Anyway
“Make a sandwich.”
“…Your Highness, you can just speak normally. Why are you barking orders like you’re chanting an incantation? Has learning magic lately been that amusing?”
“Make a sandwich. Swiftly, and deliciously.”
“Haaa…”
Cecilia was being utterly, painfully cringe.
To be entirely frank, her recent behavior had been so thoroughly undignified that it made me wonder if this girl was truly an imperial princess. Had learning magic at the Academy really gone to her head that much? Watching her put on this ridiculous habit was enough to make me die of secondhand embarrassment. At least she had the sense not to act like this around other people outside, but that didn’t change the fact that she was being a complete idiot in private.
“What? You never know,” she protested. “Maybe one day I’ll reach the theoretical pinnacle of magic or whatever and wield Command Magic myself.”
“Well, you certainly can’t right now. You’re not even channeling mana into your words, so aren’t you just playing pretend?”
“Smart-aleck. You’re clever in all the most useless ways.”
“The more I look at you, Your Highness, the more you seem surprisingly childish.”
“I happen to be the exact same age as you!”
True enough, yet the thought slipped out anyway because she engaged in far more foolish nonsense than one would expect. Between her utter lack of social grace and general awkwardness, she constantly showed off an endearing kind of foolishness. The simple truth was that Cecilia’s inner self and her outward appearance were wildly different. I hadn’t noticed it back when an emotional wall stood between us, but now that we had grown properly close, the contrast was impossible to miss. It wasn’t that she simply had a nasty temper; rather, childish was the word that suited her best. Of course, her nasty streak was still very real.
“Besides,” she huffed, “who are you to talk when you’re so much shorter than me?”
“Height and age are two entirely different things.”
“It’s not just your height, though. You look so much younger than me that nobody would ever mistake you for an adult.”
“Well… I suppose that’s true.”
I wanted to shoot back, but the facts were on her side. She really only managed to articulate herself properly when she was taking jabs at me. Most of the time she was too lazy to bother, giving clipped one-word grunts or ignoring me altogether, which made her uncanny precision in picking apart my insecurities all the more exasperating.
“You’re tiny, your chest is flat, and your face looks like a child’s. Are you absolutely certain you’re grown?”
“I told you, I am.”
“For an adult, you don’t have a single trace of body hair, though. Are you sure you’ve even hit puberty?”
“…That’s just my constitution. My biology!”
Her memory was absurdly sharp when it came to these sorts of things. It was baffling how vividly she recalled intimate details of my body that she’d only caught fleeting glimpses of. Sharing a single dormitory room with only one bathroom meant letting her see my naked body had been an inevitable consequence. If I dried off and tried to get dressed inside the steamy bathroom, my wet hair would drench my clothes, so I naturally had to step outside, use a magic tool to dry my hair, and then dress.
“Still, you really don’t have a single strand. Can someone’s constitution actually be like that?”
“…It happens.”
“Apart from your hair and eyebrows, you’re completely smooth all over. It’s fascinating. Granted, I’ve never seen anyone else naked besides you, but that can’t be common, right?”
“I… suppose not?”
“I knew it. Even I have a normal amount of body hair. Being entirely hairless from the neck down is definitely strange.”
And so, Cecilia had gotten a full view of my unclothed body, including its total lack of hair. Between my petite frame, silver hair, and crimson eyes, my features were already distinct enough, but being entirely bare across every inch of skin must have left a lasting impression on her.
“Mmm…” Cecilia hummed thoughtfully.
“What is it now? Shall I go make that sandwich?”
“No. Now that I think about it, you’re a vampire, aren’t you?”
“…I am. A half-vampire, anyway.”
Our tangent about my body suddenly took a sharp turn into my race. It felt like an utter trainwreck of a conversation, jumping from one topic to the next without an ounce of rhyme or reason, but our chats were always like this. Naturally, neither of us batted an eye as we followed the thread.
“Do you actually drink blood?”
“I drink it through Blood Packs.”
“A Blood Pack… Go fetch one. Bring it here.”
“Right now?”
“Yes.”
Another sudden, inexplicable demand. Even so, I obliged. Returning to my room, I pulled one of the remaining Blood Packs from my travel trunk, carried it back out to the living area, and handed it over. I still had no idea why she had brought up the packs I occasionally sipped on, but I had plenty left, and Lynne had already promised to send more through the guild’s supply drops, so giving up a single pouch was no trouble at all.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
“This is actual blood? Even without smelling it, the color alone proves it’s definitely not tomato juice.”
“Of course. It’s real blood. If you twist the cap open slightly, you’ll catch the distinct scent of it right away.”
Cecilia held the Blood Pack, turning it over in her hands to inspect the pouch from every angle, though she didn’t break the seal. Honestly, while her sudden curiosity was a mystery, she did whatever she pleased so often that I had grown numb to it.
“Is blood really that delicious? In novels, vampires always look like they’re having the time of their lives drinking it.”
“It is delicious.”
“Truly? Human blood tastes good to you?”
“Yes. It has a sweet flavor, so… I enjoy it.”
I’d never spoken to anyone about consuming blood before, so admitting it brought a faint blush to my cheeks, but I answered honestly. Back in my past life as a boy, whenever I cut myself by mistake, I had licked or tasted my own blood once or twice. It wasn’t an intentional meal so much as childish curiosity about what it tasted like, and back then, all I had tasted was iron. When my baby teeth fell out while growing up, the mouth bleeds had carried that same metallic flavor. I knew what ordinary blood tasted like, but drinking it with this body was a fundamentally different sensation.
“It feels like drinking an exceptionally sweet beverage. Rather than merely tasting good, it just… makes me feel happy when I drink it. Almost like a sweet cocktail.”
I hadn’t touched alcohol in this body, but comparing it to my memories of my past life, that was the closest description. Of course, a proper cocktail came served in a lovely glass, whereas blood was sealed inside a pouch barely larger than my palm, so the atmosphere couldn’t have been more different.
“Hmm…”
“Why do you ask? Did you want to know something specific?”
“Just curious. If your own maid is a vampire, how could you not be curious? It would be far weirder if I wasn’t. Whenever you open your mouth, I can see those adorable little fangs of yours, and you’re surprisingly strong for someone so small. It’s intriguing.”
As expected, today’s sudden whim was rooted in pure curiosity. Whenever Cecilia took the initiative regarding anything, interest was almost always the driving force. That held true for magic, and it held true for this conversation. By contrast, when something bored her—like that Martin fellow who had tried to hit on her during the entrance ceremony—she treated them like thin air. Her engagement hinged entirely on her mood.
“So, how do you drink blood directly? Is there some kind of suction mechanism inside your fangs, or do you just puncture the flesh and lap up whatever spills out?”
“I’ve never drunk directly from a living person, so I wouldn’t know. Probably the latter? The former sounds like an overcomplicated fantasy trope.”
“You’ve never fed directly? You’ve only ever used these packs?”
“Yes.”
To this day, I had never consumed blood by any means other than Blood Packs. Sinking my teeth into someone felt thoroughly unhygienic and entirely inhuman. No matter that I had been reborn as a short, cute vampire straight out of a novel or video game, I had zero desire to bite into someone’s flesh just to feed. The very act of feeding directly off a person carried a strong aura of unsanitariness. While that might sound rich coming from someone who casually downed packaged blood, there was an unmistakable chasm between drinking from a pouch and biting into live prey. Besides, even if I were to drink directly, doing so from just anyone would feel terribly unpleasant. I had seen other people bleed plenty of times, but the urge to drink from them had never crossed my mind.
“In that case, try drinking mine.”
“…Pardon?”
“There’s no harm in it, right? I’m bored anyway, so this works out nicely. Come here, quickly.”
Suddenly, Cecilia tugged at the collar of her dress, exposing the fair, pristine skin of her neck. The sheer audacity of her action left me completely flustered. What kind of imperial royal, what kind of princess, what kind of woman casually bared her throat and told someone to bite her and drink her blood? Common sense screamed that this was entirely unhinged.
“…Your Highness, please stop talking nonsense.”
“We’re both girls anyway, so what’s the problem? Come on, just try it once. I’m curious.”
“No means no, Your Highness.”
Cecilia continued to flaunt her exposed neck with utter confidence, but I deliberately forced myself to push past the temptation and stood up from the sofa. Going into the kitchen to whip up a sandwich seemed far safer than staying here. If I didn’t put distance between us, she was undoubtedly going to keep pestering me with absurd requests to bite her neck.
“…Tch. You worry far too much about everything. It’s just a single bite.”
“…I beg you, please preserve at least a shred of your imperial dignity.”
“What’s the big deal about having a little blood drawn? It’s basically no different from getting bitten by a mosquito in the summer.”
A whirlwind of rebuttals flashed through my mind, but I bit my tongue, determined to tune out her ridiculous logic as I set about preparing her sandwich. Even as I worked, Cecilia kept pressing me to taste her blood, and I spent the rest of the afternoon stubbornly refusing each and every advance.
…Though, to be completely honest, I couldn’t stop my heart from fluttering just a little at the thought.