Vampire (3)
Vampire (3)
Dojin stroked the back of his neck to check if there were any wounds.
The spot where her teeth had touched stung a bit, but there was no hole or anything.
"What the fuck is this bitch?"
"Mmph, mmph!"
Grabbing Adelange's snout with one hand and lifting her up, Dojin ignored her flailing legs as she smacked his arm in pain.
Every time she tapped his arm, a sharp numbness shot through it, but Dojin didn't care and slammed her into the wall.
Kwaaang—!
"Hubby!?"
And almost at the same time the sound rang out, Celestia appeared. Seeing Adelange embedded in the wall, she sighed heavily as if to say she knew it.
"Sigh, if you'd just stayed quiet, I would've killed you nicely......."
Celestia gathered spirits in her hand and immediately approached Adelange. Seeing her menacing look, Dojin freaked out a little and stopped her.
"What are you doing?"
"What do you mean? This bitch is a vampire. Gotta kill her."
"Kill her?"
To Dojin, who had figured she'd at most get thrown in jail or do hard labor, that was a huge shock.
He'd only subdued her after she grabbed him, his neck stung, and she kept resisting even after. Biting his neck didn't seem like that big a crime.
"Why?"
"......Hubby, you don't know what a vampire is?"
"What is it?"
"A mosquito that sucks blood."
"A mosquito? She's a person."
"You can't judge by looks. That thing is......."
Celestia said that and moved to kill Adelange, but Dojin turned his body slightly to block her.
Celestia tilted her head at him like she couldn't understand.
"What are you doing?"
"Do we have to kill her?"
"Yeah. Vampires are sinful just by existing."
"That's what she says. Defend yourself."
Dojin slightly opened the mouth of Adelange, who he'd been blocking.
Her broken fangs and torn gums were already fine. Regaining her freedom, Adelange desperately started making excuses.
"I, I'm! A good vampire! I've never bitten anyone unwilling or made any kids!"
"Good for you. No more bugs around."
"If you spare me! If you just spare me, I'll do anything! Please, I beg you!"
Adelange said that and started trembling. The weird thing was she didn't shed a single tear even in that situation.
Vampires can't cry.
It was a cliché he'd seen plenty on Earth, but he hadn't known it was real. Was the Otherworld connected to Earth or something?
'Mosquito, huh.......'
Dojin recalled her words and scanned Adelange up and down. Sure, mosquitoes deserved to die on sight, but right now she was just a pale beauty.
He couldn't quite get that such a being was a mosquito hunted on sight.
'Maybe it's history from the Otherworld that I, coming from Earth, don't know.'
That made sense. Dojin was an outsider from Earth, after all, and outsiders don't get local culture easily.
But even so.
He couldn't bear to watch her—a person in form—die.
"Celestia."
"......What?"
"Even if I say I want her, you'll still kill her?"
"Wha, you wanna keep a vampire?"
Hearing Dojin, Celestia looked at him like it was absurd. Fair enough—Dojin would make the same face seeing someone on Earth say they'd keep a mosquito as a pet.
But if it was his lover saying it? If it was someone he loved to death?
He might think it was a weird fetish, but he wouldn't try to crush their will.
"It's not impossible...... No, still, kinda......."
"No?"
"B-but... Hubby, it's a vampire! You know vampires, right?"
"No vampires in my neighborhood."
"Even so......."
Celestia still showed clear aversion to keeping a vampire. Part of it was instinctive disgust for the species itself, but it was mixed with worry for Dojin too.
Figuring that out, Dojin told her not to worry and drew up his inner energy. The intense yang energy blazing up from his Extreme Yang Body flowed straight through his hand.
"Kyaaah—!?"
"Quiet."
Chiiiiiik—.
After all, extreme yang was the sun.
And the sun was a vampire's natural enemy.
Hit directly by energy like the sun, Adelange felt her body turning to ash and was gripped by extreme terror.
She'd once found magic to overcome the sun long ago, making the fear even greater. It felt like she was back to those powerless childhood days dying in sunlight.
And a child's mental terror was nothing compared to an adult's.
"Mmph-! Mmph!"
Her eyes shot open, pupils shaking wildly.
If she weren't a vampire, she'd have been shitting and pissing herself, soiling Dojin's hand and the floor.
The only reason she didn't was her last shred of pride as a vampire.
Dojin pointed at her trembling form and said to Celestia.
"She can't even lift a finger like this. Should be fine, right?"
"Hmm...... Well, at this level......."
Seeing Adelange suffer, Celestia felt some pity and nodded, allowing him to keep her.
With Celestia's permission, Dojin released Adelange and offered her his hand.
"Heard that? You're mine from now on."
The vampire who'd lived centuries could only nod helplessly. She had no strength or will left to refuse.
"—What!? Y-you're keeping a v-vampire!?"
"Yeah."
"W-well, it's not impossible, but... why......."
Iris looked at Dojin like he had the weirdest taste. Sure, even if Dojin said he liked chopping off women's limbs and torturing them, it wouldn't dent her love for him......
But honestly, this was beyond weird—straight-up stupid.
"So, where'd you get the vampire?"
"Right here."
"......This lady's a vampire?"
The Saintess gaped at the bound Adelange like she hadn't noticed at all. To think such a monster had been right next to her husband!
She'd almost let Dojin get bitten by a vampire. Feeling devastated, she glared at Adelange.
"We almost had a disaster. If you'd bitten him......."
"She already bit me once."
"What!?"
"Here."
Dojin showed her the back of his neck. Faint tooth marks remained.
She hadn't sucked blood, but seeing the scar, Iris freaked and gathered divine power in her hands.
"Th-this, th-this......."
"This?"
"This blasphemous bitch!"
She then smacked the subdued Adelange. How dare she touch Dojin's neck—somewhere even Iris couldn't!
Hit by divine power—the second-worst thing after sunlight—Adelange bit her lip against the agony as bad as Dojin's attack.
What the hell was this? She wasn't some neighborhood punching bag......
She felt wronged. She hadn't kidnapped dozens of virgins just to drink blood, or piled up corpses into mountains and seas of blood. She'd just lured some virgins with money to suck a little blood.
'Ugh, my dignity as a noble of the night.......'
But those thoughts faded with each hit from the Saintess. Finally, just before her eyes rolled back, Dojin grabbed the Saintess's hand.
"Stop."
"Hah, haa... Hoo, if you say so, hubby... I'll make arrangements so there's no issue taking her."
"Thanks."
"Um, if you're thankful......."
Wiping sweat from furiously beating Adelange, the Saintess fidgeted like a desperate dog staring at something upon hearing Dojin.
Even Dojin wasn't that oblivious to such blatant begging. He went for the skinship he'd done often before.
"Yeah yeah, good girl. That good?"
"......Yes, pleeeease."
Hugging her till her body nearly crushed, then petting her hair into a mess, Dojin set the Saintess down, picked up Adelange, and returned to the mansion.
While carrying her, Seoyun and Eunha silently stared at her without a word.
'What happens to me now?'
Moved to Dojin's mansion, Adelange looked back and forth at Dojin and his group, trembling in fear.
She'd thought the good smell from Eunha was because she had blood tempting all vampires, but no.
'Who'd have thought she was just a monster.......'
How could anyone predict that?
That an unknown ballerina from a no-name troupe was actually a Level 3 adventurer.
Only a paranoid who suspects everything would guess that—a vampire living centuries couldn't live like that.
Life throws so much at you; you gotta stay optimistic.
'Am I dying? Or meat toilet duty?'
She'd heard some nobles were like that.
Guys who didn't know vampires' terror, bewitched by their beauty, and lusted after their bodies.
'A normal human, I could kill.......'
But her opponent was a Level 3 adventurer, a monster with unbreakable flesh. Adelange had no idea how to deal with that.
She just hoped she could stay dignified.
"......Kill me."
"Wow... A real person saying that shit."
Deokgu, who'd come to gawk after hearing they caught a vampire, watched Adelange's words with fascination.
Dojin told her no pipe dreams and untied her bonds.
"......?"
"There, done."
"......What are you doing?"
Freed, Adelange warily stood slowly.
Was it confidence like in the shop earlier—that he could subdue her even unbound?
But she was way too defenseless for that.
'What's he thinking.......'
Dojin couldn't understand. She was a vampire, hated and persecuted by all humans.
A big mosquito receiving hate and hostility just for being born that way.
But Dojin looked at Deokgu and asked about the hint he'd given before.
"Why are vampires persecuted?"
"Dunno. Reasons vary...... If I had to pick, checks and balances?"
"Checks and balances?"
"Not many remember details, but popularly, it's the elite keeping them down."
Deokgu eyed Adelange and explained why this frail vampire had no choice but to be persecuted.
"Immortal as long as there's blood, eternally beautiful, undead that don't die. Plus, bite a rational being and enslave them."
Long ago, in times even elves barely remember. One vampire was born.
And that vampire nearly conquered the world.
All races on the continent instinctively feared vampires for what one did alone.
A jagged stone gets hammered down, as they say.
After that, vampires were consciously hated and hunted by all races.
"That history lingers, so vampires are still discriminated against and killed on sight."
"So, no issue with vampires themselves, right?"
"Except they might conquer the world someday? Any race could, really......."
Hearing that, Dojin approached Adelange and offered his hand.
She'd trembled instinctively in fear, but slowly took it.
"Then you're human too."
Earth had times discriminating by skin color.
But eras passed, humanity realized it was meaningless, and enlightened.
"If you need anything, say so. I'll hear you out."
"......You're not killing me?"
"Coming from a place without that prejudice."
But Dojin gave her one warning.
"If you try killing us, I'll kill you."
"......Got it."
Seeing Dojin protect her, Adelange decided to build her strength here. Better than slaving among monsters like the Elf Queen or Saintess.
"Please take care of me."
"......Please take care of me."
He offered his hand again.
This time, she didn't ignore it.