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For a vampire, a human who has been injured and is on the brink of death is like fallen fruit. That was true for both moderates and hardliners alike.
Whether one preferred to pick the fruit directly, or to wait until it dropped on its own...
Either way, no human would try to reattach fruit that had already fallen back onto the tree.
If there was a dying human, even simply piercing their throat in one swift motion to put them out of their misery could be considered an act of kindness from a vampire.
Of course, there were exceptions, but it didn't seem like the boy in question would be one of Vasha's exceptions.
For Vasha, Todd alone was more than enough of an exception.
'Seriously, Rasa… from the beginning, you told me to save a kid. It's not like I'm a kindergarten teacher, yet you keep trying to stick kids to me every time. Wait, a kid?'
At that moment, an ominous premonition struck.
Vasha was about to open her mouth to ask more about the trial in detail. But...
[Notice: This trial will be carried out automatically, with rewards processed automatically as well.]
With that single sentence, Rasa bolted. It happened so fast that Vasha didn't even have time to grab it.
"Hey!"
Vasha shouted in disbelief, but Rasa never returned. Pressing her thumb firmly between her brows, Vasha muttered irritably.
"What the hell do you mean by 'automatic,' damn it…"
She put both hands on her waist and shook her head.
The trial had been forced to begin, but Vasha still understood Rasa's usual rules well enough.
Until now, Rasa had always informed her beforehand about the trial's content, the rewards, and even the precautions.
Even if there was some trick hidden in the wording...
There had never been any unexpected rewards or punishments added out of nowhere.
'Still, those question marks always piss me off.'
Given Rasa's nature, even if Vasha gave up on this trial, there wouldn't likely be any particular punishment.
So, she could simply forgo it and be done.
'Ignoring Rasa and just going to the villa to check things out myself would be the safest option.'
And yet, the reason she hesitated instead of moving was...
"Ah, damn it!"
That persistent, unsettling thought kept surfacing.
For example, what if the boy Rasa mentioned was actually Todd…?
'That's nonsense. Why would Todd be dying in the Noctiluca alley? Laurus and Oliver should be there too…'
There was no way those two would just stand by doing nothing and let Todd end up like that. It was ridiculous from start to finish.
'But Laurus and Oliver… both of them are pretty young for humans. What if something happened to them in the meantime…?'
Why hadn't she thought of that sooner?
Even as followers, they were still human, with finite lifespans.
'Damn it, I was thinking by vampire standards again.'
Laurus and Oliver could have already passed away. As that thought crossed her mind, Vasha's heart began pounding hard.
Vasha irritably tugged hard at the end of her hood.
"I'm just going to check if the injured kid is Todd. If it's not Todd, then it's none of my business. Hmph, like I'd let myself get swayed by Rasa again?"
With that, she quickly turned away from heading toward the villa.
In no time, Vasha disappeared into the foul-smelling, shadowy back alleys.
***
The place Vasha headed for was the slums.
'A kid is dying?'
Todd was a Van Drake. He could recover from most wounds quickly. If he couldn't, that meant the injury was severe, or that he was still in a dangerous situation.
From what Vasha knew of Todd, if he was injured enough to be in bad shape, he would do everything possible to avoid people's attention.
That meant there was a high chance he would have dragged himself to the slums.
Even if he was still in danger, the same logic applied. It wouldn't happen somewhere crowded with watchful eyes.
The moment Vasha entered the slums, she sharpened his senses.
The slums had also changed a lot from what she remembered. But unlike the main streets, where new roads had been laid and buildings constructed, here the changes were mostly extensions to existing structures, easy enough to grasp.
'The smell of blood… there's more of it than I thought.'
Perhaps because it was a place where all sorts of drifters gathered, every other house had an injured person.
And every scent of blood was different.
The fresh, raw scent of blood welling from newly opened wounds.
The rotten, decayed scent from old, festering injuries. The faint, dried smell clinging to bandages.
Finding a child by the scent of blood alone was nearly impossible.
Vasha pushed her power to its limits and spread out her shadow. The shadow stretched far, searching for Todd's presence.
Blending into the darkness, the shadow swept over every living being in the slums, one by one.
As she sifted through the slums like a sieve, a faint aura, like heat haze, was detected at the very edge of her shadow's reach.
It was so weak she almost missed it. But the familiarity it carried barely managed to snatch Vasha's attention.
Though the aura was now on the verge of vanishing completely, its true identity hadn't blurred.
A fierce soul's presence, as though clawing at her shadow.
Even in its deathly faint state, it still bucked wildly like an untamed stallion, still ferocious like a predator. There couldn't be many like that.
Vasha's heart dropped.
Now that her destination was certain, there was no time for hesitation. She pushed herself to run faster.
The scenery flashed by her sides as she drove herself forward.
At last, she reached a spot deep within a remote alley. Beneath the shadows cast by mismatched walls stood a boy with black hair, crouched down.
His body rose and fell faintly, as if he was barely clinging to life. Every shallow breath stirred the long, curly hair that had grown enough to cover his face.
Beneath that, the slender, delicate facial lines overlapped with the image of a young Todd.
Vasha's reason completely slipped away. Panicked, she rushed forward and embraced the boy.
"Todd! What on earth happened?! Why are you here like this…!"
When Vasha's cold hand touched his cheek, the boy's long, closed lashes lifted with difficulty, faintly revealing pupils.
That all-too-familiar golden hue was now clouded and dull with pain.
Questions piled up in Vasha's mind, who had done this to Todd, what had happened to Laurus and Oliver, mountains of them.
But the one person who could answer them all, Todd, was unconscious.
For now, the priority was to restore Todd's condition and get him to regain consciousness. Vasha carefully examined him to assess the extent of his injuries.
Before Vasha had left, Todd had looked about ten years old, though he had actually been thirteen.
Now, however, he looked to be around fifteen.
Though he had grown noticeably since they'd last parted, Vasha couldn't feel the slightest joy.
'Van Drakes are supposed to experience explosive growth once they reach the age of fifteen. What is this? He's just an ordinary fifteen-year-old. No, if he's actually fifteen, that's a relief. But if he's eighteen and still only grown this much…'
Given how Noctiluca had undergone such drastic changes, Vasha had long since abandoned the faint hope that only a year had passed and Todd might be fourteen now.
The boy's fallen limbs were tightly bound in leather and metal plates, yet even at a glance, Vasha could tell they were long and firm, like a deer's.
But to Vasha's eyes, there was nothing but skin and bones.
"I told you to eat well and to break the habit of running into dangerous places…! You didn't follow a single thing I said! Look at you, skin and bones! Does this look like someone who's been eating properly?"
The pain in her chest brought a stinging sensation to Vasha's eyes, as if tears might spill out. Her reddened eyes narrowed as she bit down hard on her lips.
If she forced herself to find even one small relief, it was that Todd's appearance suggested that only a few years had passed since they last met.
She didn't know exactly how long it had been, but if it was only a few years, then compared to the worst-case scenarios Vasha had feared, this was at least a somewhat positive outcome.
'Positive, my ass, look at the state he's in!'
Vasha cursed herself for even thinking such a thing, even for a moment.
Todd's entire body was covered with countless small injuries.
The most severe of them was a wound to his abdomen, as if something large had pierced right through him, causing blood to gush and bubble out.
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