“I am willing to become your food, Hill.”
Now it was Hill who couldn’t believe what she had just heard, even though this was exactly the answer she had most hoped for, the future she had dreamed of.
She, Hill Hamill, had a dream—to have a blood bag she could draw from at any time, so she wouldn’t have to risk going out to hunt at night anymore.
Yet, even with this dream in her heart, she had never thought that a girl would say such words to her face.
At this moment, Hill even forgot that she was still hungry. Clearly, Otis was the ignorant young girl who had always lived an ordinary, mundane life, while she herself was a creature that dared not see the light of day, a vampire who survived on human blood.
Back then, after she drank the blood of the viscount’s young lady, that girl had said something similar—”I want to become your food.” But at that time, Hill thought the girl might not have been fully conscious. Besides, they’d never met before, and the other’s manner and bearing were so extraordinary. Faced with that blank unknown, Hill finally decided to drug the girl unconscious and cast the whole thing to the back of her mind.
But this time was different. Even putting aside her previous life’s experiences, since her “rebirth” she’d already spent quite a long time together with Otis.
Add to that the fact that Madam Anna had invited her to the Mountbatten mansion every week to be Otis’s private tutor. Even if this relationship was founded on that weekly gold coin, Hill had, without realizing it, already started seeing that place as the only one where she could truly relax.
Hill took a deep breath, her expression grave and earnest. “Otis, do you really understand what you just said?”
“Of course.” Otis nodded, and even said playfully, “I can say it again in Elvish if you like.”
With that, she recited the sentence in a string of words that Hill could only half-understand.
Hill felt utterly defeated. The girl beneath her had already agreed to her request to feed, and though there was some fear of the unknown in her expression, she neither resisted nor pushed Hill away. Yet her own behavior was like that of a coward—she even withdrew the fangs she’d just extended, returning to her usual appearance.
Putting aside her identity as a vampire, Hill was, in truth, a very lovable girl—no one would refuse a request from such a girl.
But was Otis really accepting this for such a simple reason?
“Hill.” Otis seemed to gather a bit of strength. She rolled over, smoothly reversing their positions so that Hill was pressed beneath her. “Aren’t you hungry? And I just said I’m willing to be your food.”
“…Do you really know what that means?”
As a hunter with absolute power, Hill was now flipped onto the ground by a seemingly weak little white rabbit and held down firmly.
“Of course I do.” Otis’s cheeks flushed faintly pink. “It means I’ll give you my blood…”
“Not that!” Hill suddenly raised her voice, a note of exasperation in her tone. “You’re a noble by birth, with the face of an angel and incomparable talent for the Elvish tongue. One day you’ll surely…”
One day you’ll surely become a famous diplomat or interpreter, a figure respected by both humans and elves.
Someone like that should never be entangled with a vampire.
“Hill, you’re so strange.” Otis said, her bright green eyes fixed tightly on the girl beneath her. “Wasn’t it you who told me your secret, who asked to feed? I already agreed, so why is it you who’s hesitating and avoiding this now?”
“As for what you just said… Maybe you don’t understand—chances are I won’t ever be a diplomat or interpreter. Mother said that if Father’s business in Mossstone City doesn’t go well, the Mountbatten family’s surface prosperity will collapse in an instant, just like the Tudor Empire a thousand years ago, and become nothing but ruins. I’ll be married off as a tool for alliance, another canary in a noble cage, or even a child-bearing machine.”
Hill was stunned by this. “How could that be?”
“Why not?” Ever since her last conversation with her mother, Otis understood a great deal more. “That’s what it means to be a noble, isn’t it?”
She bent down, reducing the distance between her and Hill until it nearly vanished.
Her warmth and scent made Hill’s cheeks burn, her heart pounding like a startled deer. To be teased like this by her “food”—surely this was a first for a vampire in a thousand years!
“Hill, it turns out we’re really quite alike.” Otis gently stroked Hill’s face, now tinged with a flush, her eyes filled with the joy of finding a kindred spirit. “I envy your magical talent. I thought you’d soon advance through the ranks and become a real mage. As for me, at best I’ll be like my mother, watching your figure from afar.”
“Now that I think about it, we’re both people walking on a frozen lake in winter. Every step could shatter the ice and send us plunging into a bottomless lake.”
Those words finally shattered the last layer of doubt wrapped around Hill’s heart.
The familiar, nearly maddening hunger surged to her mind; her throat worked constantly as she swallowed. Her eyes narrowed, their gaze growing hazy, the fragrance of the girl before her thickening by the second. That scent seemed to stir her spasming stomach and the primal instincts deep in her blood.
Not just for vampires, but for nearly all living creatures, the strongest instinct is to survive—and to survive, you must eat.
Hill hesitated no longer, nor was she lost. Otis’s words—”It turns out we’re really quite alike”—filled her with a wild joy at finding someone like herself.
It’s only natural for kindred spirits to draw close to one another for warmth.
So, Hill moved. She opened her mouth, once again extending those fangs that had withdrawn in her moment of cowardice.
She even reached out to unbutton Otis’s collar. One button, two, three—as if personally unveiling a painting. The girl’s pale neck, tinged with pink, was the most beautiful landscape in Hill’s eyes.
Otis’s breath quickened at this action. For the first time, aside from her mother and the maids, someone else was undressing her. The cold air, which had been waiting outside, rushed in all at once, but Otis, whose body temperature was steadily rising, barely noticed.
Hill stopped after unbuttoning the third button—this was enough. At this moment, she could already see the budding curves of Otis’s chest. On any other day, those half-concealed, alluring lines might have drawn her gaze, but now her mind was filled only with the desire to feed, and nothing else.
She reached out—one hand pressing against Otis’s left cheek, the other on her right shoulder—a subconscious gesture, to prevent her prey from escaping. Otis was now entirely the prey beneath this vampire’s hands, with no chance of running, even though it was still daylight and their strengths were not even on the same scale.
Hill gradually pressed her lips to the softest spot on Otis’s neck. The blood here was the sweetest, the richest in nutrients.
She had done everything she could to make the experience easier for Otis. To minimize and shorten the pain, Hill pierced the skin swiftly, instantly injecting a toxin that numbed pain and accelerated healing.
“Ah!”
Otis couldn’t help but cry out. Having been pampered since childhood, she had never felt anything so strange and wonderful.
A girl her own age, using a kiss, was biting her neck with the fangs of a vampire. It hurt a little at first, but when Hill injected the toxin, she gasped softly.
What kind of feeling was this?
Like an electric shock—a brief, sharp pain, followed by a tingling numbness.
It was novel, but what Otis would experience next was the real ordeal.
Hill was almost intoxicated by the scent of the girl, even though it couldn’t compare to the viscount’s young lady—that had been a rare exception. How could an agent of the goddess on earth be as common as ants?
She carefully began to drink the blood—so slow that it was more like “tasting” than “feeding,” something she hadn’t done in a long time. The fact was, though she couldn’t fill her stomach instantly, this process was certainly enjoyable.
The flavor, even sweeter than she’d imagined, filled Hill’s mind. Her eyes flew wide open. The taste was smooth with a trace of stickiness—exactly what she loved.
Because she moved slowly and gently, the blood began to thicken slightly as it entered her mouth, growing stickier.
Hill’s eyes brimmed with tears—she felt as though she were parched earth, revived by the first rain. From the moment the first mouthful of blood slid down her throat, she felt reborn.
Could it be… that she would never have to go mad with hunger again?
Lost in her feeding, Hill failed to notice the flush deepening on Otis’s cheeks, the hazy look in her eyes. The sensation of blood being drawn didn’t leave Otis empty inside; the numbing effect of the vampire toxin even brought her a powerful sense of fulfillment.
In her senses, Hill’s feeding felt more like a lover’s embrace.
Wait, a lover?
Otis’s breath came faster. Not only did her hands tighten around Hill’s waist, but her legs—clad in black stockings—lost all noble reserve, boldly, almost wantonly, hooking Hill’s body. Her ankles locked together, calves tensing, toes inside her boots alternately straightening and curling.
Gradually, she closed her eyes. With every drop of blood that was drawn, it felt as if she and the other were merging into one.
“Hill, Hill!”
The girl called to her in silence.
“…Otis!”
The girl longed deeply for the one in her arms.
No one knew—in the secluded chapel of the academy, the two girls had crossed that last barrier of physical distance. In their breathless embrace, they became each other’s partners in body and soul.