“…”
Shiluo said nothing more, just biting her lower lip tightly, her eyes swirling with tangible anger and killing intent, yet so powerless.
Sylvie noticed her abnormality and asked.
“Do you know her?”
“…She killed my companions, and in almost an instant, we completely lost the ability to resist.”
Utia Nordisas, that woman’s strength and terror—she had experienced it firsthand. This damned noble had used methods that were nearly cruel and composed, like toying with prey, to plunder their lives.
There wasn’t even room for resistance…
Sylvie quietly watched Shiluo’s face, twisted with anger, killing intent, and yet helplessness, sighing inwardly.
“I know this is untimely, but… Sylvie still has to advise you: try not to oppose her. The prey she sets her sights on ends up in a miserable state…”
She lowered her eyelids, her voice dropping, continuing in a tone so soft that only she could hear.
“Just like… Nia and the others.”
Shiluo closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. When she opened them again, the anger that had nearly overflowed was forcibly suppressed, leaving only exhaustion and cold rationality.
She had to stay calm…
In her current state, she had no possibility of fighting at all. Forget that Blood Overseer—even ordinary vampires were beyond her ability to confront.
She had to rest for a bit first, at least… at least until she could move, then set out to find the detector.
She lifted her head, her gaze sweeping over the surrounding dim streets, finally landing back on Sylvie’s face.
“Is there… a more hidden place here? Somewhere I can hide temporarily until my wound heals a bit.”
“A hidden place…” Sylvie repeated softly, furrowing her brows as if recalling and thinking of possibilities.
“There are no absolutely safe places here. The cold night wind and the desperate bloody scent of Eternal Night City always seep out from gaps you can’t glimpse…”
As she spoke, she suddenly remembered something, a faint gleam flashing in her eyes, but it was immediately overlaid with hesitation and worry. She looked at Shiluo, as if weighing something.
There… really was such a place.
But…
Shiluo saw Sylvie’s hesitant, as-if-about-to-speak expression and urged.
“If you have something to say, say it.”
“…Sylvie knows a place to hide, but you need to promise Sylvie that you won’t harm the others there.”
Shiluo frowned, puzzled by this strange statement.
The “others” she mentioned should refer to blood livestock hiding there, like her?
“I’m not one of those damned vampires; I won’t harm blood livestock.”
“…” Sylvie didn’t answer, just quietly looking at her.
A strange silence ensued.
She was taken aback and asked confirmingly.
“You’re referring to blood livestock, right?”
Still no answer; those emerald, calmly serene eyes reflected Shiluo’s disheveled appearance.
She spoke.
“You have to promise Sylvie first; only then can Sylvie take you there.”
…This child was clearly hiding something.
An absurd notion appeared in her mind but was quickly dismissed by Shiluo.
Impossible.
Looking at Sylvie’s calm, almost stubbornly emerald eyes, Shiluo’s heart intertwined with irritation and doubt.
Time was pressing; she couldn’t afford to play guessing games here. She suddenly tightened her face, trying to make her expression appear fierce and threatening, though her blood-loss-pale complexion weakened most of the intimidation.
“Take me there.” She lowered her voice, with a commanding tone.
“Or else I’ll…”
She paused, staring fixedly at Sylvie, trying to find a trace of fear or wavering on that always unflappable face.
However, there was none.
Sylvie just quietly looked at her, her gaze clear, calm, even carrying a hint of… pity?
“What will you do?” she countered, her voice devoid of joy or sorrow.
“Kill Sylvie here?”
“I…” Shiluo was momentarily speechless.
“Just like those vampires torment blood livestock, draining their blood, ravaging their bodies, toying with their souls, until at the peak of pleasure… cruelly, composedly, like discarding garbage, depriving Sylvie of everything.”
Sylvie’s voice was very light, her words holding no fear, no provocation, just a calm, even with a hint of imperceptible exhaustion and anticipation.
Her mouth slightly open, under Sylvie’s increasingly hollow and dim gaze, the fierceness she had deliberately feigned peeled away bit by bit from her face, revealing the hidden embarrassment and reluctance beneath.
“I… am not that kind of person…”
Yes, Shiluo suddenly realized that in her current state, even standing steady was difficult. What right did she have to threaten someone who could hide her true emotions in front of that noble, even trying to maneuver?
In this child’s eyes, her pretended ferocity was probably utterly ridiculous.
After a long moment, she replied compromisingly.
“…I promise you.”
A faint smile appeared on Sylvie’s face, but that smile was as hollow and powerless as her eyes.
“Sylvie understands.”
With that, she took hold of one of Shiluo’s hands on her own initiative.
“Follow closely; I know a path that can avoid the patrolling vampires. As long as we’re careful, nothing will happen.”
When her fingertips unyieldingly grasped her fingers, the immediate icy cold transmitted through the skin made Shiluo instinctively shrink back.
This child’s hand… was actually so cold.
It was as if her entire petite form, from living in this dark city for so long, had already been completely immersed in this cold and desperate black night.
Unconsciously led by Sylvie through one hidden, hard-to-notice alley crevice after another, she stared blankly at the profile of the girl ahead, who was nearly half a head shorter than her.
Her pale cheeks seemed to have never shown even half a fluctuation from beginning to end.
Whether fear, excitement, panic—she had never seen any.
It was as if…
As if a moving “doll”…
——————
In the dungeon.
“I’ve already… already told you everything I know… You… you have to keep your promise; you can’t hurt me!”
The suspended man begged in terror, his whole body trembling violently, the binding chains emitting a piercing friction sound.
But before him, Klal only revealed an amused smile.
“Of course, as the Vampire Queen, how could I break my word… But, I seem to have said that only if you can answer what I ‘want to know,’ I’ll let you go, right?”
“Wh-what do you mean?” The man asked dazedly, his terrified eyes reflecting Klal’s cruel smiling face.
She said unhurriedly.
“At the beginning, I asked for your name, remember? And your answer was… ‘I don’t want to tell you.'”
The man trembled even more violently; he opened his mouth wide, about to blurt something out, but found his throat as if choked, unable to say a word.
Klal still maintained that amused smile; she raised an index finger, gently pressing it to her red lips.
“Shh…”
“I said, only if you can answer what I ‘want to know.’ But I said from the beginning…”
“…I ‘don’t want to know’ your name. So, no matter what you want to say now, it’s already… an invalid answer.”
“Urgh… guh… pfft!”
Desperate gurgling sounds came from the man’s throat; his eyeballs began to congest and redden, then he suddenly spat out a large mouthful of blood, mixed with fragments of internal organs, and immediately went still.
Looking at the man who had lost his breath, the smile on Klal’s face gradually gave way to an extremely cold expression mixed with anger.
She looked at the metal syringe in her hand, her blood-red eyes flickering with cruel and dangerous dark gleams.
“Humans, this is what you chose yourselves, heh.”