Sefina gently set down the red pen in her hand, stood up from behind the desk, and walked slowly over to Mia, who was bowing her head.
Mia felt her teacher’s approach, and her heart involuntarily quickened.
She had thought that Teacher Sefina would gently stroke the top of her head, offering some comfort…
But the next second—
“Ah——!”
The familiar sharp pain came again from above her head! Sefina actually struck her again with a hand chop, neither too light nor too heavy.
Mia winced in pain, clutching her head, pouting in grievance, and looked up with tear-filled eyes toward Sefina:
“Teacher, why did you hit me again?”
Sefina’s face was expressionless, her tone calm as she stated the facts:
“You utterly failed the pop quiz just now. Your basic theory was full of mistakes and gaps.”
Mia muttered softly in defense, “Th-that’s because I almost got exposed earlier. I was too nervous, and my mind went blank.”
Sefina didn’t pursue the disastrous pop quiz any further and instead looked at her with gentle eyes.
“Because you are my student.” Sefina suddenly interrupted her muttering.
“Huh?” Mia didn’t immediately catch on and blinked in confusion.
“That is the answer to your question just now.” Sefina looked at her, her garnet eyes calm and steady, but her words clearly reached Mia’s ears.
“Teacher, you…” Mia was momentarily speechless, her heart feeling as if something lightly struck it.
A rush of indescribable warmth—a mixture of surprise, comfort, and a strange flutter—quickly spread through her entire body.
Sefina paid no attention to her silence and continued calmly analyzing:
“I know that as a Bloodkin, many things are beyond your control. Hiding your identity, feeding on blood—these are all reluctant measures. And moreover…”
She paused, then threw out a more core speculation, her gaze sharp as it fixed on Mia:
“Besides, you probably aren’t a pure Natural Bloodkin, are you?”
Mia suddenly lifted her head, her pupils slightly contracting, her face full of astonishment: “Teacher, you…… you know about ‘them’…?” Her voice carried a faint, almost imperceptible fear.”
‘They’ obviously referred to the Black Utopia.
Sefina nodded slowly in response, this was not hard to deduce.
Ordinary Natural Bloodkin would never have the ability to freely switch between human and Bloodkin forms.
Mia’s ability to do so most likely meant—she was a product of artificial intervention.
“An experimental subject combining human and Bloodkin genes… Besides ‘them’, I can’t think of anyone else with such mad technology and ambition.” Sefina’s tone carried a hint of coldness.
Mia lowered her gaze; long eyelashes cast faint shadows on her pale cheeks as she tacitly accepted Sefina’s guess.
“I… I don’t know who my real parents are.” She began to recount, her eyes growing hollow.
“From the moment I had memories, I was wandering in the chaotic slums on the outskirts of the royal capital.”
“It was filthy, cold, and I was always starving. I often fought other street kids over a moldy piece of bread, or ran errands for thugs to steal small things, barely scraping by.”
Mia took a deep breath, as if the icy memories still pierced her.
“One day, I was captured by a group of people wearing strange black robes…
When I woke up, I was already submerged in a huge glass cylinder! Tubes were inserted into my limbs and mouth. Harsh white lights surrounded me, and masked people were walking around.”
Her voice trembled slightly: “I struggled desperately, pounding on the glass, but the people outside just ignored me, only recording various data.”
“There were many identical glass cylinders, all filled with… children my age…….. Some were already motionless……..”
“They injected us with various colored serums every day. Some injections caused unbearable pain, like my bones were being crushed…”
“Some made me feverish, burning to the point of delirium…… And some…… The boy in the cylinder next to mine, shortly after his injection, his skin grew scales, and then… he stopped moving entirely……”
Mia instinctively hugged her own arms, her body trembling slightly, obviously haunted by those painful memories.
“I don’t know how long it lasted… It felt like a very long time… My body also began to change.”
“I started feeling nauseous from the nutrient fluid they gave us every day, just the smell made me want to vomit… But my mind crazily craved… craved something else…”
She struggled to say the words: “Craved… blood…”
“My hair began turning snow white, my teeth ached and itched, and eventually, they turned into these sharp fangs…” Mia reflexively covered her mouth with her hand.
“When they saw my changes, they seemed happy and recorded everything more diligently. But the way they looked at me was like looking at a lab rat, or a… product that was almost successful.”
Pearls of tears slipped slowly from the corner of Mia’s eyes.
“Later… one day, the laboratory suddenly sounded a piercing alarm! Outside there were explosions and fighting! The glass cylinder I was locked in cracked!”
“I… I desperately climbed out through the cracks, my body cut by shards of glass, but I didn’t feel any pain… I just wanted to escape! Run as fast as I could!”
“I don’t know how long I ran, hiding in a filthy sewer, trembling. After several days, I found that my appearance… seemed to have partially reverted…”
“Although my hair was still white, my eyes uncontrollably turned red at times, and my fangs never retracted… at least… I looked a bit more like an ordinary human…”
Mia lifted her tear-blurred eyes to look at Sefina, her gaze full of helplessness and confusion.
“I hid desperately, surviving by stealing blood from small animals, or sometimes, when there was no other choice, cutting myself for blood.
I studied hard with the little knowledge I had, and finally… finally managed to get into Oselenka… I thought a place this big and powerful would be able to hide me…
I thought I could finally live a slightly normal life……
Mia’s voice was bitter: “But I didn’t expect… they still found me here. Am I… forever doomed to never escape?”
After hearing Mia’s detailed and painful account, Sefina was silent for a moment. She clenched her fist slightly, then reached out her hand again—
This time, it was no longer a hand chop, but a gentle stroke with a soft strength, landing on the soft crown of Mia’s head, lightly patting, trying to offer some comfort.
“That’s not your fault, Mia.” Sefina’s voice was much softer than usual.
“You’ve never been a monster, only a victim. Things will get better.”
This rare kindness and affirmation made Mia’s tears flow even more fiercely, but she nodded firmly, as if grasping a faint glimmer of hope.
However, at that moment, Mia’s body uncontrollably shuddered violently.
An intense wave of weakness and unbearable thirst suddenly swept over her, instantly crushing the slight solace she had just gained.
Mia’s face turned as pale as paper, her lips cracked, and cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
Sefina noticed her abnormal state immediately and frowned slightly: “What’s wrong?”
Mia’s lips had even lost their color. She lifted her head with great difficulty, her voice extremely weak, filled with an uncontrollable craving and pain:
“I… I spilled that bottle this morning… the last bottle of blood… I’m… so hungry…….. really so hungry….”
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