Chapter 42
Balmuth family’s blood energy.
As I had mentioned several times, the ancestors of the Balmuth family were vampires.
The vampire bloodline had continued down the Balmuth family, and what was born from that bloodline was the blood energy.
‘Most members of the Balmuth family learned this blood energy from a young age.’
This power called blood energy was manifested through one’s own blood.
So what mattered was the caster’s own blood.
At least until a certain age, it was enough to pay attention only to your own blood.
‘But the story changed as you approached adulthood.’
If you traced it back, the blood energy was a power that came from vampire blood.
And vampires, literally, were beings that fed on the blood of other living things.
In other words, the more you used blood energy, the denser the vampire blood became, and the stronger the thirst to feed grew.
‘When you were young you could use blood energy a lot and that urge wouldn’t be that strong, but as you neared adulthood you had to feed.’
Lisa was exactly in that situation now.
Because she had used an excessive amount of blood energy while close to adulthood, the urge to drink blood would surge soon.
If there hadn’t been the monster escape incident today, Lisa would probably have learned how to feed slowly within the family after her coming-of-age ceremony.
But Lisa had used a considerable amount of blood energy to suppress the monsters today.
‘Far more than what I’d seen in the game.’
Because she had been angry enough to want to kill the Alpha — to be enraged for me — Lisa had used more blood energy than necessary.
As a result, she was due to go into a feeding frenzy in a few minutes.
‘How am I supposed to stop this now?’
The method to stop Lisa’s rampage was simple.
I only needed to let her drink blood.
If she drank blood before the feeding urge exploded, that would do it.
‘Once the rampage started, letting her drink wouldn’t work.’
After the rampage began, no matter how much Lisa drank, the thirst wouldn’t go away.
And a rampaging Lisa was literally a catastrophe.
She would smash whatever she saw, and whether human, animal, or monster, she would ravenously seek their blood.
‘My original plan was to leisurely go to the disciplinary office and give Lisa the prepared animal blood… but there wasn’t enough time.’
I looked at the red aura that had appeared around Lisa’s body.
As she neared the rampage, the auras around her deepened.
Under normal circumstances they wouldn’t be this deep.
If I had walked to the disciplinary office slowly, I could have stopped Lisa’s rampage with time to spare, but she had used far too much power on the Alpha and ruined the plan.
‘Because there weren’t enemies like this in the game, I hadn’t prepared at all for a situation like this.’
If I had known, I wouldn’t have left the prepared animal blood back in the disciplinary office.
But regretting it now would do no good.
I had to think of some way to get out of this.
“Gideon? Are you all right? Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Nothing.”
I hauled my aching body and approached Lisa.
She looked at me with concern.
“Are you okay? It seems your body still hasn’t healed properly.”
“I’ll go get treated again later. More importantly, was anything unusual while I was getting healed?”
“No, nothing. I was just on my way back after making sure the subdued monsters were properly re-contained.”
“That’s a relief.”
As I spoke, I checked Lisa again.
The red aura around her had darkened further.
When I glanced around, it seemed people nearby could see that red aura too.
But Lisa herself hadn’t noticed the aura around her.
‘There wasn’t even five minutes left until the rampage. But it was impossible to take Lisa to the disciplinary office within five minutes. And it wasn’t easy to get fresh blood for her to drink within five minutes either…’
No matter how I thought about it, it looked hopeless.
Honestly, I would rather face the Alpha ten more times than stop a rampaging Lisa.
The moment Lisa went berserk was a bad ending.
Of course, with extreme effort it could be handled somehow, but since I was the one who’d have to suffer through that extreme effort, it was out of the question.
‘Where could I get fresh blood? There were no animals nearby, should I ask the academy people to donate blood? But how could I possibly get a blood donation within five minutes…’
Yeah, there was no answer.
If I let Lisa rampage and she drained me, I would meet a glorious death…
“Gideon, there’s blood on your forehead.”
“Huh? Ah… I guess the bandage loosened.”
I retied the bandage wrapped around my head.
But I wondered if rewrapping it meant anything at all.
If Lisa rampaged and sucked all my blood anyway…
‘Wait. My blood?’
Thinking about it, there was no need to fetch blood from elsewhere.
Because I was also a human with fresh blood flowing in me.
‘But having members of the Balmuth family feed on a human’s blood carried great significance. In practice, only those accepted as a companion fulfilled that role…’
There were plenty of options to get out of this, but giving my blood to Lisa, the next head of the Balmuth family, required caution.
This was something that would be closely tied to my future.
So it was a matter that should be thought through…
‘…No, what am I saying. Everyone here, including me, was about to die.’
Time was not a resource I could use now.
I would think about the future later; for now, survival came first.
So the priority right now was…
“Lady Lisa, could you accompany me for a moment?”
“Why? Is something wrong?”
“Yes, there was something I had to do. Could you follow me for a bit?”
“All right. Lead the way.”
First, I had to take Lisa somewhere without people.
Academy staff were still cleaning up near this gymnasium.
If Lisa were to feed with people around, there would be talk later, so I planned to get as far away from here as possible.
“This way.”
“Let’s go. Do you want me to support you? You look like it’s hard for you to walk.”
“Thank you for the concern, but I’m fine.”
I led the way and quickly schemed in my head.
A place we could reach within five minutes that had no people.
A place that would likely be empty at this time…
‘The Garden of Beginnings, of course.’
It was within five minutes from here.
Besides, because of the monster escape incident, the students would be controlled so they couldn’t leave their dormitories right now.
In other words, there would be no one in that garden right now.
‘Let’s go there.’
After deciding on the destination, I looked at Lisa again.
The red aura surrounding her was now far thicker than before.
On top of that, her breathing was becoming more ragged with each passing second.
“Lady Lisa, are you all right?”
“I… I don’t know. When I saw the blood running down from your head just now… my body started feeling strange.”
“Are you perhaps finding it hard to breathe, and feeling an intense thirst?”
“…Yes. How did you know?”
“I’d appreciate it if you could follow me for now.”
I looked into Lisa’s eyes.
Her normally blue irises were gradually turning red.
I had to act fast.
With that thought, I led Lisa to the ‘Garden of Beginnings’ — the garden where I had first met Layla and Sara, where the great tree was planted.
As I had expected, there was no one there.
Only Lisa and I were in the garden.
“Gideon, my body feels… strange.”
The moment we arrived, Lisa suddenly dropped to her knees and clutched her chest.
Her face had grown quite flushed, and her usually expressionless features were now filled with raw desire.
“Since earlier… from the moment I saw your blood… I can’t breathe properly. And I’m thirsty. Thirsty, but not for water…”
“You want to drink blood?”
“Yes. Blood. I want to drink blood. Ah, I… I think I know why this is happening.”
The aura around Lisa turned a color deeper and thicker than blood itself.
It seemed she had finally noticed the crimson energy surrounding her.
“Ah, this is… my power… No, this can’t… Gideon, get away from me. If you stay close, I… I might hurt you.”
Lisa looked at me with eyes full of desire.
But at the same time, there was genuine worry for me in them.
“Get away, now. It’s a side effect of my family’s power. I don’t want to hurt you… and I don’t want you to see this ugly side of me…”
“I know what that side effect is.”
I stepped closer to Lisa and crouched down before her.
Her eyes had now completely turned red.
“I know a little about the history of the Balmuth family. And I know what kind of incidents occurred when your ancestors couldn’t control their power.”
“If you know that… then run. If things go wrong, you’ll… die.”
“I’m aware of that. But if I run, countless people in this academy could die or get hurt because of you, Lady Lisa. That’s why I can’t run.”
Smiling faintly, I strained to pull out the Mistcatcher.
“So I’ll do what I must.”
“Gideon, what are you planning to do?”
Instead of answering, I lifted the Mistcatcher.
Then I hesitated for a moment.
Was this truly the right choice? The question struck me again.
‘I’ve never seen this situation in the game. I don’t know what kind of future this choice will lead to…’
Up until now, I had always picked the most efficient and optimal choices thanks to my experience playing the game, but this was an option I had never seen before.
So I couldn’t be sure what kind of future awaited me…
‘Still, this is the only option. To safely finish this episode, this has to be it.’
If I’d had a bit more time, there might have been another choice.
But ever since Lisa had overdrawn her strength, this had been a foreseeable outcome.
‘But where should I cut?’
I thought for a moment, then instinctively unbuttoned a few buttons at the top of my uniform.
I didn’t know much about vampires.
But I had seen countless scenes in movies where they bit into a person’s neck.
Maybe because of that, I unconsciously decided where I would make the cut.
“Hoo…”
After taking a deep breath, I made a small cut across my collarbone.
Blood began to trickle down from the wound.
“Urgh, haah, haah.”
When Lisa saw my blood, she gasped harshly and stepped closer to me.
Just as she opened her mouth to bite into my neck, she froze on the spot and shook her head.
“No, no. Gideon, this isn’t right. If I drink your blood, I don’t know how it’ll tie me to you in the future.”
“Lady Lisa, there’s no other way. You know better than anyone what happens when your blood energy runs amok from lack of feeding.”
“But if I do this, your future… I don’t know what’ll happen to it.”
“You’re right. But if you don’t drink my blood now, you’ll lose control and people in this academy will die. I don’t want to see that.”
Yeah, no matter how I reasoned it, this was the right choice.
I didn’t like it either, but this was better than a massacre that included me.
“I’ll be fine. So please, quickly…”
“No. I can’t. I won’t.”
Lisa shook her head, but her eyes were locked onto the blood flowing from my collarbone.
She resisted her instincts for a brief moment, but after a few more seconds, instinct devoured her reason.
“Haa, haa, haa.”
“Ugh?”
Moments later, Lisa pushed me backward and climbed on top of me.
Then, baring her elongated fangs, she sank them into my collarbone.