Chapter 36

Chapter 36 – Harder Than Scaling The Heavens

"By the way, is this restaurant really fine? This place let two suspicious individuals like ourselves in so easily…"

Mirabelle became worried about this restaurant's security after seeing how easily she and Heather were allowed in. This restaurant was even willing to allow two suspicious individuals wearing face coverings to conceal their identities to enter? However, Heather had an expression of 'what are you talking about?' as she replied to Mirabelle's question.

"Of course there's no problem. Don't you know? The card around your neck is proof of your status."

"…"

Mirabelle had a rather unpleasant expression under her veil – if it had to be described, it was an expression of extreme loathing. Wearing such a card was just like a pet who had to wear a tag around their neck to help identify the owner. This made Mirabelle feel like she really had become a pet.

"By the way, I should mention that every single person in this town recognizes the symbol around your neck. If you accidentally manage to run off, someone will help bring you back to me no matter where you run to~"

Mirabelle really couldn't understand how Heather could keep smiling while saying something so demonic?

Heather picked up the already prepared black tea and gently sipped, bringing the tea to her lips with elegant movements.

"Also, about being a blood slave…"

"Hmm?"

"You should also know already about the withdrawal symptoms from not having your blood sucked, right??"

Mirabelle immediately coughed up her black tea after hearing this.

"Cough cough…"

Mirabelle's face became flushed bright red, as she recalled the first time that she underwent withdrawal symptoms.

That had been a sense of discomfort resembling thousands of ants biting at her skin. At that time, Mirabelle could only think about wanting Heather to bite into her skin with those sharp vampire fangs and suck away all the agitated blood in her body. That was all she could think about, to the point where she even kissed Heather's foot. She even had to do something as humiliating as swearing an oath to Heather. Thinking back on this really was far too embarrassing for her.

Heather smiled as she glanced at Mirabelle whose face was lowered and flushed bright red. For some unknown reason, only when she was by Mirabelle's side would her uneasy heart finally calm down. Ever since Heather was born in this world, she had never experienced this type of calmness before.

Heather was born into this world 50 years prior. She possessed incredible power and status where she could obtain anything that she wanted. However, anything that she could obtain so easily seemed like nothing more than a painting with no color in Heather's eyes. Those things weren't what she wanted.

However, she felt nothing but a deep sense of emptiness when she did her best to think about what she wanted. At such a time, she would always vent her dissatisfaction. Only two or three years had passed since she descended from the "Blood Pool" and obtained her power. Whenever she needed to vent, she would typically flatten one or two mountains.

Yet, Heather didn't feel that emptiness whenever she was by Mirabelle's side. Just why was that? Even she didn't know just what about Mirabelle attracted her. Still, she was deeply attracted to Mirabelle, to the point of being unable to let go. This was despite clearly having no reaction towards other people, or other elves. It really was so inconceivable.

Heather tilted her head and glanced at Mirabelle. At the same time, blood tea and cake were also brought to the table. However, Heather didn't move at all. She simply kept observing Mirabelle's side profile.

"W… what is it?"

Although Heather was looking at her quite normally, Mirabelle felt uncomfortable all over.

"Isn't it fine for me to watch how cute my pet is when she's eating?"

"I'm not a pet… I'm the elven princess!"

Mirabelle put down her knife and fork and said what she was really thinking out loud.

She hated Heather. This was something that Heather knew for sure even without the mind-reading magic.

That was fine – masters and pets had a very special relationship between them. A pet who didn't know how to resist was no different from a dead elf. That was why a pet like Mirabelle was fine to Heather.

Mirabelle immediately regretted saying that out loud. She hurriedly covered her own mouth. After that, she carefully glanced towards Heather with her water-blue eyes. It seemed that Heather was in a good mood, as she didn't say anything. Heather simply supported her own face as she looked at Mirabelle, who felt that being stared at by those red eyes was akin to being absorbed into those deep pupils.

"…"

"Don't be afraid, does your master seem like someone so stingy?"

Mirabelle never expected that Heather would look at her with such a gentle expression. In fact, Mirabelle even wondered if something was wrong with her eyes… Her master wasn't angry or anything after she said something so rude to Heather?

"What a rude way of thinking. Could it be that you want me to always treat you violently? Or are you interested in that type of thing?"

Heather then walked slowly over to Mirabelle's side, bent over, reached into Mirabelle's veil, and gently blew into Mirabelle's long ears.

"Wah… Don't joke around, I definitely don't have such an interest?"

Mirabelle felt rather helpless about the harassment. Meanwhile, Heather secretly smiled.

"I heard that you were the elven princess? Could it be that you hid in this city for 15 years?"

"So… so what? You want to obtain information from me?"

"Not at all, I don't have anything to do with work like obtaining information. There are other individuals in charge of that. However-"

Heather directly pushed Mirabelle against the wall, while staring at Mirabelle's shoulder veins with her blood-red eyes. She then had a certain thought pop into her mind – she wanted to directly sink her fangs into Mirabelle's smooth neck and drain her of that delectable juice contained in her tender body. This was a vampire's desire, known as the urge to suck blood.

"I'm just very interested in you. Just how did you live for 15 years in an enemy city?"

"As for that, let's sit down and talk about it slowly, d… don't be hasty…"

Actually, Mirabelle was feeling really afraid right now. She was afraid that Heather would immediately start biting on her neck at the smallest disagreement. Yesterday, Heather had already drained quite a lot of blood from her, so she was still recovering today. Mirabelle was afraid that she would die from withering up if her blood was drained again. That would be the equivalent of having a game over.

"Rest assured, it's nothing at all for me to suppress this level of an urge to drink blood. I just hope that you can answer me honestly. Just how did you survive for so long in a vampire city filled with your enemies?"

"I… I lived together with Mother, just the two of us, for all those years in that concealed house I told you about previously. That concealed house was surrounded by barriers which could hide our aura and presence, which is why none of you were ever able to find us."

"How were you able to guarantee a source of food, water, and so on?"

"You should know about that place as well by now? That place had plenty of food stored which wouldn't spoil easily. Plus, we had a magic spell which also helped to preserve the food's freshness, which was how our food supply lasted so long."

"I see. In that case, the two of you have never left that temporary base? You didn't leave that base even once in the past 15 years?"

"Yeah…"

Actually, Mirabelle was lying here. Heather knew this as well, but she didn't openly confront Mirabelle's easily seen through lie.

"So, you guys have been hidden in this city for so long?"

Actually, Mirabelle was hiding information regarding the elven royal guards who had yet to be captured yet in this city. Since those elves still hadn't been caught yet, they were probably still hiding somewhere and trying to survive in this city.

'Still, Mirabelle actually dares to lie to me. Doesn't that prove that she's still trying to escape from me? Unforgivable. I absolutely must keep a strict watch on this little elf. Since you're by my side now, I absolutely won't let you escape my clutches.'

Mirabelle felt really pressured by Heather's gaze. This was a similar sensation to one's boss suddenly appearing behind you when you weren't in the mood to work. It was really such an uncomfortable sensation.

"Mira, do you feel happy by my side?"

"I… I'm happy, of course I'm happy. Master treats me so well…"

Mirabelle forced herself to smile as she replied.

"Then, why do you want to escape?"

"I don't want to escape…"

Mirabelle suddenly felt rather nervous. She recalled how she had almost been drained to death last night just from leaning against the window and looking outside. If Heather knew that she wanted to escape, then wouldn't that –

"Rest assured, I'm really the magnanimous type. This is definitely because you haven't gotten accustomed to being by my side, which is why you want to escape, right?"

"Yeah…"

Mirabelle answered in a low voice. For now, she could only go along with Heather and agree to anything that Heather said.

Heather understood this quite clearly as well. She knew that Mirabelle was a [wild] elf who had lived freely, meaning that Mirabelle would resist her. Naturally, Mirabelle wouldn't be as obedient as an elf who had been raised as a slave to the vampires. For now, Heather would let Mirabelle do as she wanted, and let her escape. However, Mirabelle would then discover that it was impossible to escape from Heather's clutches no matter what. In that case, Mirabelle would finally understand that she couldn't possibly go anywhere apart from staying by Heather's side.

Mirabelle didn't know about the frightening thoughts in Heather's mind right now. Mirabelle was currently lightly touching the metal collar around her neck. This collar really was such a mark of humiliation. The collar sealed away her magic power. Of course, her magic power was the source of all her power, including her identification ability and data modification ability. With these two abilities sealed, it would be harder for Mirabelle to escape than to try and scale the heavens.