Chapter 76: Partnership [1]

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"Daddy!" A cheerful voice called out amidst the snow plains.

"Cupcake, slow down a bit." A man spoke while being out of breath due to his constant running.

"Hehehe~" The little girl giggled in response and started to run off again.

"Ah… not again…" The man muttered in a defeated tone before tiredly running after her again.

As he started running, the man soon noticed that the girl was going farther and farther away from him. Trying to speed up further, he soon noticed that no matter what he did, he couldn't come close to the little girl.

'Wha-'

*FUUUUUSSSSSHHHH*

Before he could finish his thought, a sudden snowstorm formed in a radius of kilometers and engulfed him in a matter of seconds.

"Guh…" Shielding his eyes to not let snow enter, he soon found himself trembling from the coldness that spiked up a notch.

Releasing warm puffs of breaths that were becoming increasingly colder by the moment, lethargy started to creep from the man's feet to his legs, and he felt incredibly tired.

Kneeling on the snow, the tiredness didn't stop and soon, he found himself lying on the snow, too tired to even drag himself anywhere.

"…" With his mind shrouded in fog and a hazy gaze, the man looked up just to see that he couldn't see anything with the storm.

His eyelids grew heavier and heavier by the moment, his chest started to feel heavy, and breathing became a difficult thing, then he suddenly found his vision blurring and becoming darker.

The last thing the man saw was two pairs of large, cold, indifferent sky-blue eyes looking at him.

"!%?°®₢%)*&{`^" Intelligible words were the last thing he heard.

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With a flash of light, the previous vision disappeared from his sight and a city standing on an ice plain welcomed Hai.

With the snowstorm making it harder for one to see further than a block away from where they were, the city looked as if it was being shrouded from one's vision.

"Young master?" Elena called out after noticing him blankly staring out of the window of their room.

Hai blinked his eyes and looked outside again.

'That was…' He turned his head and looked at Elena who was giving him a worried gaze.

"Sorry, honey. I was momentarily lost in thoughts." He said while still thinking about what he just saw.

<A fragment? In plain daylight, when I'm not sleeping?>

Hai recognized what that vision was. It was a fragment of memory from one of his many lives.

What he didn't understand, however, was why he suddenly saw it, and while awake.

Elena meanwhile, stared at his face for a few seconds before walking toward him and hugging his back.

"…" Hai didn't say anything and just enjoyed the hug, as he was still thinking about the vision.

Elena also didn't probe further, she knows that if her young master wanted her to know something, he would let her know, and if he didn't, she would wait until he would let her.

Enjoying the silence, both of them just stood there, savoring the peaceful moment. Although Hai was indeed curious about the fragment, he didn't think that it was something urgent for now.

*BAM*

With a loud bam, Stella slammed the door open and entered the room.

"I have finished the talking wi… Oh, bad timing?" She started speaking while entering the room and fixing her hair but stopped midway noticing Hai and Elena's position.

Elena released her hug and stepped back while maintaining a neutral expression on her face, however, Stella felt sweat dripping down her forehead, she had already learned to a certain extent how to read Elena's emotions and she knew that right now, she was pissed at her.

Hai also noticed it but didn't comment on it, instead, he looked at Stella before pondering about a matter that he had been pushing away until now.

"Stella, would you mind if we talked for a bit?" He asked after pondering for a few seconds.

Looking at him for a moment, Stella nodded her head.

"Elena."

"Right away, young master." Elena didn't even need to be told anything else as she was already serving two cups of brewed tea on a table that came from who-knows-where.

Pulling the chair on his side, she gestured for him to seat down.

"Thanks." He sat down and picked the cup of tea.

Stella also sat down but didn't touch the cup and only looked at Hai with a contemplative gaze.

Taking a sip of his tea, he slowly savored it for a few seconds before opening his eyes again and looking into Stella's.

"Well, I suppose this is enough of suspense." He put the teacup down. "Stella, I want to talk about our current relationship, more specifically, the contract." Hai saw a small and barely perceptible reaction in her after he spoke those words.

"So the time has come." Stella muttered before gazing back at him.

Taking this as a sign to continue, Hai opened his mouth.

"I have several guesses about what your final goal, or rather, what the goal of the plan that you proposed when we first met is. However, I believe that it is quite obvious as of now that you won't succeed, no, you won't even reach halfway toward your goal with how your situation is now." He stated with a calm face, seemingly unconcerned about the whole matter.

Stella closed her eyes upon hearing it.

For the brief time that she spent with him, she knew that it was only a matter of time before he figured out something about it, so she wasn't much surprised about his statement.

However, she was a bit anxious about what he would do next. It was a fact that he was someone she needed if she wanted to accomplish something.

Her family, the Cruenta-Anima is actually one of the bigshots of Europe, falling short just to Akashic Beasts and some other powers, so one could imagine the immense power the family commanded.

And as a member of said family, she never lacked anything per se and was also respected no matter where she went on business.

However, in truth, Stella didn't have much power in the family.

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that she was shunned and cast aside in her own family.

While this wouldn't be much of a problem under normal circumstances, it is different when it comes to the Cruenta-Anima's, or rather, the vampires in general.

As beings of long lifespans, vampires have very low fertility to the point that even her family which has some thousands of years, has less than 100 members in it.

And this is why she was always desperately trying to rack in achievements.

In a "small" family like hers, the more achievements one has, the more authority and freedom they have.

And this is something very precious to vampires.

Vampires per nature are beings that highly value blood, to the point that it wouldn't be strange to see one killing someone for serving "bad" blood to them.

Hence, the purity of blood is even more important to a family. Stella, a pure blood is a valuable asset even if she is cast aside since she has a chance of giving birth to another bearer of the Cruenta-Anima's blood.

Now, what would happen if someone without authority, achievements, or anything special lived in a family of racists, greedy, egocentric, sadists, and extreme people like hers?

An ending like she serving as a breeding tool wouldn't be unthinkable.

To avoid such a thing, Stella put tremendous effort into becoming useful to the family by doing business, missions, projects, and everything she could.

However, greed is something that transcends species. Her achievements didn't do much and her situation didn't improve by an acceptable degree. She was always deemed as "lacking".

After seeing that she was working for nothing, she was left with no choice but to take a gamble if she wished to see undeniable results.

And this is why she was feeling anxious. This mission is important to her and she honestly doesn't think she would be able to accomplish it by herself.

"This is why I wanted to talk with you about our relationship. I think it would benefit us if we changed our relationship to a more… equal one. I believe you understand why I propose it." Hai spoke while disregarding the small signs of anxiety such as sweating, and slight trembling that her body was showing.

Stella tapped her finger on the table and fell into her thoughts after hearing his "proposal".

Glancing at him, she soon shook her head.

'There is no need to hesitate. I already nearly failed.' Although she is a member of the family, the Cruenta-Anima doesn't do much for her. She has the surname and the blood, but that is pretty much it, if she takes a project, she has to complete it on her own, without the family's help, hence, she only has herself and her connections, which wouldn't really help in this situation.

Taking in a deep breath, she looked back into Hai's neon blue eyes.

"Ok, what do you want?" As helpless as she is, she won't simply jump into an opportunity without knowing about it first.

Hai smiled upon seeing the same face she showed back in their first meeting.

"You." He spoke with a charming smile.

"…" Seeing the picturesque scene of a godly handsome man smiling right in front of her, Stella's mind stopped working for a moment.

Then, the gears in her mind started spinning again.

"What do you mean by this?" Instead of being flustered by the misleading phrase like a little girl of the modern era, Stella quickly noticed what his request entailed.

Seeing her narrowing her eyes at him, Hai's expression remained unchanging.

"Exactly what I said. I want you. Your connections, your blood, your family, your body, your loyalty, your whole self." He explained while his lips arced into a small smirk midway through the explanation.

"…" Stella's expression stiffened.

Her gaze which previously was wary, now turned into full-blown caution with some hostility mixed in it.

Nevertheless, she knew that the man across her wasn't dumb enough to not know what his words mean.

Picking up his teacup, Hai looked at the tea with calm eyes, like an old man enjoying the scenery of a calm lake on a sunny day.

"Stella, I don't know your past and won't pretend I know about the pain you've gone through, I don't have the slightest idea about your past and what kind of hardship you endured to reach until here." He moved the teacup in small circular motions, creating ripples on the tea.

"However, it is a fact that I know your situation with your family isn't the best, and for whatever reason, this project must have something to do with that, I won't take guesses as to respect your privacy, but I think it would be interesting in thinking about my offer after taking a look at this." He lazily moved his hands and took a parchment from his storage ring.

Putting it on the table, he slid it toward Stella, and then, as if this whole situation wasn't of his interest, he started to sip his tea.

Seeing his actions, Stella looked at the parchment that was a magical contract.

Reading the few clauses present there, she found nothing suspicious or strange until she reached the last one.

'!' Her eyes widened upon seeing the last clause and she looked at Hai with concealed awe and wariness in her eyes.

The last clause was pretty straightforward, just like the other ones.

The problem was the content.

- Party A and party B will sign a blood contract. If party B fulfills the minimum conditions given by party A, and somewhere in the future party B deems the contract as abusive, futile, meaningless, or obsolete, then party B may directly and one-sidedly nullify it in the presence of party A. Additionally, party B may not betray party A during the period in which the contract is valid, make any preparation for it, or lie when asked about it.

A simple and straightforward condition.

However, when looked more deeply, one would notice how vicious it is.

Just with this clause alone, Hai didn't get rid of the possibility of being betrayed but instead, he narrowed it down.

Instead of being worried about not being betrayed, he turned any attempts of being betrayed into predictable ones due to narrowing them down.

Stella took in a deep breath and put the parchment on the table.

This was more serious than she initially thought.

"I'm sorr-" Right as she was going to refuse, she saw him sliding a thin notebook toward her.

With question marks on her face, she looked at him.

"This is what I can offer now in the pre-contractual period. You can keep it unrelated to signing it or not." Hai smiled amicably.

Those were some notes he made about the small orb he found in the "Ye Chens" back in the power plant.

Stella opened the with confusion written on her face but it quickly turned to astonishment in the next moment.

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