Chapter 8 - Breakdown

I wasn't sure why being mixed between two races was a big deal. But from the way Alexandra and she had reacted, it clearly wasn't anything good.

Maybe Vampires and Humans aren't in good terms with one another… To be completely honest, I don't care. The thing I cared about was the abilities she had; being a mix with a human meant that she could potentially have the abilities of humans, which is access to mana and, at the same time, utilize bloodlust and charm, the power of the vampires.

At least, that was my theory. I had no clue if I was right or wrong about it.

Well, I had a pretty good chance of finding out, and it was right in front of me.

"Your abilities, how do they work?"

She frowned right away. "You're not disgusted?"

There was this tinge of worry laced in her words. It was almost heartbreaking.

"Why would I be? Isn't it cool?"

"Cool?!" She screamed. "Just where do you come from?"

"Ah, uh… sorry, I've been away for a long time. I don't know much about the relationships between the races. At war, pretty much everyone was nice to one another."

"Really?" There was this look of disbelief in her eyes.

"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't we like one another? We're all basically the same. It's just our abilities that vary."

She looked down and basically dropped the pouch of blood at her feet. Seemingly, all energy to stand up. Her legs crumbled, and she just broke down on the floor right in front of me.

Showing emotions.

A good step forward.

Though…maybe it's too much emotion at the same time.

Tears fell out of her eyes without end. She had suffered a lot.. She might have been a princess, but she certainly didn't live like one. I didn't need to be a genius to figure that one out.

She placed her head right between both her knees and cried to her heart's content. Her clothes started getting drenched and even the floor started getting wet.

"I know this might not be the best time to ask this…" I said, looking at her crying. "But is the reason why you're here early? Is it because your family wanted to get rid of you?"

As she cried, her head started moving up and down.

'Oh, I threw out a wild guess and it worked. I really am good, huh?'

Right, she's still crying. Caedrel, focus.

She was showing such a vulnerable side to her. I needed to help her. It's just that I'm not the best at dealing with emotions.

'Come on! You can do it, Caedrel!'

I encouraged myself as I bent down right beside her. I placed my hand on her back and started patting it. I remembered seeing people doing that in movies on Earth, so it was probably effective, well I hope.

"I'm here now," I murmured.

Her eyes slowly made their way in my direction as she just stared at me, basically asking me what the hell that was going to change. However, the crying stopped for a short moment, maybe because she was shocked that I was trying to comfort her.

I looked at her dead in the eyes, and said, "I'll kill anyone trying to hurt you."

She frowned.

Fuck, that's not what she wanted to hear. Uh, quick…I need something else.

"Right, sorry. I'll never abandon you. You can trust me, and if anyone ever hurts you, then I'll kill him." I mustered the biggest smile. "Deal?"

"Haha!"

She exploded into laughter.

"You really are an idiot."

She removed her head from her knees and smiled at me with teary eyes. Her fist was clenched as she hit me on the shoulder without the slightest strength.

I didn't know why, but it felt good seeing her smile.

***

After that incident, nothing much happened for the following days, apart from the fact that I started getting a lot closer to Darla. Oh, right…that's her name. I learned a little bit more about her, and I had been giving her some tips for her training.

Basically, my days could be summarized like this: talking with Alexandra or her secretary, then I would learn a little more about the Royal Academy, train a little, and when night fell, I would hang out with Darla.

The only interesting part about this routine was talking with Darla; the rest was quite boring, and to be honest, I couldn't wait for the rest of the teachers to arrive at the Royal Academy. Things were starting to get lonely around here.

Though, good news! The teachers were supposed to start arriving tomorrow until the start of the semester.

I was finally going to meet some of my colleagues!

***

"Why do you keep smiling tonight?" Darla asked, taking a short break from her intense training.

"Because…" I faked having tears coming out of my eyes. "I-I finally won't be alone!"

"Tsk, idiot."

That was my new nickname, Idiot. I didn't really like it, but it didn't bother me, so I let it go. Well, actually, it was starting to grow on me. It was sorta cute…I think.

"Did you prepare any gifts for them?" She suddenly asked.

"Uh, no. Do you need to do that? Isn't my pretty face enough?"

She sighed. "Can't you be serious for one second?" She shook her head out of annoyance. "I'm feeling like the professor right now. Just how did you get here…ah. Either way, yes. You need to prepare gifts for the rest of the professors. Don't you want to make a good impression?"

I actually wasn't totally against the idea, but I didn't want to offer them gifts that they wouldn't like…talk about a waste of money.

"I don't even know them. How can I give them gifts?"

"Idiot, ask the director. She probably has their files somewhere in her office."

"Now that you mention it…"

She looked at me with her eyes wide open as if asking what I was still doing there. It was already the middle of the night, and I had nothing prepared for them.

Realizing that I needed to get a move on, I stood up and flew in the direction of the director's office.

"Wait, you can fly?! Since when?"

"Oh, right… I guess I can," I said without much thought. However, I knew that this could potentially cause problems in the future. After all, not everyone could fly; only those who had reached a White Mana Core could, and the number of people who had reached such a thing could be counted on less than two hands.