Chapter 54
“And by the way, since you wanted it, I’ll give it to you, but… why blood, of all things? There are plenty of other rewards.”
“Other rewards?”
“Like precious jewels or treasures? Demons like those too, don’t they?”
“That’s true. But I already have plenty of those.”
As Blanche said that, he brushed my hair back over my shoulders, exposing the nape of my neck.
“Human blood is like alcohol to us. One of the rare delicacies that can intoxicate demons.”
Alcohol. Put that way, it was easier to understand.
“Just don’t get too drunk.”
“Hmph, as if you’d ever give me enough for that.”
Grumbling, Blanche sank his fangs deep into my neck.
“Ugh!”
The sharp pain of fangs piercing my skin made my eyes squeeze shut.
A strange sensation followed—the feeling of a large amount of blood being pulled from my body, along with dizziness spinning in my head.
It was far stranger than I had imagined.
‘Huh…?’
My stomach lurched, and a ringing filled my ears so I couldn’t think straight.
‘It feels like he’s already drunk a whole teacup’s worth… Or not? Maybe not even close?’
Blanche’s face was still buried in my neck, showing no intention of letting go.
‘This is bad!’
The dizziness grew unbearable. If this went on, I’d probably vomit everything in my stomach.
“Stop… that’s enough…”
I reached out to push Blanche away, but I couldn’t put any strength into my arm.
In fact, with my vision spinning, I couldn’t even tell where I was reaching.
With my body slipping out of control, the energy inside me began to run wild as well.
It overlapped with memories from my previous life, when I almost died after losing control from reckless training.
Even in my daze, alarm bells rang inside my head.
If this continued, it would be dangerous.
“Blan… che…!”
The moment I forced out his name—
“Ah!”
A surge of massive, warm energy exploded inside me, spreading through my whole body. A sharp ringing filled my ears.
And then, darkness swallowed my sight.
‘Never again will I make a deal with a demon!’
Grinding my teeth in Blanche’s direction, I lost consciousness.
11
My body felt incredibly light.
So light, in fact, that it felt like my body had disappeared altogether.
The sensation was as though I were drifting through the air. Strangely, it wasn’t unpleasant.
With my eyes closed, I leisurely savored the state.
It was peaceful and tranquil, so much so that I felt I could stay here forever.
Had a day passed?
No, maybe ten days? Perhaps even a month?
In this space filled only with darkness, there was no way to measure time.
But what did that matter?
Here, everything was so calm and comfortable. That was enough.
‘Oh… wait, I was in the middle of writing a letter, wasn’t I?’
I had been writing a reply to Iella and Roaz. Blanche had yelled about hating cats. To calm him down, I gave him blood, and then…
I shook my head, cutting off the thought.
This place was a strong, safe haven.
Here, I didn’t need to worry about complicated problems.
‘Yes. I don’t need to think about anything.’
Just sink deeper. Deeper would be even more comfortable, even warmer.
Yes, that’s what I should do.
I let the conclusion come as easily as flowing water.
The deeper I went, the lighter my body became, and the freer I felt.
If I could sink all the way down to the bottom, perhaps I would find perfect freedom.
That was what I was thinking as I went further and further down—
Boom!
A heavy impact shook the space.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The continuing blows made the solid space begin to crumble.
‘Hurry!’
I thought I had to escape to safety, to reach the deepest place, before this space collapsed entirely.
But then—
<Danáe.>
A clear voice rang in my ear.
<I told you not to cause trouble, and you couldn’t even last that long.>
With a sigh, a powerful force yanked me upward.
‘Whaaa!’
I couldn’t resist.
Pulled by an overwhelming power, I left the darkness and headed toward the light.
The darkness filling my vision turned entirely to light, and my weightless body suddenly felt heavy, like a soaked lump of cotton.
‘Ah. I’ve returned to reality.’
Instinctively, I realized I had just escaped the brink of death.
‘Wow… I almost died just now. If I’d gone all the way to the bottom, I’d be dead for sure.’
That must have been the boundary between life and death.
Now, I could think like this, but for some reason, while I was in the darkness, I hadn’t been capable of rational thought at all.
‘But that voice that pulled me up…’
Didn’t it sound like Master?
Before I could finish the thought, a cool hand touched my forehead.
“You’ll be fine now.”
‘Huh?’
The same voice I had heard in the darkness reached me here in reality too. But it wasn’t directed at me.
“Really?”
That was the Archduke’s voice.
“How can you say that when she hasn’t even opened her eyes yet! Are you a quack?”
That was Baratheon.
“Calm down. At least she’s breathing comfortably now, isn’t she? And not sweating anymore.”
“Yeah. We’ll see soon enough if he’s a quack or not.”
That was Lucas and Sisheda.
After barely escaping death, hearing these familiar voices made tears well up in my eyes.
‘But… my body won’t move at all.’
My mind had returned, but maybe because I had wandered too long in that weightless darkness, my real body now felt unbearably heavy. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t even twitch a finger.
“What she needs now is time. Within a week, she’ll open her eyes and be able to move again.”
‘I see.’
He was speaking to the Archduke and the brothers, but it was reassuring to me as well.
‘So if I wait, I’ll return to normal.’
I stopped forcing myself to move and let myself relax.
But it seemed I was the only one at ease.
“You’d better be right about a week. If she still can’t open her eyes after that, you’ll pay. Got it?”
Baratheon’s threatening voice barked at someone.
From the sound of it, the target was the doctor—the man whose voice had pulled me from the darkness.
‘Hey! How can you talk like that to the person who saved my life? If not for him, I’d be dead!’
But unable to speak or even open my eyes, I couldn’t stop Baratheon.
“Teon.”
Thankfully, Lucas spoke up to rein him in.
“What? What do you want me to do? I’m frustrated here!”
Judging by his grumbling tone, it didn’t help much.
“One week.”
But the Archduke’s voice cut through the commotion, and Baratheon fell silent.
“We’ll wait. This is the first person who’s managed to improve Danáe’s condition this much.”
* * *
Time passed, and I gradually adjusted to the heaviness of my real body.
Others didn’t seem to notice yet, but now I could move my fingertips ever so slightly.
‘I just want to open my eyes quickly.’
But why did my eyelids, usually so light, feel so impossibly heavy now?
Not being able to see made the frustration twice as bad.
While lying there, I overheard many conversations.
Most of them were from Baratheon.
Unaware that my mind was clear, he visited me every day and poured out all sorts of stories.
Thanks to him, even from bed I could clearly grasp what was happening in the household.
The most shocking revelation was that I had been bedridden for fifteen days already.
‘And if it takes another week to fully wake up…’
That meant I would end up lying here for nearly a month.
It had been Lucas who found me first.
He had come to deliver his assigned documents, only to discover me collapsed. He immediately called for a doctor.
But not a single one of the five family physicians could figure out why I had fainted.
Sisheda had been furious, calling them all incompetent, but honestly, it wasn’t their fault.
After all, who would think my condition came from being bitten by a demon, my body losing control, and my mana running wild?
No ordinary doctor could possibly have diagnosed that.
The Archduke fired the physicians on the spot and discreetly sought a new personal doctor.
But even the doctors he painstakingly recruited couldn’t find the cause. They too were branded quacks and dismissed.
Meanwhile, my condition worsened. The color drained from my body, my breathing grew faint, and I seemed only a breath away from death.
It was around that time that the man who pulled me from the darkness arrived at the winter estate.
