"Is it good?" In the finest restaurant in Lyonis, Isaac was busily feeding Sophia, who was wrapped in her bloodwings, dressed in leather armor magically repaired by the bloodheart dagger, body swathed in gauze and bandages, still tightly bound with holy ropes, and ankles shackled together by chained cuffs. Sophia was devouring her food, trying to regain her strength and blood. Isaac sat beside her and asked.
"It's terrible!" Sophia's voice was still hoarse—her vocal cords clearly hadn't fully healed. "No matter how busy I am, I always teleport back to the castle to eat at mealtimes! Worst case, I just teleport away again after. The last time I didn't get home in time for a meal? That was over a hundred years ago!" Food outside the castle always tasted equally bad compared to the meals there.
"I haven't gone home to eat or use the toilet in days! My castle slaves will be worried about me," Sophia said.
"You... even use the bathroom only at the castle?" Isaac asked, puzzled—and curious about her odd comment about "slaves worrying about her."
"Of course. Vlad made me the best toilet in the world!" Sophia said proudly. Seeing Isaac's confusion, she added, "Vlad is my useless father. You know, I'm the only vampire in the world who needs to use the bathroom regularly." After she fainted yesterday, Isaac had found her rear in as much chaos as a battlefield while bandaging her wounds—she'd held it in for days, then got pierced by crossbow bolts, so naturally, she'd lost control… After waking and realizing Isaac had found out, she decided to share even more bodily secrets with him—including her vision and hearing, and the fact that she could "see" Isaac's little brother with her ears.
"Little Zack knows so many of my secrets now. You even saw my naked body and my... loss of control while I was unconscious," Sophia said, shooting him a strange look.
"I-I-I was just cleaning your wounds! I wasn't—" Isaac stammered in panic, but Sophia cut him off: "You're really reliable now, Zack. You weren't afraid of my acidic blood burning you, and you just rushed in to help."
"Of course I was afraid, but I thought you were dying! Everyone's heard the tales—vampire blood melts anything it touches. But I couldn't care at the time."
"You didn't know, did you?" Sophia smiled at him. "I prepared for just such occasions—I long ago altered my blood, making it much more like a human's."
"The downside is my blood is far less efficient now—whether for using its energy or making spirit blood," Sophia sighed, looking disappointed, but quickly smiled again. "But as long as my noble blood doesn't hurt you, that's all I want." Her smile was so dazzling, Isaac stared at her in a daze.
"Oh, right." Sophia seemed to catch the shift in his feelings, and her tone suddenly turned icy and terrifying: "Ordinarily, if you saw me naked, I'd have to kill you, you know."
"Gulp..." Isaac felt every hair on his body stand on end.
"Hmph." Sophia glared at him with queenly dignity, all traces of playfulness gone. "But since you worked so hard to save me, I'll forgive you this once and spare your life."
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you, Lady Dominax!!" Isaac blurted, terrified.
"Idiot, why are you shouting so loudly?" Sophia snapped. "Are you stupid? This is a public place, everyone's staring at us now!"
"S-sorry..." Isaac lowered his head, sweat still pouring.
"Hey! Hey! Keep feeding me, why are you spacing out?" Sophia's grumbling snapped Isaac back, and he mechanically forked a piece of meat and held it to her open mouth.
"Want a drink?" Isaac picked up a bottle of wine.
Sophia eyed the wine—she hadn't drunk anything for four days. With her human senses, she was unbearably thirsty, but drinking meant she'd need to use the bathroom...
Whatever, she couldn't hold out any longer—she was a noble lady, used to enjoying herself, not worrying about such details. Thirsty to death, she pressed her lips to the wine bottle, and Isaac tilted it up, the liquid glug-glug-glugging into her mouth.
They'd earned 50 gold coins from hunting the vampire, plus 20 looted earlier, totaling over 70 coins. Sophia had also taken over 100 gold from Anna, telling Isaac it was their compensation for wounds inflicted, making Isaac a veritable rich man—he'd never had so much money in his life. That's why he could afford to eat at the best restaurant in town—even if the finest food in Gourens' second largest city was still awful to Sophia. Her cloak fit in well with the luxurious restaurant, but Isaac's shabby clothes looked entirely out of place among the nobles and wealthy.
"Didn't expect that mongrel to be here too." Sophia's eyes fell on a gothically dressed nobleman in the distance.
"Who's that?" Isaac asked.
"That's a Catan mongrel," Sophia replied coldly, meaning a high vampire of the Catan royal house. Even among the twelve royal houses, any vampire lacking 100% progenitor blood could only be called a mongrel by her.
"Catan house? You mean the Blood—" Isaac knew the name; the Catan clan was among the most famous of vampire families.
"That's right, the Blood Dragon. The clan that slew an adult fire dragon, obsessed with chivalry and combat—meatheads, really."
Vampire-sharp hearing caught the words "Catan" and "Blood Dragon," and the noble turned, stared in shock at Sophia and Isaac, and bowed deeply to them.
"I thought that mongrel would come challenge me. A mongrel's a mongrel," Sophia said coolly.
Isaac felt this was no place to linger, so he packed Anna's food and left the restaurant with Sophia.
"Cowardly Zack, why were you suddenly fearless last night?" Sophia asked on the way back.
"I... I don't know," Isaac replied. "Maybe you gave me courage, Lady Dominax."
"Oh? So you're still as scared as ever, usually?" Sophia's voice, likely thanks to her rapid healing, had lost its hoarseness.
"Yes," Isaac admitted, then hesitated before adding, "Um, Lady Dominax, are you afraid of dying?"
Sophia stopped, turning to face Isaac, making him feel completely uneasy. She drew close, her lips almost touching his ear—if anyone knew she was a vampire, they'd scream for Isaac to watch out.
"Little Zack," Sophia whispered, "Did you know, vampires are all terrified of true death? Because we're already dead things, we're born with that fear."
All vampires were afraid of death? Isaac had never imagined it.
"I, myself, have human feelings—so I fear death even more," Sophia's voice dropped even lower, so chilling Isaac's pores stood on end.
"But don't worry, Zack—I won't die."
"Zack, you mustn't repeat what I'm about to say," Sophia said with an almost threatening tone, then her eyes flashed red, and she drew her mouth back from his ear, fixing him with a piercing stare. Isaac broke out in cold sweat, his legs weak, feeling like it took all his strength just to stand under her gaze.
Sophia leaned back in: "Did you know, a vampire's never-beating heart stores our soul? That's why seasoned witchhunters stake our hearts. If our heart is pierced by something sharp, our soul is damaged."
"And for those of us with the purest bloodlines—even beheaded, we live on through our heart's soul."
"If only the heart is destroyed, we nobles can still use our brain to host our soul, just like humans."
"But if both brain and heart are destroyed, we die."
Isaac's mouth fell open; he dared not utter a sound—the world's top predator had just told him her weakness.
"But you've heard of liches? They have phylacteries that store their soul. As long as that's intact, they can't die."
"But the price is to become an undead, forever leaving behind human passions and pleasures."
"But I, Dominax, was born undead."
"Most undead can't make themselves into liches—only living things can."
"But I, Dominax, was born living."
"Oh, you didn't know?" Sophia grinned wickedly. "I was born from a human mother and vampire father—the world's only true-born vampire. That's why I hunger, thirst, and tire like a human, with both undead and human traits."
"Back to the point—I store my soul in my family's ancestral sword, locked in my castle, impossible to destroy."
"Even if it's broken, I've cast so many spells on it, it will repair itself."
"As long as it's not sealed by others, I will always come back to life. So if I'm alone, I'm not afraid of being killed. But if you, Zack, are killed, that wouldn't be fun at all."
"Only my sister and brother know this secret. Now you do too." Sophia's red eyes fixed on Isaac—he realized he'd learned something truly dangerous.
"If a third person ever learns this, I'll have to flay you alive, piece by piece, then tear your soul to shreds and lock it in a vessel to suffer for centuries."
Silence.
Isaac held his breath, soaked in cold sweat—wasn't this what they called "the more you know, the sooner you die"?
"You won't betray me, will you, Zack?" Sophia whispered coldly in his ear.
She then drew away, her red eyes fading to blue, and her cute smile returned, as if her threats had never happened. "Now you know so many of my secrets."
"Y-yes, Domi—"
"No more Dominax, since you know so much. Call me Sophia!"
"O-okay, Miss So—Sophia."
"No 'Miss'!"
"O-okay. Sophia, no 'Miss'..."
"Hahaha, Zack, don't look so stiff—smile! Or you could call me Feifei—that's what my mom called me."
Isaac couldn't just forget her earlier threats—he was still too shaken to even walk straight.
"Zack, you tell me a secret of yours now!"
Isaac met her gaze, almost said it, then shrank back: "No, not now."
"Tch, then I'll read your mind!"
"If you could, you'd have done it already," Isaac said, regaining his composure.
"You! How dare you, a mere human, turn my own words on me!" Sophia pouted. "Can't you pretend I can still read minds? I'm not playing with you anymore!" With that, she stomped away in her shackled heels.
"This woman really is a handful." Isaac shook his head and hurried after her.
———————————————————
"Little bitch, how was your day?" Back at their new inn (the old one had closed after the mysterious crossbow attack), Sophia, now used to going without her cloak indoors, revealed her beautiful, bound body in her queen's leather. She headed straight for the storeroom, eager to see Anna humiliated. Anna was still suspended in a tight hogtie; thanks to the aphrodisiac, her breasts seemed to have grown beyond 34D, nearly bursting her corset, and there was a puddle beneath her.
"Mm-mm!" Anna, hearing Sophia's steps, forced herself to stop crying. She couldn't let the vampire see her tears. Gritting her teeth against the combined torment of aphrodisiac and ropes, she glared fiercely at Sophia—though the blindfold hid her tears and expression, and Sophia could only "see" her fierceness by sound.
"Still acting tough, huh? Not so fun being prey, is it?" Sophia deliberately turned away, patting Anna's head like a pet. The touch tightened the collar, nearly choking her, and the jolt was sent straight to her bound chest and crotch, sparking a new wave of wetness. Yet Anna, incredibly, forced herself to endure, refusing to show weakness.
"Sophia, don't bully her," Isaac hurried to intervene.
"Tch, who tied her up so tightly and copped so many feels?" Sophia, despite being bound, acted like the mistress here.
"I just didn't want her waking up and chopping us again." The lecherous Isaac explained.
"No worries—if she tries, we'll just sell her to slavers."
"Mm-mm!" Anna protested in humiliation, struggling to make her point despite the choking collar.
"See, she's mad," Sophia smiled at Anna.
"Mm-mm!"
"Miss Belmont, if you cooperate, we can treat you better," Isaac said, trying to coax Anna, who was writhing in hunger and frustration.
"Tch, you almost killed me last night—if it wasn't for my spirit blood, you'd have died too, Zack. Why so gentle with her now?" Sophia was deeply displeased at Isaac's chivalry toward Anna. But the truth was, Sophia had always known from reading his mind: though Isaac was a lecher, he was a gentleman and would never force a woman. That was why she'd trusted him to tie her up. But now, Sophia found his chivalry aggravating.
"She's tied up now, at our mercy. Miss Belmont, I can untie your mouth and feed you, but you mustn't make noise and draw attention. Do you agree?"
Anna hadn't eaten for a day and a night, but the vampire being here made her reluctant to accept the humiliation of being fed.
"Mm!" Anna shook her head fiercely, and the motion jolted her, making the hunter's whip torment her anew, sparking a cascade of reactions: "Mm-mm—mm-mm—mm-mm!"
"Heh, you've got some pride—see, I've been fed by this blockhead twice now and didn't make a fuss."
"Sophia, could you please leave for a bit?"
"Why, found a new lover and don't want the old one?" Sophia pouted, sulking.
"What are you talking about? She just doesn't want you to see her eat!"
"Hmph, all you males are the same, always after the next new thing—I'm not leaving!"
"Well, sorry about this, 'frog jump'." Suddenly, Isaac had newfound courage (perhaps emboldened by having another woman present), and dared to talk back.
Snap! Sophia's legs were locked together. "Isaac! You bas—" Before she could finish, Isaac scooped her up in a princess carry, and as she kept cursing, he wrestled her onto the bed and strapped on the anti-vampire gag, silencing her with a "Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm!"
Sophia struggled and drooled furiously, soaking Isaac's clothes.
"Just for a bit, okay? Don't make a fuss." Isaac laid her on the bed, but Sophia wouldn't calm down. Bound and gagged, she could only kick and thrash on the bed: "Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm!"
Infuriated, she tried to kick Isaac, so he grabbed the leftover rope used to tie Anna: "Sophia, keep this up and I won't be gentle."
Sophia, unafraid, kicked again, so Isaac pinned her legs and tightly bound her thighs below the knee and under her butt, taking off her knee-high boots first so her kicks would hurt less.
"Mm-mm-mm! Mm-mm-mm!" Sophia had never been bullied like this, but was now so angry she could only twist and writhe on the bed, secretly finding the sensation oddly enjoyable. Trusting Isaac completely, she no longer felt any shame at struggling before him—she could be both furious and secretly delighted.
Isaac returned to the storeroom: "Sorry, Miss Belmont." He removed her blindfold: "She's gone now—will you promise not to make a scene?"
Hearing Sophia's muffled protest from outside, Anna guessed the vampire's feet must have been shackled and gagged too, and felt a surge of satisfaction. Starving, desperate to be rid of the filthy gag—contaminated with vampire blood and who knows what other foulness (though she noted with a jolt that Sophia had made her blood less acidic for the sake of her human servant)—Anna nodded: "Mm."
Isaac removed the rag and pulled out the pair of panties he'd bought from the goblin merchant Assi, originally meant for Sophia.
"Ah, ah—" Finally able to breathe, Anna sucked in fresh air.
"You're human—why help a monster!" Anna glared at Isaac.
"Sophia isn't as bad as you think." Isaac, though tempted to grope, chose the gentlemanly route, hoping Anna would come to terms with Sophia—for both their sakes.
"Hmph, you must be bewitched by her—has she cast a charm spell on you?"
"Mm-mm-mm!" Sophia's hearing caught everything, and a volley of angry protests echoed from outside.
"Miss Belmont, keep talking nonsense and I'll gag you again. And don't pretend—you've got tear stains on your cheeks."
"Hmph, so what? Anna Belmont isn't afraid of you." But though she talked tough, Anna's actions betrayed her; at least Isaac hadn't seen her cry—her pride was slightly intact.
Isaac found her bravado amusing. "Open up, I brought you the best food in Lyonis." He fed her a piece of meat on a fork. Anna, spring-drugged and starving, blushed at being fed like a pet—helpless, suspended, and passively accepting each bite. Since her family was destroyed at fourteen, she'd lived alone, never cared for by anyone. Now, tied up and being fed, she was mortified, but couldn't eat quickly or the ropes would torment her further, sending waves of pleasure through her drugged body.
Unlike Sophia's previous feedings, Anna was fully bound and utterly submissive, left no choice but to accept.
On the bed, Sophia laughed, though the gag hid her smile; her ears painted a vivid image in her mind. "Hah, little bitch, you say no, but you're honest at heart! You've finally been fed like a dog! I've never been hogtied and fed like that—never so two-faced! Dominax one, Belmont zero! No, two-nil!"
Soon, Isaac had fed Anna enough, and she pleaded, "Please, don't gag me again—I swear I won't make a sound, on the honor of the Belmonts!" She was desperate not to have her mouth stuffed again with the filthy rag.
"I'm sorry, but this was her idea. You nearly killed her—shot her full of holes, broke her spine—she really wanted to punish you. I picked the mildest punishment. Besides, the rag is full of stuff you made come out of her."
"And you nearly killed me too—I'm being as decent as possible." Isaac said, taking up the panties, ready to gag her again.
"Wait! One thing—" Anna said, alarmed.
"What?"
"My horse—Shadowflash. He's a good horse. Without me, he'll—"
"We already found him. He's in the inn's stable downstairs."
"What? How did you—"
"Sophia isn't the kind of bad vampire you think she is. She really cared about your horse. She was the one who found him."
"What? That's impossible."
"I hope you'll reconsider your view of her." With that, Isaac picked up the panties and pushed them toward Anna's mouth.
"No, don't—I—mmph!" Isaac pinched Anna's nose, forcing her to open her mouth, stuffed the panties inside, and then packed her mouth with the rag full of Sophia's bodily fluids and blood.
"Mm-mm-mm-mm!" Anna struggled in distress, her body getting wetter and wetter. Damn that vampire's spirit-blood aphrodisiac—how long would it last? She didn't know that, in revenge for being beaten nearly to death, Sophia had used several liters of her own blood after only just starting to recover, crafting an aphrodisiac that would torment Anna for over a month—leaving her soaked by day and plagued by erotic dreams at night.
"Mm-mm-mm-mm!" From outside the storeroom came another volley of muffled cries—clearly, Sophia was demanding her turn for company.
"Goodnight, Lady Belmont." Isaac put Anna's blindfold back on, leaving her still protesting in the storeroom.
As soon as Isaac emerged, Sophia began protesting, "Mm-mm-mm-mm! Mm-mm, mm-mm-mm, mm-mm-mm-mm!"
Isaac produced the master key, unlocked Sophia's gag, and she immediately cursed, "You two-timing stallion! Just for a little butcher girl, you shackled my legs and gagged me! And you even used the ropes left from tying her to bind my beautiful legs!"
"Weren't you happy enough being gagged last night before the crossbow attack?" Isaac, having planned his response, wasn't flustered.
"That's—not the same! That was a voluntary sacrifice by me, but this—this was a wicked shackle forced on me, a noble and sacred Lady, by an evil human!"
"All right, all right, whatever you say, my Lady."
"Tell me, who's prettier, me or the little butcher?" Sophia glared at Isaac.
"Uh..."
"You hesitated!!! It's obviously me!!!" Sophia was furious.
"Of course, of course, Sophia is a thousand times more beautiful than Lady Belmont."
"How many times more?"
"Ten thousand times!"
Isaac's wild exaggeration worked—he'd come to understand Sophia's heart: she was a young lady who adored praise. He didn't know her full story, but for seven hundred years, the Dominax family had had no other vampires; Sophia had gone without family, and despite her brilliance, few had had occasion to admire her. That was why she so loved showing off her powers and magic. Praise made her shine.
"That's more like it!" As expected, Sophia broke into a satisfied, delighted smile.
"Dominax three, Belmont zero!" she added, still beaming.
Isaac was again dumbstruck by Sophia's smile, but just then, a series of furious "mm-mm-mm-mm!" came from the storeroom—the not-so-soundproof door letting in Anna's protests, clearly in response to Sophia's words.
"Ah, women," Isaac sighed.
"Hey hey hey, little Zack, you haven't given my legs their freedom yet!" Sophia hopped off the bed, showing off her shackled legs with a few little jumps.
"All right, all right, my good slave." Hearing the command "Good Slave," the shackles reverted to simple ankle bands.
"And the rope on my legs?"
"I'll undo it now."
"No need! I, a noble Lady, don't beg for favors. Hmph! You humans tied up my legs—so I'll leave them like this, no need for your charity!"
Isaac could only smile wryly at Sophia, who was now determined to prove she didn't care if her legs were tied. Her ankles, now free except for the decorative cuffs, shuffled her in little steps back to bed, where she lay down and said, "Little Zack, it seems this whole set of restraints also weakens my physical defenses."
"What do you mean?"
"I've been shot with that crossbow before."
"And?"
"It's powerful, but my body was never pierced through before."
"I see..."
"So—" Sophia suddenly hopped down, walked up to Isaac, and flashed a radiant smile. "Zack, you'd better protect me well."
Isaac blushed, then declared, "I, Isaac, Vampire Hunter of Lyonis, will not fail!"
"Mm-mm-mm-mm!" came another protest from the storeroom, as if to say: "Disgusting couple."
Glancing at the storeroom, Sophia thought of the panties in Anna's mouth and suddenly flashed Isaac a mysterious grin: "Little Zack, I have an idea."