[Vol. 7] Chapter 216: Poisoned Blood
Mia and Philoae were both students in the Seventh District. Not only had they worked together many times, but they also often ran into each other at school. Before they graduated, they were once randomly placed on the same research project, with Mia as the senior student. That’s how they got to know each other and slowly became close.
As her friend, Mia knew Philoae's personality very well. It’s true, this junior of hers could be a little lazy and loved to sleep in. But deep down, she was responsible and trustworthy.
Since they had agreed to meet at Philoae’s house today, Mia believed that with Philoae’s personality, she would definitely wake up early to get ready. There was no way she would sleep until noon and leave her guest waiting outside for a long time. And she especially wouldn’t let a friend see her in such a messy and sloppy state.
Philoae usually looked forward to these blood-sharing sessions. Because of the strong pleasure and happiness she felt when being bitten, she had even offered to let Mia drink from her more often, for free. Mia had only turned her down because she was worried it would harm her health. So how could Philoae act so uninterested today?
On top of that, there were other strange things. Earlier, Philoae had asked in an unusual way why Mia wasn’t afraid of sunlight. And Mia had heard some odd shuffling noises from outside the door. All of this was suspicious.
Mia was now the personal maid of Lady Violet, a person with a noble status and well-known reputation. Because of that, it wouldn’t be surprising if some bad people had evil plans. They might not dare go after Lady Violet directly, so instead they could try to target the two ladies around her, or people like Mia and Selna, who seemed easy to bully.
After noticing something was wrong, Mia had secretly been watching Philoae carefully and testing her in small ways. But the girl seemed totally normal. She didn’t look like someone who had been brainwashed or forced. While pretending to clean earlier, Mia had even checked the whole room using her vampire ability, and hadn’t found anyone else nearby. She was pretty sure that part was safe.
Even though she looked relaxed, Mia had kept her guard up the whole time. Before she bit into Philoae’s neck, she had a hidden magical dagger tightly gripped in her sleeve. If Philoae had made any sudden moves, Mia would’ve attacked without hesitation.
But now that things had gone so smoothly… it felt like all that caution might have been pointless.
A creature being bitten by a vampire has absolutely no way to resist. If it were someone as powerful as Lady Violet, maybe there would be a chance. But Philoae, while she did have some magical talent, was really just at the level of a Mithril. Her studies at the academy focused on developing advanced magical tools, and her physical strength wasn’t much better than an ordinary girl’s.
If Mia wanted to, she could easily drink more of Philoae’s blood right now, making her even weaker and completely harmless. She could even take her life with just a thought. There was no one else around, so even if this was all part of a trap, there wouldn’t be any way to carry it out now.
Weird… was she just being overly suspicious?
Mia still didn’t fully understand the strange feeling she’d had earlier or the unease that lingered in her heart, but she trusted her instincts as a vampire. Once her fangs were fully buried in the girl’s neck, Mia’s tense body finally began to relax a little. She even started thinking about whether she should take a bit more blood, just enough to leave Philoae too weak to cause trouble, and then question her more carefully about everything that had seemed off.
Losing a bit of blood wouldn’t really hurt Philoae. And if Mia was wrong and had just been too paranoid, she could always make it up to her with extra payment or gifts. After all, Lady Violet had recently given her a very generous salary, more than ten times what the head maid used to give her for daily expenses, so money wasn’t a problem anymore.
But at that very moment, a sudden dizzy feeling hit her, followed by a powerful, overwhelming sense of danger and fear. It was like thunder exploding in her chest, and Mia’s eyes instantly widened in shock!
“!?”
She didn’t even fully understand what was causing the fear, but she instinctively locked onto the source. Without hesitation, she hugged the soft, limp girl in her arms even tighter and quickly injected a much stronger dose of her special vampire fluid through her fangs!
There was no turning back now! A normal person might have panicked in this moment, pulled away, and tried to keep their distance. But Mia’s elite maid training helped her go against that natural fear, and make the right move to grab a chance to fight back.
“Ugh—ahh!!”
The large amount of special vampire fluid suddenly rushed through the girl’s nerves, and the effect was instant. The tree spirit girl, already lost in the overwhelming feeling of happiness, suddenly started trembling violently, her eyes rolling back. Then, strange wisps of gray mist began leaking out uncontrollably from her body!
There really was something wrong! But what was this? A curse? Or maybe some kind of evil spirit possessing her?
Mia was shocked, but before she could even figure out what to do, a wave of deep, unstoppable sleepiness hit her like a crashing wave from deep inside her mind. It felt as if some powerful force was trying to drag her into a heavy dream, far stronger than any sleeping drug she had ever taken before, even the ones used during experiments with Princess Lucine!
This wasn’t something that could be resisted with willpower alone. But… when had it started?
“Ugh…”
Her thoughts flashed like lightning. Almost by instinct, the maid crushed a small crystal hidden in her sleeve from the start, and then tried to stab herself in the thigh to use the sharp pain to fight off the sleepiness.
But she only managed the first action. Before she could even lift the knife, the dream swallowed her consciousness completely. Her body froze in midair like a puppet that had lost its strings, then quickly collapsed limply.
Clang~
The knife and the broken pieces of crystal dropped to the ground, making a few clear, ringing sounds.
It wasn’t until a while later that the green-haired girl in Mia’s arms, who had fainted from the intense feeling of being bitten, slowly began to wake up. She weakly pushed away the collapsed maid, who was still lying on top of her, holding her neck, which still had glistening saliva and damp marks, and sat up at the edge of the bed, blushing and breathing heavily.
“Hah… hah… She’s just a maid, but I didn’t expect her to be this hard to deal with. I almost messed up…”
At some point, Philoae’s eyes, which used to be light green like a tree spirit’s, had taken on a faint gray mist. Her tone was completely different too, more mature, calm, and cold. There was even a hint of gloom in her expression that wasn’t easy to notice.
She turned her head to look at Mia, who was now lying face-up on the bed. Though Mia’s eyes were still open, they were dull and lifeless, clearly unconscious. The girl reached up to gently touch the spot on her neck where Mia’s fangs had been, the skin already healed, and her face showed a mix of emotions.