"Um… Snow...? Please help me?"

Being cornered by Sun and Night, Celidonia had now resorted to an audible plea for help rather than using her eyes to signal me.

Since she'd done that, I can't simply ignore her then.

And so I replied.

"If you say it or not, it's fine for me either way."

"Eh…?"

With the whole devoting-myself-to-Snow thing, it's not like I'm forcing them too. But the bite, my bite, like what Night had told her, does have a significant factor in it so it's partly my fault as well and their decision on whether they say that to me or not is tilted on one side already before the decision can be made.

There's also the fact that Sun and Night are coercing her to do it. That's also a factor in this.

You could say that the answer is already decided even. That's certainly the case for Sun and Night even before I've realized it.

But with such probability, what she answered is not what I'm expecting.

"…I-I can't…"

"Hm?"

"... I've devoted myself to… Belenus… the God of light and prosperity… so I can't…"

I'm quite surprised. The fact that she used her devotion to a God is bit unexpected and expected from her. She is a priestess after all.

Well, it's fine for me if she doesn't say that. It's not like I'm asking them to do this or that it holds any value far from being a promise. But Sun and Night don't seem to see it that way.

"Wha-what!? Why? You don't have to be so pious now. You'll later understand that Snow has more value than those religious junk anyway. You might as well start now so c'mon, pledge your devotion to Snow~!"

As Sun was saying that, Celidonia is staring at the floor, feeling more troubled than she already is.

"… I'm sorry, I really… can't…"

"Huh? Why? I don't understand how that's more important than Snow… am I missing something here? Roosevelt, do you understand it?"

"No... I'm just confused as you are… no… maybe it's because she isn't like us. Yeah… your not, um… a vampire was it? Yeah, you're not like that yet."

Suddenly, Night turned her head towards me with a mischievous smile.

"Snow, could you turn miss Celidonia here into a vampire just like us?"

"W-wait…! Wh-what's a vampire…? And what's this about turning me into one?"

Turn her into a vampire?

I don't even know how or what method I used to make them into a vampire...

And judging from the time that they turned, it seems like that whatever I did to turn them didn't require me to be in close proximity and that it's a delayed response.

This also raises my bite as being the probable cause then. So, going with that, Celidonia will sooner or later turn into a vampire due to my bite.

If that supposedly is true, will she like that? I don't want to force someone to do something for me if they don't like it, nor do I want to force things onto living beings that can talk. I'll have to ask her if she wanted to be or not. And if she does, then that's great. But if she doesn't… I'll need to find a cure for her and take responsibility on forcing this onto her.

I'm not even sure if there's a cure for this…

But that thought would only be relevant it that were the case. I have to know first if it is or not.

And so I asked.

"Do you want to?"

"… I don't even know what a vampire is…"

Right, she still doesn't even know what that is. I glanced at Night and when she saw me do that, she immediately knew what I meant to tell her. How reliable of her.

And thus began her explanation.

"A vampire is what Snow is. And us as well it looks like. Like what you already know, they have the need to feed on blood. And apparently, turn other people into one as well. It's Snow who turned us into one. I still haven't experienced much on being one but other than this strong thirst that I've been feeling for a while now. Though, my body does feel lighter than usual."

After Night finished talking, Celidonia still looked confused. Should I explain it a bit more clearly to her?

But before I could speak, Celidonia spoke her answer.

"No… if I became a vampire, I can't possibly serve God then… I won't be a junior priestess anymore."

To her answer, Sun and Night sighed in frustration as they glared at Celidonia as if she said something very unforgivable. Seeing this, Celidonia contracted her whole body further and avoided their gazes by looking at the floor again.

… I should intervene on this, shouldn't I? I'm sure they've done what they wanted to do and now, it's just pointless intimidation. Maybe they would even force her to do it.

"Lilia, Roosevelt. Please leave her alone."

"Snow…?"

They were quite reluctant to do what I just said but seeing my serious look, to which I consciously made, they moved away from Celidonia. Though they still continued to glare at her.

Ha… I really wished that Celidonia had just said yes to being turned into a vampire. That would make things a lot smoother for me now and the future. If she said that she does want to be a vampire then I wouldn't be feeling guilty about biting her.

But since she said no, then that just made me very anxious right now. I'm still don't know what really is the cause for Sun and Night to turn into vampires. Biting them is likely to have something to do with it. But although I do know that my bite makes people more inclined to care about my safety to a greater degree, I'm not truly sure if it is really the cause.

It is the most likely candidate for it, which is making me anxious but there's still a chance that it might be something else. And I truly hope it is something else. I don't want to go and search for a cure that might not even exist just because I want to get this feeling of guilt out of me.

Then again, if she suddenly said that she's fine with it then maybe that'll ease me a little bit but I doubt that will happen since she seemed to really want to stick to her devotion to God.

"If you don't want to devote yourself to Snow, fine. But then, you should do something else with a similar value for Snow. I'm sure you wouldn't complain about that, right?"

When I was having that uncomfortable thought, Night said something amazing again.

What's this about doing something equal to giving her devotion to me? But from the way Night said that, along with how her face looks like she's scheming something, it can't be something normal like making me food.

Celidonia didn't answer her though and just met Night's oddly cheery eyes with confusion and a tinge of fear.

Taking the silence as a sign to continue, Night… continued.

"I could only think up of one thing that can be considered equal to that... It's to be her food."

Oh, it looks like my guess is right. Well, she's not going to cook, rather she's going to be the food so it's sort of right.

"Food..!?"

"It's not like Snow will eat you. Like I've said, vampires feed on blood so... You provide her with blood."

Night grinned ear to ear, looking very much excited to what she said and all the while glancing at me for who knows what reason.

Then after a couple of seconds, Night looked at her and spoke.

"… and maybe provide sustenance for me and Lilia as well. Oh, but Snow, if you don't like that, then it's perfectly fine if you keep her all to yourself."

Night flashed a bright smile at me before returning her look back to Celidonia.

"So, what do you think, miss? It certainly isn't a bad deal. Just think of it as a servant cooking for her master. You wouldn't be worshiping your master now, would you? So you can pray to God all you want no matter how I considered that to be disrespectful for my beloved Snow. Or maybe you're going to refuse this offer as well? If you are, I can promise you it wouldn't end lightly."

Oh… terrifying. Good thing she isn't directing that hostility towards me. Still though, please don't threaten her, Night… it doesn't sit well with me.

Her fears for being told to become food for me had subsided fairly decently from the initial shock but she still looked very much hesitant about it.

"… a-alright…"

Oh, she agreed? No, she must've been pressured by Night into saying that. Well, there might be a part of her who agreed on that as well, it's not entirely Night's fault and since I don't particularly have any role in this, I wouldn't feel guilty either way, but I still feel the need that I should ask if she's okay with it.

"Are you okay with... that?"

Hearing that, Celidonia slowly turned her head towards me, rubbed the side of her neck and answered.

"… Yes. A-and it's fine for you two as well…"

While saying that, Celidonia's cheeks have become awfully red. And with her blush, it gave a nice scent of blood wafting through the air.

And it seems that Sun and Night have noticed this faint smell as well as they became wide-eyed suddenly.

"… Snow, she said it's fine so… could we go first? I've been holding back all this time but right now, I can't seem to hold steady any longer."

"I-it's the same for me as well, Snow… can we take a sip from her?"

Seeing them so agitated, I personally don't know if they'll be able to hold back.

I looked at Celidonia for confirmation and she replied to me by nodding meekly.

So she's really okay with it then? Very well.

"It's fine. You two can go."

"Yes!"

"Thank you very much!"

Now what happened next is what I can only describe as a scene of two wolves pouncing at a prey, all at once. The two where quite fast at doing it as well. Definitely not something a human can do, at least average humans. Not those guys in the subjugation group.

And speaking about those guys, I wonder if they're still alive.

•••

"Holy crap, those guys are tougher than I imagined…"

In the deep parts of the forest, there laid three human corpses.

Needless to say that the surroundings are dyed in crimson red and entrails hanging from branches. To add to the chaos, the ground was littered with small craters and some trees are even toppled over or had simply been sliced in half.

It was such a scene that when one saw it, they'll immediately assume that some large monster had caused it all. It might even cause some to vomit just from the foul stench of the dead.

Rus looked at this horrific scene with an indifferent expression. It wasn't the first time he saw something like this after all. It's simply aftermath of some of the jobs he had taken and this one, it's no different.

Rus then sat below a nearby tree that is otherwise unaffected by what just happened and from there, he folded his right knee and examined the wound that he received on his calf.

Twisting his legs a bit, he saw a substantial chunk of his calf missing.

"Shit… goddamned possessed…"

He took out an appropriate sized white cloth from his back pocket. With that, he wrapped it around the wound a number of times until it's fully covered.

Rus wished that he knows healing magic but since he could use black magic, that immediately made him incompatible for using any school of magic closely related to light and that being healing magic.

He let out a sigh. He knew better than hoping for something he couldn't do at the moment. More importantly, he needed to get back to the village before it became dark. It would be unwise to stay in the dark with an injury like this.

Plus, there's a priestess in the village. Or at least on the way to the village. Through her, he could get this wound fixed up, or if not, heal it enough so he wouldn't have to worry about getting the wound infected. But in the case that she refused, he'll have the villagers mend it for him.

And speaking about the priestess, he found it weird that she wasn't affected by his magic. Certainly, he still wasn't at the level of mastery but it was on a high enough level that simply hearing him talk would affect her somewhat and make him more believable or convincing.

But during the trip to the village, she didn't seem to be affected at all. Sure, she listened to his words somewhat but it wasn't because of his magic. It was simply that she found his words to be logical enough with common sense.

And it's not only her, but there's also that girl. From what the village chief had said, she's an adopted child of the two travelers that they took in.

And that's one of the strange aspects about her. That she's the adopted child of the two that he's here for. He wasn't informed that they brought a child with them. Not only that, it seems that Lilia and Roosevelt don't have their supposed guards as well.

A child and no guards, and for some odd reason, the two other groups that were sent after them had all died. Completely annihilated. Something is not adding up here.

If they still have their guards then sure, it might that those guards are very powerful and that they somehow beat those disposable idiots that his contractor had sent for them. That would be more reasonable then.

But they didn't have them. During his check on the two, they don't have someone that resemble a guard. They were completely alone.

And there's also the matter of the child. Not only is she unaffected by his coercion, but she also possesses some sort of clairvoyant ability as she somehow knew where the goblin village is. Because of her as well, the traps that he had laid for these idiots were completely useless. Whenever he tried to lead them to where they are, the child, with the help of the priestess, would revert them back to the path.

Obviously, that child is special somehow and Rus didn't know just how special she is. It was a good thing that a chance came up for him to get rid of those two.

A goblin shaman in contract with a devil. When the shaman died, the devil it is in contract with revived the dead corpse of the shaman and used it as a vessel. But in doing so, there's a catch. The devil needs to devour souls in order to keep this form. The stronger the soul, the better. And through this, the devil can grow stronger.

And as the devil had mentioned, the child has the most 'delicious' soul among them. Rus didn't know why that it is and he wasn't an expert on the subject to figure out why. Well, it did prove useful this time so he went along with it.

Of course, second to the child in terms of soul quality is the priestess. Since the priestess is still a junior priestess, her soul isn't to the point that it'll be incredibly poisonous to the devil of that level but it was pure enough that it could be delectable.

With that information, and as well as the fact that the child got injured because of the devil's attacks,

It made the perfect excuse and opportunity for him to send them back.

And now that they're gone, he was be able to get rid of the other three without any unexpected interruptions.

During the chaos of the battle, he went and attacked them but he didn't expect that they had their guard up that much. Especially that Sam guy. He reacted quite quickly to his attack. Not only that, when they're desperate, they're really on another level.

Well, the outcome for that was quite obvious. He had already fought groups like them before and he won with some effort. And to add to their worries, they had to deal with a possessed shaman. No way they'll be able to win.

Though at some point, Rus became careless and had his calf slashed.

"Aw… shit…!"

He hissed in pain when he touched the wound. The piece of cloth had now turned black from all the bleeding. Just thinking about walking all the way back to the village with a wound like this is hurting him both physically and mentally.

Fortunately for him, the shaman had, for some reason and somehow, escaped. He guessed it might be the same kind of magic it used to ambush them but he wasn't sure what kind of magic it was.

He probably wouldn't make it by the end of the day if he walked and he'll get caught out in the dark. The situation for him looks rather grim.

That is if he could only walk.

He unsheathed the hidden knife from the pocket on the side of his leather pants and stabbed it in the trunk of the tree he's leaning on. Then, he used that as support to carefully stand up, putting all the weight on his good leg as he did so.

Once he's upright, he leaned his body on the trunk once more and extended his arms forward. Next, he began to chant words in a practiced manner and after a couple of seconds, a shadow like a figure began to take form in front of him. As he continued his chant, the shadow's shape became more obvious.

And once he finished his chant, the shadow, whose shape was that of a horse, moved and was even neighing but no sound came out of the horse.

As if it wasn't anything special, Rus limped forwards to the horse and rode it like normal, albeit with a bit of difficulty.

Once he had firmly sat on it, the horse took this as a cue and run off to the general direction to where the village is. Rus held on tightly on the reins made of similar material as the horse.

Simply killing his targets wouldn't be any fun and there's also that underlying uncertainty about the child and thus, a little bit of acting is needed here.

With that thought, he looked forward expectantly and with excitement as a performance was about to unfold.