Free Web NovelChapter 94: Talk with Lucas
Before Vlad could even come up with an excuse, Lucas spoke up, keeping the same formal tone that made it impossible for Vlad to figure out the emotion behind it.
"Forget it. She must have allowed you to address her as such if you accidentally called her nickname out loud." Lucas’s voice remained measured, but there was a subtle shift in his expressions, a frown on his eyebrows that betrayed his true feelings.
He gave a side-eye to Vlad and hissed, this time annoyance clearly visible on his face, "Are you aware that you are the only one that called her Sera apart from me? If anyone were to hear in the academy—"
"I do not call her Sera in front of others," Vlad said, cutting him mid-sentence. "It only accidentally slipped from my mouth because I was flustered just now."
"..."
Lucas felt himself at a loss for words. The audacity of this kid was simply astounding. He was indirectly saying it to his face that he would not stop calling her by the name which was clearly intimate. But again, given his relationship with Seraphina now, Lucas could not object to it even if he wanted to.
Lucas released a sigh, giving up on the matter. With a serious tone, he said, "Since she already drank your blood, you must be aware that you have become her Bloodbound."
The title was the first Vlad ever heard of it, but he did know what it meant, even though his knowledge was incomplete.
He nodded with Lucas’s words, acknowledging the bond that now connected him to Seraphina.
"Like it or not, my daughter’s life is bound with you now," Lucas continued, moving forward from the tree bark. "Could you give me the assurance that her life will never be threatened because she could not receive the required blood, your blood, when it’s needed?" His question carried a far deeper meaning, and Vlad understood what he was trying to imply. Seraphina’s life was connected to his now. He was asking if Vlad was willing to give his blood to her for the rest of his life.
"The House Cendral placed the stone of my foundation by helping me enroll in the academy," Vlad said, his tone serious. His hands rested on his knees, his gaze unwavering. "Giving a few mls of blood every month is the least I can do." fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
A faint smile formed on Lucas’s face from Vlad’s words. He lightly patted Vlad’s back before rising to his feet. "You are a good man, just like your father," he said, his tone warm. "Do not make my daughter cry."
With those words, he suddenly flew up, his figure vanishing into the distant sky within mere seconds. The rush of wind from his departure rustled the grass and leaves around Vlad.
"Whoah, he can even fly," Vlad gasped, surprise clear on his face. He craned his neck upward, watching the diminishing figure that now only appeared like a shooting star streaking across the night. As he looked at the distant glow, he scratched his temple in confusion and murmured, "What does he mean by the last words? As if I could make that scary vampire cry."
Now that Lucas really left, all the exhaustion that his brain was not focusing on before suddenly hit him like a wave of flooding water. Before he knew it, he had already fallen on his back, sleeping below the shade of the tree as fireflies danced across its leaves.
---
"How rude!" Lirien’s plushie body jumped with a scoff as if she was greatly offended. Before her, on the swaying grassland with cold breeze, Chloe was still sitting cross-legged, absorbing the power from the stone. "How could he leave without meeting his master?"
"With the inhumane torture you put him through along with your other disciples, you should be relieved that they did not form an alliance to take revenge," Aldric said, keeping the same professional tone as he tapped his spectacles, standing beside her in his usual formal attire.
Lirien’s fluffy tail snapped straight, her body bouncing to face Aldric. "How could you accuse me of such slander? I merely subjected them to a few... character-building exercises."
"Even you do not seem to be sure of your words, Miss Principal," Aldric replied, fixing his coat.
A mild annoyance crept onto his face as he continued, "Lord Cendral’s mana has become even heavier than before. From now on, you should handle your disciples by yourself."
"Ehh?" Lirien’s teasing tone came from behind as he turned. "You mean my disciple has surpassed you as well."
Lirien could see Aldric’s ear twitching from behind as if she had just hit a nerve.
"The documents in the office have already stacked to the ceiling," Lucas revealed, ignoring her question as he continued walking forward. "Once Miss Chloe forms her core, you will not leave the office for a whole month."
"H-hey, you cannot do that to m—" Before Lirien could even finish those words, Aldric had already vanished, leaving behind just a breeze of wind, rustling through the area.
Lirien’s gaze shifted below as if she was not looking at the ground but at something far in the distance, her vision running through her office, to her mansion in the clouds before it reached downwards into the campus, below the shade of a tree.
"Knowing Lucas, he should have caught Vlad, put him in some capsule, and used him as a blood bank for his daughter for the rest of his life to make sure he does not die somewhere, leaving his daughter without her blood source," Lirien murmured to herself in a suspicious tone. "Aldric had even alerted ’that drunkard’ to help him stop Lucas if he tried to harm Vlad. Yet he left without doing anything. What kind of magic did this child do on Lucas to—"
Her words stopped mid-sentence as her gaze fell upon the sleeping figure of Vlad, his wide chest rising and falling in low rhythms, the abs on his abdomen along with his refined muscles, appearing even more striking under the moonlight.
"H-how shameless!!?" Lirien gasped in a completely flustered tone, turning her gaze away from his figure.
