“Plona, if you think it’s tough, just say so right now.”
Aria whispered worriedly, turning her eyes away from the approaching cart.
Plona had heard just yesterday that if she found drinking directly too repulsive, she could start with drinking from a bottle.
But Plona forced a smile and lightly shook her head.
“Because this is a path I must take to live with you.”
A vampire’s meals are sufficient once every two weeks, but that’s based on the expectation of roughly the blood volume of a single human.
To transfer several liters of blood into bottles would require working twice as hard somehow. And naturally, it was clear whose burden that would become.
‘There’s no way I can inconvenience my sister that much.’
After all, her sister was someone who worried quite a bit knowing how confused she was.
While it made Plona genuinely happy that her sister was concerned about her, in order to be a dignified younger sister, she knew she must manage her own affairs.
“Ferocious ones are good for experimentation.”
Stella, keeping her gaze fixed in the other direction, jumped into the conversation.
With her unwaveringly firm attitude as if she refused to read the mood, Aria lightly rolled her eyes at her before taking a deep breath and looking straight at Plona once again.
“You heard that, Plona? You can just pick them apart except for the escort mercenaries.”
Clang, clang!
In Plona’s mind, an unseen lock was unhinged, and tightly bound chains fell away.
Through her progenitor’s permission connected by blood, the temporary lifting of the taboo against randomly devouring humans was something Plona could understand naturally.
“Yes.”
There was no turning back now.
Plona steeled her resolve and waited for the next order.
As the three carts approached rather close to where Aria and her group were hiding, Aria finally exchanged a light glance with Stella and whispered softly.
“Let’s go.”
Three gusts of wind blew through the darkness.
From the shadows of the horses ridden by the escort mercenaries surrounding the carts, clawed hands emerged, and a chaotic scene unfolded.
In an instant, the clawed shadows snatched the mercenaries, gagged them, and slammed them to the ground.
The startled horses, hushed by their owners’ abrupt disappearance, neighed and raised their front legs, but every time Aria’s jet-black hair, darkened by choking magic, brushed past, the horses helplessly collapsed.
“An attack—”
The peddler leading the first cart noticed the ambush half a beat too late and attempted to shout, but Aria’s white finger blocked his mouth.
With no hesitation, Aria’s quiet gaze fixed on the nape of the peddler who had followed her.
If Stella and Aria were determined, they could take all of them down in the blink of an eye.
Nonetheless, the reason for neatly incapacitating only those they intended to take back and leaving the rest behind was not lost on Plona; it was to give her a moment of choice.
‘Yeah. I’ll do it.’
Plona turned her head away from the peddler, from whom a maddeningly sweet scent emanated.
Just then, the remaining mercenaries and another merchant from the third cart noticed the commotion and poked their heads out.
She didn’t necessarily want to draw her sword.
Even though she had acquired the vampire’s regeneration and physical abilities, Plona found wielding a sword much easier than fighting barehanded, as it was her own way of distinguishing between a fight to kill and one to feed.
Plona quickly closed the distance, grabbed the merchant’s hair sticking out from the cart, and pulled him out.
The reason she chose this merchant was quite simple. Her sister had told her that the stronger the human blood, the better it would be.
Though she had already incapacitated more than three mercenaries, it was wise to distribute it as efficiently as possible considering Aria’s appetite.
Plona going after the weakest left among the remaining people was probably the most effective choice.
“People living—”
Just like earlier when Aria had demonstrated, Plona turned her arm forward and covered the screaming peddler’s mouth.
The trembling of fear transmitted through his muffled sounds and his quaking arms and chest.
The sight of an innocent human quivering in fear began to stir deep-seated hesitation and guilt within her, but then a gust of wind blew.
‘Ah… looks delicious.’
Further away wafted a mouthwatering aroma.
The sound of a pounding heart and the view of a warm, soft neck.
If she tasted the pulsating vein beneath that thin skin, how sweet would it be?
Ultimately, the patience worn thin by a long-standing thirst and the obsession with being an appropriate younger sister to Aria overcame the hesitation and guilt engraved by the Church over the years.
As her last shred of reason melted away with her thirst, Plona leaned her face against the resisting peddler’s neck, placing her fangs against the newly risen veins and gently pressed down.
“Ugh—!”
The smooth sensation was like biting into butter.
Forgetting that she was tearing into the flesh of a human, Plona instinctively followed a primal command, feeling her way to the source of life.
Without a doubt, it was her first time, and she had sworn she’d never even tried such an act in her dreams, yet Plona arrived at her answer just as naturally as breathing.
Gulp, gulp.
The appropriately torn peddler’s vein released a stream of blood.
After a long drought, the rain finally fell. As the wave of fresh blood began to flood her burning throat, Plona quivered without realizing it.
‘It’s delicious.’
Like having her head hammered with a hammer, an immense shock struck Plona’s mind.
A new world unfolded. The thrill of a blind person seeing light for the first time couldn’t compare to this.
The colorless world regained its hues, and the body that had wandered through fiery pain soaked in warm solace.
Every cell in her body seemed to awaken with ecstasy. The human blood she tasted for the first time was that impactful.
‘…I was such a fool.’
Just by drinking blood, she could feel so fulfilled both body and soul.
It was so simple once she tried it; she thought back to how she had walked a thorny path all this time, unable to manage even this much.
Plona couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming guilt over having inconvenienced her sister for something as trivial as this.
‘Sister has endured this all this time.’
Her respect and admiration for her sister swelled up once more.
Even though her sister was born a vampire, she had shunned such a blissful act of feeding on blood and gone against her instincts and nature to be with humans.
Moreover, realizing she was included among the ‘humans’ her sister had wanted to be with at that time made something tickle inside her chest.
But at the same time, guilt again stabbed at her heart. Meaning that the despair and betrayal handed down by humans were so massive they could break her sister’s difficult and noble resolve.
‘Now I must support my sister.’
If it was her sister’s role to embrace her, then it was the younger sister’s proper duty to follow the intent that her sister wanted to achieve.
Having shaken off her hesitation and realizing to what extent Aria’s determination was predicated on pain and sacrifice, Plona finally began to understand the truth of the world.
‘My sister is always right.’
Why on earth had she been troubled by something so easy all this time?
If her sister had turned her back on humans, then humans were at fault.
If her sister said to kill, it was only right to die, and if she said to save, then they had worth in living.
From the very beginning, Plona didn’t even need to be troubled about what was right or wrong.
The judgment lay with her sister, and her sister’s words were the answer.
Is it truly right to leave the conclusion of one’s identity and values to others?
No one knows what the true answer is.
But one undeniable fact was that the girl who had once been a protector of humans had, at this moment, become completely liberated from the distorted sense of justice made solely for humans, fully embracing the monster she had become on the blind fanaticism towards the sister she shared blood with.
“Plona, are you okay?”
Hearing Aria’s voice as she approached after neatly dealing with the remaining mercenaries and peddlers, Plona realized that no more blood was flowing from the corpse she held.
In a daze, Plona wiped her mouth with her hand and nodded.
While she felt a pang of regret that the delightful time had ended too quickly, her head was exceptionally clear due to the sense of fullness that replaced the burning thirst.
“Yes, now that I’ve tried it, it’s not as big of a deal as I thought!”
Plona awkwardly attempted to smile. Though still somewhat forced, her face appeared much better compared to before, which had only seemed hollow, causing Aria to sigh in relief.
“Come here.”
“Yes, sister.”
As Aria opened her arms, Plona stepped forward and embraced her as if bewitched.
The warm, soft sensation and the familiar heartbeat that brought comfort enveloped her.
Plona felt the tension in both body and mind melt away.
Aria, who reflexively reached out to pat Plona’s head, hesitated when she saw her own hands stained with blood.
After a moment’s thought, Aria instead lightly rubbed Plona’s head with the clean part of her sleeve.
Though Plona had thought she wouldn’t mind if her hands were wet, she felt a bit disappointed, yet the playful feeling of being rubbed felt pleasantly warm and surprisingly nice.
“We’ve caught everything we needed. Now let’s clean up quickly and head back.”
“Yes!”
Setting aside her regrets, Plona cheerfully answered this time as she rose from her spot.
The girl who had wandered for so long in search of a familial presence, on this day, was finally able to walk proudly beside someone she had always longed to follow, illuminated under the moonlight.
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