A blood-filled plastic pack was placed before him. I had watched him grimace and yet dutifully gulp it down before, so I assumed he would do the same this time, even if he made a fuss.
"Ugh…"
But the moment he put it in his mouth, he bent over and vomited everything back up. Seriously? He was pulling out all the stops to avoid drinking it.
After barely managing to consume the remaining half, his lips turned blue. In just a few minutes, he looked like a sickly patient and vomited everything up again.
"…I really can't drink it. I'm not doing this on purpose…"
He spat out clear saliva, gasping for breath. The metallic scent of blood filled the air.
'What's with this reaction?'
Looking around, I realized from the others' shocked and concerned expressions that this wasn't a common occurrence. Had this never happened before?
[Main Quest: Meal
The half-vampire Haylan requires special nutritional intake. Have him consume your bodily fluids.]
A white notification window popped up.
'My blood?'
It wasn't impossible, but…
"This is all we have for now. What should we do?"
Someone murmured worriedly. This was my chance. I jumped in and asked,
"Would my blood work?"
Everyone's eyes widened as they stared at me, and they shook their heads vehemently. Their reaction was more intense than I expected. Maybe this wasn't it…
"Absolutely not. Drinking a living person's blood would make me even more of a monster."
Even Haylan was disgusted by the idea. I couldn't suggest it again when he was so averse to it. I smacked my lips, deciding to think of another solution.
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
"Come in."
The Head Butler knocked and entered Haylan's room, which was filled with half-finished magic circles and crumpled papers. This was the result of Haylan's recent magical practice, fueled by the mana his growing body was now able to access.
"I think you might have consumed too many mana supplements."
The butler addressed Haylan, who was resting in bed.
Haylan had been experimenting with the self-defense spells Chahyun modified for him, along with various illusion spells and any other kind of magic he could manage.
Naturally, every time he activated a spell, his mana decreased, and it took time for it to regenerate naturally. Mana supplements were created for such occasions.
"That's possible. I'll cut back for a while."
"I'll try to procure more blood through the route Master Odin provided…"
"Don't bother."
Haylan sat up. Lately, he had been catching colds in the cold weather and sleeping more than usual. He was becoming weaker. But he knew this weakness was a normal part of life for ordinary humans. Haylan felt like he was becoming more and more human.
"I thought my body was changing because of Chahyun's blood."
Every time he drank Chahyun's blood, his body would grow at midnight, and after a certain period, the changes would also affect his daytime form. But Haylan hadn't consumed Chahyun's blood recently.
"Maybe any bodily fluid would work, not just blood…"
"Bodily fluid?"
The head butler asked, a confused expression on his face. Haylan pondered for a moment, then continued,
"A long time ago, they say there was a vampire who insisted on only drinking one human's blood and ended up sealed under the sea."
It was a story from long ago. Before Haylan received his cursed fate, probably from when Odin was still human.
Whether it was because that vampire fell in love or simply enjoyed the taste of that particular human's blood, there was a vampire who doted on a single human, ignoring all others.
After the human he cherished died, he refused to drink anyone else's blood and became disgusted by humans. Unable to endure his hunger, he was eventually exiled by his kind and submerged deep in the sea, nailed inside a coffin.
"Perhaps he developed a dependency."
"A dependency? So, Young Master… are you saying you can't consume anything other than the guest's blood, or rather… bodily fluids?"
"My body rejects everything else. I felt less sick when I just didn't drink anything and endured the pain."
"I see. I'll ask Master Odin if he knows of any similar cases."
"That would be good. And is Snow still in Peristene?"
"Unless something happened, yes."
"Send someone to her, too. She wanders around a lot, so she knows a surprising amount. Especially when it comes to someone our kind, she's like a gossip magnet, gathering information. So she might know something."
"I'll go myself."
"...."
"There's something else," Haylan continued, his expression more serious than before. "Kissing is something you do with someone you like, right?"
"Yes, usually."
"Then that means Chahyun either likes me or is playing with me."
He was surprisingly naive and foolish when it came to such things. Meaning, Chayun wasn't the type to toy with someone's feelings.
They were still in that ambiguous "something" stage. Haylan hugged his knees and grumbled, "We're not progressing beyond kissing. In books, the mood just sets itself. How does it work?"
"...."
His belated first love was quite the spectacle. The head butler, feeling like he knew far too much about his master's personal life, remained silent.
─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───
I had intended to let him rest today, but I was worried, so I went to check on him before bed. I approached Haylan, who was lying in bed like a corpse. He turned his head slightly and looked up at me.
"Are you okay?"
"...."
I reached out and touched his forehead. He didn't have a fever. Naturally. Compared to ordinary humans, Haylan's heart rate was significantly slower; his body temperature was lower, and his pulse was barely perceptible.
"Haylan."
"Yeah."
"Do you still not want to drink blood?"
"I've never liked it."
He replied plainly, his voice sounding slightly weaker than usual.
"Hey, can you kiss me?"
Without thinking, I lowered my head at his request. I pressed my lips against his smooth, white forehead, then pulled away. Haylan spoke again.
"Kiss me on the lips."
"You're asking for a lot. What if I don't want to?"
"I'm asking because I know you'll do it."
How did he know? Well, it wasn't like I disliked it.
I steeled myself and gave Haylan a quick peck on the lips. Despite being the one who asked, he just stared blankly at me, then sighed deeply.
"Why? What's wrong now?"
"Ugh…"
Haylan was being difficult. In movies, vampires usually sank their fangs directly into people's necks and drank blood. Their eyes would glow menacingly, and their victims, impaled by their fangs, would freeze, surrendering to their fate.
But the person lying before me looked more like a deep thinker than a predator. Haylan's fangs weren't long and sharp, and his eyes weren't red but a beautiful lavender.
"I think I'm growing because of you."
I nodded at Haylan's words.
"I know."
Well, I had expected as much, even though I couldn't pinpoint the exact reason.
'What should I do?'
I couldn't force him to drink my blood when he was so disgusted by it that he vomited.
'And how would I even draw blood?'
Haylan worried about me as much as anyone else. He had told me so himself. If I tore open my flesh infront of him and offered him my blood… would he actually drink it? I'd be lucky if he didn't call me crazy. He might even sulk for days and refuse to talk to me.
"Chahyun."
He called my name. "Yes?" I replied, sitting on the edge of the bed. A hand emerged from under the covers and gently wrapped around my fingers.
"I'm becoming someone I'm not ever since I met you."
I still thought he read too many books, hearing such a cliché line. How could he say something like that so effortlessly? But Haylan seemed so serious that I couldn't respond flippantly.
"I've been thinking about it, but I can't come up with a solution, so I'll just ask."
He was probably going to ask me when we'll start dating again. I would just say "later" and postpone it further. But as if he knew what I was thinking and changed his approach, he said something completely unexpected.
"Am I not attractive to you as a man?"
"…Huh?"
"Right? You said you don't masturbate thinking about me, and I'm always the one asking for kisses. I'm the one who likes you more, the one who's more desperate. I know that."
He pouted and sighed again.
"I don't know how to seduce you."
He confessed that he had been lying around, worrying about such things.
'And here I was…'
…thinking he was brooding over his aversion to blood and his cruel fate, but should I be relieved that his worries was just a relatively trivial concern?
"I like things the way they are."
"I don't. There are so many things I want to do with you."
He said, sounding like he was whining. His grip on my hand tightened, and I couldn't help but chuckle.
"You're always like this. You're curious about what I like, but you hide your own feelings."
Is that so? I didn't think I was hiding anything.