episode_0019

The second day of the exam dawned.

“……Ugh.”

Asel opened his eyes to the sound of birds. Maybe because he had just slept on leaves spread out, his back was quite sore. He felt some muscle pain, and his voice was hoarse. He had cast a barrier and even raised the internal temperature, but it seemed that wasn’t enough. He had wanted to greet the morning in peak condition if possible, but his body was slightly less than that.

Still, well, this much was quite good.

After burning all the leaves that had formed his makeshift bed, Asel erased all traces of magic and moved his steps.

His destination was the riverside he had noted the previous evening.

What was needed for the week-long exam wasn’t companions or cores, but stamina and food. The longer the exam continued, the greater the importance of drinking water and food would become. From that perspective, the river was a pretty decent source of provisions. Because he could secure both water and food.

Water wasn’t particularly necessary for Asel. He could create it when he wanted, so it wasn’t something to worry too much about. But food was different. That, Asel had to procure himself. That’s why he was heading to a relatively nearby river to catch at least some fish.

‘I’m not very confident in cooking, though.’

Still, he should be able to manage roasting and eating without difficulty. Thinking so, Asel crossed the bushes and arrived at the river.

A river where the water depth came up to his waist, but the width was quite wide. If he used impact magic or forcefully pushed the water aside, he would be able to catch fish without much trouble. He carefully folded the black coat he was wearing, placed it on the ground, and rolled up his shirt sleeves.

Just then, something popped out of the water.

“Whoa!”

It exhaled the breath it had been holding and spat water out of its mouth. Asel had prepared magic to attack, but realizing that the strange creature was a woman, he furrowed his brow.

She was an entirely white woman. Not just the shirt she was wearing, but even her hair was white. Her skin was so pale it was almost transparent, and her long, pointed ears suggested her race.

“……Elf?”

Asel muttered that, but realizing her aura was very murky for an elf, he changed his mind.

The felt mana was mixed with the smell of blood. Among the various other races distributed across the continent, there was only one race that gave off such a strong blood scent.

“Vampire.”

“Huh?”

The woman who heard his voice turned her head and looked at Asel. Then, with a bright expression, as if she had found a friend, she shouted.

“Help me!”

“…….”

“I can’t catch any fish! If you help me catch some, I’ll share!”

Asel gazed at her innocent face, then chuckled and placed his palm above the water surface. As he activated his magic just like that, a small explosion occurred below his hand. Thanks to controlling the power appropriately, the impact of the explosion didn’t reach the vampire. Making a sound like “Eucha,” she emerged from the water.

“Are you a wizard?”

“As you can see.”

Asel continued to activate explosion magic within the river. And before long, stunned fish floated up to the surface. The vampire burst out in admiration, and Asel pulled out his mana in the form of threads to snatch them up.

He left the fish that were torn apart by the explosion as they were. Those kinds were hard to prepare and had few edible parts, making them inefficient. If there had been fewer stunned fish, he might have caught those, but thankfully, more than five intact fish floated up. With this, he could get through the day abundantly.

The vampire’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the fish dangling from the thread Asel had pulled out.

“Wow! You caught five! I missed all of them! Okay, I’ll just eat one, so you can have the rest!”

“I’m not giving them to you.”

“Huh?”

She made a stupid sound and turned back to Asel. Asel let out a dry laugh as if asking what kind of obvious thing she was asking, and said.

“I did it all by myself, why would I give them to you?”

“That’s…! …Heeing.”

The vampire couldn’t offer any retort and made a tearful face. Asel turned away from her grumbling and took one of the dangling fish to prepare it. He condensed mana at his fingertip to slice open the fish’s belly and pull out the organs. The head was cleanly severed. It wasn’t an edible part anyway.

He roughly wiped the blood from his hands in the river, then brought leaves to start a fire. He skewered the prepared fish onto a branch and held it over the fire. After doing that five times, there were no fish left. Asel nodded his head in satisfaction and waited for the fish to cook.

The vampire kept lingering next to Asel until the end of all those processes. The faint rumbling sounds that could be heard were all hers. It seemed she was considerably hungry.

Vampires don’t necessarily fill their stomachs with blood alone. Blood is merely an essential nutrient for them to live. They too had to eat food and drink water like others to survive. He couldn’t be certain as it was information he had read in a book about other races, not something he had observed their ecosystem directly, but judging by her reaction, it didn’t seem to be far from the truth.

“I’m hungry…”

She looked at the fish being roasted to a golden brown, and when her eyes met Asel’s, she whistled and feigned ignorance. Asel burst out laughing at her appearance.

“Want some?”

“Yep!”

It was an immediate answer. Asel gestured for her, who was standing idly, to come closer. Without hesitation, she ran over and plopped down next to Asel.

Because her clothes were damp from being in the water, Asel found it bothersome, so he reached out his hand towards her to use utility magic. Then, she tilted her head and grabbed Asel’s outstretched hand with both of hers. At that soft touch, Asel let out a dry laugh.

“……What are you doing?”

“Huh? Didn’t you ask me to hold your hand?”

“I was trying to dry your clothes.”

“Aha!”

She pursed her lips and let go of Asel’s hand. Asel immediately used magic to clean her clothes and began eating the appropriately cooked skewer. The vampire watched him, and when Asel personally handed her a skewer, she smiled brightly and frantically ate the flesh. Eating with her cheeks puffed up was quite cute.

“Your name?”

Asel asked. The vampire swallowed all the meat she was chewing and then answered.

“Elena! Elena von Valdemia! I came from the Grand Duchy of Valdemia!”

The same surname as the Grand Duchy’s name. Asel immediately realized that she was a direct descendant of the Grand Duke.

The Grand Duchy of Valdemia is a city and country founded by vampires. In the past, during the time when race wars were rampant on the continent, they established a refuge beyond a secluded mountain range in the southern part of the continent to avoid unnecessary conflict. The name of the leader of the vampires who led them was Valdemia. That’s how the Grand Duchy began.

Despite their fearsome name, vampires are not a belligerent race. While it is true that they can only live by drinking the blood of other races, their method is very humane, so their reputation was not bad either.

Direct vampirism never occurs unless mutual consent is obtained, and in most cases, they buy blood with money to drink.

Although they fall into a thirst and crave blood if they don’t drink it for a long time, the amount of blood flowing into the Grand Duchy was so abundant that it was more than enough to feed all the vampires to their fill. Thanks to this, thirst was practically non-existent for them.

That seemed to be the same for Elena as well. Asel nodded his head, looking at the blood bag attached to her waist, which was half-full.

“So you are the young lady of the Valdemia family. Why are you trying to enroll in the Academy?”

“Just? Because I get bored if I’m just confined to the Grand Duchy!”

It was a simpler reason than expected. Well, there must be people who think like that. Asel respected her will.

“There are various other reasons too, but this is a secret.”

“Okay. Eat more than that. There’s plenty left.”

“Yep!”

Elena answered brightly and took another skewer to eat. Asel burned the finished skewers to nothing and drew water to take a sip.

“What’s your name?”

“Asel. No surname.”

“I see. Then Asel! Give me just a sip of blood!”

“……? Suddenly?”

Weren’t we just exchanging names? Why is she suddenly asking for blood?

Asel furrowed his brow at the words she blurted out, omitting everything before and after. At that reaction, Elena hurriedly opened her mouth.

“Th-that is, I was supposed to bring human blood, but I mistakenly packed pig’s blood. I can’t last a week with this…”

“……So you need my blood?”

“Yep! For us, blood itself is important, but the mana contained within the blood is even more important. Just like elves absorb mana through photosynthesis, and humans or beastfolk consume mana through food, we need to live by absorbing the mana contained in blood!”

This was a story he had never heard before. The book only had fragmented information, so he didn’t know exactly what they gained through vampirism.

He knew it was essential for life activities, but hearing the internal circumstances was his first time. Asel gazed at Elena, feeling his interest piqued.

“Is the mana you can get from pig’s blood limited?”

“Almost none. Animal blood isn’t very good for us. Maybe just enough to taste the ‘kick’ occasionally?”

“A wizard’s blood?”

“Special meal!”

Elena’s eyes sparkled, and she leaned her upper body towards Asel. Her chest swayed greatly with that movement.

“Aura doesn’t really suit us, so it’s not very tasty. It’s more edible than a normal person’s blood, but it’s not comparable to a wizard’s.”

“It seems mana suits you best.”

“Yep. It’s also the most expensive, hard to get, and even when it occasionally appears in the market, it sells instantly, making it hard to drink!”

“…….”

“It’s also delicious, and when you drink it, you gain a lot of vitality. It’s enough that you don’t need to feed for a while.”

“So you want to drink my blood? To avoid feeding during the exam period?”

Elena nodded. Asel thought for a moment, then held up one finger and proposed a condition.

“Giving a few drops of blood isn’t a difficult task. But I need to receive something in return.”

“I’ll do anything I can!”

Elena nodded with a determined expression. Asel immediately stated his condition.

“I’m interested in Blood Magic, so I want to observe the magic you use during the exam.”

“I don’t use ‘magic’, I use a power called ‘Blood Art’?”

“It doesn’t matter. Blood Magic itself is magic that imitates Blood Art anyway. If I observe it, I should be able to gain meaningful results.”

Libraries related to Blood Magic were not in the Witch Council’s library. This is because the Witch Council doesn’t handle heterogeneous magic like Black Magic, Blood Magic, or Necromancy, which have a high possibility of driving one insane the higher the ranks they accumulate.

Asel wouldn’t go insane just because he learned such heterogeneous magic. He knew that fact well. However, that didn’t mean he intended to master those magics to the extreme. Learning their essence and being able to use a few spells that could be combined with other magic systems or used flexibly was sufficient.

Blood Magic was that beginning.

“Is that possible?”

Asel asked, wiggling his finger in front of Elena. As if it wasn’t a difficult request at all, Elena nodded her head vigorously.

“Of course! I’ll show you as much as you want.”

The deal was struck.

Asel immediately pulled out mana in the shape of an awl and slightly pricked his finger. Then, a bright red drop of blood formed on his fingertip. Elena’s eyes shone as she looked at that glistening drop. Asel looked at her and asked.

“How should I give it to you? Where should I put it?”

“Oh, no. Just give it to me.”

“Just?”

“Sprinkle it on my tongue!”

“What?”

The moment he asked back like that, Elena opened her mouth and stuck her tongue straight out. In that state, she made a sound.

“Bleh…”

“……Something about this image is strange.”

Asel muttered that and tapped the blood drop on his fingertip to let it fall onto her long tongue. As about five drops of blood fell onto her tongue, Elena closed her mouth and savored the blood.

“……Eup?!”

Her eyes snapped open.