Chapter 236 Enslaved

Chapter 236 Enslaved

“You humans?” Jay thought.

His next question for her was obvious.

“If you’re not a human, then.. what are you?” he squinted.

“I am a close child of the five…” she said proudly, “but your kind calls us ‘vampires’.” she added mockingly.

Jay looked at her confused, and seeing his un-surprised expression, she too gave him a confused look back.

To each other, they both seemed like anomalies.

“…You’re not scared of me?” she asked – ironically it was a question Jay had been wanting to ask her, as she was surrounded by his skeletons and sitting on a platform made from hundreds of corpses.

“I actually don’t know what a vampire is,” he shrugged.

And how could he? There were many other horrors to worry about. Vampires had all but disappeared from Astrata many centuries before Jay had even been born, and in a small town like Losla there definitely wasn’t any libraries around. The only books in Losla would be related to mana craft or combat arts, if there were any – but definitely no history books.

All the monsters he knew about in advance were ones which he was about to slay.

Even finding a basic bestiary in Losla would have been harder than finding a human with a monster class.

The girl suddenly chuckled, “You don’t know what a vampire is? Well don’t worry. You shouldn’t be scared. I’m practically harmless.”

“Harmless? You’re plotting to kill me right now like a caged bea-”

“I am not a beast.” she said slowly and sternly, “If I kill someone it’s because they deserve it.”

Jay sighed, “Fair enough… So then, what’s a vampire?”

“What’s a human?” she retorted, but Red gazed at her and snapped its bone jaws.

She sighed, “We’re basically like you. We have our own lands, clans, castles and noble blood lines… wars and enemies. Not too many differences at all, really.”

“Then what’s different about you?”

She grinned, “We’re smarter.”

“Smarter huh?” Jay eyed the chains around her legs.

“…and we drink blood.” She added, then waited for Jay’s shocked expression as if she was about to enjoy the reaction.

What he said next made her speechless.

“So? Do you eat food?”

“Wh…” she shook her head.

“That helps a lot,” he smiled, “so how much blood do you need?”

She had lost much of her composure at this point, and studied Jay with her purple eyes, looking for even the most subtle traces of fear.

“N- no… uh we just need a bit to get by. Elder vampires barely need any. It’s mostly the young ones who need it… or those recovering.”

Jay raised a brow, “So I am supposed to be scared of you because you want to drink my blood?” he scoffed for a moment, but soon his laughter disappeared as his voice lowered.

“There are worse things out there.” he quietly said, staring back into the fire, remembering the time he was chased by a swarm of twisted experiments through a thick fog.

“Do you fear me?” he asked.

“No.”

“Look around you. You’re sitting on countless corpses, all belonging to me. You may want my blood, but perhaps I want your bones?”

She shrugged, “You see to have enough. Besides, you’ve kept me alive for a reason.”

“Then why do I get the feeling you want to kill me?”

“Because we’re natural enemies. My kind feeds on yours. Your kind fears mine.” she shrugged.

“My kind…” Jay quietly said as he stared thoughtfully into the fire for a moment.

His ‘kind’ was supposed to be humans, but they too wanted him dead.

There was really no one he could trust, human or not.

A few minutes later he made conversation again.

“So your kind would feed on me…?” he asked as he held up the boil on his arm, “you mean like these?” he smiled mischievously as he pointed to the dormant parasites.

Asra, again, was speechless as she realized he truly wasn’t scared of her.

She was more like a joke to him.

She had been taught that humans were nothing but empty ‘husks’ which would fearfully kill them if given the chance, and they had short life spans so there was no sense in teaching them anything.

Of course, she only had experience with the humans that were imprisoned within Pantry.

She chose to remain quite, unsure about what she would do – she completely ignored that he implied she a parasite.

“So can you drink any blood, or only human?”

“Uh, no preference.”

“I see,” Jay said, and then thought to himself, “But what can she offer in exchange for blood? Accessing a market at Luna might be useful, but once we get there what’s to stop her from turning on me?”

“You said something before about masters. What is a master?”

“I can’t tell you.” she said, sounding innocent.

Red threatened her with its sword again and a crack of its neck as its skull tilted sideways.

“Seriously, I can’t… well… maybe I could if you gave me a little blood?” she suggested, as innocently as she could, “I’m starving… and you smell so good.”

“Don’t try to play games with me. I’m on the run after all. I don’t have the time for this.”

“Well, wouldn’t it be easier to let me go?”

Jay thought, “It would be safer for me to kill you.” but said nothing, he even thought this may be a trap.

Yet he didn’t answer. It was wiser not to tell a captive that he considered killing them, otherwise they would say anything to live.

“Stop dodging my questions and changing topics. I just need some information first.” Jay sighed, approaching with some bloody meat.

Her eyes started at it as she licked her bottom lip.

“Just tell me what a master is.”

At the same time he sent a mental command to Lamp to bring something back alive and unskinned if it were possible.

Jay handed the bloody meat to Red who then handed it to the girl, all while aiming the tip of its sword at her.

Jay didn’t risk coming too close in case everything was a lie, there was no telling what abilities she had.

As the skeleton handed it to her, she suddenly stared at Jay who was just behind it.

“Hey. Bob.” she said, her voice dripping with sweetness.

Jay glanced at her, and her eyes seemed to glow brighter, or were perhaps more radiant, and he couldn’t bring himself to look away – then suddenly he felt nauseas.

Red immediately stabbed her right in the eye, and her head reeled back in pain. She clenched her jaw while smiling.

A dizziness swirled around Jay’s head, and for a moment Asra felt more familiar to him – yet the feeling soon left and he was back to normal.

“Wh-” he rubbed his forehead.

Her lips curled as her eye healed up almost instantly,

“You wanted to know what a master is? Well, now you will.” she grinned,

“Tell your skeletons to stand down.”