Once Peter’s story came up, Alberich seemed to have completely relaxed. He chattered with bright, sparkling eyes.
“Senior’s blood grade of <Complete Pureblood> is the highest and rarest grade in vampire society!
Moreover, I heard that Sarka-sunbae is not only a Complete Pureblood but also an extremely skilled person. I heard you were the top graduate of Leogrante School’s Complete Pureblood class?! I truly respect you!”
The admiration Alberich poured out was pure. Ruslan felt Sarka’s smile deepen.
Sarka gazed down at Alberich and whispered languidly.
“……He spoke quite in detail, didn’t he?”
A clearly anxious look now appeared on Baigarten’s face.
Ruslan could hear Baigarten swallowing dryly.
Sarka asked as smoothly as if swallowing sweet cream down his throat.
“……What else did he say?”
Alberich hadn’t yet noticed anything strange about Sarka’s affectionate attitude and answered earnestly with longing and respect.
“Senior is…… a rare mental-type ability user, and he even said you’re very handsome! Seeing you in person, that expression seems insufficient. You’re truly handsome, no, ‘beautiful’ is the right word for you! Even a dryad would cry!”
Sarka made an expression on the verge of bursting into laughter. It seemed very difficult to hold back because this boy’s words were so amusing.
On the other hand, clear anxiety now appeared in Baigarten’s eyes. He seemed to want to cut off this conversation right away if possible, but seemed unable to catch the timing to rashly interrupt.
If he blocked it wrong, it would surely make Sarka’s concentration, which was growing more and more intrigued, even more persistent.
Sarka asked languidly in a voice that seemed to give off a sweet scent.
“……And what else?”
“And…… ah.”
Alberich, who had been about to answer cheerfully, suddenly hesitated. Sarka’s green eyes shook minutely as he observed Alberich’s expression intently.
Alberich mumbled with a slightly awkward expression. It was an expression of not knowing how to say the information he’d just remembered.
Sarka made eye contact with Alberich as if it was okay and made a gesture encouraging him to speak. It was an attitude that couldn’t be more affectionate.
Alberich hesitated while watching the mood a bit, but soon judged that it was difficult to take back words he’d already started spitting out, and muttered very carefully and politely in a cautious voice.
“About your mother…… I sincerely offer my condolences.”
“……”
The blood completely drained from Baigarten’s face. Without even breathing, Baigarten froze stiffly and stared at Sarka.
Ruslan instinctively sensed that something had gone wrong.
Because the laughter on Sarka’s face froze coldly in an instant.
Sarka’s entire body, which had been looking down at Alberich with a gaze sparkling as if unable to endure his delight, stiffened as if frozen in place.
The emotions that had been sparkling in Sarka’s green eyes, stopped without even breathing, drained away like a retreating tide.
Baigarten let out a faintly trembling voice with difficulty.
“……Sarka.”
Ruslan swallowed his breath at the fear in his voice.
Alberich, who had been frozen by Sarka’s reaction, also seemed to sense that his brother’s voice was unusual, and only then flinched and turned his head to look at his brother.
Baigarten didn’t look at Alberich. His eyes were fixed stiffly on Sarka, frozen like someone watching a lit fuse.
“My brother…… doesn’t…… know well……”
The stammering excuse that flowed out was mixed with something almost like pleading.
Ruslan saw Baigarten’s always calm and solemn eyes completely lose strength and shake.
Sarka still gazed down at Alberich quietly like a frozen screen.
Sarka’s face had no emotion rising on it, like a mask crudely made by an unskilled person.
The glass marble-like green eyes didn’t move. No murderous intent or anger rose in the gaze looking down at Alberich.
It was just a look as if his reason had been paralyzed, enough to momentarily forget the thought of maintaining the kind senior mask he’d been meticulously wearing.
Baigarten looked almost like someone fallen into despair. With a face pale as a sheet, that man whispered as if begging for forgiveness.
“He didn’t mean it badly…… please.”
Baigarten’s voice was clearly trembling. Baigarten’s thick, serious face, which always leisurely and solemnly received Sarka’s murderous intent, was deathly pale like a corpse.
Ruslan felt the air freeze.
Alberich also stiffened his face at the feeling that something had gone wrong.
A short silence flowed where even breathing couldn’t be heard.
After one breath, as if power had suddenly been turned on, expression returned to Sarka’s face.
It might have been a bit better if anger had risen there.
However, what rose on his face was a smile. A very soft and comfortable smile.
Sarka exhaled one breath as if inhaling the breath he’d momentarily forgotten, then answered quietly in an amused voice.
“……I know too, Baigarten.”
That voice was calm. There even seemed to be a hint of embarrassment at himself for momentarily losing his reason and showing an unseemly sight.
Sarka turned to Baigarten with an amused expression and lowered his voice intimately as if there was no need to be so tense.
“Don’t be nervous. What’s wrong? Between us.”
“……”
At those affectionate words, what little blood remained on Baigarten’s face completely disappeared.
Ruslan couldn’t find words in Imperial to express Baigarten’s face.
But in Frükan commoner style, it seemed he could express it precisely.
……It was the expression of someone who was fucked.
As if the silence moments ago hadn’t happened, Sarka smiled most affectionately and curved his eye corners again.
“It’s okay, Alberich.”
Though it was still a gentle and soft voice, now even Alberich couldn’t help but realize something was unusual.
While staring at the hesitating Alberich who didn’t know what to do, Sarka asked with spine-chilling kindness.
“Did your parents…… say such things too?”
Alberich, who sensed he’d made some mistake, swallowed dryly while looking at Sarka with a frozen expression.
The glass marble-like green eyes stared at Alberich without wavering at all and asked affectionately.
“……What did they say?”
Alberich now couldn’t answer and mumbled.
Sarka tilted his head slightly and made eye contact with the boy. Sarka kindly suggested.
“……Would it be better if I go to your parents and hear it directly?”
Alberich gulped and swallowed.
Baigarten couldn’t move a single finger, staring at Sarka with the gaze of someone watching a beast whose safety lock had been completely released. It seemed impossible to predict what might happen if he rashly attempted even one wrong word or movement and provoked the beast.
Alberich, completely frozen while watching the mood, answered in a voice crawling inward.
“They, they didn’t tell me in detail…… no……”
“So they said a little bit?”
As soon as Alberich finished speaking, Sarka corrected him.
Alberich didn’t know what to do and unconsciously tried to turn toward his brother, but as soon as Alberich’s eyes moved, the green eyes followed and a threatening warning flowed out.
“Don’t turn your head. I’m talking to you.”
Sarka’s accent completely changed to a high-handed, dry, foreign accent.
Terrified Alberich now didn’t dare take his gaze off Sarka’s face. The smile had now almost disappeared from Sarka’s lips. Ruslan realized Sarka’s pupils were completely dilated.
Sarka asked again slowly in a very gentle voice.
“……How did they say my mother passed away?”
Alberich gulped and swallowed, then answered in a voice crawling inward.
“……Just…… it was an unfortunate…… accident……”
“How was it unfortunate?”
Sarka still whispered languidly.
Alberich mumbled, completely intimidated.
“……There was a fire…… in the mine……”
Sarka’s corners of his lips rose faintly.
Sarka was staring at Alberich intently with a very strange smile.
He could see Baigarten’s hand gripping his cane trembling faintly.
Sarka looked down at Alberich with a very affectionate gaze and corrected him in a soft, gentle voice.
“……It wasn’t that a fire ‘broke out,’ Alberich. They ‘set’ a fire.”
As if there couldn’t be a more exciting story than this, Sarka tilted his head languidly and smiled with narrowed eyes.
A sweet voice added a kind explanation.
“Because you humans……
tried to burn my mother alive.”
“……”
Ruslan gasped for breath.
None of the humans in the room could exhale.
Sarka looked down at the small boy with a gaze as if he’d go crazy from how lovable he was, and curved his eyebrows as if hurt.
Staring into the clear chestnut eyes, Sarka asked as if pitying him.
“……They didn’t tell you that story?”
“……”
Silence flowed.
Baigarten was completely pale as if watching a beast that had come out of its cage.
Sarka smiled by gently curving his eyes and agreed with an extremely calm attitude.
“……Thinking about it, it’s not completely wrong. ……It was an unfortunate accident.”
Alberich’s eyes shook.
Sarka whispered like a sigh in a voice tinged with faint amusement.
“If she’d just crossed one more hill, she might have survived……
but she couldn’t because of you human exorcists.”
The sound of Baigarten swallowing dryly could be heard.
Sarka was staring at Alberich’s face intently with a faint smile.
Ruslan felt his stomach turn cold.
Sarka’s eyes were no longer the eyes of a cat.
Those were the eyes of a beast.
Right before biting a person.
