The morning of the third day dawned.
Whether Baigarten had reported Sarka’s condition to the headmaster, the dormitory supervisor professor was cautioning the class students to refrain from visiting Sarka’s room.
He said there was a recommendation from the headmaster that they suspected symptoms of a mildly contagious disease and were testing, and while it wasn’t serious, it would be good to minimize contact with other students until test results came out. Sarka’s friends looked worried but were listening obediently.
Neither Baigarten nor Ruslan spoke while eating breakfast.
Baigarten hesitated for a moment, then began putting food on a plate.
He knew Sarka originally didn’t eat breakfast, but yesterday Sarka had eaten only one meal.
Ruslan also anxiously ladled soup into a small bowl and placed it on Baigarten’s plate.
A sign prohibiting ordinary people’s entry hung on Sarka’s door.
When Baigarten unlocked the door and crossed the living room to knock on the bedroom, there was no answer from inside.
Baigarten hesitated, then carefully opened the bedroom door.
Soon his expression stiffened.
The plate placed on the nightstand yesterday remained untouched without any signs of being touched.
Baigarten frowned and called out quietly beyond the curtain.
“Sarka.”
As if finally waking from sleep at that sound, a hoarse voice flowed out irritably along with a faint breath.
“……What.”
Ruslan realized that voice was weaker than yesterday.
Though still fierce and bristling, the voice now had no strength.
Baigarten spoke with a stiff face.
“……You didn’t eat a single meal yesterday.”
“……”
Baigarten looked down at the plate on the nightstand and spoke in a stern voice.
“……You don’t want me to have to report even this to the headmaster.”
From beyond the curtain came a faint breath and the sound of gritting teeth.
Ruslan anxiously stared at the curtain.
When there continued to be no answer, Baigarten finally placed his hand on the curtain with a determined expression.
Swoosh.
As the curtain was pulled back and light leaked in, Sarka grimaced sharply and turned his head the other way as if to avoid the glare.
Sarka, who had been frowning with eyes closed while raising one arm to cover his face, soon slowly turned his head to glare at the human who had opened the curtain.
Sarka’s form lying in bed was dimly revealed in the darkness receiving faint light.
Ruslan swallowed.
Sarka’s face looked like a corpse. His entire body was so pale that veins showed through and he looked bluish, and his nightshirt was damp with sweat. His gaunt face was clearly sickly, and his eyes had burst blood vessels creating red splotches in the whites. His parched lips were cracked purplish. Scabs sat in each cracked crevice.
……Angel’s Fangs really is poison.
It was clearly the appearance of someone with poison spreading throughout their body.
Baigarten’s face also stiffened rigidly at the more serious appearance than expected.
Sarka looked at Baigarten’s form with squinted eyes, then growled while gritting his teeth.
“Get out.”
His voice was miserably cracked and hard to understand.
Baigarten looked at Sarka with a dark expression, then picked up the plate with a complicated expression.
“If you eat this.”
Without even replying, Sarka grabbed the pillow and threw it.
Baigarten frowned and lightly dodged.
Ruslan felt terrible realizing even that pillow’s angle was off.
“Put it away.”
Sarka spat out with an expression like he would go crazy from being so irritated at himself.
Ruslan noticed Sarka’s focus wasn’t aligning well. His green pupils were cloudy and his gaze kept wavering. It seemed hard to look straight at the person before his eyes because of dizziness.
Baigarten lowered his voice with a more serious expression.
“……Are you planning to starve to death? This isn’t the time for pride.”
At the stern voice as if scolding a young child, Sarka made an expression like he would go half-mad with rage.
Veins stood out on the back of his hand gripping the sheets. Sarka’s shoulders heaved with roughening breath as he ground his teeth.
When Sarka only glared with bloodshot eyes without answering, Baigarten exhaled and sat on the edge of the bed.
“At least pretend to eat. If you don’t eat this time either, I have to report to the headmaster.”
Baigarten, who had picked up the soup bowl from the plate and dipped in a spoon, held it out to Sarka who was sitting up halfway.
However, the moment the soup bowl was thrust toward below Sarka’s chin, Sarka’s body jerked up as if convulsing.
“……Urk……”
Sarka, who had hastily turned over and collapsed toward Baigarten’s opposite side, pulled back the curtain with trembling hands.
While Baigarten froze in surprise, Sarka, who had extended his upper body halfway toward the floor, began retching violently.
“……Kuk……! Huk, uurk……. Hup, urk……”
Ruslan and Baigarten’s bodies froze simultaneously.
It wasn’t artificial gagging. It was vomiting that burst out when one’s stomach had completely turned over and couldn’t be suppressed.
Sarka seemed to be desperately covering his mouth and somehow trying to calm his body, but his back kept jumping and convulsing as if receiving electric shocks.
Sarka’s hand gripping the curtain trembled violently with veins standing out. Each time he gasped, a sound of his tongue curling came out. Every time something pushed up from inside his throat, Ruslan could see Sarka’s entire body shuddering.
Nothing came out from inside Sarka who had been starving for over a day. Only yellowish gastric acid dripped between his blocked fingers.
Ruslan realized Sarka hadn’t put food to his mouth all this time not because of tension or stubbornness.
Sarka was in a state where he couldn’t swallow food.
As if bile kept rising, his tightly closed eyes trembled violently in his contorted face.
“……I told you to put it away……”
The voice grinding teeth was terribly hoarse and violently cracked. Bloodshot eyes glared at Baigarten while wet, in a face contorted from enduring the foul smell.
Ruslan hastily snatched the bowl and plate from the frozen Baigarten’s hands, picked up even the plate that had been on the nightstand, ran to the bathroom and dumped everything out.
When he returned to the room, Baigarten was opening the window to ventilate. He seemed to be trying to somehow remove the food smell lingering in the room.
Sarka was still collapsed, half with his forehead touching the ground, struggling to suppress the nausea.
Sarka’s nape was damp with cold sweat. Each time his back swelled up as he panted, a wheezing breathing sound came out. Sweat drops pooling on Sarka’s cheeks and chin dripped onto the sheets creating stains.
Baigarten looked at Sarka with a dazed expression, then slowly wiped the traces Sarka had vomited.
Sarka collapsed onto the bed in a half-falling motion and swallowed a moan. His sweat-soaked back swelled with painful breaths then trembled and sank down.
“……Get out.”
As soon as the nausea barely subsided, the voice that flowed out low through his teeth was almost like a scream beyond fierce. Ruslan’s chest sank feeling traces of shame and humiliation that couldn’t be erased in that voice that seemed to have forcibly erased emotion.
Baigarten lost his words for a moment while looking down at Sarka, then whispered in a dark voice.
“……I’ll bring……an IV.”
Sarka gritted his teeth and suppressed his breathing without looking back at Baigarten. Baigarten looked down at Sarka with a dark expression, then closed the bed curtain.
Neither spoke the entire time leaving the room.
Ruslan felt his own hands holding the empty plate trembling finely.
Even after coming outside, Baigarten seemed unable to escape the shock for a long while.
Suddenly, with a faint sigh, Baigarten muttered as if realizing.
“……So that’s why he sent the IV.”
“Pardon?”
“……Knowing it would be like this……”
Baigarten was muttering like talking to himself without hearing Ruslan’s question, as if his mind had slightly left.
Ruslan could see Baigarten’s teal pupils frozen and shaking in all directions.
After a long while, Baigarten spoke in a heavy voice while lowering his eyes with a contorted face.
“……I should have reported sooner.”
Ruslan looked at Baigarten while swallowing dryly.
Baigarten made a devastated expression. Ruslan knew Baigarten had thought Sarka’s not putting food to his mouth was refusal out of pride.
If he had rather realized sooner that Sarka couldn’t swallow food, he wouldn’t have left Sarka unable to eat anything for over a day.
Baigarten made a terrible expression, then ran one hand through his hair.
He told Ruslan to go to class, then headed to the headmaster’s office.
Only at lunchtime could Ruslan meet Baigarten again.
When Ruslan looked at him with a questioning expression, Baigarten lightly shook his head and indicated the dining table. It seemed like a gesture not to talk in front of other people.
The two soon finished their meal wordlessly and headed to the rare book storage room.
Only after closing the door and lowering the curtains did Baigarten speak quietly.
“……For now……I’ve set up an IV. ……He’ll be a bit better.”
However, his voice was sinking darkly.
Ruslan looked at Baigarten anxiously, then asked in a voice about to cry.
“……Isn’t his condition too serious compared to expectations? Shouldn’t we……tell Sarka’s father?”
At those words, Baigarten turned his clouded gaze to look at Ruslan. After a long silence, Baigarten replied quietly.
“……He probably knows.”
Ruslan’s eyes widened.
“……Sarka’s condition being that serious……his father knows too?”
Baigarten nodded with a dark expression.
“……After deciding on Sarka’s corporal punishment, the Count sent various items separately saying they would be needed. I saw that……IVs and medical equipment like Levin tubes were……included.”
“Levin……?”
When Ruslan hesitated at the unfamiliar term, Baigarten explained bitterly.
“It’s an invention of vampires whose medicine is advanced. For critical patients who can’t swallow food at all……they insert a tube through the nose to supply food all the way to the stomach.”
Ruslan’s face stiffened.
His mouth felt completely blocked as too many questions tried to burst out at once.
Baigarten looked into space with clouded eyes as if lost in deep thought, then muttered like talking to himself.
“I didn’t know it was……this serious.”
“Pardon?”
Ruslan asked back. He thought it was about Sarka’s condition, but Baigarten added in a slightly absent voice.
“The relationship between Sarka and his father……I didn’t know it was to this extent.”
Ruslan stared blankly at Baigarten. Baigarten seemed to have received quite a severe shock.
He suddenly looked back at Ruslan, then spoke with a stiff face.
“……I need to……talk with the Count.”
And Baigarten jumped up.
Ruslan looked up not knowing what to do, but Baigarten didn’t look back at Ruslan, lost in serious thought.
“……Go to class.”
Baigarten, who had commanded sternly, left the room with a rigidly stiff face.
Ruslan felt himself becoming crazily anxious.
Throughout class time, none of the content entered Ruslan’s ears. Only Sarka’s suffering back flickered before his eyes. The scene of white fingers clenching tight as they struggled to support the body wouldn’t erase from his mind.
That evening, as soon as Ruslan met Baigarten at the cafeteria, he asked about Sarka’s condition.
Baigarten briefly explained with a dark face.
“Not good.”
Ruslan swallowed. Baigarten had a troubled expression.
Having quickly finished the meal, Baigarten sent Ruslan into the rare book storage room and said quietly.
“……A bit later, the Count is scheduled to come.”
When Ruslan made a tense expression, Baigarten added heavily.
“……I’m planning to somehow persuade the Count……to request shortening the disciplinary period.”
Ruslan swallowed dryly in tension.
Baigarten warned Ruslan not to move from here until bedtime, and left the room with a stiff face.
Ruslan anxiously looked out the window watching the darkening dormitory building.
Several hours later, lights came on in Sarka’s room.
Ruslan bit his lips tightly and stared at that window.
The room with all curtains lowered had its lights on for a long while.
Sarka, who had been sitting on the sofa, exhaled a faint breath and opened his eyes.
He felt his hazy vision sway then gradually become clearer.
Realizing the pain that had been pressing as if to split his head had disappeared, Sarka unconsciously looked down at his left arm.
Looking at the released controller, Sarka blinked slowly.
“……You’re finally coming to your senses.”
Slowly raising his head, he saw three men who had been waiting for Sarka to regain consciousness.
Sarka’s gaze, which had passed over the headmaster’s and Baigarten’s faces in turn, slowly stopped on his father.
The Count, still looking down at his son with a gaze like a boulder, spoke slowly.
“Your guardian made a request. That it would be good to shorten the disciplinary period.”
Moving his gaze, Sarka looked at Baigarten intently. Baigarten looked at Sarka with a half-warning gaze. It was a look saying not to ruin this opportunity arranged with difficulty.
“……”
Sarka moved his gaze again to look at his father. Count Allend continued in a firm tone.
“Respecting your guardian’s opinion, I decided to give you a chance too.
If you admit your wrongdoing and apologize even now, this matter ends here.”
Sarka looked at his father intently without speaking.
Baigarten glanced this way with an anxious expression, but Sarka didn’t look back at him.
After a brief silence, Sarka answered in a hoarse voice.
“……I’d rather you tell me to bark like a dog.”
Baigarten bit his lips.
The Count silently looked down at his son for a moment. Sarka met that gaze in the silence.
The Count exhaled a faint breath and frowned.
“……Seeing your spirit is still up after three days, I’m starting to think even one week would be too short for you.”
Baigarten flinched and looked at the Count.
The Count rose from his seat.
Looking down at his son with a stern gaze, the Count declared in a voice like stone.
“……I will extend the disciplinary period to 10 days.”
The headmaster frowned.
The headmaster, who had glanced toward Sarka, took a few steps toward the Count and asked in a turbid tone.
“……For a <Perfect Pureblood>, that length of period……couldn’t it be life-threatening?”
Baigarten swallowed.
Suspicion lingered in the voice lowered small enough not to be heard by Sarka.
The Count answered in an unwavering voice.
“Survival is possible up to 14 days. 10 days is……”
Looking down at his son with cold eyes, the Count declared in a stern voice.
“……It will be time to clearly understand that the price of pride learned from his mother is <death>.”
Sarka said nothing.
Baigarten had a dismayed expression.
The headmaster approached and reattached the controller.
Sarka lowered his eyes.
Until his father completely left the room, Sarka didn’t look that way.
That night, only after bedtime had passed did the door to the rare book storage room open.
Ruslan, who had sharply turned his head to look back at Baigarten, quickly made a questioning expression.
Baigarten shook his head.
When the explanation ended, Ruslan’s face also became dazed.
