“How is your ankle, Rose? Do you still have pain?”
“No, I don’t.”
Jade looked at Rose, who sat on the bed shaking his head with a bright face.
“Let me see.”
Oof…… Jade, who bent his aged body to sit, unwrapped the bandage around Rose’s ankle.
“Master, am I all healed now?”
“……”
He was all healed. Not only the wound from the wolf bite but it was smooth without a single scar. Even though ten days had passed since the serum was injected, there still weren’t any notable side effects.
“……Yes, you’re completely healed.”
He flicked his small nose bridge with his finger and said.
“You’re lucky.”
“Then can I run now?”
“Just don’t overdo it too much.”
A benevolent smile bloomed on Jade’s face.
“However, you must continue to receive injections.”
“……Until when?”
Rose frowned and shuddered.
“I don’t want to get injections. I get a fever every time I get one……”
“Let’s try it slowly, so it doesn’t strain your body. Don’t you want to cure your illness?”
“If I cure my illness, will I be able to use amazing magic like Elijah?”
“Well. I don’t know about magic, but you’ll become much stronger than now.”
Jade evaluated himself as a good person. Of course, he hadn’t taken in the children without any compensation, but he didn’t think he was committing evil deeds.
Anyway, they wouldn’t be able to exhaust all their magic power until they died. So what crime would it be if he took a portion of it?
They might have been spotted by royal palace mages and recruited as talents someday, but they were children who had a higher probability of dying before even reaching adulthood, rolling around in the slums.
Rose was the same. If it hadn’t been for him, Rose would have died without living long with that body, but wasn’t it the greatest fortune to have gained an opportunity to live like this?
Moreover, if only the results were good, he would get his hands on eternal life that no one had ever achieved. He would obtain serum completely combined with human blood and finally achieve his dream, so it was good for both of them.
Jade waited for the day when he would once again make his name known to the world. He believed that someday the day would surely come when he would return in glory to the royal palace, accompanied by the young disciples he had raised himself.
However, things didn’t go as well as expected. The obvious principle that Rose was human, that human blood flowed in his body, hindered the progress of the research.
The amount of serum that could be injected into him was minimal, and the recovery effect was insignificant. If he had been a dying patient, Jade could have injected a large amount of serum without much guilt, but he couldn’t kill a perfectly healthy child, could he? His nature wasn’t cruel enough for that.
And then eventually the opportunity came. It was also an opportunity that Jade had half-intended. Igrit was a much more jealous and foolish child than Jade had thought.
That day was the day he tried to steal the necklace he had so wanted to obtain by mobilizing Elijah and Iris.
The necklace called the ‘Dew of the World Tree’ was the Holy Relic with the most powerful force among ancient holy relics. Just by touching it, it absorbed not only the target’s magic power but also their life force and part of their memories.
If one became the owner of the necklace, it was also possible to use what it had absorbed again, so it was an absolutely necessary item to make the children’s magic power his own.
“What is the meaning of this? Leo Artes.”
At that time, Jade had his last private meeting with Leo Artes, who had been his old friend. The necklace he thought he had finally obtained was fake, and Leo had even placed a tracking spell on it. Jade threw the fake necklace at him.
“Did you think I would fall for such a crude trap?”
“Jade, stop everything and come to my laboratory. I’ll do my best to pardon all the Holy Relics you’ve damaged and all the crimes you’ve committed, on my name. Your disciples will also be able to stay at the royal palace from now on……”
“Leo. You could never understand me even if you died and woke up.”
“What on earth are you planning to do? I’m the only colleague who knows your secret. I also know all about you embezzling my research journal and blood! And yet I’m reaching out my hand like this!”
In the end, Jade killed his old friend who was the only one who knew his secret that day.
He believed that all his actions were for a great cause. If it were revealed to the world that there was a set total amount of magic power for one person, mages would all try to steal others’ magic power.
Even though they had magic power they couldn’t exhaust until they died, human greed was like that. Jade thought that even to prevent that, he must achieve his dream.
While rationalizing that it was absolutely, absolutely not because of his own personal greed…….
Rose, who had been swept up in the fire at that time, was already in an irreversible state when he returned to the monastery. It was because bleeding from the burns had continued for too long. Jade drained all the remaining blood from Rose’s body and injected vampire serum into the flesh that could no longer be considered alive.
For the first few days, he thought it had failed. However, the dead flesh began to come back to life. Rose’s body steadily accepted the transformation while having an extreme rejection reaction.
Rose would vomit frequently and cry out in pain from his bones twisting, but for Jade, who hadn’t experienced that sensation directly, it was an incomprehensible pain.
“I said I didn’t want to—!”
Now Rose could no longer eat human food. Obtaining fresh human blood with the body of an old man without magic power was the most arduous task for Jade.
“Do you want to starve to death!”
Rose would frequently overturn and refuse the blood that he had obtained with such difficulty.
“You should have just let me die!”
He resisted and struggled like mad.
“Aaaaah! Aaah! Damn it, get away! Don’t touch me! Take away that disgusting syringe! Aaaaaaaah!”
However, the serum injected into Rose’s body, regardless of his own will, gradually repeated side effects and changes, becoming completely combined with human traits.
And that transformation was still continuing at present.
“You think my serum would be safe?”
Jade, who had been looking down at the syringe needle stuck in his pure white forearm, looked at Rose. Rose had long since stopped treating him as Master. While finishing drawing Rose’s blood, Jade said calmly.
“Theoretically, it’s perfect. What’s not perfect is your body that still can’t accept the transformation.”
Eyes rippling red with killing intent stared at Jade. Just like an angel or demon that jumped out of a famous painting. Coincidentally, it was an appearance that suited the outward appearance of vampires described in the world very well.
Jade thought that perhaps all of this might be Rose’s destiny. To that extent, Rose had been born with a beauty that seemed inhuman even when he was human.
He hadn’t particularly considered appearance when searching for a subject, but the reason Jade had first taken notice of him was also because of his face. If he had continued living on the streets, he would have lived a difficult life because of this appearance.
“Disgusting bastard.”
“Do you think now is more terrible than the life you would have died in the gutter? If so, it’s because you’re still immature, Rose.”
A quiet conversation passed. Jade was accustomed to deflecting the one-sided accusations hurled at him without rhyme or reason.
“Sometimes I wonder if your disciples would still treat you as Master even if they knew your disgusting inner thoughts.”
A syringe filled with bright red blood was placed on the table. Jade, who picked up a new empty syringe, stuck it in Rose’s arm and said.
“Even if they knew, those kids would gladly follow me.”
Jade replied in a low voice with a confident tone. Wasn’t it obvious? They were giving magic power, not giving their lives, and even if he asked them to give their lives, they would be loyal to him.
Rose also knew that, which was why he was obediently giving his blood like this.
“I merely gave you a new life, and in return, you’re only giving me a handful of blood. If you betray me and leave, you know, don’t you? That I will also take away the most precious thing from you.”
“……”
“If only you stay silent, everyone will be happy. I promise, Rose. I’m not just going to use you all and abandon you.”
“Shut up.”
“I will go to that royal palace with you all. I’ll enjoy eternal power as Grand Mage, and you’ll become my glorious first disciples.”
“You’re spouting such long fucking bullshit……”
Then, someone knocked on the door. The red eyes that smoothly turned toward the door soon dropped downward. While Rose was rolling down his sleeves, Jade covered the syringe with drawn blood with a cloth.
“Come in.”
Through the opened door, Elijah peeked his head in. His gaze went straight to Rose.
“You may go now, Rose.”
“……Yes, Master.”
Rose stood up from his seat. When he grinned at Elijah who was still standing at the doorway looking up at him, Elijah smiled back at him.
“Rose, why were you in there so long today? Are you sick somewhere?”
As soon as they came out to the hallway, Elijah, who casually hugged his arm and intertwined their fingers, asked. Rose quietly looked down at him.
His gentle green eyes were so clear and transparent that when Rose first saw Elijah, he thought gems were embedded in his eyes. Even though he had a buzzcut that was hard to make pretty, he was a cute and pretty child like a well-polished chestnut.
It was the same now that he was fully grown. His round gentle eyes looked like a timid small animal, and his slightly drooping eye corners had a reddish tinge as if he had been crying. When he wasn’t smiling, it was quite a pitiable face that tugged at the heart.
Every moment a smile bloomed on that face, Rose felt like a foolish hunter bewitched by a fox.
