2.6

“Dr. Helena, the weather doesn’t look good. How about going tomorrow instead?”

“It’s fine, Isaac. Don’t worry too much. If I can’t return, I can always stay at the Village Chief’s house in the neighboring village.”

Reassuring Isaac, who was trying to dissuade her, Helena left the chapel. Looking up at the sky, she saw gray clouds devouring the sunlight. It seemed like it would rain soon, but she had already delayed her departure too much because of the little mouse and couldn’t afford to postpone it any longer. Today, Fred was to prepare the evening prayer with High Priest Francis, so he wouldn’t be able to follow her.

“I’ll be back.”

As she spoke, her soft lips brushed against Isaac’s cheek like a passing breeze. Seeing Isaac’s face turn as red as a ripe apple, Helena smiled in satisfaction.

“P-please refrain from… such contact.”

“Oh my, it was just a greeting! Don’t friends greet each other like this? How cheeky of you. Is it alright for a priest to act that way?”

“N-no, that’s not…!”

She preferred this expression of his over the shadowed one. Once again, leaving behind Isaac, who was flustered by her teasing, Helena descended the hill. She needed to reach the neighboring village before the rain began. Rain dulled a vampire’s senses and reduced their strength and abilities to the level of an ordinary human, so she had no choice but to quicken her pace. As she moved further from the chapel, the faint sweetness of Isaac’s scent, which had been subtly surrounding her, began to fade.

‘I need more strength. With temptations this small, it’ll take until next year to make him confess his love.’

If she could drink the blood of a man infatuated with her, she would be able to exude a stronger pheromone. Remembering that there wasn’t much time left before her promised meeting with Dennis, Helena grew anxious. She had grown too complacent because of the kind villagers. As soon as she stepped into the forest, and the presence of the villagers disappeared, she shed the human-like movements she had been imitating and began running swiftly.

Plop—

The closer she got to the neighboring village, the more frequent the raindrops became. Helena had to arrive before the pheromone she had left on the man was obscured by the scent of rain, so she increased her speed further. Before long, she spotted a small hut at the entrance to the neighboring village.

“Oh? Isn’t that Dr. Helena?”

“Hello, Bill.”

The man who had just emerged from the hut broke into a bright smile when he saw Helena. However, his smile soon faltered, and he swallowed dryly as he noticed her rain-soaked figure, her curves clearly outlined. His lecherous gaze lingered on Helena’s body, unwilling to look away.

“…You remembered my name.”

At the lower tone of his voice, which had dropped from the cheerful one he had greeted her with, Helena curled her crimson lips into a smile.

“Of course, Bill. How could I forget?”

How could she, a hunter, forget the most appetizing prey among her many targets? He might even be the one to turn her eyes golden. With the sweetest blood of all—love.

Rumble—

A thunderclap, unusual in its intensity, echoed through the clouds. Soon, heavy rain began pouring down upon the two of them.

“Rather than standing here like this…! Please, come inside my house and take shelter from the rain!”

Bill’s voice, resonating through the rain, was harder to hear than usual. This was why she hated rain. When her heightened senses, her only advantage as a vampire, were dulled, she felt like nothing more than a monster that drank blood.

* * *

‘Where did she disappear to?’

Fred, wandering through the forest under the heavy rain, was momentarily taking shelter beneath a tree. He had hastily mounted his horse after making up a ridiculous excuse to Isaac, asking him to handle the evening prayer in his stead. He had rushed to follow Helena’s trail, but by the time he reached the forest, she had already vanished. No matter how dense the forest was, there was no way he, on horseback, could lose sight of someone running on foot. Fred’s suspicion was turning into certainty.

‘She must be a vampire. They say that for vampires who have lived long enough, even garlic is no longer poisonous.’

It was a story he had heard from a Holy Knight hunting vampires during his brief stay in the Capital for the priest ordination ceremony. Perhaps she was a vampire far beyond his expectations.

Neigh—

As the rain began to lighten, Fred mounted his horse again and rode toward the neighboring village.

‘Rainy days are the most advantageous for hunting vampires. Their movements become sluggish.’

Recalling the story he had heard in the Capital, Fred soon arrived near the neighboring village. At the entrance of the village, there was a hut that seemed to belong to a hunter, and lightning flashed above it.

‘This is a revelation from the Goddess!’

Fred, attributing divine meaning even to a simple natural phenomenon, tethered his horse to a nearby tree and moved cautiously. The increasingly heavy raindrops stung his cheeks, but it didn’t bother him at all. His mind was filled solely with thoughts of Helena. Before long, he reached the hut and peeked through a slightly open window.

“……!”

Fred gasped, startled by the unexpected scene inside. His eyes captured the shadowy silhouettes of two people entwined in front of a blazing red fireplace.

The hem of the woman’s chemise, as she sat on the table, was lifted up to her waist, exposing her pale thighs in vivid detail. Between the loosened ribbons, her ample chest spilled out provocatively. The man, like a nursing infant, was suckling at the woman’s chest, while she let out feline-like cries every time his hands touched her body.

At that moment, the woman, who seemed entirely focused on the man, suddenly turned her brown eyes toward the window. Fred immediately ducked out of sight.

‘I must…! I must tell Priest Isaac about this…!’

Recognizing the woman as Helena, he dashed away from the hut toward the forest. His body felt as though it had absorbed the heat of their passion, and he desperately wished for the cold rain to cool him down.

* * *

“Stop.”

The man, intoxicated by the pheromone, froze at Helena’s command, his eyes unfocused. She stared intently at the window, but all she could see were raindrops. Losing interest, Helena stepped down from the table and adjusted her disheveled chemise. The man remained still, his arousal evident.

‘This should taste good enough.’

Without any penetration, mere caresses alone could never bring forth a satisfying taste. However, for some reason, Helena no longer wanted to continue this act. She lifted the man’s left wrist and sank her teeth into it, but he didn’t even flinch.

After drinking a few sips, Helena eventually pulled her lips away, abandoning her attempt to feed. The metallic taste rising in her mouth made her give up. The blood, which neither carried the thick flavor of s*xual arousal nor the sweet taste of love, was nothing but revolting to her tongue. Still, she had managed to stave off her hunger and thirst a little, so she had no choice but to be content with that.

‘…I want to drink Isaac’s blood.’

Even as she intertwined bodies with the man, Helena thought of the union she had shared with Isaac that night. Recalling the unforgettable taste of his blood, she clicked her tongue. For a vampire, becoming accustomed to the taste of a single prey was quite a bothersome matter. More than just getting used to the taste, it often led to giving one’s heart away. That was something she wanted to avoid at all costs.

After dressing herself in the clothes she had been drying by the fireplace, Helena brainwashed the man into believing it had all been a dream before leaving the hut. By then, the rain had stopped, and the moonlight, emerging from behind the clouds, illuminated her figure.

‘Well, well….’

Near the hut, Helena caught the scent of a rat that had been obscured by the rain. She let out a small laugh, tinged with anger. To think that the rat had followed her even through this rain—it was quite impressive. With that thought, she quickly made her way back to her village.