Chapter 13
The group, who had twice repeated that his personality was strange, still wore unpleasant expressions as if defending Theron.
“I see him as a lecher who goes on about jewels, jewels to a woman he just met,” Ares shot back, not backing down.
‘That’s because I really did swallow a jewel,’ Aveline thought to herself, watching Theron’s reaction. She was worried he might be upset by Ares’ blatant criticism.
“…Jewels? Who?”
However, the group’s reaction was faster than Theron’s. After looking around for a while, he stared at Aveline, wrapped in her tattered robe, with an expression of disbelief.
“Surely not that ragamuffin?”
‘Ahem. This is a bit embarrassing.’ Though she looked rather shabby for a jewel, Aveline had no energy to care about such things right now.
‘Let’s just get Ares out of here first.’ She desperately wanted to escape this suffocating place.
“Your Grace, now that the misunderstanding is cleared up, my brother and I will be going,” Aveline said, gripping Ares’ wrist as she prepared to bolt.
“Farewell then!”
With that, she hurried out of the alley before Theron could respond. Fortunately, no one tried to stop them.
“Huff, huff.”
The twins caught their breath after climbing into the carriage.
“Let’s go!” Aveline urgently set the carriage in motion and looked at her brother. Ares sat with his arms crossed, wearing a dissatisfied expression.
“How did you end up meeting Duke Ribes again?”
“I saw him at the rental shop.”
“What business would he have at a rental shop… Don’t tell me he followed you?”
This time Aveline shrugged her shoulders. Theron had said he would always be watching, but she wasn’t sure if he had deliberately followed her or if it was just a chance encounter.
“This is driving me crazy,” Ares said, messing up his fluffy pink hair.
“And what about you? Why were you lurking around the Duke’s carriage?”
“I told you, I was looking for you…”
“You found those documents the Duke had hidden, didn’t you?”
Ares’ mouth fell open, as if Aveline’s words were correct.
“How did you know about that…?”
“Remember what Father said last time? He asked if you’d found the promised documents after storming out making a big fuss.”
It was what Count Herolds had said to Ares on the day he returned from meeting Viscount Berta. Though the deal to find Theron’s documents had fizzled out when Viscount Berta fled to the monastery first, Aveline had expected that the prideful Ares would still be looking for opportunities to keep his promise.
“Father would sometimes mutter that things would go more smoothly if only he had Duke Ribes’ documents.”
Aveline had remembered this because she too wanted to find those documents and earn her father’s praise if the opportunity arose.
“Ahem. But I really was trying to find you too.”
“Yes, thank you.”
“I mean it!”
“Mm-hmm.”
Seeing that she didn’t quite believe him, Ares’ lips jutted out in a pout.
* * *
After returning to the mansion, Aveline threw off her tattered robe and immediately washed up.
“Did you have a good trip to the rental shop?”
“Ah, the rental shop…”
“Pardon?”
“It’s nothing.”
Yoni gave Aveline a quizzical look at her response but didn’t inquire further as she helped her change into her nightgown.
“By the way, did something happen to the young master while he was out today?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Hans said that as soon as the young master arrived in his room, he collapsed, groaning on the bed.”
Hans was Ares’ personal servant. Ares’ collapse was surely due to the encounter with Servell earlier.
“He’ll probably be under the weather for a while.”
It was understandable that he’d be bedridden after such an experience, given how sensitive he was about his reputation.
“Tell Hans to be careful of Ares’ temper for a while.”
“Pardon?”
“Just trust me on this.”
Aveline said a silent prayer for Hans, who was about to bear the brunt of Ares’ foul mood.
As soon as Yoni left, Aveline dashed straight for her bed.
“I hope I can continue the dream I had yesterday.”
She definitely needed some healing today too.
Aveline quickly drifted off to sleep, clutching her copy of “The Tyrant is a Siscon.”
* * *
Not long after falling asleep, Aveline opened her eyes in an unfamiliar place.
‘Where am I?’
But was there any reason to see an underground cave ceiling in “The Tyrant is a Siscon”?
“The smell…”
A strong scent made it hard to breathe.
“You’re awake.”
Just then, a low, deep voice came from nearby.
As she turned her head, she saw a masked man leaning against the wall.
Though his face was hidden by the mask, his jet-black hair and red eyes peering through the mask seemed vaguely familiar.
“Who are you?”
“…Hiskin.”
As soon as she heard the man’s identity, Aveline bolted upright in bed.
‘Wait a minute. Hiskin?’
If it was Hiskin, he was the male protagonist from the novel Aveline had been reading earlier that day.
Instead of a dream about raising children, she was having a dream with a vampire male lead.
‘Of all the dreams to have…’
Aveline looked around again.
Except for being in a cave, she was wearing her own nightgown.
As her gaze followed her bowed head and the hair flowing down, Aveline became completely flustered.
‘But pink hair doesn’t appear in the novel?’
The female protagonist in the novel was a pure and pitiful beauty with brown hair, far from pink.
‘This is just me!’
The nightgown she was wearing and her pink hair.
Even without looking in a mirror, she could easily deduce that she looked exactly as she did before falling asleep.
Given that she appeared as her usual self, she was clearly an extra among extras, never even having had her appearance described in a single line.
‘He’s a ruthlessly cruel vampire unless it’s the female lead!’
One fortunate thing was that she couldn’t feel any pain while dreaming.
‘Maybe it’s better to just get this over with quickly and wake up to have a different dream.’
Having quickly made her calculations, Aveline lay back down and settled into a docile position.
“Here, drink.”
“…What are you talking about?”
An incredulous voice flowed from behind the mask.
“Let’s hurry up and finish this.”
“Finish what?”
This is really frustrating.
The Hiskin in the dream was a bit different from the one in the novel.
In the novel, he would have pounced without giving her a chance to speak and sucked her blood greedily.
‘What kind of vampire is this passive?’
Finally fed up, Aveline sat up again.
“Look, see here? This is where you bite.”
Aveline brushed her hair to one side, exposing her neck, and pointed to the spot, explaining in detail.
Though the whole situation of having to teach a vampire how to drink blood was absurd in itself, the most baffling thing was Hiskin’s reaction.
“Is that necessary? It doesn’t have to be the neck.”
Aveline, who had been gaping in shock, forced her brain to work quickly to try and make sense of it.
‘Ah, I guess he doesn’t even want to get close unless it’s the female lead.’
She didn’t realize he was such a devoted lover.
Aveline covered her exposed neck with her hair again and held out her arm.
“Is this okay then?”
“…”
“Not this either? Hmm, are you really a vampire?”
At those words, Hiskin flinched and then, after a moment’s hesitation, approached Aveline.
“Alright then, hurry up and finish. I need to wake up soon so I can have a different dream.”
Hiskin, who had been sitting on the edge of the bed reluctantly fiddling with Aveline’s sleeve, reacted immediately.
“A different dream?”
“That’s right.”
Aveline replied indifferently, shaking her arm impatiently.
“Let’s hurry up and finish, shall we? I’m busy.”
She needed to switch over to “The Tyrant is a Siscon” as soon as she woke up.
However, for some reason, Hiskin wouldn’t stop questioning.
“Where will you go when you wake up from here?”
This time it was Aveline who was taken aback by his quiet inquiry.
“Why are you curious about that?”
Was Hiskin originally the type to drag out conversations like this?
‘When I saw him in the novel earlier, he seemed like a madman who couldn’t see anything but the female lead.’
Something was definitely off.
The real Hiskin wouldn’t have spoken this much to her, a mere extra.
“Hmm. This really is strange.”
As Aveline tilted her head suspiciously, Hiskin visibly flinched.
Then, as if he had made up his mind, he solemnly lifted Aveline’s hand to his mouth.
Just as Hiskin was about to open his mouth to bite Aveline’s wrist.
“Huh?”
The scent of a familiar soap tickled her nose.
Crunch.
“Ow!”
But the next moment, Hiskin’s sharp fangs touched Aveline’s delicate skin.
Aveline screamed at the stinging sensation.
‘Wait. Stinging?’
This was a dream, wasn’t it?
In her previous dream, she hadn’t felt pain even when pinching herself.
‘Something’s not right.’
To make matters worse, the area where his lips touched began to burn as if on fire.
“W-wait! It hurts!”
She tried to quickly pull her arm away, but Hiskin didn’t let go, as if he couldn’t hear Aveline’s words.
“I said it hurts!”
Finally unable to bear the pain, Aveline swung her free arm.
Thwack!
“…”
“…?”
Hiskin’s head turned as Aveline’s swinging arm made direct contact.
At the same time, his mask fell to the floor, and scratch marks appeared on his pale cheek.
Aveline’s mouth fell open in shock as she saw Hiskin’s bare face.
