"Did you know that when vampires are sucking blood, they inject some anesthetic into the wounds?"
"You fucking..." Qin Chu realized what was happening and turned to look at the hunter with narrowed eyes.
K smiled innocently: "It's a win-win situation. I just took a little payment while I was anesthetizing you."
"However, Your Highness, I must honestly admit that you are truly delicious."
Seeing that Qin Chu was holding his breath and didn't reply, K knew that if he let this person go, he would definitely not be able to get out of this situation without breaking his own legs.
Normally, he would tease Qin Chu a bit in this situation, but this time he seemed to have taken the wrong medicine. He didn't say much or do anything else, but just took the dagger and started cleaning Qin Chu's wound.
K's hands were very steady, and soon a small pile of silver particles appeared beside the bed, resembling a small mountain.
“This is only half.” K looked at the pile of silver particles and couldn’t help but be sarcastic again. “You’re using yourself as a shield. All the vampires in the yard are fine, but you, the prince, have been blasted into a sieve.”
Qin Chu felt a little sleepy, barely keeping herself awake: "Why do you talk so much?"
Due to the mission and his established persona, Qin Chu had no other choice at the time. But in that instant, there was no time for him to think about these things; protecting him was merely an instinctive action.
Perhaps Qin Chu's choice would be the same whether he was surrounded by vampires or humans.
“You don’t care as much about what I say.” K looked at the bloodstains on the knife tip, his Adam’s apple bobbing. He hesitated for two seconds, then the blood droplets fell onto the sheets, and he belatedly felt it was a waste.
He looked away from the drop of blood that had spread, seemingly to distract himself, and continued, "Why did you go and save those humans during the day? If you hadn't delayed so long, your injuries wouldn't have been so severe."
"And what about you?" Qin Chu asked in return.
“Me?” K laughed. “My prince, I was paid. My mission was simply to rescue the humans from Duke Tess’s clutches, unlike you, who robbed every single one of the prominent vampires.”
Qin Chu scoffed: "Reward? Just those three bullets?"
“You don’t understand, do you?” K said logically, “Three bullets are three lives, enough to keep me occupied for a while.”
Qin Chu chuckled, clearly mocking the hunter's arrogance. But due to excessive blood loss, he felt unusually drowsy and didn't say much.
Suddenly, he heard the hunter ask, "If nothing had happened at the banquet, what would you have done?"
"What?" Qin Chu frowned, his voice unusually hoarse, as if he were tired.
K paused for a moment, then rested his chin on his hand and looked down at Qin Chu, who was lying on the pillow.
He thought that this person probably didn't know what he looked like.
His black hair was disheveled, his skin was pale, and there was a bit of cold sweat on his forehead from the pain. His lips were tightly pursed, yet... he still maintained a restrained and indifferent expression.
It was a completely different scene from usual.
K's gaze slid down Qin Chu's profile and lingered on the pale blue veins on the side of his neck.
After a long while, he forced himself to look away, continued what he was doing, and answered Qin Chu's question: "My gun was already pointed at that vampire. You stopped me, but you want to do it yourself. Are you afraid I will kill your people, Your Highness?"
Seeing that Qin Chu didn't reply, he chuckled again: "Or... are you afraid I'll kill that girl?"
"What do you mean?" Qin Chu tilted his head and squinted at him.
K leisurely wiped the tip of the knife and adjusted the flickering candlelight by the bedside.
The curtains were drawn, and only a small candle flickered in the pitch-black room.
In the dim light, K looked at Qin Chu, a hint of interest flickering in his eyes.
"How interesting, the vampire prince didn't hesitate to kill a vampire himself just to save a human girl."
"Despite his injuries, he ran out in broad daylight to save humans..."
K slowly bent down, tilted his head to meet Qin Chu's eyes, his gaze full of inquiry: "My dear prince, don't you think this is inconsistent with your status?"
Noah trembled at these words, but Qin Chu remained calm.
He countered with a question: "And what about you?"
"What's wrong with me?" K asked with a smile.
Qin Chu's voice was cold: "To complete the mission, you would shoot your human employer?"
K didn't expect Qin Chu to ask that question.
His smile remained unchanged: "How could that be? Do I look like such a cruel person?"
"No, you will," Qin Chu said, denying his statement.
K was taken aback by the confident tone, and then a bright smile suddenly appeared in his eyes.
He stared at Qin Chu, his gaze slightly different from before, as if a wild beast that had been hidden under its shell had finally awakened and lazily stretched.
Leaning close to Qin Chu's ear, K let out a sigh: "What should I do? I think I'm liking you more and more."
Chapter 38, Second Story (13)
The confession seemed to be spoken to a deaf person. Before the words had even finished, K immediately jumped off the bed, and then a long leg swept over.
The person who was originally tied to the bed turned over and sat up, casually throwing the rope that had broken in two places aside.
K wasn't too surprised, only smiling and remarking, "They broke free so quickly; it seems this rope wasn't very effective."
Qin Chu glanced at him coldly, picked up the dagger lying on the bed, and used it to dig out the few remaining silver coins from his shoulder and back. His vision and movements were impaired, and the tip of the knife cut through some bits of flesh, a horrifying sight.
He casually flicked the dagger, his face deathly pale, but his movements didn't stop. After cleaning away the silver particles, he raised his hand and cut open the area around the wound where K had bitten him, letting the blood flow freely.
Seeing this, K raised an eyebrow: "Tsk, quite alert."
Qin Chu scoffed coldly, not believing his words in the slightest.
Once the toxins had mostly drained through his bloodstream, Qin Chu quickly cleaned himself up and prepared to change his clothes.
He glanced at the hunter and said coldly, "You can get lost now."
He tried to manipulate the situation, but it was to no avail. The person who was supposed to leave still stood there with an infuriating smile, even leaning closer to him.
“Darling, although you look very much to my liking today, I must remind you, don’t try to manipulate me.” A faint hint of disgust flashed in K’s amber eyes. “Otherwise… I might not be able to resist doing something excessive to you.”
"Oh, really?" Seeing his expression, Qin Chu felt a surge of satisfaction. "Then you should have killed me long ago."
A knock sounded on the bedroom door, and the hunter had already darted off the balcony. A carefree laugh drifted up: "Don't worry, you're my prey."
So, treating his injuries was to prevent him from dying at the hands of others?
Qin Chu increasingly felt that this guy was a lunatic.
"Come in," he said, answering towards the door.
The bedroom door was carefully opened, and the butler outside looked worried. Seeing that Qin Chu was pale but clearly in good condition, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.
"What is it?" Qin Chu asked, looking down as he straightened his clothes.
Hearing such a cold voice, the steward's heart was completely at ease. The worry on his face faded, replaced by utter indignation: "Your Highness, after the humans' despicable attack last night, they even dared to rob us during the day!"
Qin Chu paused, his fingers still fastening the buttons.
Noah was already embarrassed for him.
The steward continued his report, his tone growing increasingly angry: "All the humans kept by the lords have gone missing. This thief is far too arrogant! Not only did he steal the humans, but he also stole the carriage, and he even swaggered in through the front gate. He didn't even close the gate when he left!"
The arrogant thief showed no remorse whatsoever, and even nodded seriously: "Hmm, that's going too far."
Knowing everything, Noah thought humans were truly terrifying, and that his artificial intelligence was about to perish.
"Because of this incident, and the attack at the banquet, several officials sent word that they are planning to gather at the castle tomorrow night to discuss it."
"Why didn't you come today?" After the appearance of such a weapon last night, Qin Chu thought that these vampires would be busy looking for a solution, but he didn't expect them to be so procrastinating.
But soon, seeing the butler's expression, Qin Chu realized he had misunderstood.
What procrastination? I bet he's scared out of his wits.
Qin Chu waved for the butler to leave, then stood on the upper level of the castle and looked out over the town, which was no longer bustling.
This naturally unrestrained race has finally begun to show signs of crisis, which makes Qin Chu very satisfied.
However, Qin Chu remained concerned about the issue of weapons.
After instructing his servants not to disturb him, he locked the door and quietly left the castle once again.
Following the trajectory of yesterday's artillery fire, Qin Chu took another look.
He left in such a hurry last night, and it was almost dawn, that he missed many details. Now, upon closer inspection, he found a charred mark from a fire and two tire tracks on the surrounding ground.
"I didn't realize that the development of firearms in this world is quite good." Qin Chu touched the ruts. The marks were very shallow, indicating that this weapon was not heavy and had a certain degree of portability. So even if the range was limited, it could still achieve considerable lethality by being propelled by manpower.
Hearing Qin Chu's words of praise, Noah was speechless: "Sir, as a vampire, is it really appropriate for you to praise a weapon designed to kill vampires like this?"
Qin Chu ignored Noah and followed the tracks, then vaguely saw a high wall.
For Qin Chu, who was used to seeing all kinds of interstellar architecture, a height of more than ten meters was nothing, but the way the wall was built made him very interested.
The entire wall is circular, completely enclosing the area inside.
If Qin Chu is not mistaken, this should be human territory.
After looking around, Qin Chu didn't bother searching for the entrance anymore and simply used his ability to fly over.
This action made Noah want to scream again: "Sir, please consider your own health! If you ruin yourself, I'll be the one in trouble."
"I know what I'm doing," Qin Chu replied dismissively.
It was nighttime, a time for humans to rest. Qin Chu had thought it would be the safest time to investigate human territory, but his heart skipped a beat as soon as he landed.
Inside the high walls, at least twenty breaths could be heard along the wall.
Qin Chu was about to slip away, but before leaving, he glanced at the scene again and stopped.
He initially thought the breathing sounds were from human guards, but upon closer inspection, he found that they were quite different from what he had imagined.
These twenty-odd humans were huddled together in a corner.
Qin Chu's excellent night vision allowed him to see their condition clearly. Everyone was wearing torn clothes, and although there were no bite marks on their bodies, they were still as thin as dry firewood.
If it weren't for the fact that there was no smell of vampires here, Qin Chu would almost have thought he was continuing his robbery spree from earlier in the day.
The area inside the high walls was not small. Qin Chu quickly glanced around along the wall and found that there were quite a few people huddled there, but they were not in good condition, as if they were in a state of famine.
Frowning, Qin Chu didn't linger at the edge and continued walking towards the center of the territory.
Houses and farmland gradually appeared around him, and then a tall tower guarded by soldiers came into view. Strictly speaking, this tower was the only one that somewhat matched Qin Chu's assumptions about the humans in this world.